THe Ancients in their Mythologi­cal Learning tell us, that when Jupiter espyed the men of the World striving for Truth, and pulling her in pieces to secure her to themselves, he sent Mer­cury down amongst them, and he with his u­suall Arts dressed Error up in the Imagery of Truth, and thrust her into the croud, and so left them to contend still: and though then, by Contention men were sure to get but little Truth, yet they were as earnest as ever, and lost Peace too, in their Importune Contentions for the very Image of Truth. And this indeed is no wonder: but when Truth and Peace are brought into the world together, and bound up in the same bundle of life; when we are taught a Religion by the Prince of Peace, who is the Truth it self, to see men Contending for this Truth to the breach of that Peace; and when men fall out, to see that they should make [Page] Christianity their theme, that is one of the greatest wonders in the World. For Chri­stianity is [...], a soft and gentle Institution; [...], it was brought into the World to soften the asperities of humane nature, and to cure the Barbarities of evil men, and the Contentions of the passio­nate. The Eagle seeing her breast wounded, and espying the Arrow that hurt her to be fea­thered, cryed out, [...], the fea­thered Nation is destroyed by their own fea­thers; That is, a Christian fighting and wrangling with a Christian; and indeed that's very sad: but wrangling about Peace too; that Peace it self should be the argument of a War, that's unnaturall; and if it were not that there are many who are homines multae reli­gionis, nullius penè pietatis, Men of much Reli­gion and little Godliness, it would not be that there should be so many Quarrells in and con­cerning that Religion which is wholly made up of Truth and Peace, and was sent amongst us to reconcile the hearts of men when they were tempted to uncharitablenesse by any other unhappy argument. Disputation cures no vice, but kindles a great many, and makes Passion evaporate into sin: and though men esteem it Learning, yet it is the most uselesse Learning [Page 3] in the world. When Eudamidas the Son of Ar­chidamas heard old Xenocrates disputing about Wisdom, he asked very soberly, If the old Man be yet disputing and enquiring concerning Wisdom, what time will he have to make use of it? Christianity is all for Practice, and so much time as is spent in quarrells about it is a diminution to its Interest: men inquire so much what it is, that they have but little time left to be Christians. I remember a saying of E­rasmus, that when he first read the New Testa­ment with fear and a good mind, with a pur­pose to understand it and obey it, he found it very usefull and very pleasant: but when afterwards he fell on reading the vast differen­ces of Commentaries, then he understood it lesse then he did before, then he began not to understand it. For indeed the Truths of God are best dressed in the plain Culture and sim­plicity of the Spirit; but the Truths that men commonly teach are like the reflexions of a Multiplying-glasse: for one piece of good money you shall have forty that are fantasti­call; and it is forty to one if your finger hit upon the right. Men have wearied themselves in the dark, having been amused with false fires: and instead of going home, have wan­dered all night [...], in untroden, un­safe, [Page 4] uneasie wayes; but have not found out what their Soul desires. But therefore since we are so miserable, and are in error, and have wandered very far, we must do as wandring Travellers use to do, go back just to that place from whence they wandered, and begin upon a new Account. Let us go to the Truth it self, to Christ, and he will tell us an easie way of ending all our Quarrells. For we shall find Christianity to be the easiest and the hardest thing in the World: it is like a secret in Arith­metick, infinitely hard till it be found out by a right operation, and then it is so plain, we wonder we did not understand it earlier.

Christ's way of finding out of truth is by do­ing the will of God. We will try that by and by, if possibly we may find that easie and certain: in the mean time let us consider what wayes men have propounded to find out Truth, and upon the foundation of that to establish Peace in Christendom.

1. That there is but one true way is agreed upon; and therefore almost every Church of one denomination that lives under Govern­ment propounds to you a Systeme or collective Body of Articles, and tells you, that's the true Religion, and they are the Church, and the peculi­ar people of God: like Brutus and Cassius, of [Page 5] whom one sayes, Ubicunque ipsi essent, praetexebant esse rempublicam, they suppos'd themselves were the Commonwealth; and these are the Church, and out of this Church they will hardly allow salvation. But of this there can be no end. For divide the Church into Twenty parts, and in what part soever your lot falls, you and your party are Damned by the other Nineteen; and men on all hands almost keep their own Pro­selytes by affrighting them with the fearful Sermons of Damnation: but in the mean time here is no security to them that are not able to judge for themselves, and no Peace for them that are.

2. Others cast about to cure this evil, and conclude that it must be done by submission to an Infallible Guide; this must do it or no­thing: and this is the way of the Church of Rome. Follow but the Pope and his Clergie, and you are safe, at least as safe as their warrant can make you. Indeed this were a very good way, if it were a way at all; but it is none; for this can never end our Controversies: not one­ly because the greatest Controversies are about this Infallible Guide; but also because, 1. We cannot find that there is upon Earth any such Guide at all. 2. We do not find it necessary that there should. 3. We find that they who [Page 6] pretend to be this Infallible Guide are them­selves infinitely deceiv'd. 4. That they do not believe themselves to be Infallible whatever they say to us; because they do not put an end to all their own Questions that trouble them. 5. Because they have no peace but what is con­strained by force and Government. 6. And lastly, because if there were such a Guide, we should fail of Truth by many other causes: for it may be that Guide would not do his du­ty; or we are fallible followers of this in­fallible Leader; or we should not under­stand his meaning at all times, or we should be perverse at some times, or something as bad: because we all confesse that God is an Infallible Guide, and that some way or other he does teach us sufficiently, and yet it does come to passe by our faults that we are as far to seek for Peace and Truth as ever.

3. Some very wise men finding this to fail, have undertaken to reconcile the differences of Christendom by a way of moderation. Thus they have projected to reconcile the Papists and the Lutherans, the Lutherans and the Calvinists, the Remonstrants and Contra-emonstrants, and project that each side should abate of their asperities, and pare away something of their propositions, and joyn in Common terms and [Page 7] phrases of Accommodation, each of them sparing something, and promising they shall have a great deal of peace for the exchange of a little of their opinion. This was the way of Cassander, Modrevius, Andreas Frisius, Erasmus, Spalato, Grotius, and indeed of Charles the Fifth in part, but something more heartily of Fer­dinand the Second. This device produced the conferences at Poissy, at Montpellier, at Ratisbon, at the Hague, at many places more: and what was the event of these? Their parties when their Delegates returned, either disclaimed their Moderation, or their respective Princes had some other ends to serve, or they permit­ted the Meetings upon uncertain hopes, and a triall if any good might come; or it may be they were both in the wrong, and their mutuall abatement was nothing but a mutuall quitting of what they could not get, and the shaking hands of false friends; or it may be it was all of it nothing but Hypocrisie and Arts of Craftiness, and, like Lucian's man, every one could be a Man and a Pestle when he pleased. And the Council of Trent, though under ano­ther cover, made use of the artifice, but made the secret manifest and common: for at this day the Jesuits in the Questions de auxiliis Divinae gratiae have prevailed with the Dominicans to use [Page 8] their expressions, and yet they think they still keep the sentence of their own Order. From hence can succeed nothing but folly and a phantastick peace. This is but the skinning of an old sore, it will break out upon all oc­casions.

4. Others, who understand things beyond the common rate, observing that many of our Controversies and peevish wranglings are kept up by the ill stating of the Question, endeavour to declare things wisely, and make the matter intelligible, and the words cleare; hoping by this meanes to cut off all disputes. Indeed this is a very good way, so far as it can go; and would prevaile very much, if all men were wise, and would consent to those stateings, and would not fall out upon the main enquiry when it were well stated: but we find by a sad experience that few Questions are well stated; and when they are, they are not consented to; and when they are agreed on by both sides that they are well stated, it is nothing else but a drawing up the Armies in Battalia with great skill and disci­pline; the next thing they do is, they thrust their Swords into one anothers sides.

