and benefit of both Happinesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 happie are yee The first is the onely ornament of the understanding Knowledge The second the whole employment of the Will Practise The third the consummate perfection of the whole man Happinesse Of these in their order and first of the first the Ornament of the Vnderstanding Knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if yee know these things If I might not seeme to trifle before so Iudicious an Audience I. Part. the first particle if should not escape mee which is not here dubitative but as in many other places suppositive For the lesson taught was easie enough especially to the apprehension of an Apostle or Disciple of CHRIST's layed downe so evidently by the precept and example of their Master so that he could not but conceive them sufficiently enformed and consequently this If yee know these things is the same with yee know them But I may not insist on words when the place and my scantling calls for reall observations Knowledge is the maine difference betweene living and inanimate sensible and insensible creatures distinct and rationall the onely distinction betweene man and beast to reject knowledge then were to abandon humanity to affect Ignorance were to put off man and become either a beast or a dead Carkas Laërt in vita Aristot for so the Philosopher in Laertius puts the difference betweene an understanding man and an ignorant affirming that the one differs from the other as much as a living man from a dead 'T is that Image of GOD in which man was created witnes the Apostle Col. 3.10 Col. 3.10 admonishing us to put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him Would wee recover this decayed Image Knowledge is the meanes Would we fructifie in grace the seed and roote must be sowen and grounded in knowledge That this knowledge is the first part and act of faith is denyed by one but such as keepe their proselytes in perpetuall Ignorance though their owne Peter Lombard as they challenge him long since averr'd the contrary Lomb. lib. 3. Sentent dist 24. lib. 3. dist 24. where hee excludes not knowledge from the most difficult point of faith the doctrine of the Deity Nemo potest credere in Deum saith he nisi aliquid intelligatur No man can beleive in GOD unlesse the knowledge of him be in some measure obtained And the Angelicall doctor in his ma. 1.2.76 Quaest 2. Art distinguishing of in vincible and vincible ignorance acknowledgeth the latter to be a sinne if it bee in those things which we ought and are bound to know and what those are in his opinion please you heare him speake for himselfe Illa scilicet sine quorum scientiâ non potest quispiam debitumactum rectè exercere vnde omnes tenentur communiter scire ea quae sunt fidei vniversalia juris praecepta Thus farre are the Schoolemen whom they challenge as their owne the Patrons of knowledge so that even in their judgement wee cannot bee faithfull practitioners in the Church of CHRIST unlesse wee bee first competent Gnosticks in his Shoole The antient Fathers and our Orthodox Neotericks have been more plentifull abettors hereof that I may not darken so cleare a matter with a Cloud of Witnesses Saint Chrysostome and August Chrysost Hom. 20. in Rom. shall serve for all the former of whom Hom. 26. in Rom. affirmes that our Ignorance is not a sufficient Apologie for our errours erit enim quando ignorantiae poenas dabimus quando scilicet ipsa ignorantia veniam non habebit The time shall come when wee shall suffer for our Ignorance when Ignorance shall not patronize it selfe much lesse any other obliquityes Sr. August de Gratiâ Lib. Arbitr Cap. 2. The later in the 2 Chapter lib. de grat lib. Arbitr is very plenary and punctuall please you to heare him somewhere a little Epitomized Sed nec ipsi sine poenâ erunt qui legem Deinesciunt c. Neither shall they bee without punishment which know not the Law of GOD for as the Apostle they that have sinned without the Law shall perish without the Law but they that have sinned by the Law by the Law shall bee judged and a little after Graviùs peccat homo sciens quà m nesciens nec tamenideo confugiendum est ad ignor antiaetenebras ut in ijs quisque requirat excusationem Aliud enim est nescisse aliud scire noluisse c. True it is that he offends more hainously that sins through knowledge then he that slips through Ignorance but we may not therefore flie to Ignorance for an excuse for 't is one thing to be nescient another to be wilfully Ignorant this proceeding from the perversenesse of the Will that from the defect of the faculty or meanes of knowledge the perverse will indeed is most to bee reprooved but yet is not simple Nescience excused from the guilt of eternall punishment Thus for Saint August Neither is the infallible Touchstone of all such differences lesse copious in the confirmation hereof We are expressely commanded to increase in knowledge Col. 1.10 Col. 1.10 And to that intent the Law the only meanes of knowledge in it's time was often proposed by GOD himselfe to the diligent search and meditation of his people the Israelites Witnesse Deut. Deut. 6.6 7 c. 6.6 7 8. 