Annesley - Houston-Packer Collection BX9327 .M6 1664

pm, Serm. t 2. Af fNrance rs pofsible. 2 3 this God is good and lufl ; and yet I have not a perfea knowledgeof a deity ; or of his goodnefs and itdice, for in chis life we know but in part, I Cor.13.11,1 2. There are three waies that we come to a certainty. I. There is a certainty that comes by fenfe, which cannot erre a- A threefold bout its proper obje&, when there is a due dif'ance, a fit difpofiti- certainty. onof the Organ, and the medium rightly difpofed : thus Thomas was certain of Chrifls refurre&ion from the dead. john 2o. 25. The other Difciples faid untohint, we have Pete the Lord, but he faid unto them, except 1(hall fee in his hands the Print of the mtils, and past my finger into the Print of the nails, and thruff my hand into his fide, 1 will not believe. Verf. 27. 11e faith to Thomas, reach hither thy fin- ger and behold my hands, reach hither thy hand, and thruf it into my fide, and be net faithleg bat believing. Verf. 28. And Thomas an- fwered and faid, my Lord, and my God. Though the other Difci- pies cold him they had Peen the Lord, yet he would not take it for a certainty from their report, except he had a certainty from his own _fenfe. But the Papitls do not only deny us a certainty of faith, but alfo a certainty of fenfe, for though in theSacrament we fee is is real bread, and tafae is to be real bread, and feel and handle it as real bread, yet contrary to our fenfe, would haveus believe, and fay it is tranfubfiantiated. 1. There is a certainty of fcience, or knowledge arifing from fira principles, received by all, that are proved by their own light, that can- not be dernonl{ rated apriori,bccaufe there is nothing true beforethem; as a man cannot Chewyou the Sun but by its own light ; So I certainly know that both parts of a contradi&ion cannot be true ; fo I certainly know, that thewhole is greater than any particular parr. 3. There is certainty of authority, or tellimony, if the teflimony be Humane, it begets but a moral perfwafion ; for no humane tetlimo- ny is of neceffary verity, becaufe truth is not necefíirily, but contin- gently and mutably in the man that gives this tellimony, and the tefli- mony hath not its cogency or validity from it felf, but from the qualifi- cations of the perfon that bears the tefli.nony, whence there is a gra- dual certainty inhumane teflimonie3 ; only God is fo necefarily true, that ir: should imply a contradi &ion that he íhould be God, and yet lye. God cannot lye, Tit.I.2. So that a Divine teflimony begets a cer- Det,t taint)/ cf divine Faith, for what God faith, I undoubtedly know to be & :rue, becaufe truth is (e)effent ial to him; for if truthbe `neceffary to :he Heb.6. r R. Teciator, thetruth of the teflimony mutt neceffarily be(f) true, fo If 10h.ß7.t7% know

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