swadling-clothes in which Christ was wrapped Our reason is of too low a stature and therefore as Zacheus did upon the Sycamore we must climbe the tree of life the Scripture if we would get a sight of Jesus Naturall reason may discover the back-parts of God in the creature but if she pretends or presumes to discover the Sun of righteousness she betraies her weakness and degeneracie it is one end of Scripture-revelation to supply the shortness and defect of naturall reason Nay the glorious Angels the most quick-sighted of the whole creation could not have discovered these Gospel-mysteries Which things saith the Apostle the Angels desire to look into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stoop to peep to prie into as things vailed and hidden 1 Pet. 1. 12. alluding to the Cherubims which were made with their eyes looking down towards the mercie-seat the word signifies a diligent sollicitous and through search Tanta Evangelii mysterii salutis majestas est atque jucunditas saith Glassius either ravished with the pleasantness or confounded and blinded with the Majestie of these mysteries They desire to prie into them and so they might have done and been never the wiser had not God revealed them by Scripture What the Apostle speaks of that one mysterie of Ephes 3. 10. incorporating Jew and Gentile into one bodie by Christ we may say of these Gospel-mysteries that God revealed to the intent that unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdome of God without which revelation the Angels had been strangers to these mysteries to this very day 2. The excellencie of the revelation it self or manner of revealing them which appears upon a three-fold account 1. The fulness and sufficiencie of it both as to doctrine and practice faith and maners both to make a man of God wise unto 2 Tim. 3. 15 17. salvation and perfect to every good work 1. Scripture contains a full revelation of all foundations of faith or things necessarie to be believed to salvation either expresly or by convincing evident and undeniable consequence and needs not to be eeked out with unwritten traditions or pretended enthusiasmes and revelations Tradition which brings down and conveys Scripture-truths through the successive ages of the Church to us we cannot without ingratitude but acknowledge as an eminent instance and testimonie of Gods providence and none of the least arguments for the authoritie and Divinitie of Scripture and in this sence the Church is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the pillar holds forth the Kings proclamation but contributes no authoritie to it And in this sence too S. Augustin's non credidissem Scripturae nisi Ecclesiae autoritas commoveret may go for good and currant Divinitie we could not have believed the Scripture because we could not have had it if providence had not handed it to us by the Church So revelation of Scripture-mysteries by the Spirit of God we acknowledge as the accomplishment of a great Gospel-promise of the Spirit leading us into all truth which therefore Joh. 16. 13. the Apostle Paul praies for for the Ephesians that God would give unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit of revelation the knowledge Ephes 1. 17. of Christ but traditions or revelations as additionall or supplementall to Scripture we reject as detracting from the wisdome of God and the perfection of revealed truth Non est scriptum timeat Tertul. Revel 22. 18 vae illud adjicientibus to wit that wo if any shall adde unto these words God shall adde unto him the plagues which are written in this book and the Apostle passeth an Anathema upon whoever should though an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel then he had Gal. 1. 6. preached Notanter dicit praeter non contra not onely what is against but what is more then Scripture-revelation is to be rejected there is enough revealed to bring us unto salvation and what would you have more These things are written saith S. John that ye Joh. 20. 31. might believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name and Search the Scriptures for in them ye Joh. 5. 39. think to have eternall life and our Saviour doth not blame them for thinking so And if Scripture be not sufficient we may say as the disciples in another case ad quid perditio haec to what purpose Matth. 26. 8. was it written To the law and to the testimonie saith Isaiah Esay 8. 20. When the rich glutton in hell desired one should be sent from the dead to his brethren Abraham sends them to Moses and the Prophets let them hear them let them but believe what is in Moses and Luke 16. 29. the Prophets and they need not fear coming into this place of torment 2. Scripture is a full and perfect rule of holiness able to make the man of God throughly furnished to every good work Therefore 2 Tim. 3. 17. our Saviour when the Lawyer came and tempted him with that question What shall I do to inherit eternall life bids him have Luke 10. 25 26. recourse to the Scriptures What is written in the law how readest thou This is the onely perfect and unerring rule of true righteousness Those three words of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Titus 2. 11 12. speak the whole dutie of a Christian in all his capacities and relations to God himself and his neighbour and this the Gospel teacheth and engageth us to do So perfect a rule it is that the most specious observances the most glorious performances the most exact worship is no way acceptable unto God if not commanded in and directed by the Word They may have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they may have a shew of wisdome in Will-worship Coloss 2. 23. to the pleasing of men not to the honour of God God gave Moses a pattern for the making of the Tabernacle and David for the Exod. 25. 9. Temple and all things were to be ordered and regulated according Heb. 8. 5. to this pattern God hath set us a perfect rule of worship in his word and no service pleaseth him but what is according to this rule as our Saviour told the woman of Samaria concerning the Samaritan worship at mount Garazim and Jewish worship at Jerusalem that the Samaritanes worshipped they knew not what the Jews knew what they worshipped for salvation was of the Jews Why so because the Jews had Gods speciall direction and appointment of Gods word for their service which the Samaritanes had not We acknowledge the Churches power to determine decent observances and constitutions for publick order in the service of God The Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will sufficiently warrant this 1 Cor. 14. 40. The Church is a cypher stands for nothing if it hath not power here and he who wilfully sleights these will be found guiltie of
