I prove by the following Arguments First Man's Reason though furnished with the best Principles and richest Endowments that Nature affords it in this lapsed State is so darkned and depraved that it not only is much disabled for apprehending the things of God but sets it self against them and therefore it is not in a capacity by its own Principles to interpret Scripture-Doctrines Something Natural Light discovers of God but al as how little The Principles of Natural Knowledge are but general and confused not sufficient to guide Man in the things of greatest concernment It teacheth Man that there is a God but when he comes to determine what an one He is how lame and imperfect how unsuitable and unbecoming are Mens natural apprehensions of him The Apostle says 1 Cor. 1. 21. that in the wisdom of God the World by wisdom knew not God Where he means not the rude and ignorant multitude but the wisest and most accomplished for Natural Abilities these with the study of Philosophy which is the consideration of Gods infinite Wisdom in Creating and Governing the World did not arrive at the right knowledge of God The same Apostle tells us of the unconverted Gentiles Eph. 4. 18. that they had their understandings darkned and were alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in them c. and Rom. 8. 7. he says the Carnal Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wisdom of the Flesh the unrenew'd Mind of Man is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be But I shall especially insist upon that of the said Apostle in 1 Cor. 2. 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned By the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Animal or Natural Man the Apostle means him that is in his meer Naturals having no other wisdom or understanding given him than what is common to him with all Mankind Such an one receives not the things of the Spirit that is he doth not approve of them and embrace them he finds no relish in them and therefore rejects them for they are foolishness unto him he scorns the mysteries of the Gospel as if it were nothing but a heap of phantastick trash a confused medly of absurd unintelligible fancies Neither can he know them says the Apostle because they are spiritually discerned that is he cannot as he is in this unrenew'd state discern the true beauty and excellency of them because they are not to be discerned but by a Spiritual Light and by a Spiritual Faculty which the Natural Man is wholly destitute of Or as the learned Bishop of Down expresseth it They are taught and perceived by the aids of Gods Spirit Revelation and Divine Assistance and Grace Great endeavors have been used to wrest this Scripture Some think to evade the dint of it by alledging that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is meant one that is led by Fleshly Lusts because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes taken for the sensitive part of the Soul in opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Rational To this I answer two things First Suppose this that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Natural Man be taken for one seduced by corrupt and inordinate affections yet this will include all men as they are by nature and as unregenerate witness what the Apostle says Ephes. 2. 1 2 3. And you hath he quickned who were sometimes dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of the World according to the Prince of the Power of the Air the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of Disobedience Amongst whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the Lusts of our Flesh fulfilling the desires of the Flesh and of the Mind c. It is the condition of all Mankind by our first Apostasie from God to be in bondage to sinful lusts till the Grace of Christ have set us free And this none but a Pelagian will deny Secondly It is evident by the context that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in this place opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritual and the natural man is as the Apostle Jude explains it in his Epistle vers 19. one that is destitute of the Spirit and consequently he is one that hath no higher inward Principle to guide him than his own Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Learned Grotius Non est idem quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui corporis affectibus gubernatur sed est is qui humanae tantum rationis luce ducitur The Natural is not the same with the Carnal who is swayed by the affections of the Body but it is he who is led only by the light of Humane Reason Or as I find the Greek Scholiast cited by a late Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man that is endued with meer humane wisdom Such an one whatsoever his natural endowments may be and how learned or wise soever according to the best improvement of Natures Light is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So our learned Davinant Philosophus quà Philosophus nihil aliud est quam animalis home ipsa Ratio non illuminata fide ad hanc animalitatem pertinet But let us hear what the Exercitator says to this place The Apostle says he speaks not here of a Man that by Natural Light hath attain'd the right knowledge of Truth and Goodness for a truely wise Man never censures what he does not discern whereas the Man here spoken of is one that knows not the things of the Spirit and yet accounts them foolishness which cannot be meant of the true Philosopher for such an one suspends his judgment of things till such time as he hath attained a clear and distinct perception of them Therefore the Apostle must needs be understood either of a man utterly ignorant or of one that follows the sway of his blind affections Such an one says he receives not Spiritual Things that is the things that belong to the Rational Soul which is a Spirit To this passing by so much of it as is met with already in the former Exception I answer several things First Whereas he says that by the Animal or Natural Man is not meant he that hath by Natural Light attain'd the right knowledge of truth and goodness I say so too for the Apostle means by it one that hath no other than natural light in searching after truth and goodness who may there-therefore easily yea who will certainly mistake having no better guide Secondly Whereas he says a true Philosopher never is rash in his censure of things but always suspends his judgment till he hath attained a clear perception of them and that therefore such an one cannot be thought to judge the things of the Spirit
