Chapter VI
That the covenant of works, the justification of Adam by that covenant, and
the reward of his obedience, were all natural. And that by covenant he
should not have gone to heaven.
As the way of his knowing God, and the image of God in him, were thus
natural, and no higher than was due unto nature, and suited unto man as
man, so were all things else which any way concerned him ; they were of
the same elevation also, and reached no higher than the sphere of nature,
in the sense explained ; namely, they were such as were due unto man s
nature, or were founded upon the law of nature. For instance, * Qu. onco ? ED.
CHAP. VI.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 49
1. The covenant he stood under was buifccdus naturte, the covenant of
nature, and such as, for the conditions of it, was due unto such a creature, and such as it became the Creator to make with him, if he at all made him. And therefore the foundation of that covenant was but the title of
creation, and the primitive integrity in which God first made man, and there was nothing at all supernatural in it.
2. The righteousness whereby he was justified was no other than that
natural righteousness in which he was created, and which was conserved and preserved by continuing to act holily, and by doing good according to
the principles of holiness at first implanted in him. And so it was but such a justification as was a natural due to the creature so obeying, that God should pronounce him just upon it ; for it was but God s giving him such an approbation, that he both was, and did continue, good in his
kind, as he pronounced of all the other creatures in their kind, Gen. i. 81, when God saw that they were all good. Then likewise he viewed Adam, and pronounced him good also in holiness and righteousness, which was
the proper goodness of his creation. So that his approbation of him was but natural, and according to a rule of nature common to other creatures, and so a due. Which may be the meaning of that place in Rom. iv. 4, where the apostle, speaking of the difference between the justification under
the covenant of works, and that under grace, he says the one is xara rb
o<pei\9ip,a, of debt, the other, xara %ag/v, merely of free grace. It is
evident that he intends to affirm, that by the first covenant of works the reward was in a just sense due (of debt) unto the creature, and that from
God, whereas this new covenant is of grace. Now how is that other said
to be of debt ? Not that God can owe anything, or be obliged unto his
creature for anything received from it ; nor is it to be understood as if
the holiness that Adam had was not from God s gift, as well as ours under
the new covenant is ; but because, in a way of natural justice, or rather
comeliness and dueness, such as is by the law of creation to be between a
just creator and an holy creature, there is an approbation due unto him from God whilst that creature obeys him, and that as a delitum naturale, a debt of nature, and not a debt of retribution in a mercenary way: Who hath given unto him, and it shall be recompensed again? Rom. xi. 35, as
the apostle speaks.
3. Answerably, the reward, the promised life and happiness that he
should have had for doing and obeying, was but the continuance of the same happy life which he enjoyed in paradise, together with God s favour
towards him. Which continuance in happiness was natural to him ; even
as our divines say that mortality* was, namely, in this sense, that it was
a natural due unto him whilst he should keep from sin, for God to preserve him in that state wherein at first he stood ; and this preservation of him
in that state, and in the favour of God, was the life promised, when God
said, Do this, and thou shalt live ; and not the translating him, in the
end, unto that spiritual life in heaven, which the angels have, and which
the saints shall have. And for this my reasons are
1. Because Christ, in 1 Cor. xv. 47, 48, is called the heavenly man, and the Lord from heaven ; and that in opposition to Adam, when at
the best, whom the apostle calls but an earthly man. And this difference
in their condition he there evidently mentions, to shew that Christ was the
first and only author of that heavenly life which the saints in heaven do
enjoy, and he himself coming from heaven he carries us thither. But
* Qu. immortality ? ED. VOL. VII. D
50 OF THE CREATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
on the contrary, Adam, as he was of earth, so he was but an earthly man,
(so ver. 47), and his happiness should have reached no higher. The place fore-cited expressly sets the bounds between what the one Adam should, and the other doth convey unto his posterity. Yea, and the apostle doth put our carrying to heaven, as he there argues it, not so much upon the merit
of Christ s death, as upon his being the Lord from heaven, because heaven was his natural due, and he descended from his right when he came down
upon earth. And so, because he was thus from heaven, therefore he is now gone thither himself, as unto his natural place, and advanceth us up thither also ; whereas Adam was but a
* man from the earth, and there
fore could never have come to heaven. And that place, John iii. 13, doth
further back this argument, No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he
that came down from heaven, even the Son of man who is in heaven. Christ there speaks of his revealing the mysteries of heaven, which no man ever could do, because no man had ascended up to heaven but himself, who came down from heaven, and now is in heaven, and this as Son of man. Now he is said to be in heaven, through the communication of
* come down from
properties and privileges of the Son of God, and to
heaven, because his due was to have been incarnate there. And he
expressly says, that no man ascends up thither, except he who came down from thence, and others by virtue of him. And so that text evidently holds
forth this as the reason why none went up thither, because none came down from thence ; which reason makes against Adam, as well as against any son of his now in corrupt estate. For he came not from heaven that was not his natural place but he was of the earth, and therefore but earthly, 1 Cor. xv. 48. And if no man but he who came down from heaven was
able to know the mysteries of heaven for that is the ascension there meant then much less to enjoy the glory of heaven. And therefore our going to heaven is put upon his ascension as the fruit of it : John xiv. 2, 3, I
go to prepare a place for you, though it were prepared from the founda
tion of the world, God having made heaven perfect the first day, and reserved it for his elect in Christ.
2. That paradise that Adam enjoyed was but the type of the paradise above, and his Sabbath a type of heaven, as himself was of Christ. And
therefore he was not to have entered into the heavenly paradise, except by this second Adam, Christ, whose paradise alone it was. So that, take away the second Adam that was to come, and there had been no second paradise for Adam to come into, which that paradise of his was the type of. Thus, Luke xxiii. 43, Christ foundeth the thief s going to paradise upon his own
going thither : This day, says he, shalt thou be with me in paradise. With me ; that is, in my right. Even as also we are said to sit together with him in heavenly places, Eph. ii. 6. With him, namely, as our head. And the aforesaid thief, answerably speaking of heaven, says, Kemember me when thou comest into thy kingdom ; and Christ, in his answer unto him, owns it as his, only he calls it paradise ; for this is Christ s paradise, as the other was Adam s. And therefore when Christ was first inaugurated into his office, and his Father himself from heaven
first preached him unto men, saying, This is my Son, hear him, then did
the heavens first open, and not till then, for men by hearing and obeying him to come thither.
