A man of credit or an impudent Liar Both may be equal in confident asserting and in the plausibility of the narrative Meer humane belief therefore must be uncertain From whence we see the pitiful case of the subjects of the King of Rome for so I must rather call him than a Bishop Why doth a Lay-man believe Transubstantiation or any other Article of their Faith Because the Church faith it is Gods Word What is the Church that saith so It is a faction of the Popes perhaps at Laterane or forty of his Prelates at the Conventicle of Trent How doth he know that these men do not lie Because God promised that Peters Faith should not fail and the Gates of Hell should not prevail against the Church and the Spirit should lead the Apostles into all truth But how shall he know that this Scripture is Gods Word And also that it was not a total failing rather than a failing in some degree that Peter was by that promise freed from Or that the Spirit was promised to these Prelates which was promised to the Apostles Why because these Prelates say so And how know they that they say true Why from Scripture as before But let all the rest go How knoweth the Lay-man that ever the Church made such a decree That ever the Bishops of that Council were lawfully called That they truely represented all Christs Church on Earth That this or that Doctrine is the decree of a Council or the sence of the Church indeed Why because the Priest tells him so But how knoweth he that this Priest saith true or a few more that the man speaketh with there I leave you I can answer no further but must leave the credit of Scripture Council and each particular Doctrine on the credit of that poor single Priest or the few that are his companions The Lay-man knoweth it no otherwise Q. But is not the Scripture it self then shaken by this seeing the History of the Canon and incorruption of the Books c. dependeth on the word of Man Ans No. 1. I have elsewhere fully shewed how the Spirit hath sealed the substance of the Gospel 2. And even the matters of fact are not of meer humane Faith. For meer humane Faith depends on the meer honesty of the reporter but this Historical Faith dependeth partly on Gods attestation and partly on Natural proofs 1. God did by Miracles attest the reports of the Apostles and first Churches 2. The consent of all History since that these are the same writings which the Apostles wrote hath a Natural Evidence above bare humane Faith. For I have elsewhere shewed that there is a concurrence of humane report or a consent of history which amounteth to a true Natural Evidence the Will having its Nature and some necessary acts and nothing but necessary ascertaining causes could cause such concurrence Such Evidence we have that K. James Q. Elizabeth Q. Mary lived in England that our Statute books contain the true Laws which those Kings and Parliaments made whom they are ascribed to For they could not possibly rule the Land and over-rule all mens interests and be pleaded at the Bar c. without contradiction and detection of the fraud if they were forgeries though it 's possible that some words in a Statute Book may be misprinted There is in this a Physical Certainty in the consent of men and it depends not as humane Faith upon the honesty of the reporter but Knaves and Liars have so consented whose interests and occasions are cross and so is it in the case of the history of the Scripture Books which were read in all the Churches through the World every Lords day and contenders of various opinions took their Salvation to be concerned in them VIII Those things must needs be uncertain to any man as to a particular Faith or Knowledge which are more in number than he may possibly have a distinct understanding of or can examine their Evidence whether they be certain or not For instance the Roman Faith containeth all the Doctrinal decrees and their Religion also all the Practical decrees of all the approved General Councils that is of so much as pleased the Pope such power hath he to make his own Religion But these General Councils added to all the Bible with all the Apocrypha are so large that it is not possible for most men to know what is in them So that if the question be whether this or that Doctrine be the Word of God and the proof of the affirmative is because it is decreed by a General Council this must be uncertain to almost all men who cannot tell whether it be so decreed or no Few Priests themselves knowing all that is in all those Councils So that if they knew that all that is in the Councils is Gods Word they know never the more whether this or that Doctrine e. g. the immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary c. be the Word of God. And if a Heathen knew that all that is in the Bible is the Word of God and knew not a word what is in it would this make him a Christian or Saint him You may object that most Protestants also know not all that is in the Scripture Ans True nor any one And therefore Protestants say not that all that is in the Scripture is necessary to be known to Salvation but they take their Religion to have essential parts and integral parts and accidents And so they know how far each is necessary But the Papists deride this distinction and because