which is desireable When one man nameth GOD he hath an orderly conception of his several Attributes in which yet all men are defective and most Divines themselves are culpably ignorant When another man conceiveth but of fewer of them and that disorderly And yet these must not be accounted Atheists or denied to believe in the same God or refused Baptism nor is it several Gods that men so differently believe in I. He that knoweth God to be a most perfect Spirit most powerful Wise and Good the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Creator of the world our Owner Governour and most Amiable Lover Benefactor and End I think knoweth as much of God as is of necessity to Baptism and Church Communion II. He that knoweth that Jesus Christ is God and man the Redeemer of the sinful world and the Mediator between God and Man who was conceived by the Holy-Ghost in the Virgin Mary fulfilled all righteousness was crucified as a Sacrifice for mans sin and being dead and buried rose again and ascended into Heaven and is the Teacher King and Intercessor of his Church and hath made the new Covenant and giveth the Holy-Ghost to sanctify believers and pardoneth their sins and will raise our Bodies at last and Judge the World in righteousness according to his Gospel and will give everlasting happiness to the Sanctified I think knoweth as much of Christ as is necessary to Baptism and Church Communion III. He that knoweth that the Holy Ghost is God proceeding from the Father and the Son the sanctifier of Souls by Holy Life and Light and Love by the Holy Gospel of which he is the Inditer and the Seal I think knoweth all that is necessary unto Baptism concerning the Holy Ghost IV. And as to the Act of Knowing this Trinity of Objects there is great difference between 1. Knowing the Notions or Words and the matter 2. Between an orderly clear and a dark and more confused Knowledge 3. And between apt significant words and such as any way notify a necessary true conception of the mind 4. Between such a Knowledge as maketh a man Willing and Consent to give up himself to this Trinity in Covenant and that which prevaileth not for such consent And so 1. It 's true that we know not the Heart immediately and therefore must judge by Words and Deeds But yet it is the Knowledge of the Things as is aforesaid that is necessary to Salvation because it is the Love of the Things is chiefly necessary But by what words to express that Love or Knowledge is not of equal necessity in itself 2. There being no man whose conceptions of God Christ the Holy Ghost the Covenant c. are not guilty of darkness and disorder a great degree of darkness and disorder of conceptions may consist with true grace in those of the lowest rank of Christians 3. The second Notions and Conceptions of things and so of God our Redeemer and Sanctifier as they are verba mentis in the mind itself are but Logical Artificial Organs and are not of that necessity to Salvation as the conception of the matter or incomplex objects 4. Many a man in his studies findeth that he hath oft a general and true Knowledge of Things in themselves before he can put names and notions on them and set those in due Order and long before he can find fit words to express his mental notions by which must cost him much study afterward And as Children are long learning to speak and by degrees come to speak orderly and composedly and aptly mostly not till many years use hath taught them So the expressive ability is as much matter of art and got by use in men at age And they must be taught yet as Children to speak of any thing new and Strange and which they learned not before As we see in learning Arithmetick Geometry and all the Arts and Sciences Even so men how holy internally soever must by study and use by the help of Gods Spirit learn how to speak of holy things in Prayer in Conference in answering such as ask an account of their Faith and Knowledge And hypocrites that are bred up in the use of such things can speak excellently in Prayer Conference or Preaching When true Christians at first that never used them nor were bred up where they heard them used cannot tell you intelligibly what is in their minds but are like men that are yet to learn the very Language in which they are to talk in I know this by true experience of my self and many others that I have examined 5. Therefore I say again if men cannot aptly answer me of the very Essentials of Religion but speak that which in its proper sense is Heresie or unsound and false Yet if when I open the questions to them my self and put the Article of Faith into the question and ask them e. g. Do you believe that there is but One God or are there many Doth God know all things or not Is he our Owner or not Doth he rule us by a Law or not c If they by Yea or Nay do speak the truth and profess to believe it I will not reject them for lack of knowledge if the rest concur I meet with few censorious Professors to say nothing of Teachers that will not answer me with some nonsense or falseness or ineptitude or gross confusion or defectiveness if I examine them of the foregoing Notions of the very baptismal Covenant As what is a Spirit what doth the word God signifie what is Power in God what Knowledge what Will what Goodness what Holiness what is a Person in the Trinity what is the difference between the three Persons How is God our End Had Christ his humane Soul from the Virgin or only his flesh Had he his Manhood from Man if not his Soul which is the chief essential part what is the Union of the Divine and Humane Nature wherein different from the Union of God and Saints or every Creature with an hundred such In which I must bear with ignorant false answers from eminent Professors that separate from others as too ignorant for their Communion And why then must I not bear with more in those that are new beginners and have not had their time and helps 6. But if a man can speak never so well and profess never so confident a belief if he Consent not to the Covenant and Vow of Baptism to give up himself presently and absolutely to Christ I must reject that man from the Communion of the Church But if these two things do but concur in any 1. The foresaid signification of a tolerable Knowledge and Belief by yea or nay Dost thou Believe in God c. as the Ancient Churches used to ask the Baptized 2. And a ready professed consent to be engaged by that holy Vow and Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost I will not deny Baptism to such if Adult nor after Church
ordinary for self-conceited Persons to ruine their own Estates and Healths and Lives When they are rashly making ill Bargains or undertaking things which they understand not they rush on till they find their error too late and their Poverty Prisons or ruined Families must declare their sin For they have not humility enough to seek Counsel in time nor to take it when it is offered them What great numbers have I heard begging relief from others under the confession of this sin And far more even the most of Men and Women overthrow their Health and lose their Lives by it Experience doth not suffice to teach them what is hurtful to their Bodies and as they know not so you cannot convince them that they know not Most Persons by the excess in quantity of food do suffocate Nature and lay the Foundation of future Maladies And most of the Diseases that kill men untimely are but the effects of former Gluttony or Excess But as long as they feel not any present hurt no man can perswade them but their fulness is for their Health as well as for their Pleasure They will laugh perhaps at those that tell them what they do and what Diseases they are preparing for Let Physicians if they be so honest tell them It is the perfection of the nutritive Juices the Blood and nervous Oyl which are the causes of Health in man Perfect Concoction causeth that perfection Nature cannot perfectly concoct too much or that which is of too hard digestion While you feel no harm your Blood groweth dis-spirited and being but half concocted and half Blood doth perform its Office accordingly by the halves till crudities are heaped up and obstructions fixed and a Dunghil of Excrements