The cure of church-divisions, or, Directions for weak Christians to keep them from being…

Especially if those that differ from you, be not only more Learned, but as truly conscionable as ⟨p. 17⟩you, and as like to be unfeigned lovers of truth, and have prayed more, and meditated more, and have had more religious experiences than your selves: And yet more, if they are the greater number of the godly that differ from you, and you are singular in your conceits; in this case rash confidence in your own opinions, is too palpable a sign of a religious pride.

Obj. But the Learnedst men are not always the wisest, in the matters of Religion. Answ. Many men are Learned in the Languages and Sciences, who are not Learned in the Scriptures; because they applied not their stud•es that way. And many men are Learned in the Scriptures, and the Sacred tongues, who yet live in sin, though they are able to teach the truth for others. But those that well understand the Scriptures, without Learning the Languages which they are written in, and the Customs of those times and Countries, or without much reading and long study both of the Scriptures themselves, and the writings of them that better understand them, are so few, so very few, if any at all, that if you will pretend to be one of them, you had need of some miracle or something like a miracle, to make your selves or others believe that you are not deceived. See what I have said of this at large, in my Unreasonableness of Infidelity.

Obj. But the Learnedst men are not always the wisest, in the matters of Religion. Answ. Many men are Learned in the Languages and Sciences, who are not Learned in the Scriptures; because they applyed not their stud•es that way. And many men are Learned in the Scriptures, and the Sacred tongues, who yet live in sin, though they are able to teach the truth for others. But those that well understand the Scriptures, without Learning the Languages which they are written in, and the Customs of those times and Countreys, or without much reading and long study both of the Scriptures themselves, and the writings of them that better understand them, are so few, so very few, if any at all, that if you will pretend to be one of them, you had need of some miracle or something like a miracle, to make your selves or others bebelieve that you are not deceived. See what I have said of this at large, in my Unreasonableness of Infidelity.