1 Tim. 3.16 And of all these wounderful passages the Scripture gives us a perfect Narrative And what have the great Wits of the World ever treated on like this either for Strangeness or Truth All their Learning is but idle and contemptible Speculation compared to this great Mystery of a Crucified Saviour who subdued Death by dying and without force converted the World to believe a Doctrine above Reason It was a very odd saying of Tertullian de carne Christi cont Marc. and yet there is something in it that strikes Natus est Dei filius non pudet quia pudendum est the Son of God was Born we blush not at it because it is shameful Mortuus est Dei filius prorsus credibile est quia ineptum est The Son of God dyed it is credible because it is unfit and unlikely it should be so Sepultus resurrexit certum est quia impossibile est he rose from the Dead it is certain true because it is impossible Now these unlikely and impossible things judged so by humane Reason these deep things of God the Scripture declares and declares them in such a manner as convinceth even Reason it self to assent to them though it cannot comprehend them If therefore you desire to know Christ and him Crucified and those Mysterious Doctrines which the Wit of Man could not invent for it can hardly receive them be conversant in the Holy Scriptures for they are the word of Christ and reveals all the wonders of Wisdom and Knowledge to which all the Wisdom of the World is but folly This therefore I suppose lies in the expression the word of Christ viz. the word of which he is both the Author and the Subject Secondly We may observe in the Text the manner how we ought to be Conversant in the Scriptures and that is set forth very significantly First Let the Word of Christ dwell in you Do not only give it the hearing as a strange and marvellous story let not the memory of it vanish out of your minds as soon as the sound of the Words vanisheth out of your Ears but lay it up and lodge it in your Hearts make it familiar and Domestick to you that it may be as well known to you as those that live in the same House with you Read it ponder and meditate upon it till you have transcribed the Bible upon your hearts and Faithfully printed it in your memories Secondly Let it dwell in you Richly or Copiously which may be taken either Objectively or Subjectively Objectively and so the sence is that all the word of God should dwell in us Content not your selves with some part of it that you read the Gospel or New Testament but neglect the Old as is the practice of some flush Notionists Or that you know the Historical part of both but neglect the Doctrinal which is the fond and Childish custom of some who read the Scripture as they would Romances skipping over the moral discourses as impertinent to the story But when we receive the whole Doctrine contained in it and are diligent in revolving the Prophets Evangelists Apostles every part and parcel of the Heavenly revealed truth Again the Word of Christ may dwell in us richly in the latter sence or Subjectively And so it doth when not only every part of it dwells in us but when it dwells also in every part of us In our memories to retain it in our minds to meditate on it in our affections to love it and in our Lives to practise it Then doth the Word of Christ dwell richly or abundantly in us Thirdly Let it dwell richly in all Wisdom The highest Wisdom is truly to know and to serve God in order to Eternal Life Now saith the Apostle so acquaint your selves with the Scriptures that you may from thence learn true Wisdom the saving knowledge both of what is to be believed and what is to be done in order to the obtaining of everlasting happiness To be conversant in it only to know what it contains is not Wisdom but folly But then it dwells in you in Wisdom when you study it to practise it when you endeavour to know the rule that ye may obey it This is Wisdom here and will end in happiness hereafter And thus you have the words of my Text explained In handling this Subject I shall only pursue the design of the Apostle and endeavour to press those exhortations upon you And indeed I need not many Arguments to persuade those who have already any acquaintance with these Sacred Oracles still to be conversant in them Have you not your selves found such clear light such Attractive sweetness and persuasive Eloquence in the words of God that all that the Tongue of Man can utter for it falls infinitely short of what it speaks on in its own behalf Who of us have not found direction from it in cases of difficulty Solution of doubts support under Afflictions comfort under sadness strength against temptation quicknings of Grace warmth of affection and in brief whatsoever we could expect from the mercy of God have we not found it in the Scriptures And shall we need further to commend it to you by Arguments since it hath commended it self by manifold experiences But so it is that the Devil knows we are disarmed and disabled if once he can wrest the Sword of the Spirit from us as the Apostle calls it and therefore labours all he can to strike the Bible out of our hands Or if we do read it he strives to put on such false Spectacles as shall misrepresent every thing to us and possess us with prejudice and Objections against it I shall therefore before I proceed any farther encounter with some of those prejudiced opinions which make this a Clasp'd and Sealed Book to many First Some may fear lest the study and knowledge of the Scriptures should only aggravate their Sin and Condemnation On the one hand the precepts of the Law are so various the duties so difficult and Flesh and Blood so infirm and opposite that they cast a dispairing look at them as impossible to be fulfilled On the other hand they have been told that knowledge without practice will expose them to damnation without excuse They have read Ja. 4.17 To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is Sin it is an Emphatical and weighty Sin and Luke 12.47 He that knew his Masters Will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes This they have read and this deterrs them from reading any farther If they cannot practise what they know and if to know and not practise be only to inflame their last reckoning and make their torments more intolerable it is best for them to muffle up themselves in a safe ignorance To this I Answer First Though the word abounds with multitudes of sublime precepts and difficult duties yet this is no discouragement from the study of it For consider that this same
