use their expressions and yet they think they still keep the sentence of their own Order From hence can succeed nothing but folly and a phantastick peace This is but the skinning of an old sore it will break out upon all occasions 4. Others who understand things beyond the common rate observing that many of our Controversies and peevish wranglings are kept up by the ill stating of the Question endeavour to declare things wisely and make the matter intelligible and the words cleare hoping by this meanes to cut off all disputes Indeed this is a very good way so far as it can go and would prevaile very much if all men were wise and would consent to those stateings and would not fall out upon the main enquiry when it were well stated but we find by a sad experience that few Questions are well stated and when they are they are not consented to and when they are agreed on by both sides that they are well stated it is nothing else but a drawing up the Armies in Battalia with great skill and discipline the next thing they do is they thrust their Swords into one anothers sides 5. What remedy after all this Some other good men have propounded one way yet but that is a way of Peace rather then Truth and this is that all Opinions should be tolerated and none persecuted and then all the World will be at peace Indeed this relies upon a great reasonableness not onely because Opinions cannot be forced but because if men receive no hurt it is to be hoped they will do none But we find that this alone will not do it For besides that all men are not so just as not to do any Injury for some men begin the evil besides this I say there are very many men amongst us who are not content that you permit them for they will not permit you but rule over your faith and say that their way is not only true but necessary and therefore the Truth of God is at stake and all Indifference and moderation is carnall Wisdom and want of Zeal for God nay more then so they preach for Toleration when themselves are under the rod who when they got the rod into their own hands thought Toleration it self to be Intolerable Thus do the Papists and thus the Calvinists and for their Cruelty they pretend Charity They will indeed force you to come in but it is in true Zeal for your Soul and if they do you violence it is no more then if they pull your Arme out of joynt when to save you from drowning they draw you out of a River and if you complain it is no more to be regarded then the out-cries of Children against their Rulers or sick men against Physicians But as to the thing it self the truth is it is better in Contemplation then in Practice for reckon all that is got by it when you come to handle it and it can never satisfie for the infinite disorders happening in the Government the scandal to Religion the secret dangers to publick Societies the growth of Heresie the nursing up of parties to a grandeur so considerable as to be able in their own time to change the Lawes and the Government So that if the Question be whether meer Opinions are to be persecuted it is certainly true they ought not But if it be considered how by Opinions men rifle the affaires of Kingdoms it is also as certain they ought not to be made publick and permitted And what is now to be done must Truth be for ever in the dark and the World for ever be divided and Societies disturbed and Governments weakned and our Spirits debauched with Error and the uncertain Opinions and the Pedantery of talking men Certainly there is a way to cure all this evil and the wise Governour of all the World hath not been wanting in so necessary a matter as to lead us into all Truth But the way hath not yet been hit upon and yet I have told you all the wayes of Man and his Imaginations in order to Truth and Peace and you see these will not do we can find no rest for the soles of our feet amidst all the waters of Contention and disputations and little artifices of divided Schools Every man is a lyar and his understanding is weak and his Propositions uncertain and his Opinions trifling and his Contrivances imperfect and neither Truth nor Peace does come from man I know I am in an Auditory of inquisitive persons whose businesse is to study for Truth that they may find it for themselves and teach it unto others I am in a School of Prophets and Prophets Sons who all ask Pilate's Question What is Truth You look for it in your Books and you tug hard for it in your Disputations and you derive it from the Cisterns of the Fathers and you enquire after the old wayes and sometimes are taken with new appearances and you rejoyce in false lights or are delighted with little umbrages and peep of Day But where is there a man or a Society of men that can be at rest in his enquiry and is sure he understands all the truths of God where is there a man but the more he studies and enquires still he discovers nothing so clearly as his own Ignorance This is a demonstration that we are not in the right way that we do not inquire wisely that our Method is not artificiall If men did fall upon the right way it were impossible so many learned men should be engaged in contrary parties and opinions We have examined all wayes but one all but God's way Let us