church," &c.

3. Therefore, know again, that the Word, if it saith and expresseth
that this or that is so and so, as to the matter in hand, thou art
bound and obliged, both by the name, profession, and the truth, unto
which thou hast joined thyself, to assent to, confess, and acknowledge
the same, even then when thy carnal reason will not stoop thereto.
"Righteous art thou, O God," saith Jeremiah, "yet let me plead with
thee; Wherefore do the wicked live?" Mark, first he acknowledgeth that
God's way with the wicked is just and right, even then when yet he
could not see the reason of his actions and dispensations towards them.
The same reason is good as to our present case: and hence it is that
the apostle saith, the spiritual armour of Christians should be much
exercised against those high towering and self-exalting imaginations,
that within our own bosoms do exalt themselves against the knowledge of
God; that every thought or carnal reasoning may be not only taken, but
brought a captive into obedience to Christ; that is, be made to stoop
to the Word of God, and to give way and place to the doctrine therein
contained, how cross soever our thoughts and the Word lie to each
other. And it is observable that he here saith, "they exalt themselves
against the knowledge of God;" which cannot be understood, that our
carnal, natural reason doth exalt itself against an eternal deity,
simply considered; for that nature itself doth gather from the very
things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead: it must be
then that they exalt themselves against that God as thus and thus
revealed in the Word, to wit, against the knowledge of one God,
consisting of three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit; for this is the
doctrine of the Scriptures of truth: and therefore it is observable
these thoughts must be brought captive, and be made subject in
particular to the Lord Jesus Christ, as to the second person in the