to God and they become his proper Name God is Holy Wise Powerful Just Merciful True c. and so are likewise some of his most excellent Creatures whom he hath made like unto himself but then the difference between God and them consists in this That his Wisdom and the rest of his Attributes are originally from him theirs derivatively from him his infinite and boundless theirs limited and stinted his invariable and unchangeable their 's subject to mutations and decays and total abolition So that in these Three respects even the communicable Attributes of God are themselves incommunicable and so they are his Name whereby he is known and differenced from all other Beings whatsoever But may it not be here said to me as it was to Manoah Judges 13.18 Why askest thou after my Name seeing it is secret and wonderful Indeed we can no more find out the Name of God to perfection than we can his Nature and Essence for both are infinite and unsearchable And there are Two expressions in Scripture that make this Knowledge impossible the one of them quite contrary to the other One is that God dwelleth in that light to which no Man can approach 1 Tim. 6.16 Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur à Gloriâ He that will too busily pry into Majesty shall be oppressed and dazled with Glory And the other is that he dwells in thick Darkness 2 Chron. 6.1 both implying the same impossibility of searching out the Almighty to perfection as Job speaks ch 11. 7. But though this comprehensive Knowledge be impossible yet God hath given us hints and traces of himself by which we may discover enough for our Adoration though not perhaps for our satisfaction And there are Two ways whereby God hath made known himself and his Name unto us and they are by his Works and by his Word First We may spell out God's Name by his Works and to this end serve those two great Capital Letters of Heaven and Earth the Air and Sea yea there is no one Creature how vile and contemptible soever it be but it reads us Lectures of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of the great Creator in which sence the Apostle tells us Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and God-head Secondly More expresly and distinctly by his Word for the Scriptures are Nomenclatura Dei By these we come to a more clear and evident Knowledge of these Attributes of God which the Works of Nature held forth to us in a more obscure and confused manner And by this likewise we attain to the Knowledge of those perfections of God which the Works of Creation and Providence could never have instructed us in as of a Trinity in Vnity of the Eternal Generation and Temporal Incarnation of the Son of God of the whole Mystery of Religion and the tenure of the Covenant of Grace which are things that could never have been known but by Divine Revelation Indeed we may from the Works of God alone gather Knowledge enough of him to make us inexcusable if we Worship him not as God for so did the Heathens as the Apostle speaks in the forecited place Rom. 1.20 but it is only from the Word that we know so much of God as to make us Eternally Blessed and Happy Here he hath displayed his Name the Lord God Gracious and Merciful pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin Here alone hath he made known himself to be our Father in Jesus Christ and appointed the Spiritual Worship of himself that might prepare us for the Eternal Enjoyment of him in Glory So that now we see what is meant by the Name of God his Titles as King Lord Creator Father Redeemer and the like And his Attributes both Communicable as Justice Holiness Wisdom Mercy and Truth c. and incommunicable as Infinite Eternal Vnchangeable Omnipotent Independent and such like and that both this Name both of Titles and Attributes are made known to us either by the Works of God or by his Word Let us in the next place enquire what it is to Hallow this Name of God To Hallow is nothing else but to Sanctifie or make Holy so that Hallowed be thy Name is no other than let thy Name be made Holy But here may be a Question How can Creatures be said to make God Holy whereas it is God that makes them Holy I answer There is a Three-fold way of Hallowing or Sanctifying a thing or person One by Dedication A Second by Infusion And a Third by Declaration First A thing may be Hallowed or made Holy by Dedication setting them a part for Holy Uses and Services so the First-born are said to be Sanctified to the Lord Exod. 13.2 And that because among Men the First-born were to be Priests unto the Lord and among Beasts they were to be Sacrificed And thus Aaron and his Sons and the whole Tribe of Levi whom God took in Exchange for the First-born are said to be Consecrated and Sanctified Exod. 28.41 and many more instances might be given to the same purpose were it needful And thus at least we are said to be Sanctified by Baptism Ephes 5.26 That is we are by that Holy Ordinance set apart and Consecrated to the Service of God Thus one Creature may Sanctifie and make another Holy namely by Dedication