THE next thing is to consider Faith in its special nature ; and here the first thing in order , is supernatural illumination : touching which , I shall first shew what that is , and then demonstrate the necessity of it to Faith . And first , what it is , it is God shining into the heart , and lighting our candle , to make us discern divine things in a spiritual way . It is an illumination above nature subjectively , and not objectively only ; it is a thing above reason and all its improvements made upon external objects ; reason may be taken in a double posture , either sitting with the glass of the creatures before it , and so it is meerly the light of nature , or else sitting with the glass of the Scriptures before it , and so it is a notional knowledge of Divinity ; but this supernatural light is above reason in both these postures : First , take reason with the creature-glass before it , and this supernatural light is much above it . And here I might shew , how much the Scripture-glass excells that of the creature : the divine words there out-shine the Sun , out-weigh the earth , out-vye all the treasures , and out-relish all the sweetnesses in nature . God is more glorious in the Scripture-robes , then in all the visible world : his chariot in the word is statelier then that in the clouds . Evangelical light is a richer garment upon him then meer natural ; in the creature there is but a print or footstep of God , but in the Scripture there is his very image and resemblance . Also , which is a consequent on the former , this supernatural light , having the purer glass , is of a far greater latitude then meer reason : it spreads it self into many mysteries , which never entred into natural reason , but were hid from ages in the divine mind , it takes a view of those rare Evangelical pearls which were never digged out of reasons mine , but dropt down from heaven unto the sons of men : But , because the comparison of these two lights as to their outward glasses and latitudes is not so pertinent , I shall compare them as to their inward natures , and only in such things as both of them extend unto , and a vast difference will appear between them .

First , Reason is a far lower light then that of Faith : in natural light Reason is the very faculty , but in supernatural it is but a capacity : God must shine into the heart , there must be light upon light , supernatural upon natural , or else there is no faith . David prays , open or ( as the original hath it ) reveal thou mine eyes , Psal. 119.18 . There is in faith , a revelation of eyes , and not of objects only ; the Apostle speaks of being renewed in the very spirit of the mind , Eph. 4.23 . the rational spirit is the candle of the Lord , but unless it be new lighted , it is too dim since the fall to believe the things of God .

Secondly , Reason is a far weaker light then that of Faith . It is a light shining in darkness , and after all its glimmerings , it leaves but a foolish heart and vain imaginations , Rom. 1.21 . it is as a little spark 〈◊〉 an ocean of reigning corruptions , and these keep the heart from taking fire with the love of those excellencies which are known by nature . The Gentiles knew God , but they did not like to have him in their knowledge , Rom. 1.28 . millions of unruly lusts , like the sons of Belial about Lots house , beset this natural light , and keep it as it were in prison ; thus the Apostle , they withheld it in unrighteousness , Rom. 1.18 . and it is too weak to break out of this prison , and shew it self practically : I shall give some instances hereof . All Nations in all climates and through all ages , have conspired together to confess a Deity : Conscience within bears witness to him , and so do all the creatures without also ; one would wonder therefore that ever Idolatry should get footing in the world , but what saith the Apostle , they changed the truth of God into a lye , and the glory of the incorruptible one into a corruptible image , Rom. 1.23.25 . there were store of abominable idols among them ; no doubt natural light gave its secret vote for God , but it was but the vote of a poor prisoner altogether insignificant , it was not strong enough to make them own God in his own world . Again , reason and nature say , that God must be worshipped with the heart , and that a pure heart , purâ mente colendus , was the old verse , in suo cuique consecrandus est pectore , said Seneca . God hath not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a more proper place upon earth then a pure heart , saith Hierocles ; O divine saying , next door to that of our Saviour , blessed are the pur● in heart , for they shall see God . But after all this , can this natural light work a dram of true sanctity or holiness in the heart ? No , the very Schoolmen themselves ( who ever give nature her due with an overplus ) will not say so , only they say , facienti quod in se est , Deus revelabit Christum & largietur gratiam . Well , if this hypothesis ( which I am not now to dispute ) were true , can there be an instance given among all the Pagans from the morning of the world till this day , of any one man who by the right use of ●●turals arrived at true grace ? If so , what will become of that in the Apostle ? Who hath called us with an holy calling ; not according to our works , but according to his own purpose and grace , 2 Tim. 1.9 . If not , O what a poor weak light is this of nature ? and how long and universally a prisoner hath it been ? indeed true sanctity or holiness is never found without humility , but touching that , there is no footstep nor shadow of commendation in all the Pagan writers , saith the learned Amyraldus , it is not so much as a virtue among them : on the contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , greatness of soul is reckoned among Aristotles virtues . Well then might Erasmus his Sancte Socrates have been spared . Notable is that of St. Bernard , Epist. 190. some ( saith he ) whilest they go about to make Plato a Christian , prove themselves heathens . Again , because possibly the light of reason may be weakest in the concerns of Religion , I shall instance in other things . Doth not nature and reason plead for all things of common honesty and humanity , and yet in the Laws of Lycurgus , which were of high renown , and commended even by the Oracle of Apollo , and which ( as Plutarch relates ) Lycurgus took singular pleasure to see put in ure , even as God rejoyced to see the world move and turn about : I say in these there are such obscenities and inhumanities as would put any one to the blush to see them in story ; what else are the dancing of maids naked , and throwing weak children into a pit of water , spoken of by Plutarch ? well might the Lacedaemonians have spared the Temple and Sacrifices to their Law-giver , unless he had been truer to the Law of Nature . Again , is not self-preservation an intimate and natural impress in the heart of man ? it is not scripta sed nata Lex , said the Orator ; and yet this ingraven Law was not strong enough , no not in a grave and noble Cato , to keep him from murdering himself , and tearing out his own bowels ; and over this unnatural act Seneca sounds a triumph , as being a noble and heroical contempt of death it self , that , that sword of his , which was yet pure from the blood of others , might let out his own ; but hear the censure of St. Austin , De Civit. Dei . l. 19. c. 4. Vtrum obsecro Cato ille patientiâ an impatientiâ se peremit ? non enim haec fecisset , nisi victoriam Caesaris impatienter tulisset , and in another place , non erat honestas turpia praecavens , L 1. c. 23. sed infirmitas adversa non sustinens , it was but a proud impatience , and miserable trampling upon the Law of Nature : 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 ; Contra Jul. Pelag. l. 4. c. 3. 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 , whilest 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 ; yet nevertheless this holy spark shewed it self in some , as in Epiphanius his cutting the vail , 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 .