5. What remedy after all this? Some other good men have propounded one way yet: but that is a way of Peace rather then Truth; and [Page 9] this is, that all Opinions should be tolerated and none persecuted; and then all the World will be at peace. Indeed this relies upon a great reasonableness: not onely because Opi­nions cannot be forced; but because if men receive no hurt, it is to be hoped they will do none. But we find that this alone will not do it. For besides that all men are not so just as not to do any Injury (for some men begin the evil) besides this (I say) there are very many men amongst us who are not content that you permit them; for they will not per­mit you, but rule over your faith, and say that their way is not only true, but necessary; and therefore the Truth of God is at stake, and all Indifference and moderation is carnall Wis­dom, and want of Zeal for God: nay more then so, they preach for Toleration when themselves are under the rod, who when they got the rod into their own hands thought To­leration it self to be Intolerable. Thus do the Papists, and thus the Calvinists: and for their Cruelty they pretend Charity. They will in­deed force you to come in, but it is in true Zeal for your Soul: and if they do you violence, it is no more then if they pull your Arme out of joynt, when to save you from drowning they draw you out of a River; and if you com­plain, [Page 10] it is no more to be regarded then the out-cries of Children against their Rulers, or sick men against Physicians. But as to the thing it self, the truth is, it is better in Con­templation then in Practice: for reckon all that is got by it when you come to handle it, and it can never satisfie for the infinite disor­ders happening in the Government; the scan­dal to Religion, the secret dangers to publick Societies, the growth of Heresie, the nursing up of parties to a grandeur so considerable as to be able in their own time to change the Lawes and the Government. So that if the Question be whether meer Opinions are to be persecuted, it is certainly true, they ought not. But if it be considered how by Opinions men rifle the affaires of Kingdoms, it is also as cer­tain, they ought not to be made publick and permitted. And what is now to be done? must Truth be for ever in the dark, and the World for ever be divided, and Societies dis­turbed, and Governments weakned, and our Spirits debauched with Error and the uncer­tain Opinions and the Pedantery of talking men? Certainly there is a way to cure all this evil; and the wise Governour of all the World hath not been wanting in so necessary a matter as to lead us into all Truth. But the way [Page 11] hath not yet been hit upon, and yet I have told you all the wayes of Man and his Imaginations in order to Truth and Peace: and you see these will not do; we can find no rest for the soles of our feet amidst all the waters of Contention and disputations, and little artifices of divided Schools. Every man is a lyar, and his under­standing is weak, and his Propositions uncer­tain, and his Opinions trifling, and his Contri­vances imperfect: and neither Truth nor Peace does come from man. I know I am in an Auditory of inquisitive persons, whose bu­sinesse is to study for Truth, that they may find it for themselves, and teach it unto o­thers: I am in a School of Prophets and Pro­phets Sons, who all ask Pilate's Question, What is Truth? You look for it in your Books, and you tug hard for it in your Disputations, and you derive it from the Cisterns of the Fathers, and you enquire after the old wayes, and some­times are taken with new appearances, and you rejoyce in false lights, or are delighted with little umbrages and peep of Day. But where is there a man, or a Society of men, that can be at rest in his enquiry, and is sure he un­derstands all the truths of God? where is there a man but the more he studies and en­quires, still he discovers nothing so clearly as [Page 12] his own Ignorance? This is a demonstration that we are not in the right way, that we do not inquire wisely, that our Method is not ar­tificiall. If men did fall upon the right way, it were impossible so many learned men should be engaged in contrary parties and opinions. We have examined all wayes but one, all but God's way: Let us (having missed in all the o­ther) try this: let us go to God for Truth; for Truth comes from God only, and his wayes are plain, and his sayings are true, and his pro­mises Yea and Amen: and if we miss the Truth, it is because we will not find it: for certain it is, that all that Truth which God hath made necessarie, he hath also made legible and plain, and if we will open our eyes, we shall see the Sun, and if we will walk in the light, we shall rejoyce in the light: only let us withdraw the Curtains, let us remove the impediments and the sin that doth so easily beset us; thats Gods way. Every man must in his station do that portion of duty which God requires of him, and then he shall be taught of God all that is fit for him to learn: there is no other way for him but this. The feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and a good understanding have all they that do thereafter. Psal. 111. ver. 10. And so said David of himself, I have more understanding then my Teachers; because I keep thy Commandements. Psal. 119. [Page 13] And this is the only way which Christ hath taught us: if you ask, What is truth? you must not doe as Pilate did, ask the Question, and then go away from him that only can give you an an­swer; for as God is the author of Truth, so he is the teacher of it; and the way to learn it is this of my Text: For so saith our blessed Lord, If any man will do his will, he shall know of the Doctrine, whether it be of God or no.

My Text is simple as Truth it self, but great­ly Comprehensive, and contains a truth that a­lone will enable you to understand all Mysteries, and to expound all Prophecies, and to interpret all Scriptures, and to search into all Secrets, all (I mean) which concern our happinesse and our duty: and it being an affirmative hypo­theticall, is plainly to be resolved into this Pro­position, The way to judge of Religion is by doing of our duty, and Theology is rather a Divine life then a Divine knowledge. In Heaven indeed we shall first see, and then love; but here on Earth we must first love, and love will open our eyes as well as our hearts, and we shall then see and perceive and understand.

In the handling of which Proposition I shall first represent to you that the certain causes of our Errors are nothing but direct sins, nothing makes us Fools and Ignorants, but living vicious lives; and [Page 14] then I shall proceed to the direct demonstration of the Article in question, that Holinesse is the on­ly way of truth and understanding.

1. No man understands the Word of God as it ought to be understood, unlesse he layes aside all affections to Sin: of which because we have taken very little care, the product hath been that we have had very little wisdom, and very little knowledge in the wayes of God. [...], said Aristotle, Wickedness does cor­rupt a mans reasoning, it gives him false prin­ciples and evil measures of things: the sweet Wine that Ulysses gave to the Cyclops put his eye out; and a man that hath contracted evil af­fections, and made a League with sin, sees only by those measures. A Covetous man under­stands nothing to be good that is not profita­ble; and a Voluptuous man likes your reaso­ning well enough if you discourse of Bonum ju­cundum, the pleasures of the sense, the ravish­ments of lust, the noises and inadvertencies, the mirth and songs of merry Company. But if you talk to him of the melancholy Lectures of the Cross, the content of Resignation, the peace of Meeknesse, and the Joyes of the holy Ghost, and of rest in God; after your long discourse and his great silence he cryes out, What's the matter? He knows not what you meane. Either [Page 15] you must fit his humour, or change your dis­course.

I remember that Arianus tells of a Gentle­man that was banished from Rome, and in his sorrow visited the Philosopher, and he heard him talk wisely, and believed him, and promi­sed him to leave all the thoughts of Rome and splendours of the Court, and retire to the course of a severe Philosophy: but before the good mans Lectures were done, there came [...], letters from Caesar to recall him home, to give him pardon, and promise him great Imployment. He presently grew weary of the good mans Sermon, and wished he would make an end, thought his discourse was dull and flat; for his head and heart were full of a­nother storie and new principles; and by these measures he could heare only and he could un­derstand.

Every man understands by his Affections more then by his Reason: and when the Wolfe in the Fable went to School to learn to spell, whatever letters were told him, he could never make any thing of them but Agnus; he thought of nothing but his belly: and if a man be very hungry, you must give him meate before you give him counsell. A mans mind must be like your proposition before it can be entertained: [Page 16] for whatever you put into a man it will smell of the Vessell: it is a mans mind that gives the emphasis, and makes your argument to prevail.

And upon this account it is that there are so many false Doctrines in the only Article of Re­pentance. Men know they must repent, but the definition of Repentance they take from the convenience of their own affaires: what they will not part with, that is not necessary to be parted with, and they will repent, but not re­store: they will say nollem factum, they wish they had never done it; but since it is done, you must give them leave to rejoyce in their pur­chase: they will ask forgivenesse of God; but they sooner forgive themselves, and suppose that God is of their mind. If you tye them to hard termes, your Doctrine is not to be understood, or it is but one Doctors opinion, and therefore they will fairly take their leave, and get them another Teacher.

What makes these evil, these dangerous and desperate Doctrines? not the obscurity of the thing, but the cloud upon the heart; for say you what you will, He that hears must be the ex­pounder, and we can never suppose but a man will give sentence in behalf of what he passion­ately loves. And so it comes to pass that, as Rabbi Moses observ'd that God for the greatest [Page 17] Sin imposed the least Oblation, as a she-Goat for the sin of Idolatry; for a woman accused of Adultery, a Barly-cake: so do most men; they think to expiate the worst of their sins with a trifling, with a pretended, little, insignificant re­pentance. God indeed did so, that the cheap­nesse of the oblation might teach them to hope for pardon; not from the Ceremony, but from a severe internal repentance. But men take any argument to lessen their repentance, that they may not lessen their pleasures or their estates, and that Repentance may be nothing but a word, and Mortification signifie nothing a­gainst their pleasures, but be a term of Art on­ly, fitted for the Schools or for the Pulpit, but nothing relative to practice, or the exterminati­on of their sin. So that it is no wonder we un­derstand so little of Religion: it is because we are in love with that which destroyes it; and as a man does not care to hear what does not please him, so neither does he believe it; he can­not, he will not understand it.