or Separatiom to some Sacred Use and Service And so the Ministers of Christ do Sanctifie and Hallow the Elements in the Holy Communion setting them apart from common and ordinary use to that Blessed Mystery Secondly There is a Sanctification or Hallowing by Infusion or Implanting the real Principles and Habits of Holiness into that which is Hallowed And thus God Sanctifies his Elect by Infusing of his Grace into them and making them Holy in some measure and similitude like himself So our Saviour Prays John 17.17 Sanctifie them through thy Truth thy Word is Truth And the Apostle 1 Thes 5.23 Prays The very God of Peace Sanctifie you wholly In neither of these Two Sences is God's Name to be Sanctified or Hallowed by us for thus to Pray were to Blaspheme Thirdly There is a Sanctifying by Declaration when we acknowledge and reverence that as Holy that is indeed so And thus only it is that Creatures may Sanctifie the Name of God the Creator So we have it used Isa 29.23 They shall Sanctifie my Name and Sanctifie the Holy One of Jacob and shall fear the God of Israel Now thus to Sanctifie the Name of God is the very same with that other Expression that commonly occurs in Scripture of Glorifying God We can add nothing to his infinite Perfections nor to the Lustre and Brightness of his Crown yet then are we said to Sanctifie and Glorifie God when in our most Reverend Thoughts we observe and admire his Holiness and the bright Coruscations of his Attributes and when we endeavour by all Holy ways to declare them
are Tempted so most of them are not only Temptations but Sins also Indeed there is a Temptation to Sin which is a Temptation only and no Sin for so Christ himself was Tempted Matth. 4.1 He was led into the Wilderness to be Tempted of the Devil And we read there with what horrid Temptations he was assaulted even to Worship the Devil to distrust God and to destroy himself And yet as black as these Temptations were they were only Temptations and no Sins for so the Apostle tells us Heb. 4.15 He was Tempted in all things like unto us Sin only excepted And such sometimes are the Temptations wherewith the Devil assaults the Children of God horrid and hellish Temptations even to deny the very Being of God the Truth of the Scriptures the Immortality of the Soul Heaven and Hell and such bublings of Blasphemies against the very Fundamentals and Ground-works of Religion and yet if we be watchful presently to abhor and reject these injections of Satan and to cast back into his Face these his fiery Darts which he shoots into our Souls they are not our Sins though they are our Troubles but they shall be charged upon Satan to whom of right they do belong we being but only Passive and Sufferers in them But truly the most of our Temptations are Sins themselves and therefore we have great Reason and need to pray against them for they are Sins unto Sins Sins as they are irregular and inordinate Motions of our Passions and Affections and unto Sin as they tend to the bringing forth of farther Evil. And such are all the Temptations of our inbred Lusts and Corruptions when our Desires and Affections strongly encline us to those Objects which God by his express Law hath forbidden us Were it not for these sinful Temptations the others which are immediately injected by the Devil would not have any great advantage to prevail over us for by reason of our Lusts and Corruptions our Hearts always stand open to let in the Devil and were it not that these have seized on the Soul the Devil must have stood without and though he had knock'd yet would he have knock'd in vain And therefore we see in his first Temptation he deals all without doors there was no Natural Lust in our First Parents to befriend him or to betray the Soul unto him He shuts up himself therefore in the Body of a Serpent questioning with Eve about God's Commands perswades her of the desirableness of the forbidden Fruit tells her that God's Threatning was rather to fright them than to hurt them But in all these Methods of Tempting Satan had no admission into the Soul because Lust as yet had taken no possession of it but ever since the Corruption of our Natures contracted by the commission of the first Offence the Devil doth not stand to Tempt us without doors but he enters boldly as into the House of his old Friend Concupiscence nay as into his own House for the Souls of wicked Men are so called Matth. 12.29 He is by Lust let into the very inmost recesses and retirements of the Heart and can now propound Objects immediately to our Fancies and by our Fancies darken our Understandings and Affections and incline our Wills Again our Natural Corruption as it admits so it entertains and cherisheth the Temptations of the Devil A spark of Fire if there were no fewel prepared for it to seize on would presently die and vanish And so truly would Satan's Temptations that are like so many sparks of Hell Fire struck by the Devil into our Souls were it not for the prepared fuel the catching Tinder of our Lusts and Corruptions these Temptations would soon go out and expire and be like a flash of Lightning that might possibly startle us but could not burn us And thus though our Saviour Christ was grievously tempted yet it is said Joh. 14.30 The Prince of this World cometh and hath nothing in me that is the Devil could find no Sin or Corruption in him and therefore could fasten none of his Temptations upon him Thus we see what abundant reason there is for us to pray earnestly against Temptations whether they proceed from Satan or from our own Corruptions the one sort being always Sins of themselves and both sorts inclining and enducing us unto Sin But since Satan and our own Hearts prove Tempters unto us some may possibly ask how shall we know when it is Satan that Tempts us and