3. I observe, that the moral law (which was the law of nature) makes mention of no such promise as of going to heaven. It speaks no such
language ; but only, Do this, and thou shalt live ; that is, live as thou
CHAP. VI. j OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 51
dost, in God s favour, but yet still as on earth enjoyed. And that is the reason why so little mention is made of heaven in the Old Testament ; and but only when the gospel is promulgated in that Old Testament, never when the pure law of nature is taught. And therefore Christ, in the 16th Psalm, speaks of heaven as being the purchase of his death, and as bestowed only by his righteousness, not that of the law: Ps. xvi. 10, 11, For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life : in thy presence is fulness of joy ; at thy right hand there are pleasures for ever more. And therefore, Luke xviii. 18, when a certain ruler asked our Saviour what he should do to inherit eternal life, says Christ, Thou knowest the commandments, &c ; and his replying, All these have I
kept, Yet, says Christ, thou lackest one thing ; sell all that thou hast, and follow me, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. Concerning which place observe,
(1.) That it may be, here is a distinction intimated between treasure in heaven and eternal life, and that right to treasure in heaven comes by following Christ ; but a life eternal, that is, a living for ever in God s
favour, is promised to keeping the commandments. And this life is here spoken of as a thing differing from heaven.
(2.) If the ruler did here, in his question, intend heaven in that phrase 1 eternal life, yet it may be observed out of Mat. xix. 17, that Christ diminisheth it yet more in his answer there : If thou wilt enter into life, says he,
* keep the commandments; that is, into a state of life ; Christ in that speech dealing with him upon his own principles, who thought by the commandments to live. Yet he says not, Thou shalt enter into eternal life (if by that phrase heaven should be meant), but into life ; for, Do this, and thou shalt live, was the tenor of the covenant of works. And the commandment is ordained for life, saith the apostle, Rom.
vii. 10.
(3.) Or else, if the ruler in this question should by eternal life mean
heaven, Christ answers him, Though thou hast kept all the command
ments, yet thou art to sell all, and follow me, or else thou canst not have treasure in heaven.
Reason 4. This accords with the like law of nature towards all the creatures besides, who, by observing their laws, obtain not a higher station than they were created in, only thereby they keep their own. The moon, by all the constancy of her motion, attains not to the glory of the sun. Nor should man, by the moral law (which was to him but the law of
nature), have attained the condition of the angels, had he fully complied with it, as neither should the angels have attained a higher condition than their own, though they had been exact ministers of God s will, according to the law of their creation, the fall of whom is expressed by their not
keeping their first estate, but leaving their own habitation, Jude 6 ; and
for affecting an higher estate they lost all.
Yea, 5thly, I think that Adam s covenant, and the obedience unto it, was not able to do so much as confirm him, and secure him in that con dition he was created in, so far was it from being able to have transplanted him into heaven. For,
(1.) I know no promise for it, that after such a time, and so long obedience performed, he should stand perpetually. And without such a
promise, we have no warrant so to think or judge of it.
And (2.) Surely a creature being defectible, the covenant of nature with
52 OF THE CREATUEES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
that creature, which proceedeth according to its due, and the obedience of
that creature, could never have procured indefectibility, for that must be
of grace ; and he was more than a creature that did that for elect angels and men, even Christ, God-man.
And if men will say, that the elect men in Christ (and so Adam among the rest) should in the end have been translated to heaven by Christ,
although man had never fallen, I shall not gainsay it ; but then it is by another s right and covenant, and would have required a supernatural grace
first wrought in them, to have owned and taken Christ for their head.
And if it be objected, that hell, which the devils are in, was the reward
of the disobedience of that covenant of works, and therefore oppositely, the
heavens, where the angels are, should be the reward of the obedience of the same covenant,
The answer is ready even that which we give the papists in the like
case, in the point of merit, who argued, that because sin deserves hell,
grace therefore should merit heaven That there is not a like proportion between the sin of the creature, which is an undue act against the great God, and the grace of the creature, which is a due act from the creature
* The
unto God, and so that grace deserveth not well like as sin doth ill :
wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus
Christ our Lord, Rom vi. 23.
And if it be asked, What reward should Adam then have had if he had
etood ? I answer, Much every way. As, namely, that blessed life in
paradise, which God planted for him ; communion with God in a natural
way, through the creatures, and by the light of the law of nature ; frequent
apparitions of God, and communications with him (of which I am yet to
speak) ; and also immortality in that his state of blessedness, which
immortality arose not out of the inward constitution of his body, which
still was dependent on God s preservation and protection. And further,
in his conscience he should have had a persuasion of God s favour, through obedience, which was his life. His heart should have lived in the sense of God s love ; so as indeed much fruit he should have had in holiness, but
still not the end, everlasting life, namely, heaven, which is not ex debito,
is not due to nature under the covenant of works. Heaven is the gift of God through Jesus Christ, Kom. vi. 23, and is the sole fruit of election. And therefore the voice at the great day will be, Come, ye blessed of my Father.
But it may haply be objected, that the beatifical vision being the highest
perfection of bliss, and the understanding of man being of capacity for it, the mind therefore would have desired it, and not have been satisfied with
out it ; and wanting such a satisfaction, it had consequently been not fully blessed.
I answer, 1. That it is true that Adam was capable of that bliss (for so
are sinners), but yet, by a way above his sphere ; his body and soul must
first have been changed, for his flesh and blood could not have borne the
glory of it ; and therefore in that state he was in he could not have desired
it, as being a condition that would destroy him, even as for the same reason
7e hath no desire to look upon the sun, it being excellent scnsibile, such
the ej
a transcendent object, that it does destruere sensum, it destroys the sight.
