that Teachers may bee such patterns of light inwardly burning outwardly shining let them repaire to the Father of lights who from this higher Academie baptizeth with that fire which not onely kindleth light in the souls of his Messengers but makes his Ministers a flame of fire And if thus kindled from above with holy Barnabas they be good men full of faith and the Holy Ghost that which followed then may bee hoped will follow now Much people shal be added to the Lord. Thirdly the highest Schoole and no other teacheth the Art of Experimentall Divinitie which being learned doth give an excellence and Crowne to the abilitie of teaching There is great oddes betweene an experienced and a meerely-contemplative Captaine And if the great Captaine of our salvation learned experimentall obedience by the things which hee suffered and by his sufferings experimentally tasted and knowne knowes how to take due notice consideration and compassion of those that suffer how much advantage may we thinke is added to his Under-Captaines by their experience in the Christian warfare An heavenly Teacher with St. Paul having run the race of Christianitie through honour and dishonour through evill and good report as unknown yet known as dying and yet living as sorrowfull and yet alwayes rejoycing as having nothing and yet possessing all things such an one I say when he meets with soules in the like estates of honour or dishonour and the other differences incident to a Christians life he can presently out of his owne experience draw forth lessons of direction reproofe or consolation yea out of his owne experience hee can almost fore-prophesie events and fore-tell issues out of tentation And indeed as in other states of soule so especially in the case of a broken spirit experimentall Teachers have an high eminent advantage For such an one lookes back to his owne soule and there reads the storie of it imprinted by experience and from thence tells the distressed soule both the crosse which shee endures and the joy set before her Hee talks with the troubled soule in her owne language having thorowly learned it in this high schoole of experience and when the grieved soule doth but heare the Teacher speaking this language she is received yea when she heares him speake so truely of the griefe shee beleeves it is possible and perchance likely that there may bee truth in his comforts yea it is no small comfort to the distressed soule by such infallible and evident descriptions to find and heare one that hath beene in the like distresse wherin shee is now afflicted For one of their greatest terrours ariseth hence that none was ever in their case and that the Almightie hath singled them out from all the world to be the verie marks of his arrowes Besides when these men bring consolations for tribulations they bring sure and sound ones for they bring everie one of them with a Probatum They can name the man that was cured by them and say with the Psalmist This poore man cryed unto the Lord and thus was heard comforted and healed With St. Paul they comfort others with the verie same consolations wherewith with themselves have beene comforted of God Thus this skill of experimentall Divinitie gives an advantage of knowledge and not of knowledge onely but of confidence to the Teacher for he sayes what he knowes and on the other side it gives an advantage of trust and comfort to the hearer But the inexperienced man when he comes to a soule set on the rack of a tortured conscience and there uttering the fearefull expressions of a terrified mind this distressed soule is a Barbarian to him and he is a Barbarian to her She speakes what hee understands not and he cannot speake to her in a language which she can comfortably understand But this Teacher is often of the same opinion concerning this troubled soule which Christs carnall kinsmen had concerning him They sent out to lay hold on him saying Hee is besides himselfe And no wonder for they never saw sin in the true ugly shape of it they were never upon mount Sinai neither did they there heare the thunders and lightenings of the Law against sin and therefore they are not like Moses who did quake and tremble Yea this quaking and trembling is so strange to them that they aske with wonder of these amazed soules Why did ye skip as Rams and tremble as little Lambs To whom it may bee answered It was at the presence of God on Sinai Againe on the other side when the time is come wherein God calls out Comfort yee comfort yee my people there is no balme in their Gilead there is no oyle of joy in their lamps they have not had the fore-going tribulations nor the following consolations Therefore if they would give consolations they must bee borrowed ones like the axe of the the young Prophet and not the verie same by which themselves have beene comforted of God Yea commonly for want of experience they know not the Crisis of a soule nor when the soule is vpon a turne and is come to the season of receiving consolation They know not the houre of our Saviour when hee is ready to turne the water of tears into the wine of consolation And therefore such an one often misplaceth his spirituall physick and gives restoratives to a soule not thorowly purged from the love of sin or while the fit is upon the soule when it were more fit to weepe with them that either doe or should weepe and by that agreement in weeping to draw the mourning soule to a second agreement even to rejoyce with him that rejoyceth For this is the wisedome of a Teacher experimentally taught from above and this wisedome is justified and in high estimation with all her children Fourthly from the heavenly schoole