VIII. And yet, O talkative Dialectician, I
will ask thee one small question, Job xxxviii. 3. and answer
thou me, as He saith to Job, Who through whirlwind and cloud giveth
Divine admonitions. Job xxxviii. 1. Are there
many mansions in God’s House, as thou hast heard, or only
one? Of course you will admit that there are many, and not only
one. Now, are they all to be filled, or only some, and others
not; so that some will be left empty, and will have been prepared to no
purpose? Of course all will be filled, for nothing can be in vain
which has been done by God. And can you tell me what you will
consider this Mansion to be? Is it the rest and glory which is in
store There for the Blessed, or something else?—No, not anything
else. Since then we are agreed upon this point, let us further
examine another also. Is there any thing that procures these
Mansions, as I think there is; or is there nothing?—Certainly
there is—What is it? Is it not that there are various modes
of conduct, and various purposes, one leading one way, another another
way, according to the proportion of faith, and these we call
Ways? Must we, then, travel all, or some of these Ways…the
same individual along them all, if that be possible; or, if not, along
as many as may be; or else along some of them? And even if this
may not be, it would still be a great thing, at least as it appears to
me, to travel excellently along even one.—“You are right in
your conception.”—What then when you hear there is but One
way, and that a narrow one, Matt. vii. 14. does the word seem
to you to shew? That there is but one on account of its
excellence. For it is but one, even though it be split into many
parts. And narrow because of its difficulties, and because it is
trodden by few in comparison with the multitude of the adversaries, and
of those who travel along the road of wickedness. “So I
think too.” Well, then, my good friend, since this is so,
why do you, as though condemning our doctrine for a certain poverty,
rush headlong down that one which leads through what you call arguments
and speculations, but I frivolities and quackeries? Let Paul
reprove you with those bitter reproaches, in which, after his list of
the Gifts of Grace, he says, Are all Apostles? Are all Prophets?
etc. 1 Cor. xii. 29.