2. If in that state he stood he was not ordained to it, though it was a
higher perfection, and so desirable, yet it had been an unlawful and an
inordinate desire in him, if ever he had put it forth, even as that ambition
of his was, to be as God ; and as that of the angels that fell was, when they
CHAP. VI.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 53
affected and aspired to a higher station than God had set them in. Had Adam desired this kind of happiness, he had gone out of his rank, and sat
quite beside the cushion. And what angel or saint in heaven dares desire
the hypostatical union, the most transcendent of all perfections, even to he
joined to the Godhead, as the manhood of Christ was ? And yet they are
capable of it, say some. Those things which we know by God s ordinance
to be impossible, we are not to affect ; nor do we desire them, when we
conceive they are such. Who among the crowd of common people has
any vehement desire to be a king, when he looks upon himself as one so
inferior to, and far off from, such a state ?
3. Neither had he been miserable, or his blessedness at all lessened by
the want of it. He had not been in statu violento, had he not had it ; but
in naturali, in his natural condition, wherein he had all things suited to
his natural desire. He had rested as a stone in its centre, which desires
not to go upward. His state had been perfect, and though not so abso
lutely perfect as theirs in heaven, yet in his own sphere it had been such.
His happiness had been suitable to his condition on earth, as ours shall be
to the heavenly condition of our souls and bodies in heaven. He had been
perfect, perfect-lone competente, though not absolitta ; with a perfection suit
able and fit for him, though not with a perfection transcendent and absolute. And as a higher degree of glory lessens not the blessedness of any saint
inferior in heaven itself, for he is full, so nor would nor ought this higher
order of blessedness have at all diminished that competent happiness which
^ So that, to
he enjoyed, for it was full to him whilst in that earthly state.
conclude, as Adam s covenant was fccdus natures, so his happiness should
have been a perfect contentment in God, enjoyed permodum natura ; not in God himself immediately, neither should he have tasted this heavenly con
tentment by faith, which is a prelibation of heaven and of its beatifical
vision, but only in effects. The creatures should have revealed God unto
him, and been as testimonies of his favour, which he should have appre hended as justifying and approving him in a covenant of works ; which
apprehension would have wrought peace of conscience, joy, and security
therein through well-doing, so far as the persuasion of God s love, which
conscience and his own spirit begat in him, which was his comforter, could
work. And this love apprehended was but hypothetical, and in a way of common providence, namely, whilst he should continue in his good ^behaviour. The creator and author of nature in that relation loving him, as
being made righteous by him, he had not an assurance of a peculiar,
unchangeable, and everlasting love, without l/s and ands ; he had not the
taste and earnest of heaven by faith supernatural, which is that heavenly
gift that gives a taste of what it is to enjoy God in himself, which Adam did
not; neither had he the testimony of the Spirit working in him joy
unspeakable and glorious, in the hope of heaven.
54 OF THE CREATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
CHAP.TER VII.
Whether Adam knew God by the light of faith and supernatural revelation, superaddedto the light of reason. His faith was natural, both in its motives and grounds, being an assent to God s testimony as true, whose veracity he knew by the light of nature. Nor did his faith discover to him things that were above his then present natural state. Thisproved by several arguments. Our way of knowing God by faith is supernatural, and in what respect it
is so.
All that I have hitherto spoken of as appertaining unto Adam s condi tion we have seen to have been but natural, according to those limits which at first I did set, namely, no other than what was due to the nature of man, and what was suitable also unto that his nature.
There remains only one thing which may seem to have been supernatural in him in both these respects, and whereby he is judged to have been ele vated to the same way of knowing God that we under the state of grace are, and that is, a principle of faith, which principle is wholly supernatural, both,
1. In that the objects or things apprehended by it are such as are made known by revelation from God l and therefore over and above the due of nature.
And 2dly, In that the light by which faith is enabled to apprehend things is above the light of nature, or of common principles or reason, it being infused. And so divines account it, and do therefore call it supernatural. Now it may also seem as evident, that besides that inbred light of nature and of sanctified reason in Adam to know God by, he had another window and inlet of knowledge, even revelation from, and communication with, God. For we read of God s speaking to him, and revealing his will unto him by word of mouth, both at his giving him dominion over all the creatures, Gen. i. 28, and also at his giving him those precepts about the tree of know ledge and of life, which also were sacraments to him of his condition. Thus also he knew the law of the Sabbath ; and likewise, when his wife was made, he knew it either by inspiration or revelation from God that she was made by God, of his bone and flesh. And he believing the word and threatening of God, that was the matter in which he was tempted, and in which he failed. So that, besides that fore-mentioned light of nature, he had also, as may seem by all this, a revelation, and that of faith.
I confess it is like to appear an hard and bold assertion, to deny that Adam had a supernatural knowledge of God by revelation, or by the same
light and principle of faith by which we take God in, under the gospel. Yet I find some divines to have affirmed it, and I shall adventure it unto the disquisition in the fear of God, and with submission to cogent reason to the contrary. And,
^ ^ First, I would^ propound it to be considered, That all this concerning his
faith, and the things revealed to him, were still but within the compass of nature, and those limits which at first I set to bound the natural knowledge of God with ; so as it was neither above the due to nature, nor the way and sphere of it.
For, first, in the nature of man there is such an act to believe and to trust one that is faithful, as well as there is to think, and to be. We find
it in corrupt nature : a disposition of believing another man, so as to believe is not simply and wholly a supernatural act.
CHAP. VII.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 55
And, secondly, that man in his first creation should have a principle in him to converse with that God whom he knew to be God out of natural
light, and to have made heaven and earth, whensoever that God should speak and communicate anything to him that might express his will to him, so far as might concern his present condition, was also natural imUhis
sense, that it was a due to the nature of man. For man being a sociable
creature, in that he was reasonable, made in the image of God, which was
natural, it was meet he should be able to converse with that great God by mutual speech, as well as with his wife, or any other intelligent nature. Speech is the ground of fellowship. And therefore both prayer, which is
speech to God, and to hear God speaking to us, are made natural duties by our divines, as well as to love him.
