wisdom of God. Moreover, the things of God are spoken with most real advantage (as gold requires no gilding), not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; for, after all, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are, not naturally, but SPIRITUALLY DISHe must be born again; he must be renewed in the spirit of his mind; he must become a fpiritual man; before he can truly understand or receive faithfully spiritual things. Thus, the proud reafon of an unconverted heart is deeply humbled in this business of grace, and is not allowed, being fleshly and corrupt, to comprehend, and much less to glory in, the things, which lead to the prefence of God.

CERNED.

§ 40. Again. If faith stood upon human reafon, or derived all its energies, acts, and conclufions from human reason,

it

it would be fubject to perpetual doubts, which imply a condition directly oppofite to its own nature. For "faith (as Archbishop Leighton hath juftly obferved) elevates the foul, not only above fenfe and fenfible things, but above reafon itself. As reafon corrects the errors, that fenfe might occafion; fo fupernatural faith corrects the errors of natural reafon, judging according to fenfe" Faith leads the mind, in its very nature and tendency, to certitude, and to gain an establishment in God's truth beyond all contradiction; but reafon must be in perpetual controversy upon objects, which are not fubject to fenfation, as fpiritual things confeffedly are not, and can do nothing but doubt and dispute upon them, as it hath always done from age to age. Hence, the world is full of religious controverfies, and upon this ground cannot be other

* Com. on 1 Peter. c. 1. vv. 8, 9.

F3

wife.

wife. We do not reafon at all, but upon topics of uncertainty; and therefore we muft neceffarily admit, that the word of God is not fo fure a foundation as it is,.. when we begin to build our doubts upon it. But, fince God has revealed his truth; where he gives the grace of faith to understand and reft upon it, all doubt, and confequently all carnal reafonings, fhould be caft down*, or done away; as being opposed to that truth, which cannot be mixed with error, and injurious to that faith, which is granted for the most firm and implicit reliance · uponitt. Every believer's experience will tell him, that, when reafonings prevail, diftruft, perplexity, weakness of heart, and perhaps unholinefs of heart and of life,

*2 Cor. x. 5.

+In this cafe above all others, "nature," faith the learned Dr. Cudworth, "is not master of art or wifdom: nature is ratio merfa et confufa, reafon immerfed and plunged into matter, and as it were

fuddled

life, are struggling moft within him; and that he never enjoys a happy fellowship with his Saviour, or light and life from the Holy Spirit, or is deeply fenfible of the love of the Father towards him, or obtains victory over fin, the world, and all that is 'contrary to God, but when he lives most clearly by the faith of the Son of God, and can caft all his welfare with the most entire recumbence

fuddled in and confounded with it." Siris. § 255. If reafon be weak and incompetent in its energies upon natural things; how much more incapable muft it be respecting a juft determination upon objects spiritual and fublime, fuch as are all the things of God. "Reafon alfo (fays another author) is as much a rebel to Faith, as Paffion is to Reason." Befides, the courfe of reafon, proceeding from reflections, which, as they arife from the wavering weakness and misapprehenfion of the human mind, are both uncertain and difunited, must needs be unfafe and unfure, in holy things especially. Whereas, faith,* grounded in its principle upon the fole truth and power of God, cannot be mistaken, unless God is. So far then is faith from fuperftitious fanaticifm, that it is the very death of all reveries and fancies in matters of religion.

upon him. A merely rational profeffor. has nothing to work with but his own fallen nature, and nothing to work for but the pride and felf-righteoufnefs of his own deceived heart, which is conftantly ready to turn him afide.

§ 41. When faith is low, Hope must fink in proportion. And that fort of faith, which is only another name for reafon, can bear no fruit beyond its own proper nature. If that faith, then, be founded in doubt or uncertainty, or depends upon the inconftant and mutable exertions of man's weak and fallible mind; the Hope, arifing from it, will fcarcely deferve fo good a name, and may turn out to be at last only of that deceitful or deceived kind, called the hope of the hypocrite, that perisheth.

§ 42. In the abfence of faith and hope, where can Charity, or true Love, towards God and man, fpring up or appear? This love arifes from the firm conviction of God's goodness, and from an ardent defire to fhow it, in the remembrance