And the same is the Case in the matter of Pride; the Church hath extremely suffer'd by it in many ages. Arius missed a Bishoprick, and therefore turned Heretick; [...], saith the story, he disturb'd and shaked th [...] Church; for he did not understand this Truth [Page 18] [That the peace of the Church was better then the satisfaction of his person, or the promoting his foolish Opinion.] And do not we see and feel that at this very day the Pride of men makes it seem impossible for many persons to obey their Superiors? and they do not see what they can read every day, that it is a sin to speak evill of Dignities.

A man would think it a very easie thing to understand the 13. Chapter to the Romans, Who­soever resisteth the power, resisteth the Ordinance of God: and yet we know a generation of men to whom these words were so obscure, that they thought it lawfull to fight against their King. A man would think it easie to believe that those who were in the gain-saying of Corah, who rose up against the high Priest, were in a very sad condi­tion: and yet there are too many amongst us who are in the gain-saying of Corah, and think they do very well; that they are the Godly party, and the good people of God. Why? what's the matter? In the world there can be nothing plai­ner then these words, Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, and that you need not make a scruple who are these higher powers, it is as plainly said, there is no power but of God; all that are set over you by the Laws of your Nation, these are over you in the Lord: and yet men will [Page 19] not understand these plain things; they deny to doe their notorious duty, and yet believe they are in the right, and if they sometimes obey for wrath, they oftner disobey for Conscience sake. Where is the fault? The words are plain, the duty is certain, the Book lyes open; but, alas! it is Sealed within, that is, men have eyes and will not see, eares and will not heare. But the wonder is the lesse; for we know when God said to Jonas, doest thou well to be angry? he answered God to his face, I do well to be angry even unto the death. Let God declare his mind never so plainly, if men will not lay aside the evil principle that is with­in, their open love to their secret sin, they may kill an Apostle, and yet be so ignorant as to think they do God good service; they may disturb Kingdomes, and break the peace of a well-or­dered Church, and rise up against their Fathers, and be cruell to their Brethren, and stir up the people to Sedition; and all this with a cold sto­mach and a hot liver, with a hard heart and a tender Conscience, with humble carriage and a proud spirit. For thus men hate Repentance, because they scorn to confesse an Errour; they will not return to Peace and Truth, because they feare to lose the good opinion of the people whom themselves have couzened; they are a­fraid to be good, lest they should confess they [Page 20] have formerly done amisse: and he that ob­serves how much evil is done, and how many Heresies are risen, and how much obstinacy and unreasonable perseverance in folly dwells in the World upon the stock of Pride, may easily con­clude that no learning is sufficient to make a proud man understand the truth of God, unless he first learn to be humble. But Obedite & intel­ligetis (saith the Prophet) obey and be humble, leave the foolish affections of sin, and then ye shall understand. That's the First particular: All remaining affections to sin hinder the learning and understanding of the things of God.

2. He that means to understand the will of God and the truth of Religion must lay aside all inordinate affections to the world. 2 Cor. 3. 14. S. Paul complained that there was at that day a veile up­on the heart of the Jews in the reading of the Old Te­stament: they looked for a Temporall Prince to be their Messias, and their affections and hopes dwelt in secular advantages; and so long as that veile was there, they could not see, and they would not accept the poore despised JESUS.

For the things of the world, besides that they entangle one another, and make much business, and spend much time, they also take up the at­tentions of a mans mind, & spend his faculties, [Page 21] and make them trifling and secular with the very handling and conversation. And therefore the Pythagoreans taught their Disciples [...], a separation from the things of the body, if they would purely find out truth and the excellencies of wisdom. Had not he lost his labour that would have discour­sed wisely to Apicius, and told him of the books of Fate and the secrets of the other World, the abstractions of the Soul and its brisker Immor­tality, that Saints and Angels eate not, and that the Spirit of a man lives for ever upon wisdom and holinesse and contemplation? The fat Glutton would have stared a while upon the Preacher, and then have fallen asleep. But if you had discoursed well and knowingly of a Lamprey, a large Mullet, or a Boare, animal propter Convivia natum, and have sent him a Cook from Asia to make new Sawces, he would have attended carefully, and taken in your discourses greedily. And so it is in the Questions and se­crets of Christianity: which made St. Paul, when he intended to convert Felix, discourse first with him about Temperance, Righteousnesse and Judgement to come. He began in the right point; he knew it was to no purpose to preach Jesus Christ crucified to an intemperate person, to an Usurper of other mens rights, to one [Page 22] whose soul dwelt in the World, and cared not for the sentence of the last day. The Philosophers began their Wisdom with the meditation of death, and St. Paul his with a discourse of the day of Judgment: to take the heart off from this world and the amabilities of it, which dis­honour and baffle the understanding, and made Solomon himself become a child and fool'd into Idolatry, by the prettinesse of a talking woman. Men now-a-dayes love not a Religion that will cost them deare. If your Doctrine calls upon men to part with any considerable part of their estates, you must pardon them if they cannot believe you; they understand it not. I shall give you one great instance of it.

When we consider the infinite unreasonable­ness that is in the Popish Religion, how against Common sense their Doctrine of Transubstan­tiation is, how against the common Experience of humane nature is the Doctrine of the Popes Infallibility, how against Scripture is the Do­ctrine of Indulgences and Purgatory; we may well think it a wonder that no more men are perswaded to leave such unlearned follies. But then on the other side, the wonder will cease, if we mark how many temporal ends are served by these Doctrines. If you destroy the Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences you take away [Page 23] the Priests Income, and make the See Apostolic to be poor; if you deny the Popes Infallibility, you will despise his Authority, and examine his Propositions, and discover his Failings, and put him to answer hard Arguments, and lessen his Power: and indeed, when we run through all the Propositions of difference between them and us, and see that in every one of them they serve an end of money or of power; it will be very visible that the way to confute them is not by learned disputations; (for we see they have been too long without effect, and without pro­sperity) the men must be cured of their affecti­ons to the World, ut nudi nudum sequantur cru­cifixum, that with naked and devested affections they might follow the naked Crucified Jesus, and then they would soone learne the truths of God, which till then will be impossible to be apprehended. [...]. Men (as St. Basil sayes) when they expound Scripture, alwayes bring in something of them­selves: but till there be (as one said) [...], a rising out from their own seats, untill they go out from their dark dungeons, they can never see the light of Heaven. And how many men are there amongst us who are therefore enemies to the Religion, because it seems to be against their profit? The argument of Demetri­us [Page 24] is unanswerable; by this craft they get their li­ings: leave them in their Livings, and they will let your Religion alone; if not, they think they have reason to speak against it. When mens souls are possessed with the World, their souls cannot be invested with holy Truths. [...], as St. Isidor said: the Soul must be informed, insoul'd, or animated with the propositions that you put in, or you shall never do any good, or get Disciples to Christ. Now because a man cannot serve two Masters; because he cannot vigorously attend two objects; because there can be but one soul in any living Creature; if the World have got possession, talk no more of your Questions, shut your Bi­bles, and read no more of the words of God to them, for they cannot tell of the Doctrine, whether it be of God, or of the World. That is the Second particular: Worldly affections hinder true un­derstandings in Religion.

3. No man, how learned soever, can under­stand the Word of God, or be at peace in the Questions of Religion, unlesse he be a Master o­ver his Passions.