Thirdly , The light , of reason is at a greater distance from God then that of Faith , and so doth not see him so clearly in the works of creation and providence as that doth . And first for creation , though it be a clear glass of the eternal power and Godhead , yet the Philosophers , as so many Babel-builders , are miserably confounded in their language about it . Thales fetches all things out of water , as if that were the universal fountain . Anaximenes out of air , as if by the rarefaction and condensation thereof all were produced . Hippasus and Heraclitus held , that all things came out of a primitive fire or light , which by its death or extinction generated all . Democritus and Epicurus affirmed , that the world was made by chance , a lucky concourse of atomes framed it as it is . Pythagoras would have all things generated out of numbers , and the harmony thereof . Aristotle , the Prince of Peripateticks , asserted the world to be eternal . Plato attributed eternity only to the matter ; and before him Anaxagoras was the first , who added a mind to matter , saying , Omnia simul erant , deinde accessit mens , eaque composuit . O dark and confused Labyrinth of opinions ! How or which way shall a man extricate himself without faith ? By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God , Heb. 11.3 . If Faith do but open its eyes upon the first Chapter of Genesis , the Creation , which before was dark as the Chaos , is all clear as the light . The believer sees God in every creature , not only in the great Regions of Heaven and Earth , but also in the least Atoms or particles of nature . I am , is discovered wherever there is any thing of Being : And as for Providence , reason hath not been much clearer among the Philosophers touching it , then touching creation . Aristotle holding the world to be eternally from God by emanation● as light from the Sun , must also hold its continuance to be in the same manner , and without any voluntary act , such as Providence is . God ( saith he ) is the first Mover , he moves the heavens and those other bodies subalternately ; so God is the universal cause , and all the wheels in nature move under him ; only contingent things , which are not within the chain of natural causality , seem according to Aristotle not to be administred by God . Epicurus , who makes the world to consist of a fortuitous concourse of infinite petit Atoms , owns no Providence at all : God will not break his rest and serene tranquility with any mundane affairs , and indeed in reason a world made by chance must be so governed . The Stoicks in stead of Providence brought in a Fate , or absolute necessity , resulting out of a series or connexion of causes , and binding God himself as well as other things . Plutarch relating how Timoleon was strangely delivered from two murderers , instead of acknowledging a Providence , wonders at the artifice of Fortune . Nay , meer reason is apt to vilifie the great works of God : thus some said that Moses , in stead of dividing the Sea , did but take the advantage of a low Tyde to carry the Israelites over the washes , when it was low water . But when the light of faith comes , the hand of God is seen in every thing , not only in the great moments of nature , but even in the fall of sparrows and numbring of hairs . Thus far of Reason with the Creature-glass before it , but to go on .

Secondly , Take reason with the Scripture-glass before it , and this supernatural light is yet above it . And here I must first admit what reason under the influence of a common blessing can do ; and then shew , how much supernatural light doth transcend it . Reason under the influence of a common blessing may attain a rich furniture of humane learning , and so perusing the holy Scriptures , may understand them by Tongues critically , and by School-divinity distinctly , and by Logick in the consequences and connexions , and by History in some Prophetical parts , and by Rhetorick in the tropes and figures , and by Comments in the abstruse and difficult places ; and consequently it may gather in a great notion of Divinity , much larger in the extent and latitude thereof then the knowledge of many true believers . Yet after all this notional knowledge attained , there is in the meanest true believer an higher and diviner light , a thing above meer reason and notion ; and this I shall demonstrate several ways .

