shine into our hearts and guide us in the sacred paths of life eternal But as unto every thing of price and value there is art and skill required rightly to make use thereof and also there are means and instruments fitted for the acquiring of this skill so rightly to use this precious jewel of Gods holy Word for the illumination of our souls there is much art and skill required and this skill must be attained in the use of all those instruments and helps which God hath for this end graciously afforded unto us it being most agreeable to the wisdome and goodnesse of God to work upon humane understanding by humane means and helps And according as we are more or lesse industrious in the use of these means God imparts a more or lesse treasure of understanding unto us Not as if the holy Spirit of God could not without means communicate his gifts of wisdome and open our understanding to understand the Scriptures Luk 24.45 But that ordinarily he doth not do this but commands us not lazily to sit still Prov. 2.4 and wait upon his immediate Revelations but to seck for knowledge and search for wisdome as for hid treasures and how shall we seek for it but in the use of those means he hath sitted for this search And these means are either outward or inward The outward and humane helps are the knowledge and understanding of tongues and sciences The inward or divine means are the purity and holiness of the hearts and life The first are necessary as to the formale externum to understand the outward letter of the word in its proper and genuine sense The second as to the formale internum rightly to apply the word according to the minde of the holy Spirit therein And experimentally to feel those sacred truths accomplished in our selves As to the former whereupon this controversie depends the knowledge of tongues and languages arts and sciences herewithall the holy Scripture doth presuppose those men to be furnished that will dive into the secret and hidden mysteries therein contained for all kindes of knowledge have their certain bounds and limits and each of them presupposes many necessary things learned in other sciences before we can know the secrets of this as the Art of Rhetorick presupposeth the understanding of words as the cabinet must be first opened before the jewel therein can be found out There is a threefold knowledge of things natural moral and divine By the first we are guided to live as men By the second as reasonable men and members of a civil society By the third as Christian men and parts of Christs body the Church And each of these presupposes the other as moral wisdome presupposes that which is natural and divine wisdome presupposes both to this end God hath endued us not only 1. With sense to know the things that concern our present life and being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. de Mos And 2. with reason to know what concerns our well being in the peace contentment and happiness of the soul But 3. He hath added also the heavenly revelations of his holy Word whereby what sense and reason could never sinde out as conducible to eternal happiness is made known unto us And as reason doth imply and presuppose a man to be endued with sense so Religion and divine Revelation presupposes as to endued with sense and reason 2. Divinity which is the body of divine Revolation is the Art of arts and comprehends with it what ever other Arts do teach And the holy Scriptures the contents whereof are the precepts of this Art both contains all kindes of knowledge und relates to all sorts of truth both natural Eph. 5.20 Civil Rom. 13.4 Historical 2 Tim. 3.8 Forein Tit. 1.12 And consequently to the understanding thereof the knowledge of such Truths are necessarily subservient to the supernatural and divine assistance Humane Arts are the Handmaids of Religion which they serve and wait upon as their Queen and Soveraign And as great Fersons are not approached unto without the mediation of servants and great Houses have their through-fare before you come to rooms of state and great Cities have their suburbs before you come to the high streets So the great and sacred body of Divinity is not approached unto ordinarily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she sits in the height and perfection of understanding but by the mediation of her Handmaids or through the several passages of Tongues and Sciences 3. Though many things in holy Scripture be plain and easie to be understood without the help of much learning or art yet there are also many things obscure dark and mysterious which too many men for want of learning and sobriety do misconster pervert and abuse to their own ruine which is expresly affirmed both of St. Pauls Epistles and of other Scriptures also 2 Pet 3.16 As also in all his Epistles speaking in them of those things in which are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction In which meaning St. Pauls Epistles are somethings hard Non temere a Spiritu Sto. Scripturas esse tectas sed eb id meâ—imè ne vâ—leseam exerceant uâ— pascant Aug. And the holy Ghost hath therefore left Gods word in many places veil'd and obscure saith St. August 1. Novileseat that we might not undervalue it 2. Vt exerceat to keep us in the exercise of prayers and meditations studies and labours for all kinde of knowledge the more hardly it