or the dis-spirited humours are ready to take in any Disease which a small occasion offereth either Agues Feavers Coughs Consumptions Pleurisies Dropsies Colicks and Windiness Head-achs Convulsions c. or till the Inflammations or other Tumors of the inward Parts or the torment of the Stone in Reins or Bladder do sharply tell men what they have been doing A clean Body and perfect Concoction which are procured by Temperance and bodily Labours which suscitate the Spirits and purifie the Blood are the proper means which God in the course of nature hath appointed for a long and healthful Life This is all true and the reason is evident and yet this talk will be but despised and derided by the most and they will say I have so long eaten what I loved and lived by no such rules as these and I have found no harm by it Yea if Excess have brought Diseases on them if Abstinence do but make them more to feel them they will rather impute their illness to the Remedy than to the proper cause And so they do about the quality as well as the quantity Self-conceitedness maketh men uncureable Many a one have I known that daily lived in that fulness which I saw would shortly quench the Vital Spirits and fain I would have saved their Lives but I was not able to make them willing Had I seen another assault them I could have done somewhat for them but when I foresaw their death I could not save them from themselves They still said they found their measures of eating and drinking between Meals refresh them and they were the worse if they forbore it and they would not believe me against both Appetite Reason and Experience And thus have I seen abundance of my acquaintance wilfully hasten to the Grave And all long of an unhumbled self-conceited understanding which would not be brought to suspect it self and know its error 2. And O how often have I seen the dearest Friends thus kill their Friends even Mothers kill their dearest Children and too oft their Husbands Kindred Servants and Neighbours by their self-conceit and confidence in their ignorance and error Alas what abundance empty their own Houses gratifie covetous Landlords that set their Lands by Lives and bring their dearest Relations to untimely ends and a wise man knoweth not how to hinder them How oft and oft have I heard ignorant Women confidently perswade even their own Children to eat as long as they have an Appetite and so they have vitiated their Blood and Humours in their Childhood that their Lives have been either soon ended or ever after miserable by Diseases How oft have I heard them perswade sick or weak diseased Persons to eat eat eat and take what they have a mind to when unless they would Poyson them or cut their Throats they could scarce more certainly dispatch them How oft have these good Women been perswading my self that eating and drinking more would make me better and that it is Abstinence that causeth all my illness when Excess in my Childhood caused it as if every wise Woman that doth but know me knew better what is good for me than my self after threescore years experience or than all the Physicians in the City And had I obeyed them how many years ago had I been dead How ordinary is it for such self-conceited Women to obtrude their skill and Medicines on their sick Neighbours with the greatest confidence when they know not what they do yea upon their Husbands and their Children One can scarce come about sick Persons but one Woman or other is perswading them to take that or do that which is like to kill them Many and many when they have brought their Children to the Grave have nothing to say but I thought this or that had been best for them But you 'l say They do it in love they meant no harm I answer so false Teachers deceive Souls in Love. But are you content your selves to be kill'd by Love If I must be kill'd I had rather an Enemy did it than a Friend I would not have such have the guilt or grief Love will not save mens lives if you give them that which tends to kill them But you 'l say We can be no wiser than we are If we do the best we can what can we do more I answer I would have you not think your selves wiser than you are I would write over this word five hundred times if that would cure you About matters of Diet and Medicines and Health this is it that I would have you do to save you from killing your selves and your Relations 1. Pretend not to know upon the report of such as your selves or in matters that are difficult and beyond your skill or where you have not had long consideration and experience Meddle with no Medicining but what in common easy cases the common judgment of Physicians and common Experience have taught you 2. If you have not Money to pay Physicians and Apothecaries tell them so and desire them to give you their counsel freely and take not on you to know more than they that have studied and practised it all their riper part of their lives 3. Suspect your understandings and consider how much there may be
unknown to you in the secresie and variety of Diseases difference of temperatures and the like which may make that hurtful which you conceit is good Therefore do nothing rashly and in self-conceited confidence but upon the best advice ask the Physician whether your Medicines and Rules are safe 4. And be sure that you do rather too little than too much What abundance are there especially in the small Pox and Feavers that would have scaped if Women yea and Physicians would have let them alone that die because that Nature had not leave to cure them being disturbed by mistaken Usages or Medicines Diseases are so various and secret and Remedies so uncertain that the wisest man alive that hath studied and practised it almost all his riper days were it an hundred years must confess that Physick is a hard a dark uncertain work and ordinary cases much more extraordinary have somewhat in them which doth surpass his skill And how then come so many Medicining Women to know more than they But you 'l say We see that many miscarry by Physicians and they speed worst that use them most I answer But would they not yet speed worse if they used you as much If they are too ignorant how come you to be wiser If you are teach them your Skill But I must add that even Physicians guilt of the sin which I am reproving doth cost many a hundred persons their lives as well as yours Even too many Physicians who have need of many daies enquiry and observations truly to discover a disease do kill men by rash and hasty judging I talk not of the Cheating sort that take on them to know all by the Urine alone but of honester and wiser men It is most certain that old Celsus saith that a Physitian is not able faithfully to do his Office for very many Patients A few will take up all his time But they that gape most after money must venture upon a short sight and a few words and presently resolve before they know and write down their directions while they are ignorant of one half which if they knew would change their Counsels And such is mans body and its diseases that the oversight or ignorance of one thing among twenty is like enough to be the patients death And how wise expedient and vigilant must he be that will commit no such killing oversight And as too many medicine a man whom they know not and an unknown disease for want of just deliberation so too many venture upon uncertain and untryed medicines or rashly give that to one in another case which hath profited others In a word even rash Physicians have cause to fear lest by prefidence and hasty judging more should die by their mistakes than do by murderers that I say not by Souldiers in the world And lest their dearest friends should speed worse by them than by their greatest Enemies For as Seamen and Souldiers do boldly follow the trade when they find that in several Voyages and Battels they have escaped but yet most or very many of them are drowned or killed at the last So he that is tampering over-much with medicines may scape well and boast of the Success a while But at last one blood-letting one Vomit one Purge or other medicine may miscarry by a small mistake or accident and he is gone And there are some persons so Civil that if a rash or unexperienced