descends a mightie active and maine advancement of teaching and that is a storge or naturall affection given to a Teacher There is a gift of love infused by God into the heart of a Teacher by which hee is taught of God to love his Flock and this love inflameth constraineth and teacheth him to teach In St. Paul we see deep impressions and powerfull expressions of this love yea we see him as a man all on fire with this love so that for the love of soules wearinesse and watching hunger and thirst cold and nakednes perils and persecutions are all but as stubble in his way and the fire of love w ch hath eaten him up consumes them also and turnes them into nothing He feeds his sheep sometimes at his owne costs and with an holy symony buyes the work of his owne ministerie and straines for an argument to approve it For whereas hee might call himselfe a Labourer and so might plead for the wages due to his worke hee calls himselfe a Father that thence hee may fetch a reason of providing for his children Yea he doth not expresse his love onely under this
THE HEAVENLY ACADEMIE Iam hic videte magnum Sacramentum fratres Magisteria forinsecus Adjutoria quaedam sunt Admonitiones Cathedram in Coelo habet qui corda docet Aug. Tract 3. in 1. Joan. LONDON Printed by Robert Young for Iohn Bartlet and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard neere St. Austins gate 1638. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOHN Lord ROBERTS Baron of Truco c. My Lord TO whom first as a Judge next as a Patron should a worke present it selfe that concernes both Universities but to a person that hath knowledge of both For the lower I thinke there are scarcely any that have more profited in it in no more time a diligent and apprehensive Learner having met with an able communicative Teacher And for the higher I thinke you know it well because you love it well Not to goe farre for a proofe the expressions of love which you have beene pleased to shew me did arise as I beleeve especially from this root because you thought me to be of that Universitie Now that for which another is loved must needs be loved it selfe and what is loved is knowne for what we know not we love not And in this love and knowledge I desire that your Lordship may still increase untill you come to the fountaine of knowledge and the finall full and transcendent object of all created love Towards this increase if the following work may give some advancement it shall adde much to the joy of him who is to Your Lordships especially spirituall service justly devoted F. Rous. The Preface IT is the just saying of an Ancient Prodere grata commemoratione decet scientiae patrem It is comely to acknowledge with thankfulnesse the Father of our knowledge If this be justly due from man unto man how much more due is it from man unto God For though man be called the father of those that are taught by him yet God is the Father of those fathers even a Teacher of those teachers and therefore by our Saviours judgement deserves only the name of Father in perfection and eminence Those then that have God to be a Father of knowledge to them should returne to this Father the praise and glorie of this knowledge The heavenly gifts of God when they move kindly and naturally doe move like the Heavens in a circular motion returning to that place and point from which they began first to move from God unto God They come from him as graces and returne to him in the shape of glorie Accordingly having received a measure of grace from this heavenly Teacher by which I am what I am I could not but acknowledge it and by this acknowledgement returne him glorie for grace And because I desire also that others may have the like grace that God also from others may have the like glorie I testifie to others that which I have felt and seene I have evidently seene and felt that men are taught of God and so there is a third school for the Students of Divinitie And as they passe from the Countrey-schoole to the Universitie so should they yet mount higher to a third even a Celestiall Academie And certainly as the second excels the first so much more doth the third excell the second Some perchance may answer with the Servant Son and Heire of the Great Elijah Hold your peace I know it already Yet those that know it will not envie that it be told to those that know it not There are sons of the Prophets that must grow up like young plants in the house of the Lord and those have a time when they know it not and this discourse may meet with that time Yea there may be some Masters in Israel into whose eares perchance it hath passed but not entered into their hearts that as a man must be borne so hee must be taught from above And if this naile be driven beyond hearing into knowledge experience and taste I hope no man will be sorrie for such a gaine Besides too true and common it is that the naturall heart of man willingly lies downe and takes up its rest in the abilities of Nature and fetcheth oracles from thence the cause of so many errours and differences the consequences of errours and therefore hath it need of such goads to awake it and to make it open the eye and eare to this heavenly Teacher It is most true that those who have not beene taught in this higher schoole of Grace but onely in the lower of Nature cannot well acknowledge that which they know not this schoole being best learned known and acknowledged by those whom it most teacheth And those who have beene well taught there doe well know that Christians are herein better than their neighbors even than the best of Pagans because they are taught by God the best most transcendent and infallible Teacher The