[Page 25] said the wise Boethius. A man must first learn himself before he can learn God. Tua te fallit Imago: nothing deceives a man so soon as a mans self; when a man is (that I may use Plato's expression) [...], mingled with his nature and his Congeniall infirmities of anger and desire, he can never have any thing but [...], a knowledge partly moral and part­ly naturall: his whole life is but Imagination; his knowledge is Inclination and opinion; he judges of Heavenly things by the measures of his feares and his desires, and his Reason is half of it sense, and determinable by the principles of sense. [...], then a man learns well when he is a Philosopher in his Passions.Nazianz. ad Philagrium. Passionate men are to be taught the first ele­ments of Religion: and let men pretend to as much learning as they please, they must begin again at Christs Crosse; they must learn true mortification and crucifixion of their anger and desires, before they can be good Scholars in Christs School, or be admitted into the more se­cret enquiries of Religion, or profit in spirituall understanding. It was an excellent Proverb of the Jews, In passionibus Spiritus Sanctus non habitat, the Holy Ghost never dwells in the house of Passion. Truth enters into the heart of Man when it is empty and cleane and still; but when [Page 26] the mind is shaken with Passion as with a storme, you can never heare the voyce of the Char­mer, though he charm very wisely: and you will very hardly sheath a sword when it is held by a loose and a paralytic Arme. He that means to learn the secrets of Gods wisdom must be, as Plato sayes, [...], his soul must be Consubstantiated with Reason, not invested with Passion: to him that is otherwise, things are but in the dark, his notion is obscure and his sight troubled; and therefore though we of­ten meet with passionate Fools, yet we seldom or never heare of a very passionate wise man.

I have now done with the First part of my undertaking, and proved to you that our evill life is the cause of our Controversies and Igno­rances in the Religion of the things of God. You see what hinders us from becoming good Divines. But all this while we are but in the preparation to the Mysteries of Godlinesse. When we have thrown off all affections to sin; when we have stript our selves from all fond adherencies to the things of the world, and have broken the chains and dominion of our Passions; then we may say with David, Ecce paratum est Cor meum, Deus; My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready: then we may say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth: but we are not yet instru­cted. [Page 27] It remaines therefore that we enquire what is that immediate principle or meanes by which we shall certainly and infallibly be led into all truth, and be taught the mind of God, and understand all his secrets: and this is worth our knowledge. I cannot say that this will end your labours, and put a period to your studies, and make your learning easie: it may possibly increase your labour, but it will make it profi­table; it will not end your Studies, but it will direct them; it will not make humane Learn­ing easie, but will make it wise unto salvation, and conduct it into true notices and wayes of wisdom.

I am now to describe to you the right way of knowledge. Qui facit voluntatem Patris mei (saith Christ) that's the way: do Gods will, and you shall understand Gods Word. And it was an excellent saying of St. Peter, Add to your faith Vertue, &c. If these things be in you and abound, ye shall not be un­fruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Pet. 1. For in this case it is not enough that all our hin­derances of knowledge are removed; for that is but the opening of the covering of the Book of God: but when it is opened, it is written with a hand that every eye cannot read. Though the windowes of the East be open, yet every eye cannot behold the glories of the Sun. [Page 28] [...], saith Plotinus; the eye that is not made Solar cannot see the Sun; the eye must be fitted to the splendor: and is not the wit of the man, but the spirit of the man; not so much his head as his heart, that learnes the Divine Philosophy.

1. Now in this inquiry I must take one thing for a praecognitum, that every good man is [...], he is taught of God: and indeed unless he teach us, we shall make but ill Scholars our selves, and worse guides to others. Nemo potest Deum scire, nisi à Deo doceatur, said St. Jrenaeus, (lib. 6. c. 14.) If God teaches us, then all is well: but if we do not learn wisdom at his feet, from whence should we have it? it can come from no other spring. And therefore it naturally fol­lows, that by how much nearer we are to God, by so much better we are like to be instructed.

But this being supposed, as being most evi­dent, we can easily proceed by wonderfull de­grees and steps of progression in the Oeconomy of this Divine Philosophy. For,

2. There is in every righteous man a new vital principle: the Spirit of Grace is the spirit of Wisdome, and teaches us by secret inspirati­ons, by proper arguments, by actuall perswasi­ons, by personall applications, by effects and energies: and as the soul of a man is the cause [Page 29] of all his vitall operations, so is the Spirit of God the life of that life, and the cause of all acti­ons and productions Spirituall. And the con­sequence of this is what St. Iohn tells us of; Ye have received the Unction from above: and that anoynt­ing teacheth you all things. 1 Joh. 2. 27. All things of some one kind: that is, certainly, all things that pertain to life and Godlinesse; all that by which a man is wise and happy. We see this by common experience. Unlesse the soul have a new life put into it, un­lesse there be a vital principle within, unlesse the spirit of life be the Informer of the spirit of the man, the Word of God will be as dead in the operation as the body in its powers and pos­sibilities. Sol & Homo generant hominem, saith our Philosophy. A Man alone does not beget a man; but a Man and the Sun: for without the influence of the Celestiall bodyes all natural actions are ineffective: and so it is in the ope­rations of the Soul.

Which principle divers Fanatics, both a­mongst us and in the Church of Rome, misun­derstanding, look for new Revelations, and ex­pect to be conducted by ecstasy, and will not pray but in a transfiguration, and live upon rap­tures and extravagant expectations, and sepa­rate themselves from the conversation of men by affectations, by new measures and singulari­ties, [Page 30] and destroy order and despise Government, and live upon illiterate phantasmes and igno­rant discourses. These men do [...], they bely the holy Ghost: For the Spirit of God makes men wise; it is an evil Spirit that makes them Fools. The Spirit of God makes us Wise unto Salvation, it does not spend its holy in­fluences in disguises and convulsions of the un­derstanding. Gods spirit does not destroy Rea­son, but heightens it: he never disorders the beauties of Government, but is a God of Order; it is the spirit of Humility, and teaches no Pride: he is to be found in Churches and Pulpits, upon Altars and in the Doctors Chaires; not in Conventicles and mutinous corners of a house: he goes in company with his own Or­dinances, and makes progressions by the mea­sures of life: his infusions are just as our acqui­sitions, and his Graces pursue the methods of nature: that which was imperfect he leads on to perfection, and that which was weake he makes strong: he opens the heart, not to re­ceive murmurs, or to attend to secret whispers, but to hear the Word of God; and then he o­pens the heart, and creates a new one; and without this new creation, this new principle of life, we may heare the Word of God, but we can never understand it; we heare the sound, [Page 31] but are never the better; unlesse there be in our hearts a secret conviction by the spirit of God, the Gospel it self is a dead Letter, and worketh not in us the light and righteousness of God.

Do not we see this by a daily experience? Even those things which a good man and an evil man know, they do not know them both a­like. A wicked man does know that good is lovely, and sin is of an evill and destructive na­ture; and when he is reproved, he is convin­ced; and when he is observed, he is ashamed; and when he hath done, he is unsatisfied; and when he pursues his sin, he does it in the dark. Tell him he shall dye, and he sighs deeply, but he knows it as well as you: proceed, and say that after death comes Judgement, and the poor man believes and trembles. He knows that God is angry with him; and if you tell him that for ought he knows he may be in Hell to morrow, he knows that it is an intolerable truth, but it it also undeniable. And yet after all this he runs to commit his sin with as cer­tain an event and resolution, as if he knew no argument against it. These notices of things terrible and true passe through his understand­ing as an Eagle through the Air: as long as her flight lasted, the Air was shaken; but there re­mains no path behind her.

[Page 32] Now since at the same time we see other per­sons, not so learned it may be, not so much ver­sed in Scriptures, yet they say a thing is good and lay hold of it, they believe glorious things of Heaven, and they live accordingly, as men that believe themselves; halfe a word is enough to make them understand; a nod is a suffi­cient reproof; the Crowing of a Cock, the sing­ing of a Lark, the dawning of the day, and the washing their hands are to them competent memorialls of Religion and warnings of their duty: What is the reason of this difference? They both read the Scriptures, they read and heare the same Sermons, they have capable un­derstandings, they both believe what they heare and what they read, and yet the event is vastly different. The reason is that which I am now speaking of: the one understands by one Prin­ciple, the other by another; the one under­stands by Nature, and the other by Grace; the one by humane Learning, and the other by Divine; the one reads the Scriptures without, and the other within; the one understands as a son of man, the other as a son of God; the one perceives by the proportions of the World, and the other by the measures of the Spirit; the one understands by Reason, and the other by Love; and therefore he does not only understand the [Page 33] Sermons of the Spirit, and perceives their mean­ing, but he pierces deeper, and knows the mea­ning of that meaning, that is, the secret of the Spirit, that which is spiritually discerned, that which gives life to the Proposition, and activi­ty to the Soul.