all truths are equally true they would make men believe that all are equally Fundamental or Essential to Christianity But this is only when they dispute against us at other times they say otherwise themselves when some other interest leads to it and so cureth this impudency It were worthy the enquiry whether a Papist take all the Bible to be Gods Word and de fide or only so much of it as is contained particularly in the decrees of Councils If the latter then none of the Scripture was de fide or to be particularly believed for above 300 years before the Council of Nice If the former then is it as necessary to Salvation to know how old Henoch was as to know that Jesus Christ is our Saviour IX Those things must needs be uncertain which depend upon such a number of various circumstances as cannot be certainly known themselves For instance the common rule by which the Papist Doctors do determine what particular Knowledge and Faith are necessary to Salvation is that so many truths are necessary as are sufficiently propounded to that person to be known and believed But no man living learned nor unlearned can tell what is necessary to the sufficiency of this proposal Whether it be sufficient if he be told it in his Childhood only and at what Age Or if he be told it but once or twice or thrice or how oft whether by a Parent or
that Love or Complacency of the Will which is the more completive part 3. But there is a Knowledge even of God which being separated from Love is sin and misery As the Devils and damned that believe and tremble and hate and suffer are not without all knowledge of God. So much for the first proof fetcht from the order of the faculties of the Soul. II. The second proof is fetcht from the Objects It is not meer Intelligibility that blesseth a man but Goodness which as such is the formal Object of the Will though the material Object of the Understanding It is a pleasant thing for the Eyes to behold the Sun And as pleasant it is good and also as useful to further pleasure of our selves or others Nothing maketh a man Good or Happy but as it is Good. Therefore the Goodness of God his transcendent perfection by which he is first Essentially Good in himself and amiable to himself and then Good and Amiable to us all is the ultimately ultimate object of mans Soul to which his Intelligibility is supposed III. The third proof is from the Constitution of these several 〈◊〉 a Knowledge being but an introductive act supposeth not Love as to its Essence though it produce it as an Effect But Love included knowledge in it as the number of two includeth one when one doth not include two Therefore 〈◊〉 â—ogether must needs be perfecter than one alone IV. The fourth proof is from express Scripture I will only cite some plain ones which need no tedious comment 1. For Love it 's said 1 Joh. 4.16 17 18. We have known and believed the Love that God hath to us God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him Herein is our Love made perfect or in this the Love with us is perfected that we have boldness in the day of Judgment Because as he is so are we in this world There is no fear in Love but perfect Love casteth out fear He that feareth is not made perfect in Love. So that Love is the perfection of man. 1 Cor. 12.31 and 13.2 c. Yet shew I unto you a more excellent way Though I understand all mysteries and all knowledge and have not Charity I am nothing Charity never faileth 13. The greatest of these is Charity Rom. 8.35 Who shall separate us from the Love of God c. Rom. 13.10 Love is the fulfilling of the Law. Rom. 5.5 The Love of God is poured out on our hearts by the Holy-Ghost which is given to us Gal. 5.6 Faith which worketh by Love. Mat. 22.37 The first and great Commandment is Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. Luk. 10.27 Deut. 10.12 and 11.1.13.22 and 19.9 and 13.3 and 30.6.16.20 Josh 22.5 and 23.11 Psal 5.11 and 31.23 and 69.36 and 119.165 and 145.20 Jam. 1.12 He shall receive the Crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that Love him So 2.5 Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me See Joh. 14.21 and 16.27 1 Joh. 4.19 Joh. 21.15 16 17. 1 Joh. 3.22 Heb. 11.6 c. And of Knowledge it is said Joh. 13.17 If ye knew these things happy are ye if ye do them See Jam. 2.14 to the end Joh. 15.24 But now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father Luk. 12.47 Knowing Gods will and not doing it prepareth men for many stripes See Rom. 2. And as barren knowledge is oft made the aggravation of sin so true knowledge is usually made the cause or means of Love and Obedience 1 Joh. 4.8 He that loveth not knoweth not God. 2 Pet. 1.2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God. 2 Pet. 2.20 and many such like I conclude therefore that the knowledge of Creatures is not desirable ultimately for itself but as it leadeth up the Soul to God. And the knowledge of God though desirable ultimately for it self yet not as the perfect but the initial part of our ultimate act or end and as the means or cause of that love of God which is the more perfect part of that ultimate Perfection Chap. II. The End of Knowledge is to make us Lovers of God and so to be known with Love by Him. THis is the second