Thirdly, This precious Faith advances both our natural faculties and our moral virtues. It advances our natural faculties, and so shows it self what it is: grace is nature elevated above it self, a reason with an heavenly light in it, a will with an holy law in it, and affections as it were upon the wings of Angels, soaring into the upper world. After such sort doth faith elevate the humane faculties: when faith comes, God shines into the heart, and then the Reason, which before had a cloud on it, sparkles out as a pearl in the Sun-beams; the day-star is up in the heart and whilst others live by candlelight, the believer hath the Sun; then the will which lay in its lusts as a slave in its chains, is set upon the wheel and made free indeed; then the affections, which conversed among the tombs of the creatures, are no longer ⟨p. 9⟩here, but are risen with Christ to seek the things above. Moreover it advances moral virtues also, it grafts them upon a nobler stock, they are no longer mere blossoms of reason, but fruits of the spirit. Josephus relating the patience of the Maccabees under the torments of the bloody Antiochus, cries up, Reason, Reason, as if that were the rock upon which they stood; but sure, he speaks below them, a greater then reason was there, even faith, as the Apostle asserts, Heb. 11.35. a higher spirit then their own acted in their patience, and elevated it above mere morality. Again, mere moral virtues, issuing merely out of our own reason, are apt to breed a moth of pride and vain self-reflection: here we find the Moralist crowing after a strange rate, Beatae vitae causa & firmamentum est, sibi sidere, turpe est Deos fatigare, 1quid votis apus est? fac te felicem, exurge & te dignum singe Deo, as if he would have no other happiness but what was of his own making; but when Faith comes, off go the plumes of pride, and humility is as a veil over all the moral virtues. I live in temperance and justice (saith the believing Moralist) yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Add hereunto mere moral virtues in their intention, rise no higher then their own level of humanity; but when faith comes, there is a pearl in the head, a pure intention in each of them towards the glory of God: he that before was temperate to himself, just to others, and patient to necessity, is now all ⟨p. 10⟩these to God; Feci Deo, is the Motto of every moral act.
Thirdly, This precious Faith advances both our natural faculties and our moral virtues. It advances our natural faculties, and so shews it self what it is: grace is nature elevated above it self, a reason with an heavenly light in it, a will with an holy law in it, and affections as it were upon the wings of Angels, soaring into the upper world. After such sort doth faith elevate the humane faculties: when faith comes, God shines into the heart, and then the Reason, which before had a cloud on it, sparkles out as a pearl in the Sun-beams; the day-star is up in the heart and whilest others live by candlelight, the believer hath the Sun; then the will which lay in its lusts as a slave in its chains, is set upon the wheel and made free indeed; then the affections, which conversed among the tombs of the creatures, are no longer ⟨p. 9⟩here, but are risen with Christ to seek the things above. Moreover it advances moral virtues also, it grafts them upon a nobler stock, they are no longer meer blossoms of reason, but fruits of the spirit. Josephus relating the patience of the Maccabees under the torments of the bloody Antiochus, cryes up, Reason, Reason, as if that were the rock upon which they stood; but sure, he speaks below them, a greater then reason was there, even faith, as the Apostle asserts, Heb. 11.35. a higher spirit then their own acted in their patience, and elevated it above meer morality. Again, meer moral virtues, issuing meerly out of our own reason, are apt to breed a moth of pride and vain self-reflection: here we find the Moralist crowing after a strange rate, Beatae vitae causa & firmamentum est, sibi sidere, turpe est Deos fatigare, 1quid votis apus est? fac te felicem, exurge & te dignum singe Deo, as if he would have no other happiness but what was of his own making; but when Faith comes, off go the plumes of pride, and humility is as a vail over all the moral virtues. I live in temperance and justice (saith the believing Moralist) yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Add hereunto meer moral virtues in their intention, rise no higher then their own level of humanity; but when faith comes, there is a pearl in the head, a pure intention in each of them towards the glory of God: he that before was temperate to himself, just to others, and patient to necessity, is now all ⟨p. 10⟩these to God; Feci Deo, is the Motto of every moral act.
- 1Sense. Epist. 31.Sence. Epist. 31.