And the reason is, because he hath a Divine principle within him, and a new understand­ing: that is plainly, he hath Love, and that's more then Knowledge; as was rarely well ob­served by St. Paul, Knowledge puffethup, but Cha­rity edifieth; that is, Charity makes the best Scho­lars. No Sermons can edify you, no Scriptures can build you up a holy building to God, un­lesse the love of God, be in your hearts; and purifie your souls from all filthinesse of the Flesh and spirit.

But so it is in the regions of Starrs, where a vast body of fire is so divided by excentric mo­tions, that it looks as if Nature had parted them into Orbes and round shells of plain and purest materialls: but where the cause is simple and the matter without variety, the motions must be uniforme; and in Heaven we should either espy no motion, or no variety. But God, who de­signed the Heavens to be the causes of all chan­ges and motions here below, hath placed his Angels in their houses of light, and given to [Page 34] every one of his appointed officers a portion of the fiery matter to circumagitate and roll; and now the wonder ceases: for if it be enquired why this part of the fire runs Eastward and the other to the South, they being both indifferent to either, it is because an Angel of God sits in the Centre, and makes the same matter turne, not by the bent of its own mobility and incli­nation, but in order to the needs of Man and the great purposes of God; and so it is in the understandings of men: When they all receive the same notions, and are taught by the same Master, and give full consent to all the proposi­tions, and can of themselves have nothing to distinguish them in the events, it is because God hath sent his Divine spirit, and kindles a new fire, and creates a braver capacity, and applies the actives to the passives, and blesses their ope­ration. For there is in the heart of man such a dead sea, and an indisposition to holy flames, like as in the cold Rivers in the North, so as the fires will not burn them, and the Sun it self will never warme them, till Gods holy Spirit does from the Temple of the new Ierusalem bring a holy flame, and make it shine and burn.

The Naturall man (saith the holy Apostle) can­not perceive the things of the Spirit: they are foolish­nesse unto him; for they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor. 2 14. For [Page 35] he that discourses of things by the measures of sense, thinks nothing good but that which is delicious to the palat, or pleases the brutish part of man; and therefore while he estimates the secrets of Religion by such measures, they must needs seeme as insipid as Cork, or the uncondi­ted Mushrom; for they have nothing at all of that in their constitution. A voluptuous person is like the Dogs of Sicily, so fill'd with the delici­ousnesse of Plants that grow in every furrow and hedge, that they can never keep the sent of their game. [...], said St. Chrysostome: the fire and wa­ter can never mingle; so neither can sensuality and the watchfulnesse and wise discerning of the spirit. Pilato interroganti de veritate, Christus non respondit: When the wicked Governour as­ked of Christ concerning truth, Christ gave him no answer. He was not fit to heare it.

He therefore who so understands the Words of God, that he not only believes, but loves the proposition; he who consents with all his heart, and being convinced of the truth does also apprehend the necessity, and obeys the pre­cept, and delights in the discovery, and layes his hand upon his heart, and reduces the notices of things to the practice of duty; he who dares trust his proposition, and drives it on to the ut­most [Page 36] ssue, resolving to goe after it whither so­ever it can invite him; this Man walks in the spirit: at least thus far he is gone towards it, his Understanding is brought in obsequium Christi, into the obedience of Christ. This is a loving God with all our mind; and whatever goes less then this, is but Memory, and not Understanding; or else such notice of things by which a man is neither the wiser nor the better.

3. Sometimes God gives to his choicest, his most elect and precious Servants, a knowledge even of secret things, which he communicates not to others. We find it greatly remark'd in the case of Abraham, Gen. 18. 17. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing that I do? Why not from Abraham? God tells us. v. 19. For I know him, that he will command his Children and his houshold after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to doe justice and judgement. And though this be irregular and infrequent, yet it is a reward of their piety, and the proper increase also of the spirituall man. We find this spoken by God to Daniel, and promised to be the lot of the righte­ous man in the dayes of the Messias; Many shall be purified and made white and tryed; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and what then? None of the wic­ked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. Dan. 12. 10. Where besides that the wise man and the wic­ked [Page 37] are opposed, plainly signifying that the wic­ked man is a Fool and an Ignorant: it is plain­ly said that None of the wicked shall understand the wisdome and mysteriousnesse of the Kingdome of the Messias.

4. A good life is the best way to understand Wis­dome and Religion, because by the experiences and relishes of Religion there is conveyed to them such a sweetnesse, to which all wicked men are strangers: there is in the things of God to them which practice them a deliciousnesse that makes us love them, and that love admits us into Gods Cabinet, and strangely clarifies the understanding by the purification of the heart. For when our reason is raised up by the spirit of Christ, it is turned quickly into experience: when our Faith relyes upon the principles of Christ, it is changed into vision: & so long as we know God only in the wayes of man, by con­tentious Learning, by arguing and dispute, we see nothing but the shadow of him, and in that shadow we meet with many dark appearances, little certainty and much conjecture: But when we know him [...], with the eyes of holinesse and the intuition of gracious experiences, with a quiet spirit and the peace of Enjoyment; then we shall heare what we never heard, and see what our eyes never saw; then [Page 38] the mysteries of Godlinesse shall be opened un­to us, and cleare as the windows of the mor­ning. And this is rarely well expressed by the Apostle, If we stand up from the dead and awake from sleep, then Christ shall give us light. Eph. 5. 14.

For although the Scriptures themselves are written by the Spirit of God, yet they are writ­ten within and without: and besides the light that shines upon the face of them, unlesse there be a light shining within our hearts, unfolding the leaves and interpreting the mysterious sense of the spirit, convincing our Consciences and preaching to our hearts; to look for Christ in the leaves of the Gospell, is to look for the li­ving amongst the dead. There is a life in them, but that life is (according to St. Paul's expressi­on) hid with Christ in God: and unlesse the spirit of God be the Promo-condus, we shall never draw it forth.

Humane Learning brings excellent ministe­ries towards this: it is admirably usefull for the reproof of Heresies, for the detection of Falla­cies, for the Letter of the Scripture, for Collate­ral testimonies, for exterior advantages; but there is something beyond this, that humane Learning without the addition of Divine can never teach. Moses was learned in all the learning of the Egyptians; and the holy men of God con­templated [Page 39] the glories of God in the admirable order, motion and influences of the Heaven: but besides all this, they were taught of God something far beyond these prettinesses. Pytha­goras read Moses's Books, and so did Plato; and yet they became not Proselytes of the Religion, though they were learned Scholars of such a Master. The reason is, because that which they drew forth from thence was not the life and secret of it.

There is a secret in these Books, which few men, none but the Godly, did understand: and though much of this secret is made manifest in the Gospel, yet even here also there is a Letter and there is a Spirit: still there is a reserve for Gods secret ones, even all those deep mysteries which the old Testament covered in Figures, and stories, and names, and prophesies, and which Christ hath, and by his Spirit will yet reveale more plainly to all that will understand them by their proper measures. For although the Gospel is infinitely more legible and plain then the obscurer Leaves of the Law, yet there is a seale upon them also: which Seale no man shall open but he that is worthy. We may understand some­thing of it by the three Children of the Capti­vity; they were all skil'd in all the wisdom of [Page 40] the Chaldees, and so was Daniel: but there was something beyond that in him; the wisdom of the most high God was in him, and that taught him a learning beyond his learning.

In all Scripture there is a spirituall sense, a spirituall Cabala, which as it tends directly to holiness, so it is best and truest understood by the sons of the Spirit, who love God, and there­fore know him. [...], every thing is best known by its own similitudes and analogies.

But I must take some other time to speak ful­ly of these things. I have but one thing more to say, and then I shall make my Applications of this Doctrine, and so conclude.

5. Lastly, there is a sort of Gods deare Ser­vants who walk in perfectnesse, who perfect ho­linesse in the feare of God; and they have a degree of Clarity and divine knowledge more then we can discourse of, and more certain then the Demonstrations of Geometry, brighter then the Sun, and indeficient as the light of Heaven. This is called by the Apostle the [...]. Christ is this brightnesse of God, manifested in the hearts of his dearest servants.

