and as proud self-seeking men that will approve of none but those that flatter them and are of their way Some such there may be But sure all are not such Why do you not desire the Judgment of the wisest most impartial men but take up with the applause of unlearned persons that are of your own mind and way and magnify you for humouring them So you shall hear Empyricks and She-Physicians vilify Doctors of Physick as men that have less knowledge than they and are so Proud and Covetous and Dishonest that there is no trusting them When Pretended Knowledge must have so base a Cloak it is the greater sin 6. And it is the heinouser sin when they venture to do heinous mischief by it As a Papist a Quaker or a Separatist will in his confidence be a perverter of others and a Condemner of the Just and a defamer of those that are against him and a troubler of the Church and World. He that in his self-conceitedness dare resist the wisest and his Teachers and Rulers and set Countries on Fire is wickedly presumptuous So in the practice of Physick when people will be self-conceited when the Lives of others lie upon it and a silly Fellow or Woman will venture to purge to let blood to give this or that who know neither the disease nor proper cure 7. It is therefore a heinous sin in Rulers who must judge for the life and death of others or for the peace or misery of thousands about them I mean Pastors and Commanders in Armies and Navies and other Governours on whom the publick welfare of the Church or Army or Navy or Countrey doth depend O how wise should that person be whose errours may cost thousands so dear as their destruction Or if their understandings be not extraordinary how cautelous should they be in judging upon hearing the wisest and hearing dissenters and not only Flatterers or Consenters and hearing men of several minds and hearing all Witnesses and Evidence and hearing every man speak for himself and after all considering throughly of it Specially of Laws and Wars and Impositions in Religion where thousands of Conscience say what you can will expect Satisfaction When a Woman called to Antigonus to hear her cause and do her Justice he told her that he could not have leisure She answered you should not have while to be King then Whereupon he heard her and did her right Had it been to an inferior Judge she had spoken reason 8. Lastly Pretended Certainty is the greater sin when it is falsly fathered on God. But the Pope and Council dare pretend that God hath promised them Infallibility and God hath certified them that the consecrated Bread is no Bread and that our senses are all deceived and God hath made the Pope the universal Ruler of the World or Church and made him and his Council the only Judges by which all men must know what is the word of God. So when Fanaticks will pretend that by Revelation Visions or Inspirations of the Spirit God hath assured them that this or that is the meaning of a Text which they understand not or the truth in such or such a controversy Alas among too many well meaning persons God is pretended for a multitude of sinful errors And they that preach false Doctrine will do it as the old Prophet spake to the young as from the Lord And they that rail at godliness and they that censure backbite cast out or persecute their Brethren will do it as Rabshakeh Hath not God sent me c. Men will not make any snares for the Church or their Brethrens Consciences but in the name of God They will not divide the Church nor cast out Infants nor refuse Communion with their Brethren but in the name of God. One man saith God forbiddeth him all Book Prayers or all Imposed Forms of Prayer And another saith God forbiddeth him all but such And all bely God and add this heinous abuse of his holy word and name unto their sin Chap. 15. Some special aggravations more of this sin in Students and Pastors which should deter them from pretended Knowledge or prefidence TO such I will suppose that to name the Evils may suffice on my part without sharp amplifications Though I have spoken to you first in what is said I will briefly add 1. That this sin will make you slothful students Few study hard who are quickly confident of their first conceptions 2. While you do study it keepeth out Knowledge You are too full of your selves to receive easily from others 3. It is the Common Parent of Errour and Heresy Ignorance is the Mother and Pride the Father of them all And Prefidence and Pretended Knowledge is but Proud Ignorance in another name 4. What a life of precious time will you waste in following the erroneous thoughts of your bewildred minds 5. As food altereth the temperament of the body which it nourisheth so the very temperament of your minds and wills and affections will become vain and frothy and shadowy or malignant and perverse according to the quality of your Errour 6. It is the common Parent of Superstition It defileth God's Worship with Humane Inventions with duties and sins of our own making All such mens dreams will seem to them to be the Laws of God. 7. It will entail a corrupt Education of Youth upon us and consequently a corrupt degenerate kind of Learning and so a degenerate Ministry on the Churches When Youths are possessed with abundance of Uncertainties under the name of Learning and Religion it will grow the custom to Teach and Talk and Live accordingly Do I say It will do If the Schoolmens Errour in this deserve but half as much as Faber Valla Hutten Erasmus charge upon them you should hear and take warning Not to avoid the most accurate knowledge by the hardest studies but to avoid pretending that you know what you do not 8. And you will make vain strife and contention about vanity your very trade and business when you come abroad in the world They that make Uncertainties or Errours to be their studies and honourable Learning must keep up the honour of it by Living as they Learnt and talking vainly for the vanities of their minds 9. And you are like hereby to become the chiefest Instruments of Satan to trouble the Church either with Heresies Schisms or Persecutions 10. And truly it should much turn your hearts against it to know that it is a continual habit or exercise of Pride And Pride the Devil's sin is one of the most heinous and odious to God. If you hate any sin you should hate Pride And it is one of the worst sorts of Pride too As Nature hath three Principles active Power Intellect and Will and Man three Excellencies Greatness Wisdom and Goodness so Pride hath these three Great Objects Men are proud that they are Greater or Wiser or Better than others That is They think themselves Greater or Wiser
A TREATISE OF Knowledge and Love COMPARED In two Parts I. Of Falsly Pretended Knowledge II. Of True Saving Knowledge and Love. I. Against Hasty Judging and False Conceits of Knowledge and for necessary Suspension II. The Excellency of Divine Love and the Happiness of being Known and Loved of God. Written as greatly needful to the Safety and PEACE of every Christian and of the Church The only certain way to escape false Religions Heresies Sects and Malignant Prejudices Persecutions and Sinful Wars All caused by falsly pretended Knowledge and hasty Judging by Proud Ignorant men who know not their Ignorance By RICHARD BAXTER Who by God's blessing on long and hard Studies hath learned to know that he knoweth but little and to suspend his Judgment of Uncertainties and to take Great Necessary Certain things for the food of his Faith and Comforts and the Measure of his Church-Communion Prov. 14 16. A wise man feareth and departeth from evil But the FOOL RAGETH and is CONFIDENT 2 Cor. 11.3 But I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled EVE by his subtilty so your minds should be CORRVPTED from the SIMPLICITY which is in Christ 1 Cor. 1.25 The foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men v. 20. Hath not God made fâ—oliâ—h the wisdom of this world c. 2.6 We speak wisdom among them that are perfect yet not the wisdom of this world 2 Tim. 2.15 Study to shew thy self approved to God a workman that needed not be ashamed rightly DIVIDING the word of Truth 16. But shun profane and vain oâ—â—lings for they will increase unto more ungodliness August Enchirid. cap. 59. De Corporibus Angelorum Cum ista queruntur a sicut potest quisque conjectat non inutiliter exercentur ingenia si adhibeatur disceptantia moderata absit error opinantium se scire quod nesciunt Quod enim opes est ut hec hujusmodi affirmentur vel negentur vel definiantur cum disâ—rimine quando sine crimine nesciuntur LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1689. TO THE Right Worshipful Sir HENRY ASHHURST AND THE Lady DIANA HIS WIFE SIR YOur Name is not prefixed to this Treatise either as accusing you of the Sin herein detected or as praising you for those Virtues which good Men are more pleased to possess and exercise than to have proclaimed though they be as Light that is hardly hid But it is to vent and exercise that Gratitude which loveth not the concealment of such Friendship and Kindness as you and your Lady Eminently and your Relatives and Hers the Children of the Lord Paget have long obliged me by And it is to Posterity that I record your Kindness more than for this Age to which it hath publickly notified it self during my publick Accusations Reproaches Sentences Imprisonments and before and since Who knoweth you that knoweth not hereof And it is to renew the record of that Love and Honour which I owed to your deceased Father formerly pthough too slenderly recorded to be the Heir and Imitater of whose Faith Piety Charity Patience Humility Meekness Impartiality Sincerity and Perseverance is as great an Honour and Blessing as I can wish you next to the conformity to our highest pattern And though he was averse to worldly Pomp and Grandeur and desired that his Children should not affect it yet God that will honour those that honour him hath advanced his Children I believe partly for his sake But I intreat you all and some other of my Friends whom God hath raised as a Blessing to their Pious and Charitable Parents and themselves to watch carefully lest the deceitful World and Flesh do turn such Blessings into Golden Fetters and to be sure to use them as they would find at last on their account And as you are a Member of the present House of Commons I think the Subject of this Treatise is not unnecessary to your consideration and daily care That when proof and notorious and sad Experience telleth us what distractions have befaln Church and State by Mens self-conceited erroneous rushing upon sin and falshood as if it were Certainly Good and True and how little Posterity feareth and avoideth this