Doctrine contained in the meaning of the Text. Where is included 1. That all knowledge of Creatures called Learning must be valued and used but as a means to the knowledge and love of God Which is most evident in that the whole Creation is the work of God bearing the Image or Impress of his Perfections to reveal him to the Intellectual Creature and to be the means of provoking us to his love and helping us in his service To deny this therefore is to subvert the use of the whole Creation and to set up Gods works as an useless shadow or as an Idol in his place 2. It is included as was afore-proved that all our knowledge of God himself is given us to kindle in us the Love of God. It is the Bellows to blow up this holy Fire If it do not this it is unsound and dead If it do this it hath attained its end which is much of the meaning of James in that Chap. 2. which prejudice hindereth many from understanding 3. This love of God hath its degrees and effects Knowledge first kindleth but some weak initial act of love which through mixtures of fear and of carnal affections is hardly known to be sincere by him that hath it But afterward it produceth both stronger acts and the Holy Ghost still working as the principal cause infuseth or operateth a radicated Habit. So that this holy love becometh like a nature in the Soul even a divine nature And it becometh in a sort natural to us to love God and goodness though not as the brutish nature which is exercised by necessity and without reason And this new nature of holy love is called the new Creature and the Holy Ghost dwelling in us and the Spirit of Adoption and is our New-name the White-stone the Witness in our selves that Christ is the Saviour and that we are the Regenerate Children of God the Pledge the Earnest the First-fruits and the Fore-taste of Life Eternal And all the works of a Christian are so far truly holy as they are the Effects of holy love For 1. Holy love is but a holy will and the will is the man in point of Morality 2. And the love of God is our final act upon the final object and all other gracious acts are some way means subservient to this end And the end is it that informeth all the means they being such only as they are adapted to the end And in this sense it is true which is said in the Schools though many Protestants misunderstanding it have contradicted it that love is the form of all other Graces That is It is the heart of the new Creature or it is that by which the
concern only the Interests of the body in this life or as Knowledge is but the delight of the natural phantasie or mind doth seem a little finer and sublime and manly but it is of the same nature and vanity as the rest For all Knowledge is for the guidance of the Will and Practice and therefore meer knowing matters that tend to Pride Sensuality Wealth or Domination is less than the enjoyment of sensual pleasures in the things themselves And the contemplation of superiour Creatures which hath no other end than the delight of knowing is but a more refined sort of vanity and like the minds activity in a dream But whether it be the Knowledge or the love of God that man should place his highest felicity in is become among the Schoolmen and some other Divines a controversy that seemeth somewhat hard But indeed to a considering man the seeming difficulty may be easily overcome The Understanding and Will and Executive activity are not several Souls but several faculties of one Soul And their Objects and Order of operation easily tell us which is the first and which the last which tendeth to the other as its end and which object is the most delightful and most felicitating to the man viz. That Truth is for Goodness and that Good as Good is the amiable delectable and felicitating object And therefore that the Intellect is the guide of the Will and Faith and Knowledge are for Love and its Delight And yet that mans felicity is in both and not in one alone as one faculty alone is not the whole Soul though it be the whole Soul that acteth by that faculty Therefore the later Schoolmen have many of them well confuted Aquinas in this point And it is of great importance in our Christian practice As the desire of more Knowledge first corrupted our nature so corrupted nature is much more easily drawn to seek after knowledge than after love Many men are bookish that cannot endure to be Saints Many can spend their lives in the studies of Nature and Theology and Delight to find increase of Knowledge who are Strangers to the Sanctifying Uniting delightful exercise of holy love Appetite is the pondus or first Spring of our moral actions yea and of our natural though the sense and intellect intromit or illuminate the Object And the first act of natural Appetite Sensitive and Intellectual is necessitated And accordingly the Appetite as pleased is as much the end of our Acts and Objects as the Appetite as Desiring is the beginning Even as si parvis magna c. Gods Will as Efficient is the absolutely first cause and his will as done and pleased is the ultimate end of all things It is Love by which man cleaveth unto God as Good and as our ultimate end Love ever supposeth knowledge and is its end and perfection Neither alone but both together are