when the Temptation ariseth from our own Corruptions The Question is nice and difficult yet because it may tend to the satisfaction of some who are curious in observing the Workings of their own Souls I Answer First There is but one kind of Temptations to Sin which have not their rise and original usually from Lust and those are Temptations to sin against the Light and Law of Nature as to the denying those Truths that are clear and evident by Natural Reason and strong Impressions on the Minds of Men as the being of a God the Immortality of the Soul future Rewards and Punishments and the like or else the doing of those things which are repugnant to the Dictates of the Law of Nature as for a Man to be Tempted to offer Violence to himself and to destroy himself It is very probable that such Temptations have not their first rise and original from our Natural Corruptions but are immediately darted into the Soul by the Devil though indeed our Corruptions too often catch at them and brood upon them till they have from such horrid Temptations as these conceived some horrid and monstrous Sin in the Soul Such injections as these are Balls of Wild-Fire kindled in Hell and cast into the Soul by the Devil and are not our Sins any farther than they are entertained by us and consented unto Secondly As for those Temptations which have a greater compliance to the corrupt tendency and inclinations of our sinful Natures which are not to such unnatural Sins as the other it is very hard if not impossible to Judge whether they originally proceed from Satan or from our own inbred Corruptions usually they both joyn together if Satan first inject them usually our Lusts nurse and foster them or if our wicked Hearts be the first Parents of them usually Satan inforceth them and by additional recruits of Temptations makes them more prevalent and permanent and by fair and specious colours makes them more plausible and taking And certainly there being such an innumerable Company of Evil Spirits that notwithstanding the great Work and Employment they have to do in the World yet Hell could spare a whole Legion of them to Garrison in one possessed Man we may not doubt but that they are continually busie prying into every one of our Tempers And as long experience hath made them very sagacious in guessing at the first motions of our Hearts by the alterations they find in our Fancies or the Humours of our Bodies of which
Honour thy Glory lies bleeding and suffers through the Sins of Men Why commit thy care to God He will certainly so weild their Lusts as that they shall bring about and effect his own ends God is glorifying himself even by these things and why then should we be troubled This thought kept alive on our hearts would cause us to rest satisfied amidst all the tumults we observe and hear of in the World For though we know not how to unwind these ravelled dispensations to the bottom of his Glory yet he can and will There is an invisible and wise hand that moulds and fashions all and though the parts by themselves may appear rude and unpolish'd yet put the whole frame and series of Providence together and that will appear most admirable and glorious Now to the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only wise God Father Son and Holy Ghost be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen The End of the first Sermon A Discourse concerning the use of the Holy Scriptures Colossians III. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all Wisdom THis Epistle if any other is a rich mine of Heavenly Treasure and abounds both in the discovery of Gospel Mysteries and the injunction of Christian Duties It is furnisht throughout with that which may either instruct us in Knowledge or direct us in Practice And the Apostle having already laid down many Excellent things in order to both these and seeing it would be an endless task to discourse unto them all the Truths or exhort them to all the Duties of Religion in particular he therefore speaks compendiously in the words of my Text and referrs them to the perfect Systeme in which is contained an account of what a Christian ought to know or do and that is the Holy Scriptures Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly The words of this Exhortation are very full and laden with weighty Sence We may resolve them into two parts First Here is the Nature and Substance of the Exhortation which is to a diligent Study and plentifull knowledge of the Holy Scriptures Secondly The manner how we ought to be Conversant in them So that it may dwell in us richly in all Wisdom In the former we may take notice that the Scripture is called the word of Christ and that upon a double account both because he is the Author that composed it and likewise he is the subject matter of which it principally treats Now though in both these respects the Scriptures of the New Testament be more especially the word of Christ yet also may the Scriptures of the Old Testament as truly and properly go under his Name For First He is the Author of them all He may well write this Title upon our Bibles The Works of Jesus Christ All the Prophets before his Incarnation were but his Amanuenses and wrote only what he by his Spirit dictated to them 2 Pet. 1.21 Prophecy came not in old time by the will of Man but holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and certainly the Holy Ghost inspired them by Christ's Authority and Commission and what he declared he took from him and shewed it unto them John 16.14 15. He shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you Secondly Christ also is the principal subject and matter of the whole Scripture The sending Christ a Saviour into the World is that great Business which hath employed the Counsel of the Father the Admiration and Ministration