heavenly Teacher teacheth them both what and how to beleeve he gives them his heavenly truths contained in his Word and gives them withall an heavenly mind to discerne beleeve and receive them And thus while a Christian holds his religion by an heavenly hand both are given him by an heavenly Teacher a Christians tenure of religion is far more noble excellent and assured than that of the Pagan A Christian thus taught from above beleeves and worships what he knowes whereas the Pagan worships what hee knowes not even that which be hath received only by the way of Nature from naturall deceived and deceiving men But the Christian hath a spirit from God in Christ Iesus for if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is not Christs and this Spirit gives him a spiritual eye which an Heathen hath not and yet this eye alone can truly and kindly discerne and see spirituall and heavenly truths And for this spirituall eye which the Christian hath from the Spirit of God the Heathens and Mahometans may say among themselves of a Christian as once an Heathen King said to his Heathen Subjects of Joseph Can wee find such a man as this a man in whom is the Spirit of God And that such Christians may abound is the end of this work which for ought I know hath not beene over-wrought nor thereby made superfluous and unseasonable for the present age I wish that fetching heavenly knowledge from carnall reason and humane wit have not made it too seasonable Yet to turn men back the more willingly from this counter-course I have brought forth patternes of some who have taught and professed a deniall of their own wits and reasons though acute and excellent and have as it were quenched their owne naturall lamps that they might get them kindled above by the Father of lights Yea thus did sundry of them even in those times when humane wit and reason had made too great a mixture with the mysteries of Divinitie Yet then did God preserve the soveraigntie of his owne light in eminence and glorie
higher to divine heavenly and spirituall mysteries wee must have a divine spirituall and heavenly knowledge whereby to discern them For the naturall understanding doth perceive them no better than the eare doth the reason of sounds or the nose the reason of smels and summarily than the senses do the things of the second intention Surely the eye hath not seene nor hath the eare heard these heavenly things that is neither meere naturall seeing nor meere naturall hearing can give us the true knowledge of them Yea the heart of man that is the naturall reason of a naturall man doth not rightly discern them But to know the things of God there must bee a mind given from God even a spirituall mind to discerne spirituall things If a learned Mathematician will teach a child the secrets of his skill hee must not onely give him his rules but his understanding Now there is infinitely more odds between the great Teacher of Heaven and the most rationall man on earth than betweene the most learned teacher on earth and the lowest learner Neither in this heavenly schoole between the supreme Teacher and his earthly sehollers is onely a difference of degrees which I call a difference of quantitie but also a difference of qualitie For sithence the fall of man the knowledge of man is growne carnall his wisdome is a fleshly wisdome and his understanding is growne heterogeneall and of a different nature and temper yea not onely different and strange but crosse to the divine wisedome and the mysteries thereof Therefore the great Teacher of soules seeing our need according to that need gives his Learners and Disciples a new and heavenly understanding to discerne and discerning to approve as most true and reall divine and heavenly objects With giving us the things of God hee gives a spirit to discerne and savour the things given us of God with the things of Christ hee gives us the mind of Christ. And now having gotten spirituall understandings spirituall things appeare to us in their right shapes seeme such as they are And while to those whose teaching doth not ascend above the earthly Academie spirituall things are things not scene their inward as well as their outward eye not discerning them to the spirituall man taught of God in the higher Academie they are seene spiritually and hee seeth not onely that they are but what they are and they are truly that which he seeth them to be CHAP. III. A second benefit of the Heavenly Academie The attaining of heavenly things after they are knowne NEither is there onely a new knowledge given us in the heavenly schoole by which wee may truly and rightly see the things of God but there is a new vertue infused to us by w ch we may receive and enjoy them If onely a light and sight had beene given us by which wee may clearely see and know the excellent things which God hath prepared but had no power to receive them our sight knowledge of them might serve as a light whereby to see their excellencie and our owne miserie For then should we only see an happinesse from which our selves are excluded But God rich in mercie and who worketh his works from end to end teacheth the will to receive as well as the understanding to see He gives not onely an eye to behold but a hand to receive celestiall riches It is a poore and beggerly speculation to know the richnesse of Mines the preciousnesse of jewels the value of pearles and in the meane time by having none of them to suffer extremities of penurie and want But our highest Teacher not only sheweth us the treasures of his Kingdome but teacheth us to take them and so maketh us truly and really rich As they are not in themselves meere words and bare