confounding Vice though History tell us that it hath been the Deluge that in all Ages hath drowned the peace and welfare of the World you may be wary and try before you venture in doubtful cases especially where the Sacred and Civil Interest of this and many other Lands doth probably lye on the determination Do you think all that ventured upon the Actions and Changes that have tost up and down both Churches and Kingdoms by Divisions Persecutions and Wars had not done better to suspend their Judgments till they could have more certainly determined Who should proceed more cautelously than Bishops And where rather than in Councils And in what rather than about Faith and Publick Government and Order And had Bishops and Councils torn the Church and Empires and Kingdoms as they have done by aspiring after Superiority and by contentious Writings and condemning each other and by contradictory and erroneous and persecuting Canons or by raising Wars and Deposing Princes ever since 400 or 500 or 600 years after Christ if not sooner if they had known their ignorance and suspended in such dangerous cases till they were sure I know you are none of them who dare pretend to a Certain Knowledge that all those Oaths Declarations Covenants Practices imposed by Laws and Canons on Ministers and People in this Land in the Act of Uniformity the Corporation Act the Vestry Act the Militia Act the five Mile Act of Banishment c. are so Good and Lawful as will justifie the Execution of them and the silencing ejecting ruining and judging to lye from six Months to six in the common Jails till they die 2000 as faithful Ministers of Christ as any Nation hath under Heaven unless they forbear to Preach the Gospel to which they are vowed or venture their Souls on that which they fear to be sins so great as they are loth to name When Christ will sentence them to Everlasting punishment who did not visit feed clothe him in the least of them whom he calls his Brethren Before Men silence conditionally the whole Ministry of such a Kingdom and actually 2000 such while the wounding dividing consequents may be so easily foreseen and before men deliberately and resolutely continue and keep up such Battering Engines on pretence of Uniformity and Obedience to Men and before they venture to own this to that Lord who hath made other terms of Church Unity and Peace it nearly concerneth them to think and think on it a thousand times A suspended judgment is here safer than prefidence and confident rage And also they that desire an Abolition of Episcopacy should a thousand times bethink them first what True and Primitive Episcopacy is
they had never so torn the Churches by their Animosities nor resisted and wearied peaceable Melanchthon nor frustrated so many Conventions and Treaties for Concord as they have done Bucer had not been so censured agreement had not been made so impossible All Dury's Travels had not been so uneffectual Schlusserburgius had not found so many Heresies to fill up his Catalogue with nor Calovius so much matter for his virulent Pen nor so many equalled Calvinism with Turcism nor had Calixtus had such scornful Satyrs written against him nor the great Peace-makers Lud. Crocius Bergii Martinius Camero Amyraldus Testardus Capellus Placaeus Davenant Ward Hall and now Le Blank had so little acceptance and success Had it not been for this spreading Plague the over-valuing of our own understandings and the accounting our crude conceits for certainties all these Church Wars had been prevented or soon ended All those excellent endeavours for peace had been more successful and we had all been One. Had it not been for this neither Arminians nor Antiarminians had ever so bitterly contended nor so sharply censured one another nor written so many confident condemning Volumes against each other which in wise mens Eyes do more condemn the authors and SELF-CONCEIT or PRETENDED KNOWLEDGE should have been the title of them all How far I am able to prove that almost all their bitter and zealous contentions are about Uncertainties and Words the Reader may perceive in my Preface to the Grotian Religion and if God will I shall fuller manifest to the World. The Synod of Dort had not had so great a work of it nor the Breme and Brittain Divines so difficult a task to bring and hold them to that moderation of expressions which very laudably they have done one of the noblest successful attempts for peace though little noted which these ages have made In a word almost all the contentions of Divines the sects and factions the unreconciled fewds the differences in religion which have been the Harvest of the Devil and his Emissaries in the World have come from Pretended Knowledge and taking Uncertainties for Certain Truths I will not meddle with the particular Impositions of Princes and Prelates not so much as with the German Interim Nor the Oaths which in some place they take to their Synodical Decrees much less will I meddle at all with any Impositions Oaths Subscriptions Declarations or usages of the Kingdom where I live As the Law forbiddeth me to contradict them so I do not at all here examine or touch them but wholly pass them by which I tell the Reader once for all that he may know how to interpret all that I say Nor is it the error of Rulers that I primarily detect but of humane corrupted Nature and all sorts of men Though where such an Errour prevaileth alas it is of far sadder consequence in a Publick person a Magistrate or a Pastor that presumeth to the hurt of Publick Societies than of a private man who erreth almost to himself alone I profess to thee Reader that next to God's so much deserting so Great a part of this world there is nothing under the Sun of all the affairs of mankind that hath so taken up my thoughts with mixtures of indignation wonder pity and sollicitude for a cure as this one vice A PROUD or UNHUMBLED UNDERSTANDING by which men live in PRETENDED KNOWLEDGE and FAITH to the deceit of themselves and others the bitter censuring and persecuting of Dissenters yea of their Modest Suspending Brethren tear Churches and Kingdoms and will give no Peace nor Hopes of Peace to themselves their Neighbours or the World Lord Is there no Remedy no Hope from Thee though there be none from Man 1. Among Divines themselves that should not only have Knowledge enough to know their own Ignorance but to Guide the People of God into the ways of Truth and Love and Peace O how lamentably doth this vice prevail To avoid all offence I will not here at all touch on the case of any that are supposed to have a hand in any of the sufferings of me and others of my mind or of any that in Points of Conformity differ from me Remember that I meddle not with them at all But even those that do no way differ among themselves as Sect and Sect or at least that all pretend to Principles of Forbearance Gentleness and Peace yet are wofully sick of this disease And yet that I may wrong none I will premise this publick Declaration to the World that in the Countrey where I lived God in great mercy cast my lot among a company of so humble peaceable faithful Ministers and People as free from this Vice as any that ever I knew in the world who as they kept up full Concord among themselves without the least disagreement that I remember and kept out Sects and Heresies from the People so their converse was the joy of my life and the remembrance of it will be sweet to me while I live and especially the great success of our labours and the quiet and concord of our several Flocks which was promoted by the Pastors humility and concord Though we kept up constant Disputations none of them ever turned to spleen or displeasure or discord among us And I add in thankfulness to God that I am now acquainted with many Ministers in and about London of greatest note and labour and patience and Success who are of the same Spirit Humble and Peaceable and no confident troublers of the Churches with their Censoriousness and high esteem of their own opinions Who trade only in the simple Truths of Christianity and love a Christian as a Christian and joyn not with Back-biters nor factious self-conceited men but study only to win Souls to Christ and to live according to the Doctrine which they preach And both the former and these have these ten years since they were ejected continued their humility and peaceableness fearing God and honouring the King. And I further add that those Private Christians with whom I most converse are many of them of the same Strain suspecting their own understandings and speaking evil of no man so forwardly as of themselves So that in these Ministers and people of my most intimate acquaintance experience convinceth me that this grand disease of corrupted nature is cureable and that God hath a people in the world that have learnt of Christ to be meek and lowly who have the wisdom from above which is first pure and then peaceable gentle easy to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits and the fruit of mercy is sown in peace of these peace-makers I see in them a true Conformity to Christ and a grand difference between them and the furious fiery pretenders to more wisdom And the two sorts of Wisemen and Wisdom excellently described by James Chap. 3. I have seen in two sorts of Religious people among us most lively exemplified before our Eyes God hath
