light looking within the veile of the mysterie shall see the wisedome of God and most excellent treasures contained in it presented and offered by it Wherefore that God in Christ may bee thy Teacher study this conformitie to God which by likenesse by covenant by friendship by marriage-love may draw him to teach thee And first put off the old man corrupt with deceivable lusts which cause in thee a deformitie yea an enmitie against God The uncircumcision of the flesh hath in it a contrarietie to God and his wisedome and makes thee adverse to Gods teaching and God unwilling to teach thee It is also a veile upon the eye of thy soule hides thy sight from his light his light from thy sight And untill a spirituall circumcision doe take off this veile thou art in the schoole of the Prince of darknesse and art not yet teachable by the Father of lights But if this veile of the old man be first removed by mortification thou shalt in the second place put on the new man wherein is the image of God light agreeable to his light and a love of him who is Love and of that which hee loves then God will delight in thee as a father in the son that resembles him and as a father his son he will delight to teach and nurture thee If thou keep this image cleare that God may see his face in it he will therein also see his covenant and seeing his covenant hee will take thee for his friend yea for his spouse and by all these as by so many cords of love hee will be drawne to teach thee Being thus pure in heart thou shalt see God thou shalt see him here guiding and teaching thee and hereafter in presentiall vision eternally blessing thee CHAP. IX A fourth step Conversing with God and diligent comming to his Schoole HEE that will bee taught of God must come diligently to his Teacher and meet him where when he useth to teach Now he teacheth both publikely in the great Assemblies and privately in the little Temples and Sanctuaries In the great Congregation his Spirit meets thee in the ministerie of the Word and in the seales of that Word and offers to write that Word in thy heart so that thou mayst see it plainly to be the wisedome of God and mayst see in it the wonderfull things of God Thou shalt see in the Word the mysteries which hee teacheth thee yea thine eyes in it shall see the Teacher himselfe for therein shalt thou see Christ lively set forth and offering his flesh his humanitie yea himselfe both God and man unto thee Such sights mayst thou see in this great Schoole of God being enlightened and taught by his Spirit which Spirit is a companion of the Word by the vertue of the New Covenant and by this Covenant we may claime and expect it from God Therefore is the New Covenant called The Ministerie of the Spirit in an excellencie above the Law which was called The Ministerie of the Letter And it is such indeed as it is called for while St. Peter taught the word to Cornelius and his friends the Spirit accompanied the Word and fell on them that heard it St. Paul also calls up the experience of the Galatians for a witnesse of this truth Received yee the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith preached And indeed if this truth thus covenanted by God and actually made good by him were accordingly beleeved rested on thirsted after and expected God should bee more often heard speaking spirit and life with his Word in the inward eare and the Word should not dye so often in the outward eare or carnall heart for want of this Spirit It is an unvaluable losse that men doe so much divide the outward Teacher from the inward rest on the former without respect to the latter Whereas when wee goe to the outward Teacher which is man wee should set our eyes and hearts chiefly on the inward Teacher which is God wee should challenge him upon his covenant and promise saying and praying Remember thy promise to thy servant wherein thou hast made him to hope And therefore speake Lord that thy servant may heare for without thy speaking thy servant cannot heare Hee may heare the outward sound of the Word in his eare but he cannot heare the inward sense and power in his heart The outward Israel had seene the great wonders of God upon Aegypt they heard the thunders on mount Sinai yet neither did they see those wonders nor heare those thunders And Moses tells them how it came to passe when hee saith The Lord hath not given you eyes to see and eares to heare untill this day They thought their own eyes sufficient to see and their own eares to heare and resting in this insufficient sufficiencie God left them to it and so they did neither see nor heare for Gods works wonders and voyce can onely kindly and truely bee seene and heard by eyes and eares given of God from Heaven Know therefore thy owne insufficiencie yea the insufficiencie of the best Teacher in the world for who is sufficient for these things to teach thee inwardly what hee teacheth thee outwardly and know that the sufficiencie of inward teaching comes onely from God Therefore while thy outward eare expects the outward word of the outward Teacher let thy inward eare expect the inward teaching of the inward and highest Teacher For thus only may the planting though of Paul himselfe and the watering though of Apollos be made something even when God gives an increase which otherwise are nothing And