compendious way for the understanding the drift and scope of Holy writ now all these should be as so many severall tyes and engagements upon us continually to strike upon this anvile night and day to study read and meditate upon the Holy Scriptures especially for us who either actually are in or else intend the calling of the Ministry But what may some of the younger sort here say if the Scriptures be so hard as you make them your exhortation will little prevaile with us you will rather deterre us from reading them to such I answer that though many things in Scriptures be hard yet the maine Doctrines thereof which concerne our Salvation are plainly set down and as easily to be understood besides as the Oratour notes of the Elements of Sciences and Sciences themselves that they seem hard and difficult only to the first undertakers of them so may we say of the Holy Scriptures their seeming difficulties will easily be conquered and made unto those that familiarly use read them as a strange language by use and custome becomes easy and familiar there are many things indeed in holy writ foulded up in obscurity but this is to make us more earnestly pray unto God to open our eyes that we may behold the wondrous things of his Law this is to tame the pride and arrogance of our nature which is apt to spurne and undervalue things obvious this is to enflame and raise up a generous holy minde unto a continuall reading and studying of them for as we count that man most valiant who will venture upon hard and difficult enterprizes in like manner may we esteem that man most holy and best minded who will as I may so speake dare to be pious and conquer all the seeming difficulties of the Holy Scriptures with his desire to know them and his industry to find them out wherefore as the voice once said unto Austin so let me say unto you all tollite legite take up the word read it perhaps you may find something therein that may dampe and frighten your wild lusts as they say that holy Father was presently converted upon the reading of that text Rom. 13. 12. The night is farre spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the workes of darkenesse and put on the armour of light tollite legite perhaps you may finde there something that may strike into your soules an holy amazement and sacred horrour for your sins past as Junius saith of himselfe that he was strucken with amazement by a divine kind of Authority and so turned from his Atheisme upon the reading of the 1 Chapter of John Againe tollite legite perhaps you saw light through some temptations answered some grievances of Conscience pacifyed upon thy diligent observance of his word some judgement denounced against thy sinnes some good thing or other that may either comfort thee or encourage thee in thy farther reading of them tollite legite take it up and read it but read it with reverence it is the Word of God read it with discretion and judgements by marking the connexion of them by comparing one place with another and by examining all things according to the Analogy of Faith and by applying that which thou readest unto thy own particular use and estate read it lastly with method and order distinctly going over that Booke which thou undertakest least thou be always learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth Oh but read it I doe perhaps two Chapters a day besides I heare it read twice a day in this very place but yet I can find no Spirituall comfort from it it doth not move me for all that what shall I doe then to have comfort from it The answering of this case will be very proper for us for many of us I doubt not doe heare and read the word but then I feare we are as little moved with it as the benches we sit upon or the ground we tread on but let such a man consider his fearfull estate who can thus heare judgements denounced and yet not be shaken mercies promised and yet not be melted let him consider what a fearfull thing it is to heare or read God speaking and he to have his mind another way for God to thunder out in his Word and yet he to sleep all the while securely in his sinne how can he expect Heaven who is thus carelesse of the instrument of his Salvation doubtlesse that God who commanded the Jewes in the 6. Deut. 8. To bind his Laws for a signe upon their hands and that they should be as frontlets between their eyes and that they should write them upon the posts and gates of their houses must needs be mightily provoked at their contempt who will not give his word any admission into their hearts or eares wherefore if such men doe desire to be moved or to receive any comfort from their reading or hearing the word 1. They must continually pray unto God to take from them their heart of stone and give unto them an heart of flesh bestow upon them likewise the Spirit of wisedome and revelation of the knowledge of him that the eyes of their understanding being enlightned they may know what is the hope of their calling Ephes 1. 16 17. 2. They must examine themselves what worldly cares doe distract their minds what prejudices and temptations doe enter into their hearts at the reading of the Word which are like the thornes in the parable choaking the good seed of the Word 3. They must seriously meditate upon the Word read and endeavour to remember it for as meat doth that man little good whose stomacke hath not a retentive faculty in it to retaine and disgest it in like manner the Word of God being not chewed upon as 't were by meditation and well remembred doth become uselesse and unprofitable to us so then we must not only read the Word but we must practice it also we must lay it up in our hearts and bring forth the fruits of it in a holy and Godly Conversation I might here farther enlarge upon this point and confirme my exhortation of reading the holy Scriptures from their plainnesse and perfection their subject and matter of them altogether divine from their end the Glory of God and mans Salvation from their principall Author GOD and from many other Arguments but I shall crave leave here abruptly to break off and conclude 2 Tim. 3. 16 17. All Scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproofe for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good workes COncerning the Booke of Nature and the Creatures we have already spoken we are to speake Concerning the Booke of the Scriptures by the two former I told you we had only a confused ineffectuall knowledge of God by this latter we have a more cleare distinct and saving knowledge of him should we have