But I shall say no more of this at this time, [Page 41] for this is to be felt and not to be talked of; and they that never touched it with their finger, may secretly perhaps laugh at it in their heart, and be never the wiser. All that I shall now say of it is, that a good man is united unto God [...], as a flame touches a flame, and combines into splendor and to glory: so is the Spirit of a man united unto Christ by the spirit of God. These are the friends of God, and they best know Gods mind, and they only that are so know how much such men do know. They have a special Unction from above. So that now you are come to the top of all: this is the high­est round of the Ladder, and the Angels stand upon it: they dwell in love and Contemplati­on, they worship and obey, but dispute not; and our quarrels and impertinent wranglings about Religion are nothing else but the want of the measures of this State. Our light is like a Candle, every wind of vain Doctrine blows it out, or spends the wax, and makes the light tremulous; but the lights of Heaven are sixed and bright, and shine for ever.

But that we may speak not only things myste­rious, but things intelligible; how does it come to passe, by what means and what Oeconomy is it effected, that a holy life is the best determi­nation of all Questions, and the surest way of [Page 42] knowledge? Is it to be supposed that a Godly man is better enabled to determine the Questi­ons of Purgatory or Transubstantiation? is the gift of Chastity the best way to reconcile Thomas and Scotus? and is a temperate man alwayes a better Scholar then a Drunkard? To this I an­swer, that in all things in which true wisdom consists, Holinesse, which is the best wisdom, is the surest way of understanding them. And this

1. Is effected by Holinesse as a proper and na­tural instrument: for naturally every thing is best discerned by its proper light and congenial instrument.

For as the eye sees visible objects, and the un­derstanding perceives the Intellectual; so does the spirit the things of the Spirit. The naturall man (saith St. Paul,) knows not the things of God, for they are Spiritually discerned: that is, they are dis­covered by a proper light, and concerning these things an unsanctified man discourses pittifully, with an imperfect Idea, as a blind man does of Light and Colours which he never saw.

A good man, though unlearned in secular notices, is like the windows of the Temple, narrow without and broad within: he sees not [Page 43] so much of what profits not abroad, but what so­ever is within, and concerns Religion and the glorifications of God, that he sees with a broad inspection. But all humane learning without God is but blindnesse and ignorant folly.

But when it is [...], righteousnesse dipt in the wells of Truth, it is like an eye of Gold in a rich Garment, or like the light of Heaven, it shews it self by its own splendor. What Learning is it to discourse of the Philosophy of the Sacrament, if you do not feel the virtue of it? and the man that can with eloquence and subtilty discourse of the in­strumentall efficacy of Baptismal waters, talkes ignorantly in respect of him who hath the an­swer of a good Conscience within, and is cleansed by the purifications of the Spirit. If the Question concern any thing that can perfect a man and make him happy, all that is the proper know­ledge and notice of the good man. How can a wicked man understand the purities of the heart? and how can an evil and unworthy Communicant tell what it is to have received Christ by faith, to dwell with him, to be uni­ted to him, to receive him in his heart? The good man only understands that: the one sees the colour, and the other feels the substance; the one discourses of the Sacrament, and the o­ther [Page 44] receives Christ; the one discourses for or against Transubstantiation, but the good man feels himself to be changed and so joyn'd to Christ, that he only understands the true sense of Transubstantiation, while he becomes to Christ bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, and of the same spirit with his Lord.

We talk much of Reformation, and (blessed be God) once we have felt the good of it: But of late we have smarted under the name and pretension. The Woman that lost her groate, everrit domum, not evertit; she swept the house, she did not turn the house out of doors. That was but an ill Reformation that untiled the Roof, and broak the Walls, and was digging down the Foundation.

Now among all the pretensions of Refor­mation, who can tell better what is, and what is not, true Reformation, then he that is truly Re­form'd himself? He knows what pleases God, and can best tell by what instruments he is re­conciled. The mouth of the just bringeth forth wis­dom; and the lips of the righteous know what is accep­table, saith Solomon. Prov. 10. 31, 32. He cannot be cousen'd by names of things, and feels that Reformation to be Imposture that is Sacrilegious: himself is humble and obedient, and therefore knows that is not Truth that perswades to Schisme and [Page 45] Disobedience: and most of the Questions of Christendom are such which either are good for nothing, and therefore to be layd aside; or if they be complicated with action, and are mi­nisteries of practice, no man can judge them so well as the spirituall man. That which best pleases God, that which does good to our Neighbour, that which teaches sobriety, that which combines with Government, that which speaks honour of God and does him honour, that only is Truth. Holinesse therefore is a pro­per and naturall instrument of Divine know­ledge, and must needs be the best way of instru­ction in the Questions of Christendom, because in the most of them a Duty is complicated with the Proposition.

No man that intends to live holily can e­ver suffer any pretences of Religion to be made to teach him to fight against his King. And when the men of Geneva turned their Bishop out of doors, they might easily have considered that the same person was their Prince too; and that must needs be a strange Religion that rose up against Moses and Aaron at the same time: but that hath been the method ever since. There was no Church till then was ever Governed without an Apostle or a Bishop: and since then, they who go from their Bishop have said very often to their King too, Nolumus hunc regnare: [Page 46] and when we see men pretending Religion, and yet refuse to own the Kings Supremacy, they may upon the stock of holinesse easily reprove their own folly; by considering that such re­cusancy does introduce into our Churches the very worst, the most intolerable parts of Pope­ry. For perfect submission to Kings is the glory of the Protestant cause: and really the reproveable Do­ctrines of the Church of Rome are by nothing so much confuted, as that they destroy good life by consequent and evident deduction; as by an Induction of particulars were easie to make apparent, if this were the proper season for it.

2. Holinesse is not only an advantage to the learning all wisdom and holinesse, but for the discerning that which is wise and holy from what is trifling and uselesse and contentious: and to one of these heads all Questions will re­turn: and therefore in all, from Holinesse we have the best Instructions. And this brings me to the next Particle of the generall Considerati­on. For that which we are taught by the holy Spirit of God, this new nature, this vital principle within us, it is that which is worth our learn­ing; not vaine and empty, idle and insignificant notions, in which when you have laboured till your eyes are fixed in their Orbes and your flesh unfixed from its bones, you are no better and [Page 47] no wiser. If the Spirit of God be your Teacher, he will teach you such truths as will make you know and love God, and become like to him, and enjoy him for ever, by passing from simili­tude to union and eternal fruition. But what are you the better if any man should pretend to teach you whether every Angel makes a species? and what is the individuation of the Soul in the state of separation? what are you the wiser if you should study and find out what place Adam should for ever have lived in if he had not fal­len? and what is any man the more learned if he heares the disputes, whether Adam should have multiplied Children in the state of Inno­cence, and what would have been the event of things if one Child had been born before his Fathers sin?

Too many Scholars have lived upon Air and empty notions for many ages past, and trou­bled themselves with tying and untying Knots, like Hypochondriacs in a fit of Melancholy, think­ing of nothing, and troubling themselves with nothing, and falling out about nothings, and be­ing very wise and very learned in things that are not and work not, and were never planted in Paradise by the finger of God. Mens notions are too often like the Mules, begotten by aequi­vocall and unnaturall Generations; but they [Page 48] make no species: they are begotten, but they can beget nothing: they are the effects of long study, but they can do no good when they are produ­ced: they are not that which Solomon calls viam intelligentiae, the way of understanding. If the Spirit of God be our Teacher, we shall learn to avoid evil, and to do good, to be wise and to be holy, to be profitable and carefull: and they that walk in this way shall find more peace in their Consciences, more skill in the Scriptures, more satisfaction in their doubts, then can be obtain'd by all the polemical and impertinent disputati­ons of the world. And if the holy spirit can teach us how vain a thing it is to do foolish things, he also will teach us how vain a thing it is to trouble the world with foolish Questions, to disturb the Church for interest or pride, to resist Government in things indifferent, to spend the peoples zeale in things unprofitable, to make Religion to consist in outsides, and op­position to circumstances and trifling regards. No, no, the Man that is wise, he that is con­ducted by the Spirit of God, knows better in what Christs Kingdom does consist, then to throw away his time and interest and peace and safety; for what? for Religion? no: for the bo­dy of Religion? not so much: for the garment of the body of Religion? no, not for so much: [Page 49] but for the Fringes of the garment of the Body of Religion; for such and no better are the disputes that trouble our discontented Brethren; they are things, or rather Circumstances and manners of things, in which the Soul and spirit is not at all concerned.

