erring Consciences men may perplex themselves and raise doubts causlesly and erre in this and this error will be the greater when after all this they pretend perplexity and doubts made unto them when they are onely the mists which themselves have raised to blear their own eyes and such a work I think is never more inauspiciously performed than when they set their wits on work to dispute themselves out of the Lords verge and circle within the compass whereof alone he useth to charm all his Elect after they have run their wilde race and compass and bring them home like the prodigal child to his father so them to their heavenly father and therewithall to the sobriety of their wits and integrity of their senses that they may say Oh what love have I to thy Law all the day long is my study in it the Law of thy mouth is deerer to me than thousands of gold and silver by this I have more understanding than my Teachers Indeed the Law of the Lord is a perfect Law converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure and giveth wisdom to the simple yea and such wisdom as maketh wise unto salvation and what should we desire more Disc But could so many Divines of former Ages be ignorant of this Have there not so many Wars been undertaken for this cause Could those learned men suffer so many thousands of men to run headlong hoth by doing and suffering into the hazard of body and soul for Religions sake and so many unspeable mischiefs to arise whenas it is possible for a man to be saved without the Controversies of Religion But if this be the command of God under the pain of temporall and everlasting punishment to fight for those Controversies how can we excuse those shuffling arguments of Faith Religion and Gods Worship A Servant may not abate any thing of his Lords due Consid Be ignorant of this of what That Controversies are not necessary to salvation how doth that appear they deserved any such censure but let 's not please our selves in confusion of things that deserve to be distinguished A man yea an whole Nation may live in peace without war but if they are not suffered to live in peace but some enemy or other invades them as Aram before and the Philistins behinde ready to devour us with open mouth shall we sit still with our hands in our bosome till these monsters devour us one after another as Polyphemus intended to deal with Vlysses and his souldiers though he shewed him this favour that he should be the last that should go to pot This is the condition of Gods Church and hath been from the very dayes of the Apostles inclusively the mysteries of godliness being now revealed in Gods word Many there be that cannot digest these mysteries and submit unto them by faith but though they imbrace the truths of the Gospell in som particulars yet they resist it in others or pretending to imbrace it they pervert wrest it by corrupt interpretation In this case are not the Orthodox driven to hold their own and as S. Jude exhorts them to contend earnestly for the faith once given to the Saints and to indeavour to kill error rather than to suffer errour to strangle the holy truth of God open the truth of God which is according unto godliness rather to root out weeds than to suffer them to over-grow the good corn Thus we are cast upon Controversies whether wee will or no yet this is not a dutie that belongs to all many yea most shall be saved without it like as when an enemy invades us we gather an Army against them to oppose them and drive them out the rest pray for their fellow-brethren but do not fight yet by this war they may have as great an interest in the desired peace as those that fight for it Thus Chamayar of the French Church hath written his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bella Domini the Wars of the Lord against the Philistines the Antichristian Philistines of the Church of Rome scarce one hath done the like yet many sons of that honourable Church have done valiantly but Chamayer hath surmounted them all every one doth not gird himself with the sword upon the thigh at all but onely those who are the Lords Naunchan his instructed ones for these who are overseers and keepers of the Tower of David built for defence a thousand shields hung therein and all the Targets of the strong men Cant. 4.4 and these are well acquainted with them and know how to use them yea and to handle the sword too as expert in war and in this holy war they will be content to hazard their life as S. Paul professeth saying and now I go bound to Jerusalem in the Spirit not knowing what things shall come unto me there save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every like saying that bonds and afflictions abide me but I pass not for these things neither is my life deer unto me so I may fulfill my course with joy and the Ministration which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospell of the grace of God As for the shuffling Arguments here spoken of when I know them I shall upon due consideration pass my judgement on them as I see cause A man may sophisticate I confess in making Arguments but shuffling courses commonly have place in shifting them off by an undue solution Wee know what Pauls course was he fought with Beasts at Ephesus and Stephens fortunes too when certain of the Synagogue which were called Libertines and Cyrenians disputed with Stephen did not he also dispute with them The Text saith expresly they were not able to resist the wisdom of the Spirit by which he spake If Lam