Secondly, And what if ther• be a difficulty what points are necessary and what errors are ⟨p. 362⟩intolerable? Yet as long as it is certain that such a difference there is, and that accordingly men must do; doth it not rather concern both parties to search after it, and practise as far as they can discern, than to cast away Reason, because there is a difficulty in using it aright? Just thus the Papists do with us about the like notion of fundamentals or essentials of Christianity; They call to us for a just enumeration of the fundamentals, and because they find so much difficulty there, as may find words and work for a perverse wrangler, they insult as if they might therefore take either all things or nothing to be essentials, and of necessity: As if Christianity had no constitutive essential parts, and so were nothing. And when they have all done they are forced themselves in their writings to distinguish the fundamentals, essentials, and universally necessary points from the rest, (as Davenport, Costerus, Bellarmine, Holden, &c. do.) And doth it not then concern them as much as us, to know which they be? What if it be a hard thing to enumerate just how many bits a man may eat, and not be a glutton? or how many drops a man may drink and be no drunkard? or just what meats and drinks must be used, to avoid exce•s in quality? or just what sort of stuffs or silks or cloth or fashions may be used without excess in apparel? will you thence infer that men may eat and drink any thing in quantity and quality, or else nothing? or that he may wear any thing, or must go naked? What if you cannot justly enumerate what herbs or roots or drugs are wholesome and what are unwholesome? which ⟨p. 363⟩purge too much and which too little? Must therefore all be used indifferently or none? If I am not able to enumerate just how many faults or weaknesses may be tolerable in my servants? Must I therefore have none, till I have those that are faultless? or else must I allow them to do any thing that they list? Though just at the verge of evil, even that which is good may be matter of doubt, yet God in Nature and Scripture hath given us sufficient light for an upright, safe & peaceable life.
Secondly, And what if ther• be a difficulty what points are necessary and what errours are ⟨p. 362⟩into•erable? Yet as long as it is certa•n that such a difference there is, and that accordingly men must do; doth it not rather concern both parties to search after it, and practise as far as they can discern, than to cast away Reason, because there is a difficulty in using it aright? Just thus the Papists do with us about the like notion of fundamentals or essentials of Christianity; They call to us for a just enumeration of the fundamentals, and because they find so much difficulty there, as may find words and work for a perverse wrangler, they insult as if they might therefore take either all things or nothing to be essentials, and of necessity: As if Christianity had no constitutive essentiall parts, and so were nothing. And when they have all done they are forced themselves in their writings to distinguish the fundamentals, essentials, and universally necessary points from the rest, (as Dave•p•rt, Costerus, Bellarmine, Holden, &c. do.) And doth it not then concern them as much as us, to know which they be? What if it be a hard thing to enumerate just how many bits a man may eat, and not be a glutton? or how many drops a man may drink and be no drunkard? or just what meats and drinks must be used, to avoid exce•s in quality? or just what sort of stuffes or silks or cloth or fashions may be used without excess in apparel? will you thence infer that men may eat and drink any thing in quantity and quality, or else nothing? or that he may wear any thing, or must go naked? What if you cannot justly enumerate what herbs or roots or drugs are wholsome and what are unwholsome? which ⟨p. 363⟩purge too much and which too little? Must therefore all be used indifferently or none? If I am not able to enumerate just how many faults or weaknesses may be tollerable in my servants? Must I therefore have none, till I have those that are faultless? or else must I allow them to do any thing that they list? Though just at the verge of evil, even that which is good may be matter of doubt, yet God in Nature and Scripture hath given us sufficient light for an upright, safe & peaceable life.