having missed in all the other try this let us go to God for Truth for Truth comes from God only and his wayes are plain and his sayings are true and his promises Yea and Amen and if we miss the Truth it is because we will not find it for certain it is that all that Truth which God hath made necessarie he hath also made legible and plain and if we will open our eyes we shall see the Sun and if we will walk in the light we shall rejoyce in the light only let us withdraw the Curtains let us remove the impediments and the sin that doth so easily beset us that 's Gods way Every man must in his station do that portion of duty which God requires of him and then he shall be taught of God all that is fit for him to learn there is no other way for him but this The feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and a good understanding have all they that do thereafter And so said David of himself I have more understanding then my Teachers because I keep thy Commandements And this is the only way which Christ hath taught us if you ask What is truth you must not doe as Pilate did ask the Question and then go away from him that only can give you an answer for as God
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
is the author of Truth so he is the teacher of it and the way to learn it is this of my Text For so saith our blessed Lord If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or no. My Text is simple as Truth it self but greatly Comprehensive and contains a truth that alone will enable you to understand all Mysteries and to expound all Prophecies and to interpret all Scriptures and to search into all Secrets all I mean which concern our happinesse and our duty and it being an affirmative hypotheticall is plainly to be resolved into this Proposition The way to judge of Religion is by doing of our duty and Theology is rather a Divine life then a Divine knowledge In Heaven indeed we shall first see and then love but here on Earth we must first love and love will open our eyes as well as our hearts and we shall then see and perceive and understand In the handling of which Proposition I shall first represent to you that the certain causes of our Errors are nothing but direct sins nothing makes us Fools and Ignorants but living vicious lives and then I shall proceed to the direct demonstration of the Article in question that Holinesse is the only way of truth and understanding 1. No man understands the Word of God as it ought to be understood unlesse he layes aside all affections to Sin of which because we have taken very little care the product hath been that we have had very little wisdom and very little knowledge in the wayes of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle Wickedness does corrupt a mans reasoning it gives him false principles and evil measures of things the sweet Wine that Ulysses gave to the Cyclops put his eye out and a man that hath contracted evil affections and made a League with sin sees only by those measures A Covetous man understands nothing to be good that is not profitable and a Voluptuous man likes your reasoning well enough if you discourse of Bonum jucundum the pleasures of the sense the ravishments of lust the noises and inadvertencies the mirth and songs of merry Company But if you talk to him of the melancholy Lectures of the Cross the content of Resignation the peace of Meeknesse and the Joyes of the holy Ghost and of rest in God after your long discourse and his great silence he cryes out What 's the matter He knows not what you meane Either you must fit his humour or change your discourse I remember that Arianus tells of a Gentleman that was banished from Rome and in his sorrow visited the Philosopher and he heard him talk wisely and believed him and promised him to leave all the thoughts of Rome and splendours of the Court and retire to the course of a severe Philosophy but before the good mans Lectures were done there came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 letters from Caesar to recall him home to give him pardon and promise him great Imployment He presently grew weary of the good mans Sermon and wished he would make an end thought his discourse was dull and flat for his head and heart were full of another storie and new principles and by these measures he could heare only and he could understand Every man understands by his Affections more then by his Reason and when the Wolfe in the Fable went to School to learn to spell whatever letters were told him he could never make any thing of them but Agnus he thought of nothing but his belly and if a man be very hungry you must give him meate before you give him counsell A mans mind must be like your proposition before it can be entertained for whatever you put into a man it will smell of the Vessell it is a mans mind that gives the emphasis and makes your argument to prevail And upon this account it is that there are so many false Doctrines in the only Article of Repentance Men know they must repent but the definition of Repentance they take from the convenience of their own affaires what they will not part with that is not necessary to be parted with and they will repent but not restore they will say