of Angels the Tongues and Pens of Prophets Apostles and holy Men of all Ages before the Scriptures were Written when Revelation or Tradition were yet the only positive Rules for Faith and Practice The Patriarchs saw him by these Abraham saw my day and was glad Joh. 8.56 Afterwards the People of the Jews saw him by Types Promises and Prophecies recorded in the Scriptures He was that Excellent Theme that hath filled up many Chapters of the Old Testament as the first draught of a Picture represents the features and proportion of the Person but afterwards is added the complexion and life to it So is it here the Pens of the Prophets drew the first Lineaments and Proportion of Christ in the Old Testament and the Pens of the Apostles and Evangelists have added the Life and Sweetness to it in the New Yea Christ is so truly described in the Old Testament by his Life by his Death by all the greater Remarks of either that in his Contest with the Jews he appeals thither for a Testimony John 5.39 Search the Scriptures for they are they which testifie of me And St. Peter Acts 3.24 Affirms That all the Prophets as many as have spoken have foretold of these days And Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets Witness Christ who is the true Expositor being himself the true Author makes them all speak his Sence Luke 24.27 Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the sayings concerning himself So that St. Chrysostom's Observation holds true that the Gospel was in the World before Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It took root in the writings of the Prophets but flowed forth in the preaching of the Apostles so that in both these respects the Holy Scripture may well be called the Word of Christ of Christ as the Author and as the Subject of it And in both these lies coucht a very cogent Argument that may inforce this exhortation of the Apostle and excite them to a diligent study of the Scriptures For First Is Christ the Author of them and shall we not with all care and diligence peruse these Books which he hath Composed The writings of Men are valued according to the Abilities of their Authors If they be of approved Integrity profound Knowledge solid Judgment their works are Esteemed and Studied And shall we not be much more Conversant in these which are set forth by the Author who is truth it self and the essential wisdom of the Father These that were dictated by the imediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost and writ as it were with a Quill of the Heavenly Dove Secondly Christ is the subject of the Scriptures And what is all other Learning and Knowledge but beggarly Elements if compared with this Here we have the Cabinet of God's Counsels unlockt the Eternal purposes of his Grace in sending his Son into the World publickly declared Here we have the Stupendous History of God's becoming Man of all the Miracles this God-man did upon Earth of all the Cruelties he Suffered Here we have the Description of his Victory in his Resurrection of his Triumph in his Ascention of his Glory in his Session at the right hand of the Majesty on High Surely great is the Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory as the Apostle with admiration recounts it
word is not only a light to discover what you ought to do but an help to inable you to do it It is the very means that God appointed to overcome your averseness and assist your weakness And if ever this be effected it must in an ordinary way be by conversing with the Scriptures That Sick Man hath lost his Reason as well as his Health who should refuse to take Physick because if it doth not work it will but make him the worse Why the way to make it work is by taking it So it is a distempered kind of arguing against the word of God the Physick of our Souls that it is mortal and deadly if it doth not work into practice The way to make it work into practice is to take it first into our knowledge 't is true it were a great discouragement if the Scripture only shewed you how much work you have to do what Temptations to resist what Corruptions to mortifie what Graces to exercise what duties to perform and left all that upon your own hands But the Leaves of the Bible are the Leaves of the Tree of Life as well as of the Tree of Knowledge they strengthen as well as inlighten and have not only a Commanding but an assisting Office And this the Scripture doth two ways First It directs where we may receive supplies of ability for the performance of whatsoever it requires It leads thee unto Christ who is able to furnish thee with supernatural strength for supernatural duties His treasury stands open for all concerns and his Almighty Power stands ingaged to assist those who relie upon it Be not discouraged therefore he that finds us work finds us strength and the same Scripture that injoyns us obedience exhibits God's promise of bestowing upon us the power of obeying Thou who workest all works in us and for us Isaiah 26.12 And work out your own Salvation for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do Phil. 2.12 13. Why then should we so complain of hard sayings and Grevious Commandments Have we not God's Omnipotence obliged by promise to assist in the same words wherein we are commanded to obey What saith the Apostle I am able to do all things through Christ strengthening me Phil. 4.13 When in reading the Scripture thou meetest with difficult and rigorous Duties the severity of Mortification the self cruelty of plucking out right Eyes and cutting off right Hands commend they self to these promises of aid and assistance that the same Scripture holds forth and lift up thy heart in that divine Meditation of St. Augustine Lord give what thou Commandest and command what thou pleasest Whilst thou thus duly dependest