from nature to set him a worke in the pursuit of it that there should be three persons in the Essence that the second of these persons God the Sonne should be made man and be degraded to the forme of a servant be borne of a virgin dye and in death get a victory over death and the like are such riddles to a naturall man that he cannot possibly receive them as the Apostle expresseth it 1 Cor. 2. 15. neither can he in his most extravagant and roving apprehensions fasten or light upon them which makes me thinke that Trismegistus and Plato had been peeping into the books of Moses when they speak so emphatically of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and the Spirit of God as they are quoted by Lud. Vives Morney in their bookes de veritate Religionis so that the meer historiall knowledge of Christ doth originally arise from revelation how much more then doth the true saving knowledge of him descend immediately from the Spirit of God enlightning our understandings to see him opening our hearts to embrace him and guiding us into all truth 't is not our poring upon a body of Divinity our running over the Schoolemen and spending our oyle and labour in the bare speculation of these truths that bring us to a saving knowledge of Christ but we must be all taught of God and waite upon the blessed influences of his Spirit with an humble soule with prayers and teares and fasting and weeping and mourning for our ignorance that God would come from above into us and instruct us in the excellent knowledge of him who indeed to them that perish is foolishnesse but to them that are called the wisedome of God and the power of God 2 This is the alone saving knowledge that is this is life eternall that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Ioh. 17. 3. There is no other name given under Heaven by whom we can be saved and he is the way the truth and the life and the door by whom alone we have entrance into Heaven how can we enter into life but by the way by the doore how can we see the Father but by the Sonne who reveales him So that to assigne Salvation to such as never so much as dream't of Christ is a presumption not justifiable by Scripture or reason I cannot conceive how the dimme snuffe of naturall light should be sufficient to guide a man to Heaven 'T is only that light of the world as the Evangelist saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Sunne of the soule as the Father stiles him that shewes us the way to eternall happinesse since without faith in him 't is impossible to please God and all the best righteousnesses of naturall men are but menstruous raggs splendid abominations A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit neither doe we gather grapes of thornes we may in charity hope we cannot out of the Scripture conclude that any are saved without the knowledge of Christ neither the Jewes simply by their Law nor the Gentiles by their Phylosophy could ever reach Heaven Though Clemens Alexandrinus and many of the Schoolmen Zuinglius seem to teach the contrary perhaps more out of charity to soe many poore soules that otherwise they thought must inevitably perish then any solid grounds they had from Scripture for it and seriously who could without trembling think of the sad condition of those poor wretches that the revealed Word of God concludes them under were it not for this that God ha's unsearcheable wayes to save those that we most despair of that the insinite mercifull creator can by meanes altogether unknown to us display his Sonne even to those that sit in darkenesse and the regions of death But to hasten 3. This knowledge of Christ is a pleasant knowledge All knowledge as the Phylosopher notes carries a secret content and pleasure along with it and therefore videre speculari quaerimus ut gaudeamus As delightfull colours are unto the eye so is truth unto the understanding a comfortable refreshing thing now the knowledge of Christ must be pleasant in its very first dawning to a benighted soule for the entrance of it giveth light and understanding to the simple Ps 119. v. 130. must not the approach of light be needs be pleasant to those under the poles after halfe a years darknesse or unto such as are borne blind or have been kept in a dungeon all their dayes before and can the Sun of Righteousnesse think ye be otherwise when he riseth in a poore soule that hath laid thirty forty perhaps fifty yeares togeither in blindnesse and ignorance O how comfortable a thing will it then be unto him to see himselfe translated out of darkenesse into marvellous light to find the eyes of his understanding opened the veile taken off and his sinnes pardoned which were as a thick cloud to hinder him from the sight of his Saviour all the wayes of wisedome are wayes of pleasantnesse and her paths peace Prov. 3. 17. What more pleasant then light why Christ is the true light Joh. 1. what more delightsome to the tast then hony His statutes are sweeter then the hony or hony-combe Psal 19. what more taketh us then ease and rest his very yoake is easie and his burden light Mat. 11. 't is ignorance of Christ that makes his wayes seem unpleasant to us for no man ever tooke any pleasure in that which he understands not hence those inward loathings of his Word those risings and heart-burnings against the simplicity of the Gospell in prophane persons these are people of no understanding they never knew what belonged to the inward comforts and refreshments of the Spirit what delight there is in keeping Gods Law what pleasure 't is for a thirsty soule to drink of the water of life for a hungry soule to feed upon Manna and the bread that came down from Heaven they know what comfort there is in the kisses of his mouth in his love that is better then wine in his abode and supping with you and therefore no wonder that all their delight is to dowze themselves in carnall pleasures to eate and drinke and rise up to play that they are so averse from dutyes so sad and heavy in spirituall performances that they so much loath his Word his people his Embassadours his gracious motions and invitations the truth of all is this they know not Christ and therefore they have no pleasure in him 4. This knowledge is a satisfying knowledge other knowledge is like some sance which when you receive into you begets a fresh and new appetite the knowledge of the one thing doth set the teeth on edge as here and makes us thirst after more whereas Christ is an object fitted and suited to the most vast and boundlesse desires of the soule and therefore what the Phylospher said of naturall knowledge we may more properly say of divine that 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