nollem factum they wish they had never done it but since it is done you must give them leave to rejoyce in their purchase they will ask forgivenesse of God but they sooner forgive themselves and suppose that God is of their mind If you tye them to hard termes your Doctrine is not to be understood or it is but one Doctors opinion and therefore they will fairly take their leave and get them another Teacher What makes these evil these dangerous and desperate Doctrines not the obscurity of the thing but the cloud upon the heart for say you what you will He that hears must be the expounder and we can never suppose but a man will give sentence in behalf of what he passionately loves And so it comes to pass that as Rabbi Moses observ'd that God for the greatest Sin imposed the least Oblation as a she-Goat for the sin of Idolatry for a woman accused of Adultery a Barly-cake so do most men they think to expiate the worst of their sins with a trifling with a pretended little insignificant repentance God indeed did so that the cheapnesse of the oblation might teach them to hope for pardon not from the Ceremony but from a severe internal repentance But men take any argument to lessen their repentance that they may not lessen their pleasures or their estates and that Repentance may be nothing but a word and Mortification signifie nothing against their pleasures but be a term of Art only fitted for the Schools or for the Pulpit but nothing relative to practice or the extermination of their sin So that it is no wonder we understand so little of Religion it is because we are in love with that which destroyes it and as a man does not care to hear what does not please him so neither does he believe it he cannot he will not understand it And the same is the Case in the matter of Pride the Church hath extremely suffer'd by it in many ages Arius missed a Bishoprick and therefore turned Heretick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the story he disturb'd and shaked th◠Church for he did not understand this Truth That the peace of the Church was better then the satisfaction of his person or the promoting his foolish Opinion And do not we see and feel that at this very day the Pride of men makes it seem impossible for many persons to obey their Superiors and they do not see what they can read every day that it is a sin to speak evill of Dignities A man would think it a very easie thing to understand the 13. Chapter to the Romans Whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God and yet we know a generation of men to whom these words were so obscure that
righteous man a new vital principle the Spirit of Grace is the spirit of Wisdome and teaches us by secret inspirations by proper arguments by actuall perswasions by personall applications by effects and energies and as the soul of a man is the cause of all his vitall operations so is the Spirit of God the life of that life and the cause of all actions and productions Spirituall And the consequence of this is what St. Iohn tells us of Ye have received the Unction from above and that anoynting teacheth you all things All things of some one kind that is certainly all things that pertain to life and Godlinesse all that by which a man is wise and happy We see this by common experience Unlesse the soul have a new life put into it unlesse there be a vital principle within unlesse the spirit of life be the Informer of the spirit of the man the Word of God will be as dead in the operation as the body in its powers and possibilities Sol Homo generant hominem saith our Philosophy A Man alone does not beget a man but a Man and the Sun for without the influence of the Celestiall bodyes all natural actions are ineffective and so it is in the operations of the Soul Which principle divers Fanatics both amongst us and in the Church of Rome misunderstanding look for new Revelations and expect to be conducted by ecstasy and will not pray but in a transfiguration and live upon raptures and extravagant expectations and separate themselves from the conversation of men by affectations by new measures and singularities and destroy order and despise Government and live upon illiterate phantasmes and ignorant discourses These men do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they bely the holy Ghost For the Spirit of God makes men wise it is an evil Spirit that makes them Fools The Spirit of God makes us Wise unto Salvation it does not spend its holy influences in disguises and convulsions of the understanding Gods spirit does not destroy Reason but heightens it he never disorders the beauties of Government but is a God of Order it is the spirit of Humility and teaches no Pride he is to be found in Churches and Pulpits upon Altars and in the Doctors Chaires not in Conventicles and mutinous corners of a house he goes in company with his own Ordinances and makes progressions by the measures of life his infusions are just as our acquisitions and his Graces pursue the methods of nature that which was imperfect he leads on to perfection and that which was weake he makes strong he opens the heart not to receive murmurs or to attend to secret whispers but to hear the Word of God and then he opens