unknown God I hope not yet Brethren notwithstanding all our high-raised notions and speculations of God he is truely in a Scripture-sence unknown to so many of us as know him not 1. Experimentally The Devils have more notions of God then the greatest Philosophers in the world It is possible for a man to have many conceptions and be able accurately to distinguish and solidly to determine concerning the grace of God and yet in a Scripture-sence know nothing of it unless he taste and see that the Lord is gracious Nicodemus a master in Israel yet ignorant of the work of regeneration in respect of which an ordinary Christian may know more then the greatest Scholar I have read of one Didymus a blinde man whom for his incomparable learning S. Jerome was wont to call his Seer many such there are blind as to the abstruse notions of God but Seers in respect of experience which is the onely true saving knowledge of God 2. Practically and operatively as our knowledge influenceth upon our lives to conform them to what we know otherwise the Gospel and God are but notions to us and Scripture interprets it as a deniall of God They profess they know God but in works they deny Tit. 1. 16. him All our notions of God without this suitable practise can but amount to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a form of knowledge not to any saving Rom. 2. 20. discovery If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them not John 13. 17. else If knowledge would do it the Devils might be in heaven The exprobratory sentence will be at last not well read or disputed great Scholar but well done thou good and faithfull servant Seneca speaks of some Philosophers of his days Boni esse desierunt simui ac docti evaserint who ceased to be good when they began to be learned I shall charitably believe no such will be found amongst us for I speak not these things as S. Paul saith to his Corinthians to shame you 1 Cor. 4. 14. but as my beloved Brethren and Friends I warn you and exhort you in the words of S. Peter to adde to your knowledge vertue that you 2 Pet. 1. 5. may be such as Seneca would have every teacher to be Magis miremur visum quà m auditum such as may be admired more for holiness of life then subtilty of learning which God accounts no knowledge if destitute of the study and practise of obedience Hereby know we that we know him if we keep his commandments He that 1 Joh. 2. 3 4 saith he knoweth him and keepeth not his commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him Eighthly and lastly I beseech you Fathers and Brethren suffer the word of exhortation which quickens you to zeal and diligence in the dispensation of the Gospel committed to your trust that you may effect in your people by the preaching of the word what the highest improvements of nature as you have heard cannot reach to wit a saving knowledge of God God instituted the preaching of his word and Gospel to supply the defect of natural light the Apostle is express that when in the wisdome of God 1 Cor. 1. 21. the world by wisdome knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe God hath commissionated you on purpose as he did Paul to open mens eyes and turn them from Acts 26. 18. Mal. 2. 7. darkness to light The Priests lips must preserve knowledge that the people may seek the law at his mouth In order to bringing the people to a saving knowledge let me who would willingly lie as Disciple at your feet being by providence in this place take the boldness to give you a three-fold direction First Endeavour to bring those committed to your charge to a Scripture-knowledge of God Preach God not according to the abstruse Metaphysical notions of Plato and Aristotle all which Clemens Alexandrinus saith are but like a rotten nut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath no kernel nothing to feed souls which must have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the same Authour but according to the revelation God hath made of himself in Scripture Thus you shall approve your selves to God in the discharge of your office Empty aiery speculations may perhaps gratifie the humour phansie and curiositie of men but Scripture-truths onely please and honour God S. Pauls advice to Timothy is very remarkable Study to shew thy self 2 Tim. 2. 15. approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed and the way to that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly to divide the word of truth Secondly Preach a God in Christ. The Heathen can arrive at the knowledge of a God abstractly considered but a God in Christ is beyond the reach of natural sagacity but is your Commission to make known God saith the Apostle hath committed 2 Cor. 5. 19. unto us the word of reconciliation but what is that why that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself Lay this as the foundation of all your building Christ in his person and Christ in his offices Christ in opposition to nature in contradistinction to merit and your own works and righteousness Thirdly Let all your other knowledge stoop to the discovering God savingly and so far as it is not consistent with a plain and profitable discovery of God to the people lay it aside S. Paul though brought up at the feet of Gamaliel yet layd down his learning at the feet of Christ and professeth that though he spake with tongues more then they all yet in the Church he had rather 1 Cor. 14. 18 19. preach five words that he might teach others then ten thousand words in anunknown tongue At Athens indeed a famous University he quoteth a Poet Acts 17. vers 28 but when he comes to 1 Cor. 2. 2. his Corinthians then he determines to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non magni feci is Grotius gloss I valued no knowledge but disesteemed it that I might bring you to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as crucified Our Saviour Coloss 2. 3. who had in him all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge yet condiscended to the capacity of those whom he instructed speaking Mark 4. 33. the word to them as they were able to hear it In this Christ is a fit pattern for our imitation to teach us by a familiar plainness to descend to the understandings of the people Quomodò paratus esset impendi pro animabus eorum si eum pigeret inclinari ad aures eorum saith Augustin in his book De catechizandis rudibus Rev. 2. 4. In a word you are stars in the right hand of Christ which speaks both your security and your duty it is the office of stars to shine in the night with that light which they borrow from the Sun so
