2 Cor. 1.18 but 't is in Christ Yea that is like himself who is the same yesterday to day and for evermore Hebr. 13.8 Men indeed too ordinarily dress Religion as the Heathens did their gods or as the Papists do their images according to the fashion of the time and place in which they live and think that there is little or nothing more in it But be not deceiv'd God will not set his seal in water in a fluid transitory imagination or opinion but in wax in that understanding which though ductile and flexible is fit to retain those impressions which his Spirit shall make in it Secondly Faith differs from opinion in that opinion is onely matter of speculation faith is practical also The seat of opinion is onely the head but wiih the heart man believes Rom. 10.10 To know and assent unto the truths in Scripture will not alone make a man a believer unlesse such a one as the Devil is James 2.19 who believes and trembles Interroge te utrùm credis dicis credo fac quod dicis fidcs est Aug. 'T is not a right faith untill it does what it sayes Nay faith is with all the heart it takes in every faculty for its object hath a double aspect upon the soul first as true and so it bespeaks assent in the understanding and then also as good and thus it excites and draws forth the will and affections without this latter acting of a truth or promise upon the soul a man hath no more benefit by it then he hath nourishment from his food when he only sees and believes the wholesomnesse of it but eats it not Try then your faith by this you would not take a false sixpence and will ye be put off with a false jewel a false faith On the other side 2. Faith is not alwayes an assurance 2 Pet. 1.10 as faith is not an opinion barely so 't is not an assurance for though it be an evidence 't is of things not seen now assurance is a kinde of sight of these things We will suppose assurance much to be endeavoured after when the Apostle charges us to make our calling and election sure and indeed there is no warmth in a direct beam Faith which is the direct act the souls going unto and relying upon Christ will at length save but the reflexe act of assurance chiefly comforts Our present businesse is to shew that they are distinct Consider then that faith is so farre from being an assurance that it must necessarily go before it otherwise a man might be assur'd of what is not and as we are partakers of humane nature before that we know we are and bear the image of the earthy before we know we do so we bear the image of the heavenly and be partakers of the divine nature before we know of it There is an infancy or non-age in both natures as to us and the spiritual life here is no more exempted from its weaknesse than the natural life is from the infirmities which belong unto it I will but name some other particular differences 1. Faith is constant 't is a seed immortal assurance is not the vision is sometimes taken up nay suddenly Acts 10 16. The influence of the Sunne does alwayes remain but the light of the Sun does not it shine and claps in again 2. Faith which justifies admits of no degrees that is wheresoever it is it is in its compleat essence or not at all The soul cannot be partly married or united unto Christ and partly not but on the contrary assurance hath its degrees where it is it is usually but incompleat we know thus too but in part sometimes we read our evidences by a candle-light as well as other-while by a Sunne-beam 3. The act of faith is grounded upon Gods Word Assurance is chiefly grounded upon experience though indeed in both the soul is helped by the Spirit Now I have said this the rather for their sakes who walk in darknesse and see no light such Trees of the Lord may stand and grow Isa 50. ult when most shaken with the winde and clouded from the Sun Remember then what ye have heard this day faith to be viz. As the miraculous cloud which we read of Exod. 14.20 which hath its light side as 't is an evidence but hath its dark side also as 't is of things not seen We come to tell you the condition of a believer 2. Instruct In the condition of a believer which cannot but be desirable Faith hath made him a great one indeed richer than the richest 't is this man only that can say truly as they did vainly Hos 12.8 I have found me out substance a carnal man hath but shadowes lyes which he trusts unto He may dream he eats c. but if ever God awaken him either here or hereafter he shall finde he is hungry truly indigent and full of wants Oh man greatly beloved this is he that hath made the best discovery of what before was but a terra incognita an unknown Region where true Gold and Jewels of real price are to be found and to this place he travels all the remainder of his life nay more he hath a kind of possession of it already Phil. 3.20 and is whilest he lives on earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Citizen of heaven and there he hath his conversation enjoying by faith the happinesse and doing by love the duties of that place As to earth he is vel praesens absens like Archimedes at the taking of Syracuse never minding what becomes of the world and worldly matters Faith brings him better Relations Riches Possessions then their fading ones are and therefore as to heaven he is vel Absens praesens his heart as another fore-runner is entred in He hath sent his soul as a Prodromus to prepare the way for his body And in the mean while let the winds blow from what corner they will Matth. 