9. verses These words shall bee in thine heart and thou shalt rehearse them continually unto thy Children and shalt talke of them when thou taryest in thine house Iosh 1.8 c. and againe Ios 1.8 This booke of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night David petitions GOD for knowledge Psal 143.9 Cause mee to know the way wherein I should walke for I lift up my soule unto thee And gives it in especiall charge to his Son Salomon to know the LORD 1. Chr. 28.9 And thou Salomon my sonne know thou the GOD of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart c. Which the Wise King did no way neglect but left sufficient testimonie of his abundant knowledge both by his unparalleld example in it his large Encomiums of it and manifold precepts to his sonne and with him to all the sons and children of GOD to search and labour diligently for it you cannot miste of them in his Proverbes as in Proverbs the 2.2 3 4 and following verses See that thou incline thine eare to wisedome and apply thine heart to understanding c. Wise men lay up knowledge pro. 10.14 A prudent man dealeth with knowledge Pro 13.16 The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge and the eare of the wise seeketh knowledge Pro. 18.15 The lips of knowledge are a precious Iewell Pro. 20.15 And in the 11. Chapter verse 9. Through knowledge shall the just bee delivered As if knowledge were the onely meanes of deliverance from
explication of the particulars But yet were this distinct knowledge farre more comfortable and beneficiall to a Christian and would make his faith both more apparent and reall Simil. Fire may be in the flint yet is it both indiscernible and improper till it be stricken out with a steele Aromaticall odors while kept close together have little or no smell at all but pounded or beaten fill a whole roome with the fragrance Costly Merchandize wrapt up in a bundle affects not the buyer but unfolded invites him to the procurement I need not make the Illation the slendrest Intellect may supply thus much for an Antapodosis that the grosse knowledge of this Implicit faith is very imperfect and hardly sufficient to impose the name of faith upon it unlesse it bee unfolded by a more evident view of it's particular objects Let their grosse Ignorance then who affect it reside within their owne territories never approach it our Sion let their confused knowledge bee their owne confusion but let us indeavour to cherish and perpetuate that light which is so happily sprung up and hath beene so long maintained among us And happy may we esteeme our selves in the fruition of so inestimable a benefit for so our Saviour would have his Apostles account it Matth. 13. verse 11. when he tells them to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdome of heaven Mat. 13.11 thus inviting them to gratitude by a commemoration of their gracious endowments And as severe a judgement was it for the unbeleeving Iewes to bee blinded with Ignorance Isay 6.9 10. that seeing they might see and not perceive and hearing they might heare and not understand Matth. Mat. 13.13 13. Aeschylus in Prometh consonant to that of Prometheus in the Tragedy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So ignorant were they as if the faculty of their understanding and knowledge had lost their use and function and were now become rather privations then habits 'T was the greatest benefit of Christs propheticall Office to give knowledge of salvation to his people for the remission of their sinnes Luk. 1.77 shame be it for us to reject this knowledge and frustrate the comming of our Saviour Increase wee then daily in knowledge and sith we have a triple portion of his grace offered us let a triple portion of his spirit bee multiplied in us 'T is reported of the Inhabitants of China that they were wont to boast that they saw with two eyes and all other nations but with one but we have a third super-added which they were destitute of to wit the eye of Faith and Religion For bruit beasts have the use of one the eye of sense the naturall man of two the eye of sense and reason but the Christian of three the eye of sense reason and faith And here might I enter into a perplexed controversie whether that eye of reason in a naturall man destitute of the light of spirituall knowledge of faith and religion bee sufficient to direct him the way of eternall happinesse Dr. Prideaux Lect. 8. de Salute Ethnicorum But that I am saved a labour by our Learned Professour to whom I referre you for satisfaction onely give me leave to add two or three words from those places of the Fathers before cited and I shall not be tedious Saint Augustine without any scruple is bold to affirme August vbi supra that simplex mera inscitia neminem sic excusat ut sempiterno igne non ardeat si propterea non credidit quia non audi vit omnino quod crederet sed for tassis ut mitius ardeat c. Simple Nescience doth so farre excuse no man no not though he never heard that hee might believe that he should not burne in eternall fire but onely perhaps that his torment there may be somewhat miâ—igated for that of the Psalmist was not spoken without cause Psal 79.6 Powre out thine anger upon the Nations that have not knowne thee nor that of the Apostle 2. Thes 1.8 When the LORD shall bee revealed from heaven in flaming fire taking vengeance of them that know not GOD. And Saint Chrysostome questioning whether spirituall knowledge be to be required of a rustick or Barbarian makes this answer