with all their learning sinke down into Hell I wish there were not too many in the world more intimate with nature then with Grace and lesse Christians then Schollars but let me aske these great Masters of Israel why the mysteries of the Gospell and the knowledge of Christ should be so much slighted by them is it because 't is foolishnesse unto them why let them know that the foolishnesse of God is wiser then men and all the empty cisternes of worldly wisedome are nothing comparable to those treasures of wisedome and knowledge that are hid in Christ or is it because there is more reputation that attends worldly knowledg why alas what credit is it to be accounted wise amongst a company of fooles and such the Scriptures every where terme the world and carnall men the World indeed vilisies and hates Christ because it knowes him not but then Christ professeth he will not know them at the last day and O then what will become of the wise the Scribe the disputer of this world will it not then appeare that the wisedome of this world was foolishnesse and that they bought the esteeme of learning at a deere rate when they shall see indeed that not many wise men after the flesh are saved or lastly is it because they find more content in worldly wisedome why let the wise man speake what content there can be therein Eccles 1. 18. in much wisedome there is much griefe and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow how much toile and vexation in getting it how much care for feare of loosing it yea how little comfort in the enjoyment of it so many lusts still interposing and clouding their severest meditations so much thoughtfullnesse to uphold their esteem in the world so much envy at others eminency so much distraction by occasion of new doubts and difficulties c. whereas now the true saving knowledge of Christ brings a serenity and composednesse of mind with it purgeth and resineth the soule from those darke mists of corruption sanctifyes and sweetens all other learning and exerciseth all other parts which are but losse and dung without it and why then should this so excellent knowledge be thought so contemptible amongst many why should they as so many wild Indians preferre glasse beades and toyes before precious stones or like that Schoolemaster fancyed by Rob. Gallus gnaw upon flintes and pebbles amidst sweet-meates and most delicate fare why should men be so greedy after the jejune and empty knowledge of the creatures and yet so remisse in the pursuit of Heavenly wisedome O that we could all understand that the feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisedome and the greatest glory of our wisedome to be wise unto Salvation 3. Therefore this should exhort us all to study Jesus Christ and to labour after the knowledge of him whom only to know is eternall life all knowledge is in it selfe desirable it being the best glosse and varnish that sets forth an intellectuall being and hence saith Lactantius God hath lim'd and armed mans inside with reason that he might distinguish him from all the creatures of lower formes so that he seems lesser then a man that is not taken even with naturall truth wisedome and certainly he is lesse then a Christian that desires not Heavenly and Spirituall wisedome 't is naturall for all things to desire their perfection now then as the knowledge of naturall things is the perfection of a man so the knowledg of Christ is the perfection of a Christian and therefore Solomon bids us seeke after it more then choyce gold Prov. 8 v. 10. we all desire wisedome why in him are hid all the treasures of wisedome and therefore enough to fill up all the vast and boundlesse desires of our immortall soules 't is only fooles that despise wisedome Prov. 1. as therefore you desire not to be branded with the name of fooles go unto Christ who is the wisedome of God the authour of of every good and perfect gift and if any of you lack this wisedome let him aske of God that giveth unto all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him Jam. 1. v. 5. So that the 1. direction for the attaining of this knowledge of Christ may be the prayer of faith let him aske in faith nothing wavering pray unto God that he would shew thee thy naturall blindnesse ignorance and stupidity what a foole thou art by nature how destitute of any saving knowledge and that then he would send his Spirit into thy inward parts to enlighten thy mind and to bring thee out of darknesse into marvellous light pray unto him that Christ may be made unto thee wisedome that thou mayst know him here in his Person in his Offices in his benefits know him in the pardon of thy sinnes in the subduing of thy corruptions as thy King that will save thee thy Priest that hath redeemed thee thy Prophet that doth instruct thee 2. Labour to see the inconveniences and miseries that will follow upon thy not knowing of Christ indeed we can know nothing besides him that can minister any comfort unto us in Heaven above what is to be known there but an angry sinne revenging God an implacable judge whom no man hath seen nor ever shall see in the way of mercy unlesse the Sonne reveale him unto him in the earth what objects can we fixe upon that are not our mortall enemyes without Christ all the Creatures they are ready to snap at us and revenge the quarell of God against sinne upon us in Hell what can we know but that 't is our place that 't is prepared alone for those that know not God for so saith the Apostle that Christ at the last day shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angells in flaming fire to take vengeance on those that know not God 2 Thess 1. 8. againe labour to see what inconveniences the want of the saving knowledge of Christ will bring us unto a man that walkes in the darke will be ever apt to stumble and fall and so 't is here he that is without any Spirituall light within must needs walke in much danger thus the Gospell was to the Jewes a stumbling blocke because they were ignorant of its excellencies and thus the ordinances of Christ are stumbling blockes to them that know him not they hate them the people of Christ are despised they having no knowledge eate them up as they would eate bread Psal 14. 4. did men but throughly know Christ they would be more in love with his ordinances with his people with his Ministers with Salvation with their own soules labour then to see these inconveniences of spirituall ignorance be ashamed of thy selfe and lay about thee with all thy might for to gaine more knowledge To this end 3. Study Christs bookes the Holy Scripture and thou shalt by the grace of God come to a knowledge of him these alone are able to make thee perfect and wise unto Salvation they are those wells out of which we may draw plenty of the waters of Salvation those precious mines out of which we may digge treasures of wisedome let us search them therefore not with a search of curiosity to discourse and talke of them but with a search of humility to amend our lives by them and to furnish our selves with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ other bookes can only unfold nature unto thee and that but imperfectly too this reveales mysteries that Angells themselves did desire to peepe into so that there is more reall worth comprised in one versicle of them then there is in all the voluminous Offsprings and workes of mans braine as the very shavings and filings of gold and precious stones are of more value then whole heaps of dirt and pebbles To conclude therefore since we have so excellent a knowledge before us more to be desired then Gold yea then much fine gold more precious then Rubies since we have such plentifull mines before us as the Scriptures out of which we may dig these treasures what remaines but that we still