is attained the more we esteem it and the more also it doth feed and nourish the soul as making a deeper impression therein 4. Such is the height and sublime perfection of those holy mysteries in sacred Scripture contained that vulgar and learned men have need of an interpreter as Act. 8.31 Learned Guides therefore God hath in all ages raised up both Priests and Prophets under the Law and under the Gospel whom he hath appointed the treasurers of knowledge and unlearning in the sound and sincere Expasition of holy Scripture and instruction of his people 5. The necessity and honour of humane learning as to the reception and right understanding of divine Revelations doth appear from the antiquity for those first Patriarchs of the world who honoured with immediat Revelation and invested with the sacred office of the Priesthood were all of them learned men either so found or so made by the God of wisdome and knowledge when he spake unto them Adam as the first man so the first to whom God revealed himself and first Priest or Prophet of the Lord was not a â—ovice in Philosophy nor ignorant of any part of what we call humane learning he knew undoubtedly the nature properties vertues effects and workings of all creatures and therefore God permitted him to give them names according to their natures Gen. 2.19.20 And out of the ground the
Geography History Arts and monuments of antiquity For 1. The holy Scriptures being the Language of other Countreys how shall they understand them that know nothing of the situation of those countreys and places or of their rites and customes particular idiomes phrases and proverbial speeches which must needs seem strange improper and insignificant to them who know no more but the ordinary places customes and expressions of their own nation 2. The Scriptures are of all books in the world the most ancient now as times do alter and vary so do the customes and constitutions actions and affections manners and proverbial sayings of all people alter also hence the 14. chapter of the 1 Cor. is so hard to be understood Because those customes are so long since out of date And this may seem to be one reason why God in his wisdome hath so often altered his waies of dispensation and the revelaton of his truth unto his Church and 't is the ground of that wise direction of the Father Distingue tempora intelliguntur Scripturae he must warily distinguish betwixt ancient and modern times that will rightly understand the Scriptures III. The knowledge of Rhetorick Logick c. by the help whereof we are enabled to take notice 1. Of those tropes and figures and metaphorical expressions whereof the holy Scripture is full to know what is properly and what figuratively expressed what is the literal and what the mystical sense therein what is delivered by way of History and what by way of parable and similitude what by way of command and what by way of counsel to compare the more obscure and dark places with the more plain and perspicuous the like saying in one place with its like in another and the differing and unlike with its unlike and differing expression 2. To observe the causes and grounds the scope and drift of every saying with the reasons and arguments to enforce it and warily to distinguish betwixt the substance and circumstances of each command and admonition 3. By way of Logical Analyse to open divide and resolve the holy Word into its proper parts that each who hears and reads the same may know his own portion and what particularly is applyable to him An art which Timothy was commanded to study for Study to shew thy self approved a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth 1 Tim. 2.15 IV. The knowledge of natural causes vertues operations and effects which is the sum of Natural Philosophy For 1. The holy Scripture as well sets forth unto us the works of God Adoro scripturae plenitudinem quae mihi factorem manifâ—stat facta Tert. cont Herm. as his words of command admonition c. Witness the history of the creation Gen. 1. which is in it self a little epitome of all natural Philosophy and the admirable discourses of Gods works in the book of Job and in the Psalmes of David and many other places and this because the works of God are as the great Basil styles the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the School of Gods knowledge For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead Rom. 1.20 The most wise God who hath revealed himself unto us in his works as well as in his word hath also used the one as a means to illustrate and clear the meaning of the other so that as the word of God sets forth his marvellous works so by his works and by similitudes and resemblances taken from his creatures he teacheth us in his word both the knowledge of himself and of his holy will touching the waies of his worship witnesse the manifold commands and admonitions expressed under the notion of several creatures The Oxe and the Asse the Stork the Crane Isa 1.3 and the Swallow To exemplifie but in one text which is also a positive command of the Gospel Mat. 10.16 Be ye therefore wise as Serpents but innocent as Doves He then that knowes nothing of the nature of the Serpent and of the Dove how shall he understand the meaning or yeeld obedience to this command And that very appearance of the holy Ghost in the shape of a Dove upon