distinction and tedrously dilates upon it to amuse his Reader But the sum of all comes to this That the words of Scripture are of no further use than as they are signs of conceptions and things and under that consideration they cannot be understood unless the things signified by them be first known at least in some gross and confused manner Whereof he gives us this instance that where we sind in Scripture that God is Omniscient we cannot understand this unless we first know what God is and what Omniscience is Therefore says he all the benefit that any can get by any Book that is written is but this that it stirs up the Mind of the Reader to reflect upon the clear and distinct Idea's of those things in his Mind which the Book treats of not that the Book can of it self bring him to the true knowledge of things much less that it can beget any clear or distinct Ideas in his Mind which were not there before And thus he tells us it is with the Scripture all the use of it is to stir up the Reader or Hearer to think of the things that it propounds and inquire into them and examine them whether they be so as they are there propounded and that they may do this they must make use of Philosophy to try what is there written Therefore adds he the Scripture is to be used not that it should of it self inform us in the truth or render the truth more clear and distinct or make it more firm to us but that it may give us occasion and matter of meditating on those things which perhaps otherwise we should never have minded Therefore says he still the utility and excellency of the Scriptures above other Books consists onely in this That the things it speaks of are of so great concernment to our everlasting blessedness not for any use they are of to instruct us in the Truth This is all the use that he allows the Scripture from whence I think will inevitably follow that he owns the necessity of no knowledge of God or Religion but what is natural And so all supernatural Revelation or at least all necessity of it is denied And if there be no other use of the Written Word but what this Author assigns it it s put into the same rank with a Crucifix or a Deaths Head Indeed the whole design of his Book and of that other Tract that is prefixed to its latter Edition written as is supposed by the same Author is utterly to undermine and overthrow the credit of the Scriptures We need not wonder that he so often derides and calumniates the Protestant Doctrine of the Spirits internal illumination of the Mind which consists in curing the indisposition of the Subject and fitting it for the right understanding of Heavenly Things of which more hereafter in an Appendix to my present Discourse when he will not allow the necessity of so much as an Enternal Light for the Revelation of Supernatural Objects as acknowledging no such things And he that is thus principled must needs be very ignorant of himself and of the ruines that Sin hath made among the whole Race of Adam and the woful depravation of Mans Nature by his first Apostasie But for the Readers full satisfaction about the necessity of Supernatural Revelation I dare commend to his perusal besides many other useful Discourses that might be named that excellent Piece of the Eminently-accomplish'd Sir Charles Wolsly concerning the Reasonableness of Scripture Belief CHAP. VII 1. A fifth Argument That this would open a gap to the most pernicious Errors in Matters of Faith 2. And Practice AGain fifthly This Assertion le ts loose the Bridle to proud and wanton Wits to overthrow the Foundations of Christian Religion for though there be not the least real repugnancy between the Doctrines of Christianity and the Principles of Right Reason and Sound Philosophy which undoubtedly there is not as I have already premised and asserted yet there being no certain and infallible Record of these Principles by which as by the Rule of Judgement particular Mens Reasonings may be tried If Scripture Revelation must be interpreted by Mens Reasonings I know not the any Error that hath ever crept into the Church of Christ either in matter of Faith or Practice since the first publication of the Gospel but may be introduced anew by this Engine The heretical Blasphemies of Servetus and Socinus which sprang up of late years and those of the Marcionites and Manichees that infested the Church in former times together with the loathsome impurities of the Gnosticks who esteemed themselves the only knowing Men or to speak in the new mode the onely Rational Divines have fair way made them by this Trim Device First Let us instance in Matters of Faith whatsoever is said in Scripture about the Creation of the World the Conception of our Saviour in a Virgins Womb the Personal Union of the two Natures the Resurrection of the Body at the last Day these with many more that might be named let them be brought to the Bar of Reason and tried by its Principles as they are to be found in the Minds of Men and what will it come to We have seen already what use some Men have made of this way to subvert the weightiest Truths of the Gospel But here it will be excepted perhaps by some That the Fundamentals of Christian Religion being clear and plain in Scripture there is no fear of this inconvenience To this I answer First If Divine Revelations must be no otherwise received or understood than as Men see ground for them in their own Reason the plainest and clearest Doctrines of Scripture will be rejected I shall here give two Instances as I find them quoted by a late learned Author The one is of Socinus who says That he would not believe Christ to have satisfied for our Sins though he should read it once and again in Scripture the infallibility of the Revealer not being sufficient to establish it unless he had declared it by its causes and effects and so satisfied Mens Reason concerning the possibility of it Smalcius is the other who says That he would not believe the Incarnation of the Son of God though he should meet with it in express terms in the Bible The same Author says elsewhere that by Reason alone we determine the possibility and impossibility of the Articles of Faith To which I might add the bold assertion of a late English Remonstrant in a Volume publish'd some years ago where he says I verily believe that in case any such unchangeableness of Gods love viz. as should assure the Saints infallible perseverance were to be found in or could regularly be deduced from the Scriptures it were a just ground to any considering Man to question their Authority or whether they were from God or no. And a late Belgick Tractator having affirmed that the
and Veracity God perfectly knows all the several significations of the words that he hath uttered in Scripture and whatver the Reader can apprehend in them and he is also most true and faithful and therefore would not deceive or delude any by his Words Hence he gathers that whatsoever sense may be made of any part of Scripture if it be in it self a Truth it must be own'd for the true meaning of the Spirit of God in that place To this I answer Were all this intended only of the multiplicity of subordinate Senses depending on and deducible from that immediate Sense which is but one the Argument will hold firm For if any thing do truely lie in any Mans words or by due consequence be deducible from them which himself did not mean when he spake them he must needs be charged to be either ignorant or fallacious But being intended as it is by the Author of a multiplicity of collateral and immediate Senses his Argument is a miserable inconsequence Next he attempts to prove this by the Testimony of Learned Men and begins with the Jewish Rabbins whose childish and absurd conceits need no confutation witness that instanced by this Author their proving the multiplicity of Senses out of Psalm 62. 