being thus inwardly taught to profit and increase thou art taught according to the New Covenant for thou art taught of God Come therefore diligently to this schoole of his where hee useth thus to teach beleeve his Covenant and take it by beleeving And secondly That thou mayest the better beleeve and take it hee hath given thee seales of the New Covenant by which the New Covenant is presented unto thy faith sealed and confirmed By this confirmation and sealing thy faith should be increased and by the increase of thy faith thy union with Christ Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant will bee increased and by the increase of this Union there will bee an increase of the Spirit the promise of the New Covenant which knoweth the things of God and which will shew them more unto thee the more it is in thee When thou wast baptized into Christ thou didst put on Christ and when thou eatest the spirituall meat and drinkest the spirituall drinke in the Eucharist thou doest put him on more and more Thy being in Christ even thy new being which thou receivedst before thou doest now feed and nourish and bring forth into manhood And as thou growest into manhood thou knowest by the Apostles reason thou art enabled to grow in knowledge to be
THE HEAVENLY ACADEMIE Iam hic videte magnum Sacramentum fratres Magisteria forinsecus Adjutoria quaedam sunt Admonitiones Cathedram in Coelo habet qui corda docet Aug. Tract 3. in 1. Joan. LONDON Printed by Robert Young for Iohn Bartlet and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard neere St. Austins gate 1638. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOHN Lord ROBERTS Baron of Truco c. My Lord TO whom first as a Judge next as a Patron should a worke present it selfe that concernes both Universities but to a person that hath knowledge of both For the lower I thinke there are scarcely any that have more profited in it in no more time a diligent and apprehensive Learner having met with an able communicative Teacher And for the higher I thinke you know it well because you love it well Not to goe farre for a proofe the expressions of love which you have beene pleased to shew me did arise as I beleeve especially from this root because you thought me to be of that Universitie Now that for which another is loved must needs be loved it selfe and what is loved is knowne for what we know not we love not And in this love and knowledge I desire that your Lordship may still increase untill you come to the fountaine of knowledge and the finall full and transcendent object of all created love Towards this increase if the following work may give some advancement it shall adde much to the joy of him who is to Your Lordships especially spirituall service justly devoted F. Rous. The Preface IT is the just saying of an Ancient Prodere grata commemoratione decet scientiae patrem It is comely to acknowledge with thankfulnesse the Father of our knowledge If this be justly due from man unto man how much more due is it from man unto God For though man be called the father of those that are taught by him yet God is the Father of those fathers even a Teacher of those teachers and therefore by our Saviours judgement deserves only the name of Father in perfection and eminence Those then that have God to be a Father of knowledge to them should returne to this Father the praise and glorie of this knowledge The heavenly gifts of God when they move kindly and naturally doe move like the Heavens in a circular motion returning to that place and point from which they began first to move from God unto God They come from him as graces and returne to him in the shape of glorie Accordingly having received a measure of grace from this heavenly Teacher by which I am what I am I could not but acknowledge it and by this acknowledgement returne him glorie for grace And because I desire also that others may have the like grace that God also from others may have the like glorie I testifie to others that which I have felt and seene I have evidently seene and felt that men are taught of God and so there is a third school for the Students of Divinitie And as they passe from the Countrey-schoole to the Universitie so should they yet mount higher to a third even a Celestiall Academie And certainly as the second excels the first so much more doth the third excell the second Some perchance may answer with the Servant Son and Heire of the Great Elijah Hold your peace I know it already Yet those that know it will not envie that it be told to those that know it not There are sons of the Prophets that must grow up like young plants in the house of the Lord and those have a time when they know it not and this discourse may meet with that time Yea there may be some Masters in Israel into whose eares perchance it hath passed but not entered into their hearts that as a man must be borne so hee must be taught from above And if this naile be driven beyond hearing into knowledge experience and taste I hope no man will be sorrie for such a gaine Besides too true and common it is that the naturall heart of man willingly lies downe and takes up its rest in the abilities of Nature and fetcheth oracles from thence the cause of so many errours and differences the consequences of errours and therefore hath it need of such goads