imaginations but realities enduring riches true and solid substance which the heavenly Teacher by a new light discovereth to us so neither are they presented to us as bare sights shewes and spectacles but they are really made ours by his teaching of our wils and affections to apprehend and receive them Christ Jesus the precious Pearle of the Gospel in whom are hid al treasures of blessednesse anoynting our eyes with his oyntments appeares to us as the fairest of men and annoynting our hearts with his oyntments fills our hearts with such love of him that we are drawne to run after him and running after him wee overtake him and overtaking wee are married to him And being married to him Christ our Well-beloved is ours and if Christ be ours all things with him are ours also In him we have blessings of the highest nature and more immediately flowing into us from the Creator remission of sins peace with God communion with God conformitie to God a spirituall sonship an inhabitation of the Spirit an earnest of an eternall inheritance a joy unspeakable and glorious a power of godlinesse the hidden Manna fore-tasts of blessednesse the kisses of Christ Jesus Such invaluable treasures and glorious riches are taught us given us by teaching when God is our Teacher we are taught of God Whiles he calls on us without with his outward word to open our mouths wide hee calls moves and teacheth us within with his operative word so to open them that they are filled with these good things yea with Himselfe who is Goodnesse it selfe This is a lesson which is onely taught in the heavenly schoole For none can come to Christ but hee whom the Father drawes by his heavenly teaching if wee ascend not up to the Heavenly Academie and get up above the teaching of men unto the teaching of God our hearts will never thorowly learne this lesson of happinesse The besenesse and sensualitie of mans heart will lye downe below the due estimation price and love of these pearles and not suffer it to open it selfe though it be to a Saviour bringing blessednes with him It will not give a messe of temporall profit preferment or pleasure for an heavenly birth-right and a glorious inheritance It will account it the chiefe learning to learne some new promotions lands and lordships and no wonder for it takes onely visible things for realitie though these be but temporall and perish with the using and though the things not seene are an enduring substance for all eternitie But the schollers taught in the schoole of Christ account it their chiefe learning to learne and by learning to receive Christ with his blessings and blessednesse whom the more they thus learne the higher are they esteemed and placed by their Master who is Truth it selfe in the schoole of blessednesse CHAP. IV. A third benefit of the Heavenly Academie knowing by tasting THere is yet another eminent and transcedent learning given us by our heavenly Teacher in his highest schoole and that is a mysterious and secret yet an assured evident and exceeding delectable knowledge arising from experience and taste By the first teaching we
title of a Father though that character being well stamped on a Pastor with the affections belonging to it would make him actively and industriously carefull for the good of the flock but he descends into the lownesse and as it were the fondnesse of a Nurse He softly handles and dandles as a Nurse her children and speakes halfe-words low doctrines to them when he sees they are not gone beyond milk nor come to the digestion of stronger meat Yea hee is so fervently affectionate to them that hee is willing to have imparted to them not the Gospel of God onely but his owne soule And hee addes the reason Because they were deare unto him Hence we learn That it is the dearnesse of the flock which is the maine spring that sets all on working This is it which imparts the Gospel willingly and not for constraint and lucre This is it that makes a Teacher instant in season and our of season Briefly this is it which makes him with pleasure to undergoe all labours even from the watching of one houre to the imparting of his soule or life So that if you exhort a Pastor to visit the sick you exhort him but to one dutie if you incite him also to comfort the weake-hearted you invite him but to two but if you could give him love you give him a Spring and Incentive that would move him to these and all other good duties And this love is taught by the highest Teacher for hee is Love in the Fountaine and all Love besides himselfe is a streame of this Fountaine But on the other side where this Love is wanting duâ—ies are not done at all or they are done by pieces and starts or they are done dully and coldly and the doers of them are like the wheeles of Pharaohs chariots in the the red sea they move verie heavily The fire of love is out by which being enflamed themselves they should impart heat unto others and the zeale is wanting by which they should provoke many They have not in them the affections of Fathers and therefore their flocks appeare to them in the shape of bastards and not of sons Accordingly they often set them our as some doe their base children to wanderers and such as will take them best cheap or if they give them any food their hearts goe not with it neither doe they care whether it doe them good or they doe grow and prosper by it And though perchance one of these may act the part of a Lover yet commonly it will shew like an artificiall Scene that only being for the most part proportionable durable and serious which is naturall Therefore take such an one as Timothy that naturally and not artificially cares for the Church and there