ultimate end and perfection of man and all knowledge is to be estimated but as it tendeth to this This being the plain Paraphrase of the Text I shall stay no longer on it but thence deduce and handle these two Observations Doct. I. Falsly pretended knowledge is oft pernicious to the Possessor and injurious to the Church And over-valuing ones own Opinions and Notions is a certain mark of dangerous Ignorance II. A Man is so far truly wise as he loveth God and consequently is approved or loved by him and as he loveth others to their Edification I. The first is but the same that Solomon thus expresseth Prov. 26.12 Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool than of him And Paul elsewhere Rom. 12.16 Be not wise in your own conceits And Rom. 11.25 and Prov. 26.5 16. For it is certain that we are all here in great darkness and it 's but little that the wisest know And therefore he that thinks he knoweth much is ignorant both of the things which he thinks he knoweth and ignorant of his ignorance Therefore 1 Cor. 3.18 Let no man deceive himself If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this World let him become a Fool that he may be wise To be wise in this World is the same with that in the words following The wisdom of this World is foolishness with God And 1 Cor. 1.19 20 21 22. It is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise c. Where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this World Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this World For after that in the wisdom of God the World by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe For the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom c. So Chap. 2.4 5 6 7 8. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words or probable discourses of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect yet not the wisdom of this World nor of the Princes of this World that come to nought But we speak that wisdom of God in a Mystery even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the World unto our glory even Christ the wisdom of God chap. 1.24 which none of the Princes of this World knew In all this note 1. That there is a wisdom which Paul placeth Christianity it self in 2. That this is to know God in Christ objectively and to be taught of God by Christ and his Spirit efficiently 3. That there is a Wisdom which Paul comparatively vilifieth 4. This is called the Wisdom of this world or age 5. That most plainly he meaneth by it that which then was called Learning and Philosophy which the Greeks did value and by which they judged of the Gospel which comprehended the methods of all the Sects Epicureans Academicks Peripateticks and Stoicks but not their true Morals but their Physicks and Logick and Metaphysicks which Laertius and others tell us how variously they held 6. That Paul doth not absolutely prohibit such studies nor yet despise any true knowledge 7. But he vilifieth this Philosophy on these accounts 1. Because it was the exercise of a poor low insufficient Light They did but Grope after God in the dark as Acts 17.27 2. Because it was mostly taken up with inferiour things of small concernment comparatively As things corporeal are good in themselves and when sanctified and made subservient to things spiritual so the knowledge of Physicks is to be esteemed But as things corporeal yet are objectively the snare and ruine of those that perish and therefore the world to be renounced and crucified as it is our temptation an Enemy or Competitor with Christ just so it must be with Natural Philosophy 3. Because it was greatly overvalued by the World as if it had been the only Wisdom when indeed it is of it self but an indifferent thing or fit but to make a by-recreation of till it be made to serve to higher ends even as Riches Honour and Pleasure are overvalued by worldlings as if they were the only felicity when in themselves they are but more indifferent things and prove beneficial or hurtful as they are used Therefore Paul was to take down the pernicious esteem of this kind of Philosophy as Preachers now must take down mens esteem of worldly things however they are the works and gifts of God. And as Christ would by his actual poverty and sufferings and not by words only take down the esteem of worldly wealth and pride so Paul by neglecting and forbearing the use of Artificial Logick Physicks and Metaphysicks would depress their rate 4. Because that there was abundance of falshood mixt with the truth which the Philosophers held as their multitude of different Sects fully proves 5. Because the Artificial Organical part was made so operous as that it drowned Real Learning instead of promoting it and became but like a game at Chess a devise rather to exercise vain proud wits by than to find out useful truth As to this day when Logick and Metaphysicks seem much cultivated and reformed yet the variety of methods the number of notions the precariousness of much the uncertainty of some things the falshood of many maketh them as fit for Boys to play with in the Schools and to be a Wood into which a Sophister may run to hide his Errours as to be a means of detecting them And therefore a knavish Cheater will oft bind you strictest to the pedantick part of the Rules of Disputation that when he cannot defend his Matter he may quarrel with your Form and Artifice and lose time by questioning you about Mood and Figure 6. Because by these operous diversions the minds of men were so forestalled or taken up as that they had not leisure to study great and necessary saving truth And if men must be untaught in the Doctrines of Life till they had first Learnt their Logick Physicks and Metaphysicks how few would have been saved when at this day so many come from our Universities after several years study raw smatterers in these and half-witted Scholars whose Learning is fitter to trouble than to edifie And if Scripture had been written in the terms and method of Aristotle how few would have been the better for them But great Good must be common And as Paul on all these accounts sets light by this Philosophy so he calls it the wisdom of this world 1. Because this world was its chief object 2. And the creatures were its only Light. 3. And it led but few to any higher than worldly ends 4. And it was that which worldly men that were strangers to heavenly Light and Holiness did then most magnify and use Yet as Christ when
this Doctrine I. What wisdom and what esteem of our wisdom is not here condemned Ans 1. Not any real useful knowledg at all whilst every thing keepeth its proper place and due esteem as is said 2. That which of it self primarily is of so small use as that it falleth under the contempt of the Apostles yet by accident through the subtilty of Satan and the viciousness of the World may become to some men in some measure necessary And here cometh in the calamity of Divines Of how little use is it to me in it self to know what is written in many a hundred Books which yet by accident it much concerneth me to know And if God restrain him not the Devil hath us here at so great an advantage that he can make our work almost endless and hath almost done it already yea can at any time divert us from greatest Truth and Works by making another at that time more necessary If he raise up Socinians our task is increased we must read their Books that we may be able to confute them so must we when he raiseth up Libertines Familists Seekers Quakers and such other Sects If he stir up controversies in the Church about Government Worship Ceremonies Circumstances Words Methods c we must read so much as to understand all that we may defend the truth against them If Papists will lay the stress of all their controversies on Church History and the words of Ancients we must read and understand all or they will triumph If School-men will build their Theology on Aristotle all men have not the wit with the Iberian Legate at the Florentine Council in Sagyrophilus to cry against the Preacher What have we to do with Aristotle But if we cannot deal with them at their own weapons they will triumph If Cavillers will dispute only in mood and figure we must be able there to over-top them or they will insult If the Plica Pox Scurvey or other new diseases do arise the Physician must know them all if he will cure them And hence it is that we say that a Lawyer must know the Law and a Physician must know Physicks and Medicine c. But a Divine should know all things that are to be known because the diseased world hath turned pretended knowledg into the great malady which must be cured but is the thing it self of any great worth Is it any great honour to know the vanity of Philosophical Pedantry And to be able to overdo such gamesters any more than to beat one at a game at Chess or for a Physician to know the Pox or Leprosie 3. Yet indeed as all things are sanctified to the holy and pure to the pure a wise man may and must make great use of common inferiour kinds of knowledge especially the true Grammatical sense of Scripture words the true precepts of Logick the certain parts of real Physicks and Pneumatology For God is seen in his Works as in a Glass and there to search after him and behold him is a noble pleasant Work and Knowledg And I would that no Israelite may have need to go down to the Philistines for instruments of this sort 4. It is not forbidden to any man to know that measure of wisdom which he truly hath God bindeth us not to err nor to call Light Darkness or Truth Error or to belie our selves or deny his gifts 1. It is desireable for a man absolutely to know as much as he can preferring still the greatest things and to know that he knoweth them and not to be sceptical and doubt of all 2. It is a duty for a converted sinner comparatively to know that he is wiser than he was in his sinful state and to give God thanks for it 3. It is his duty who groweth in wisdom and receiveth new accessions of Light to know that he so groweth and to give God thanks and to welcome each useful truth with joy 4. It is the duty of a good and wise man comparatively to know that he is not as foolish as the ungodly nor to think that every wicked man or ignorant person whom he should pity and instruct is already wiser than he every Teacher is not to be so foolish as to think that all his flock are more judicious than himself In a word it is not a true estimate of the thing or of our selves that is forbidden us but a false It is not belying our selves nor ingratitude to God nor a contradiction to know a thing and not to know that I know it nor an ignorance of our own minds which is commanded us under the pretence of humility But it is a Proud conceit that we know what we do not know that is condemned Chap. 3. What pretended knowledge is condemned and what Philosophy and Learning it is that Paul disliked II. MOre distinctly 1. It is condemnable for any man to think himself Absolutely or Highly wise because our knowledg here is so poor and dark and low that compared with our Ignorance it is little we know not what or how many or how great the things are which we do not know but in general we may know that they are incomparably more and greater than what we do know we know now but as Children and Darkly and in a Glass or Riddle 1 Cor. 13.11 12. In the sence that Christ faith none is good but God we may say that none is wise but God. For a man that must know unless he be a very sot that he knoweth nothing perfectly in the World that he knoweth but little of any Worm or Fly or pile of Grass which he seeth or of himself his Soul or Body or any Creature for this man to assume the Title of a Wise man is arrogant unless comparatively understood when he is ignorant of ten thousand fold more than he knoweth and the predominant part denominateth The old enquirers had so much modesty as to arrogate no higher name than Philosophers 2. It is very condemnable for any man to be proud of his understanding while it is so low and poor and dark and hath still so much matter to abase us He knoweth not what a Dungeon poor mortals are in nor what a darkened thing a sinful mind is nor what a deplorable state we are in so far from the Heavenly light no nor what it is to be a man in Flesh who findeth not much more cause of humiliation than of pride in his understanding O how much ado have I to keep up from utter despondency under the consciousness of so great ignorance which no study no means no time doth overcome How long Lord shall this Dungeon be our dwelling And how long shall our foolish Souls be loth to come into the Celestial light 3. It is sinful folly to pretend to know things unrevealed and impossible to be known Deut. 29.29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our Children