7.25 impavidum ferient they can't cause him to make ship-wrack of his substance Thus in the midst of a storme the nodes of the compasse remain immovable when there is nothing else in the whole ship but is tossed too and fro The other things in the ship as the other men of the world are hurried whither the present Tempest and season carries them But believers as the points in the Compasse are fixt at all times being governed not by the various windes but by the constant heavens Ah how much then hath the meanest true servant of God to blesse him for flesh and blood hath not revealed these things Mat. 16.17 acquir'd this substance for them but your Father which is in heaven Faith is a supernatural gift not onely in respect of nature corrupted as all other graces be but in respect also of nature as 't was at first created Faith is not as other graces in our regeneration repaired but as it were new built from
ΤΣ ΠΊΣΤΕΩΣ ἜΛΕΤΧΟΣ OR THE REASON OF FAITH Briefly discuss'd in a SERMON Preach'd at Pauls before the Right Honourable The Lord Mayor c. The third of October 1658. And publish'd by the Order of his Lordship and Court of Aldermen By PETER VINKE B. D. Sometimes fellow of Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge and now Minister of M. Corn-hil London Where is the Wise where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this world 1 Cor. 1.20  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alexandr lib. 1. Strom. Quantum attinet ad hominis naturam nihil est in co melius quam mens ratio sed non secundum ipsam debet vivere qui beatè vult vivere alioquin secundùm hominem vivit cùm secundùm Deum vivendum sit ut possit ad beatitudinem pervenire propter quam consequendam non seipsâ debet esse contenta sed Deo mens nostra subdenda est Aug. lib. 1. Retractation LONDON Printed by E. M. for Ralph Smith at the Bible in Corn-hil near the Royal Exchange 1659. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Sr RICHARD CHIVERTON Kt. Lord Mayor of the CITY of LONDON And to the Honourable Court of Aldermen Right Honourable THis ensuing Sermon which I never thought should have breath'd much above an houre unlesse in them that heard it is now at your command to receive a kinde of new life and to walk abroad in the view of all men it onely stayes in a line or two to crave your protection which being it comes forth only at your Honours call your goodnesse will not and your justice cannot deny As for the subject of this discourse I may truly say it is not unworthy of you as men but 't is highly necessary for you as Christians Humanity requires you to skill of the right use of reason and Christianity expects you should not be ignorant of the Prerogatives of Faith Reason indeed makes you men 't is Faith onely that can make you good men and better were it never to have been men than not to have been good I do not at all intend the least prejudice to Reason I am not so Cynical as to bark at that Moon-light this would be but an ungrateful requital for this Royal gift which our Creatour hath bestow'd upon us though I cannot equal it much less prefer it to Faith As that houshoulder does not injure his inferiour guests when he sayes unto them stand ye here and to the more honourable come up hither Of the two I confess Reason as Leah is indeed the elder but tender eyed and though seven years service is not too much for her yet how many more would be well spent for the obtaintng of her younger but more amiable sister Faith though Reason is the first-born yet Faith hath the blessing and concerning these that determination holds true too The elder shall serve the younger But oh What opposition does this meet withal in the minds of men How hard is it to perswade them to become fools though it be only as a means to make them wise I know not which if compar'd doth more exert the Almighty power of the Spirit of grace the bringing into subjection the high thoughts or the strong lusts that resisted it I am sure it is full out as difficult to make the blinde to see as it is to make the lame to walk We are then certainly as earnestly to labour to bring our mindes as our lives unto the obedience of faith It is no more lawful in the things of Religion to think as we list then it is in our daily conversation to practice what we please A defluxion from the head will soon corrupt the other parts and nothing is more dangerous then to suffer this childe of the bond-woman Reason to laugh at Faith the heir of the promise if we mock God or his Word he also will have us in derision The sum then of what I have in this truth's behalf to require of you is but what I hope the justice of this Honourable Court acts dayly suum cuique tribuere to give to every one that which is his When any case betwixt these two parties Faith and Reason shall be pleaded before you or rather in you give unto Reason the things that are Reasons and to Faith the things that are of Faith Honour your God by believing things which you do not see and he will honour you causing you to see hereafter those things which you do here believe which mercy especially I earnestly beg for you of the God of mercy acknowledging my self Right Honourable The most Obliged to serve you in the Lord PETER VINKE At Corn-hil October 26. 