is no artificiall man that is like minded to him for he takes care not only for some pieces but for the whole estate of the Church And hee works not pieces of Gods worke but the whole work of the Lord yea hee works it as St. Paul did and how hee did it wee have seene before And if you will see the root of it looke into his inside and there you shall see the bowells of Christ Jesus The bowells of Christ Jesus that often would have gathered Jerusalem as a hen gathereth her chicken the bowells of Christ Jesus that accounted the gaine of soules to be his meat and drink the bowells of Christ Jesus that have in them the greatest love to the flocke for greater love hath no man than he that layeth down his life for his flocke These bowells are in St. Paul and therefore no wonder if having received the bowells of Christ by the spirit of Christ hee walke in the steps of Christ while he walketh by the same spirit of Christ. Behold then here the most excellent way even the way of love which teacheth the Teacher directs him into all the wayes of profiting his flock And this teaching love is it selfe taught by the highest Teacher whose name and nature verie being is love and by whom men are taught to love one another He it was that did put an earnest care of the Church into the heart of Titus therefore hee it was also that did put the bowells of love into him from which issued this care And if thou hast the same bowells thy flocke will be thy children and thou wilt be a father to them in their reigning thou shalt reigne they will be thy joy and thy crowne now and thy great rejoycing hereafter in the day of the Lord Jesus Thou shalt come to him and say Behold I and the children whom thou hast given me And hee shall say to thee Well done good and faithfull servant because thou hast fed and loved these my lambs thou hast loved me and because thou hast gained many rule thou over many Cities CHAP. VI. Wayes and meanes of admittance into the heavenly Academie and taking degrees in it BY that which hath been said it appeares that there is a higher Academie as well as a lower and that the higher hath some excellencies above the lower True it is that though there be a difference yet there must not necessarily follow a division yea much rather there should follow a conjunction and hee that is in the lower should strive to bee in both at once And indeed this is a maine businesse of this worke to conjoyne things which God hath not separated and not to diminish but to advance the lower by lifting it up to the higher Now to ascend from the lower to the higher there are certaine staires and steps by which men usually goe up and become Disciples and Pupills of the heavenly Teacher A first step is that which should ever bee first in intention though last in assecution A right end When wee come to God to bee taught we must propose an end worthy of God And surely none but God is an end worthy of God A most perverse and base disorder it were to make man the end of God and much more confused and disorderly were it to make God to serve man in his service of some base lust for then may he not only say Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins but thou hast made me to serve thy sins Thou puttest God below thy sins and puttest thy sins to be thy gods And how canst thou expect that God should by his teaching give thee an excellence above others when thou by his owne gifts doest intend to put either his creature which hee hath made or sin which hee made not above him and him infinitely below himselfe Wherefore let not ambition make worldly pomp which thou hast renounced in thy Baptisme nor the pride of life and outward preferment thy end but account and propose God himselfe before thee as thy highest preferment exceeding great reward and all-sufficient end Neither make earth the end of Heaven nor put the god Mammon in the place
this is not perfected at once Therefore as at thy first entrance into the heavenly Academie thou must begin a deniall and annihilation of thy owne wit and wisedome so after thou art entred thou must strive to continue and increase this deniall for though thou doe in will and purpose put it off and deny it wholly at first yet in act it is not wholly put off it being part of the remaining body of sin which hangeth so fast on that it cannot wholly bee put off untill man be dissolved But thou must strive to get ground of it while thou livest and the greater thy naturall wit is the more must thou strive For the greater it is the more apt will it be to see reasons by it selfe and without Gods teaching which will fall out too often to bee reasons against Gods reasons and wit against Gods wisedome And the admission of humane wit against Gods wisedome by some great wits that perchance first in purpose or profession submitted to the wisedome of God hath beene the cause of many dangerous errours in the Church I say A mixture of mans wit with the Divine Word hath bred Mules in Divinitie even confused foolish and mishapen errours But let the learner in this high Academie lay aside his owne sight which is blindnesse and get from his Teacher that eye-salve which may give him spirituall discerning Let him keep his wit in a perpetuall captivitie and passivenesse to the Spirit of God and beware that by no meanes hee make that portion of Spirit which is in him to suffer under the activitie of his owne carnall wit But having received an eye from God let him see Gods matters with Gods eye and so shall hee keep himselfe safe from error and shall bee led into the truth For a mind given of God doth approve onely the truth of God And though in this life of imperfection no man have so