offered up saith Paul upon the sacrifice and service of your faith I rejoyce therein and will joy Dis Let this thing be considered seeing it is so intricate and lead me and many others into disquiet of minde for which perplexities of Conscience none will deny that a remedy is to be sought at the hands of those that have Christian fellow-feeling and might be found if all the Divines of those sides that have left Popery would vouchsafe to afford me a wise milde and solid Answer in writing not savouring of partiality prejudice or passion Consid When Boste was taken by the States there was seen in the wall a Bishop sometimes of that town painted with Christ and his blood on the one side and the Virgin Mary and her breasts sprouting milk on the other side and the devout Bishop was represented there in the gesture of a man in great perplexity and ambiguity not knowing well which to prefer whether Christs blood before Maries milk or Maries milk before Christs blood and this expressed in Latine Verses and one of the Martialists as it were to put him out of his mood and perplexity Why thou Sott quoth he get thee to Gott Who I pray was
years A very absurd thing it is to say we shall never be able to confute any Religion with the objection of fore-conceived opinions For this may be objected to them that are in the right way as well as to them that are in a wrong way and undoubtedly the true way may be imbrac'd in a wrong manner For they are not all Israel that are of Israel Rom. 9. God threatens sometimes to visit the circumcised with the uncircumcised and the reason why the Lord gave the Christian world over to illusions to believe lies was because they received not the love of the truth As for civill learning surely there wanted not both civill and naturall knowledge among the Gentiles more than enough for this made them esteem the Cross of Christ foolishness which yet to them that are saved is the power of God For it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will cast away the understanding of the prudent Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this world Hath not God made the wisdom of this world foolishness For seeing the world by wisdom knew not God in the wisdom of God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1.18 18 19 20 21. And shall we now think that civill learning and naturall ingenuity prefers men to the grace of God or makes them the more fit to receive the Gospell Of Princes who more famous for naturall parts learning wisdom ingenuity than Trajan and Mareus Antonius of inferiour condition than Plinie the second the Officer of Trajan who speaks in commendations of the innocency of Christians yet neither of these became a Christian nay both these Princes were persecutors of the Church of God and at Athens for all their learning which made them renowned throughout the world who were converted by Pauls preaching there but Dionysius and Damaris and some other Act. 17. last Papists are great Scholars undoubtedly not in Logick and Philosophie onely and that in all kindes but in Divinity also and that in the most learned way Aquinas a great Divine his Sums I have heard Doctor Reynolds call it that absolute Body of Divinitie but his wit served him to serve that Churches turn in those days and in maintaining Idolatry he is the most shamefull Writer that ever was for he will have the Image worshipped with the same honour that is due to the thing represented by it and that by an Argument drawn out of Aristoile Dememoria reminiscentia opposed herein by Durand and Picus Mirandula and others I remember what Cicero said of the Grecians Do illis eruditionem do Doctrinam filem Religionem nunquam Coluerunt yet I will not say so of the Church of Rome though one sometimes did I know it was renowned for faith all the world over in the dayes of S. Paul but a degenerate time came and as at the first preaching of the Gospell men turned from Idolls to to serve the living God so in after Ages even Christians and Roman Christians as much as any if not more turned from the living God to serve Idolls and the Whore of Babylon who made all Nations drunken with the blood of Gods Saints is clearly the Church of Rome as it is at this day and hath been for many generations whatsoever their learning be the greater advantage they have for the countenancing of their Errors Heresies Superstitions and Idolatries which yet we nothing fear The Apostle hath taught us to esteem no knowledge but this even of Christ and him crucified Si Christum descis nihil est si caetera nescis si Christum nescis nihil est si caetera discis And if we fear not their learning much less have we cause to fear their wit or wisdom either or whatsoever projects of theirs likewise none of these should in common reason commend their Religion God usually infatuating the wisdom of the wise They have all furtherance I confess beyond us yet God hath not tied himself to annex his truth to these furtherances least of all if they be imployed not indifferently to the investigation of truth but prejudicately to support their own cause the madness whereof hath been in these later dayes made known to the world more than ever The triall whereof we make by the Touch-stone of Gods Word according to the counsel of God himself To the Law and to the Testimonies if they speak not according to this it is because there is no light in them Esai 8. Yet we study Scriptures and Fathers too as well as they and we have them amongst us that yeeld to them not a jot