labour to grow in grace and in the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and continually to study him on earth whom we all hope to enjoy in Heaven as travellers will learne the manners and customes of the people and country they are to go unto so let us study Heaven and Christ in his Word that so we may comfortably possesse him at the end of our pilgrimage in Heaven hereafter We know not how soone Christ may summon us before him and that day come when our selves and all our naturall knowledge must be wrapt up in the same sheet together the shortnesse and uncertainty of our dayes bespeakes our double diligence and no longer to play the truants in the Schoole of Christ but to redeem the time we have lost and to improve the few dayes we have before us towards the advancement of this knowledge let us study Christ let us preach Christ let us live to Christ that so these seed plots of learning may not be accounted the seminaries of Atheisme and heresy as the Schooles of the Philosophers were in primitive times but the Seminaries of the knowledg of Christ farre be it that in these our Christian Athens there should be an unknown God an unknown Christ great are our meanes our advantages and oportunities in the attaining of this knowledge and great therefore and sadde will be our accounts at the last day if we neglect it As therefore we tender the good of oursoules as ever we expect the fruition of Christ in glory let it be our constant care to study him here to contemplate him in the glasses of his word and ordinances till at length this our imperfect knowledge of him be swallowed up in vision and a comfortable enjoyment of him with whom is fullnesse of joy and pleasures for evermore FINIS
this Light of nature to save the Gentiles should teach us First everlastingly to admire and adore the unfathomable judgments of God unto these Gentiles of old who suffered them to walke in their own wayes without any glimpses or knowledge of a Saviour that we might tremble at his deep stupendious dispensations towards these poore sinners and for ever extoll his mercies towards us in reserving us unto such glorious times as these of the Gospell are wherein the Mysteries of Christ are not so much as mussled up in Types and Figures as among the Jewes much lesse wholly wrapt up in darknesse and kept totally undiscovered as they were from the Gentiles but every where gloriously displaid and unfolded before our eyes And secondly it may teach us that neither Learning nor Morall Honesty can simply in themselves conduce any thing unto salvation for both these the Gentiles had in a very eminent manner and yet for ought we know they may be now frying in the slames of Hell First then not learning could a man with Solomon dive into the nature of all things even from the tallest Cedar to the lowest shrub could he speake in as many Languages as ever the severall builders of Babell did or did all the naturall wisdome of men and Angels concenter and meet in him yet by all these he is no nearer salvation then a begger or an Actour drest in Royall apparell is unto a throne Surgunt indocti c. t' is a common but true saying Illiterate ignorant men doe oftentimes rise up and carry away the Crowne of glory whilest we with all our learning sinke deeper into destruction Doubtlesse if Naturall Abilities could availe any thing unto salvation those infernall damned spirits had long since reobtained their Heavenly stations who yet notwithstanding all their primitive created wisdome or their now experimentall acquired knowledge are by reason of their sinne bound in chaines of eternall darknesse and are there still reserved unto the judgment of the great day I doe not come here to declaime against Humane Learning Friends I suppose it will find many even in this our age Enemies I am sure it hath none but the ignorant yet this we may safely say that without Grace t' is but enmity against God so far namely from attaining Heaven that it rather makes a man an instrument and weapon of Hell and Marshals sin as I may so speake in battle array against God For unlesse it be duely tempered and corrected with Grace there is I know not what secret poyson and malignity in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle expresseth it 1 Cor. 8. 1. to inflate and puffe men up to Avocate and take off the mind from heavenly meditations to bewitch and ensnare the heart with the name of applause credit of the world to throw the braine into strange contrivances and excessive cares and turmoyles how to preserve our reputation how to rise and grow great in the world how to promote Faction and Interest how finally to please men rather then God Whereas on the other side there may be no greater promoter of Gods Glory then a Sanctified Schollar for as in a Picture though the dark obscure Colours do adde no reall worth unto the more Orientall and bright ones yet they serve to commend set them forth in like manner though the supernaturall gifts graces of God may perhaps be nothing bettered by Humane Learning yet concurring in the same person they mutually adde lustre Ornament to one another Who a more meeke and pious man then Moses and yet he was Learned in all the Learning of the Egyptians Who more Zealous and fervent in the cause of God then Paul and yet he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel The summe of all is this Naturall Abilities sublimated and refined by Grace may much advance Gods Glory and our owne salvation but without faith and in themselves they cannot bring us one step forward in our way to Heaven nor set us above the pitch of Heathens Gentiles meere Naturall men And as Learning and Naturall Abilities cannot so neither can Morall Honesty or civill life lead us in themselves unto heaven A civill carriage a mild and humble behaviour temperance in dyet abstinence from outward grosse acts of Vice are things very commendable in themselves as tending much to the advancement of Humane Society to the removing of scandals amongst Brethren and to the avoiding of temporall judgments but then these and other the like vertues if they may be so termed a Cato a Scipio a meere Gentile may have and yet be in a damnable Estate Though a picture be never so exquisitely and curiously drawne yet it is still but a picture without life sense or motion and so though a man come never so neare a Saint in outward appearance yet he is but a man dead in sinne and without the life of Christ There may be in some men Politick and Secular Ends to bias them in outward goodnesse there may be in others Carnall Feare to restraine them from evill there may be also a kind of conformity to the Present fashion of Religion which may put a man upon a morose behaviour upon superficiall and outward acts of piety but then are not all these their Righteousnesses think you as filthy ragges when as they neither proceed from a right principle the spirit of life nor are performed in a right manner neither in sincerity nor true obedience nor directed unto