A30249:208
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.
ROM. 2. 14. For the Gentiles, &c.
You have heard of two things considerable in the law of Nature; the knowledge or light of it, and the power or ability of it. We shall (God willing) at this time prosecute the doctrine of the former part, and the task we have at this time is to answer some Questions about the light of Nature: for, as there are some who depress it too much; so there are others advance it too high. The Philosophers called the Christians Credentes, by way of reproach, because they did not argue by reason, but receive upon trust: and there are some, who do not indeed, with Abilardus, make faith [aestimatio] a fancy, yet they make it ratio. Let us see therefore what this light can do, by way of answer to some Questions only; not to answer all.
YOu have heard of two things considerable in the law of Nature; the knowledge or light of it, and the power or ability of it. We shall (God willing) at this time prosecute the doctrine of the former part, and the taske we have at this time is to answer some Questions about the light of Nature: for, as there are some who depresse it too much; so there are others advance it too high. The Philosophers called the Christians Credentes, by way of reproach, because they did not argue by reason, but receive upon trust: and there are some, who doe not indeed, with Abilardus, make faith [aestimatio] a fancy, yet they make it ratio. Let us see therefore what this light can doe, by way of answer to some Questions onely; not to answer all.
The first Question, Whether a man can by the light of Nature, 1and by the consideration of the creatures, come to know there is a God? This is denied by Socinians and others. Indeed Bellarmine chargeth tenets to this effect upon Calvin, but that which the Protestant Authors hold, is, that he may indeed have a knowledge that there is a God, but what this God is, whether he be one, and what his attributes are, they cannot so reach to. Nihil Deo notius, nihil ignotius: otherwise, they say, there is no natural Atheist in opinion, though many in affections, desiring there were no God. As Tully argueth, let us take heed, how we bring this opinion into the world, that there is a God, lest hereby we bring a great slavery and fear upon our selves. Are there not