nay do we not study their writings too much more than our own I willingly profess I have done so all along that I might come acquainted with their best strength and fastness in all which I find nothing but illusions in the maintenance of those Tenets wherein we differ from them As for interpreting of Scriptures it is well known they have been brought unto it per force so was Cajetan in his old years after he had tasted of Luthers course who would admit of no other Authority in dispute but the Word of God And their Commentaries for the most part are but a Mass of Collections out of others yet I despise them not I am content to use them as soon as any of our own not so much to learn by them as to observe how they strain their wits to quench that light of truth which in most places breaks forth to the discovering of their Errors Well they may talk of bringing no sense to the Scriptures but their practice is nothing answerable Discourse But perhaps God hath not granted them his Spirit and his grace I answer God being sought unto and solicited to by prayers denies to no man his Grace and Spirit of Truth Now men of other Religions crave of God the enlightning of their minde and direction in a right way no less than our selves nay as far as we can discern perhaps with a greater fervency and zeal neither are we to think that they ask it out of hypocrisie and with dissimulation and that so they would mock God therefore it is to be taken for granted that the Spirit is where the fruits of the Spirit are found of which none ought to boast above others Nay more the knowledge of understanding the Scriptures is a peculiar gift of the Spirit which is granted no less to others than to us It is true indeed that he onely understands the Scriptures which hath the Spirit that dictated them and as it is in worldly laws no Doctors interpretation or deciding doth justifie till the Law-giver approve that deciding Yet he that boasteth of such approbation of the Spirit is bound to shew it unless he will be counted but an ordinary Doctor Consid We are bid to try the spirits whether they be of God Now we have no other triall of the Spirit of
Truth speaking in any but by the Word of God so the Bereans tried the Doctrine of Saint Paul Act. 17. and the Apostles professed to preach nothing but what they confirmed by the Word of God And our Saviour referred the Jewes hereunto for the triall of himself Search the Scriptures for in them you think to have eternall life they are they that tâ—stifie of me Now we have a more compleat rule of triall the Books both of the Old Testament and of the New Saint Paul delivered the whole counsell of God to the Ephesians Act. 20. and doe we think that the whole Scripture doth fail in some necessary part thereof But I would Popery did not plainly contradict that Scripture which is generally received by us both if so I would bear with them for the rest though in two things we cannot indure that ought should be imposed upon us besides the written Word namely Articles of Faith and parts of Gods Worship Now by this course of triall wee finde that not the spirit of Truth but the spirit of Error hath possessed them in all points of difference between us Prayers I grant are the ordinary means to obtain any grace at the hands of God save one and that is the Spirit of Prayer and that is the Spirit of Faith of all the rest it is true fides impetrat lex imperat but with a limitation or two 1. All knowledge necessary to salvation according to that 1 Joh. 2.27 and Nider though a Papist his interpretation thereof in his Consolatory of an affrighted Conscience 2. Other graces also and that in such a measure also as shall be found fit for each mans calling And I think every Christian should rest contented with such an Indulgence If the whole body were an eye where were the hearing If the whole were hearing where were the smelling But now hath God disposed the members every one of them in the body at his own pleasure For if they were all one member where were the body but now are there many members yet but one body 1 Cor. 12.17 18 19. But men may draw neer to God with their lips when their hearts are estranged far from him and how their hearts stand affected we know not God alone beholdeth their heart nay we are not so much as privy to their prayers but we examine their Doctrines by Gods Word according to that Sunt certi libri dominici and it was a worthy saying of Martin Luther mentioned by Scultetus in his Story of the first ten years of Reformation Solis Canonicis debemus fidem caeteris omnibus judicium I do not deny but all the Regenerate who have the Spirit of God according to that Because ye are sons God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts whereby ye cry Abba Father Gal. 4.6 do seek unto God to inlighten their mindes and God hears them and grants their requests in his good time according to the limitations formerly mentioned but who they are we know not and we are bid to try the spirits nor what their fervency and zeal is are we acquainted with yet surely it is not for their fervency sake that God hears them but for Christs sake And are not they as far bound in charity to think of us as this Author would shape us to be obliged to think of them we acknowledge no Spirit of Faith but that which is the Spirit of Truth at least in all fundamentalls necessarily required unto salvation and to Gods holy Worship without Idolatry As for the Prayers of Papists they are well known to be shamefully foul