on Christ's strength and makest use of thine own it is as much his Honour and Office to inable thee as it is thy Duty to perform what he requires Secondly The Scripture as it directs us to rely on the strength of Christ so it is a means that God hath appointed to quicken and excite our own strength and Power to the discharge of those Duties it Discovers Wherefore are those pressing Exhortations and those dreadfull Threatnings every where so dispersed up and down in the Book of God but that when we are slow and dull and drowsie the Spirit may by these as by so many goads rowze us and make us start into Duty Such a spiritual sloath hath benumb'd us that without this quickening we should not be diligent in the Work of the Lord and therefore David prays Psalm 119.88 Quicken me so shall I keep the Testimonies of thy Mouth but yet it is also the word it self that quickens us to the Obedience of the word Psal 119.50 Thy word hath quickened me And indeed if you can come from reading the word that so abounds with Promises with Threatnings with rational Arguments with pathetick Expostulations winning Insinuations importunate Intreaties heroick Examples propounded to our Imitation with all the perswasive Art and Rhetorick that becometh the Majesty of the great God to use if you can read this word and yet find from it no warmth of Affection no quickening to Duty let me tell you you either read it without attending to it or else attend without believing it It is therefore no discouragement from searching and studying the Scriptures that its commands be many and difficult for it directs you whither to go for promised strength and the more you converse with it the more will you find your hearts quickened to a due Obedience of it That 's the first Answer But then secondly Whereas many think that it is better not to know than not to practise we must here distinguish of Ignorance which is of too kinds either invincible or else affected Invincible ignorance is such as is conjoyned with and proceeds from an utter impossibility of right information and it ariseth only from two things First Absolute want of necessary Instruction or Secondly Want of natural capacity to receive it Affected Ignorance is an ignorance under the means of Knowledge and always ariseth from the neglect or contempt of them Such is the ignorance of those who do or may live where the Gospel is preached and where by pains and industry they may arrive to the knowledge of the truth Now here for ever to answer this Objection and to shew you how necessary knowledge is I shall lay down these two particulars First I grant indeed that unpractis'd knowledge is a far greater sin than invincible Ignorance and exposeth to a much sorer Condemnation Hell Fire burns with Rage and meets with fuel fully prepared for it when God dooms unto it an head full of Light and an heart full of Lusts Those who know God's will but do it not do but carry a torch with them to Hell to fire that Pile that must for ever burn them We have a common Proverb That knowledge is no Burthen But believe it if your knowledge in the Scripture be merely Speculative and overborn by the violence of unruly Lusts this whole Word will be no otherwise to you than the burthen of the Law as the Prophets speak a Burthen that will lie insupportably heavy upon you for ever Better far you were born under Barbarism in some dark Corner of the Earth where the least gleame of Gospel-light never shone and where the name of Christ was never mentioned than to have this weighty Book a Book which you have read and known hung about you to sink you infinitly deeper in the Burning Lake than a Mill-stone hung about you can do in the midst of the Sea What St. Peter speaks of Apostates 2 Pet. 2.21 is but too well applicable to the knowing Sinner It had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn aside from the Commandments delivered to them How Better not to have known it Why is there any possibility to escape the Condemnation of Hell without the knowledge of the way of
may persuade you to a diligent search and perusal of the Scriptures The Jews indeed were so exact or rather Superstitious in this that he was judged a despiser of those Sacred Oracles who did not readily know how often every Letter of the Alphabet occurred in them This preciseness God hath made use of to deliver down his word to us unvaried and uncorrupted It is not such a scrupulous search of the Scripture I now exhort you to but as God hath left it to us a rich Depositum a dear pledge of his Love and care so we should diligently attend to a rational and profitable study of it There are but two things in the general that commend any writing to us either that it discovers knowledge or directs practice that it informs the Judgment or reforms the Life Both of these are eminently the Characters of this Book of God And therefore David tells us Psal 19.7 The Law of God converts the Soul and makes wise the simple It is a light not only to our heads but it is a Lamp unto our Feet and a light unto our paths Psal 119.105 Let us consider it as to both First In point of knowledge as it perfects the understanding and so it will appear in sundry particulars how excellent a study it is For First The Scripture discovers unto us the knowledge of those truths that the most improved natural Reason could never sift out and are intelligible only by Divine Revelation God hath Composed two Books by the diligent study of which we may come to the knowledge of himself The Book of the Creatures and the Book of the Scriptures The Book of the Creatures is written in those great Letters of Heaven and Earth the Air and Sea and by these we may spell out somewhat of God He made them for our instruction as well as our service There is not a Creature that God hath