Non solùm ab Agricola Barbaro sed si quis barbaris ipsis barbarior so that if it be not in the Counsell of the Almighty to supply him with spirituall knowledge neither is it his pleasure to bring him to his spirituall Canaan the place of eternall rest The 18. Article of our Church which is not usuall with her proceeds against the oppugners of this opinion with an Anathema holding them as accursed who hold that every man shall bee saved by the Law or sect which hee professeth so hee frame his life according to that Law and the light of nature For holy Scripture sets out unto us onely the name of IESVS CHRIST whereby men may bee saved Act. 4.12 But I affect brevity that knowledge is the first act of faith yee haue heard and I suppose none doubt's it that without faith 't is impossible to please GOD Heb. 11.6 that hee that beleeves not shall bee condemned that whatsoever is not of faith is sinne Rom. 14.23 is as questionlesse as the authority of the Penmen is infallible We may as soone goe to the Indyes without a viaticum as to heaven without saving knowledge and faith in the onely Mediator betweene GOD and man This is it which seasons all our actions and makes them pleasing to the Almighty with it our greatest sinnes may be remitted and without it our meanest cannot Nay our best actions without this are turned to sin and are but splendida peccata sinnes guilded ouer with the shew of vertue for as excellently that divine Poet Omne probitatis opus nisi semine verae Exoritur fidei Prosper peccatum est inque reatum Vertitur sterilis cumulat sibi gloria poenam If sinne bee an impediment to salvation morall honesty or civill Iustice which is nought else without faith can no whit further us in the acquisition of felicity formally I say it cannot though perhaps dispositively it may for as the golden mouth'd Father affirmes that when wee endeavour the constant practise of morall vertue and diligently performe what wee can Chrysost in Roman GOD often in mercy supplyes what is wanting and so brings us to the knowledge of his truth as hee did Cornelius and the Eunuch in the Acts and whether Plato and Seneca with other Philosophers may not be examples hereof I will not determine though there want not authority to uphold it But I feare their Ignorance in divine affaires especially concerning saving faith countervailed both their knowledge practise in morall so Ignorant were they in the midst of all their knowledge This ushers in another Corrollary and leades me the trodden path of that common question how farre
affliction and judgement I might bee over-copious but I hasten Our blessed Saviour himselfe affirmes that eternall life consists in this endowment of knowledge Ioh. 17.3 This is life eternall that they might know thee the only true GOD IESVS CHRIST whom thou hast sent and the Prophet Isaiah in that sublime testimony of God the Father concerning his Son makes it equivalent to of the same nature with true saving faith Isa 53.11 By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many See heere that happy worke of our Iustification attributed to knowledge which the Prophet Habakuk Chap. 2. v. 4 and the grand Apostle of the Gentiles in more then a full Iury of testimonies assignes onely unto saving faith Vid. Rom. 1.17 Cap. 3.28 Cap. 4.5.13 Cap 5.1 Gal. 3.11 5.6 You have the LORD himselfe often complaining of the defect of this Habit of knowledge in his people 2. Cor. 1.24 Ephes 2.8 Heb. 10.38 and many other places Isai 1.3 Israel saith he doth not know my people doth not consider and then followes that severe commination of the Almighty Ah sinfull Nation a people laden with iniquitie a seed of evill doers c. Intimating that all their impieties proceeded from the want of knowledge of their spirituall estate and consideration of their wayes And in the 5. of Isai verse 1. therefore my people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge So likewise by the Prophet Ieremy Chapter 4. ver 22. My people is foolish they have not knowne mee they are foolish children they have no understanding c. and by the Prophet Hosea Chapter 4. vers 6. My people are destroyed for lacke of knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge I will also reject thee c. as if all the afflictions and judgements of the Iewes their Captivity rejection and utter desolation had proceeded onely from this defect of spirituall knowledge But what need I light a Candle to the Sun The Scripture condescending to the Capacity of the meanest doth almost every where implicitly compare the understanding to the Eye the Will and affections to the feete that directing these walking that conferring the Insight of good these the prosecution Now how vaine it were for a blinde man to undertake a journey how many dangers he must needs sustaine by the way yet never attaine his journeys end none can bee ignorant Pray we therefore with David that the LORD would enlighten our eyes that wee may see the wonderfull things of his Law that hee would make us to understand the way of his precepts and then we may add we wil run the way of his commandements for if we runne without this light of knowledge we cannot but fall into the ditch of Errors if not into the pit of perdition Ignoti nulla cupido was the Thesis of the Poet and 't is true in Divinity No man can affect the good he