have several significations So that when Tutors read the same books to their Schollars and teach them the same notions it is not the same conceptions always that they thus communicate VIII And when all is done Recipitur ad modum recipientis It 's two to one but the Learner receiveth their notions with a conception somewhat different from them all And when he thinks that he hath learnt what was taught him and is of his Teachers mind he is mistaken and hath received another apprehension IX And the narrowness of mans mind and thoughts is such that usually there must go many partial conceptions to one thing or Object really indivisible So that few things or nothing rather in the world is known by us with one conception nor with a simplicity of apprehensions answerable to the simplicity of the things And hereby it cometh to pass that Inadequate conceptions make up a great part of our Learning and knowledge And yet worse our words being narrower than our Thoughts we are fain to multiply words more than conceptions so that we must have ten conceptions perhaps of one thing and twenty words perhaps for those ten conceptions And then we grow to imagine the things to be as various as our conceptions yea and our words And so Learning is become confused error and the great and noble Actions of the Phantastical world are a pitiful confused agitation of Phantasms and whether fortuitous or artificial a congress of Atoms sometimes digladiating and sometimes seeming by amicable embraces to compose some excellent piece of Art. And things seem to us to be multiplyed and ordered as our conceptions of them are And the Scotists may yet write as many more Treatises de formalitatibus before men will understand indeed what a conceptus formalis with them is and whether diverse formalities be diverse realities or only ejusdem conceptus inadequati But thus Learning is become like a poppet play or the raising of the dust X. The Entia Rationis being thus exceeding numerous are already confounded with objective Realities and have compounded our common Systems of Logick Metaphysicks and too much of Physicks So that Students must at first see through false Spectacles and Learn by seducing notions and receive abundance of false conceptions as the way to Wisdom and Shadows and Rubbish must furnish their minds under the name of truth though mixt with many real Verities For young men must have Teachers They cannot begin at the foundation and every one learn of himself as if none had ever learnt before him He is like to make but a slow proficient that maketh no use of the Studies and Experience of any that ever learnt before him And he that will learn of others must receive their notions and words as the means of his information XI And when they grow up to be capable of real wisdom O! what a labour is it to cleanse out this rubbish and to unlearn all the errors that we have learnt so that it is much of the happiest Progress of extraordinary successful Studies to find out our old mistakes and set our conceptions in better order one by one Perhaps in one year we find out and reform some two or three and in another year one or two more and so on Even as when at my removal of my Library my Servant sets up all my books and I must take them half down again to set them in their right places XII And the difficulty of the matter is our great Impediment when we come to study things For 1. Their Matter 2. Their Composure 3. Their Numbers 4. Their Order and Relations 5. And their Action and Operation are much unknown to us XIII 1. The substance of Spirits is so little known as tempteth Sadduces to dream that there are none The notion of a Spirit to some through ignorance is taken to be meerly negative as if it signified no more but not corporeal The notion of Immateriality is lubricous and he that knoweth not the true bounds of the signification of Materia knoweth not what it is to be Immaterial The purest Spirit is known only by many inadequate conceptions One must answer the similitude of Matter in fundamental substantiality Another must be answerable to that of Forms of simple Elements and another answerable to Accidents And though nothing be so notorious of Spirits as their Operations and from the Acts we know the Virtues or Powers yet that these Virtues are not Accidents but the very Essential Form and that they are in all Spirits One in Three and many other things concerning their Essentiality are quite overlookt by the greater part of Philosophers and those few that open it do either with Campanella lose it again in a wood of mistaken ill gathered consequences or with Lullius drown it in a multitude of irregular arbitrary notions or with Commenius give us a little undigested with the mixture of crudities and mistakes or with our Learned Dr. Glisson de vitâ Naturae confound Spirits and Bodies and make those Spirits which are the Vital constitutive principle of Compounds to be but the inadequate conception of Bodies as if they were all simply and formally Vital of themselves and for a Body to be inanimate were a contradiction or impossible And they that treat more nobly of Spirits as Mr. Got and many Platonists do it so immethodically and confusedly as greatly disadvantageth the Learner And yet to treat of Bodies without treating of the Spirits that animate or actuate them is a lame deluding unedifying thing As it is to treat of a Kingdom an Army a School without mentioning a King a Captain or a Schoolmaster or as to describe a Gun without any mention of Gunpowder or shooting Or a Clock or Watch without the Poise or Spring or Motion or a Book or words without the sense and so of a Man without a Soul or Reason or a Brute without any Life or Sense I mean when we speak of Compound Beings and not meerly of Corporeity in the notion as abstracted from all Vital moving principles XIV 2. And what the true notion of Matter or Corporeity it self is it is but darkly and uncertainly known how confidently soever some decantate their moles or quantity divisibility or discerptibility and impenetrability Whether Fire be material and divisible and impenetrable and how far Fire and Spirits herein differ and so Spirits and Bodies and how far sensible must enter the definition of Corpus is not easily known XV. 3. Nor do we well know the Nature of the simple Corporeal Elements whether they agree only in materiality quantity and divisibility and impenetrability and whether they differ only in magnitude shape sight and contexture of parts or by any essentiating Formal Virtues or both or as Mr. Got thought by a differencing proper spirit XVI 4. How little of the Divine Artifice is known in the composition of mixt Bodies And we know of no existent Simples in the world that are not found only
in Compositions All men confess that every Plant every Worm or Fly every sensitive yea every sensible Being is so little known to us as that the unknown part far exceedeth the known XVII 5. And we are not agreed of late of the number of the very Elements themselves much less of Compounds of which while we know so few that which we do know is the more defectively known because as in knowing of Letters and Syllables the knowledge of one thing is needful to the true and useful knowledge of another XVIII But the Order and Relations of things to one another is so wonderfully unsearchable and innumerably various as quite surpasseth all humane understanding Yea though ORDER and Relation constitute all Morality Policy Literature c. so that it is as it were that World which humane Intellects converse in and the business of all humane Wills and Actions yet few men know so much as what ORDER and RELATION is Nay nor whether it be Any thing or nothing And though health and sickness harmony and discord beauty and ugliness virtue and vice consist in it and Heaven and Hell depend upon it and Law and Judgment do make and determine it yet is it not easie to know what it is by an Universal Notion nor whether it be truly to be called Any thing at all We doubt not but ORDER should be a most observable Predicament in the Series of humane Notions or nominanda But yet I doubt not much but that Gassendus who would make tempus and spatium two of his Predicaments doth ascribe to them that Entity which they have not XIX And though undoubtedly Action is a noble Predicament and whatever the Cartesians say requireth more causation than non agere doth yea is it self the causation of the mutations in the World yet men scarce know what to call it Some say it is res others it is but accidens rei and others modus rei some say It is in passo Some say it is in agente Some say it is neither but is agentis Some say immanent acts are Qualities as Scotus c. XX. And which is yet worse the very name Accident Mode and Quality are but general unapt notions not well understood by any that use them nor suited meetly to the severals contained under them And when we call a thing or nothing a Quality Accident or Mode we are little the wiser and know not well what we have said Sure I am that they are exceedingly heterogenea which Aristotle comprizeth in the very predicament of Quality And Gassendus thought all Accidents may be as well called Qualities or Modes XXI And which is yet worse all humane language is so wofully Ambiguous that there is scarce a word in the World that hath not many senses and the learned world never came to agreement about the meaning of their common words so that ambiguity drowneth all in uncertainty and confusion XXII And which is yet worse the certain apprehension of Sense and Reason is commonly by men called Learned reduced to and tryed by these dreaming ambiguous names and universal notions and men are drawn to deny their certain knowledge because they know not by what universal term to call it e. g. I know as far as is useful to me by seeing what Light is but whether it be Substantia Accidens Modus c. or what to call it universally few know And no wonder for their