1658. THE REASON OF FAITH HEBREWES 11.1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen THe blessed Apostle or whosoever was the Penman of this Epistle having told the believing Hebrewes of the great need they had of patience chap. 10. ver 36. and foretold the Apostasie of many by reason of the want of it in the words fore-going my Text In this Chapter he seasonably brings in a discourse of faith this grace being the best food to strengthen patience and physick to purge Apostasie The first thing then we shall consider to clear the Context is the particle now or but Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as some observe Dr. Gouge in locum is the note of an assumption or minor proposition in a Syllogisme The whole Argument may be fram'd thus If faith be the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen the just that live by it as in chap. 10. ver 38. c. may well be patient and need not think of drawing back ver 39. but faith is the substance c. Hence it is that the Apostle throughout this Chapter enlarges only upon this subject and as in this first verse he layes down the doctrine of faith so in the following verses he speaks to the practice of it Examples having this advantage above Precepts that they shew their feasibility or practicablenesse a believer will not have a harder task enjoyned him than faith hath enabled many to undergo witnesse the whole cloud of witnesses here specified and therefore he may with the more courage and confidence buckle himself unto it The words themselves are not a perfect definition of faith by genus and differentia faith being of an indefinite nature And how can we look for the perfection of that grace here the nature of which we cannot sufficiently comprehend They are then a two-fold description of faith 1. A formâ internâ 'T is a substance 't is an evidence 2. Ab objectis externis Of things hoped for of things not seen Each part you see hath twins and those very like one another we intend to speak to them in their order as they lay in the words The first word that holds forth the internal form or nature of faith Faiths first internal form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
whom all things are possible And as if you would act rationally you must claudere quinque fenestras not follow your sensual appetites so if you will act religiously you will be forc'd in many cases to say with Luther tu stulta ratio tace thou foolish reason give way Let our Apostle be heard in this case who tells us concerning the mysteries of Religion 1 Cor. 2.9 that eye hath not seen nor eare heard they are out of the reach of sense neither have they entred into the heart of man they exceed the capacity of reason And therefore when a soul is conquered and taken in for God the Articles of its Surrender are that it should now cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts it self * Adversus scientiam Dei quae est Christianorum fides Bern. Ad Milites Templi Isa 54 1◠against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity every thought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 So that henceforth this soul must according to this agreement give up its self to be taught of God those things which its nature is neither able nor willing otherwise to conceive of I know I am upon a ticklish point This truth stands betwixt the Scylla of Enthysiasts who are ready to decry every thing because it is rational and the Charybdis of Socinians who cavil at every thing that is above the level of their reason as if they needed to fear to be guilty of blinde obedience when they have the Sun of Righteousnesse God in his Word to go before them I shall endeavour to do something towards the resolution of this great case in several particulars I will not call it my award betwixt these two parties faith and reason yet I shall labour to give to each its due The use of reason and faith laid down 1. Positively 1. In Civil Affairs 1. Positively 1. 'T is granted on all sides that reason hath its use in Civil Affairs and Worldly Matters those that deny it to be a Jacob's ladder to climb up into heaven by acknowledge it to be an useful staffe to walk upon earth withal We are not to pull out this eye because we cannot look stedfastly with it upon the Sunne The Musitian does not cut off the strings and throw them away because the Instrument is out of tune Nay more 2. In Religion Matters reason is useful in the things of God 1. Reason is necessary for the conversion of Pagans and Infidels to the faith of Christ the very milk of the Word is too strong meat for such at first 'T is in vain to alledge Scripture to such as are not yet induc'd to believe the authority of it We must deal with such as men that cure the bodily blinde not bring them at first to gaze upon