our Saviour Mat. 3.16 Act. 2.2 3. and in winde and fire upon his Apostles implies the necessity of this price of humane Learning to understand something of the properties of that creature and of these elements to understand aright the several qualifications of the holy Ghost V. The knowledge of moral Philosophy for rightly to understand the nature properties c. of moral vertues must needs conduce exceedingly to the right understanding of the perfection and excellency of spirituall graces the one being but the elevation and raising up of the other to an higher pitch of perfection The light of nature being not extinguished but made more clearly seeing by the light of Grace And the guidance of natural reason being not abolisht 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart. Diol cum Tryph. but rectified perfected and confirmed by the dictates and commands of the holy Christian Faith Therefore Justin Martyr stiles Philosophy meaning I believe natural and moral Philosophy as subservient to Divinity The greatest possession and most acceptable unto God as the means whereby we are brought to the knowledge of God and of his holy will CHAP. XI Of the Analogie of faith and the Doctrine of the Church TO the right understanding of holy Scriptures 't is further required to know what sense and meaning the ancient Fathers the learned and pious Doctors of the Church in all ages have given of them for no Scripture is of private interpretation But interpreted and understood it must be according to the general Canon or Analogie of Faith that faith which was once given to the Saints by the Apostles the articles whereof are summarily comprehended in the Apostles Creed That Faith which so delivered and received hath been preserved and maintained Winc. viâ— semper abique ab omnibus at all times in all places by all persons Councels and Fathers and is by the merciful providence of God in spite of all opposition from Infidels Heretiques and Schismatiques brought down unto us Prov. 3.5 This Faith must be the rule according to which we must steer our interpretations of holy Scriptures not leaning to our own understanding or abounding in our own sense but ever submitting our private judgement to the publique judgement of the Church which in the Apostles own times was commanded when the gift of prophesie or interpretation of Scripture was by more immediate and extraordinary inspiration communicated yet even then the judgement of the Church was to be allowed in the interpretation of Scripture 1 Cor. 14.29 Let the Prophets speak two or three and let the other judge Object But 't is here objected Numb 16.14 Wilt thou put out the eyes of these
conform to his example He had his feigned Visions Paulus Odor bornius in vita qâ—at l. 2. and Revelations also and yet a greater Tyrant and a more bloudy villain Christendome hath not seen The Scribes and Pharisees of the Jewish Church and the Novatians and Donatists of the Christian were far greater pretenders to piety and strictness of life then the truly orthodox of either Church and yet very great and notorious Schismatiques Not to be cousened therefore with fair and goodly pretences of any party or sect of men how seemingly holy and zealous soever and pretending that they have Christ that they have the Spirit that they only are in the right when they are deeply involv'd in an abysse of errors our Lord hath fore-arm'd us with sound and saving counsell Mat. 24.23 c. Then if any shall say unto you Lo here is Christ or lo there believe it not for there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets Wherefore if they shall say Behold he is in the desert goe not forth behold he is in the secret chambers believe it not for as the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth unto the West so shall the comming of the Son of man be Two rules for the avoiding infection by false Prophets under specious pretences are hence observable Habet unaquaecunque Haeresis vel certas mundi partes unde dâ— ecce hic ecce illâ—c 1. Every Heresie saith the Glosse is limited to some particular parts of the world and the infection is not universally diffused therefore 't is said Lo here or lo there If any man then shall limit Christ to his particular Church much lesse to his particular sect or fraternity believe it not for such are false Christs and false Prophets For the Truth displaid from Christ the Sun of righteousnesse Ne crâ—datur schismaticis nomine autem oâ—ientis occidentis totum orhem designat Gloss ordin like the light of the heaven is diffused from East to West or spread over the face of the whole earth which renders the Church i. e. all sound and sincere professors of the Truth as well Catholique as Holy Vel in occultis aut obscuris conventiculis curiositatem hominum decipit haeresiâ— Id. 2. Heresie and Schism seek out obscure and retired places and begin in conventicles and private meetings therefore 't is said Behold he is in the deserâ— behold he is in the secret chambers So the Apostle of deceivers also they creep into houses and lead captive silly women c. 2 Tim. 3.6 But Veritas non quaerit angulos Truth seeketh no lurking holes is not ashamed to appear in publique being like the light that shineth from East to West open free and manifest to all except forc't to retirement by persecution and violence 9. For the