knowes not nor feare the evill whereof he is ignorant Arist 3. Ethic. The Philosopher in the third of his Ethicks assures us that that can be no vertuous action which is not done Volenter scienter constanter so that if it be casually performed and not out of the ground of praeelection and knowledge the action perhaps may be good for the substance but the agent no more conscious to the goodnesse thereof then Baalams Asse of what shee spake to her Master or Pilate of the salvation of mankind by delivering our Saviour to bee crucified In a word Scientia conscientiam dirigit conscientia scientiam perficit Our knowledge must bee the directory of our conscience in it's practise and our practise the perfection of our knowledge We must know to doe before we can doe what wee know Blush then ye grand Imposters startle yee mercilesse seducers who are not ashamed to take away the Key of knowledge from your silly flocke to plucke out the eyes of your Proselytes and withdraw the light of the Gospell from them and then send them that long and difficult journey to heaven How can the choose but erre who are thus extruded into more then Aegyptian darknesse and like the Sodomites Gen. 19. who were stricken with such blindnesse that they could not finde out Lots dore so are these silly ones so blinde in Ignorance that they cannot finde the gate of the heavenly pallace or new Hierusalem Ignorance with them is the mother of devotion but Saint Augustine stickes not to call her pessimam matrem a very bad mother and that of two as bad daughters August Pessimae matris Ignorantiae pessimae itidem sunt duae filiae falsitas scilicet dubitatio falsehood and doubting are the best of-spring that she procreates Scripture the onely meanes of saving knowledge with them is Inky divinity obscure a Nose of wax Albert. Pighius lib. 1 Eccles Hierar a shipmans hose the cause of many schismes errors and heresies and therefore the knowledge or perusall thereof forbidden the people This perhaps it may be to them that perish but to us 't is the savour of life and power of GOD unto salvation But ô the blasphemy of these miscreants good GOD that any wretch should bee so audacious thus to revile that word of his Maker by which at the last day he shall bee judged to make his GOD a Lyer and that word of his the cause of schismes errors and heresies which as the Sunne in the midst of his glory dispells the mists of all errors And here I might observe a pretty but lamentable contradiction of theirs The Scripture say they containes not all things necessary to salvation unlesse they add traditions and yet an Implicit faith shall serve turne for the multitude without the knowledge of either what 's this but flatly to deny them the meanes of salvation and to be more mercilesse to their owne people then the Divell himselfe for he but allures they by a consequence compell them to their destruction Great cause have wee beloved to praise the mercies of our gracious GOD who hath freed us from their tyrannicall Injunctions Saint Peter would have us bee ready to render a reason of our faith 1. Pet. 3.15 and of the hope that is in us but maugre their prime supposed founder this is no more regarded by them then the perusall of the Scripture an Implicit or infolded faith will content them if they beleeve with the Church though they know neither what the Church nor themselves beleeve they imagine they are in the right way to Canaan when they are led blindfold to Aegypt I deny not but that there are in the Church many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Babes in CHRIST and Children in faith and knowledge I confesse that an implicit faith may be in some cases tolerated so it be not imposed by a peremptory determination of the Church but grounded on the generall truth of Scripture when we want either faculty or meanes for the attaining of that knowledge which affords us a distinct
forth Ignorance excuseth an offence which because every smattering Sophister can resolve with two or three distinctions and for that I have partly touch't it before I passe it over with this briefe and vulgar Thesis of the Schooles Vid Thom. Aquinat 1ma. 2 de Quaest 76. that if it be simplex nativa vel invita juris divini vel humani seu positivi Alex. Halens Biel. Gerson c. it may in some measure excuse it à tanto but not à toto but if it be grosse or affected and of those things after which wee are bound to enquire it augments more then diminishes the fault and accuses rather then excuses the delinquent making him with the drunken man in Aristotle lyable to a double punishment First for his fault Lib. 3. Ethic. and then for his proud and scornefull Ignorance for so may it justly be called it being rather a contempt then a privation of knowledge Greg. in Moral for there wanted not inveniendi facultas si fuisset quaerendi voluntas as Saint Gregory Now how lamentable their case is who with those desperate wretches in Iob thus reject their GOD and his knowledge with a Discede à nobis Iob 21.14 Depart from us for we will not the knowledge of thy wayes none unlesse thus willfully blinded can bee ignorant no doubt this discede shall one day bee requited with another Discedite Mat. 25.41 depart from me yee Cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divell and his Angels And yet B.B. Vse 1 we cannot