the Sunne but use them to lesser lights till at last they be able to look upon the greatest Thus nature does not expose us to the Sun-beams immediately out of pitchy darknesse till she hath inured us by a twilight to bear them 2. Reason is the subject of divine knowledge in a believing soul 't is the vessel which God fills with the oile of this grace God in Regeneration does not make another faculty another eye but purges it As at the first time of writing the Law God afforded the Tables and writing too Exod. 24.12 Exod. 34.1 but at the renewing of it Moses provided the Tables though the writing still was Gods in our Creation we have heart and holinesse both minde and knowledge Tables and writing from God but in our renovation God takes the faculties which we have already and engraves his Image on them God makes all things indeed new in quality not in substance And this is the greater miracle of the two that the same man should by the same faculty apprehend the same things so diversly from what he did in his unregeneracy worldly things which were so great in his eyes as when the prospective glasse is turn'd seem now very small and inconsiderable and the things of God which did scarce appear unto him as if he had now got Galileo's glasse to look on the heavens withal he views them in their just dimensions 3. Reason is the Instrument that God makes use of to direct and guide the whole man by 'T is the Rudder in the ship let it be bound for what place it will that as whatsoever we hear we hear by the ear and whatsoever we see we see by the eye so whatsoever we understand we understand by this faculty By the eye of our understanding when enlightned we know what is the hope of our calling c. Ephes 1.18 By reason we know what may be inferr'd from Scripture and what not Hence not to mention the Trinity c. we grant and use two Sacraments because reason infers these from Scripture and on the other side we reject a great many that others would bring into the Church because we cannot by reason prove them to be commanded there 4. I may adde moreover there is nothing which faith believes but what is when throughly understood agreeable to right reason It may be above it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it cannot as you have heard be against it True reason did never go about to comprise the Bible in its own nut-shell faith it self is but a kind of a new life of reason 'T is the highest reason to believe what God sayes without further enquiry If ye have not made your selves more the children of darknesse than ye yet were by nature and if God hath not in judgment blinded you and given you over to a reprobate minde does not your very reason tell you how vain it is to measure immensity by a finite compasse or span eternity by your imperfect duration To fathom the depth of the Wisdome of God by the line and plummet of the wisdome of man Rom. 11.33 I have read of one of the Antients I think 't was Austin who being very thoughtful about the Nature and Essence of God he espies as he was meditating by the Sea shoar a young man taking the water out of the Sea with a Ladle and putting of it into a little hole which he had made The Father demands the reason of so frivolous an employment The young man tells him that he was emptying the sea into that hole and that he might sooner make the vast Ocean to be contained in that small place than the other should comprehend the deep Mysteries he was meditating of in his shallow understanding Being we have freely granted thus much Negatively I hope none will be offended if we dare not go further in its commendation but must lest we should encroach on Faith prescribe some bounds to Reason 1. Reason may not be the Rule to try or measure revealed truths by that you should believe no more than what it affirms to I am
the ground Man in innocency though he had a power to have obeyed God in whatsoever he should have commanded yet he had not formally any such a grace as faith whose Object is that very Attribute which Adam then had no need of to wit the mercy of God in Christ And what a vast expence was God at to create faith in thee He made the whole World with a fiat a words speaking but when the Apostle tells us of his making faith Ephes 1.19 't is sayes he by the exceeding greatnesse of his power every word hath its weight and emphasis by no less a power then that which raised up Christ from his grave when the sin of the world a grave-stone not easily to be removed lay upon him to keep him there Nay what shall we render for Gods Word manifested in our dayes Rom. 10.8 this is the word of faith Let those who think themselves so sufficiently enlightned without it look upon Athens the eye of Greece as Greece was at that time for knowledge the eye of the whole world And consider how miserably blinde and idolatrous it was till Paul their Phosphorus came amongst them Is the filme over the eye of our mindes lesse then theirs was Acts 17.29 or our cataracts easilier coutch'd hath mans nature taken any higher degrees in knowledge amongst us than it did in that University I fear me that they who decry the super-intendency of faith were it not for those