universal notions are their own works or Entia rationis fabricated by the imperfect comparing of things with things by ignorant understandings but the sensibility of objects the sensitive faculty the Intellect are the works of God. I know much better what Light is by seeing it than I know what an Accident or a Quality is So I know by feeling what Heat is I know what Motion or Action is I know what pain and pleasure is I know what love and hatred is I know partly what it is to think to know to will choose and refuse but what is the right universal notion of these what true definition to give of any one of them the Learnedst man doth not well know Insomuch as I dare boldly say that the vulgar ordinarily know all these better without definitions than the most Learned man living can know them by definitions alone And here I will presume to step aside to say as in the Ears of our over-doing Separatists who can take none into Christian Communion that cannot tell you how they were Converted or at least give them a fair account of their understanding all the Articles of the Faith in words that are adapted to the matter I tell you 1. That the knowledge of Words and second Notions and Definitions is one thing and the knowledge of Matters or Things is another 2. And it is the knowledge of the Things and not of the Words that is primarily and absolutely necessary to Salvation 3. And that many an illiterate ill bred person understand things long before they can utter their understandings in any intelligible words 4. And therefore if any man do but these two things 1. By Yea or Nay do signifie to me that he understandeth the Truth when I put the matter of nothing but the Baptismal Covenant into my Questions 2. And do manifest serious willingness accordingly by avoiding evil and using Gods means I dare not I will not refuse that person from the Communion of the Church Though I would do as much as the rigidest censurer to bring such up to greater knowledge XXIII And on the other side men are made to think that they know the things because they know the Names and Definitions And so that they are learned and Wise when they know little the more by all their learning For to be able to talk over all the Critical Books and Lexicons and Grammars all the Logical Notions and Definitions is nothing but Organical Knowledge Like the Shoemaker that hath a Shop full of Lasts and that most of them unmeet for any mans foot but never made a Shoe by any of them And false and confused and idle names and notions fill the learned world with False Confused and Vain Conceptions which Common-Countrey people scape so that it costeth many a man twenty years study to be made more erroneous than he would have been by following an honest trade of life XXIV Nay our very Articles of Faith and Practice which Salvation lyeth on are commonly tryed by these arbitrary Organical notions whole loads of School Volumes are witnesses of this Though the School-men where our Grammarians deride them as Barbarians have often done well in fitting words to things and making the Key meet for the Lock Yet old terms and notions and axioms too often go for current and over-rule disputes when they are not understood nor are proper or univocal What work doth Aristotle make with Actus and Potentia and the School-men after him What abundance of darkness do these two words contain in all
and Kill them that will not do it And what is it that must perswade us to all this Why meerly a Hoc est corpus meum as expounded by the Councils of Laterane and Trent And is not Davids I am a Worm and no Man Psal 22.6 as plain yea and that in a Prophecy of Christ Must we believe therefore that neither David nor Christ was a Man but a Worm Is not I am the Vine and ye are the Branches Joh. 15.1 2. as plain Must Sense be renounced and ordinary Miracles believed for such words as these And doth not Paul call it Bread after consecration three times in the three next verses And is not he as good an expositor of Christs Words as the Council of Trent And when did God work Miracles which were meer objects of belief against sense Miracles were done as sensible things thereby to confirm Faith and that which no sense perceived was not taken for a Miracle To conclude when the Apostle saith that Flesh and Blood cannot enter into the Kingdom of God plainly speaking of them formally as now called and not as they signify Sin and consequently that Christs Body is now in Heaven a Spiritual Body and not formally Flesh and Blood yet must the Bread and Wine be turned into his Flesh and Blood on Earth when he hath none in Heaven And by their Doctrine no Baker nor Vintner is secured but that a Priest may come into his Shop or Celler and turn all the Bread and Wine in it into Christs Body and Blood yea the whole City or Garrison may thus be deprived of their Bread and Wine if the Priest intend it and yet it shall not be so in the Sacrament it self if the Priest intend it not But I have staid too long in this XIV Next to the Act of Cogitation and Volition itself and to the most certain Objects of Sence there is nothing in all the World so Certain that is so Evident to the Intellect as the Being of God He being that to the Mind which the Sun is to the Eye certainliest known though little of him be known and no Creature comprehend him XV. That God is True is part of our knowing him to be perfect and to be God and therefore is most certain XVI That Man is made by God and for God that we owe him all our Love Obedience and Praise that we have all from him and should please him in the use of all with many such like are Notitiae Communes Certain Verities received by Nature some as Principles and some as such evident conclusions as are not to be doubted of XVII That the Scripture is the Word of God is a certain Truth not sensible nor a Natural Principle but an Evident conclusion drawn from that Seal or Testimony of the Spirit Antecedent Concomitant Impressed and Consequent which I have oft opened in other Treatises XVIII That the Scripture is True is a Certain Conclusion drawn from the two last mentioned premises viz. That God is True Verax and that the Scripture is his Word XIX Those Doctrines or sayings which are parts of Scripture evidently perceived so to be by Sense and Intellective perception are known to be True by the same Certainty as the Scripture in general is known to be true XX. To conclude then there are two sorts of Certain Verities in Theology 1. Natural Principles with their certain consequents 2. Scripture in General with all those assertions which are Certainly known to be its parts And all the rest are to be numbred with uncertainties except Prophetical certainty of Inspiration which I pass by Chap. V. Of the several Degrees of Certainty 1. AS Certainty is taken for Truth of Being it admitteth of no Degrees All that is True is equally True. 2. But Certainty of Evidence hath various degrees none doubteth but there are various degrees of Evidence all the doubt is whether any but the highest may be called Certainty And here let the Reader first remember that the question is but de nomine of the name and not the thing And next the Evidence is called Certain because it is Certifying aptitudinally It is apt to certify us 3. And then the question will be devolved to subjective Certainty whether it have various degrees For if it have so then the Evidence must be said to have so because it is denominated respectively from the Apprehensive Certainty And here de re it must be taken as agreed 1. That Certainty is a certain Degree of apprehension 2. That there are various degrees of apprehension 3. That no Man on Earth hath a perfect Intellectual apprehension at least of things Moral and Spiritual For his apprehension may be still increased and those in Heaven have perfecter than we 4. That there are some degrees so low and doubtful as are not fit to be called Certainty 5. That even these lowest degrees with the greatest doubting are yet often True apprehensions and whenever they are True they are Infallible that is not deceived Therefore this Infallibility which is but not to be deceived is indeed one sort of Certainty which is so denominated Relatively from the natural Truth or Certainty of the object But it is not this sort of Certainty which we enquire after 6. Therefore it followeth that this subjective certainty containeth this Infallible Truth of perception and addeth a degree which consisteth in the satisfaction of the mind 7. But if the mind should be never so confident and satisfied of a falshood this deserveth not the name of Certainty because it includeth not Truth For it is a Certain perception of Truth which we speak of and Confident erring is not Certainty of the Truth 8. As therefore the degrees of doubting are variously overcome so there must needs be various degrees of Certainty 9. When doubting is so far overcome as that the mind doth find rest and satisfaction in the Truth it may be called Certainty But when doubting is either prevalent and so troublesome as to leave us wavering it is not called Certainty 10. It is not the forgetting or neglect of a difficulty or doubt nor yet the wills rejecting it which is properly called Certainty This quieteth the mind indeed but not by the way of ascertaining Evidence Therefore ignorant people that stumble upon a truth by chance with confidence are not therefore Certain of it And those that take it upon trust from a Priest or their Parents or good peoples Opinion are not therefore Certain of it Nor they that say as some Papists Faith hath not evidence but is a Voluntary reception of the Churches Testimony and meritorious because it hath not Evidence Therefore though I see no cogent Evidence I will believe because it is my duty Whether this mans Faith may be saving or no I will not now dispute but certainly it is no Certainty of apprehension He is not Certain of what he so believeth This is but to cast away the doubt or difficulty and not at all