Physician be their Kinsman Friend or Neighbour they will not go to an abler man lest they be accounted unfriendly and disoblige him And if such scape long with their lives they may thank Gods mercy and not their own wisdom Souldiers kill enemies and unskilful rash Physicians kill their friends But you 'l say They do their best and they can do no more I answer as before 1. Let them not think that they know what they do not know but sufficiently suspect their own understandings 2. Let them not go beyond their knowledge How little of our kind of Physick did the old Physicians Hypocrates Galius Celsus c. give Do not too much 3. Venture not rashly without full search deliberation Counsel and Experience O how many die by hasty judging and rash mistakes Physicians must pardon my free speaking or endure it for I conceive it necessary It hath not been the least part of the Calamity of my Life to see my Friends and other worthy persons killed by the Ignorance or Hastiness of Physicians I greatly reverence and honour those few that are men 1. Of clear searching judicious heads 2. Of great reading especially of other mens Experiences 3. Of great and long Experience of their own 4. Of present Sagacity and ready memory to use their own experiments 5. Of Conscience and cautelousness to suspect and know before they hastily Judge and Practice I would I could say that such are not too few But I must say to the people as you love your lives take heed of all the rest A high-way Robber you may avoid or resist with greater probability of safety than such men How few are they that are kill'd by Thieves or in Duels in comparison of those that are kill'd by Physicians especially confident young men that account themselves wits and think they have hit on such Philosophical principles as will better secure both their Practice and Reputation than old Physicians Doctrine and Experiences could do Confident young men of unhumbled understandings presently trust their undigested thoughts and rashly use their poor short experiments and trust to their new conceptions of the Reasons of all Operations and then they take all others for meer Empyricks in comparison of them And when all is done their pretended Reason for want of full Experience and Judgment to improve it doth but enable them to talk and boast and not to heal and when they have kill'd men they can justify it and prove that they did it Rationally or rather that it was something else and not their error that was the cause They are wits and men of rare inventions and therefore are not such fools as to confess the Fact. How oft have I seen men of great worth such as few in an age arise too who having a high esteem of an injudicious unexperienced Physician have sealed their erroneous kindness with their blood How oft have I seen worthy persons destroyed by a pernicious medicine clear contrary to what the nature of the disease required who without a Physician might have done well Such sorrows just now upon me make me the more plain and copious in the Case And yet alas I see no hope of amendment probable For 1. Many hundred Ministers being forbidden to Preach the Gospel and cast out of all their livelyhood for not Promising Asserting Swearing and doing all that is required of them many of these think that necessity alloweth them to turn Physicians which they venture on upon seven years study when Seven and Seven and Seven is not enough though
Now that which such persons do sensibly apprehend they are confident of because that Nature teacheth them to trust their senses But not knowing the rest their little partial conceptions are lame defective and deceitful For most will hence rashly conclude of the Negative that There is no more because they know no more But if any be more wise and modest yet do they want the conception of the unknown parts to make the rest to be true Knowledge or to tell them what is yet unknown And such use to turn a Judicial Rule into a Physical that non apparere non esse are to them all one 2. And an Ignorant man doth not know what Conceptions other men have of the same things which he is ignorant of So that he neither knoweth the thing intelligible what it is nor yet the Act of Knowing it which he never had But as a man born blind hath no formal conception either of sight or of light or visible objects so is it here 3. Nor hath he usually a true Knowledge of his own Ignorance how imperfect his understanding is and how much to be suspected as liable to mistake Though in some sensible matters it is easie to convince men of a total Ignorance yet when they know any thing it is hard to convince them what more is to be known and to keep them from false and hasty conclusions A man that cannot read at all is easily convinced that he cannot read But he that can read a little is apt to think that he readeth rightly when he doth not A man that never heard of Physick is easily convinced that he hath no skill in it But if he have read heard of and tryed a few Medicines he is apt to grow conceited and venture mens lives upon his skill A man that never saw Building Navigation or any Art or Manufacture is easily convinced that he is ignorant of it But if he have got some smattering knowledge he is ready to think that it is more than it is because he knoweth not what he wants And to err and know that a man erreth at the same time about the same thing is a contradiction For he that erreth judgeth a falshood to be a truth But to know that so to judge is to err is certainly not so to judge For Intellectus vult verum that is Truth is the object which it is naturally inclined to The same light which discovereth Errour cureth it And that light which discovereth the Thing it self is it that must convince me that I before erred about it by misapprehensions 4. And an ignorant man doth not so much as know the difficulties of the case and what may be said on the other side What contrary Evidence convinceth others or what weight there is in the objections which are or may be brought against him So that all men being naturally ignorant and little being known for much that 's unknown even to the wisest alas the temptation to Errour and false Confidence is so strong that few escape it II. Another cause of it is the Radical Master sin of Pride An unhumbled mind never well acquainted with its own dark and erroneous condition and its great need of natural and supernatural helps I find it hard to convince men of this but the formentioned Effects do certainly prove it The Vice is Born with us at the very Heart It is the Devils Image He that is not naturally proud is not a Son of Adam It liveth first and dieth last And there is nothing that a man is apter to be proud of than his Reason which is his Humanity and next to that of his Goodness and of his Greatness Men perceive not this in themselves because they know not what Pride is while it ruleth in them They think that it is only some womanish or childish extrinsical Ostentation boasting or perking up above others in Garb and Place or Peacock-like looking upon their own Train or setting it up for others to look on But Pride is as I said before an over-valuing our selves and a desire that others should over-value us And how few be there that be not tickled when their wisdom is applauded and netled when it is accounted small It 's hard to bear to be accounted and reported a Fool or a Person of little Wit. Many a man spendeth all the studies of his Life more for a Fame of Learning than for Learning it self what is Pride if this be not What grosser Pride than for a Woman or unexperienced Lad to scorn and despise the eldest and hardest Students in Divinity as dark Souls in comparison of them The Quakers in their Shops when I go along London Streets say Alas poor man thou art yet in darkness They have oft come into the Congregation when I had liberty to Preach Christs Gospel and cryed out against me as a Deceiver of the people They have followed me Home Crying out in the Streets The day of the Lord is coming when thou shalt perish as a Deceiver They have stood in the Market-place and under my Window year after year Crying out to the people Take heed of your Priests they deceive your Souls