mans highest State Knowledge as discerning what is to be Loved and Love as our uniting and Delighting adherence to it I. Labour therefore with all your industry to know God that you may love him It is that love that must be your comforting grace both by signification and by its proper Effective Exercise 1. True love will prove that your Knowledge and Faith are true and saving which you will never be sure of without the Evidence of this and the consequent Effects If your expressive art or gifts be never so low so that you scarce know what to say to God or man yet if you so far know God as sincerely to love him it is certainly true saving knowledge and that which is the beginning of eternal life Knowledge Belief Repentance Humility Meekness Patience Zeal Diligence c. are so far and no further sure marks of Salvation as they cause or prove true love to God and Man Predominant It is a hard thing any otherwise to know whether our Knowledge Repentance Patience Zeal or any of the rest be any better than what an unjustifyed person may attain But if you can find that they cause or come from or accompany a sincere Love of God you may be sure that they all partake of sincerity and are certain signs of a Justified Soul. It is hard to know what sins for number or nature or magnitude are such as may or may not consist with a State of saving grace He that considereth of the sins of Lot David Solomon and Peter will find the case exceeding difficult But this much is sure that so much sin may consist with a Justified State as may consist with sincere love to God and Goodness While a man truly loveth God above all his sin may cause Correction but not DAMNATION unless it could extinguish or overcome this Love. Some question whether that the sin of Lot or David for the present stood with justification If it excussed not predominant habitual love it intercepteth not justification If we could tell whether any or many heathens that hear not of Christ have the true love of God and Holiness we might know whether they are saved The reason is because that the will is the man in Gods account And as Voluntariness is essential to sin so a Holy Will doth prove a Holy person God hath the heart of him that loveth him He that loveth him would fain please him glorify him and enjoy him And he that loveth holiness would fain live a holy life Therefore it is that Divines say here that desire of grace is a certain sign of grace because it is an act of Will and Love. And it is true if that desire be greater or more powerful than our Averseness and than our desire after contrary things that so it may put us on necessary duty and overcome the lusts and temptations which oppose them Though cold wishes which are conquered by greater unwillingness and prevailing lusts will never save men 2. And as love is our more comforting Evidence so it is our most comforting Exercise Those acts of religion which come short of this come short of the proper life and sweetness of true religion They are but either lightnings in the brain that have no heat or a feaverish zeal which destroyeth or troubleth but doth not perform the acts of life or else even where love is true but little and opprest by fears and grief and trouble it is like Fire in green Wood or like young green Fruits which is not come to mellow ripeness Love of Vanity is disappointing unsatisfactory and tormenting Most of the Calamities of this life proceed from creature-love The greatest tormentor in this world is the inordinate love of life and the next is the love of the pleasures and accommodations of life which cause so much care to get and keep and so much fear of losing and grief for our losses especially fear of dying that were it not for this our lives would be much easier to us as they are to the fearless sort of brutes And the next tormenting affection is the
in a lower sort in the Soul that is Gods Image That is that the understandings most internal act viz. the knowing or perceiving when it knoweth any thing that it knoweth It is not really compounded of an act and an object as the knowledge of distinct objects is but that either its act is not properly to be called its object or that act and object are not two things but two inadequate conceptions of one thing And how doth the Soul perceive its own Volitions To say that Volitions which are acts of the Intellectual Soul must be sensate and so make a Species on the phantasie as sensate things do and be known only in that Species is to bring down the higher faculty and subordinate it to the lower that it may be intelligible while it is certain that we shall never here perfectly understand the solution of these difficulties is it not pardonable among other mens conjectures to say That the noble faculty of Sense because Brutes have it is usually too basely described by Philosophers And that Intellection and Volition in the rational Soul are a superior eminent sort of sensation transcending that of Brutes and that Intelligere Velle are eminenter sentire and that the Intellect doth by understanding other things eminently see or sense and so understand that it understandeth And that the will doth by willing feel that it willeth When I consult my Experience I must either say thus