avoiding of errors 't will be necessary to observe further that a Truth is not to be disbelieved or rejected because 't is profest by lewd and licentious persons or maintained by a Church and people that are in other respects erroneous and misguided For Truth is Truth by what mouth soever it bee spoken and 't is the more confirmed to be Truth because 't is even by the enemies of Truth attested to be so The unwary neglect of this rule hath not been the least in let to manifold errors for 't is too usual with many to object both against orthodox truths and ecclesiastical orders on the one hand that this or that the Papists hold and against a strict careful conscientious life on the other that thus and thus the Puritans profess Hence many truths have been rejected for errors and many decent useful orders customes ceremonies and necessary acts of discipline have been cryed down as superstitious idolatrous and antichristian and the sacred body of religion it self is almost wholly turned out of the Church under the style of Popery Nor hath that piety and integrity of life which is required of particular persons escap'd better but under the notion of Puritanism hath been too much banisht from the lives and manners of men for fear of being branded with the guilt of Schism faction and separation 10 He that will not unawares headlong himself into the gulph of error must not presume upon any extraordinary infusion of Gifts and Graces from above but in all humility wait upon God in the use of means and the careful improvement of what gifts and graces he hath already received It is the manner of Heretiques and Hypocrites saith a learned man ever to pretend to high lights of the Spirit and to finde new Joh. Cast and unheard of waies of walking with God slighting all that is common though never so commendable and catching at all that is curious though never so dangerous and thus they lose themselves in their chymerical conceptions and pretending to refine ancient piety and truth are puft up with secret pride and presumption and grasp nothing but froth and vanity That there are such things as Extasies and more then ordinary ravishments of spirit and infusions of divine gifts and qualifications is not doubted but such supereminences only superexcellent souls are capable of neither yet are they afforded to all pious devout and heavenly minded persons that so none may presume to depend upon them but that every man should keep his station and walk humbly with his God not relying upon extraordinary inspirations in the neglect of ordinary means which is in many respects destructive and dangerous as in the former Treatise And although it be most true that the conversion of every man to the truth being a work of the Spirit is therefore sudden and at one instant or moment of time begotten and wrought in the soul yet notwithstanding our progress towards perfection and bliss in the waies of Truth and Holiness goes on step by step leisurely and by degrees The pathes of the just are as the shining light which shineth more and more to the perfect day Prov. 4.18 Both the knowledge of the Truth and the practise of holiness begins with dawnings like the light of the day all darkness of ignorance and sin being not presently and in the same instant dispel'd and scattered but by little and little the light of Grace and Truth increaseth and still more and more clearly shineth towards perfection and we ascend from gift to gift and from grace to grace as the Sun mounts up by degrees to the vertical point not unlike the motions of the Angels upon Jacobs ladder Gen. 18.12 who although they had wings did not suddenly fly up and down but ascended and descended step by step so saith the Apostle Adde to your faith vertue to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance c. 2 Pet. 1.5 There be many now adaies wherein dissimulation and presumption so generally reigns who like to those heretical Messalians of old pretend to that perfection as to be above ordinances and means And although it be true that some few
Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them and whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name thereof and Adam gave names to all cattell and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field Noah the Preacher of righteousnesse was much given to the study of arts and sciences Jos adtiq l. 1. c. 4. both he and his sons And 't is one reason remembred by Josephus why God blessed him and those firster Fathers of the world with so long a life that they might bring to some perfection their studies of moral vertues and invention of profitable sciences as Astronomy Geography c. Abraham the father of the faithful Idem cap. 8. was a wise man and very eloquent and of a piercing Judgement saith the same Author of him He both learned himself and preached to others the knowledge of the true God which he learned by study and contemplation of Gods works by observing the sea and the land the sun the moon and the stars Whereupon the Caldeans conspiring against him being warned of God he came into the land of Canaan Philo cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo de Abâ— A man much skil'd in natural Philosophy Moses Deut. 31.10 who of all persons is said to have the nearest and most immediate converse with God and was honoured as Gods instrument for