And if they saw any one wear a Lace or neat clothing they cryed to me These are the fruit of thy Ministry If they spake to me with greatest ignorance or nonsence it was with as much fury and rage as if a bloody Heart had appeared in their Faces so that though I never hurt or occasioned the hurt of one of them that I know of their truculent countenances told me what they would have done had I been in their power This was 1656 57 58 59. And yet they were poorly clothed Some of them went through the Streets stark naked and cryed out over and over all the year Woe to the Proud. Wonderful wonderful O the blindness of a corrupted mind That these poor Souls did not perceive their superlative Pride How highly did these people think of their own wisdom and holiness while they cryed down Laces Points and Cuffs And when did I ever know either a true Church-Tyrant or a true Sectarian Separating Humorist which were not both notorious proud over-valuers of their own conceits To which those that bowed not must be persecuted as unruly Schismaticks by the one sort and Excommunicated Separated from and Damned as Ungodly Carnal or Antichristian by the other sort Several ways doth PRIDE cause pretended knowledge 1. By thinking that our understandings are so good as that without great study we can know truth from falshood and so making us venture to judge of things at the first hearing or reading which we cannot be capable of judging of under long and diligent studies Because recipitur ad modum recipientis Therefore it is that when a man by great success in Studies hath made things as plain as words can make them so that you would think that all Students should presently be wise at easie rates by the light which
he hath set up to them they are half as long in Learning for all that as if he had never given them such a help And therefore it is that we cannot leave our Learning to Posterity Because still the stop is in the Receivers incapacity And he cannot be capable of the plainest precepts but by much time and study 2. Pride maketh men hasty in concluding because they are not humbled to a just Suspicion of their own apprehensions And men stay not to prove and try things before they judge 3. Pride maketh men insensible how much they are ignorant of in all their Knowledge 4. And it causeth men to slight the Reasons and Judgments of other men by which they might learn or at least might be taught to Judge considerately and suspend their own If over-valuing a mans own apprehensions be Pride as it is then certainly Pride is one of the commonest sins in the world and particularly among men professing godliness who upon every poor surmise or report are condemning those that they do not throughly know and in every petty controversy they are all still in the right though of never so many minds III Another cause of Pretended Knowledge is the want of a truly tender Conscience Which should make men fear lest they should err lest they should deserve the curse of putting light for darkness darkness for light evil for good good for evil should make them afraid lest they should defile their minds resist the truth blaspheme God or Dishonour him by fathering Errors on him and lest they should prove snares to mens Souls and a Scandal and Trouble to the Church of God. A tender Conscience would not have espoused such opinions under a year or two or manies deliberation which an Antinomian or other Sectary will take up in a few days if they were true O saith the tender Conscience what if I should Err and prove a Snare to Souls and a Scandal and Dishonour to the Church of God c. IV. Another cause of Pretended Knowledge is a blind Zeal for Knowledge and Godliness in the General while men know not what it is that they are zealous of They think that it is a necessary part of sincerity to receive the Truth speedily without delay And therefore they take a present concluding for a true Receiving it And he that soonest taketh up that which is offered him probably as a part of Godliness is taken for the most resolved down-right convert Which is true in case of Evident Truths where it is the will that by vice suspendeth the mind But not in dark and doubtful cases V. Another cause is an inordinate trust in man When some admire the learned too much and some the Religious and some this or that particular person and therefore build too confidently on their words Some on great men some on the Multitude but most on men of fame for great Learning or great Piety A credit is to be given by every learner to his Teacher But the confounding this with oâ— Belief of God and making it a part of our Religion and not trusting man as man only that is as a fallible Wight doth cause this Vice of Pretended Knowledge to pass with millions for Divine Faith. Especially when men embody themselves into a Sect as the only Orthodox or Godly party or as the only true Church as the Papists do then it emboldeneth them to believe any thing which their Sect or Church believeth For they think that this is the Churches Faith which cannot err or is the safest And that God would not let so many good men err And thus they that should be made their Teachers and the Helpers of their Faith become the Lords of it and almost their Gods. VI. And it much increaseth this sin that men are not sufficiently acquainted with the Original and Additional Corruption of mans nature and know not how Blind all Mankind is Alas man is a dark Creature What error may he not hold What villany may he not do Yea and maintain Truly said David All men are Liars Pitifully do many expound this as an effect of his unbelief and passion because he saith I said it my haste When it is no more than Paul saith Let God be true and every man a Liar Rom. 3. And than Solomon and Isaiah say All men are Vanity And Jeremy cursed be he that trusteth in man All men are untrusty in a great degree Weak False and Bad. And his haste was either as Dr. Hammond translateth it his Flight or else that his Tryal and distress made him more passionately sensible of the Vanity or Untrustiness of man than he was at other times For Vanity and a Lie to the Hebrews were words of the same importance signifying Deceivableness and untrustiness And indeed among mankind there is so great a degree of Impotency Selfishness Timorousness Ignorance Errour and Viciousness as that few wicked men are to be believed where there is any strong Temptation to lying And the Devil is seldom unprovided of Temptations And abundance of Hypocrites are as untrusty as open wicked men And abundance of sincere Godly persons especially Women have loose Tongues and hasty passions and a stretching Conscience but specially injudicious heads so that frequently they know not truth from falshood nor have the tenderness of Conscience to be silent till they know So that if one say it another will say it till a hundred say it and then it goeth for currant truth Good-mens over-much credulity of one another hath filled the Church with Lies and Fables Many of the Papists Sâ—â—â—rstitions Purgatory praying to Saints and Angels prayâ—â— for the dead c. were bred by this credulity It is so visible in Venerable Beda Gregory the first yea before them in Sulpitius Severus of Martius Life and abundance more that to help up Christianity among the Pagans they laid hold of any old Womans or Ignorant Mans Dreams and Visions and stories of pretended Miracles Revelations that it made even Melchior Canus cry out of the shameful Ridiculous filth that hence had filled their Legends Even Baronius upon Tryal retaineth no small number of them and with his Brethren the Oratorians on their Prophesying days told them to the people I am ashamed that I recited one out of him before my Treatise of Crucifying the World though I did it not as perswading any that it was true For I quickly saw that Sophronious on whom he fathered it was none of the reporters of it that Book being spurious and none of Sophronius his work Indeed I know of such impudent false History lately Printed of matters of publick fact in these times yea divers concerning my own Words and Actions by persons that are far from Contemptible that Strangers and Posterity will scarce believe that humane nature could be guilty of it in the open light And I know it to be so customary a thing for the Zealots professing the fear of God on one