By doing thus the Church notoriously declared that they took not all the Scripture to be equally necessary to be understood but that the Govenant of Grace and the Catechism explaining it is the Gospel it self that is the Essence of it and of the Christian Religion and that all the rest of the Scriptures contain but partly the Integrals and partly the Accidents of that Religion He is the wisest man that knoweth Most and Best and every man should know as much of the Scriptures as he can But if you knew all the rest without this the Covenant of Grace and its explication it would not make you Christians or save you But if you know this truly without all the rest it will. The whole Scripture is of great use and benefit to the Church It is like the body of a man which hath its Head and Heart and Stomach c. And hath also Fingers and Toes and flesh yea Nails and Hair. And yet the Brain and Heart it self fare the better for the rest and would not be so well Seated separate from them Though a man may be a man that loseth even a Leg or Arm. So is it here But it is the Covenant that is our Christianity and the duly Baptized are Christians whatever else they do not understand These are the things that all must know and daily live upon The Creed is but the Exposition of the three Articles of the Baptismal Covenant I believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Though the Jews that had been bred up to a preparing knowledge were quickly baptized by the Apostles upon their Conversion Acts 2. Yet no man can imagine that either the Apostles or other Ministers did use to admit the Ignorant Gentiles into the Covenant of God without opening the meaning of it to them or Baptize them as Christians without teaching them what Christianity is Therefore Reason and the whole Churches subsequent Custom assure us that the Apostles used to expound the three great Articles to their Catechumens And thence it is called The Apostles Creed Marcus Bishop of Ephesus told them in the Florentine Council as you may see Sgyropilus that we have none of the Apostles Creed And Vossius de Symbolis besides many others hath many Arguments to prove that this so called was not formally made by the Apostles Bishop Usher hath opened the changes that have been in it Sandford and Parker have largely de Descensu shewed how it came in as an Exposition of the Baptismal Articles Others stifly maintain that the Apostles made it But the case seemeth plain The Apostles used to call the Baptized to the profession of the same Articles which Paul hath in 1. Cor. 15.1 2 3 c. and varied not the matter All this was but more particularly to profess Faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Two or three further Expository Articles are put into the Creed since Otherwise it is the same which the Apostles used not in the very syllables or forms of words but in the same sense and the words indeed being left free but seldom much altered because of the danger of altering the matter Of all the Antientest Writers not one repeateth the Creed in the same words that we have it nor any two of them in the same with one another Irenaeus once Tertullian twice hath it all in various words but the same sense That of Marcellus in Epiphanius cometh nearest ours called the Apostles and is almost it Afterward in Ruffinus and others we have more of it Yet no doubt but the Western Churches at least used it with little variation still The Nicene Creed is called by some Antients the Apostles Creed too And both were so for both are the same in sense and substance For it is not the very words that are truly fathered on the Apostles About 30â— years a go Mr. Ashwel having published a Book for the Necessity and Honour of the Creed I wrote in the Postscript to my Reformed Pastor Ed. 2. a Corrective of some passages in which he seemeth to say too much for it or at least to depress the Scripture too much in comparison of it But long experience now telleth me that I have more need to acquaint men with the Reasons and Necessity of the Creed Seeing I find a great part of ignorant Religious people much to slight the use of it and say It is not Scripture but the work of man Especially taking offence at the harsh translatiâ—n of that Article He descended into Hell. which from the beginning it 's like was not in It is the Kernel of the Scripture and it is that for which the rest of the Scripture is given us even to afford us sufficient help to understand and consent to the Covenant of Grace that our Belief our Desires and our Practice may be conformed principally to these Summaries It is not every Child or Woman that could have gathered the Essential Articles by themselves out of the whole Scripture if it had not been done to their hands Nor that could have rightly methodized the Rule of our desires or gathered the just heads of natural duty if Christ had not done the first in the Lords Prayer and God the second in the Decalogue Obj. But I believe these only because the Matter of the Creed and the words also of the other two are in the Scripture and not on any other Authority Ans If you speak of the Authority of the Author which giveth them their truth it is neither Scripture nor Tradition but God for whose Authority we must believe both Scripture and them But if you speak of the Authority of the Deliverers and the Evidence of the Delivery be it known to you 1. That the Creed Lords Prayer Decalogue and the Baptismal Covenant have been delivered down to the Church from the Apostles by a distinct Tradition besides the Scripture Tradition Even to all the Christians one by one that were Baptized and admitted to the Lords Table and to every particular Church So that there was not a Christian or Church that was not even Constituted by them 2. Be it known to you that the Church was long in possession of them before it had the Scriptures of the New Testament It 's supposed to be about eight years after Christ's Ascension before Matthew wrote the first Book of the New Testament and near the year of our Lord one hundred before the Revelation was written And do you think that there were no Christians or Churches all that while Or that there was no Baptism Or no Profession of the Christian Faith in distinct Articles No Knowledge of the Lords Prayer and Commandements No Gospel daily preached and practised What did the Church-assemblies think you do all those years No doubt those that had Inspiration used it by extraordinary gifts But that was not all Those that had not did preach the Substance of the Christian Religion contained in these forms and did Pray and Praise God
prevailed with him without that false belief of a deceiver When it is once become a Sanctifying Belief then there is no doubt but the Man hath better Evidence than the uncertain word of man He hath the witness in himself And it is not a Glorifying Faith till it be a Sanctifying Faith. But the Question is What soundness of Reason or proof that this is God's Word is necessary to make it a Sanctifying Faith at least as most prevalent and trusted in By this you may know what I judge of the Faith of honest illiterate Papists and of illiterate Protestants for a great number of them who live in Love and Obedience to God. And yet to speak both more concisely and distinctly I. I may believe by Historical Tradition all that matter of Fact which those that saw Christ's and the Apostles Miracles and heard their words did know by sense and those that saw not believed on the credit of the reporters II. And yet I may know by reason through God's help that these Miracles and this Scripture Impress and Efficacy are God's attestation and none but God could do it And of this all Believers have some perception in various degrees III. And then we know it to be true because it is sealed by those attestations and is the Word of God. Obj. VII But would you have men take the matters of Fact for uncertain that this is a true Bible and Copy and was given the Church by the Apostles c. and so not pretend to be certain of them Ans I have oft said and elsewhere largely proved that as 1. A Humane Faith of highest probability prepareth the way so 2. These things are known by an Historical Evidence which hath a proper certainty above meer Humane Faith For Humane Faith resteth on mens Veracity or Fidelity which is uncertain But there is a History such as that there is such a City as Rome Venice c. which is evident by a surer ground than mens fidelity even from such a concurrence of consenters and circumstances as will prove a forgery impossible Obj. VIII You seem to favour the Popish Doctrine of Ignorance while you would have all our Knowledge confined to a few plain and easie things and perswade men to doubt of all the rest Ans 1. I perswade no man to doubt of that which he is certain of but not to lie and say he is certain when he is not 2. I am so far from encouraging Ignorance that it is Ignorance of your Ignorance which I reprove I would have all men know as much as possibly they can of all that God hath revealed And if the self-conceited knew more they would doubt more and as they grow wiser will grow less confident in uncertainties It is not knowing but false pretending to know that I am against Do you think that a thousand self-conceited men and women do really know ever the more for saying they know or crying down that Ignorance Doubting and Uncertainty which they have themselves How many a one yea Preachers have cryed down the Popish Doctrine of Uncertainty of Salvation who had no Certainty of their own but their neighbours thought by their lives were certainly in the way to Hell. Obj. IX But you would have men resist the Spirit that convinceth them and make so long a work in doubting and questioning and proving every thing as that Christians will come but to little knowledge in your way Ans They will have the more knowledge and not the less for trying Peremptory confidence is not knowledge The next way here is farthest about Receive all Evidence from God and Man from the Word and Spirit with all the desire and all the delight and all the speed that possibly you can Study earnestly Learn willingly Resist no Light neglect no Truth But what 's all this to foolish conceit that you know what you do not What 's this to the hasty believing of falshoods or uncertainties and troubling the Church and World with self-conceit and dreams I remember two or three of my old acquaintance who suddenly received from a Seducer the Opinion of Perfection that we might be perfectly sinless in this life And because I denied it they carryed it as if I had pleaded for sin against perfection and they presently took themselves to be perfect and sinless because they had got the Opinion that some are such I told them that I desired Perfection as well as they and that I was far from hindering or disswading any from Perfection but wisht them to let us see that they are so indeed and never to sin more in thought word or deed And ere long they forsook all Religion and by Drunkenness Fornication and Licentiousness shewed us their Perfection So here it is not a conceit that men have Faith and Knowledge and quickly saying I believe or turning to the Priest or Party that perswadeth them which maketh them ever the wiser men or true Believers Obj. X. But that may seem certain to another which seemeth uncertain or false to you Therefore every man must go according to his