Precious faith considered in its nature, working, and growth

Moreover the light of reason doth really produce many moral virtues; and yet in these wherein its greatest strength lieth, it is too weak to elevate any one of them to the glory of the great Creator;¹ therefore, as St. Austin hath observed, the whole body of Pagan virtues, for want of a single eye at that great end, is full of darkness. Thus much of the weakness of reason: on the other side, the light of faith hath a great deal of strength in it; this will not, cannot, be commonly imprisoned, it is an holy unction, and at last will be uppermost, it is a mighty Engine whereby the h•ly Spirit lifts the heart up into belief and resignation; a thing of high birth and great activity, being born of God and overcoming the world, 1 Joh. 5.4. and because the light of reason was not able to bear up the interest of God among men, this supernatural light came to do it. In the primitive Church, whilst this shined clear, there were no such things as outward Idols or Images, afterwards, upon the declension thereof, those things crept in by degrees, first into banners and then into Churches, and there, first for instruction only, and afterwards for adoration; ⟨p. 17⟩yet nevertheless this holy spark showed it self in some, as in Epiphanius his cutting the veil, and Serenus his breaking the Images, and divers others abhorrency of Idolatry; and what this supernatural light doth in Churches against outward Idols, that it doth in hearts against inward: it will allow no Idol to stand in the secret place, not an Ashteroth of riches, not a Venus of pleasure, not a Baal, a ruling lording lust in the heart, every indulged lust stands upon the unilluminated and unresigned will; and, after Faith hath purified the heart, it must give way for God to set up his Throne there: that pure heart which the Philosophers talk of at random, as a Geographer of a terra incognita, faith plainly discovers, and practically operates. Those dishonesties and inhumanities which reason could not keep out of Laws, faith casts away from private Christians, as the common mire and dirt of a wicked world: those moral virtues which reason could not elevate to the Creators glory, faith spiritualizes by a pure intention towards it.

Moreover the light of reason doth really produce many moral virtues; and yet in these wherein its greatest strength lyeth, it is too weak to elevate any one of them to the glory of the great Creator;