12. the 11. in our English Translation God hath spoken once twice have I heard this that power belongeth unto God That is say they God hath propounded one single Speech but such as I can understand two ways that is many ways a certain number being put for an uncertain by drawing several Senses from it wherein the Power of God consists that he can so order and dispose his Speech as thereby to teach men a multitude of Truths And is not this a goodly gloss upon the Text and an irrefragable proof of the matter in hand Whereas the Psalmists twice hearing what God had once spoken is no more but his diligent and attentive minding of that great and weighty Truth That Power belongs unto God What he further cites out of the Fathers concerning the fecundity of Scripture containing much in a few words is all granted being understood as before of subordinate not coordinate Senses For that the Scripture should be as a formless Mass capable of being turned by Philosophy into a thousand shapes which this Authors conceit tends to never was for ought I can find any part of their meaning 2. Whereas he says Philosophy is a true certain undoubted knowledge of the nature of things demonstrated by Natural Light I ask doth Philosophy comprehend the knowledge of all things Or is the nature of all things discernable by Natural Light There are in Scripture many things Historical Prophetical and Dogmatical the knowledge whereof depends wholly upon Supernatural Revelation What can Philosophy do here And even in those things that are Natural and belong to the cognisance of Philosophy how short is that knowledge that the most learned have attained Therefore whereas this Author so proudly derides our Reformed Divines for complaining of the darkness of Mans Natural Reason if he were not too wise to be taught he might have learnt more modesty from the ancient Philosophers the best and wisest whereof did greatly bewail the darkness of Mans Understanding Even Aristotle who never I think was judged to have disparaged Humane Reason acknowledges that our Understandings even as to the most manifest things in nature are but as the Eyes of the Owl and Bat to the day-light And though both he and others of them being unacquainted with Scripture could not clearly discover the true original of this darkness yet some weak conjectures some of them have made of it and whether by any Tradition received from the Jews or by some other means I shall not enquire some general and confused intimation they had that Man had lost his Primitive Excellency that the Wings of his Soul for so they express it had by some sad fall been so broken that he could not arrive at any considerable measures of knowledge by his greatest industry And hence arose that fond mistake among some of them that the Souls of Men having had a pre-existence before their union with their Bodies and having offended in that State were for a punishment of their Error thrust into these gross terrestial receptacles and that this caused the imperfection and obscurity of Mens Understandings But to those who own the Scripture and may learn from thence what Man 's Primitive State was and how he fell and are any whit acquainted with themselves methinks it should be no strange Riddle that the Mind is clouded and benighted even in things Natural and therefore in Supernatural much more But where is that Philosophy that this Exercitator cryes up for so certain and infallible and which another Author of like Principles does with profane boldness magnifie as equal to the Holy Scriptures for its compleat perfection and infallible certainty Where is it In the Clouds Sure it never was extant among men save in the crazy conceits of some haughty self-admirers 3. As to what our Author speaks of Philosophy being usefull to detect false Interpretations of Scripture I grant that where such false Interpretations are given as do really entrench upon the undoubted Principles of Reason the weakness and folly of them may well be discover'd by Philosophy But all corrupt or perverse expositions are not to be so limited nor is this enough to render Philosophy a sufficient Rule of Interpretation The heathen Philosophers could discover the error of their vulgar Religion but could not direct men to the true and right as I have shewn before The like may be said in the present case 4. Whereas our Exercitator further adds in the close of this Argument that from the beginning of Christianity those who were the most profound Philosophers were generally confessed to be the happiest Interpreters of Scripture I am far from being of his mind none having more corrupted and depraved the Scriptures than Men of greatest eminency for Philosophick Learning which I do not at all impute to Philosophy truly so call'd but to the rashness and folly of Men who being desirous to advance that wherein they would be thought to excell have adventured to make use of their Philosophick Principles in matters of a quite different and more sublime nature But suppose we the utmost that can be supposed That an eminent Philosopher were furnished with all the most necessary accomplishments for the understanding of Scripture and should duely improve them for that end yet this would no more prove Philosophy to be the Supream rule of Interpretation than Grammar or Rhetorick which are every whit as necessary and useful to such a Work if not more No further doth any thing help us in understanding the Scripture than it directs us to those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or evidences of the true sence that lie within the Scripture it self that is by helping us to use the Scripture as the Rule
Authentick Record of his Mind to conduct us in our way to Blessedness and is this all it is good for It seems by this Mans account all the Knowledge that we have any use for is in us already by Natures Light and whatsoever is delivered in Scripture must be tryed by that What could a blind Pagan have said more to the Scriptures dishonour As it is past all doubt that the Lord of Heaven and Earth in whom we live and move and are ought to be worshipp'd and served by his Rational Creatures so me thinks it should be as unquestionable that he cannot be served rightly and acceptably but by such a Worship as is according to the appointment of his own Will The meanest Man living that hath any depending on him looks they should serve him according to his Mind and not according to their own arbitrary choice And shall we think the Great Sovereign of the World will be pleased with a Worship of Mens own â—â—aming without any order or direction from him Now by which way or means could we know what that Worship is which God approves if we were in this inpsed state left to the meer conduct of Natural Light and had nor Divine Revelation to inform and guide us What piâ—…ful Work did the â—…st and learnedst of the. Heathen make about this 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did they admit into their Religious Worship as I have already 〈◊〉 in the first part of my Discourse Besides there are in Scripture many things Historicalâ— and many Prophetical Can these 〈◊〉 known by Natural Light or can we judge whether these be true or no by the help of Philosophy Moses gives us the Hâ—story of the Creation 〈◊〉 the general Deluge of the Destruction of Sodom of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt by strange Wonders and the bringing of them after forty years wandring into the Promised Land and their Establishment there for some years till for their Idolatry and other sins they were removed is recorded by other sacred Writers besides many other remarkable Histories of more personal concernment Now if we must not take these for truth from the testimony of Scripture which way shall we be satisfied Reason indeed may convince us that these things are not impossible But whether they were really so or so done as is reported all the Principles of Reason all the Maxims of Philosophy will never resolve us The like may be said of the many Prophesies concerning Christ and the after-state of the Church and about the four great Monarchies that were successively to arise with their progress and period If these and such