own Light. Ans 1. Nothing is Certain which is not true If that seem True to you which is False this is your Errour And is every man or any man bound to err and believe a falsehood Being is before Knowing If it Be not true you may Think it to be so which is that which I would cure but you cannot Know it to be so much less be Certain of it 2. If it be Certain to you it is Evidently True And if so hold it fast and spare not It is not any mans Certainty but Errour which I oppose Obj. XI But if we must write or utter nothing but Certainties you would have but a small Library Ans 1. The World might well spare a great many uncertain Writings 2. But I say not that you must think say or write nothing but Certainties There is a lawful and in some cases necessary exercise of our understandings about Probabilities and Possibilities The Husbandman when he ploweth and soweth is not certain of an increase 1. But call not that certain which is not 2. And be not as vehement and peremptory in it as if it were a Certainty 3. And separate your Certainties and Probabilities asunder that confusion fill not your minds with Errour Obj. XII While you perswade us to be so diffident of mens reports and to suspend our belief of what men say you speak against the Laws of Converse Ans I perswade you not to deny any man such a Belief as is his due But give him no more If a man profess himself a Christian and say that he sincerely believeth in Christ and consenteth to his Covenant though you may perceive no ascertaining Evidence that he saith true yet you must believe him because he is the only opener of his own mind and the Laws of God and Human Converse require it But what is this believing him Not taking it for a
this labour must be content to know but little and not take on them to know much For they are not able to discern truth from falshood But while they sleep the Tares are sowed Or while they open the Door all croud in that can come first and they cannot make a just separation Ignorant Persons will swarm with errors and he that erreth will think that he is in the right And if he think that it is a divine and necessary truth which he embraceth how zealously may he pursue it D. XV. Take heed of a byas of Carnal Interest and of the disturbing Passions which selfish partiality will be apt to raise Men may verily think that they sincerely love the truth when the secret power of a carnal interest their honour their profit or pleasure is it that turneth about their judgment and furnisheth them with Arguments and whets their Wits and maketh them passionately confident and they are not aware of it Is your worldly interest on that side that your opinion is for Though that prove it not false it proveth that you should be very suspicious of your selves D. XVI Keep up unfeigned fervent love to others even as to your selves And then you will not contemn their Persons and their Arguments beyond certain cause You will not turn to passionate contentions and reproaches of them when you differ and the reverence of your Elders Teachers Superiors will make you more ready to suspect your selves than them Most of our self-conceited pretenders to knowledge have lost their love and reverence of Dissenters and are bold despisers of the Persons reasons and writings of all that contradict their errour And most that venture to cast the Churches into flames and their Brethren into silence and sufferings that they may plant their own opinions are great despisers of those that they afflict and either hate them or would make them hateful lest they should be thought to be unjust in using them like hateful Persons Love that thinketh not evil of others is not apt to vaunt it self D. XVII Reverence the Church of God but give not up your understandings absolutely to any men but take heed of taking any Church Sect or Party instead of the Infallible God. With the Universal Church you must Embody and hold Concord It is certain that it erreth not from the Essentials of Christianity Otherwise the Church were no Church no Christians and could not be saved If a Papist say and which is this Church I answer him It is the Universality of Christians or all that hold these Essentials and when I say that this Church cannot fall from these Essentials I do but say it cannot cease to be a Church The Church is constituted of and known by the Essentials of Faith and not the Essentials of Faith constituted by the Church nor so known by it though it be known by it as the Teacher of it He that deserteth the Christian Universality in deed though not in words and cleaveth too close to any Sect whether Papal or any other will be carried down the stream by that Sect and will fill his understanding with all their errors and uncertainties and confound them with the certain truths of God to make up a mixt Religion with and the reverence of his Party Church or Sect will blind his mind and make him think all this his duty D. XVIII Fear Error and ungrounded Confidence Consider all the mischiefs of it which the World hath long felt and the Churches in East and West are distracted by unto this day and which I have opened to you before He that feareth not a sin and mischief is most unlikely to escape it A tender Conscience cannot be bold and rash where the interest of God the Church and his own and others Souls is so much concerned When you are invited to turn Papist or Quaker or Anabaptist or Antinomian or Separatist think What if it should prove an Errour and as great an Errour as many godly learned men affirm it to be Alas what a gulf should I plunge my Soul in What injury should I do the Truth What wrong to Souls And shall I rashly venture on such a danger any more than I would do on Fornication Drunkenness or other sin And doth not the sad example of this Age as well as all former Ages warn you to be fearful of what you entertain O what promising what hopeful what confident Persons have dreadfully miscarried and when they once began to roll down the Hill have not stopt till some of them arrived at Infidelity and Prophaneness and others involved us all in confusions And yet shall we not fear but rage and be confident And to see on the other side what darkness and delusion hath faln upon thousands of the Papal Clergy and what their Errour hath cost the World should make those that are that way inclined also fear Direct XIX Above all pray and labour for a truely humble mind that is well acquainted with its own defects and fear and fly from a proud overvaluing of your own understanding Be thankful for any Knowledge that you have but take heed of thinking it greater than it is The Devils Sin and the imitation of Adam are not the way to have the illumination of Gods Spirit It is not more usual with God to bring low those that are Proud of Greatness than to leave to folly deceit and errour those that are proud of Wisdom and to leave to Sin and Wickedness those that are proud of Goodness A Proud understanding cannot be brought to suspect it self but is confident of its first undigested apprehensions It either feeleth no need of the Spirits light but despiseth it as a fancy or else it groweth conceited that all its conceptions are of the Spirit and is proud of that Spirit which he hath not Nothing maketh this peremptory confidence in false conceits so common as Pride of a knowledge which men have not Would the Lord but humble these persons throughly they would think Alas What a dark deceitful mind have I how unfit to despise the judgment of them that have laboured for knowledge far more than I have done and how unfit to be confident against such as know much more than I But so deep and common is this Pride that they that go in rags and they that think themselves unworthy to live and are ready to despair in the sense of Sin do yet ordinarily so overvalue their own apprehensions that even these will stifly hold their vain and unpeaceable opinions and stifly reject the judgment and arguments of the wisest and best that will not be as envious as they Direct XX. Lastly Keep in a Child-like teachable learning resolution with a sober and suspended judgment where you have not sure evidence to turn the scales When Christ saith Mat. 18.3 Except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven As he hath respect to the humility
all those to be wicked Hypocrites Hereticks Schismaticks Factious or Liars that are against them and dare print to the world that most notorious truths in matters of fact are lies and lies are truths and corrupt all History where they are but concerned So that experience hath taught me to give little credit to any History written by men in whom I can perceive this double Character 1. That they are worldly and unconscionable 2. And concerned by a personal Interest especially when they revile their Adversaries And money friends or honour will make any Cause true and just with them and can confute all evidences of truth and innocency Learned Judges are too oft corrupt 9. And in cases of great Temptation how insufficient is Learning to repel the Tempter when it 's easily done by the holy Love of God and Goodness How easily is a man's Judgment tempted to think well of that which he loveth and ill of that which his heart is against Many such Instances I might give you but these fully shew the misery and folly of ungodly Scholars that are but blinded by dead notions and words of Art to think they know something when they know nothing as they ought to know and to hate truth and goodness and speak evil of the things they know not while for want of holy Love these tinkling Cymbals do but deceive themselves and ascertain their own damnation II. I should next have said as much of the vanity and snare of the Knowledge of such Gnosticks as in an over-valuing of their own Religious skill and gifts cry out as the Pharisees This people that know not the Law are cursed But what is said is applicable to them Chap. XVI Love best the Christians that have most Love to God and Man. IF God Love those most that have most Love and not those that have most barren Knowledge then so must we even all that take God's Wisdom as infallible Of whom can we know better whom to Love and Value than of him that is Wisdom and Love it self There is more savoury worth in the experience affections and heavenly tendency of holy Souls than in all the subtilties of Learned Wits When a man cometh to die who savoureth not more Wisdom in the Sacred Scripture and in holy Treatises than in all Aristotle's Learned works And who had not then rather hear the talk and prayers of a holy person than the most accurate Logick or Mathematicks Alas what are these but trifles to a dying man And what they will be to a dying