3. Holinesse of life is the best way of finding out truth and understanding; not only as a Naturall medium, nor only as a prudent medium, but as a means by way of Divine blessing. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest my self to him. John 14. 21. Here we have a promise for it; and upon that we may rely.

The old man that confuted the Arian Priest by a plain recitall of his Creed, found a mighty power of God effecting his own Work by a strange manner, and by a very plain instru­ment: it wrought a divine blessing just as Sa­craments use to doe: and this Lightning some­times comes in a strange manner as a peculiar blessing to good men. For God kept the secrets of his Kingdom from the wise Heathens and the learned Jewes, revealing them to Babes, not because they had less learning, but because they had more love; they were children and Babes in Malice, they loved Christ, and so he became [Page 50] to them a light and a glory. St. Paul had more learning then they all; and Moses was instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians: yet because he was the meekest man upon Earth, he was al­so the wisest, and to his humane Learning in which he was excellent, he had a divine light and excellent wisdome superadded to him by way of spiritual blessings. And St. Paul, though he went very far to the knowledge of many great and excellent truths by the force of hu­mane learning, yet he was far short of perfective truth and true wisdom till he learned a new lesson in a new School, at the feet of one greater then his Ganialiel: his learning grew much great­er, his notions brighter, his skill deeper, by the love of Christ, and his desires, his passionate desires after Jesus.

The force and use of humane learning and of this Divine learning I am now speaking of, are both well expressed by the Prophet Isaiah, 29. 11, 12. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot, for it is seal'd. And the Book is delive­red to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. He that is no learned man, who is not bred up in the Schools of the Prophets, cannot read Gods Book for [Page 51] want of learning. For humane Learning is the gate and first entrance of Divine vision; not the only one indeed, but the common gate. But beyond this, there must be another learning; for he that is learned, bring the Book to him, and you are not much the better as to the secret part of it, if the Book be sealed, if his eyes be closed, if his heart be not opened, if God does not speak to him in the secret way of discipline. Humane learning is an excellent Foundation; but the top-stone is laid by Love and Confor­mity to the will of God. For we may further observe, that blindnesse, errour and Ignorance are the punishments which God sends upon wicked and ungodly men. Etiamsi propter nostrae intelligentiae tarditatem & vitae demeritum veritas non­dum se apertissime ostenderit, was St. Austin's expres­sion. The truth hath not yet been manifested fully to us, by reason of our demerits: our sins have hindred the brightnesse of the truth from shi­ning upon us. And St. Paul observes, that when the Heathens gave themselves over to lusts, God gave them over to strong delusions, and to believe a Lie. Rom. 1. 25, 26. But God giveth to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom and knowledge and joy, Eccl. 2. 26. said the wise Preacher. But this is most expresly promised in the New Te­stament, and particularly in that admirable Ser­mon which our blessed Saviour preach'd a little [Page 52] before his death. The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things. John 14. 26. Well: there's our Teacher told of plainly. But how shall we obtain this teacher, and how shall we be taught? v. 15, 16, 17. Christ will pray for us that we may have this spirit. That's well: but shall all Christians have the spirit? Yes, all that will live like Christians: for so said Christ, If ye love me, keep my Commandements; and I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that may abide with you for ever; even the spirit of truth, whom the World cannot receive, because it seeth him not, nei­ther knoweth him. Mark these things. The Spirit of God is our teacher: he will abide with us for ever to be our teacher: he will teach us all things; but how? if ye love Christ, if ye keep his Commandments, but not else: if ye be of the World, that is, of worldly affections, ye can­not see him, ye cannot know him. And this is the particular I am now to speak to, The way by which the Spirit of God teaches us in all the wayes and secrets of God is Love and Holinesse.

Secreta Dei Deo nostro et filiis domus ejus, Gods secrets are to himself and the sons of his House, saith the Jewish Proverb. Love is the great in­strument of Divine knowledge, that is the [Page 53] [...], the height of all that is to be taught or learned. Love is Obedience, and we learn his words best when we practise them: [...], said A­ristotle:Lib. 2. Ethic. c. 1. those things which they that learn ought to practise, even while they practise they will best learn.Nullum bo­num perfectè noscitur quod non perfectè amatur. Quisquis non venit, profectò nec didicit: Ita enim Dominus docet per Spiritus gratiam, ut quod quisque didicerit, non tantum cognoscendo videat, sed etiam volendo appetat & agendo perficiat. St. Austin De gratia Christi lib. 1. c. 14.Aug. lib. 83. qu. de gratia Christi. Unlesse we come to Christ, we shall never learn: for so our Blessed Lord teaches us by the grace of his spirit, that what any one learns, he not only sees it by knowledge, but desires it by choice, and per­fects it by practice.

4. When this is reduced to practice and ex­perience, we find not only in things of practise, but even in deepest mysteries, not only the choi­cest and most eminent Saints, but even every good man can best tell what is true, and best re­prove an error.

He that goes about to speak of and to under­stand the mysterious Trinity, and does it by words and names of mans invention, or by such which signifie contingently, if he reckons this mystery by the Mythology of Numbers, by the Cabala of Letters, by the distinctions of the School, and [Page 54] by the weak inventions of disputing people; if he only talks of Essences and existencies, Hypostases and personalities, distinctions without diffe­rence, and priority in Coequalities, and unity in Pluralities, and of superior Praedicates of no larger extent then the inferior Subjects, may a­muse himself, and find his understanding will be like St. Peters upon the Mount of Tabor at the Transfiguration: he may build three Ta­bernacles in his head, and talke something, but he knows not what. But the good man that feels the power of the Father, and he to whom the Son is become Wisdom, Righteousnesse, Sanctifica­tion, and Redemption; he in whose heart the love of the Spirit of God is spread, to whom God hath communicated the Holy Ghost, the Comforter; this man, though he understands nothing of that which is unintelligible, yet he only under­stands the mysteriousnesse of the Holy Trinity. No man can be convinced well and wisely of the Article of the Holy, Blessed and Undivided Trinity, but he that feels the mightiness of the Father begetting him to a new life, the wisdome of the Son building him up in a most holy Faith, and the love of the spirit of God making him to be­come like unto God.

He that hath passed from his Childhood in Grace under the spirituall generation of the Fa­ther, [Page 55] and is gone forward to be a young man in Christ, strong and vigorous in holy actions and holy undertakings, and from thence is become an old Disciple, and strong and grown old in Religion, and the conversation of the Spirit; this man best understands the secret and un­discernable Oeconomie, he feels this unintelli­gible mysterie, and sees with his heart what his tongue can never express, and his Metaphysics can never prove. In these cases Faith and Love are the best Knowledge, and Jesus Christ is best known by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; and if the Kingdom of God be in us, then we know God, and are known of him: and when we communicate of the Spirit of God, when we pray for him, and have received him, and en­tertained him, and dwelt with him, and war­med our selves by his holy fires, then we know him too. But there is no other satisfacto­ry knowledge of the Blessed Trinity but this: And therefore whatever thing is spoken of God Metaphysically, there is no knowing of God Theo­logically and as he ought to be known, but by the measures of Holinesse and the proper light of the Spirit of God.

But in this case Experience is the best learn­ing, and Christianity is the best institution, and the Spirit of God is the best teacher, and Holi­nesse [Page 56] is the greatest wisdome; and he that sins most is the most Ignorant, and the humble and obedient man is the best Scholar. For the Spirit of God is a loving Spirit, and will not enter into a pollu­ted Soul: But he that keepeth the Law getteth the un­derstanding thereof, and the perfection of the fear of the Lord is wisdom, said the wise Ben-Sirach. Ecclus. 21. 11. And now give me leave to apply the Doctrine to you, and so I shall dismisse you from this attention.

