Perim Nat* things, who can loon, it? Jer. i 7.9. Affurance, if vouchfafed, would but puff up Pride, and open a door to Licentioufnefs. Thus the Pon tificians. Their Divinity in this great Point is much like the Philofophy of the old Scepticks, thole Patrons of all uncertainty; who ufed to fay, ?óyov A ' t/PTt at, Reafon againft Rea - fon puts all Propofitions in aquilibrio ; the Ba- lance hangs even without Declenliion, this or that, way; - after all debates imaginable ; ffill Tiexo' I icI. Taxel 6 &x isly, perhaps it Ñ fo, perhaps not. It may be they do fee and hear, it may be not ; at leaff they doubt, whether they do it diftinHly or no. After the fame fort the Romanifts do what they can to perfwade Be- lievers out of their Spiritual fenfe , out of which Affurance arifeth. It may be ( will they fay) thou repentell and believeft,it may be not; or if thou loft them, it may be not ficut oportet, in fuch a manner as they ought to be done. Hence the Council of Trent Can. 9th. calls the certainty of Remiilìon, vain and remote from all Piety. This is that DoEfrine of theirs which Luther calls, Monfirum dubitationis, the manlier of doubting; and withal offerts, That if they erred only in this, it were a jnjt caufe for us to fe- parate front fuck an Infidel- Church. Learned Pareus files it, Defperationis officina, the fhop of defperation. Adding moreover, That it is An- tichrifts proper work to weaken the Faith and Hope of Chriftians. Indeed this Dohrine loth difpirit and emafculate Religion, turn Faith and Hope into meer Meteors, and fet the Con- D d 3 fciences 339
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