like be examined by Philosophy what can it say to them Must these be all rejected So it seems by this Author's Discourse for he hath no kindness for any thing in Scripture but what may mind us of what we know naturally and may by the Principles of Reason be examin'd and determin'd And then what shall we say to the great Doctrine of Mans Salvation by Christ which is the grand Subject and principal Scope the of Scriptures Was there ever any syllable of this made known to the World otherwise than by Revelation There is indeed a Natural Theologie but I could never yet see ground to be perswaded that there is a Natural Christianity The knowledge of God as our Creator and Preserver is in some measure but very imperfectly attainable by Natural Light But the knowledge of Christ as the Redeemer of Sinners reconciling them to God and delivering them from the power of Satan had never been attained had there not been something above Nature to discover it If any think otherwise let them tell me how it comes about that in those Countries where the Doctrine of the Scriptures was never published there is not the least print or footstep of this great Mystery to be found But certainly he that talks of the Scriptures after the rate of this Author cannot be thought to apprehend himself to stand in any need of a Redeemer or to have any better esteem of the Gospel than that Triple-Crowned Gentleman at Rome is said to have manifested long since in his discourse with Cardinal Bembus For ought I see this Man owns nothing in the Scripture but what may be reduced to three Heads 1. The Being of God and his Attributes 2. The Immortality of the Soul and consequently Man 's future state in another World and 3. The Rules or Laws of Moral Duty because of these we have some notice by Natural Light But how miserably defective is that Light even in these So that here also we stand in need of a further Guide Some knowledge the Heathens had of God and of Mans future state but alas what does all that they have written hereabout come to but some faint guesses and probable conjectures And though they have in their Ethicks many excellent things and of great use yet they fall extream short in sundry particulars of very weighty concernment whereof we should have been utterly ignorant if the Holy Scriptures had not afforded us a more clear and perfect Rule of practice And it hath been observed by some that those Gentile Philosophers who flourish'd after the general promulgation of the Gospel though they continued still in their old Gentilism yet they wrote much more clearly and sublimely of the Nature of God and of Mans Duty here and his Eternal state hereafter than those who were before them Whether the cause of this were the converse they might have with Christians and their Writings or whether that plentiful effusion of the Spirit that was vouchsafed in those times might in some degree as to common enlightenings extend it self beyond the Churches Pale I will not determine But sure something there was beyond mere Natural Light that made them in their Notions of God and Religion so much 〈…〉 of their Predecessors I shall shut up all with this hearty and serious Wish That all who call upon God by Jesus Christ would highly honour and esteem the Holy Scriptures making them their study and delight in order to the bettering of their Hearts and manifesting the power and purity of this Word by a sober righteous and godly Conversation which would more effectually vindicate this Blessed Book from the Scorns and Reproaches of Atheists and Antiscripturists than all Disputes AN APPENDIX Concerning Internal Illumination And other Operations of the Spirit upon the Soul of Man Vindicating the Doctrine of the Protestants and the Practice of all Serious Christians from the Charge of Enthusiasm and other Unjust Criminations In the SAVOY Printed by Tho. Newcomb for Robert Boulter at the Turks Head in Cornhill over against the Royal Exchange 1677. A brief Account of the Contents of the following Appendix CHAP. I. THe Protestants Doctrine concerning the Spirits Illumination explained and defended CHAP. II. The Nature of Distresses of Conscience and Spiritual Joys open'd and the reality of them proved CHAP. III. True Zeal in the Exercises of Religion justified An
Appendix concerning Internal Illumination and other Operations of the Spirit upon the Soul of Man c. CHAP. I. 1. What our Protestant Divines mean by that Illumination of the Spirit which they assert as necessary to the understanding of the Scriptures and the Exercitators censure of it as Enthusiasm approved by Wolzogen 2. The Falshood of that Calumny discovered 3. Wolzogen ' s disingenuity and inconstancy 4. The necessity of the aforesaid Illumination proved 5. In what sense it is supernatural 6. Some of the Exercitators Cavils answered 7. In what sense this Illumination is immediate IN the foregoing Papers designed to clear and vindicate the Protestant Doctrine concerning the Supreme Bule of Interpreting Seripture I have had occasion frequently to deal with the Belgick Exercitator and to take notice of what he hath said that seems to be of any moment so far as concerns that point But whereas he is pleased in the procedure of his Discourse to step out of his way and deridingly to oppose the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches about the Spirits assistance in the Interpretation of Scripture as savouring of Enthusiasm I then waved medling with that part of his Book thinking it more expedient to say something to it in an Appendix by it self this being a Question altogether distinct from that other of the Rule of Interpretation In the Fourteenth Chapter of his oft-mentioned Exercitation he quotes several of our Protestant Authors of great Name and Worth giving in the words of some of them and referring us for others to the cited places The drift of their several Discourses about this point seems to be that there needs an effectual operation of the Holy Spirit to enlighten Mens understandings and cause them rightly to apprehend and readily to approve the Mind of God in Scripture That their meaning may be more clearly propounded we must distinguish of a twofold understanding of Scripture There is a Natural and merely Grammatical perception of the truth of Scripture-Propositions which a Man destitute of the Spirit of Grace may attain by common assistance in the use of ordinary means And there is a Spiritual apprehension of the things themselves contain'd in those Propositions which includes in it a hearty believing and embracing them that is not attain'd without the sanctifying work of the Spirit renewing the mind by enduing it with an heavenly supernatural Light This I find thus express'd and illustrated by the late Reverend Bishop of Norwich Natural Men says he have their Principles vitiated their Faculties bound that they cannot understand spiritual things till God have as it were implanted a new understanding in them framed the heart to attend and set it at liberty to see the Glory of God with open face Though the Veil do not keep out Grammatical Construction yet it blindeth the Heart against the spiritual Light and Beauty of the Word We see even in common Sciences where the Conclusions are suitable to our innate and implanted Notions yet he that can distinctly construe and make Grammar of a Principle in Euclide may be ignorant of the Mathematical sense and use of it Much more may a Man in Divine Truths be spiritually ignorant even where in some respect he may be said to know For the