to awake it and to make it open the eye and eare to this heavenly Teacher It is most true that those who have not beene taught in this higher schoole of Grace but onely in the lower of Nature cannot well acknowledge that which they know not this schoole being best learned known and acknowledged by those whom it most teacheth And those who have beene well taught there doe well know that Christians are herein better than their neighbors even than the best of Pagans because they are taught by God the best most transcendent and infallible Teacher The heavenly Teacher teacheth them both what and how to beleeve he gives them his heavenly truths contained in his Word and gives them withall an heavenly mind to discerne beleeve and receive them And thus while a Christian holds his religion by an heavenly hand both are given him by an heavenly Teacher a Christians tenure of religion is far more noble excellent and assured than that of the Pagan A Christian thus taught from above beleeves and worships what he knowes whereas the Pagan worships what hee knowes not even that which be hath received only by the way of Nature from naturall deceived and deceiving men But the Christian hath a spirit from God in Christ Iesus for if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is not Christs and this Spirit gives him a spiritual eye which an Heathen hath not and yet this eye alone can truly and kindly discerne and see spirituall and heavenly truths And for this spirituall eye which the Christian hath from the Spirit of God the Heathens and Mahometans may say among themselves of a Christian as once an Heathen King said to his Heathen Subjects of Joseph Can wee find such a man as this a man in whom is the Spirit of God And that such Christians may abound is the end of this work which for ought I know hath not beene over-wrought nor thereby made superfluous and unseasonable for the present age I wish that fetching heavenly knowledge from carnall reason and humane wit have not made it too seasonable Yet to turn men back the more willingly from this counter-course I have brought forth patternes of some who have taught and professed a deniall of their own wits and reasons though acute and excellent and have as it were quenched their owne naturall lamps that they might get them kindled above by the Father of lights Yea thus did sundry of them even in those times when humane wit and reason had made too great a mixture with the mysteries of Divinitie Yet then did God preserve the soveraigntie of his owne light in eminence and glorie
rightly saw the things of God presented to us by God By the second wee were taught to receive and possesse them By the third after we have tasted those heavenly things whereof we were possessed from this taste there ariseth a new but a true lively and experimentall knowledge of the things so tasted And indeed this is a knowledge which no art eloquence or expression of man can teach us For even in naturall fruits there are certain rellishes and as I may call them Idaea's and characters of tastes which nothing but the taste it selfe can truly represent and shew unto us The West-Indian Piney cannot be so expressed in words even by him that hath tasted it that he can deliver over the true shape and character of that taste to another that hath not tasted it And yet have we other fruits that by some kindred may seeme to counterfeit some lineaments of that taste But no earthly things can in any degree give us the true taste of the heavenly but the heavenly are left to bee knowne by their owne taste The Scripture therefore useth earthly things that by them wee may ascend above them and that not finding in earthly things what the heavenly things are wee may ascend up to the heavenly things themselves by tasting truly to know them In one place we are told That Christs love is pleasanter than wine and in another That the Lawes of God are pleasanter than honey Here by the pleasantnesse of wine wee doe not learne the true shape of the pleasure of Christs love for this is another kind of pleasure than the pleasantnesse of wine Neither in the sweetnesse of honey doe wee truly see the sweetnesse of Gods Law for it is a different kind of sweetnes which the soule tasteth in the Law and the body tasteth in honey Yea the verie Manna it selfe which was visible doth not give the true taste of the hidden invisible Manna but it is still hidden except it bee knowne by tasting as the new name is not knowne but by him that hath it Therfore the joy of the Holy Ghost is indeed unspeakable as well as glorious because hee that hath it cannot so expresse it that another who hath not felt it may learn and know it There is a taste in the grace and love of God which no man can see but by tasting and by tasting it may be seen There is a peace of God which passeth all understanding which though the understanding of him that hath it doe not fully comprehend yet it doth in some measure apprehend and know the sweetnesse of it by tasting it But the true knowledge hereof cannot be delivered over by the greatest Doctor on earth in picture and representation Therefore the high and heavenly Teacher by the Psalmist first calls on us to taste and after to see even to get that sight and knowledge which is gotten onely by tasting By tasting the things