much spirituall light as to discerne all truth yet the spirituall light which every spirituall man that is taught of God receiveth is sufficient for the discoverie or discerning of so much truth as may lead him like a streame to the Ocean and fulnesse of truth and blessednesse And for a preparation toward this fulnesse let him work out and endevour to perfect his owne emptinesse for the more degrees hee gaines of this emptinesse the more degrees shall he receive of Gods fulnesse even of his teaching grace here and his crowning grace for ever hereafter CHAP. VIII A third step Conformitie to God LIkenesse drawes love and love causeth a communication of counsells yea love it selfe is a likenesse to him who is Love and thus love from love drawes a partaking of secrets when the heart and wayes of man are agreeable to Gods heart then the heart of God is as it were great with that affection which longs to communicate Shall I hide the thing that I doe from Abraham saith the Lord seeing Abraham both keepes the wayes of the Lord and will teach his children to keep it The Psalmist also professeth that hee got many degrees of wisedome by his walking with God in the Lawes of God even by the conformitie of his heart and wayes to the heart and will of God Thereby saith hee I am wiser than mine enemies wiser than old men yea wiser than my Teachers No doubt he had obtained his prayer of God Lighten mine eyes and I shall see wonderfull things in thy Law And as likenesse is it selfe a reason that moves God to be thy Teacher so it carries with it a second reason Where is likenesse and conformitie to God there is also a covenant with God where the Law of God is so written in the heart that by this writing the heart is framed according to Gods heart there is covenant betweene God that wrote this Law and him in in whom it is written God is his Father and Teacher and he is Gods Son and Disciple Hee saith plainly thou art his son and hee saith truely his promises are Yea Amen that thou art his Disciple for he promiseth that thou shalt be taught of God And David upon triall acknowledgeth the truth of this teaching when hee saith The secret of the Lord is with them that feare him and his covenant to make them to know it Hee hath not onely made a covenant with them but hee makes them to know it he doth both give it and teach it Thirdly there is a friendship between those that are conformed unto God and God to whom they are conformed Abraham the father of the faithfull was called the friend of God and the faithfull children of Abraham are also called his friends God is no complementer and therefore if hee allow them the terme hee allowes them also the truth of this friendship Yee are my friends saith our Saviour if yee doe whatsoever I command you Now wee know that a friend will tell a friend his counsells So saith our Saviour Because yee are my friends therefore whatsover I have heard of the Father I make knowne unto you Fourthly there is a marriage between Christ and his Church the Church in this marriage is one spirit with him as in naturall marriages two are one flesh And if there be such a marriage there is also a marriage-love betweene them Now marriage-marriage-love doth communicate counsells and it is so hard if not impossible for marriage-marriage-love to deny such a communication that the woman who could onely make her challenge upon a counterfeit shape of marriage yet thinks it fit to object this question How canst thou say that thou lovest me when thy heart is not with mee And why is not his heart with her Because hee doth not tell her his counsells even such counsells as being told may endanger his libertie and life But Christ the best husband having given his life for his Spouse and himselfe to his Spouse in a sacred union how shall hee not with his life and himselfe give her his counsells also It is his owne word If the wives be ignorant or doubtfull let them aske their husbands Herein hee implyeth That if the wives doe ask their husbands they being asked should be willing to reach their wives Surely if Christ require this willingnesse to teach in lower and meaner husbands whose knowledge yea whose love cannot be here in perfection will not this husband who is light it selfe and love it selfe teach his owne wife by this most perfect light and from this most perfect love Yea certainely in the bed of love he will not onely tell her the words of his counsells but by a sacred unction being one spirit with her hee will make her to see the counsells of his words hee will give her an inward and spirituall eye to see the inward riches and realities of his counsells So that whereas the world cannot see the wisedome of God and the precious things contained in it for the mysterie the Spouse by this new
light looking within the veile of the mysterie shall see the wisedome of God and most excellent treasures contained in it presented and offered by it Wherefore that God in Christ may bee thy Teacher study this conformitie to God which by likenesse by covenant by friendship by marriage-love may draw him to teach thee And first put off the old man corrupt with deceivable lusts which cause in thee a deformitie yea an enmitie against God The uncircumcision of the flesh hath in it a contrarietie to God and his wisedome and makes thee adverse to Gods teaching and God unwilling to teach thee It is also a veile upon the eye of thy soule hides thy sight from his light his light from thy sight And untill a spirituall circumcision doe take off this veile thou art in the schoole of the Prince of darknesse and art not yet teachable by the Father of lights But if this veile of the old man be first removed