Scriptures pronounce Men ignorant of those things which they see and know In Divine Doctrine Obedience is the Ground of Knowledge and Holiness the best Qualification to understand the Scriptures To this Spiritual Understanding there is need of the aforesaid Supernatural Light And this is that which as far as I can understand our Divines mean when they assert the necessity of the Spirits Illumination Thus speaks the Church of England The Revelation of the Holy Ghost inspireth the true meaning of the Scripture into us In truth we cannot without it attain true saving knowledge Yea of this mind was Erasmus no Enthusiast who thus speaks He erreth vehemently who believes he can ever attain to the true understanding of the Canonical Scriptures unless he be inspired by the same Spirit that endited them And again They have the Book of Scripture but not the Scripture that want the Spirit without which the Scripture is not understood And M. Luther quoting a Speech of Aben-Ezra Sine supra infra i. e. without Points and Accents the Scripture cannot be understood adds a third sine intra without somewhat within viz. the Light of the Holy Spirit Now let us hear the Judgment of the Exercitator and his pretended Answerer Wolzogen about this As for the former If says he the meaning of these Divines were this that no sense of Scripture by what way or method soever found out can be fully certain to any unless by the Natural Light of our understanding we can clearly and distinctly perceive it and be fully perswaded of its truth and that this clear perception and the sense a Man hath of it be that inward perswasion and testimony of the Spirit which they intend this will be granted them But if they mean not the Natural Light of Mans understanding or what is built upon that but a Supernatural Light above and beyond Mans Natural Reason not included in the Mind or acquired by it but infused and inspired from above this says he we disclaim and condemn for Enthusiasm This is the sum of the censure that he passeth upon this Doctrine And Lud. Wolzogen who pretends to take up the Bucklers against him in defence of the Protestant Cause in stead of vindicating the forecited Authors and their Doctrine joins with the Exercitator in the calumny as appears undeniably by his own words for thus he speaks Because the Holy Spirit doth indeed still exert some power in the minds of Men therefore some have believed that he opens the sense of the Scriptures and interprets them to the Faithful Which opinion the Exercitator doth justly decry and determine that it contains mere Enthusiasm Where he expresly approves and applauds what the Exercitator had said against the Doctors of the Reformed Churches charging them with Enthusiasm for maintaining a necessity of a Supernatural Light for a saving perception of the Mind of God in Scripture And himself doth so frequently strike upon this string in several places of his Book that he seems to design the blemishing and defaming of our most eminent Protestant Writers and the Doctrine which they have asserted against Papists and Pelagians These Men cannot be ignorant that the Divines whom they thus impeach have all along in answer to the like imputation from Popish and Socinian Authors expresly and vehemently disclaimed all compliance with Enthusiasts and that some of them have written learnedly and smartly against that sort of Men. They utterly disavow their expecting any such Illumination as was given to the Prophets and Apostles and do plainly deliver their minds that what they assert doth not consist in discovering any new Doctrine unreveal'd in Scripture but in qualifying and
that we may know him that is true And this was promised of old when the Lord says by his Prophet I will put my Law into their inward parts and write it in their hearts which besides an external Revelation implies necessarily an internal Illumination Most true it is that as the light of the body is the eye so the light of the Soul is Reason but if as our Saviour says this light which is in us be darkness how great is that darkness And that it is so with this internal eye as to matters Heavenly till the Spirit of Grace enlighten it is evident by Scripture and all experience But as far as I can understand there are two things in the present point that are especially quarrell'd at viz. That the Spirits enlightening of our minds is affirm'd to be Supernatural and to be Immediate I shall say something to them both First Some are angry at our Divines for maintaining such a thing as Supernatural Illumination The Exercitator rejects all Supernatural Light as a Figment And Velthusius for whose Orthodoxy Wolzogen's credit lies at stake denies the distinction of Natural and Supernatural Light and affirms peremptorily that our knowledge of whatsoever Object whether natural or reveal'd is attained by one and the same Internal Light and that with him is no other than the natural light of reason Now if his meaning were no more but this that whatsoever Objects are presented to us Natural or Supernatural they are all perceived by the same natural faculty of Reason or Understanding I know no Man so absurd as to deny it But if he means as he must if he mean any thing that our Reason or Understanding apprehends all Objects of what kind soever by no other inward light but what is connatural to it needing no supernatural light to help it he must pardon us if we prefer the Authority of Scripture and the Judgment of the Catholick Church before his Novel Conceits Surely when David pray'd for the opening of his eyes to see the wonders of God's Law and when St. Paul pray'd that the Ephesians might have the eyes of their minds enlightened they did not conceive that by the Spirits enlightening no more was meant than the natural light of Mans Reason for they knew that themselves and those they pray'd for had that already as they were Rational Creatures and therefore there was no more need to pray for that than to pray that God would make them Men. But for the further clearing of this the word Supernatural may have respect either 1. to Mans nature as finite and so far innocently imperfect or 2. to Mans nature depraved and so sinfully defective If we consider Man in his first state though his actual knowledge was short of what by further experience he might have attain'd and at the best had its bounds from the finiteness of his being yet I doubt not but he had sufficient light connatural to his understanding for the perception of the highest Mysteries whensoever they should have been propounded to him with clear Objective evidence But it is not so with Man fallen The light of Mans natural understanding is now so weak and dim that there needs a new supervenient light raising and quickening the mind to a greater perspicacity than lapsed Nature hath or can of it self attain to for the right understanding of spiritual things how plainly soever propounded And in this sense we own and assert the saving light of the Spirit to be supernatural in that it elevates the understanding to such a power or ability of knowing heavenly Mysteries as Nature in its â—apsed state hath not of it self nor can recover by its own greatest industry without the special Grace of God It is an acknowledged truth that every thing is received according to the capacity and fitness of the Recipient To a right understanding of any thing there is required a suitableness between the Faculty and the Object The eye cannot perceive smells nor the ear hear colours Nor can any sensitive power reach