he is considered as Active and his Love as an Act and Man as the Object But yet not as an Object of Efficiency but of Approbation and a Pleased Will or Delight Here then the great difficulty is in resolving which of these is the highest perfective notion of man's felicity perfection or ultimate end Our Love to God or God's Love to us Ans It is mutual Love and Union which is the true and compleat notion of our End And to compare God's Love and ours as the parts and tell which is the final principal part or notion is not easy nor absolutely necessary But I conceive 1. That our Love to God is Objectively or as to the Object of it infinitely more excellent than Gods Love to us as to the Object Which is but to say that God is Infinitely better than man God loveth man who is a worm But we Love God who is perfect goodness 2. Gods Love to us as to the Agent and the Act ex parte Agentis is Infinitely more excellent than our Love to him For it is Gods Essential will which loveth us and it is the will of a worm that loveth God. 3. That mans Felicity as such is not the chief notion of his ultimate end But he must Love God as God better than his own Felicity as such or better than God as our Felicity 4. That mans true ultimate end containeth these five inadequate conceptions 1. The lowest notion or part of it is our own holiness and felicity 2. The next notion of it is the perfection of the Church and Universe to which we contribute and which we must value above our own Including the Glory of Christs Humanity 3. The third notion is the Glory or Lustre of Gods perfections as they shine forth in us and all his perfected glorious works 4. The fourth notion is Gods own Essential goodness as the Object of our Knowledge Love and Praise 5. The fifth and highest notion is the Active Love or Complacency of Gods fulfilled Will in us and in the whole Creation So that the Pleasing of Gods will is the highest notion of mans ultimate end Though all these five are necessarily contained in it Chap. III. Doct. 3. Therefore Knowledge is to be valued sought and used as it tendeth to our Love of God. THis third Doctrine is much of the Scope of the Text All means are for their end So far as Knowledge is a means of love it must needs hence have the measure of its worth and we the motives of our desires of it and the direction for our using of it 1. All knowledge that kindleth not the love of God in us is so narrow and small that it deserveth not indeed the name of Knowledge For the necessary things that such a person is Ignorant of are a thousand times more or greater than that little which he knoweth For 1. What is it that he is Ignorant of 1. He hath no sound and real Knowledge of God. For if he knew God truly he could not but love him Goodness is so naturally the Object of the will that if men well knew the infinite Good they must needs love him However there is a partial knowledge that is separable from sincere Love. 2. He that knoweth not and loveth not God neither knoweth nor loveth any creature truly and effectually either as it is of God or Through him or To him Either as it beareth the Impress of the Glorious Efficient or as it is ordered to its end by the most wise Director or as it is a means to lead up Souls to God or to Glorify and please him no nor to make man truly happy And can he be said indeed to know any Creature that knoweth it not in any of these respects that knoweth neither its Original Order or Use Doth a Dog or a Goose know a Book of Philosophy because he looketh on it and seeth the bulk Doth he know a Clock or Watch who knoweth no more of it but that it hath such Parts and Shapes made of Iron and Brass It is most evident that an unholy person knoweth nothing that is no one Being though he may know aliquid de re aliqua something of some Being For he that knoweth not the Nature Order or Use and End of a Being cannot properly be said to know that Being but only secundum quid or some Accidents of it or to have a general Knowledge that it is a Substance or a something he knoweth not what As an Epicurean can call all things compacted Atomes or Matter and Motion An ungodly man is just like one that studieth the art of a Scrivener or Printer to make the Letters and place them by art but never learnt to read or know the signification of the Letters which he maketh or composeth Or if any may be said to have a Speculative knowledge of all this in the Creature the Nature Order and Use yet he is without the true Practical Knowledge which is it that only is Knowledge indeed and of use and benefit to man. For to be able to speak or write a true Proposition about God or the Creature is not properly to know God or the Creature but to know names and words concerning them It is but a Logical Knowledge of Notions and not the knowledge of the Thing it self to be able to say and know that this or that concerning it is true or false Nothing more deceiveth mankind both in point of Learning and of Religion and Salvation than mistaking the Organical or Logical Knowledge of second Notions Words Propositions Inferences and Methods for the Real Knowledge of the Things themselves And thinking that they know a thing because they know what to say of it He knoweth not a Countrey who is only able by the Map or hear-say to describe it He knoweth not Motion Light Heat Cold Sweet Bitter that knoweth no more than to give a true definition of it And as this is true of things sensible which must themselves be perceived first by sense so is it of things spiritual which must themselves be perceived first by Intellection and not only the notions and definitions of them He that doth not intuitively or by internal immediate perception know what it is to Understand to Remember to Will and Nill to Love and Hate and consequently to be able to do these acts doth not know what a man is or what a Reasonable Soul is and what an Intellectual Spirit is though he could were it possible without these learn the Definition of a Man a Soul a Spirit A definition or word of art spoken by a Parrot or a madman proveth not that he knoweth the thing Practical objects are not truly known without a Practical Knowledge of them He knoweth not what meat is that knoweth not that it must be eaten and how to eat it He only knoweth his clothing that knoweth how to put it on He only knoweth a Pen a Gun or other instrument that knoweth how
analogically or equivocally called a Christian or Member of Christ And such among the sincere are not a distinct Church or Society if they were they should be called the Hypocritical Church and not the Political or Congregate Church But they are as Traytors in an Army or as stricken Ears in a Corn Field But the true Church being One is considered as consenting with Heart and with the Tongue As a Corn Field hath Straw Chaff and Grain and as a Man hath Soul and Body So that it is the same Church that is visible by Baptism and Profession and Invisible by Heart-consent or Sincerity But it is the same thing and not divers that is in the Hearts of the sincere and that is to be professed by the Tongue Even that voluntary practical Faith which is described in Baptism and no other The same Faith which is accepted to Salvation in the sincere and invisible Members of the Church as they are called must be professed by all that will at Age be visible Members And the Knowledge and Belief required in Baptism is so much as prevaileth with the Person to give up himself to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as his Reconciled Creator his Saviour and Sanctifier And he that hath so much knowledge as will do this hath as much as is necessary to his reception into the Church Doubtless he that is capable of Baptism is capable of Church Membership and he that is capable of Church Membership is capable de jure as to right of so much Church Communion as he is capable of by real aptitude An Infant is not naturally capable of the actions of the Adult nor half-witted Persons of the receptions and performances of the judicious some cannot understand a Sermon or Prayer or Praise