And, thirdly, when God did thus speak, that man should believe, and receive the testimony of God as true, whatever it was that was revealed, was not above the due of nature, nor the way of nature : not above the due of nature, for else God had spoke in vain ; nor above the light of nature to assent to it, for the ground of faith s assent is resolved into the light of
this, that God is true. For he knew, out of the same principles and dictates of
nature, that God was true, faithful, and just in his word, as,well as he knew he was powerful in his works ; for it was part of the law written in his heart in which the image of God consisted ; he should not lie, but speak truth ; therefore that God much more should be true. Truth was part of God s image in him, therefore, Eph. iv. 24, truth being made a part of God s image, it follows, ver. 25,
* Wherefore put away lying. Therefore in God much more truth is essential to his nature. He might take that attribute up out of his own heart by a natural light, as well as God s holi ness out of the righteous image of it in himself, so as he needed not that to be laid in his heart by faith. Therefore now to believe God when he speaks to him, and to receive his testimony, was but from the power of an inbred
light ; yea, and although, suppose the thing revealed should have been above the light of nature, yet the divine authority upon which his belief was to receive was acknowledged by no other light than nature, and the
dictate of it : that God must needs be true in what he speaks. And yet this is the greatest thing in faith, the receiving God s testimony. John
iii. 33, He that hath received his testimony, hath set to his seal that God
is true.
And then, fourthly, whereas the question might still be, By what light he should know it was God that spake, when God did speak ? I take it, In the way God used then to speak, it was but the natural light of sancti
fied reason, which might discern that also. It was with some such evi dence as he might know it was God in the voice given, as truly as he knew
it was God by his works ; such were the visible apparitions and visions made. For otherwise it had been easier for Satan to have counterfeited God s voice and appearance, and have sooner deceived Eve thereby (as the old prophet deceived the other with a false command*), than in that way he took. And it is more evident by this, that after his fall, when all holy
light was extinguished, yet he knew and discerned the voice of God in the
garden, and was afraid ; therefore much more afore. And it was a due to
nature, that if God did speak, he should so speak as might evidence unto nature it was he that spake, which was easy for God to do some way or
other, for Balaam discerned the difference and wondered at it, when at first he thought to have conversed with his devils.
* See 1 Kings xiii. 18. ED.
56 OF THE CREATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
And then, fifthly, the objects propounded to him to believe were of themselves no way supernatural ; they were nothing more of God s nature or attributes, but about some precepts of his will, or privileges granted to Adam ; only such things as first concerned his condition, and were within his own sphere of that world he was made in, and so suitable to his appre hension to take in, though confirmed to him by divine authority. And therefore, secondly, such as he might have some hint of by the light of nature ; besides the revelation, they were realised to him by instinct or sanctified reason, though revealed and confirmed by divine testimony. Such were the precepts about the two trees, which were two sacraments. The things which they confirmed were the promises of life, and the mutability of his condition ; both which, as I shewed, the light of nature taught him, and made real to him ; as also was that acknowledgment and law promulged concerning his wife, that being flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, a man should cleave to his wife ; natural light gave in the equity of such a conjugal affection.
So as, put all these five considerations together, the conclusion is that all the faith which Adam had may well be resolved into natural light, as the first principle and foundation of it, although further revealing and con firming what else the light of nature could not, or would not so easily have known ; and though we suppose the things had been such as were out of the reach of natural light, yet still the bottom of his assent to divine authority had been but such a natural light aforesaid, and the principles of nature sown in his heart, which made him capable so to converse with God and believe his word, as to understand God out of his works. But it is otherwise in our faith. And so far I conceive it is that wicked men are blamed now for not believing the word of the law and gospel, so far as such natural light as was in Adam would have enabled them thereunto, seeing the law given was confirmed at first by such works and voices, as evidently would have argued to that first natural light that it was God that spake it, and they, if they had that light remaining, would have owned in their hearts. And the gospel also delivered by Christ was confirmed by signs and wonders : Heb. ii. 3, 4, How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation ; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was con firmed unto us by them that heard him ; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will ? And the whole word written derived to us, and then delivered, hath such peculiar characters of divine authority engraven upon it, so as even to natural light (if we had it pure as Adam had) would evidence itself to be of God, and so bind all men to believe it. And therefore men are both justly commanded to believe it, and justly blamed for not believing it.
^ I am now to affix some reasons and demonstrations that have prevailed with me to think that the way of Adam s faith (call it so if you please) was in the sense declared but natural, and ours comparatively supernatural. For the first, That his was but natural. 1. Seeing all other things belonging to him were natural, his covenant, the covenant of works, was but fcedus natura, founded upon the title of what, as a reasonable creature, was due to his nature, his justification answerable, his reward also, and all things else appertaining to him ; and that the whole image of God is affirmed so generally by our divines to have been natural, it were strange if the principle of faith in him, which then was not of general use neither, should alone be supernatural ; that the
CHAP. VII.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 57
image of God in him should consist of one part so heterogeneal to the
other, of an higher rank than its fellows. Yea, and seeing it is manifest that the main foundation of that his faith might be, and indeed was, but that natural light, that God was true, which was inbred in him as fully as that God was holy, as I shewed, it is strange if his faith should be made
supernatural by some other small addition only, when the foundation was but natural light.
Reason 2. For him to have had such a supernatural principle of faith as we have, was in him superfluous, and to no end. The end that I find any
divines, either popish or others, fix upon, for which they ascribe a superadded supernatural grace, is in relation to his translation to heaven, for which
that supernatural ; grace should fit him and prepare him. Popish divines, who contend for a natural way of knowing God, and a natural righteousness in Adam, yet with a superadded supernatural one also, they make the use
of that supernatural addition for him to merit heaven by, and make this the difference between natural righteousness and supernatural grace and
faith ; that supernatural was given him to merit heaven by. But I find them not so distinctly explaining any different acts of natural or super natural grace in themselves. Some of ours, though not in relation to
meriting heaven, yet ascribe it to him to fit him to know God, so as to
long after heaven (as faith doth), which they make the reward of his
obedience. And I confess, if the promise given him had been that of
heaven, and the vision of God, as there, then it had been necessary for him to have such a supernatural faith as we. But seeing it hath been
proved, and I think sufficiently, that his covenant would not have brought him thither, neither that it was intended in that his promise of life, there
fore I know no use at all of such a supernatural principle, as an optic glass, added to supernatural light, to help it to see further into another world, when he was in his condition and desires to be confined to this. For faith
supernatural is given to prepare for heaven, and to supply sight or vision,
till we come thither, to support us whilst absent from the Lord : 2 Cor.
