THE ARROGANCY OF REASON AGAINST Divine Revelations Repressed OR Proud Ignorance the cause of Infidelity and of Mens Quarrelling with The Word of God LONDON Printed by T. N. for Tho. Underhil 1655. Rom. 11. 33 34. O The depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out For who hath known the minde of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellor Rom. 9. 20. Nay but O man who art thou that repliest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus Job 37 23. Touching the Almighty we cannot finde him out He is excellent in Power and in Judgment and in plenty of Justice Job 40. 8 Wilt thou also disannul my Judgments wilt thou condemn me that thou maist be righteous Psal. 73. 16 17. When I thought to know this it was too painful for me until I went into the Sanctuary of God then I understood their end Job 42. 2 3. I know that thou canst do everything and that no thought can be with-holden from thee Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge therefore have I uttered that I understood not things too wonderful for me which I knew not 1 Cor. 3. 18 19. Let no man deceive himself if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world let him become a fool that he may be wise For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God 1 Cor. 1. 25 The foolishness of God is wiser then men and the weakness of God is stronger then men Read Isai. 40. 12 13 14 15 16 17. THE Arrogancy of REASON against Divine Relations Repressed JOHN 3. 9. Nicodemus answered and said unto him How can these things be IN the beginning of this Chapter you have a Lecture read by the Great Teacher of the Church to a Scholar that was newly entring into his School He is yet but a Catechumenus in preparation to be a Christian rather then one indeed having good thoughts of Christ but not believing in him as the Messiah nor engaged by Baptism to be one of his Disciples And accordingly doth Christ suit his Doctrine to his condition and teach him first the great Principle of Christianity What success it had at first we finde in the Text but not what was the issue at last Though by other Texts we may probably conjecture First The Schollar is by name Nicodemus by Sect a Pharisee by place a Ruler of the Jews or one of their great Council For the frame of his minde the degree of his preparatory knowledge or belief you may discern it 1. By the season of his coming 2. By the motive that prevailed with him to come And 3. by the confession that he makes of his belief From all which you may see first that he believed that there was a God and that it belonged to God to teach mankinde and that it was his way to teach by men and that it was mans duty to seek after Gods teaching from his Messengers and come to them and request it and that who ever could give sufficient evidence of his Mission from God should be heard by men and that Jesus Christ did truly and undoubtedly work Miracles and that such Miracles as Christ wrought were an undoubted proof that God was with him All these things it is apparent he did believe by these words Vers. 2. Rabbi we know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do thâ—se miracles that thou dost except God be with him Secondly From hence also you see that it was the evidence of Christs Miracles that had thus far convinced him and drove him to Christ as a Teacher come from God and consequently one that was to be credited But that he was the Messiah here is yet no confession Thirdly And as his belief was but preparatory so this change upon his heart doth appear to be no better For he hath â—â—t yet learned the lesson of Self-denial and preferring the known truth and duty of seeking after the minde of God from his Messengers before the credit of the world or his life and therefore he comes to Jesus but by night as being afraid to own him in the face of his enemies Yet doth not Christ cast this cowardize in his teeth to his discouragement but fitteth his medicine to the strength of the Patient as well as to the disease For there was more malice and raging zeal against the truth among the Jews then among the Gentiles and so more dangers and sufferings which a novice might not be so fit to encounter with And therefore Paul when he went up to Jerusalem did Preach the Gospel privately to them of worldly reputation which among the Gentiles and inferior Jews he preacheth publickly lest through the prevalency of mens pride or cowardize his physick should not do its work but he should run or labor in vain Gal. 2. 2. The first and great thing that Christ presently falls upon is to let this man know that this much will not serve his turn to confess the Miracles and so the Divine Mission of Christ but that he must also truly believe the office that he is sent upon even to be the Messiah the Mediator and the Redeemer of the World and must openly be engaged to him as such a one by Baptism and so own him and confess him before the World and receive his renewing Spirit for the illumination of his understanding the purifying and quickening of his heart and thâ—reforming and afterguidance of his life This work Christ calleth by the name of the New-Birth or Regeneration and tells Nicodemus That except he be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Not that there is the same necessity of the washing by water and the purifying by the Spirit For by water is principally meant that Covenant which Baptism did sign even the confession of Christ and dedication to him in the relation of redeemed Ones Children Disciples and Subjects on our part and his re-engagement and relation to us Yet water it self is the thing nearly signified in the Word and the use of it is of Divine appointment and not to be neglected where it may be used but the necessity to Salvation is placed in the relation or thing signified As its common to say to a Souldier of the enemies If thou wilt change thy General and take the Princes Colours and fight for him thâ—â— maist have pardon for thy rebellion Where taking Colours is a duty but the necessity is placed in the change of his relation and practice for if there were no Colours at hand to give him yet if he be listed as a Soldier or if not listed yet if by open profession and action joyned to them it will be accepted or else as Grâ—tius expoundeth it by Water and the Spirit is meant a washing clensing Spirit of which see him in Loâ— This