the twentieth part so well as others can do and so cannot receive and do beyond their understanding Some may not so well understand the nature of the Lords Supper as to be really fit at present to receive it And some may be unfit through some extraordinary doubts opinions or lapses But still de jure a Church Member hath right to so much Church Communion as their real qualifications make them capable of For that right is part of the definition of a Church member And to be made a Church member is the work of Baptism And here we must consider of the reason why God would have Baptism to be the Profession of that Faith which maketh us Christians Sometime we are called Believers and said to be Justified by Faith as if it were Faith alone that were our Christianity And yet when it cometh to Church entrance and to the solemn profession of our faith and reception of a Sealed and Delivered pardon we must do more than profess that we believe with the understanding We must give up our selves absolutely by a Vow and Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost renouncing the flesh the World and the Devil which is the act of a resolved Will. And to Will is rationally to Love and Choose By which Christ telleth us that as words of Knowledge in Scripture usually imply affection so the Faith that he means and requireth to our justification is not a meer assent or act of intellection but it is also the wills consent and a practical Affiance As a man Believing the Skill and Fidelity of a Physician doth Desire Will or Choose him for his Physician and Practically Trust him or cast himself upon his Fidelity and care for cure Therefore Christ joyneth both together Mark 16.16 He that Believeth and is baptized shall be saved not principally intending the washing of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience as Peter expoundeth it that is He that so believeth as by hearty consent to devote and give up himself openly and absolutely and presently to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost shall be saved And so the Apostle saith Eph. 4.4 5. There is one Baptism as part of the uniting bond of Christians That is there is one solemn Covenant between God and Man in which we profess our Faith and give up our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and are stated in a gracious Relation to him and one another And thus it is that Baptism is reckoned Heb. 6. among the principles And that the ancient Doctors unanimously conclude that Baptism washeth away all sin and certainly puts us into a present state of life That is The delivering up our selves sincerely to God in the Baptismal Covenant is the condition of our right to the benefits of that Covenant from God. From all which it is plain that the Head is but the guide of the Heart and that God looketh more to the Heart than to the Head and to the Head for the Heart And that we are not Christians indeed till Christ have our Hearts indeed Nor Christians by profession till by Baptismal Covenant and profession we deliver up the Heart to Christ Now so far as Consent and Will may be called Love fo far even Love is Essential to our Christianity and to this faith which is required to our baptism and justification And no other faith is Christianity nor will justify us But to them that are here stalled with the great difficulty How Love is that grace of the Holy Ghost which is promised to believers in the Covenant as consequent if it go before it in the Covenanters I answer at present that they must distinguish between 1. Love to Christ as a Saviour of our selves proceeding principally from the just Love of our selves and our Salvation and Love to God above our selves for his own Infinite Goodness as our ultimate end 2. Between the Act of Love and a Habit 3. Between that spark of Love which consisteth in the said consent and is contained in true Faith and that Flame of Love which it self carryeth the name as being the most eminent operation of the Soul. And if hereupon they cannot answer this question themselves I must refer them to the Appendix of the third Chapter of my Christian Directory in which I have largely opened this case with as much exactness as I could reach unto All that remaineth very difficult then as to our judging of the Knowledge of men to be admitted to Christian Church Communion is but what knowledge is necessary in the adult unto their lawful Baptism And to that I say so much as is necessary to an understanding consent to the Baptismal Covenant or to an hearty giving up themselves to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost And here we must know that the same Covenanting words being comprehensive are understood in different degrees according to mans different Capacities even of true believers Insomuch that I do not think that any two men in the world have in all notions and degrees just the same understanding of them And therefore it is not the same distinctness and clearness of understanding which we must expect in all which is found in some or
for loving others also 2. As he rendereth himself more congruous and obliging to you by chusing you for the special object of his love by which he taketh the advantage of your natural self-love to make your love to him both due and easie as is said of the reflection of the Sun-beams before 2. But two things you must take heed of 1. That you under-value not your Neighbours good but love another for loving your Neighbours also and doing them good and he that arriveth at that impartial Unity as to make the smallest difference between his Neighbour and himself doth seem to me to be arrived at the state that is likest to theirs that are One in Heaven 2. And you must not over-love any man by a fond partiality for his love to you as if that made a bad man good or fitter for your love They that can love the worst that love them and cannot love the best that set light by them deservedly or upon mistake do shew that self-love overcometh the love of God. But God cannot be loved too much though he may be loved too selfishly and carnally His greatest Amiableness is his Essential Goodness and Infinite Perfection The next is his Glory shining in the Universe and so in the Heavenly Society especially Christ and all his Holy Ones and so in the publick blessings of the World and all Societies And next his goodness to your selves not only as parts of the said Societies but as Persons whose Natures are formed by God himself to a capacity of Receiving and Reflecting Love. Who findeth not by Experience that God is most loved when we are most sensible of his former love to us in the thankful review of all his Mercies and most assured or perswaded of his future love in our Salvation Therefore make the renewed Commemoration of Gods Mercies the incentives of your love Direct 5. But yet could you get a greater Union and Communion not only with Saints as Saints but with Mankind as Men it would greatly help you in your Love to God For when you love your neighbours as your selves you would love God for your neighbours mercies as well as for your own And if you feel that God's Love and special mercies to one person even your selves can do so much in causing your Love what would your Love amount to if thousand thousands of persons to whom God sheweth mercy were every one to you as your selves and all their mercies as your own Thus graces mutually help each other We love Man because we love God and we love God the more for our love to Man. Direct 6. Especially dwell by Faith in Heaven where Love is perfect and there you will learn more of the work of Love. To think believingly that Mutual Love is Heaven it self and that this is our Union with God and Christ and all the holy ones and that Love will be an everlasting employment pleasure and felicity this will breed in us a desire to begin that happy life on Earth And as he that heareth excellent Musick will long to draw near and joyn in the consort or the pleasure so he that by Faith doth dwell much in Heaven and hear how Angels and blessed Souls do there praise God in the highest fervours of rejoycing Love will be inclined to imitate them and long to partake of their felicity Direct 7. Exercise