A30249:201
Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the moral law and the covenants, from the…Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the morall law and the covenants, from the…
Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the moral law and the covenants, from the errors of Papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians in XXX lectures, preached at Laurence-Jury, London / by Anthony Burgess ...Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the morall law and the covenants, from the errours of Papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians in XXX lectures, preached at Laurence-Jury, London / by Anthony Burgess ...
London: printed by James Young for Thomas Underhill, 1647
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
5. Though Reason and the light of Nature be necessary, yet it is not 1a Judge in matters of faith. The Lutheran seemeth to depress Reason too much, and the Socinian exalteth it too high: They make it not only an instrument, but a Judge; and thereupon they reject the greatest mysteries of Religion. I know some have endeavoured to show, that Religio est summa ratio; and there are excellent men that have proved the truth of the Christian Religion by Reason: and certainly, if we can by Reason prove there is any Religion at all, we may by the same Reason prove that the Christian Religion is the true one. But who doth not see how uncertain Reason is in comparison of Faith? I do not therefore like that assertion of one, who affects to be a great Rationalist (it is Chillingworth) that saith, We therefore receive the Scriptures to be the Word of God, because we have the greatest Reason that this is the Word of God. But we must not confound the instrument ⟨p. 74⟩and the Judge: holy truths, they are Scripture truths, though hammered out by Reason. As the Smith that takes golden plate, and beats it into what shape he pleaseth, his hammer doth not make it gold, but only gold of such a shape: And thus also Reason doth not make a truth divine, only holds it forth, and declareth it in such a way.
5. Though Reason and the light of Nature be necessary, yet it is not 1a Judge in matters of faith. The Lutheran seemeth to depresse Reason too much, and the Socinian exalteth it too high: They make it not onely an instrument, but a Judge; and thereupon they reject the greatest mysteries of Religion. I know some have endeavoured to shew, that Religio est summa ratio; and there are excellent men that have proved the truth of the Christian Religion by Reason: and certainly, if we can by Reason prove there is any Religion at all, we may by the same Reason prove that the Christian Religion is the true one. But who doth not see how uncertaine Reason is in comparison of Faith? I doe not therefore like that assertion of one, who affects to be a great Rationalist (it is Chillingworth) that saith, We therefore receive the Scriptures to be the Word of God, because we have the greatest Reason that this is the Word of God. But we must not confound the instrument