to the apprehension of things purely intellectual so neither can the mind of a mere natural Man that is darken'd and depraved by sin while it so remains duly apprehend matters spiritual and heavenly It is the Observation of a late Author that the best and most effectual remedy for the thorow curing of our Intellectual diseases is that which alters the Crasis and disposition of the mind because as he very well argues 't is suitableness to that which makes the way to Mens Judgments and settles them in their perswasion there being few as he further adds that hold their Opinions by Arguments and dry reasonings but by congruity to the understanding and consequently by relish in the affections Now as sound Philosophy doth according to the aforesaid Author go far for the cure of Mens mistakes by giving their minds another tincture to wit in such things as lie within the sphere of Nature so where this comes short as in things of supernatural Revelation it certainly doth there is need of supernatural aid This Mr. Baxter hath very well exprest I think says he that in the very hearing or reading Gods Spirit often so concurreth as that the Will it self shall be touched with an internal gust or savour of the goodness contained in the Doctrine and at the same time the understanding with an internal irradiation which breeds such a sudden apprehension of the verity of it as Nature gives Men of Natural Principles And I am perswaded that this increased by more experience and love and inward gusts doth hold most Christians faster to Christ than naked reasoning could do And were it not for this unlearned ignorant persons were still in danger of Apostasie by every subtile Caviller that assaults them And I believe that all true Christians have this kind of internal knowledge from the suitableness of the truth and goodness of the Gospel to their new quickened illuminated sanctified Souls The Apostle tells us God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Where he manifestly compares the great Work of God in enlightening the dark heart of Man with spiritual knowledge to the first forming of Light which was the Act of a Creating Power when Darkness cover'd the face of the Deep Let the greatest External or Objective Light be afforded if there be not likewise in order to the reception of that a Subjective Light infused it will prove as we find in Joh. 1. 5. The Light shineth in Darkness and the Darkness comprehended it not Two passages in the Exercitator I shall here take notice of The one is where he says That the opinion of our Divines concerning this Supernatural Light seems to him to have had its Original from the received Axiom of the Aristotelick Philosophers
That nothing is in the Understanding that hath not been first in the sense Which says he the Divines receiving for an undoubted truth did never call off their minds from their senses and finding the knowledge drawn from thence to be very lame and imperfect and next to nothing they judged all rational knowledge to be no better yet happening by chance sometimes to make use of their mere understanding in the perception of some things and thereby attaining some true and solid knowledge which they found to be of a far other nature than that which they used to fetch from the senses therefore they took this latter kind of knowledge to be something Divine and Supernatural To this I answer 1. By what Power or Authority doth this confident Gentleman break Windows into the breasts of others and take upon him to know the secret thoughts and inward conceptions of their minds Did they ever tell him that this was their apprehension of things or that their Doctrine of Supernatural Light was built upon the Authority of Aristotle or deduced from any of his Axioms Or doth his New Philosophy furnish him with skill sufficient to search the hearts of Men touching their particular Sentiments as he pretends it doth to shew him the mind of God in Scripture-Revelations I think it furnisheth him for both alike But I wish it had taught him better to know himself 2. Neither were Aristotle nor his Followers such Dolts or Blockheads in maintaining the forementioned Axiom as to take it in that absurd meaning that nothing could be received into the Understanding but what is the Object of Sense For they clearly maintain the knowledge of those things that fall not under sense as of God and Angels and of Universals that are abstracted from sense But that all our knowledge of things without us comes in by the Senses especially by those two that are not unfitly called the Senses of Discipline Sight and Hearing is I think evident enough by all Experience besides what we find in Scripture concerning the knowledge we have of God which is either Natural or by Revelation Now as for the former the Apostle sure was not deceived by Aristotle's Axiom when he tells us That the invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead And for the knowledge of things revealed we are taught by the same Apostle that Faith cometh by hearing And our Saviour's most usual method of Preaching by Parables may shew us how requisite it is for Man in this state to have his understanding inform'd even in things Spiritual and Heavenly by the help of sense and sensible Objects The other passage is that where he says That this Supernatural Light is a thing unintelligible he knows not what to make of it nor how to conceive of it Is it says he something ordinary or is it extraordinary To his Demand I answer It is beyond the reach of corrupted and depraved Nature and so it is extraordinary but it is the inseparable priviledge of renew'd Nature and so far it is ordinary for it is communicated to all who partake in the saving Grace of Christ. But 2. Whereas this Author says He knows not what this enlightening of the Spirit is I easily believe him considering what our Saviour says of the Spirit of Truth which he promised to his Disciples That the World could not receive him because it seeth him not neither receiveth him And it is no wonder for Men to speak slightingly or contemptuously of the things they know not Upon which very account many excellent Truths plainly revealed in the Gospel are by audacious Wits exploded and derided as unintelligible Mysteries Yet 3. Me thinks Mens Reason might tell them if it were not wofully blinded by pride prejudice or passion that the unaccountableness of the nature of a thing or of the manner how it is can be no sufficient Argument against its existence The most perspicacious Inquirers into the Secrets of Nature do acknowledge themselves convinced of the certain existence of many things the nature whereof and the manner of their production they are not able to conceive much less to discover Thou knowest not says Solomon what is the way of the Spirit nor how the Bones do grow in the Womb of her that is with Child It is beyond the ken of Mans understanding infallibly to know or demonstratively to prove 1. The way of the Spirit or Soul whether it be produced by Creation or Traduction or what other way And 2. How the Body is form'd in the Womb. I know some learned Men have gone far in their Discoveries but the ablest of them have been put to a stop meeting with some knots which they could not untie I might ask these Curious Questionists How they can solve the many Doubts that may be raised about the Species of sensible Objects and about the Phantasms in the Mind or give us a satisfying account whence they come how they are framed and where it is that they are first received Or I might