themselves God teacheth us to know what the things are and the more wee know them the more we shall love them and the more wee love them the more we shall taste them and the more wee taste them the more wee shall know them And thus shal we run on in an endlesse circle of tasting loving and knowing which growes still greater the more we round it Let it also be observed that this knowledge thus taught of God doth give such an assurance of understanding concerning the things thus knowne and doth so seale upon the soule the truth and excellencie of them that all objections trialls and tentations cannot blot out the stamp and character of this seale but the soule will still answer That against taste there is no dispute And with the Apostles wee cannot but testifie what we have seene and knowne by tasting There is yet another knowledge taught by God in his heavenly schoole which though it arise not from the verie taste of spirituall things yet it ariseth from the soule having soundly tasted of Gods Spirit and being thorowly affected with it When the soule is inwardly bedewed and as it were written upon by the Spirit there will arise from this writing and the vertue of this heavenly dew an unknowne kind of knowledge which cannot be taught by man yea the man himselfe that knowes it cannot teach it to himselfe before he knowes it but rather knowes it first without himself then teacheth it to himselfe by this knowing it The soule being steeped and affected by the Spirit this affection doth eruct deliver and speake to the soul hidden truths which before shee saw not nor could see by the meere magisterie of man without no not of her owne man within Yea this reaching of the affection is sometimes so pregnant and powerfull that though the head being captivated by humane reason subject to errour or by the prejudice of education doe hold and maintaine an evill tenet yet the heart shall even then by the Spirit endite a good matter contrarie to that evill errour which the head maintaineth And no wonder for if by the first writing in the heart at the creation though now much blotted by the fall yet there are still some parcells of an inward teaching contrarie to that which the head or wit of man misled by outward teaching doth maintaine Then much rather in the newwriting of Regeneration may be impressions of truths which may breathe break and speak out when the soule is strongly heated affected and animated by the Spirit And thus may arise up a new discoverie of truths not known before yea perchance contrarie to that which before was thought to bee knowne and accordingly beleeved And these doctrines of the Spirit in our selves and others should be carefully noted and gathered into a treasurie by all that receive the love of the truth For even among those that erre such truths being found they are precious in themselves and withall of undeniable authority against the errors of those by whom they were uttered And indeed it may bee the truths which some inwardly know and beleeve may be imputed to them rather than the errours w ch they outwardly received and doe outwardly and in a kind of externall ignorance maintaine But howsoever verie precious they are wheresoever they are found and verie often oraculous Decisions and Resolutions and may adde to the stock of knowledge in the lower schooles who cannot give this knowledge but may receive it from the higher For indeed not so much man doth teach this knowledge as God who not onely teacheth man without man but sometimes more than without him because against him CHAP. V. A fourth benefit of the Heavenly Academie Teaching to teach THere is yet a fourth excellence of the highest Academie and it is this That the Doctor of that Chaire teacheth men best to bee the best Teachers And this being the scope of most of those that study Divinitie in the lower Academies for this should they chiefly though making use of
that Teachers may bee such patterns of light inwardly burning outwardly shining let them repaire to the Father of lights who from this higher Academie baptizeth with that fire which not onely kindleth light in the souls of his Messengers but makes his Ministers a flame of fire And if thus kindled from above with holy Barnabas they be good men full of faith and the Holy Ghost that which followed then may bee hoped will follow now Much people shal be added to the Lord. Thirdly the highest Schoole and no other teacheth the Art of Experimentall Divinitie which being learned doth give an excellence and Crowne to the abilitie of teaching There is great oddes betweene an experienced and a meerely-contemplative Captaine And if the great Captaine of our salvation learned experimentall obedience by the things which hee suffered and by his sufferings experimentally tasted and knowne knowes how to take due notice consideration and compassion of those that suffer how much advantage may we thinke is added to his Under-Captaines by their experience in the Christian warfare An heavenly Teacher with St. Paul having run the race of Christianitie through honour and dishonour through evill and good report as unknown yet known as dying and yet living as sorrowfull and yet alwayes rejoycing as having nothing and yet possessing all things such an one I say when he meets with soules in the like estates of honour