the heart and creates a new one and without this new creation this new principle of life we may heare the Word of God but we can never understand it we heare the sound but are never the better unlesse there be in our hearts a secret conviction by the spirit of God the Gospel it self is a dead Letter and worketh not in us the light and righteousness of God Do not we see this by a daily experience Even those things which a good man and an evil man know they do not know them both alike A wicked man does know that good is lovely and sin is of an evill and destructive nature and when he is reproved he is convinced and when he is observed he is ashamed and when he hath done he is unsatisfied and when he pursues his sin he does it in the dark Tell him he shall dye and he sighs deeply but he knows it as well as you proceed and say that after death comes Judgement and the poor man believes and trembles He knows that God is angry with him and if you tell him that for ought he knows he may be in Hell to morrow he knows that it is an intolerable truth but it it also undeniable And yet after all this he runs to commit his sin with as certain an event and resolution as if he knew no argument against it These notices of things terrible and true passe through his understanding as an Eagle through the Air as long as her flight lasted the Air was shaken but there remains no path behind her Now since at the same time we see other persons not so learned it may be not so much versed in Scriptures yet they say a thing is good and lay hold of it they believe glorious things of Heaven and they live accordingly as men that believe themselves halfe a word is enough to make them understand a nod is a sufficient reproof the Crowing of a Cock the singing of a Lark the dawning of the day and the washing their hands are to them competent memorialls of Religion and warnings of their duty What is the reason of this difference They both read the Scriptures they read and heare the same Sermons they have capable understandings they both believe what they heare and what they read and yet the event is vastly different The reason is that which I am now speaking of the one understands by one Principle the other by another the one understands by Nature and the other by Grace the one by humane Learning and the other by Divine the one reads the Scriptures without and the other within the one understands as a son of man the other as a son of God the one perceives by the proportions of the World and the other by the measures of the Spirit the one understands by Reason and the other by Love and therefore he does not only understand the Sermons of the Spirit and perceives their meaning but he pierces deeper and knows the meaning of that meaning that is the secret of the Spirit that which is spiritually discerned that which gives life to the Proposition and activity to the Soul And the reason is because he hath a Divine principle within him and a new understanding that is plainly he hath Love and that 's more then Knowledge as was rarely well observed by St. Paul Knowledge puffethup but Charity edifieth that is Charity makes the best Scholars No Sermons can edify you no Scriptures can build you up a holy building to God unlesse the love of God be in your hearts and purifie your souls from all filthinesse of the Flesh and spirit But so it is in the regions of Starrs where a vast body of fire is so divided by excentric motions that it looks as if Nature had parted them into Orbes and round shells of plain and purest materialls but where the cause is simple and the matter without variety the motions must be uniforme and in Heaven we should either espy no motion or no variety But God who designed the Heavens to be the causes of all changes and motions here below hath placed his Angels in their houses of light and given to every one of his appointed officers a portion of the fiery matter to circumagitate and
he that is truly Reform'd himself He knows what pleases God and can best tell by what instruments he is reconciled The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom and the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable saith Solomon He cannot be cousen'd by names of things and feels that Reformation to be Imposture that is Sacrilegious himself is humble and obedient and therefore knows that is not Truth that perswades to Schisme and Disobedience and most of the Questions of Christendom are such which either are good for nothing and therefore to be layd aside or if they be complicated with action and are ministeries of practice no man can judge them so well as the spirituall man That which best pleases God that which does good to our Neighbour that which teaches sobriety that which combines with Government that which speaks honour of God and does him honour that only is Truth Holinesse therefore is a proper and naturall instrument of Divine knowledge and must needs be the best way of instruction in the Questions of Christendom because in the most of them a Duty is complicated with the Proposition No man that intends to live holily can ever suffer any pretences of Religion to be made to teach him to fight against his King And when the men of Geneva turned