v. 5-7, Now he that hath wrought us for heaven is God, who hath given us the earnest of his Spirit also. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord : for we walk by faith, not by sight. The meaning is, God here by his Spirit works us and prepares us for heaven, and that by giving us light of faith, which in this our absence supplies the room of sight, and so he
gives us a confidence of our coming thither. And so it is to be an evidence
of things absent and not seen, and to give a present subsistence of things but in hopes further to be enjoyed. So Heb. xi. 1,
* Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now Adam not being ordained to sight, and always to be at home in his body, and so at no time to be absent from his body, to be present with the Lord,
as we are to be, 2 Cor. v. 8, We are confident, I say, and willing rather
to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord for his body and earthly tabernacle was his natural only home. Neither was God absent
to him, nor presented as absent, as in relation to a further way to be
enjoyed, not yet attained. And therefore to what end he should have faith, that faith which thus prepares for heaven, whose essence and definition
lies in giving an evidence of things not seen, or enjoyed, but hoped for, I know not.
Yea, thirdly, it would not only have been of no use, but have made him
miserable. For the use and end of "this supernatural faith being to give
58 OF THE CREATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
us a taste of that way of knowing God in himself, as in heaven, and so to
stir up groans and desires after sight and vision of him, as 2 Cor. v. 4 :
4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened : not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. We do groan, &c., and a confidence of it, as verses 6, 7,
* Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord : for we walk by faith, not by sight. So that it is such a faith as gives a taste of what it is to enjoy God by sight, and so stirs up groans and longings after it. And so it is a
* following after*
to comprehend, as Phil. iii. 12, a looking for, and hastening to, as in 2 Pet.
iii. 12. Now if Adam had had such a principle and light thus to know God, and should have had desires thus to know him, and not have gone to heaven, and so there, by a full vision, to have had this groaning satisfied, the addition of such a way of knowing God not satisfied and filled up, as by faith it could never have been, this had been to have stirred up desires in vain, and to have made his condition, not in its own sphere perfect and
complete, yea, miserable in this, that he should have wanted that con fidence which our faith stirs up in us, together with our longings, which
stills our desires ; yea, it had left him despairing of ever doing so. And therefore, fourthly, our way of faith must needs be supernatural, and altioris ordinis to his, and so our knowing God above his ; because it
is thus a prelibation or taste of that vision which is ordained to us in heaven. Faith is an imperfect prelibation of that knowledge of God we
shall have hereafter, and the inchoation of it ; so as by faith, we come at
least to know what an happiness it is to know God in his essence, as in
heaven, and so to long after it. And therefore, according as we have more
faith, so there comes to be greater degrees of glory in heaven given, even in a like proportion as men s faith was more stirring up earnest groanings, happiness being expletio appetituum, the satisfying our desires. And there
fore faith doth, in an imperfect obscure way, know God in himself; for it
helps us to see and taste the happiness of knowing God so as he is, and so stirs up desires accordingly. Now that knowledge of God in heaven is
acknowledged by all to be so transcendently supernatural, that it is no way, in any respect, natural to any creature, but only to Jesus Christ ; as I
shall shew hereafter. And therefore our faith, that is the inchoation of it, and is a beholding the glory of the Lord Christ, 2 Cor. iii. 18, and eternal
life begun, must needs be ejusdem ordinis, of the same rank, and so doth
differ from natural faith and knowledge of God in this, that the one is a
seeing him in his work and effects only from an inbred light of his attri butes ; the other is a seeing God, though obscurely, as in himself; though as presented in another, yet with a taste imperfect of what it is to see God in himself, which stirs up the heart to long after it. Which puts the truest
difference between knowing God naturally and supernaturally, and between Adam s way and ours.
And therefore, as an evidence of this our way, God hath ordained a
temporary faith in men enlightened, as the counterfeit of our way, as he doth and did that natural knowledge in heathens, and the vision of old to the forefathers, as the representation of what Adam s way of knowing God was. And therefore these temporaries are said to be enlightened, and to
partake of the heavenly gift of faith, and the Holy Ghost, and to taste of the powers of the world to come, Heb. vi. 4, 5, as a counterfeit of that
enlightening and spirit of wisdom and revelation through the Holy Ghost, whereby believers know the hope of their calling, Eph. i. 17, 18 ; which
CflAP. VII.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 59
work, even in them, is not supernatural onry to corrupt nature, but to pure
nature, though not sanctifying as Adam s was, yet working an assent to, and taste of the things of that world, such as Adam should never have had, into which world Adam should never have come, and therefore he no ways tasted it. And therefore it is called
< the heavenly gift, and wrought by the Holy Ghost in a way above nature.
To conclude. Thus learned Cameron, though he gives but a touch in a
: when differencing the faith in Adam and in us, he says, Fides in feeders nature est d Deo, ut loquuntur in scholis,
word, yet his judgment falls this way
per modum nature : at fides quce requiritur in fcedere gratia, d Deo est, sed
per modum gratia wpernaturalis (Thes. xiv. de fcedere].
Now, as to the opposite branch, that our faith, and God s revelation to
us, is supernatural, this will appear in three or four respects
1. In respect of the objects revealed to our faith, which his mind should never have arrived at.
2. In regard to the light by which our minds are acted and elevated, compared with that inbred light by which he knew things, that candle which
the Lord set up in his heart, and was inbred in him.
3. In respect of the way or manner of knowledge, or assent raised up
thereby.