man they should be much to us all our life unless we would never be wise till it is too late And among men seeming Religious it is not the Religious wrangler or disputer nor the Zealous reviler of his Brethren that can hotly cry down on one side These men are Heretical or on the other These are Antichristian that are the Lovely persons Not they that on one side cry out Away with these from the Ministry and Church as disobedient to us Or on the other Away with these from our Communion as not holy enough to join with us It is not they that proudliest persecute to prove their Zeal nor they that proudliest separate from others to prove it but it is they that live in the love of God and Man that are beloved of God and Man. Nature teacheth all men to love those that love them And the Divine Nature teacheth us to love those much more that love God and goodness Though love be an act of obedience as commanded yet hath it a Nature also above meer obedience and bare commanding will not cause it No man loveth God or man only because he is commanded so to do but because he perceiveth them to be good and amiable And the most loving are the most lovely so be it their love be rightly guided Doth it not kindle love in you to others more to hear their Breathings after God and Grace and Glory and to see them loving and kind to all and delighting to do all the good they can and covering tenderly the infirmities of others and practising 1 Cor. 13. and living at peace among themselves and as much as is possible with all men and loving their Enemies and blessing those that curse them and patiently bearing and forgiving wrongs than to come into one Congregation and hear a Priest teach the people to hate their Brethren as Schismaticks or Hereticks or in another and hear a man teach his Followers to hate others as Antichristian or Ceremonious Or to hear silly Men and Women talk against things that are quite beyond their reach and shaking the Head to talk against Dissenters and say Such a one is an erroneous or dangerous man take heed of hearing him Such a one is for or against Reprobation Free Will Universal Redemption Mans Power and such like which they little understand In a word the proudly Tyrannical and the proudly Schismatical with all their pretence of Learning on one side or of the Spirit and Holiness and Gifts on the other are no whit so amiable as the single-hearted honest peaceable Christian who preacheth love and prayeth love and liveth and breatheth and practiseth love Paul saith that all the Law is fulfilled in love and fulfilling is more than knowing it And Christ himself did not in vain sum up all the Commandments in the love of God and Man Nor in vain ask Peter thrice Lovest thou me nor in vain so often charge it on them as his new that is his last Commandment that they love one another Nor doth his beloved Apostle John in vain so earnestly write for love Chap. XVII Exhort Plead not against Love or works of Love upon pretence of a cross Interest of Learning Knowledge Gifts Church-order Discipline c. or any other thing IF LOVE be that which is most amiable in us to the God of Love then as nothing in the World can excuse him that is without it nor render him lovely indeed to God and Man so nothing must be made a pretence against it And no pretence will excuse that man or that Society that is against it Even corrections and severities when they must be used must come from love and be wholly ordered to the ends and interest of love And when necessity calls for destructive Executions which tend not to the good of him that is Executed yet must they tend to the good of the Community or of many and come from a greater love than is due to one or else that which otherwise would be laudable Justice is but Cruelty For the punishment of Offenders is good and just because tending to the common good Debentur Reipublicae the Community have Jus a Right to them as a means to their good So that it is Love that is the Amiableness of Justice it self If any think that Gods Justice is a cross instance let him consider 1. That though the most publick or common good be our end next the ultimate
body or the fruit of 3. This life of Love is the perfection of mans faculties as to their intended end and use As all the operations of the lower faculties Vegetative and Sensitive are subordinate to the use and operations of the Intellectual part which is the higher so all the Acts of the Intellect itself are but subservient and Dirigent to the Will or Love and Practice The understanding is but the Eye by which the Soul seeth what to love and choose or refuse and what to do or to avoid Love is the highest act of our highest faculty And complacency in the highest infinite good is the highest of all the acts of Love. This is the State of the Soul in its Ripeness and Mellow Sweetness when it is delightful embracing its most desired object and is blessed in the fruition of its ultimate end All other Graces and Duties are Servants unto this They are the parts indeed of the same new creature but the Hands and Feet are not the Heart 4. For Love is the very foretast of Heaven the beginning of that felicity which shall there be perfect In Heaven all Saints shall be as One and all united to their glorious Head as he is united to the Father disparities allowed Joh. 17.24 And what more uniteth Souls than Love Heaven is a state of Joyful Complacence and what is that but Perfect Love The Heavenly work is perfect Obedience and Praise And what are these but the actions and the breath of Love 5. Therefore they that live this life of Love are fitter to die and readier for Heaven than any others Belief is a foresight of it but Love is a foretast the first fruits and our earnest and pledge He that Loveth God and Christ and Angels and Saints and perfect Holiness and Divine Praise is ready for Heaven as the Infant in the womb is ready for birth at the fulness of his time But other Christians whose Love is true but little to their fears and damped by darkness and too much love of the body and this world do go as it were by untimely birth to Heaven and those in whom the love of the body is predominant come not thither in that state at all The God of Grace and Glory will meet that Soul with his felicitating embracements who panteth and breatheth after him by Love And as Love is a kind of Union with the Heavenly Society the Angels who love us better than we love them will be ready to convey such Souls to God. As the living dwell not in the graves among the dead and the dead are buried from among the living so holy Souls who have this life of Love cannot be among the miserable in Hell nor the dead in sin among the blessed 6. Therefore this life of holy Love doth strengthen our Belief it self Strong Reasons that are brought for the Immortality of Souls and the future Glory are usually lost upon unsanctified hearers yea with the Doctors themselves that use them When they have perswaded others that there is a Heaven for Believers and that by Arguments in themselves unanswerable they have not perswaded their own hearts but the predominant Love of Flesh and Earth doth byass their understandings and maketh them think that they can confute themselves Their gust and inclination prevaileth against Belief And therefore the greatest Scholars are not always the strongest Believers But holy Love when it is the Habit of the Soul as it naturally ascendeth so it easily believeth that God that Glory to which it doth ascend The gust and experience of such a Soul assureth it that it was made for Communion with God and that even in this life such Communion is obtained in some degree and therefore it easily believeth that it is Redeemed for it and that it shall perfectly enjoy it in Heaven for ever Though Glory be here but seminally in Grace and this world be but as the womb of that better world for which we hope yet the life that is in the Embrio and seed is a confirming Argument for the perfection which they tend to O that men knew what holy Love doth signifie and foretel As the seed or Embrio of a man becometh not a Beast or Serpent so he that hath the habitual Love of God and Heaven and Holiness is not capable of Hell no more than the Lovers of worldliness and sensuality are capable of present Communion with God and of his Glory God doth not draw mens Hearts to Himself nor kindle Heavenly desires in them in vain He that hath the Spirit of Christ hath the Witness in himself that Christ and his Promises of Life are true 1 John 5.10 11 12. And what is this Spirit but the Habit of Divine and Heavenly Love and its concomitants May I but feel my Soul inflamed with the fervent Love of the Heavenly Perfection surely it will do more to put me quite out of doubt of the certainty of that blessed state than all Arguments without that Love can do 7. And holy Love will be the surest Evidence of our Sincerity which many old Writers meant that called it The Form of Faith and other graces As means as means are informed by their aptitudinal respect unto the End so Love as it is the Final Act upon God the Final Object thus informeth all subordinate Graces and Duties as they are means And as all Morality is subjected in the Will as the proper primary seat and is in the Intellect executive power and senses only by participation so far as their acts are imperate by the Will so Love and Volition being really the same thing it may accordingly be said that nothing is any further acceptable to God than it is Good and nothing is morally Good any further than it is voluntary or willed and to be willed as Good as End or as Means and to be Loved are words that signifie the same No preaching praying fasting c. no fear of punishment no belief of the Truth c. will prove us sincere and justified any further than we can prove that all this either cometh from or is accompanied with Love that is with a Consenting Will. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness Rom. 10. And If thou believe with all thy heart thou mayest be baptized saith Philip to the Eunuch Acts 8. My Son give me thy heart is Wisdom's invitation All 's nothing without the heart that is without willingness or Love. They that love most are sureliest forgiven and have most holiness or grace how unskifull soever they may be in their expressions The sealing Spirit of Adoption is the Spirit of Love and the Abba Father and the unexpressed groans of filial Love are understood and acceptable to God. A Loving Desire after God and Holiness is a better Evidence than the most taking Tongue or largest Knowledge 8. This life of Holy Love will make all our Religion and Obedience easy to us It will give us an alacrity to the performance and a