change that is here called the New birth is not the new Creation of a substance or destruction of our former substance or faculties For we have still the same natural powers of understanding and willing But it is the change of the Disposition Habits and Acts of those faculties And with submission to the contrary minded I conceive that it is not onely our real qualitative change that is here called the New-birth but that the word is more comprehensive as I before exprest including our new relation to God in Christ as Sons and Disciples to Christ and Servants Subjects or Soldiers under him with a removal from our former relations which we were in by corruption and are inconsistent with these So that it comprehendeth both our new relations to God to the Redeemer and to his Church where we have a new Father Husband Lord and Fellow-servants new Brothers and Sisters and Inheritance though yet we renounce not our Natural Brethren Parents and Inheritance as the Popish Monastical Votaries conceive any further then as they are contrary to the Interest of Christ The Reasons that perswade me to take Regeneration in this extent are First Because it is the entrance into our whole New State that is here so called without any limiting expression Secondly Because we are said to be born of Water as well as the Spirit And certainly Baptism doth as nearly and truly signifie our Justification and Relative Change and new Covenant Engagements and Adoption and Church Membership as it doth our Qualitative Renovation Nor do I see how any fair Exposition can be given of that saying Except a man be born of Water which shall not include the change of our relations as well as of our dispositions And the like I may say of other Texts which mention Regeneration which I will not now so far digress as to recite Having seen what Christ teacheth Nicodemus first let us next see the success of his doctrine Nicodemus fastening too much upon the Metaphorical term of being born again and withal not understanding the meaning of it nor the scope of Christ he presently expresseth his ignorance and unbelief by this question How can a man be born when he is old Can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born Hereupon Christ returning an Explicatory Answer telling him not onely the nature of the new birth but also the mysteriousness of its causes in the effecting of it and shewing a plain reason from Natural Agents Why the mysteriousness of this should not make it seem incredible yet doth Nicodemus return a second Answer like the first How can these things be Which words do import not an absolute unbelief of the truth of what Christ had said but a great ignorance of his meaning and a not discerning of that evidence fully which should have caused full belief but a strong apprehension of the improbability of the thing affirmed and thereupon a great doubting of the truth of the affirmation And note here the aggravations of Nicodemus his fault first They were the words of one that he himself confessed to be a teacher come from God and that sealed his Doctrine by such Miracles as none could do except God were with him And doth God send any Messenger with a lie or any Teacher that knoweth not what he teacheth or will he seal untruths or senseless absurdities with such unquestionable miracles Sure a man that was once convinced that God sent the Messenger and sealed the message should be confident that the matter of it is divine and should never once suspect it of untruth Secondly Though Christ did with frequent asseverations aver the truth of his Doctrine yet did Nicodemus stagger through unbelief Thirdly It was the very Catechism and Rudiments of Piety and Christianity which was so strange to him Fourthly The term by which Christ expresseth Spiritual things he understandeth all in a carnal sense yea and after that Christ had told him plainly what birth he means not carnal producing a fleshly Creature but of Water and the Spirit producing a Spiritual Creature yet doth not Nicodemus understand him for all this Fifthly Yet was this man a Ruler of the Jews even one of the great Sanedrim and one reputed skilful in the Law one that professed himself a guide of the blinde a light of them which are in darkness an instructer of the foolish a teacher of Babes which had the form of knowledge and of the truth in the Law one of those that boasted of God and of the Law Rom. 2. 17 18 19 20. Yet he that should teach others had not learnt these Rudiments himself Sixthly And when Christ used a familiar instance to shew him that things are not therefore incredible because invisible or because we know not the nature cause and end of them We may know that it is when we cannot know what is it or whence or why it is or whether it tends as in the blowing of the wind is evident yet doth not Nicodemus cease his doubting on this account but asketh How can these things be the spirituality and mysteriousness of the thing made it seem improbable to his uninformed intellect and the seeming improbability made him doubt of the verity Because it was past his apprehension to conceive how it should be therefore he doubted whether it were true or not He had not so much rational consciousness of his own ignorance or so much confidence in a Teacher sent from God and sealing his Doctrine by Miracles as to acquiesce as a Learner in his Teachers credit concerning the verity of the thing while he was seeking to get a clearer discovery of its nature rise and ends So that here were all these sins together manifested in this answer Great ignorance even in a Ruler unbelief doubting of the conclusion when he had acknowledged the premises an unteachableness in part when he professed himself to come to learn an arrogant conceit of the capaciousness of his understanding as if Christs words or the plain truth should be sooner suspected then his shallow capacity From this Picture we may well conclude what is the ordinary shape of mans corrupted disposition and we may all know our selves by knowing Nicodemus And from hence I may raise this Observation of us all Doct. The corrupt nature of man is more pronâ— to question the truth of Gods Word then to seâ— and confess their own ignorance and incapacity and ready to doubt whether the things that Christ revealeth are true when they themselves do not know the nature cause and reason of them They will make every thing which they understand not to seem improbable and all such improbabilities will make it seem incredible and the incredibility of a part makes the whole seem incredible And thus men will be Infidels or seed their infidelity by every thing that themselves are ignorant of and make it the chief reason why they will not believe or learn because they do not already know