1. For the objects revealed to us. They are such as were utterly above
the due and right of pure nature in Adam. This comparison you have made (take in the whole context from first to last) 1 Cor. ii. 7, 9, 10, and 11 verses, where, setting forth and commending the excellency of the things revealed in the gospel, (1.) he calls it
* the wisdom of God, to shew how
it excels human wisdom, which he had called the wisdom of men, ver. 4, and of the world, ver. 6, this by the way of excellency, the wisdom of God ; and so excelleth man s wisdom, as God doth man. Neither is it termed God s wisdom in a general sense ; such the law is, and the natural
knowledge of God given to the heathen, chap. i. 21, where also he had shewed the inefficacy of it ; but this is in a transcendent manner, so tran
scendent, as God appropriates it to himself. It is a wisdom, proper and
peculiar to God, which he arrogateth and taketh the glory of, as having been
hid and concealed in his own breast, not in any creature s ; and therefore is above the reach of the wisdom of any creature, man or angel, and so
merely divine, and of God, and no way natural to any creature, as due to be revealed unto it. And therefore, Eph. iii. 9, it is the mystery of his
will, made known according to his good pleasure, freely, and of mere grace,
110 way as connatural to the understanding of any creature, man or angel. And in this sense, 1 Cor. ii. 11, they are called the things of God, even
as the proper peculiar thoughts in a man s heart, which are secret to him
self alone, are the things of a man. For so he doth compare them in that llth verse, For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of
a man which is in him ? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but
the Spirit of God. They are all God s notions, proper to him, the light of which were not to become inbred in any creature s heart ; for then it
might have been called their wisdom, as the things naturally known by men
or angels is, and may be called. And therefore, though he mentions only the corrupt wisdom of man in opposition to it, yet in that, upon occasion
thereof, he particularly attributes it to God, he calls it his, in opposition to
all wisdom attainable by the strength of nature in men or angels, fallen or
not. It is merely divine.
(2.) Further also, 2dly, he colls it a mystery, which implies a thing
CO OF THE CREATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
so hidden as cannot be known but by revelation : Mat. xi. 25, At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. As none can know the things of a man, but the spirit of a man, so nor these deep things of God, none but his
Spirit; 1 Cor. ii. 11, For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. He argues from the lesser to the greater, that if a man s peculiar thoughts cannot be known by another, then surely
not God s private cabinet-council thoughts, as these were. The heart of a man is a deep well, but a man of understanding will draw it out. But God s heart is so infinitely deep, as no understanding could, by any inbred
light proper to it, have sounded it ; so deep, that the phrase of searching the deep things of God is used of the Spirit himself, ver. 10 : But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit
: for the Spirit searcheth all things,
yea, the deep things of God. This is to shew these depths, speaking after the manner of men.
(3.) He says it is a wisdom hid : Eph. iii. 10, To the intent that now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God ; to shew it was no way attain
able by the light even of angels, he says, From the beginning of the world
it was hid in God; and then from the angels, who knew it but by the church. And then the apostle proves all this, 1 Cor. ii. 9, for that proof there brought out of Isaiah may refer, as interpreters refer, to the seventh
* As it is
verse, as well as to the eighth and ninth, and indeed to both :
written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into heart
of man, the things which God hath prepared for those that love him. If
it refers to exclude the knowledge of the wise of the world, yet it is an
argument fetched d tnajori, not a bare opposition only. For they are so
far from having entered into the hearts of corrupt men, that not into inno
cent man ; for him the words will reach. For, first, if we consult the
prophet Isaiah, chap. Ixiv. 4, whence the words are quoted, you shall find he says, From the beginning of the world, ear hath not heard, &c., instead of which the apostle puts in, nor hath entered into the heart of man, that is, not of innocent man, no man, from the beginning of the world when man was made. Secondly, The apostle, in the phrases he
enumerates, excludes all the light, and power, and means of the knowledge of innocent man by nature, by reckoning up all the means of knowledge. For his knowledge came in, either from the inbred light of nature in him, as was said, and so ascended out of his own heart, as the phrase is here, which notes out the natural way of man s knowledge from inbred principles ; or else, was improved either by observation of the creatures by the eye, or
by communication with God to the ear. Now none of these ways should the things of the gospel have been known and received by him ; but it is
merely supernatural, and so is said not to ascend, but to descend from the Father of lights by revelation. So James i. 5, 17, If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not ; and it shall be given him. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning. He speaks of this wisdom, and
so it is above the way of nature also. Thirdly, He excludes not the know
ledge of man only, but of angels also, though he names man only. For in
Isaiah you have it, Isa. Ixiv. 4, None besides thee have seen, God, what
CHAP. VII.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. Gl
he hath prepared for him that waits for him. The prophet speaks unto
Christ, whom he calls God, as a person distinct from the Father, that pre pared these things ; therefore he changeth the person, Besides thee, what he ? No man or creature, hut he that was God as well as man, and so was
in God s bosom, could naturally have known these things. Therefore he says, No man besides thee, God, whom therefore he calls God and man, whom, verse the first, he had called upon to come down, and be
incarnate, and deliver this gospel, as once the law, when the mountains
melted, verses 1-3, Oh that /thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence ; as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil ; to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble
! When thou didst terrible things which we looked not
at thy presence
for, thou earnest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence. And he threw the enemies out of Canaan, the type of spiritual enemies to be
destroyed by Christ, and by the revelation of the gospel ; so that those truths are supernatural every way to the knowledge of any creature but to
Christ, as the vision of God also is. And therefore, the apostle concludes, there is no knowing them but by a revelation of the^Spirit, 1 Cor. ii. 10 :
1 But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit, over and above the light of natural faith and natural principles.
But of this head I have treated more largely, in shewing the glory and
riches of the mystery of the gospel. To which I refer the reader.