they were wont more frequently to run to Saints than to God and the Bishop of Boss was to seek whether he should run to God in the name of Christs blood or in the name of the Virgins Milk for he was made to profess in the wall in certain verses that he knew not well which of the two he should prefer nay if of any prayers God saith though he make many prayers I will not hear Esa 1. surely he should say as much of these in my judgement Have not Turks their prayers as well as Papists and may they not be performed with great fervency and zeal and may they not be as expert in tricks of gesture as the Papists as I have heard once of a child trained up to it by her mother even unto admiration the countenance composed unto a sad and solemn disposition and the hands lift up first to an equall height with the breasts after a while to an equall height with the head and lastly above the head and all this in dumb shewes without one word of ejaculation As for hypocrisie here mentioned I doubt it is delivered hand over head For first Hypocrisie is most considerable in a right way and not in a wrong way the reason whereof is because naturall men are naturally apt to imbrace false wayes and lewd wayes too too truly and as apt they may be to imbrace the way of truth hypocritically and not only to profess Christ but to preach him in pretence that is not chastly even to add afflictions to the bonds of so holy an Apostle even as Paul was so we nothing doubt but Papists are true Papists without hypocrisie but I much doubt that the greatest part of them by far are too far off from being true Christians and this I willingly confess they pretend but very hypocritically this runs with them in a blood they have it from their Mother even the Mother of Whoredomes and her Arms are Babylon in a mystery And the second beast though he had two horns like the Lamb yet he spake like the Dragon we know all their proceedings in pretence are In Nomine Domini incipit omne malum neither is it necessary that by hypocrisie a man should think to mock God if God could be mocked for there is a secret hypocrisie which a mans own heart is not conscious of untill God be pleased in mercy to discover it and as for gross hypocrisie it makes a man a plain Atheist This Author seems to be taken with the beauty of the Whore of Babylon he is so much in love with Papists as to obtrude upon us an acknowledgement that they have the fruits of the Spirit and consequently without any deniall that they have the Spirit To proceed one degree further were to profess Antichrist to be Christ and Christ Antichrist To understand the Scriptures is but to acknowledge the true meaning of them and this we deny that Papists have as touching all the points of difference between us which they pretend to ground upon Scripture yea and in many other particulars they are wide of the right understanding of them so may our Divines be also and like enough that as M. Hooker saith there are some depths of Scripture the searching out whereof will hold us as long as the world lasts Yet I deny not but a Reprobate may have the knowledge of the
me or some men but to all and to win a consent from any man as two and three make five A thing controverted and which some understand one way and some another can never make me certain and free from doubt whether I have the truth or no and he that knowes no other than what he determines may be excused of malice and hypocrisie But this reasoning I and my follower are sure of this thing therefore it is true is unreasonable reasoning Consid Surely if I am in a right way it is enough for me to be assured of the truth for me it is for my salvation yet because I am bound to seek for the salvation of others also No man must imitate Cain in saying am I my brothers keeper yet that which is enough for me to be assured of the truth which I maintain may be enough for another also to bring him to be assured of the same truth For if this sufficiency I speak of be in the way of rationall discourse out of the Word of God if it is it self sufficient it is sufficient for the satisfaction of any that is capable thereof and all such light being light naturall and in the way of discourse is of a communicable nature to all rationall creatures by a rationall discourse But true faith is wrought by spirituall illumination which is not in my power to communicate unto any other onely the Spirit of God can do this enlightning whom he will while others are suffered to sit in darkness and in the shadow of death And this is the onely saving way to be sure of Truths Theologicall It is true that which I believe whatsoever it be and in what kinde soever it be believed is not therefore truth because I believe it but if I believe by illumination divine it is therefore truth because I believe it after such a manner though this I cannot communicate to another or make another hereby either bee perswaded of it himself or be perswaded that I am after such a sort perswaded of it Light naturall I may communicate unto another light spirituall I cannot and light naturall either in way of naturall discourse is communicative of it self from commonly-known principles by the light of nature or from principles on both sides agreed as namely that the Scriptures are the Word of God Now when the Spirit of God inlightens me the thing I imbrace is not my opinion but my faith and my perswasion herein is in stedfastness and nothing inferiour to naturall knowledge but superiour rather light spirituall and