a good end the Glory of God and edification of their neighbours So then from hence we may learne that neither the Heathen nor any else can attaine unto Heaven by all their Learning Vertues Morall Honesty or Goodnesse whatsoever ROM I. 20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world c. THus much shall suffice to be spoken concerning the light of Nature from this verse we shall shew you the knowledge we have of God from the Creatures Where you have 1. First the object knowne and that either generally set downe the invisible things of him or more particularly explained even his eternall power and Godhead Those invisible things of God are his eternall power and Godhead 2. Secondly here is the time when these invisible things began to be knowne from the creation of the world 3. Thirdly because all knowledge is originally founded in the Senses here is the outward instrument the sight are clearly seene and the inward instrument whereby we attaine this knowledge the understanding being understood And because no object in se much lesse invisible things can be seen without some medium to conveigh it unto the organ you have here 4. Fourthly the Species as I may so speake or meanes by which we come to see these invisible things the Creatures are clearly seene and understood by the things that are made 5. Fiftly and lastly here is the end why God did thus manifest this knowledge unto them viz. that they should be without
the Gentiles but we must not here stand too long upon these things it remaines that since the Scripture is profitable for instruction in Righteousnesse good reason therefore it is that all people being thus to be instructed should read the holy Scriptures whose end it is as the Apostle goes on that the man of God may be perfect and throughly furnished unto all good works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. by comparing the 1 Tim. 6. 11. with this the Minister or interpreter of God such as Timothy was himselfe that he might be perfect throughly furnished unto all good workes that he namely who is of greatest concernement and knowledge in the Church may out of the Scriptures furnish himselfe with the knowledge of such dutyes which belong unto God and his neighbour there is no kind of good worke or duty which can be thought upon but the Scripture doth prescribe and prepare us unto and this is the meaning of the words on which I have been the longer because by them I have taken occasion to resolve you of such doubts which for brevity sake I cannot at large and distinctly handle from the words themselves you may note these three common observations 1. That the Scriptures are of divine authority for they are inspired of God 2. That they are most perspicuous and in the main most easily to be understood for otherwise how could they be profitable for our instruction in righteousnesse 3. That they are most perfect for if the Minister himselfe can draw out of them all things necessary unto his duty it will follow doubtlesse that they containe all things necessary for our Salvation and that they are most perfect 1. Then we shall shew that the Scriptures are of Divine authority what these Scriptures are none here I suppose can be ignorant of for you must needs conclude from what hath been spoken that they are the Word of God or holy bookes written by the inspiration of God to make us wise unto Salvation so that in the very frontispeice as 't were of the definition you may discover from whence they proceed God is the Authour of them that is certaine and 't were as absurd for a Christian to deny this as for any man to deny that beames and rayes proceed from the Sonne and therefore he that calls into question or denys that the Scriptures are the Word of God is as unworthy the name of a Christian as he is of a Phylosopher or a Metaphysitian that disallowes of a naturall body or entity because these are things which are necessary to be presupposed of him should all the men of the world unanimously conspire to deny that the Scriptures are the Word of God yet are they no lesse divine and authenticall then the Sunne would be light if all men otherwise were blinded let Turkes and Pagans say what they will yet the Scriptures will be still Gods word and there are such sufficient reasons for to prove it that he that is not either wilfully blinded or maliciously bent must needs confesse the same for that they are from God and so in themselves of divine Authority sundry reasons may be given we shall only for brevity sakename three or foure For besides that they doe most cleerly reveale unto us the nature and workes of God as the three Persons in the Trinity the mystery of the regeneration and the like things altogether above the reach and contrivance of man besides the impartialnesse and candour of the Pen-men of them for so Moses setteth down the incest of his Parents of whom he was begotten Ex. 6. 2. and his own disobedience Numb 11. 11. Jonah his murmering and Jeremiah his fretting which undoubtedly shews that they were not biassed with any carnall respects but altogether overruled and inspired by an higher Spirit besides also the quality condition of the Pen-men Amos an heardsman Mathew a publican the Apostles many of them fishermen which evidently shew that there was some higher power which did instill into them that profoundnesse of wisedome which all the art and Phylosophy in the world can never reach unto Adde to these the consent and holy conspiracy as 't were between all their writings notwithstanding the great difference of times they wrote in the remotenesse of places and the diversity of matters whereof they have written so incredible and divine is their mutuall harmony that you would rather think one man writ them with divers penns then that divers men writ them by one Spirit besides these and sundry other reasons I say which may sufficiently declare who is the principall Authour of this holy writ another great argument testimony of their originall is first the truth and events of Scripture Prophesyes Can any man Angel or created being foretell future contingent events can they tell the very name of a man and the time of his birth a hundred yeares before hand as the Spirit by Esay did concerning Cyrus and in the 1 of the Kings 13. concerning a Josias by name above 300 yeares say Annalist's before he was borne could ever any of the cheating Oracles of the Heathens or any counterfeited Sybill tell of a Messias to be borne 4000 years after then to come to passe just as 't was foretold as it did according to the promise made to Adam Gen. 3. 