2. The second thing, wherein our state excels Adam s, is, that heavenly
light wherewith our minds are acted and elevated to those supernatural
objects ; so far as the light we are assisted with excels, so far must be the
knowledge. It is light which makes all things manifest, as Eph. v. 13. The foundation of all Adam s knowledge of God was an inbred light, or candle
setup by the Lord in the chambers of the belly, as Solomon speaks of the
relics of it, Prov. xx. 27, which, though holy, was but natural. But that
light whereby we see the things of the gospel is termed glorious, and so
wholly supernatural. When Christ converted Paul, Acts xxii., Christ sur rounded his body with a light which dazzled, yea, blinded his eyes with the
glory of it, ver. 11 : I could not see for the glory of that light, says he, which was but an outward sign to shew the glory of that light by which Christ did shine into his mind now at his conversion ; even as 2 Cor. iv. 6,
* For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined
in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. The light of the glory of God in the face of Christ is a further glory than what shined in the creation, and therefore
requires a further light to see it. As is the object, such is the light we
see it with. Any object that is light itself, held forth in its glory, cannot be seen but by a light answerably glorious ; for the light it is seen by is but the splendour of it, as the beams are of the sun, which is seen in itself
only by its own beams and light. And so is God in Christ. Which
therefore, 1 Peter ii. 9, is called a marvellous light, yea, his marvellous
: marvellous or wonderful, because superexcelling ; for that is wonderful that is such which nature cannot comprehend, and is above the course of nature, av/j,affrov fug, and it is also called his light, that is, Christ. Not only which he gives, as Eph. v. 14, Arise, and Christ shall
light
give thee light ; nor his only, that is, of him as the object of it ; but his
as the same which resides in him, and was in his heart, by which he saw
things here when below ; for, 1 Cor. ii. 16, We have the mind of Christ,
62 OF THE CREATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
having the same spirit with Christ, only he above measure. It is called
his light, as his inheritance, Eph. i. 18. And Adam s light, though
lighted at this sun, yet but as the efficient cause of it, as John i. 4. It was but the light of men as they are human, and proceeded, tnodo humano, and so lower. His was not the same with Christ s ; but this light of the
gospel, the light of the Spirit that is in Christ, whose Spirit, so working, he had not. And so it was lower, as that light of the moon is to the sun,
or as the light of glory will be to this of grace. Not as an optic glass only, which strengthens not the sight only, but brings down the object lower, but such as was added to Stephen s eyes, being full of the Holy Ghost ; when he saw Christ in heaven, there was added a further light and ability than the inbred light of sight or of the sun, to see Christ by in heaven, Acts vii. 55, 56 ; as also to Paul in his conversion. Such is this light of
faith to the mind, to see heavenly objects by, superadded to natural light, and that of reason. So as if you could suppose Adam now alive, as in
innocency, for him to see these things there must be an elevation of his
light by the access of another light supernatural of the Spirit, as there was
to Stephen s eye. And therefore our believing is attributed to the Spirit,
as was said, and is called the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and the
spirit of faith, 2 Cor. iv. 13. And 1 John ii. 20, 27, The unction that
teacheth all things ; not only clearing the sight, but teaching it. Neither
need it be strange that there should be several ranks of light from God to
* see light in God s light, Ps.
see himself by. That as in heaven we
xxxvi. 9, and so a further light than any here, so here we see Christ and God by the Spirit s light and representation, though of a lower kind than
that whereby we shall see him in heaven, and not by natural light as it
would present God to us, or take God up from the creatures. And the more immediate the light is from God, the more supernatural, the higher
is it, and we the more passive in it. The light of glory will be God s light
immediately ; he both is the object and efficient, all in all, and so we
shall be swallowed up with it, as when the sun is seen by its own light. This of the Spirit in us is efficiently his, and therein we are more passive than active, though the subject of it, and that of Adam s inbred light had
less of God s light in it, he not being enlightened by his spirit of revelation, but left to that inbred light to judge and give an assent to the things
objected afore him.
Add to these that place, Eph. i. 17, where he prays, that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in (or for) the knowledge of him. Every word and
circumstance makes to demonstrate what I intend.
[1.] His scope is to reckon up in this chapter the blessings heavenly, which we are blessed with in Christ, the second Adam, peculiar to the elect.
So Eph. i. 3, they are all blessings heavenly, which we are blessed with in
Christ, the second Adam. The blessings we were blessed with in the first Adam were but earthy, and served but for a life on earth; as the opposi
* The first man is of the earth,
tion, 1 Cor. xv. 47, 48, evidently shews :
earthy ; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such
are they that are earthy ; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that
are heavenly. Now after election, adoption, redemption, he mentions the wisdom and the prudence which is in Christ, the second Adam, as one of
those heavenly and spiritual blessings peculiar to the elect, God hath
abounded to us in, when he made known the gospel, the mystery of his will,
that is, the secrets of his will, which he purposed in himself, Eph. i. 8., 9.
CHAP. YIL] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 68
And then here in his prayer he shews the heavenly supernatural rise and cause of it, even all the three persons. The vouchsafer of it is God the
Father, [l.J not^as the author of nature, but as the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ ; for it is a blessing in Christ peculiar to his, and therefore called
1 the faith of God s elect, Titus i. 1. None ever had it but the elect, and
therefore Adam had it not ; seeing men not elected had all he had once
in him. And therefore, though he was elect, yet he had not what he had then as elect, but as the common root of all, both elect and others.
* the Father of glory. He praying for his peculiar wisdom, mentions such
[2.J And 2dly, He makes the Father the fountain of it, as he is
attributes (as the manner of the apostles in their prayers is) as have a more proper relation of efficiency to the things prayed for. Elsewhere, when James bids them seek wisdom, he directs them to God as the Father
of lights, and here as the Father of glory. For this wisdom is so far from being ^the same in our primitive nature, that it is glory, a glorious
gift, and therefore supernatural, not to corrupt but pure nature, and is of
that rank comparatively to nature as glory in heaven is of, it being the
beginning of glory, and therefore is called eternal life to know God, even
as a believer doth : John xvii. 3, And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. It
raiseth the mind up to take in a taste or hint, a glimpse, a prelibation of
glory, as it follows in the next verse, 18th of Eph. i., The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of
his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the
saints, and so to desire and breathe after it. Now Adam s was not such.