their Bishop out of doors they might easily have considered that the same person was their Prince too and that must needs be a strange Religion that rose up against Moses and Aaron at the same time but that hath been the method ever since There was no Church till then was ever Governed without an Apostle or a Bishop and since then they who go from their Bishop have said very often to their King too Nolumus hunc regnare and when we see men pretending Religion and yet refuse to own the Kings Supremacy they may upon the stock of holinesse easily reprove their own folly by considering that such recusancy does introduce into our Churches the very worst the most intolerable parts of Popery For perfect submission to Kings is the glory of the Protestant cause and really the reproveable Doctrines of the Church of Rome are by nothing so much confuted as that they destroy good life by consequent and evident deduction as by an Induction of particulars were easie to make apparent if this were the proper season for it 2. Holinesse is not only an advantage to the learning all wisdom and holinesse but for the discerning that which is wise and holy from what is trifling and uselesse and contentious and to one of these heads all Questions will return and therefore in all from Holinesse we have the best Instructions And this brings me to the next Particle of the generall Consideration For that which we are taught by the holy Spirit of God this new nature this vital principle within us it is that which is worth our learning not vaine and empty idle and insignificant notions in which when you have laboured till your eyes are fixed in their Orbes and your flesh unfixed from its bones you are no better and no wiser If the Spirit of God be your Teacher he will teach you such truths as will make you know and love God and become like to him and enjoy him for ever by passing from similitude to union and eternal fruition But what are you the better if any man should pretend to teach you whether every Angel makes a species and what is the individuation of the Soul in the state of separation what are you the wiser if you should study and find out what place Adam should for ever have lived in if he had not fallen and what is any man the more learned if he heares the disputes whether Adam should have multiplied Children in the state of Innocence and what would have been the event of things if one Child had been born before his Fathers sin Too many Scholars have lived upon Air and empty notions for many ages past and troubled themselves with tying and untying Knots like Hypochondriacs in a fit of Melancholy thinking of nothing and troubling themselves with nothing and falling out about nothings and being very wise and very learned in things that are not and work not and were never planted in Paradise by the finger of God Mens notions are too often like the Mules begotten by aequivocall and unnaturall Generations but they make no species they are begotten but they can beget nothing they are the effects of long study but they can do no good when they are produced they are not that which Solomon calls viam intelligentiae the way of understanding If the Spirit of God be our Teacher we shall learn to avoid evil and to do good to be wise and to be holy to be profitable and carefull and they that walk in this way shall find more peace in their Consciences more skill in the Scriptures more satisfaction in their doubts then can be obtain'd by all the polemical and impertinent disputations of the world And if the holy spirit can teach us how vain a thing it is to do foolish things he also will teach us how vain a thing it is to trouble the world with foolish Questions to disturb the Church for interest or pride to resist Government in things indifferent to spend the peoples zeale in things unprofitable to make Religion to consist in outsides and opposition to circumstances and trifling regards No no the Man that is wise he that is conducted by the Spirit of God knows better in what Christs Kingdom does consist then to throw away his time and interest and peace and safety for what for Religion no for the body of Religion not so much for the garment of the body of Religion no not for so much but for the Fringes of the garment of the Body of Religion for such and no better are the disputes that trouble our discontented Brethren they are things or rather Circumstances and manners of things in which the Soul and spirit is not at all concerned 3. Holinesse of life is the best way of finding out truth and understanding not only as a Naturall medium nor only as a prudent medium but as a means by way of Divine blessing He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Here we have a promise for it and upon that we may rely The old man that confuted the Arian Priest by a plain recitall of his Creed found a mighty power of God effecting his own Work by a strange manner and by a very plain instrument it wrought a divine blessing just as Sacraments use to doe and this Lightning sometimes comes in a strange manner as a peculiar blessing to good men For God kept the secrets of his Kingdom from the wise Heathens and the learned Jewes revealing them to Babes not because they