but cleerely see and compassionately deplore that there are many thousands in the rurall parts of this kingdome some of them indeed for want of the meanes but most for want of Will and affection to spirituall knowledge that are as blinde and ignorant in divine affaires even in this cleare Sun-shine of the Gospell as their grossely-misguided forefathers were in the time of their necessitated ignorance and superstition imposed on them by the tyranny of the Romish Beast What doe these Moles else but shut their eyes against the divine raies of this glorious Sunne affect darkenesse more then light and like so many Mucke-wormes confine themselves to their dung-hill rather then contemplate the Almighty in his workes and word They will not understand nor seek after GOD but say at least in their Hearts as those obstinate Idolaters Ier. 44.16 The word that thou hast spoken in the name of the LORD we will not heare it But our Saviour hath pronounced their doome Iohn 3.19 This is the condemnation that Light is come into the world and men loved darkenesse more than light The condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were the greatest severest and that which makes men most inexcusable in the sight of GOD. But I trust you have not so learned CHRIST Vse 2 your hearts are replenisht with the fullnesse of all both divine and humane knowledge yee are not onely the Israell but the Priests of the living GOD and have both the Intellect and the tongue of the Learned Isa 50.4 knowing how to minister a word of comfort in due season to him that is weary let me now be bold to advise you to the performance lay not up the Talent of your knowledge in a Napkin but employ it to your owne and others advantage Hide not your light under a Bushell nor tread your savoury salt on the Dunghill but enlighten the darke corners of the Church with the one and season the unsavoury consciences of the putrified world with the other For as they shall shine as the starres in the firmament Dan. 12.3 who convert many to righteousnesse so shall they bee no lesse accursed Ier. 48.10 who doe the worke of the LORD negligently Paulum sepultae distat inertiae Caelata virtus Little difference is there betweene a dead man Horat. and him that hath no energeticall actions of life and as little difference betweene him that buries his knowledge in the closet of his owne bosome and him that hath none at all Not that I would have every Capritious Novellist adventure to come to Bethell before ever he saw Najoth to rush into the Sanctuary before ever he saluted the Vniversity to make a Sermon before hee can make a Syllogisme and reade Scripture perhaps before he has throughly read his Grammer No this is as pernitious as it is preposterous and deservedly cryed downe among us but that you who are educated among the Prophets and are for the most part Prophets your selves vocati sicut Adron indued with a full maturity of Knowledge and Iudgement would not stifle those gracious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor envy your Church or Common-wealth the benefit of those gifts which your GOD hath so freely conferred The Priests lips should preserve knowledge saith the Prophet Mal. 2.7 where Peter Martyr's observation is that the Prophet sayes not that the Priests breast or his heart should preserve it though that be also presupposed but his Lippes intimating that he should be ready to communicate it to others as not being borne so much for his private good as the publicke In a word yee know these things happy are yee if yee faithfully dispence them If this were duly performed perhaps some of the curiosity of our knowledge might bee spared and yet our selves never the lesse happy 'T was the royall censure of his late learned Majesty that hee thought not the greatest Clarkes nearest heaven K. Iames in Aphoris for that much of their knowledge is superfluous hee exemplifies in the great Cardinall who makes 400. Questions of Faith and scarce ten of them which concerne our salvation to understand Saint Chrysostome indeed wills us to ascend to heaven in our contemplation Christ Hom. 4. de Natura Dei. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without phantasticall curiositie but that by the meditation thereof we may better both our selves and others in hope of the fruition You know how many of the Bethshemites were slaine 1. Sam. 6. for prying too boldly into the Arke how dares then presumptuous dust and ashes search so curiously into the secrets of the Almighty and neglecting the knowledge of more necessary duties examine the Counsells of the LORD of hosts as if hee meant to expostulate with his Maker and extract a reason of his actions Mistake me not Beloved I am not ignorant of the diversity of persons and callings neither dare I debarre those who are indued with more eminent gifts whether by nature Industry or divine bounty to sound the depth of those mysteries which are contained in the large sea of his revealed Will but for vulgar capacities to proceede so farre as the boundlesse Ocean of his secrets were to attempt an enterprise like the fabulous Gyants which assaulted heaven infinitely beyond the sphere of their Capacity and would prove as dangerous as it is presumptuous doe not these men puzzle their understanding in steed of enforming it and presuming to