demand of them Which way the Soul and Body are united to each other and how they come to act one upon another with a thousand more difficulties that occur where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is unsearchable though the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be undeniable How much more may this be affirm'd of things purely revealed the sublimity whereof so vastly exceeds the former Secondly Another thing these Men dislike is That the Spirits enlightening of the Mind is said to be Immediate 1. Now if the word Immediate be taken as it is sometimes explain'd for such as supersedes Man's use of God's appointed means as if he were to expect some internal voice or impulse to reveal to him the Mind of God we disclaim all Immediate Actings of the Spirit in this sense But if Immediate be taken as it may very properly for such an operation of the Holy Spirit as doth Immediatè attingere mentem that by it self without the interposition of any second cause reacheth the mind of Man so we maintain that there is no effectual operation of the Spirit of God upon the Soul of Man but what is in this sense Immediate For what created Agent is there to come between the Spirit of God and the Soul of Man or that can by its own efficiency come at the Soul of Man to work upon it This nothing can do but an Infinite Spirit If any will say That there is something else comes between the Spirit of God and the Soul of Man in this business let them assign what it is Is it the Scripture it self That can act but Objectively nor can it do that further than it is understood and believed That therefore which works upon the Mind by a proper efficiency to redress the indisposition of the Faculty and to enable it to know and
own Will And if our Reason will not rest satisfied with that it will but weary it self in fruitless inquiries and dangerously miscarry by its bold determinations For instance what account can our Reason give why God should provide a Saviour for lost Man and none for the lapsed Angels Why he should cloath his only begotten Son with our dishonoured nature and expose him to so bitter Sufferings for the Sin of Man Why he should 〈…〉 severely punish the Crucifiers of his Son when what they did was fore-determined by himself in order to Mans Salvation And why he should suffer so much wickedness to be done which himself hates and could if he pleased by his Almighty Power hinder These and many more such instances might be given wherein Mans Reason is puzzl'd as not finding any thing wherein it can acquiesce but the Will and pleasure of God that thus it should be Again God requires we should believe him upon his naked Word though we know not which way that which he says can be And accordingly he so manifests to us his Mind that he will not gratifie our vanity or pride in resolving the queries and satisfying the objections that our curiosity may start about the Truth revealed It is enough for us to know what he hath said and to take it upon the Authority of his word without asking how or why And it is indeed the highest Reason imaginable that we should give absolute credit to what he speaks God's Sovereignty saith the learned Lord Verulam reaches to the whole Man extending itself no less to his Reason than his Will so that it well becomes man to deny himself universally and yield up all to him Wherefore as we are bound to obey the Law of God notwithstanding the reluctancy of our Will so are we also to believe his Word though against the reluctancy of our Reason I shall conclude this with the Words of the learned Grotius who having asserted the Doctrines of Scripture to be no way contrary to sound Reason but agreeable thereunto he he hath this remarkable passage Ultra haec pro comperto aliquid affirmare aut de Dei natura aut de ejus voluntate solo ductu humanae rationis c. How dangerous and deceitfull a thing it is to affirm any thing for certain either of the Nature or Will of God beyond what we have in Holy Writ by the sole conduct of Humane Reason we are taught by the many dissentient opinions not only of Schools but of particular Philosophers among themselves Nor is this any great wonder for if they ran out into very differing apprehensious when they disputed about the nature of their own Mind much more must it needs be so with those who are desirous to determine any thing concerning that Supreme Mind that is so far above us If prudent Men count it dangerous to search into the Counsels of Kings which by all our search we cannot discover who is there so sagacious as can hope by his own conjectures to find out what God will do among those things that depend upon his meer pleasure CHAP. V. A third Argument from the absurdity of resolving a Mans Faith into himself and his own Reason IN the third place If the Sense of Scripture be to be regulated and determined by Natural Principles then the last resolution of a Mans Faith in those points as to the formal object of it will be into Man himself and the dictate of his own Reason For the ultimate reason or ground of our believing in this case will not be the veracity of God speaking in the Scripture but the Voice of our own Reason persuading us from its own Principles when we can see nothing in the Words of Scripture to require it And this plainly falls in with the absurd conceit of the Quakers who commonly profess to own nothing that is laid down in the Bible as the Mind of God but what is witnessed by the light within them Which is no more in other terms than this That they will take nothing from the Scripture but what is agreeable to their own Reason For the light they speak of with which they say every Man comes into the World for which they alledge that in Joh. 1. 9. is nothing else but Mans Reason and the common notions of it which though some of them have heretofore denied yet now their chief Heads and Leaders do openly avow And this is that which they make the standing Rule of what they believe and practise and not the Holy Scriptures We rather say with an ancient Schoolman Apud Aristotelem argumentum est ratio rei dubiae faciens fidem sed apud Christum argumentum est fides faciens rationem The way of arguing in Aristotle's School is by Reason begetting assent but in Christ's School it is by Faith which is instead of all Reason CHAP. VI. A fourth Argument from another absurdity viz. That in Matters of pure Revelation the Mind of God may be better known by Natural Light than by Scripture Or that all supernatural Revelation is to be shut out FOurthly It will follow from this supposal That in matters of pure Revelation the Mind of God may be better known by the common principles of Natural Light than by the Holy Scriptures which carries with it a palpable contradiction For matters of pure Revelation are supposed to be supernatural and if these as laid down in Scripture cannot be understood from the Scripture it self but must have such a Sense given them as the Maxim of Natural Reason shall determine then certainly it is not Revelation but Reason that discovers them And so what need will there be of Scripture Indeed this conceit looks very like that absurd dotage of Weigelius if it be not the same with it that Mans knowledge of all things whatsoever must be fetcht from within himself not from without Tenôris says he omnia nôris omnia enim es non minus quam Deus Which besides many other prodigious absurdities plainly shuts out all supernatural Revelation And that this lies at the bottom of the Exercitators Discourse I find reason enough to suspect if not conclude For besides what he says in his sixth Chapter the first Paragraph which I shall wave insisting on in his Epilogue at the end of his Book he propounds an Objection against his whole Discourse viz. That if Philosophy be the Rule of Interpreting the Holy Scripture then the Scripture is useless and written to no purpose for seeing the truth of all the Senses of Scripture which are to be search'd out and tryed by Philosophy must first be perceived before they be drawn out and examined to what end is it that we should have recourse to Scripture to learn any thing from it This is the Objection which himself makes against his own Position In answer whereto he runs out into a long Harangue of words and as his manner is propounds a frivolous
