Composed in a period of religious and political upheaval, Culverwell's "Discourse of the Light of Nature" is an imaginative statement of the teachings of Christian humanism concerning the nature and limits of human reason and the related concepts of natural and divine law. In it the scholasticism of the academy and the art of the preacher join hands to form an uneasy, although familiar, alliance. Elements from many Renaissance educational forms are recognizable: the sermon, the declamation, the disputation and determination, the commonplace, the treatise, all are represented. The lengthy introduction to this new critical edition throws light on the evolution of English rationalism in the seventeenth century, and the annotation establishes for the first time the full range of Culverwell's sources - classical, medieval, and Renaissance - and enables the reader to appreciate his manner of citing authority and handling illustration.