Many wayes have been attempted to re­concile the differences of the Church in matters of Religion, and all the Counsels of man have yet proved ineffective. Let us now try Gods Method, let us betake our selves to live holily, and then the spirit of God will lead us into all truth. And indeed it matters not what Religion any man is of, if he be a Villaine; the opinion of his Sect, as it will not save his Soul, so neither will it do good to the publick. But this is a sure Rule; If the holy man best understands Wisdom and Religion, then by the proportions of holi­nesse we shall best measure the Doctrines that are obtruded to the disturbance of our peace, and the dishonour of the Gospell. And there­fore

1. That is no good Religion whose Princi­ples destroy any duty of Religion. He that shall maintain it to be lawfull to make a War for [Page 57] the defence of his Opinion be it what it will, his Doctrine is against Godlinesse. Any thing that is proud, any thing that is peevish and scornful, any thing that is uncharitable, is against the [...], that forme of sound Doctrine which the Apostle speaks of. And I remember that Ammianus Marcellinus telling of George a proud and factious Minister, that he was an Informer against his Brethren, he sayes, he did it oblitus professionis suae, quae nil nisi justum suadet & lene; He forgot his profession, which teaches nothing but justice and meeknesse, kindnesses and charity. And however Bellarmine and others are pleased to take but indirect and imperfect notice of it, yet Goodnesse is the best note of the true Church.

2. It is but an ill sign of Holinesse when a man is busie in troubling himself and his Supe­rior in little Scruples and Phantastick Opinions about things not concerning the life of Religi­on, or the pleasure of God, or the excellencies of the Spirit. A good man knows how to please God, how to converse with him, how to ad­vance the Kingdome of the Lord Jesus, to set forwards Holinesse and the love of God and of his Brother; and he knows also that there is no Godliness in spending our time and our talk, our heart and our spirits, about the garments and outsides of Religion. And they can ill teach [Page 58] others, that do not know that Religion does not consist in these things; but Obedience may, and reductively that is Religion; and he that for that which is no part of Religion destroys Religion directly, by neglecting that duty that is adop­ted into Religion, is a man of fancy and of the World: but he gives but an ill account that he is a man of God, and a son of the Spirit.

Spend not your time in that which profits not; for your labour and your health, your time and your studies are very valuable; and it is a thousand pitties to see a diligent and a hope­full person spend himself in gathering Cockle­shells and little pebbles, in telling Sands upon the shores, and making Garlands of uselesse Daisies. Study that which is profitable, that which will make you useful to Churches and Common-wealths, that which will make you desirable and wise. Onely I shall add this to you, That in Learning there are variety of things as well as in Religion: there is Mint and Cummin, and there are the weighty things of the Law; so there are studies more and lesse usefull, and every thing that is usefull will be required in its time: and I may in this also use the words of our blessed Saviour, These things ought you to look after, and not to leave the other un­regarded. But your great care is to be in the [Page 59] things of God and of Religion, in holiness and true wisdom, remembring the saying of Origen, that the knowledge that arises from goodnesse is [...], something that is more certain and more divine then all demonstrati­on, then all other Learnings of the World.

3. That's no good Religion that disturbs Governments, or shakes a foundation of publick peace. Kings and Bishops are the foundations and the great principles of unity, of peace and Government; like Rachel and Leah they build up the house of Israel: and those blind Samsons that shake these Pillars intend to pull the house down. My Son, fear God and the King, saith Solomon; and meddle not with them that are given to change. That is not Truth that loves changes: and the new-nothings of Heretical & Schismatical Preachers are infinitely far from the blessings of Truth.

In the only Language Truth hath a Mysterious Name, [...] Emet; it consists of three Letters, the first and the last and the middle most of the He­brew Letters: implying to us that Truth is first, and will be last, and it is the same all the way, and combines and unites all extreams; it tyes all ends together. Truth is lasting, and ever full of blessing. For the Jews observe that those Letters which signifie Truth, are both in the figure and the number Quadrate, firme and cubical; these [Page 60] signifie a foundation, and an abode for ever. Whereas on the other side, the word which in Hebrew signifies a lye, [...] Secher, is made of Let­ters whose numbers are imperfect, and their fi­gure pointed and voluble: to signifie that a Lye hath no foundation.

And this very observation will give good light in our Questions and disputes. And I give my instance in Episcopal Government, which hath been of so lasting an abode, of so long a blessing, hath its firmament by the principles of Christi­anity, hath been blessed by the issues of that stabiliment, it hath for sixteen hundred yeares combined with Monarchy, and hath been taught by the spirit which hath so long dwelt in Gods Church, and hath now (according to the pro­mise of Jesus, that sayes the gates of Hell shall never prevail against the Church) been restored amongst us by a heap of Miracles; and as it went away, so now it is returned againe in the hand of Mo­narchy, and in the bosome of our Fundamental Laws. Now that Doctrine must needs be sus­pected of Error and an intolerable Lye that speaks against this Truth, which hath had so long a testimony from God, and from the wis­dome and experience of so many ages, of all our Ancestors, and all our Lawes.

When the Spirit of God wrote in Greek, [Page 61] Christ is call'd A and [...]: if he had spoken Hebrew, he had been called [...] and [...], that is Christ is [...] Emet, he is Truth, the same yesterday and to day and for ever: and whoever opposes this holy Sanction which Christs Spirit hath sanctifyed, his word hath warranted, his blessings have en­deared, his promises have ratifyed, and his Church hath alwayes kept, he fights against this [...] Emet, and Secher is his portion; his Lot is a Lie, his portion is there where holiness can never dwell.

And now to conclude, to you Fathers and Brethren, you who are, or intend to be of the Clergie; you see here the best Compendium of your Studies, the best abbreviature of your labours, the truest method of wisdom, and the infalli­ble, the only way of judging concerning the Disputes and Questions in Christendom. It is not by reading multitude of Books, but by stu­dying the truth of God: it is not by laborious Commentaries of the Doctors that you can fi­nish your work, but by the expositions of the Spirit of God: is is not by the Rules of Metaphysics, but by the proportions of Holinesse: and when all Books are read, and all Arguments examined, and all Authorities alledged, nothing can be found to be true that is unholy. Give your selves to reading, to exhortation, and to Doctrine, saith St. [Page 62] Paul. Read all good Books you can: but ex­hortation unto good life is the best Instrument, and the best teacher of true Doctrine, of that which is according to Godlinesse.

And let me tell you this, The great learning of the Fathers was more owing to their piety then to their skill; more to God then to them­selves: and to this purpose is that excellent eja­culation of St. Chrysostome, with which I will conclude.‘O blessed and happy men, whose names are in the Book of life, from whom the Devils fled and Heretics did feare them, who (by Holinesse) have stopp'd the mouthes of them that spake perverse things! But I, like David, will cry out, Where are thy loving-kindnes­ses which have been ever of old? Where is the blessed Quire of Bishops and Doctors, who shi­ned like lights in the World, and contained the Word of Life? Dulce est meminisse; their very memory is pleasant. Where is that Evodias, the sweet favour of the Church, the successor and imitator of the holy Apostles? where is Ig­natius, in whom God dwelt? where is St. Dio­nysius the Areopagite, that Bird of Paradise, that celestial Eagle? where is Hippolytus, that good man, [...], that gentle sweet person? where is great St. Basil, a man almost equall to the Apostles? where is Athanasius, rich in ver­tue? [Page 63] where is Gregory Nyssen, that great Divine? and Ephrem the great Syrian, that stirred up the sluggish, and awakened the sleepers, and comforted the afflicted, and brought the yong men to discipline, the Looking-glasse of the religious, the Captain of the Penitents, the destruction of Heresies, the receptacle of Graces, and the habitation of the holy Ghost?Lib. de Consummat. saeculi, inter opera Ephrem Sy­ri.’These were the men that prevailed against Er­ror, because they lived according to Truth: and whoever shall oppose you and the truth you walk by, may better be confuted by your lives then by your disputations. Let your ad­versaries have no evil thing to say of you, and then you will best silence them. For all Heresies and false Doctrines are but like Myron's counterfeit Cow, it deceived none but Beasts; and these can cozen none but the wicked and the negligent, them that love a lye and live according to it. [But if ye become burning and shining lights; if ye do not detaine the truth in unrighteousnesse; if ye walk in light and live in the Spirit; your Doctrines will be true, and that Truth will prevaile.] But if ye live wickedly and scandalously, every little Schismatick shall put you to shame, and draw Disciples after him, and abuse your flocks, and feed them with Colocynths and Hemlock, and place Her [...] in the Chaires appointed for your Religion.

[Page] I pray God give you all grace to follow this Wisdom, to study this Learning, to labour for the understanding of Godlinesse: so your time and your studies, your persons and your labours will by holy and useful, sanctified and blessed, beneficiall to men and pleasing unto God, through him who is the wisdom of the Father, who is made to all that love him Wisdom and Righteousnesse and Sanctification and Redemption: To whom with the Father, &c.