nourish spiritually that brings not a good affection to the word of God I. It is so in all other knowledge you may perhaps have it by experience If you put your children to a trade which they do not desire or love they will scarcely prove artists in it so if men put their children out intending to make them scholars if they do not love their books they will prove but dunces and therefore many parents do wisely dispose of their children according to their affections and inclinations so if men love not the word of God they are not probable to make any great proficiency in it Love is a quickning affection what I love I am ready to take pains for and not to endure to be without it Thus if men did love the word they would take pains for it familiarize it to them by much reading frequent hearing serious meditation and not endure to be without it Let David be an example Oh how do I love thy Law and this puts upon meditating upon the law day and night and when he was without it he mourns for it and sayes One day in Gods courts is better then a thousand elswhere and he cannot reflect upon his former enjoyment of that word without a tear Psal 42. 4. The Apostle is very full and pertinent to this purpose 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby as a childe finds sweetness in nothing but the breast so that it cries if it be without it and thus if we affect the word we shall thrive by it II. This provokes God to proceed judicially to give men up to unprofitableness and while they like not the truth to give them up to errour The Apostle is express in this 2 Thess 2. 10. And here we see that notional professours who have got a notion of truth in their heads but not the love of truth in their hearts oft turn Apostates and back-sliders as these times give us sad experience of When the Israelites began to loath manna God gave them quails indeed but his wrath with them Numb 11. 33. and leanness into their souls Psal 106. 15. So when men love not the manna of the word c. Love of the truth puts men upon a constant attendance upon the word as the means of grace and knowledge and so consequently they are like to profit by it so it is said of the Thessalonians that they were exemplary believers 1 Thess 1. 7. and the reason thereof is given vers 6. because they received the word with much joy Fourteenthly The fourteenth ground is a resting in the Ordinance in the opus operatum the work done and so look no further And this men are very apt to do as Micah blesses himself Judg. 17. 13. because he had gotten a Levite into his house so many conclude the love of God and their own security barely upon the enjoyment of a ministery and preaching So did those in Jer. 7. 4. They cry out The Temple of the Lord and so many also of the Gospel We enjoy that and therefore all is well You may finde some making plea of this unto Christ Luke 13. 26. Thou hast taught in our streets but Christ dismisses them for all that with a nescio I know you not vers 27. Thus did the Jews of old as in Rom. 2. 17. they rested in the law and made their boast of God and so do Christians now they think that they have done God service abundantly if they have heard two sermons on the Sabbath-day and never look to their proficiency As many an idle scholar satisfies himself that he hath been at his Tutours lecture though he cares not to profit by it If you rest onely in this it may be so far from profiting you that it may be your ruine Christ at the last-day will acquit none for enjoying the Gospel but condemn them for not profiting by it 2 Thess 1. 7. Fifteenthly The fifteenth ground is Unfaithfulness of memory and forgetfulness when the word goes in at one ear and out at another When this spiritual food stayes not with us it is not like to nourish us The word must be treasured up in the memory before it can fructifie in our hearts It is not the forgetful hearer that is blessed Jam. 1. 25. such an one is like a man who looks his face in a glass and presently forgets so such an one takes a glance at the word and the word is out of his memory assoon as himself is out of the Church If you would profit by the word you must practise the Apostles counsel Hebr. 2. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let nothing slip a Metaphor from a sieve or leaking vessel when the liquour runs out as fast as it is put in But because want of memory is a great complaint among many and some of them out of question serious Christians I shall give these brief directions 1. Pray for the Spirit one office of whom is to be a remembrancer John 14. 26. 2. Meditate in private upon the word of God Men goe out of the church presently to their worldly employment and give liberty to their vain thoughts and idle discourses and so the word is forgotten 3. Confer with others about the truths thou hearest This conference will both strengthen memory and fasten truths in it and also quicken and enflame affections to it as coales lying together kindle each other thus did the disciples Luc. 24. 14. Rather then forget a profitable truth consult the minister it is needless modesty in thee if thou enquire not and pride in him if he does not enforme thee 4. Get your affections raised and enflamed to truth If men loved the word of God they would remember it more did you ever know a covetous miser forget where his bags were laid if we could esteem the word as our treasures and greater treasures then those of Gold we should remember more of it 5. Perhaps what thou remembrest though but little keeps thee to close walking with God Be not discouraged thou thrivest more then one who can carry away a whole Sermon and lives not suitablely and likely it is that God may bring into thy remembrance more according as thou standest in need of it 6. Improve what thou remembrest by prayer and practise Retire thy self and turn the Sermon into a prayer and that will rivet it in thy memory however turn it into practise and thou wilt never forget it An artist will never forget the rules of that trade vvhich he daily practiseth Sermons are but notions to such vvho experience not the efficacy of them in their lives Sixteenthly The sixteenth ground is affectation of novelty and itching eares This puts men upon heaping to themselves teachers and forsaking sound preaching and teachers too The Apostle foretold such there should be in 2 Tim. 4. 3 4. and vve may safely say that it is fulfilled in our daies This is one of