And where things are more darkly laid down, we should consider that
God intended hereby to stir up our diligence, that thereby we might
increase our knowledge, and not our divisions, for it may be said of
all discoveries of truth we have made in the Scriptures, as it is
said of the globe of the earth, that though men have made great
searches, and thereupon great discoveries, yet there is still a
terra incognita, an unknown land; so there is in the Scriptures:
for after men have travelled over them, one age after another, yet
still there is, as it were, a terra incognita, an unknown track to
put us upon farther search and inquiry, and to keep us from
censuring and falling out with those who have not yet made the same
discoveries; that so we may say with the Psalmist, when we reflect
upon our short apprehensions of the mind of God, that we have seen
an end of all perfection, but God's commands are exceeding broad;
and as one observes, speaking of the Scriptures, that there is a
path in them leading to the mind of God, which lieth a great
distance from the thoughts and apprehensions of men. And on the
other hand, in many other places, God sits, as it were, on the
superficies, and the face of the letter, where he that runs may
discern him speaking plainly, and no parable at all. How should the
consideration of this induce us to a peaceable deportment towards
those that differ!
5.
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