that measure of Love which you have in the constant Praises of the God of Love. For exercise exciteth and naturally tendeth to increase and Praise is the duty in which pure Love to God above our selves and all even as good and perfect in himself is exercised As Love is the Highest Grace or Inward Duty so praise is the Highest Outward Duty when God is praised both by Tongue and Life And as Soul and Body make one Man of whose existence Generation is the cause so Love and Praise of Mouth and Works do make one Saint who is Regenerated such by Believing in the Redeemer who hath power to give the Spirit of Holiness to whom he pleaseth But of this more afterwards Direct 8. Exercise your Love to Man especially to Saints in doing them all the good you can and that for what of God is in them For as this is the fruit of the Love of God and the evidence of it so doth it tend to the increase of its cause Partly as it is an exercise of it and partly as it is a duty which God hath promised to the reward As it is the Spirit of Christ even of Adoption which worketh both the lovâ— of our Father and our Brethren in us so God will bless those that exercise Love especially at the dearest rates and with the fullest devotedness of all to God with the larger measures of the same Spirit Chap. XIX Exh. V. Place your Comforts in health and sickness in Mutual Divine Love. 2. See that you sincerely love God. How known Doubts answered IT is of greatest importance to all Mankind to know what is best for them and in what they should place and seek their comforts To place them most with the Proud in the applauding thoughts or words of others that magnifie them for their wit their beauty their wealth or their pomp and power in the world is to chuse somewhat less than a shadow for felicity and to live on the Air even an unconstant Air And will such a life be long or happy Should not a man in misery rather take it for a stinging deriding mockery or abuse to be honoured and praised for that which he hath not or for that which is his snare or consisteth with his calamity Would not a Malefactor at the Gallows take it for his reproach to hear an Oration of his happiness Will it comfort them in Hell to be praised on Earth This common reason may easily call An empty Vanity To place our Comforts in the delights of Sensuality had somewhat a fairer shew of Reason if Reason were made for nothing better and if these were the noble sort of pleasures that advanced man above the brutes and if they would continue for ever and the end of such mirth were not heaviness and repentance and they did not deprave and deceive mens Souls and leave behind them disappointment and a sting But he is unworthy the honour and pleasures of Humanity who preferreth the pleasures of a beast when he may have better To place our Comforts in those Riches which do but serve this Sensuality with provisions and leave posterity in as vain and dangerous a state as their progenitors were is but the foresaid folly aggravated To place them in Domination and having our Wills on others and being able to do hurt and exercise revenge is but to account the Devils happier than men and to desire to be as the Wolf among the Sheep or as the Kite among the Chickens or as the great Dogs among the little ones To place them in much Knowledge of Arts and Sciences as they
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
seek that and to enjoy it the little time that it will endure how should this love make them fit for Heaven for a Life of holiness with God and Saints It is this that they love not and will not love for if they truely loved it they should have it yea it is this that they hate and will not accept or be perswaded to And what a fond conceit then is it to think that they shall have Heaven that never loved it no nor the small beginnings here of the Heavenly Nature and Life and all because they loved the pleasures of the Flesh on Earth and loved God and their Neighbours for promoting it 5. Yea I would ask the Infidel whether God will save men for rebelling against him Their love to their Flesh and to the Creature as it is inordinate and taketh Gods place and shutteth out the love of Holiness and Heaven is their great Sin and Idolatry And shall this be called a saving love of God What gross self-deceit hath sensuality taught these men 6. I grant them therefore that all men that believe that there is a God do love somewhat of God or secundum quid or in some partial respect have some kind of love to God. But it is not a love to that of God which must save felicitate and glorifie Souls Meat and Drink and fleshly Sports do not this but Heavenly Glory Wisdom Holiness and Love to God and Man for God and this they love not and therefore never shall enjoy Nay that of God which should save and felicitate them they hate and hated holiness is none of theirs nor ever can be till they are changed And so much to the Infidels Objection 7. I add therefore in the last place to help men in the tryal of their love to God that their love must have these two qualifications 1. They must love that of God which maketh man happy and is indeed the end of his Nature and Sanctification And that is not only the comforts of this transitory natural Life and Flesh but the fore described Union and Communion with God in perfect knowledge love and praise 2. This love to God must be predominant and prevail against the power of alluring objects which Satan would use to turn our Hearts from him and to keep out holy Heavenly love Damning sin consisteth in loving somewhat that is good and lovely and that is of God but it is not simply in loving it but in loving it inordinately instead of God or greater things and out of its due time and rank and measure and so as to hinder that love which is our holiness and happiness Moral Good consisteth not in meer Entity but in Order and disorderly Love even of real good is sinful Love. Therefore when all is said the old mark which I have many and many times repeated is it that must try the sincerity of your love viz. If 1. in the esteem of a believing mind 2. And in the choice and adherence of a resolved will 3. And in the careful serious endeavours of your lives you prefer the knowing loving obeying and joyful praising of God begun here and perfected in Glory as the benefit of our Redemption by Christ before all the interests of this fleshly life the pleasures profits and honours of this World that is before the pleasures of sin and sensuality for this transitory Season Or in Christs words Mat. 6.33 If you SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS and trust him to superadd all other things This is that love of God and goodness which must save us And he that loveth God even in these high respects a little and loveth his fleshly pleasure so much more as that he will not consent to the regulating of his Lusts but will rather venture or let go his Salvation than his sins hath no true saving love to God. Obj. There is scarce any Fornicator Drunkard Glutton Swearer or other rash and sensual sinner but believeth that God is better than the creature and that it were better for him to live to God in love and holiness than to live in sinful pleasures and therefore though he live in sin against this knowledge it seemeth that with the rational will he loveth God and Goodness best because he judgeth them best Ans 1. It is one thing what the judgment saith and another thing how it saith it A speculative judgment may drowsily say that God and Holiness are best when yet it saith it but as a dreaming opinion which prevaileth not with the will to choose them having at the same time so strong an apprehension of the pleasures of sin as carryeth away the will and practice 2. It is one thing therefore to love God under the notion of being best and another thing to love him best For the will can cross such a notion of the understanding at least by an omission as appeareth by the sin of Adam which began in the will or else had been necessitated The same understanding which sluggishly saith God or Holiness is better yet may more clearly and vehemently say Lust is pleasant or Pleasure of the flesh is good and being herein seconded with the