or else that Intellection and Volition so immediately ever move the Internal sense that they are known by us only as acts compounded with that sense But I am gone too far before I was aware IV. The Soul thus knowing or feeling its own acts doth in the next place rationally gather 1. That it hath power to perform them and is a substance so empowered 2. That there are other such substances with the like acts 3. And there is one prime transcendant substance which is the cause of all the rest which hath infinitely nobler acts than ours And thus Sense and Reason concur to our knowledge of God by shewing us and perceiving that Image in which by similitude we must know him The Fiery Ethereal or Solar Nature is at least the similitude of Spirits And by condescending similitude God in Scripture is called LIGHT and the FATHER of LIGHTS in whom is no darkness allowing and inviting us to think of his Glory by the similitude of the Sun or Light. But Intellectual Spirits are the highest Nature known to us and these we know intimately by most near perception By the similitude of these therefore we must conceive of God. A Soul is a self-moving Life or vital Substance actuating the Body to which it is united God is super-eminently Essential-Life perfect in himself as living Infinitely and Eternally and giving Being to all that is and Motion to all that moveth and Life to all that liveth A reasonable Soul is Essentially an understanding power And God is super-eminently an Infinite understanding knowing himself and all things perfectly A reasonable Soul is Essentially a rational Appetite or Will necessarily loving himself and all that is apprehended every way and congruously good God is super-eminently an Infinite Will or Love necessarily loving himself and his own Image which yet he freely made by communicative Love. All things that were made by this Infinite Goodness were made good and very good All his works of Creation and Providence however misconceived of by sinners are still very good All the good of the whole Creation is as the heat of this Infinite Eternal Fire of Love. And having made the World good in the good of Nature and the good of Order and the good of mutual Love he doth by his continual influx maintain and perfect it His Power moveth his Wisdom governeth and his Love felicitateth And man he moveth as man he Ruleth him by Moral Laws as man and he is his perfect Loâ—er and perfect amiable Object and End. As our Creator making us in this natural capacity and Relation as our Redeemer restoring and advancing us to blessed Union with himself and as our Sanctifier and Glorifier preparing us for and bringing us to Coelestial perfection And thus must God be conceived of that we may love him And false and defective conceptions of him as the great impediments of our love And we love him so little much because we so little know him And therefore it is not the true knowledge of God which Paul here maketh a competitor with love II. And as we know God by ascending from his Works and Image in the same order must our love ascend The first acts of it will be towards God in his works and the next will be towards God in his Relation to us and the highest towards God as Essentially perfect and amiable in himself I will therefore now apply this to the Soul that feareth lest he love not God because he perceiveth not himself either to know or love him immediately in the perfection of his Essence 1. Do you truely love the Image of God on the Soul of Man That is a Heavenly Life and Light and Love Do you not only from bare conviction commend but truly love a Soul devoted to God full of his love and living in obedience to his Laws and doing good to others according to his power This is to love God in his Image God is Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness or Love To love true wisdom and goodness as such is to love God in his Works Especially with these two qualifications 1. Do you love to have Wisdom and Goodness and Love as Universal as is possible Do you long to have Families Cities Kingdoms and all the World made truly Holy Wise and united in Love to one another The most Universal Wisdom and Goodness is most like to God and to love this is to love God in his Image 2. Do you love Wisdom and Goodness in your selves and not in others only Do you long to be liker to God in your capacity and more near him and united to him That is Do you long to know him and his will more clearly and to enjoy a holy communion with him and his holy ones in the fullest mutual love loving and being beloved and to delight your Souls in his joyful praises in the communion of Saints This is certainly the love of God. Our union is by love he that would be united to God and his Saints in Jesus Christ that would fain know him more and love him better and praise and obey him joyfully in perfection doth undoubtedly love him And here I would earnestly caution you against two common deceits of men by counterfeit love I. Some think that they love God savingly because they love him as the God of Nature and cause of all the Natural Being Order and Goodness which is in the whole frame of Heaven and Earth This is to love somewhat of God or to love him secundum quid in one respect But if