[3.] It is from the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Christ given to us, and so
working above the power of nature. And in that respect he is called here
* The Spirit of wisdom and revelation, as also elsewhere The Spirit of
faith, 2 Cor. iv. 13. The way of natural faith I conceive to have been, that the object being provided with evidence suitable to convince and per
suade the light of nature of the truth of itself, through an ordinary con currence of the Holy Ghost to a natural free agent, it was left to the
spirit of man to give its assent, so as then it was of and for that spirit in man rather. But now it is attributed more to the Spirit of Christ in us, who both works wisdom, the principle capable of it, and revealeth and draws out an acknowledgment by an overpowering light. For I take it, that the faith of God s elect is not resolved into principles inbred and
begotten, as I said Adam s was, but into a prevailing work of the Spirit working wisdom, and a testimony of the Spirit giving light, and sealing up what he would have us believe. A prevailing testimony of the Spirit is the
ground of all our faith, of what kind soever it be. Not only when a
persuasion is begotten of a man s interest in Christ, which is because the
Spirit witnesseth with his spirit, which yet alone carries the name of the
* testimony of the Spirit ; but when a man s spirit prevailingly assents to
any spiritual truth, it is from the like overpowering testimony of the Spirit,
sealing up that truth with a light beyond the light pure nature had, which was left to itself to give consent out of its own light, which was suited to
the object. But here a divine light is superadded that casts the balance, and this in believing there is a God, or that Christ is the Son of God, as
well as in believing the interest of a Christian in him. This I find, 1 John
V. 5, 6, speaking of believing not only a man s self to be the son of God, but this truth, that Christ is the Son of God, ver. 5, he says that the
Spirit bears witness to it ; and ver. 10, He that believes hath the witness
64 OF THE CREATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
in himself. Now his scope there is to speak of the witness, not only to a man s interest in Christ, of which ver. 12, but also of Christ s being ordained
the fountain of life : vers. 10, 11, He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness in himself ; he that believeth not God, hath made him a
liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And
this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is his
Son.
It is necessary, upon occasion of this discourse, to add a caution in this
place, which is, that all this is not so to ba understood as if the light of
supernatural faith in us destroys that of reason and nature ; yea, it subor
dinates it to itself, and restoreth it again, and rectifies it, and then makes
use of it, even as the light of reason doth subordinate and make use of
sense. God possesseth and clotheth the natural powers of the mind with
an higher light than ever inbred in us, through the revelation of the Spirit, and converts them all, as its engines, to get a further knowledge by. We
see it by this, that the word written, unto which the light of faith is suited,
as colours to the eye, though it reveals things beyond reason and light
natural, as are the principles of the gospel, yet it reveals them in such a
way as reason, enlightened by faith, may see the greatest harmony and
correspondency in them, and receive as much satisfaction as ever in that
other natural knowledge. And the principles being taken for granted once
by faith, there is use of reason, to see the dependence of all things revealed
one with another, and the collecting one thing from another ; so as God
hath writ the Scriptures as to men endowed with reason, yea, and applied
it to the way of human arts and sciences. Yet still so as the light of faith
is a light beyond that of reason, which appears,
First, In that the first principles of the gospel, as the apostle calls them, Heb. vi. 1, laid in the mind, are wholly above reason, and made evident
by this supernatural light wholly. They are wholly new, and reason is
incapable of them. So that there is much the same difference between the
principles inbred, and these by faith revealed in the gospel, that is, between
the principles of sciences. Some sciences take their principles out of nature,
being such as are known by nature, as philosophy doth ; and so did Adam s
divinity and knowledge of God, the principles of it were inbred. But others
take their principles from other sciences, as music, having use of numbers, borrows its skill in them from arithmetic. So faith doth fetch its principles about Christ, &c., from heaven, the bosom of God, the Spirit laying in the
d eep things of God s counsel, as principles wholly new and wholly above nature. And these it sees no other way than by a supernatural light and revelation
: at first it is so, though reason may confirm them. Therein
of the Spirit
faith and reason differ, that niliil est in intellectu, quod non priiis in sensu
but here many things are in faith which were never in reason.
And, secondly, it appears from this, that though faith useth reason to
discuss the truth of deductions from those principles, and to gather conclu
sions from these principles laid ; as for example, the word hath motives which faith makes use of in a way of reason too, and it argues things in a
rational way. It argues the cause from the effect, God s love from signs. In interpreting the Scriptures, we use reason to gather from the connection and dependence the meaning of the Holy Ghost. Yet still, even in these
arguings and deductions, there accompanies a light that faith strikes in with, a light beyond the force in the reason. It seals up the truth collected by
reason, beyond the power of reason. It superadds a light which casts the
balance. It not only reveals the principles we reason from by an higher
CHAP. VII.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 65
light than natural, but it confirms the reasonings and conclusions from thence by a light more than natural, of bare reason : as the phrase in Job
is, He sealeth instruction, Job xxxiii. 16. If we be moved to any duty by a practical reason or motive, the spiritual makes it effectual beyond what the moral or rational force that is in it can set it on. If we be com
forted from any signs, the Spirit gives a light of revelation to cast the
balance, and witnesseth with our spirits, as Rom. viii. 16, beyond the
power of the sign. If we read the Scriptures, and to get the meaning of
them, observe the connection of one thing with another by reason, yet there comes often a light of the Spirit beyond the height of reason, which, by that observation of the connection, seals up this to be the Holy Ghost s
meaning ; so as the Holy Ghost is to faith still his own interpreter. For
else the Scripture were of private interpretation, which it is not, 2 Pet. i. 20. For such is ratio humana to the Spirit. Yet as the Holy Ghost, in writing the Scriptures, writ them in a rational way, because unto men reasonable, so in giving us light to understand them, he useth reason, but joins a light beyond it. Some believe, says Christ to Thomas,
* that have not seen. And though God used sense to confirm his faith, yet his faith was a light beyond the light of sense or reason from thence.
And, thirdly, that this light of faith is above that of reason rectified,
appears in this, that it depends not on the natural way of man s under
standing necessarily, but often proceeds above it. We see those that have low understandings, little reason in them, and are ignorant of the notional connection of one truth with another, cannot dispute for it, yet see further
into things heavenly, see more in them than the greatest doctors. What
is the reason ? A supernatural light of faith, a higher light abounds in them ; and being a light above the way of nature and reason, reveals things to them beyond the power of reason.
"Yea, we may all see it in ourselves, at several times, that the same
reasons, motives, and signs, considered by us at one time, persuade us not, as at another time they do, by reason of a superadded light of revelation