15. we our selves of this Nation are living examples of the truth of holy predictions succeeding events the Scriptures many thousand yeares ago did foretell the calling of the Gentiles for in him say they shall the Gentiles trust and all the ends of the earth shall see the Salvation of God and behold the Prophesy accomplished in our selves we who heretofore sate in darknesse and the shaddow of death doe now lye under glorious light who before were not a people but are now a people 't were endlesse to relate unto you all the Prophesyes which were exactly accomplish't according to the times places and circumstances foretold 2. But secondly the miracles that were wrought by and did accompany the teachers and writers of the Word may sufficiently confirme our faith in the authority of the Scriptures themselves unlesse we are worse then the Magitians who upon the Miracle of lice could cry out this is the finger of God Exod. 8. 19. but how may we know that the Miracles we read in the Gospells are true since by some the Gospell it selfe is doubted of Answer that were they not true they would have either been refuted or rejected by the men of those dayes but so farre were they then from that as a learned man notes that Josephus a Jew an enemy to the Christian truth did acknowledge Christ to be the worker of many miracles A 3d main argument of the Divinity of the Scriptures may be that admirable force and power which they have upon the minds and hearts of men which believe in them sometimes to humble and cast down sometimes to comfort and raise up the Spirits what vigour doth it
price or value then really it is in it selfe and this is all the true power that the Church can challenge in relation unto the holy Scriptures wherefore the true Church we honour in respect of these things but we doe not adore it and make it of greater Authority then the Scriptures themselves Wherefore 3. We say that the Authority of them doth not so much depend on the Church as on their own innate light and testimony of the Holy Spirit within us their own innate light I say for saith Chamier there is in the Scriptures a peculiaris genius and strein whereby they may upon examination be easily discovered to be the Word of God as a Critick will know by the phrase and stile and the like that such a book is Lyvies such an one Juvenalls so also will a Christian upon the due search triall of the holy Scriptures by their matter Heavenly by their stile deep and by their divine phrase mysticall presently conclude that they are the Word of God and that they can have no other Author then the King of Heaven and then farther I say there is required a Testimony of the holy Spirit within us which Spirit is as I may so speake the seale unto all the rest and peculiar only to Gods Children a man may by the hearsay of the Church historically know the Scriptures but this will no more comfort his heart then the discourses concerning honey and sweet-meates will the stomacke a man may also be convicted of the truth of the Word from those arguments I pressed even now and yet he may be no more converted by them then the Jewes were at the Miracles of Christ which they knew were wrought by a divine power well then what is it that must ultimately perswade us and assure a child of God certitudine fidei with an assurance of faith that the Scriptures are the Word of God the Church that cannot for how can that infuse faith which the Scriptures every where set forth to be the Gift of God what then is it that assures us doubtlesse the Spirit of God co-working with us and upon our prayers and diligent reading and examining of the Word assuring us that this Word which was thus confirmed by miracles thus verifyed by the truth of the Prophesyes contained in it this Word that hath so perfect a consent within its self that hath so admirable efficacy upon the hearers and readers thereof that hath been so wonderfully preserved in all ages that this Word and this Word only is the Word of God and of divine authority so then the Church that can only report unto us the Spirit that doth firmely perswade us the Church that can ministerially only ingenerate an opinion in us the Spirit a Faith and certainty of the Scriptures as then men may heare a very great report of anothers worth learning and counsell and yet be never fully satisfied concerning it till they find it so to be by their own experience or as those Samaritans who did believe in part on Christ for the saying of the woman were yet notwithstanding further confirmed established in the faith of him when they heard his own words John 4. 24. in like manner though we may historically believe that the Scriptures are the Word of God because the Church saith so yet this testimony of the Church doth minister little assurance or satisfaction unto a child of God untill it be farther back't on and established by a farther testimony of the Spirit which undoubtedly must be the firmest assurance a man can have because it is that alone which doth open the eyes to behold the wondrous things of the Law Psal 119. 18. 't is that alone which leadeth into all truth Joh. 16. 13. 't is that alone which inseparably accompanys the faithfull in the Scriptures My Spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth Isa 59. 21. and therefore 't is that alone which gives strongest evidence unto its selfe speaking in the Scriptures if yee receive the witnesse of men the witnesse of God is greater saith S. Paul the witnesse of the Church is but the witnesse of men therefore the witnesse of the Spirit is greater but say they the Spirit speaketh by the Church and therefore we must believe the Church only when it testifyes of the Scriptures Whitaker answers for me that if so be the Spirit doth thus speak by the Church from whence then hath the Church this assurance but from the Spirit and so our beliefe of the Scriptures must ultimately resolve of necessity into the Testimony of the Spirit againe they say that the Church was before the Scriptures we answer no by no meanes for then how can the Word be called the everlasting wisedome of God and the immortall seed of which the Church is borne the Church was before the written Word but not before the unwritten Aske a Papist how they know that the Church is of such authority and they will prove it by the Scriptures and therefore the authority proving must needs be of greater esteem and before the authority proved but is not the Church called the pillar and ground of truth yes but what doth a candle receive any light from the candlesticke because it stickes in it what though the Church is the seat and mansion place of the Scriptures yet were it possible that there were no Church in the World yet is not the Scripture of lesse authority then now it is the Church then is only a ministeriall pillar to preserve keep and set forth the word not a fundamentall one to uphold and give being unto it and here I might wade farther into a Discourse concerning the authority of the Church and the Scriptures but it having been so fully handled already and answered by multitudes of eminent men I shall goe no farther it remaines that I should practically apply what hath been already spoken but this together with the other propertyes of Scriptures their perspicuity and perfection I shall leave to the next part This is the AVTHOVRS last Sermon that ever He preacht which was at S. Maries in Oxon. March 20. 1655. Phil. c. 3. v. 8. first part Yea doubtlesse and I count all things but losse for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. IN this Chapter the Apostle armes his Philippians against their false teachers by opposing his own judgement and example to their erroneous and lying suggestions There were a company of prophane persons started up in the Church of Philippi whom Paul counts no better then doggs evill workers and of the concision verse 2. who instead of circumcising their hearts went about rather to cut and rend asunder the Church these men now being left to be brought from their old fleshly confidences the workes of the Law did vaunt much of their outward priviledges and would fain slink into circumcision and other ceremoniall performances and joyne