by mortification thou shalt in the second place put on the new man wherein is the image of God light agreeable to his light and a love of him who is Love and of that which hee loves then God will delight in thee as a father in the son that resembles him and as a father his son he will delight to teach and nurture thee If thou keep this image cleare that God may see his face in it he will therein also see his covenant and seeing his covenant hee will take thee for his friend yea for his spouse and by all these as by so many cords of love hee will be drawne to teach thee Being thus pure in heart thou shalt see God thou shalt see him here guiding and teaching thee and hereafter in presentiall vision eternally blessing thee CHAP. IX A fourth step Conversing with God and diligent comming to his Schoole HEE that will bee taught of God must come diligently to his Teacher and meet him where when he useth to teach Now he teacheth both publikely in the great Assemblies and privately in the little Temples and Sanctuaries In the great Congregation his Spirit meets thee in the ministerie of the Word and in the seales of that Word and offers to write that Word in thy heart so that thou mayst see it plainly to be the wisedome of God and mayst see in it the wonderfull things of God Thou shalt see in the Word the mysteries which hee teacheth thee yea thine eyes in it shall see the Teacher himselfe for therein shalt thou see Christ lively set forth and offering his flesh his humanitie yea himselfe both God and man unto thee Such sights mayst thou see in this great Schoole of God being enlightened and taught by his Spirit which Spirit is a companion of the Word by the vertue of the New Covenant and by this Covenant we may claime and expect it from God Therefore is the New Covenant called The Ministerie of the Spirit in an excellencie above the Law which was called The Ministerie of the Letter And it is such indeed as it is called for while St. Peter taught the word to Cornelius and his friends the Spirit accompanied the Word and fell on them that heard it St. Paul also calls up the experience of the Galatians for a witnesse of this truth Received yee the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith preached And indeed if this truth thus covenanted by God and actually made good by him were accordingly beleeved rested on thirsted after and expected God should bee more often heard speaking spirit and life with his Word in the inward eare and the Word should not dye so often in the outward eare or carnall heart for want of this Spirit It is an unvaluable losse that men doe so much divide the outward Teacher from the inward rest on the former without respect to the latter Whereas when wee goe to the outward Teacher which is man wee should set our eyes and hearts chiefly on the inward Teacher which is God wee should challenge him upon his covenant and promise saying and praying Remember thy promise to thy servant wherein thou hast made him to hope And therefore speake Lord that thy servant may heare for without thy speaking thy servant cannot heare Hee may heare the outward sound of the Word in his eare but he cannot heare the inward sense and power in his heart The outward Israel had seene the great wonders of God upon Aegypt they heard the thunders on mount Sinai yet neither did they see those wonders nor heare those thunders And Moses tells them how it came to passe when hee saith The Lord hath not given you eyes to see and eares to heare untill this day They thought their own eyes sufficient to see and their own eares to heare and resting in this insufficient sufficiencie God left them to it and so they did neither see nor heare for Gods works wonders and voyce can onely kindly and truely bee seene and heard by eyes and eares given of God from Heaven Know therefore thy owne insufficiencie yea the insufficiencie of the best Teacher in the world for who is sufficient for these things to teach thee inwardly what hee teacheth thee outwardly and know that the sufficiencie of inward teaching comes onely from God Therefore while thy outward eare expects the outward word of the outward Teacher let thy inward eare expect the inward teaching of the inward and highest Teacher For thus only may the planting though of Paul himselfe and the watering though of Apollos be made something even when God gives an increase which otherwise are nothing And being thus inwardly taught to profit and increase thou art taught according to the New Covenant for thou art taught of God Come therefore diligently to this schoole of his where hee useth thus to teach beleeve his Covenant and take it by beleeving And secondly That thou mayest the better beleeve and take it hee hath given thee seales of the New Covenant by which the New Covenant is presented unto thy faith sealed and confirmed By this confirmation and sealing thy faith should be increased and by the increase of thy faith thy union with Christ Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant will bee increased and by the increase of this Union there will bee an increase of the Spirit the promise of the New Covenant which knoweth the things of God and which will shew them more unto thee the more it is in thee When thou wast baptized into Christ thou didst put on Christ and when thou eatest the spirituall meat and drinkest the spirituall drinke in the Eucharist thou doest put him on more and more Thy being in Christ even thy new being which thou receivedst before thou doest now feed and nourish and bring forth into manhood And as thou growest into manhood thou knowest by the Apostles reason thou art enabled to grow in knowledge to be