strong apprehensions of sense and fantasie the will may follow this simple judgment and neglect the comparate 3. It is one thing for the understanding to say that God is more amiable to one that hath a heart to love him and a suitable disposition and another thing to say he is now more amiable to me those can say the first that cannot truly say the latter and therefore love not God as best and above all 4. It is one thing for the understanding sometimes under conviction to say God and Holiness are best for me and I ought to love them best and then to lay by the exercise of this judgment in the ordinary course of life though it be not contradicted and to live in the continual apprehension of the goodness of sensual pleasure and another thing to keep the judgment that God and Holiness are best in ordinary exercise For the will doth not always follow the judgment that we had before but that which we have at present and that which we exercise not we have not at that time in act and it is not a meer power or habit of knowledge which ruleth the will but the present act Many a man is said to know that which he doth not think of when indeed he doth not know it at that time but only would know it if he thought of it As a man in his sleep is said to know what he knew awake when indeed he knoweth it not actually till he be awake Obj. But true grace is rather to be judged of by the habit than by the present acts Ans By the habit of the Will it is that is by habitual love for that will command the most frequent acts but I propose it to the consideration of the judicious whether an ordinary habit of
more accurate than any Logical Author doth prescribe And the Lords Prayer and Decalogue especially will prove this when truly opened And the Doctrine of of the Trinity and the Baptismal Covenant is the Foundation of all true method of Physicks and Morality in the World. What if a novice cannot Anatomize Cicero or Demosthenes doth it follow that they are immethodical Brand-miller and Flaccher upon the Scripture Text and Steph. Tzegedine Sohnius Gomarus Dudley Fenner and many others upon the Body of Theology have gone far in opening the Scripture Method But more may be yet done VI. Consider also that the Eternal Wisdom Word and Son of God our Redeemer is the Fountain and giver of all Knowledge Nature to be restored and Grace to restore it are in his hands He is that true Light that lighteneth every one that cometh into the World The Light of Nature and Arts and Sciences are from his Spirit and Teaching as well as the Gospel Whether Clemens Alexandrinus and some other Ancients were in the right or not when they taught that Philosophy is one way by which men come to Salvation it is certain that they are in the right that say it is now the gift of Christ And that as the Light which goeth before Sun-rising yea which in the night is reflected from the Moon is from the Sun as well as its more glorious Beams So the Knowledge of Socrates Plato Zeno Cicero Antonine Epictetus Seneca Plutarch were from the Wisdom and Word of God the Redeemer of the World even by a lower gift of his Spirit as well as the Gospel and higher illumination And shall Christ be thought void of what he giveth to so many in the World VII Lastly Let it be considered above all that the grand difference between the teaching of Christ and other men is that he teacheth effectively as God spake when he Created and as he said to Lazarus Arise He giveth wisdom by giving the Holy Ghost All other Teachers speak but to the Ears but he only speaketh to the Heart Were it not for this he would have no Church I should never have else believed in him my self nor would any other seriously and savingly Aristotle and Plato speak but words but Christ speaketh LIFE and LIGHT and LOVE in all Countreys through all Ages to this day This above all is his witness in the World. He will not do his work on Souls by ludicrous enticing words of the Pedantick wisdom of the World but by illuminating Minds and changing Hearts and Lives by his effectual operations on the Heart God used not more Rhetorick nor Logick than a Philosopher when he said only Let there be Light but he used more Power Indeed the first Chapter of Genesis though abused by Ignorants and Cabalists hath more true Philosophy in it than the presumptuous will understand as my worthy Friend Mr. Samuel Gott lately gone to God hath manifested in his excellent Philosophy excepting the style and some few presumptions But operations are the glorious Oratory of God and his wisdom shineth in his works and in things beseeming the Heavenly Majesty and not in childish Laces and Toys of Wit. Let us therefore cease quarrelling and learn wisdom of God instead of teaching and reprehending him Let us magnifie the mercy and wisdom of our Redeemer who hath brought Life and Immortality to light and certified us of the matters of the World above as beseemed a Messenger sent from God and hath taught us according to the matter and our capacity and not with trifling childish notions Chap. XVIII Inference VI. The true and false ways of restoring the Churches and healing our Divisions hence opened and made plain HAving opened to you our Disease it is easie were not the Disease it self against it to discern the Cure. Pretended knowledge hath corrupted and divided the Christian World. Therefore it must be CERTAIN VERITIES which must Restore us and Unite us And these must be Things PLAIN and NECESSARY and such as God hath designed to this very use or else they will never do the work One would think that it should be enough to satisfie men of this 1. To read Scripture 2. To peruse the terms of Concord in the Primitive Church 3. To peruse the sad Histories of the Churches Discord and Divisions and the Causes 4. To peruse the state of the World at this day and make use of Universal Experience 5. To know what a Christian is what Baptism is and what a Church is 6. To know what Man is and that they themselves and the Churches are but Men. But penal and sinful Infatuation hath many Ages been upon the minds of those in the Christian World who were most concerned in the Cure and our sin is our misery as I think to the damned it will be the chief part of their Hell. But this subject is so great and needful and that which the Wounds and Blood of the Christian World do cry for a skilful Cure of that I will not thrust it into this corner but design to write a Treatise of it by it self as a second part of this This Book is since Printed with some Alteration and called The true and Only way of the Concord of the Churches Chap. XIX Of the Causes of this Disease of Prefidence or Proud Pretended Knowledge in order to the Cure. THE Cure of Prefidence and pretended knowledge could it be wrought would be the Cure of Souls Families Churches and Kingdoms But alas how low are our hopes yet that may be done on some which will not be done on all or most And to know the causes and oppugn them is the chief part of the Cure so far as it may be hoped for 1. The first and grand cause is the very Nature of ignorance it self which many ways disableth men from knowing that which should abate their groundless confidence For 1. An ignorant man knoweth but little parcels and scraps of things And all the rest is unknown to him Therefore he fixeth upon that little which he knoweth and having no knowledge of the rest he cannot regulate his narrow apprehensions by any conceptions of them And all things visible to us not light it self excepted which as seen by us is Fire incorporated in Air being Compounds the very Nature or Being of them is not known where any Constitutive part is unknown And in all Compounds each part hath such relation and usefulness to others that one part which seemeth known is it self but half known for want of the knowledge of others Such a kind of knowledge is theirs that knowing only what they see do take a Clock or Watch to be only the Index moving by the Hours being ignorant of all the causal parts within Or that know no more of a Tree or other Plant than the Magnitude Site Colour Odour c. Or that take a man to be only a Body without a Soul or the Body to be only the Skin and Parts discerned by the Eye in converse