had less learning but because they had more love they were children and Babes in Malice they loved Christ and so he became to them a light and a glory St. Paul had more learning then they all and Moses was instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians yet because he was the meekest man upon Earth he was also the wisest and to his humane Learning in which he was excellent he had a divine light and excellent wisdome superadded to him by way of spiritual blessings And St. Paul though he went very far to the knowledge of many great and excellent truths by the force of humane learning yet he was far short of perfective truth and true wisdom till he learned a new lesson in a new School at the feet of one greater then his Ganialiel his learning grew much greater his notions brighter his skill deeper by the love of Christ and his desires his passionate desires after Jesus The force and use of humane learning and of this Divine learning I am now speaking of are both well expressed by the Prophet Isaiah 29. 11 12. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed which men deliver to one that is learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I cannot for it is seal'd And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I am not learned He that is no learned man who is not bred up in the Schools of the Prophets cannot read Gods Book for want of learning For humane Learning is the gate and first entrance of Divine vision not the only one indeed but the common gate But beyond this there must be another learning for he that is learned bring the Book to him and you are not much the better as to the secret part of it if the Book be sealed if his eyes be closed if his heart be not opened if God does not speak to him in the secret way of discipline Humane learning is an excellent Foundation but the top-stone is laid by Love and Conformity to the will of God For we may further observe that blindnesse errour and Ignorance are the punishments which God sends upon wicked and ungodly men Etiamsi propter nostrae intelligentiae tarditatem vitae demeritum veritas nondum se apertissime ostenderit was St. Austin's expression The truth hath not yet been manifested fully to us by reason of our demerits our sins have hindred the brightnesse of the truth from shining upon us And St. Paul observes that when the Heathens gave themselves over to lusts God gave them over to strong delusions and to believe a Lie But God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom and knowledge and joy said the wise Preacher But this is most expresly promised in the New Testament and particularly in that admirable Sermon which our blessed Saviour preach'd a little before his death The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things Well there 's our Teacher told of plainly But how shall we obtain this teacher and how shall we be taught v. 15 16 17. Christ will pray for us that we may have this spirit That 's well but shall all Christians have the spirit Yes all that will live like Christians for so said Christ If ye love me keep my Commandements and I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him Mark these things The Spirit of God is our teacher he will abide with us for ever to be our teacher he will teach us all things but how if ye love Christ if ye keep his Commandments but not else if ye be of the World that is of worldly affections ye cannot see him ye cannot know him And this is the particular I am now to speak to The way by which the Spirit of God teaches us in all the wayes and secrets of God is Love and Holinesse Secreta Dei Deo nostro et filiis domus ejus Gods secrets are to himself and the sons of his House saith the Jewish Proverb Love is the great instrument of Divine knowledge that is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the height of all that is to be taught or learned Love is Obedience and we learn his words best when we practise them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle those things which they that learn ought to practise even while they practise they will best learn Quisquis non venit profectò nec didicit Ita enim Dominus docet per Spiritus gratiam ut quod quisque didicerit non tantum cognoscendo videat sed etiam volendo appetat agendo perficiat St. Austin De gratia Christi lib. 1. c. 14. Unlesse we come to Christ we shall never learn for so our Blessed Lord teaches us by the grace of his spirit that what any one learns he not only sees it by knowledge but desires it by choice and perfects it by practice 4. When this is reduced to practice and experience we find not only in things of practise but even in deepest mysteries not only the choicest and most eminent Saints but even every good man can best tell what is true and best reprove an error He that goes about to speak of and to understand the mysterious Trinity and does it by words and names of mans invention or by such which signifie contingently if he reckons this mystery by the Mythology of Numbers by the Cabala of Letters by the distinctions of the School and by the weak inventions of disputing people if he only talks of Essences and existencies Hypostases and personalities distinctions without difference and priority in Coequalities and unity in Pluralities and of superior Praedicates of no larger extent then the inferior Subjects may amuse himself and find his understanding will be like St. Peters upon the Mount of Tabor at the Transfiguration he may build three Tabernacles in his head and talke something but he knows not what But the good man that feels the power of the Father and he to whom the Son is become Wisdom Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption he in whose heart the love of the Spirit of God is spread to whom God hath communicated the Holy Ghost the Comforter this man though he understands nothing of that which is unintelligible yet he only understands the mysteriousnesse of the Holy Trinity No man can be convinced well and wisely of the Article of the Holy Blessed and Undivided Trinity but he that feels the mightiness of the Father begetting him to a new life the wisdome of the Son building him up in a most holy Faith and the love of the spirit of God making him to become like unto God He that hath passed