never so inconsistent with or opposite to the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures or the Dictates of sound and sober Reason And being by this means laid open to Satanical Delusions they were easily drawn to believe the grossest absurdities and some of them to practice the vilest wickednesses contrary to common Honesty and the Publick Peace justifying all by their pretended Revelations This is the Character we have of Enthusiasts both Antient and Modern from Authors of unquestionable credit And if there be any where in this World any of the remainders of that Sect as it 's probable enough there are that entertain such wild and frantick Conceptions let them bear their sin and shame But of this I am sure that the Persons thus charged by Wolzogen and his Complices can safely appeal to all unprejudiced Persons that know them and to the most Wise and Holy God who is greater than all that they are as clear from any compliance with that Infatuated Generation as the best of their Accusers For 1. They heartily own and submit to the Holy Scriptures as the only sure and sufficient Rule of Faith and Life Accordingly whatsoever Conceptions may rise within them or be suggested to them in matters of Religion they bring them to the Bar of Scripture to stand or fall according to its Judgment not imposing their Sentiments upon the Scripture but receiving the sense of Scripture from the Scripture it self according to what hath been asserted in the precedent Discourse 2. In matters difficult and obscure that are more darkly laid down in Scripture especially in the Prophetick parts of it they forbear to determine peremptorily chusing rather to satisfie themselves with a modest hesitancy and abhorring to make their Judgments the measure of anothers Faith or superciliously to censure or despise any for their different apprehensions 3. They plead for no other Spirit of Revelation than what the Apostle prays for in behalf of the Ephesians Chap. 1. Vers. 17 18 19. which Revelation consists not in discovering any New Object to be received unreveal'd in Scripture but only in qualifying the Subject by curing the native and acquired blindness and carnality of our minds that we may rightly understand and embrace the Truths which the Scripture propounds 4. They solemnly profess and declare to all the World that whatsoever they are taught by the Holy Spirit as it is by and from the Scripture so it is in the regular exercise of their rational Faculties and such as they are â—eady at all times to give an account of from Scripture-grounds to any sober intelligent Person that shall demand it They therefore disown and reject the absurd Principles and arrogant Presumptions of the falsly-call'd Mystical Theology set on fooâ— antiently and revived in later years that pretends to Ecstatick Raptures and Deifications of the Soul by an utter cessation of all Intellectual Operations The Original of which Phantastick Theology Dr. Meric Casaubon derives from the Heathen Philosophers intimating withal the great Affinity between this and the New Method so much cried up of late Which those whom it concerns may consider of at their leisure In the mean time I take that for granted which hath been agreeably to plain and evident Scripture the acknowledged Doctrine of the Catholick Church however denied and derided by some late Innovators That the Holy Spirit of God is according to Christs own promise given to dwell in the Hearts of Christians to beget and preserve spiritual life in them to conduct them in their way to strengthen them with might in the Inner Man to shed abroad the love of God in their Hearts and witness their adoption to assist them in holy services and gradually to perfect the work of Sanctification in them To spend many words in proving this which is already so clear to all unbyass'd Judgments were to to light a Candle before the Sun As for that ridiculous sense that some have endeavour'd to fasten upon these or some of these Scriptures as if they were to be understood only of the Spirit as given to the Church in common and not to particular Christians it is so utterly inconsistent with the scope of those respective places and runs so contrary to the whole stream of Scripture and all Antiquity that I think it needless to waste time in refuting it He that will but considerately read over the several places and faithfully examine the Context may easily see the vanity of it That of the Learned Grotius is clear and full Not only the whole Collective Body of the Faithful but also particular Believers are rightly call'd the Temple of the Holy Ghost because the Spirit of God dwelleth in their Minds And if those who are careful according to the Apostles counsel not to quench the Spirit but to stir up the Grace of God in them have their hearts more warm'd and enlarged in holy Duties than others who either want that measure of Gifts or are defective in improving them I cannot conjecture why this should be made a matter of reproach but that some Men are angry at every thing that is not just of their own size or not suitable to their gust and therefore are resolved to revile and calumniate it though by those wounds the heart and life of Religion be found to lie a bleeding To shut up this I might here mind the Objector and those of his way how much it concerns them to acquit themselves of that Enthusiasm which they impeach others for It 's known to be one of the first Principles of that Grand Enthusiast Valentius Weigelius That he who would know the truth must forget whatsoever he hath learnt from Men and Books and lay it all aside as if he had never been acquainted with any thing and retreat into himself and fetch all his knowledge from thence Let this be referr'd to our Authors Consideration wherein this differs from the great Principle of his admired Master But let us hear what is further Objected to justifie these Mens prejudices Secondly It is said by some These heats are but the Frantick Freaks of a Crazed Brain and the product of a Religious Frenzy I answer 1. We need not be much moved with this sensless charge when we find the Pen-men of Sacred Writ to have little better measure made them by the same hand For of them we are told that they wrote many times they knew not what and gave forth Oracles when they were beside themselves his word is alienata mente which was one of the vile Positions of the Montanisis and Cataphrygians rejected and condemned both by Antient and Modern Divines And yet to justifie this Assertion our Author gravely cites Cicero de Divinatione calling the Raptures of their Pagan Vates by the Name of Furor and Virgil calling Sibylla a Mad Prophetess and Justin the Historian Lib. 24. where speaking of the much-famed Oracle at Delphos he tells us of a very