troversy upon objects, which are not subject to sensation, as spiritual things confessedly are not, and can do nothing but doubt and dispute upon them, as it hath always done from age to age. Hence, the world is full of religious controversies, and upon this ground cannot be otherwise. We do not reason at all, but upon topics of uncertainty; and therefore we must necessarily admit, that the word of God is not so sure a foundation as it is, when we begin to build our doubts upon it. But, since God has revealed his truth; where he gives the grace of faith to understand and rest upon it, all doubt, and consequently all carnal reasonings, should be cast down,* or done away; as being opposed to that truth, which cannot be mixed with error; and injurious to that faith, which is granted for the most firm and implicit reliance

* 2 Cor. x. 5.

upon

upon it.* Every believer's experience will tell him, that, when reasonings prevail, distrust, perplexity, weakness of heart, and perhaps unholiness

"

In this case, above all others, " nature, saith the learned Dr. Cudworth," is not master of art or wisdom: nature is ratio mersa et confusa, reason immersed and plunged into matter, and as it were fuddled in and confounded with it." Siris. § 255. If reason be weak and incompe→ tent in its energies upon natural things, how much more incapable must it be respecting a just deter-mination upon objects spiritual and sublime, such as are all the things of God ? "Reason also (says another author) is as much a rebel to Faith, as Passion is to Reason." Besides, the course of reason, proceeding from reflections, which, as they arise from the wavering weakness and misapprehension of the human mind, are both uncertain and disunited, must needs be unsafe and unsure, in holy things especially. Whereas -faith, grounded in its principle upon the sole truth and power of God, cannot be mistaken, unless God is. So far then is faith from superstitious fanaticism, that it is the very death of all reveries and fancies in matters of religion.

of

of heart and of life, are struggling most within him; and that he never enjoys a happy fellowship with his Saviour, or light and life from the Holy Spirit, or is deeply sensible of the love of the Father towards him, or obtains victory over sin, the world, and all that is contrary to God, but when he lives most clearly by the faith of the Son of God, and can cast all his welfare with the most entire recumbence upon him. A merely rational professor has nothing to work with but his own fallen nature, and nothing to work for but the pride and self-righteousness of his own deceived heart, which is constantly ready to turn him aside.

§ 41. When faith is low, Hope must sink in proportion. And that sort of faith, which is only reason, can bear no

another name for

fruit beyond its

own proper nature. If that faith, then, be founded in doubt or uncer

tainty,

tainty, or depends upon the inconstant and mutable exertions of man's weak and fallible mind; the Hope arising from it will scarcely deserve so good a name, and may turn out to be at last only of that deceitful or deceived kind, called the hope of the hypocrite, that perisheth.

§ 42. In the absence of faith and hope, where can Charity, or true. Love, towards God and man, spring up or appear? This love arises from the firm conviction of God's goodness, and from an ardent desire to show it, in the remembrance of his mercy. It is possible, that a man may be humane, and mild, and benevolent; but all this kindness of temper (desirable as it is) must be upon natural principles, worldly motives, or worldly ends, if it proceed not from the grace of God. He cannot heartily love God, nor the things of God, nor desire to glorify him, nor work for the

spiritual

spiritual benefit of men, nor be employed, with a single eye and a simple heart, upon the momentous objects of his own salvation, by any powers of his own fluctuating reason, or without some latent considerations terminating in carnal ease, interest, or glory. Such a man, having no faith, or hope, or love, but from his own depraved mind, cannot possibly serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him ;* because he lives upon probabilities only at the best, and, possibly to him, mere fallacies, speculations, or delusions, resulting from his own varying and imperfect apprehensions. If he cannot live upon some certain grounds, or without faithless fear, he must be oppressed with anxiety and torment, if he has feeling; and, if he have no feeling, he must be involved in the darkness of