they thought it lawfull to fight against their King A man would think it easie to believe that those who were in the gain-saying of Corah who rose up against the high Priest were in a very sad condition and yet there are too many amongst us who are in the gain-saying of Corah and think they do very well that they are the Godly party and the good people of God Why what 's the matter In the world there can be nothing plainer then these words Let every soul be subject to the higher powers and that you need not make a scruple who are these higher powers it is as plainly said there is no power but of God all that are set over you by the Laws of your Nation these are over you in the Lord and yet men will not understand these plain things they deny to doe their notorious duty and yet believe they are in the right and if they sometimes obey for wrath they oftner disobey for Conscience sake Where is the fault The words are plain the duty is certain the Book lyes open but alas it is Sealed within that is men have eyes and will not see eares and will not heare But the wonder is the lesse for we know when God said to Jonas doest thou well to be angry he answered God to his face I do well to be angry even unto the death Let God declare his mind never so plainly if men will not lay aside the evil principle that is within their open love to their secret sin they may kill an Apostle and yet be so ignorant as to think they do God good service they may disturb Kingdomes and break the peace of a well-ordered Church and rise up against their Fathers and be cruell to their Brethren and stir up the people to Sedition and all this with a cold stomach and a hot liver with a hard heart and a tender Conscience with humble carriage and a proud spirit For thus men hate Repentance because they scorn to confesse an Errour they will not return to Peace and Truth because they feare to lose the good opinion of the people whom themselves have couzened they are afraid to be good lest they should confess they have formerly done amisse and he that observes how much evil is done and how many Heresies are risen and how much obstinacy and unreasonable perseverance in folly dwells in the World upon the stock of Pride may easily conclude that no learning is sufficient to make a proud man understand the truth of God unless he first learn to be humble But Obedite intelligetis saith the Prophet obey and be humble leave the foolish affections of sin and then ye shall understand That 's the First particular All remaining affections to sin hinder the learning and understanding of the things of God 2. He that means to understand the will of God and the truth of Religion must lay aside all inordinate affections to the world 2 Cor. 3. 14. S. Paul complained that there was at that day a veile upon the heart of the Jews in the reading of the Old Testament they looked for a Temporall Prince to be their Messias and their affections and hopes dwelt in secular advantages and so long as that veile was there they could not see and they would not accept the poore despised JESUS For the things of the world besides that they entangle one another and make much business and spend much time they also take up the attentions of a mans mind spend his faculties and make them trifling and secular with the very handling and conversation And therefore the Pythagoreans taught their Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a separation from the things of the body if they would purely find out truth and the excellencies of wisdom Had not he lost his labour that would have discoursed wisely to Apicius and told him of the books of Fate and the secrets of the other World the abstractions of the Soul and its brisker Immortality that Saints and Angels eate not and that the Spirit of a man lives for ever upon wisdom and holinesse and contemplation The fat Glutton would have stared a while upon the Preacher and then have fallen asleep But if you had discoursed well and knowingly of a Lamprey a large Mullet or a Boare animal propter Convivia natum and have sent him a Cook from Asia to make new Sawces he would have attended carefully and taken in your discourses greedily And so it is in the Questions and secrets of Christianity which made St. Paul when he intended to convert Felix discourse first with him about Temperance Righteousnesse and Judgement to come He began in the right point he knew it was to no purpose to preach Jesus Christ crucified to an intemperate person to an Usurper of other mens rights to one whose soul dwelt in the World and cared not for the sentence of the last day The Philosophers began their Wisdom with the meditation of death and St. Paul his with a discourse of the day of Judgment to take the heart off from this world and the amabilities of it which dishonour and baffle the understanding and made Solomon himself become a child and fool'd into Idolatry by the prettinesse of a talking woman Men now-a-dayes love not a Religion that will cost them deare If your Doctrine calls upon men to part with any considerable part of their estates you must pardon them if they cannot believe you they understand it not I shall give you one great instance of it When we consider the infinite unreasonableness that is in the Popish Religion how against Common sense their Doctrine of Transubstantiation is how against the common Experience of humane nature is the Doctrine of the Popes Infallibility how against Scripture is the Doctrine of Indulgences and Purgatory we may well think it a wonder that no more men are perswaded to leave such unlearned follies But then on the other side the wonder will cease if we mark how many temporal ends are served by these Doctrines If you destroy the Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences you take away the Priests Income and make the See Apostolic to be poor if you deny the Popes Infallibility you will despise his Authority and examine his Propositions and discover his Failings and put him to answer hard Arguments and lessen his Power and indeed when we run through all the Propositions of difference between them and us and see that in every one of them they serve an end of money or of power it will be very visible that the way to confute them is not by learned disputations for we see they have been too long without effect and without prosperity the men must be cured of their affections to the World ut nudi nudum sequantur crucifixum that with naked and devested affections they might follow the naked Crucified Jesus and then they would soone learne the truths of God which till then will be impossible to be