divine being superiour to light naturall like as knowledge by sense is superiour to knowledge by reason rationall knowledge depending upon knowledge sensitive For generall principles doe arise from experience and enumeration of particulars And as I remember Theologia is said to be non argumentativa to wit as it is supernaturall and compared rather to sensitive knowledge as to the sense of seeing open mine eyes that I may see the wonderfull things of thy Law and to the sense of hearing He that hath an ear let him hear for it is one thing to hear the voice of a man another thing to hear the voice of God one thing to see a work wrought another thing to behold the hand of God in it one thing to discern the meaning of a Scripture-passage another thing to discern the wisdom of God and the power of God in it So it is compared to the sense of smelling 2 Cor. 2.14 We are a sweet savour unto God in Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish and where the body is there will the Eagles bee gathered together Sometimes to the sense of tasting as 1 Pet. 2.1 As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby if ye have tasted that the Lord is bountifull So Halensis professeth that the things of God are apprehended per modum gustus The sense of feeling doth fairly represent the knowledge of God by his works Act. 17.27 That they should seek the Lord if so be they might have groped after him and found him though doubtless he be not far from every one of us This Author seems to take no notice hereof no more than the Socinians doe in these dayes and that is the foul spot I finde in Master Shillingsworth Book And bee pleased I pray to put a difference between melancholike persons and the children of God who because they are sons God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into their hearts remember that of the Apostle This perswasion is not of God plainly giving to understand that the perswasions of Christian Faith are of God yet I confess this Faith is grounded alwayes upon Gods Word wherein they should beso expert as to be ready thence at all times to render a reason of their faith to any that should demand it But that may an unregenetate person be able to do as well yea and many times better too When he saith the nature of true knowledge is demonstrable this is true of knowledge naturall not of knowledge Christian which is grounded onely on Gods Word and it was never known that to prove a thing out of Scripture was called demonstration Aristotle denies that Morall Philosophie is capable of demonstration it proceeds onely by perswasion but it may bee for the evidence of the Scripture aptly alleged he calls it demonstration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet consider no deduction out of Scripture can be so clear as to be exempted from all cavillings but never was it known that any man cavilled with a truth as clear as this that two and three makes five If we can never be free from doubt if the thing be controverted as for instance a passage of Scripture some understanding it one way and some another what oertainty can I have of any point of Faith I maintain in opposition to Papists to Socinians to any Heretike yet I should not look that the thing controverted should free me from doubt it is enough that I have good evidence for it though all the world run a madding in controverting that which I believe Now no evidence of truths Theologicall and saving truths is comparable to the evidence which proceeds from the illumination of the Spirit giving me new eyes as it were and opening the eyes of my understanding that I may see and discern the things of God and that holy Spirit is able to free me from all doubt yet there is another knowledge which is natural partly derived from naturall principles and partly from a dextrous interpretation of Scriptures which we shall bee able to make good against all Cavillers to their confusion and upon sober consciences to their assent but this is inferiour to the illumination of the Spirit I can hardly think any Christian to be so simple or wilfull to reason thus I and my follower are sure of this thing therefore it is true if they should I see no reason but
the Whore of Babylon should bee the VVhore of Babylon still and no Spouse of Christ and Antichrist a false Prophet still and no true Prophet For the faith and profession of a Papist makes him a Papist whether hee writes Controversies or no the smallest part of them being able to perform the task so the Protestants profession and protestation against the corruptions of the Church of Rome makes him a Protestant tho' he never set pen to paper to contend for the Faith once given to the Saints though this be a duty I confess but no common duty belonging unto all but peculiarly appertaining to the man of God able not only to exhort with wholesome doctrine but also to convince them that say against it For Articles of Faith and their profession of them Lay-men have suffered with great constancy and patience but not for controversies though they have been ready to give a reason of their Faith to all that asked it and witness a good confession of it as our Saviour did before Pilate as the Book of Acts and Monuments recordeth of them and S. Paul of our blessed Saviour Doctor Bergius is acknowledged to say as much confessing the Controversies are not very necessary to salvation which I interpret thus not necessary to the being of the Church but onely to her well-being when the Christian Faith is