breathed abroad upon the face of the Earth but it Reads us Lectures of his infinite Power and Wisdom So that it is no absurdity to say that they are all the Works of his mouth so they are all the works of his Hands The whole World is a speaking workmanship Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of God are clearly seen by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead And indeed when we seriously consider how God hath poised the Earth in the midst of the Air and the whole World in the midst of a vast and boundless nothing how he hath hung out those glorious lights of Heaven the Sun the Moon and Stars and made paths in the Sky for their several courses how he hath laid the Sea on heaps and so girt it in that it may possibly overlook but not overflow the Land when we view the Variety Harmony and Law of the Creation our Reason must needs be very short if we cannot from these collect the infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness of the Creator So much of God as belong to these two great Attributes of Creator and Governour of the World the Book of Nature may plainly discover to us But then there are other more retired and reserved Notions of God other truths that nearly concern our selves and our eternal Salvation to know and believe which nature could never give the least glimpse to discover What Signature is there stampt upon any of the Creatures of a Trinity in Unity of the eternal Generation or temporal Carnation of the Son of God What Creature could inform us of our first fall and guilt contracted by it Where can we find the Copy of the Covenant of Works or of grace printed upon any of the Creatures All the great Sages of the World though they were Nature's Secretaries and ransack'd its abstrusest mysteries yet all their Learning and Knowledge could not discover the Sacred Mystery of a Crucified Saviour These are truths which Nature is so far from searching out that it can scarce receive them when revealed 1. Corinth 2.14 The natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned The light that can reveal these must break immediately from Heaven it self And so it did upon the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles the Pen-men of the Holy Scriptures And if it were their singular Privilege that the Holy Ghost should descend into their breasts and so possess them with Divine inspirations that what they spake or wrote became Oracular how little less is ours since the Scriptures reveal to us the very same truths which the Spirit revealed to them God heretofore spake in them and now he speaks by them unto us Their Revelations are become ours the only difference is that what God taught them by extraordinary inspiration the very same truths he teacheth us in the Scripture by the ordinary illumination of his Spirit Here therefore whilest we diligently converse in the Book of God we enjoy the privilege of Prophets The same word of God which came unto them comes also unto us and that without those severe preparations and strong agonies which sometimes they underwent before God would inspire them with the knowledge of his Heavenly truth That is the first Motive and Argument Secondly The knowledge which the Scripture teacheth is for the matter of it the most sublime and losty in the World All other sciences are but poor and beggarly Elements if compared with this What doth the Naturalist but only busie himself in digging a little drossie knowledge out of the Entrails of the Earth The Astronomer who ascends highest mounts no higher than the Coelestial Bodies the Stars and Planets which are but the out-works of Heaven But the Scripture pierceth much farther and lets us into Heaven it self There it discovers the Majesty and Glory of God upon his Throne the Eternal Son of God sitting at his right hand making a prevailing and Authoritative intercession for us The glittering train of Cherubims and Seraphims an innumerable company of Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect So that indeed when you have this Book laid open before you you have Heaven it self and all the inconceivable glories of it laid open to your view What can be more sublime than the nature of God And yet here we have it so plainly described by all its most glorious Attributes and Perfections that the Scripture doth but beam forth light to an Eye of Faith whereby it may be inabled to see him who is invisible But if we consider those Gospel Mysteries the Scripture relates the Hypostatical Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ's incarnation the Mystical Union of our persons to his by our believing that the Son of God should be Substituted in the stead of guilty Sinners that he who knew no sin should be made a Sacrifice for sin and the Justice of God become reconciled to Man through the blood of God these are Mysteries so infinitely profound as are enough to puzzle a whole College of
Angels Now these the Scripture propounds unto us not only to pose but to perfect our understanding For that little knowledge we can attain unto in these things is far more excellent than the most comprehensive knowledge of all things else in the World And where our scanty apprehensions fall short of fathoming these deep mysteries the Apostle hath taught us to seek it out with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the Riches both of the Knowledge and Wisdom of God! how unreasearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out Thirdly The Scripture is an inexhaustible Fountain of Knowledge the more you draw from it the more still springs up It is a deep Mine and the farther you search into it still the richer you find it It is tedious to read the works and writings of Men often over because we are soon at the bottom of what they deliver and our understanding