truths which it alone hath evidenc'd for all their goodly reason and parts would now be a worshipping an unknown God too But it is time I now hasten to those especial duties which this Text expects from you be exhorted then 1. To labour for faith Exhort 1. with all your gettings get this way of spiritual knowledge what would ye not give for such a Philosophers stone as some have fancied which can turn all things into gold the Elixar of faith can do this The harshest Providences that believers go through poverty sicknesse death nay temptations desertions infirmities c. onely faith can make them all more pretious than gold which perishes whereas others have riches Eccles 5.13 Rom. 8.28 c. for their hurt These very afflictions work together for the believer's good the thick cloud was as beneficial to the Israelites as the fiery pillar Faith only can turn your shadowes into substances your appearances into realities It hath a kind of Almightiness in it and can speak to things that are not as if they were If faith do but say Let there be light holiness c. it shall be so Mark 9.23 Other things as riches honours c. they are not though seen for will ye set your eyes upon things which are not Prov. 23.5 sayes God whilst you say they are they may cease to be and so prove you a liar to your face but on the contrary The objects of faith as heaven and the happinesse there though not seen Prov. 8◠8 yet they are substantial and abiding and such as will never make a single disappointment And is not true gold in your Counting-houses though not seen better than painted gold in a picture though seen The Apostle tells us that we should take the shield of faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all things nay in all things as Hierom reads it Faith is like salt which every sacrifice must be salted with without which 't is impossible to please God Hebr. 11.6 'T was by faith only that Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain Hebr. 11.4 This is the root as ye have heard which though ragged and unlovely in appearance yet all the fruit of the Tree of life the whole systeme of graces are extracted from it The dead childe indeed is reasons the living childe where it is is faiths Be content to make faith your evidence Exhort 2. To think Gods revealed will the best reason that you can yield your assent unto Do not fear 't will unman you ye never come to be your selves to act truly rationally till ye come to be believers The Worldling that followes no better than a glorious bubble with the neglect of better objects is not himself and that Scholar that too eagerly pursues School-divinity with the neglect of Scripture-divinity is as little himself Much learning hath made thee mad Acts 26 2◠is a truth only mistaken by Festus in the application If we look for certainty where can we finde it if not with him that neither deceives nor can be deceived Is not Gods sole affirmation equivalent to all the several means whereby knowledge is acquit'd Is an I saw it a clearer proof than God said it or is the connexion betwixt the causes and effects which possibly too are but imagin'd such more inseparable than betwixt Gods Word and Truth If God be neither ignorant nor faithless in what he affirms thou art sure enough And lest ye should be scandaliz'd at believing consider but what confusion and disorder there would soon be in the world if in humane affairs themselves we should only go by science and believe nothing si quod noscitur credendum non est quomodo servient parentibus liberi Aug. De utilitate credendi 't is Saint Austins argument How shall children know that these are their parents whom God hath commanded them to honour are not even mothers themselves caus'd to believe their by-standing Friends Midwives and Nurses whereby they come to know those children which they ever after so tenderly affect Nay we are forc'd in worldly matters to act by a civil faith quite contrary to that which that that we see would perswade us to Thus the Husbandman throwes away his seed sometimes too in unkindly weather when to be sure he hath not a demonstrative knowledge that he shall reap any benefit by it And the Mariners hale their Ships out into the Roades whilst the Windes are yet contrary unto them Well may we then in religious matters think it not at all unbecoming us to be acted by a divine faith which whosoever shall take away let him place what he will in its stead he had as good take away the apple from the eye or the heart from the body But what if any should be further inquisitive after the reasons of those things which are asserted in Scripture A poor simple believer might answer that of Paul in such a case where is the Disputer of this world 1 Cor. 1.20 There is no need of the Disputers art to defend or oppose where God hath once declared his will which if all reasons else fail Credo quia impossibile Tert. the faithful will believe because 't is impossible and when the believer is hardest put to it he knowes that he that moderates in the act and sits in the Chair of Truth is most concern'd to solve the objections and sayes he Lord Thou shalt one day answer for me Cyril Hier. Catech. 6. Mat.