Turke may know Christ so farre as by hear-say and History yet he cannot be said savingly to know him because he denies his assent unto the Gospell which is the ordinary way of discovering him to a man As when those that pretend to be disciples of any great Phylosopher or Schollar doe wholly submit themselves to his dogmata writings and opinions as for example the Peripateticks to Aristotle the Scotists to Scotus the Thomists to Thomas his Doctrine insomuch that they doe even sweare to resigne up their judgements to the words of their Master why so much more ought Christians to give their assent unto the Word of their Lord master Christ therefore John 10. 't is said that his Sheepe heare his voice and follow him they presently adhere to his word and accordingly obey him in it He that heareth my Word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting Life Joh. 5. 24. we must first hearken to his Word before we can believe on him and have everlasting life Secondly it implyes affection to Christ For as Gods knowing his people implyes his love towards them in Scripture the Lord knows the way of the Righteous Psal 1. v. 6. so his peoples knowing of God implyes also affection towards him hence Christ saith that he knows his sheep and is known of them John 10. 14. which implyes on both sides a mutuall love to each other for so expressly v. 15. he saith he will lay down his life for his sheep Hence ignorance is every where in holy writ made the ground of mens hatred and disaffection to Christ and his people had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory 1 Cor. 2. 8. and John 15. 21. and c. 16. v. 3. All these things meaning persecutions saith Christ they will doe unto you because they have not known the Father nor me did a man throughly and savingly know Christ he would be more in love with him for there is such an intimacy and union between the truth and goodnesse of divine objects that whosoever rightly understands the one will presently imbrace the other so that be sure that is but a vaine empty knowledge of Christ where the characters of it are not imprinted in our hearts and affections even in common discourse when we say I know such a one is of excellent parts of a sweet and good disposition this implies our secret esteem and respect unto the person and how can we be said truely to know him as the fairest of ten-thousand as our Saviour Reconciler Lord and God unlesse our hearts be carryed forth in a high esteem and love of him 't is said Jam. 2. 19. The Divells do believe and therefore tremble certainly did they know there was any mercy in store for them as now there is nothing but vengeance as they now tremble and feare so they would then love and admire Christ and did we but justly understand the admirable goodnesse and excellencies of Christ we should be more taken with him we should keep his commandements with more observance and feare more to displease him then we doe O let us never say we know Christ that we have intimacy and acquaintance with him when our hearts are farre from him when we have an Idea of him in our Braine and not so much as a lust Crucified by the Knowledge of his death not one grace the more implanted by the knowledge of his Resurrection when we pretend to know him yet grieve his Spirit wound his glory trample under foot his blood disobey his precepts and preferre a Barrabas a robber a sinne that dispoiles him of his Glory before the Lord of life believe it this knowledge of Christ is scientia affectiva it must sinke deeper then so into our affections and transforme the whole man into the image of Christ otherwise it is but a counterfeit not a reall knowledge of him Thirdly this practicall knowledg of Christ implies a particuliar application of him to our own soules what good will it doe me to know there is gold in the Indies unlesse I had it in my coffer or to know when I am hungry that there is in such a place hony and food unlesse I did tast it my selfe no more good will the knowledge of Christ doe us unlesse we doe eate him and drinke him by faith and can say with Paul in the text I know him to be my Lord that hath redeemed me and will save me you will not count him a good Physitian that knoweth only the name figure and shape of an hearb in Gerhard or Mathiolus and not the use and application of the same and so neither can ye call him a knowing Christian that can discourse only of Christ in generall being in the meane while ignorant of the benefits and the comfortable application of them he may still for all this lay under the curse under the pangs of conscience the sence of the wrath of God the tyranny of sin and Sathan unlesse he can feele Christs spirit as Thomas did corporally and say My Lord and My God Joh. 20. 28. in all true knowledge the Acts of the understanding are reflexive the soule will start back and rebound upon its selfe it will first goe out unto Christ its direct object and then turne in upon its selfe and examine its own interest in him Hence saith Saint Paul in the 2 Cor. 13. v. 5. Examine your selves whether you be in the Faith let your soules retire into themselves and there diligently examine the matter and you will quickly find whether you believe in Christ or have any communion with him which cannot be rightly known unlesse you so examine your selves and so much shall suffice to be spoken of the first point The second is the qualifications of this knowledge 1. 'T is a revealed supernaturall knowledge Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee saith Christ of himselfe to Simon Peter but my Father which is in Heaven Mat. 16. v. 17. neither carnall reason nor humane wisedome can ever suggest Christ unto us 't is God alone that reveales his Sonne in us Gal. 1. v. 16. Nature can rise no higher then things within its own bounds and spheare As water cannot runne above its own fountaine now the knowledg of Christ doth much exceed the reach of naturall disquisition 't is the wisedome of God in a mystery hidden wisedome which none of the princes of this world knew 1 Cor. 2. we attaine usually unto naturall knowledg by much industry turmoile of body minde when our understanding doth out of some imperfect hintes and blushes of the causes of things by degrees hack and hew out the truth of them and by much labour and toyle we get and serve out of nature the small knowledge that we have whereas now all the toyle and study in the world will never advance a meer naturall man to the knowledge of Christ because I suppose he hath not so much as a hint