the publication of his own Lawes was learned in all the learning of the Egyptians Act. 7.22 And Philo brings him in exhorting all men to the study of Philosophy who desire to enrich their mindes with true knowledge and wisdome Phi de septenaerio fest Daniel who was greatly beloved of God and honoured with manifold visions and revelations Dan. 1.4.17.20 was bred up and well skil'd in the Loarning and Tongue of the Chaldeans And generally all the Prophets of the Lord both ordinary and extraordinary some few excepted were bred up in the Schooles of the Prophets The Hebrewes themselves say that where the holy Scripture addes to the name of a Prophet the name of his father that such a one was alwaies the son of a Prophet as Isaiah the son of Amos Hosea the son of Buri c. but withall confesse that when the Prophet is named and not his father that such a one was a Prophet but not the son of a Prophet When Samuel had anointed Saul King over Israel and the Lord gave him another heart 1 Sam. 10.9 so that he prophesied according to the word of Samuel amongst the rest of the Prophets vers 10. The people were astonished hereat as a thing unusual and extraordinary that any one should prophesie who was not the son of a Prophet therefore one demanding of another but who is their father vers 12. which being not known it grew into a proverb Is Saul also amongst the Prophets 6. The great necessity of learning and learned men will appear if we will consider how in all ages they have been what Cyril of Alexandria styles them Sanctos mystagagos pulchritudine intelligentiae resplendescentes tanquam propugnacula c. Such as stand against Sects like Bulwarks and are the Rescuers of Truth from the captivity of Hereticks and the bold intrusions of their fallacies and deceits The multitude of the wise is the welfare of the world saith the wisest of men Wisd 6.24 Both Religion and the true use of Reason both Church and Common-wealth Law and Gospel all societies both Civil and Ecclesiastick are upheld and maintained in peace and prosperity by the hands and heads of learned men and power of learning And the more any people or nation are estranged from the knowledge of liberal arts and sciences the further they are off from that dignity whereby men do excell beasts and irrational creatures The end of learning being no other but the rectifying of depraved Reason the strengthning of the weakned judgement and the clearing of that eye of the soul the understanding whereby man is stampt to the image of the most understanding and all knowing God And when the natural light of the soul is thus cleared by learning the lives and manners of men are thereby raised to the perfection of vertue and civility of conversation beyond the rudeness of salvages and beasts Ex quo intelligimus quando doctrina non sucrit in Ecclesius perire pudicitiam castitatem mori omnes abire vâ—rtutes Hier. in loc Didicisse fidelitèr artes Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros The Prophet Amos threatning a famine of the word ch 8.11 adds vers 13. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst meaning not a corporal but a spiritual thirst The Hebrews saith Hier. interpret the fair virgins to be their Synagogues and Schooles of learning and the young men to be the choice Doctors and Masters of Israel for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both And when these shall faint and fail and learned teaching cease in the Church then chastity purity and integrity shall perish and all vertues shall decay amongst men CHAP. IX Some vulgar Objections against Vniversities and humane learning considered LEarning and knowledge knowes no other enemies but the ignorant and unlearned And 't is ever the nature of Pride and an essential property of Hereticks to decry and seemingly to contemn those gifts whereof themselves are destitute they are thus characterized by S. Jude vers 10. But these speak evil of those things which they know not and for no other reason but to exalt themselves above those who have that knowledge which they want upon this very ground many now a daies cry down Vniversities and humane learning and why only that they may lift up themselves above their brethren upon the fancied wings of counterfeit Revelations who so much flag and fall below them in the gifts of knowledge understanding and wisdome And to support this destructive principle of pride they want not some seemingly probable arguments Object 1 The grand Objection of all â—â—thusiasts against Colledges and humane learning and all studying for the knowledge of Gods revealed will in his word is drawn from the examples of Elisha called from the plow and Amos who was an herdman in the Old Testament And the Apostles who were unlearned simple fishermen in the New For Answer whereunto consider Answ 1. That the calling of these persons was not only extraordinary but singular and unusual For usually all the Prophets of the Lord both ordinary and extraordinary were bred up in the Schools of the Prophets as hath been already intimated so that this is no warrant for any Shepheard Ploughman Fisherman or other ordinary person whatsoever to hope or wait for the like call 2. There is a great difference betwixt Elisha the ploughman and Elisha the Prophet betwixt Peter a Fisherman and St. Peter an Apostle every extraordinary calling