hath nothing new to refresh it But in reading the Scripture it fares with us as it did with those whom Christ miraculously fed the bread multiplied under their Teeth and increased in the very chewing of it So here while we ruminate and chew on the truths of the Scripture they multiply and rise up thicker under our meditation One great cause of the neglect that many are guilty of in reading the Holy Scripture is a fear that they shall but meet with the same things again which they have already read and known and this they account tedious and irksome Indeed if they read it only Superficially and slightly it will be so But those who fix their minds to ponder and meditate upon the word find new truths arising up to their understanding which they never before discovered Look as it is in a Starry night if you cast your Eyes upon many spaces of the Heavens at the first glance perhaps you shall discover no Stars there yet if you continue to look earnestly and fixedly some will emerge to your view that were before hid and concealed So is it with the Holy Scriptures If we only glance curiously upon them no wonder we discover no more Stars no more glorious truths beaming out their light to our Understanding St. Augustine found this so experimentally true that he tells us in his third Epistle that though he should with better capacity and greater diligence study all his Life time from the beginning of his Childhood to decrepit Age nothing else but the Holy Scriptures yet they are so compacted and thick set with truths that he might daily learn something which before he knew not God hath as it were studied to speak compendiously in the Scriptures What a Miracle of brevity is it that the whole Duty of Man relating both to God and his Neighbour should be all comprised in ten words Not a word but were the sence of it drawn out were enough to fill whole Volumes and therefore the Psalmist Psal 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandments are exceeding broad When we have attained the knowledge of those things that are absolutely necessary to Salvation there yet remain such depths of Wisdom both in the manner of Scripture expression and in the mysteriousness of things exprest that after our utmost industry still there will be left new truths to become the discovery of a new search Fourthly The Scripture exhibits to us that knowledge which is necessary to Eternal Salvation This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John 17.3 And this knowledge the Scriptures alone can afford us John 5.39 So 2 Tim. 3.15 We need not therefore enquire after blind traditions or expect any whimsical Enthusiasms the written word contains whatsoever is necessary to be known in order to Eternal Salvation and whosoever is wise above what is written is wise only in impertinences Now hath God contracted whatever was necessary for us to know and summed it up in one Book and shall not we be diligent and industrious in studying that which doth so necessarily concern us Other knowledge is only for the adorning and embellishment of Nature this is for the necessity of Life of Life Eternal I have before spoken enough concerning the necessity of knowledge unto Salvation and therefore shall not farther inlarge Therefore as St. Peter said to Christ Lord whither shall we go thou hast the words of Eternal Life So let us Answer whatsoever may seem to call us off from the diligent study of the Scriptures Whither shall we go to this we must cleave with this we will converse for here alone are the words of Eternal Life Fifthly The Knowledge that the Scripture discloseth is of undoubted Certainty and perpetual Truth it depends not upon Probabilities or Conjectures but the infallible Authority of Christ himself he hath dictated it for whom it is impossible to lye The rule of our Veracity or Truth is the conformity of our Speech to the existency of Things but divine Truth and Veracity hath no other Rule besides the Will of him that speaks it He must needs speak infallible Truth who speaks things into their beings such is the omnipotent Speech of God Whatsoever he declares is therefore true because he declares it Never matter how strange and impossible Scripture-Mysteries may seem to Flesh and Blood to the corrupt and captious understandings of natural Men when the word of God hath undertaken for the Truth it is as much impiety to doubt of them as it is Folly to question the reality of what we see with our very Eyes Nay the information of our Senses what we see what we hear what we feel is not so certain as the truth of those things which God reveals and testifies in the Scriptures And therefore the Apostle 2 Pet. 1.18 19. Speaking of that Miraculous Voice that sounded from Heaven Matth. 17.5 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well Pleased We saith the Apostle heard this Voice when we were with him in the Holy Mount but we have also a more sure word of Prophecy or as the Greek may well be rendred We account more sure the word of Prophecy unto which ye do well that ye take heed What a more sure word than a Voice from Heaven When God himself shall vocally bear witness to the Truth Yes we have a more sure Word and that 's the Word of Prophesie recorded in the Old Testament And hence it will follow that because the Prophecies concerning Christ may seem somewhat obscure in Comparison with this audible Voice from Heaven therefore the testimony of obscure Scripture is to be preferred before the testimony of clear Sence Now therefore if you would know things beyond all danger either of Falshood or Hesitation be Conversant in the Scripture where we may take all for certain upon the Word and Authority of that God who neither can deceive nor be deceived Sixthly The Scripture alone gives us the true and unerring Knowledge