or dishonour and the other differences incident to a Christians life he can presently out of his owne experience draw forth lessons of direction reproofe or consolation yea out of his owne experience hee can almost fore-prophesie events and fore-tell issues out of tentation And indeed as in other states of soule so especially in the case of a broken spirit experimentall Teachers have an high eminent advantage For such an one lookes back to his owne soule and there reads the storie of it imprinted by experience and from thence tells the distressed soule both the crosse which shee endures and the joy set before her Hee talks with the troubled soule in her owne language having thorowly learned it in this high schoole of experience and when the grieved soule doth but heare the Teacher speaking this language she is received yea when she heares him speake so truely of the griefe shee beleeves it is possible and perchance likely that there may bee truth in his comforts yea it is no small comfort to the distressed soule by such infallible and evident descriptions to find and heare one that hath beene in the like distresse wherin shee is now afflicted For one of their greatest terrours ariseth hence that none was ever in their case and that the Almightie hath singled them out from all the world to be the verie marks of his arrowes Besides when these men bring consolations for tribulations they bring sure and sound ones for they bring everie one of them with a Probatum They can name the man that was cured by them and say with the Psalmist This poore man cryed unto the Lord and thus was heard comforted and healed With St. Paul they comfort others with the verie same consolations wherewith with themselves have beene comforted of God Thus this skill of experimentall Divinitie gives an advantage of knowledge and not of knowledge onely but of confidence to the Teacher for he sayes what he knowes and on the other side it gives an advantage of trust and comfort to the hearer But the inexperienced man when he comes to a soule set on the rack of a tortured conscience and there uttering the fearefull expressions of a terrified mind this distressed soule is a Barbarian to him and he is a Barbarian to her She speakes what hee understands not and he cannot speake to her in a language which she can comfortably understand But this Teacher is often of the same opinion concerning this troubled soule which Christs carnall kinsmen had concerning him They sent out to lay hold on him saying Hee is besides himselfe And no wonder for they never saw sin in the true ugly shape of it they were never upon mount Sinai neither did they there heare the thunders and lightenings of the Law against sin and therefore they are not like Moses who did quake and tremble Yea this quaking and trembling is so strange to them that they aske with wonder of these amazed soules Why did ye skip as Rams and tremble as little Lambs To whom it may bee answered It was at the presence of God on Sinai Againe on the other side when the time is come wherein God calls out Comfort yee comfort yee my people there is no balme in their Gilead there is no oyle of joy in their lamps they have not had the fore-going tribulations nor the following consolations Therefore if they would give consolations they must bee borrowed ones like the axe of the the young Prophet and not the verie same by which themselves have beene comforted of God Yea commonly for want of experience they know not the Crisis of a soule nor when the soule is vpon a turne and is come to the season of receiving consolation They know not the houre of our Saviour when hee is ready to turne the water of tears into the wine of consolation And therefore such an one often misplaceth his spirituall physick and gives restoratives to a soule not thorowly purged from the love of sin or while the fit is upon the soule when it were more fit to weepe with them that either doe or should weepe and by that agreement in weeping to draw the mourning soule to a second agreement even to rejoyce with him that rejoyceth For this is the wisedome of a Teacher experimentally taught from above and this wisedome is justified and in high estimation with all her children Fourthly from the heavenly schoole descends a mightie active and maine advancement of teaching and that is a storge or naturall affection given to a Teacher There is a gift of love infused by God into the heart of a Teacher by which hee is taught of God to love his Flock and this love inflameth constraineth and teacheth him to teach In St. Paul we see deep impressions and powerfull expressions of this love yea we see him as a man all on fire with this love so that for the love of soules wearinesse and watching hunger and thirst cold and nakednes perils and persecutions are all but as stubble in his way and the fire of love w ch hath eaten him up consumes them also and turnes them into nothing He feeds his sheep sometimes at his owne costs and with an holy symony buyes the work of his owne ministerie and straines for an argument to approve it For whereas hee might call himselfe a Labourer and so might plead for the wages due to his worke hee calls himselfe a Father that thence hee may fetch a reason of providing for his children Yea he doth not expresse his love onely under this