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rest and repose of the soule whereas naturall bodies in their proper places so the soule of man rests contented and satisfied in Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge Col. 2. v. 3. There is enough in him to fill the soul up to the brim and to answer all the impatient rovings and agitations of our Spirits after knowledge in him dwelleth all fullnesse fulnesse of Grace to sanctify us fullnesse of righteousnesse to justify us fullnesse of Glory to crown us no naturall object can satisfy the soule because the desires there of being boundlesse infinite it presently digests swallowes up all finite things but now Christ both in his nature and Graces is so commensurate and proportionable an object for the soule that it may eternally feed upon him to full content and satisfaction His mercies infinite his love infinite his Graces are inexhaustible for God hath not given the Spirit by measure and his gifts and graces are compared by the Prophet to a feaest of marrow and fat things Is 25 v. 6. because as these do satisfie the sensuall so those the intellectuall appetite it satisfieth the longing soule and filleth the hungry soule with goodnesse Psal 107. v. 9. wherefore then saith the Prophet Esay 55. v. 2. doe yee spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satufyeth not Hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soule delight it selfe in fatnesse Lastly This is an ever-increasing rising knowledge there is a growth in it 2 Pet. 3. 18. we go from one degree of it to another 'till we become perfect men in our first conversion we are but children and babes in Christ of little understanding and knowledge 'till by prayer temptations experiences often supplyes and returnes of grace we become strong in faith nothing doubting and encrease in wisedome and all spirituall understanding Christ doth not discover himselfe all at once to the Soule but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peicemeale Heb. 1. 1. and in diverse manners here a little and there a little As in naturall science the minde doth not usually graspe comprehend the whole circumference of a thing together but insensibly by degrees creeps upon truth takes and as I may so speake steales off that veile that hides the nature of it from us thus Christ by degrees irradiates and shines upon the soule and so we may be the more sensible of our former ignorance and more thankfull for our present illumination he never so clearly presents himselfe to any but that the knowledge is still improveable and may receive farther increase for at the best in this world we doe view but in a glasse darkely we are faine to borrow the spectacles of his Word his ordinances and his Sacraments to looke on him our Iusts and corruptions as so many evill vapours hinder us from a full prospect of him yet generally we see him clearer and clearer as these ragges of flesh weare and rot from off us 'till at length when the soule is got lose of this prison of clay it knowes him immediately without the helpe of a glasse now we know him but in part but we shall know him even as also we are known 1 Cor. 13. 12. The third point is to discover unto you more particularly wherein the excellency of this knowledge consists and t is I suppose 1. In the object and things known 3. In the influences it hath upon the party knowing 1. The things known by this knowledge of Christ are most excellent the nobler the object the nobler the science now in what noble sublime matter this knowledge deales is plaine whether we consider the personall excellenceis of Christ the graces and perfections of his nature the glory beauty and comelinesse of his person which must needs ravish and take up our thoughts though to fasten here and goe no farther is but to admire the glittering of the shew not considering the pearles within to pore upon a picture not regarding the living party it represents Faith as the Spouse in the Canticles seems to be pleased even with the outward draught and comlinesse of a Saviour to see him in glory sittting at Gods right hand but then it eyes him chiefely as a crucifyed Saviour as therefore Paul desires to know nothing but Christ and Him Crucifyed as the only and chiefe concernment to him or whether the Promises of Christ those breasts of consolation at which this knowledge lyes still sucking and delighting it selfe in they are excellent things precious Promises in which the soule can find more comfort then in all the earthly joyes pleasures of this world or lastly whether we consider the mysterys it containes they are admirable mysteryes and without controversy saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 3. v. 16. Great is the mysterie of Godlinesse God was manifest in the flesh justifyed of the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into Glory Every trade and profession we say hath a mystery in it something that is which is not known to every one sure I am that a Christians profession is altogeither taken up in a mystery such a mysterie that had the Angells themselves pardon the expression been bound prentice to understand it they had without Gods speciall revelation remain'd altogeither ignorant of it for the 1 of Pet. 1. 12. 't is said the Angells themselves do desire to looke into it even now that this great mystery of our Redemption is made manifest unto the world see 't is so full of admirable inscrutable excellencys that the Angells themselves desire yet to be Pupills unto it and are curious to learne more continually of it 2. The excellency of this knowledge may be discovered in the effects and influences of it which are first to discover God more clearely unto us secondly to discover our selves unto our selves 1. It discovers God more cleerly unto us for Christ is the brightnesse of his Glory and the expresse image of his person Heb. 1. 3. So that looke as we know the Sunne by its light and a naturall father usually by his Sonne who carryes his substantiall image so is God seen in Christ and therefore the Apostle Col. 1. v. 15. saith he is the Image of the invisible God God himselfe he lives in inaccessible light no man can see him and live but it hath pleased him to manifest himselfe in Christ in whom dwels the Godhead bodily whatsoever glory whatsoever wisedome whatsoever power is in God is plainly drawn forth and exprest in Christ he is the essentiall substantiall copy if I may so speake with reverence of his Father in whom alone he is most legibly and clearly to be read the creatures indeed doe in their kind represent God but then a very broken and imperfect copy they are of him so that the Gentiles by falsely spelling and putting