First , The light of reason with all it s acquired notions is not a light as yet congruous to the things of God , which are spiritually discerned only by a supernatural light . To make out this , it will be worth our while to consider that famous place , 1 Cor. 2. where the Apostle clearly distinguishing two sorts of men , the natural man and the spiritual ; and two sorts of spirits , the spirit of man making the natural man , and the spirit of God making the spiritual man ; and two sorts of objects , the things of man , which are the line of knowledge to the natural man endued with an humane spirit , and the things of God , which are the line of knowledge to the spiritual man endued with the spirit of God ; Positively lays down this Thesis , the natural man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the soully man , or the man that hath only a rational soul , receiveth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as a full vessel is not capable of the things of the spirit of God , for they are foolishness unto him , neither can he know them , because they are spiritually discerned , ver. 14. In this Thesis the Apostle by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or soully man , doth not mean a sensual man , who hath defloured his reason with sensual indulgences , for then he would not have distinguished between the natural man and the spiritual , but between the sensual man and the rational ; neither would he have distinguished between the spirit of man and the spirit of God , but between the spirit of man or reason drowned in sensual pleasures , and the spirit of man or reason keeping its station and just authority over the sensual appetite ; neither doth the Apostle here mean a natural or rational man sitting in Pagan darkness , without the Gospel , for he saith , the natural man receiveth not the things of God , which imports an offer of the Gospel to him , and he receiveth them not , because they are foolishness to him : which they could not be , if altogether unknown ; and ( saith he ) he cannot know them , why ? not because they are not externally propounded ( which is the Pagans case ) but because they are spiritually discerned : But the Apostle here meaneth by the natural or soully man , a man of reason , and that never forfeited by sensual lusts , and a man of reason with the Gospel set before him ; and so his conclusion is this , A man of reason with the Gospel before him , cannot receive or know the things of God . But you will say , if this be so , how can a man of reason with the Gospel before him , arrive at so great a notion of Divinity , as is before admitted ? I answer , the key to open this is in the Text , the natural man cannot know the things of God , because they are spiritually discerned . A man by reason and its furniture of learning may in the perusal of the holy Scriptures gather up a world of notions , and so know the things of God notionally ; but he knows them not spiritually , and by consequence not congruously to their spiritual nature . For the opening of this , we must consider , that there is in the holy Scriptures something humane , or which may be inventoried among the things of man , as the letters and words made up of them , and sentences made up of words ; not as if these were not dictated exactly by God himself , but that they are common to humane and profane Authors : I mean not for the divineness of the matter , but for the phrases and forms of speech . And there is in them something Divine , or which must be computed among the things of God , as the mysteries and spiritual things themselves , which are represented by those words and phrases . I may illustrate this distinction farther by that of our Saviour , If I have told you earthly things , and you believe them not , how shall you believe , if I tell you of heavenly things , Joh. 3.12 . I pray , what earthly things did our Saviour tell them ? was not he there preaching on that divine Theme of Regeneration ? Very true , but Christ spake to them of Regeneration under the shadow of a birth and a wind , and not according to the heavenly and spiritual nature thereof in it self . Thus the words and phrases in Scripture , being of common use , are as it were humane types and shadows , but the mysteries and spiritual things themselves are altogether divine . Now to apply this distinction , reason improved , reaching to the things of man as its proper line , may know the words and sentences in Scripture , and so gather up a great notion of Divinity : But , unless inlightned by the holy Spirit , which searcheth the things of God , it goeth not beyond its own line , it knows not spiritual things spiritually . Reason without the light of faith , Take it in a Jew at a Sacrifice , and it saw the type only , and not Christ in it . Take it in a Christian at the holy Supper , and it sees only the outward elements , and discerns not the Lords body . Take it in the greatest Rabbi sitting with the Scriptures before him , and it sees them only in the shell or letter , and not in the mystery . And no wonder , for even in common Sciences it may be so ; a man may construe and know the Grammar of a principle in Euclide , and yet be ignorant of the Mathematical sense of it ; much more in divine truths may a man be spiritually ignorant , who knows a great deal literally . Therefore all Scholars may do well in their studies to do as Zuinglius did , who having arrived at Arts and Tongues , yet in the reading of the holy Scriptures , looked up to heaven . As for the great Doctor the holy Spirit , when he comes in supernatural illumination , then we know the things of God , not by our own spirit but Gods , the very same spirit which breaths in the Scriptures , shines in the heart . Hence spiritual things are discerned spiritually , by a light congruous to their nature ; the spirit glorifies and shews forth Christ , as the expression is , John 16.14 . Holy truths are as it were transfigured and shewn forth in glory , which before were seen but in the flesh or weakness of the Letter ; the Deity sparkles out in the beauty and spiritual lustre of Scripture-mysteries , which before only appeared in the humanity of words and phrases . Now heaven opens , and free-grace passes before us , the secret of the Lord is with us , and we are of his Privy Councel . This is the first and fundadamental difference , Reason with all it s acquired notions is not a light congruous to spiritual things , but the light of Faith is : Out of this all the other are derived .