your mouth in unbelief How plain is that to a man of knowledge which to the ignorant seems impossible If the certain event did not convince them you should never perswade the ignorant vulgar that learned men know so much of the motions of the Planets and can so long before tell the Eclipse of Sun or Moon to a Minute But when they see it come to pass they are convinced Thus can God convince thee of the verity of his word either by a merciful illumination or by a terrible execution For there is not a soul in Hell but doth believe the truth of the threatnings of God And the Devils themselves Believe that would draw thee to unbelief 12. Lastly Take heed of the very beginnings of this sin for it is the ordinary way to total Apostasy when men have once so far lost their humility and modesty and forgot that they are men or what a man is as to make their shallow Reason the censurer of Gods Word because of certain seeming improbabilities and when they will not rest satisfyed in the bare Word of God that thus it is but they must needs know why anâ— how it can be this opens the flood-gate of temptations upon them for the envious Serpent wilâ— quickly shew them more difficulties then their shallow brains can answer and will cull out all those passages of Scripture which are hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable dâ— wrest to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3. 18. He will shew them all the knots but never shew them how to untye them Such arrogant questioners censurers of Gods word do oft run on to utter infidelity while they are incompetent Judges and do not know it what can be expected from them but a false judgement For though the light shineth in darkness yet the darkness comprehendeth it no Joh 1. 5. and therefore presumeth to condemn the light O therefore let all young raw students and unsetled wits take heed in the fear of God that they exalt not themselves and that they think not their weak understandings to be capable of comprehending the counsels of God and passing a censure upon his word upon the nature of the matter as appearing unto them Nay let the sharpest wits and greatest scholars stoop down before the wisdom of God and be have themselves as humble learners and enter as little children into his schoole and Kingdom and submissively put their mouths in the dust and take heed of setting their wits against heaven or challenging the infinite wisdom to a disputation If they love themselves let them take this advice and remember that God delighteth to scatter the proud in the imagination of their own hearts Luke 1. 51. and to pull down â—spiring sinners to the dust As they that would set their power against God would soon be conâ—inced of their madness by their ruine so they that will set their wisdom against him are like to escape no better Let no man deceive himself if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world let him become a fool that he may be wise for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God For it is written he taketh the wise in their own craftiness And again The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain 1 Cor. 3 18 19 20. Object But would you not have men satisfyed of the reasonableness of what they believe shall men believe that which is unreasonable this were to make us mad and not Christians Answ. You must believe nothing but what you have sufficient reason to believe But then you must know what is sufficient reason for Belief Prove but the thing to be the Testimony of God and then you have sufficient reason to believe it whatsoever it be For Faith proceedeth by this Argumentation whatsoever God testifyeth is True But this God testifyeth Therefore it is true You have as good reason to believe the Major as that there is a God and he that acknowledgeth not a God is unworthy to be a man All that you have to look after therefore is to prove the Minor that this or that is the word of God And as concerning the Scripture in general it carryeth sufficient Reason to warrant and oblige any man that readeth or heareth it to believe it in the forehead of it It shineth by It shineth by its own light and it beareth the certain seal of Heaven So that we have gooâ— Reason to believe the Scripture or Doctrine oâ— Christ to be the word of God And then we havâ— as good reason to believe it and every part of â—â— to be true And then what ground is there for any further exceptions or objections When yoâ— have seen the seal of God affixed and perceiveâ— sufficient evidence of the verity of the whole what room is left for cavils against any parâ— of it Object But it is certain that God never spokâ— contradictions Therefore if I finde contradictions in the Scriptures may I not rationally argue that they are not the Word of God Answ. Yes if you could certainly and infallibly prove your Minor that Scripture hath such contradictions But that 's not a thing that a sober man can be confident of proving because all things that men understand not may seem to them to have contradictions And you have far more reason to suspect your own shallow understanding then the Word For those things as I have shewed may be easily reconcileable by others that understand which seem most unreconcileable to you Are you sure there can be no way of reconciliation but you must know it It 's easie therefore to see that your Minor cannot possibly be proved Yea it may be easily and certainly disproved even by him that cannot reconcile those seeming contradictions For God attesteth no contradictions but God attesteth the holy Scripture Therefore the holy Scriptures have no contradictions The Major is most evident to the light of nature and granted by your selfe The Minor â—s proved at large before and elsewhere Gods attestation is discernable to Reason It is therefore a preposterous course to begin â—t the quality of the word and to argue thence that God revealed it not when you should begin at the Attestation or seal of God and argue thence that he did reveal it and indeed the very quality beareth or containeth his Image and Seal For you are more capable of discerning the seale of God attesting it in the spirit of Miracles and Holiness c. then you are of discerning presently the sense of all those passages that seem contradictory to you You may easily be ignorant of the true interpretation for want of acquaintance with some one of those many things that are necessary thereto But I can be certain that God hath astested the Scripture to be his Word And indeed common reason tells us that we must first have a general proof that Scripture is Gods word and argue thence to the verity of the parts