from his Childhood in Grace under the spirituall generation of the Father and is gone forward to be a young man in Christ strong and vigorous in holy actions and holy undertakings and from thence is become an old Disciple and strong and grown old in Religion and the conversation of the Spirit this man best understands the secret and undiscernable Oeconomie he feels this unintelligible mysterie and sees with his heart what his tongue can never express and his Metaphysics can never prove In these cases Faith and Love are the best Knowledge and Jesus Christ is best known by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and if the Kingdom of God be in us then we know God and are known of him and when we communicate of the Spirit of God when we pray for him and have received him and entertained him and dwelt with him and warmed our selves by his holy fires then we know him too But there is no other satisfactory knowledge of the Blessed Trinity but this And therefore whatever thing is spoken of God Metaphysically there is no knowing of God Theologically and as he ought to be known but by the measures of Holinesse and the proper light of the Spirit of God But in this case Experience is the best learning and Christianity is the best institution and the Spirit of God is the best teacher and Holinesse is the greatest wisdome and he that sins most is the most Ignorant and the humble and obedient man is the best Scholar For the Spirit of God is a loving Spirit and will not enter into a polluted Soul But he that keepeth the Law getteth the understanding thereof and the perfection of the fear of the Lord is wisdom said the wise Ben-Sirach And now give me leave to apply the Doctrine to you and so I shall dismisse you from this attention Many wayes have been attempted to reconcile the differences of the Church in matters of Religion and all the Counsels of man have yet proved ineffective Let us now try Gods Method let us betake our selves to live holily and then the spirit of God will lead us into all truth And indeed it matters not what Religion any man is of if he be a Villaine the opinion of his Sect as it will not save his Soul so neither will it do good to the publick But this is a sure Rule If the holy man best understands Wisdom and Religion then by the proportions of holinesse we shall best measure the Doctrines that are obtruded to the disturbance of our peace and the dishonour of the Gospell And therefore 1. That is no good Religion whose Principles destroy any duty of Religion He that shall maintain it to be lawfull to make a War for the defence of his Opinion be it what it will his Doctrine is against Godlinesse Any thing that is proud any thing that is peevish and scornful any thing that is uncharitable is against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that forme of sound Doctrine which the Apostle speaks of And I remember that Ammianus Marcellinus telling of George a proud and factious Minister that he was an Informer against his Brethren he sayes he did it oblitus professionis suae quae nil nisi justum suadet lene He forgot his profession which teaches nothing but justice and meeknesse kindnesses and charity And however Bellarmine and others are pleased to take but indirect and imperfect notice of it yet Goodnesse is the best note of the true Church 2. It is but an ill sign of Holinesse when a man is busie in troubling himself and his Superior in little Scruples and Phantastick Opinions about things not concerning the life of Religion or the pleasure of God or the excellencies of the Spirit A good man knows how to please God how to converse with him how to advance the Kingdome of the Lord Jesus to set forwards Holinesse and the love of God and of his Brother and he knows also that there is no Godliness in spending our time and our talk our heart and our spirits about the garments and outsides of Religion And they can ill teach others that do not know that Religion does not consist in these things but Obedience may and reductively that is Religion and he that for that which is no part of Religion destroys Religion directly by neglecting that duty that is adopted into Religion is a man of fancy and of the World but he gives but an ill account that he is a man of God and a son of the Spirit Spend not your time in that which profits not for your labour and your health your time and your studies are very valuable and it is a thousand pitties to see a diligent and a hopefull person spend himself in gathering Cockle-shells and little pebbles in telling Sands upon the shores and making Garlands of uselesse Daisies Study that which is profitable that which will make you useful to Churches and Common-wealths that which will make you desirable and wise Onely I shall add this to you That in Learning there are variety of things as well as in Religion there is Mint and Cummin and there are the weighty things of the Law so there are studies more and lesse usefull and every thing that is usefull will be required in its time and I may in this also use the words of our blessed Saviour These things ought you to look after and not to leave the other unregarded But your great care is to be in the things of God and of Religion in holiness and true wisdom remembring the saying of Origen that the knowledge that arises from goodnesse is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something that is more certain and more divine then all demonstration then all other Learnings of the World 3. That 's no good Religion that disturbs Governments or shakes a foundation of publick peace Kings and Bishops are the foundations and the great principles of unity of peace and Government like Rachel and Leah they build up the house of Israel and those blind Samsons that shake these Pillars intend to pull the house down My Son fear God and the King saith Solomon and meddle not with them that are given to change That is not Truth that loves changes and the new-nothings of Heretical Schismatical Preachers are infinitely far from the blessings of Truth In the only Language Truth hath a Mysterious Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emet it consists of three Letters the first and the last and the middle most of the Hebrew Letters implying to us that Truth is first and will be last and it is the same all the way and combines and unites all extreams it tyes all ends together Truth is lasting and ever full of blessing For the Jews observe that those Letters which signifie Truth are both in the figure and the number Quadrate firme and cubical these signifie a foundation and an abode for ever Whereas on the other side the word which in Hebrew signifies a