A complete body of divinity in two hundred and fifty expository lectures on the…A compleat body of divinity in two hundred and fifty expository lectures on the…

THE l•• of na••re which was at first written upon the heart of man, cannot […] it. For tho' it were adapted to the state of man in innocency, and had an answerable perfection; yet to fallen man it cannot be a perfect Rule, because it cannot give him life, Gal. •.21. It pointed him to a right exercise of his grace while he had ⟨p. 28⟩it, but told him not how he should recover it when he had lost it, nay, that fair copy is lost by the fall, and not recoverable but in the Scripture; for, [2.] THOSE Relicts or broken fragments of it, that are found in the hearts of men since the fall, can much less be it. They have indeed enough to leave then under condemnation, without excuse; but to guide them to happiness, is beyond them. There is nothing of the old Rule but what is imperfect, and the conceptions thereof miserably entangled & crazy; and it hath nothing else in it, but some confused parcels of that, and must therefore be much more imperfect. Rom. 1.21. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vein in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. [3.] THE Book of nature, or of the works of Creation & Providence, is not a perfect Rule of Religion. The whole Rule of Physic is therein contained, but not so of Divinity: there is indeed a great deal to be there learnt, the Creature doth lead to the Creator. Rom. 1.19, 20. Because that which may be known of God, is manifest in them; for God ••th showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power & Godhead. Whence some men discourse of natural Theology; but this is not able throughly to inform us in our way to Life, because it hath this defect in common with the former; that is, that it gives us no account of man's Redemption, and the way in which we come to have it applied to us. This special Article of special Government, without the knowledge whereof there is no hope of Salvation, hath neither print no• footstep to be found there. [4.] MUCH less is that imps which natural men find upon their spirits directing & ramping them, a perfect Rule. Which is the thing that Enthusiasts plead so highly to, and boast of their great perfection in compliance with it: for, either we must say, that it is no Rule at all;