oppugned by Heretikes Between Lutherans and Calvinists we acknowledge there is no difference in fundamentalls as appeareth sufficiently at the Conference at Leipsich Disc This I am perswaded is very true that had the Holy Ghost judged those Controverted Questions necessary to salvation it would have expressed and propounded them in the holy Scripture clearly and plainly seeing those Epistles were sent to simple and Lay-men especially Nor doth it seem likely to be true that ever there were so many Articles of Faith drawn out of them as are now to be read in the Catechisms Common-places and Compounds of Divines As yet there is no certain number of them determined seeing some Divines have propounded more and some fewer and some Religions have in process of time either added or abated whole Articles and after many miseries indured for the defence of some of them entring a way of moderation they have determined that for tolerable and indifferent which before they thought damnable But howsoever there are so many of them that a man may deservedly call in question the precise necessity of them and this seems the best Solution to disintangle and appease perplexed doubtfull and erring Consciences Consid It is a very uncouth speech proceeding from a wilde conceit to say that God would have expressed and appointed Controverted Questions plainly and clearly if they had been necessary It is not the proposition of Controverted Questions though never so plainly and clearly delivered that sets an end to Controversies but the clear and substantiall solution of them for herein that which hath any shew of being necessary is not the proposing of them but the deciding of them and it were a very preposterous course to talk of deciding Controversies before there were any Controversies moved right as if a Physitians wisdom and goodness shoud move him to heal a man before he is wounded rather hee should take care to preserve a mans health that he might not fall into sickness And so Gods wisdom and goodness hath sufficiently provided for the health of his Church through the integrity of Doctrine delivered in his VVord and that in a manner sufficiently intelligible and plain to them that come with honest hearts and studious desires to seek after truth and to imbrace it But S. Paul tells us of oppositions to the truth made by men of corrupt mindes plainly giving us to understand that they came with corrupt mindes to the reading of Gods Word and so pervert it as Peter speaks and thereby pervert themselves first and afterwards they speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wrested things to the corrupting of others and hinder them from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be found in the faith Tit. 1.13 S. Peter exhorts us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3.18 And S. Paul would not have us stand at a stay but grow forward unto perfection There is a plerophory and fulness of faith that we should strive unto and of knowledge as well as of holiness For this life is our way to heaven and still we must draw neerer thitherwards by knowing all that we can know by the Word Deut. 29.29 It is revealed to that purpose and it is able to make the man of God perfect to every good work 2 Tim. 3. last Add unto vertue knowledge saith Peter 2 Pet. 1.5 and Paul prayes on the behalf of the Colossians that they might be fulfilled with the knowledge of Gods Will in all wisdom and spirituall understanding Col. 19. that they might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing fruitfull in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God v. 10. Why then should we take offence at the multiplying of Articles In all professions men that delight in knowledge are never satisfied nothing is more congruous to our intelligent natures than light of knowledge while we live here on earth we shall never come to ripeness of age in Christ therefore we must be growing still and edifying our selves and one another in our most holy faith the body of Christ must be edified till we come to fulness of age and as we must increase in knowledge so being obnoxious to error it behoves us to labour for the discovery of it more and more That error in taking the number of the Beast 666. to denote onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath indured ever since the dayes of Ireneus that is from the next age after the Apostles and it is now lately discovered and the true meaning substituted in the place thereof as never the like before and it is commendable for men to see their former errors much more to confess them Of all Austins works there are none more tending to his honour and renown than his Retractations wherein he retracts the errors of his Faith and his Confestions where hee acknowledgeth the errors of his life and this is most Christian ingenuity and I think never was any man more renowned in this kinde than he It is necessary for every Christian to strive forwards unto perfection necessitate Praecepti by necessitie of Commandment but if he fail through negligence this is a very pardonable sin upon our confession of it As for things necessary to salvation they are but few but the knowledge of God and the things of God is so sweet to a regenerate tast having already tasted how bountifull the Lord is that he will be carried as naturally to desire the sincere milk of the Word that he may grow thereby as new born babes do desire the milk of their mothers breasts 1 Pet. 2.1 As for perplexed and doubting and