ΓΝΩΣΤΌΝ ΤΟ ΘΕΟ ΚΑΊ ΓΝΩΣΤΌΝ ΤΟ ΞΡΙΣΤΟ, OR, THAT WHICH MAY BE KNOWN OF GOD BY THE BOOK OF NATURE; And the excellent Knowledge of JESUS CHRIST by the BOOK OF SCRIPTURE.  
Delivered at St Mary's in Oxford,  
By EDWARD WOOD M. A. late Proctor of the University and Fellow of Merton Coll. Oxon.  
Published since his death by his brother A. W. M. A.  1 Cor. 2. 2. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
OXFORD, Printed by H. H. Printer to the University, for Jos. GODWIN, & EDW. FORREST. 1656.   

ORNATISSIMO, NOBILI NECNON CLARISSIMO VIRO D. JONATHANI GODDARD MEDICINAE DOCTORI, ET INCLYTI COLLEGII MERTONENSIS CUSTODI, IN ANTIQUISSIMA UNIVERSITATE OXONIENSI  
ANTONIUS WOOD  
COLLEGII PER PRUDENTIAM SUAM OPTIME GUBERNATI ALUMNUS, HAS PRIMITIAS MODO FRATRIS DEFUNCTI SUO PATROCINIO HUMILITER  Dat, Dicat, Dedicat.  

THE PUBLISHER to the Courteous Reader.  
THe Author of these Sermons being lately fall'n asleep, and having had no Admission, while he was Living, to be recommended to Public View, the Persuasion and Importunity (since his death) of some of my Friends, and such as may challenge no small Interest in me, hath (though unwilling) induced me to Adventure to Exhibit this Little Volume to look out and do Service in the World. He himself whilst he lived Wrote it, and doubtless he had finished it, if God had lent him longer Life: but it fared so with him, as once with Hezekiah, Esay 37. 3. The children were come to the birth, and there was not strength to bring forth. I have as a Brother, though not as a skilful Midwife, done what I could to bring it forth, by collecting it out of his Paper-books, and some other lose Writings from his private Study, which was the only Remora to its more Sudden, and much desired Birth.  
Some Erratas since have passed the Press (which perhaps will not so well relish with thy Palate) but I wholly rely upon thy Courteous Ingenuity to pass them over with Silence.  
Thou mayest here expect that I should speak something in Commendation of this Work, which is not, happily, so fitting, it being both hard for one Brother to praise another without Boasting: moreover, for me to seek thy Approbation of it by any Fair and Plausible Inductions, were altogether to Distrust, if not Impair the worth of it. I know the work itself will sufficiently Praise him, especially, if thou wilt vouchsafe to peruse it Charitably (I mean, without any Detracting Calumnies or Cynical Censures) which if thou dost, thou shalt find his Spirit in them, and in a manner hear him, (although Dead) yet Speaking unto thee: and shalt hereby much persuade the Publisher to leave off (at least in some measure) grieving for, and lamenting over his once Living, and always Loving Brother, and shalt rather divert the stream of his Affections into a strong current of Haleluiah's, for the Hopes that he hath (especially from those that willingly entertain a Dead man's works and retain his words in their Living Hearts) of doing good by this his Publication, which is the desire of  
Thy Servant A. W.   
ROM. 1. 19, 20. 
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them.  
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.  
THere are three books wherein the Deity may be plainly read and discovered, the book of nature, the book of the creatures, and the book of the Scriptures: this latter was peculiar to the Jews, the two former common both to Jew and Gentile; for unto the Jews were committed the oracles of God, because they were his peculiar people, unto the Jew and Gentile the light of nature, and use of the Scriptures, because they both were men, and inhabitants of the world. Now out of these three books our Apostle laboureth to convince of unrighteousness the two great enemies of our justification by faith in Christ, the selfconceited Jew, and the Idolatrous Gentile: for however the one might pretend unto salvation by virtue of their inherent righteousness, and the other hope to escape damnation by their ignorance of the Law, which threatneth death to the breakers thereof, yet our Apostle in this his Epistle doth plainly demonstrate, that neither the righteousness of the one was so commensurate and answerable to the law of God, as to attain heaven and avoid the curse, and that the ignorance of the other was not so great, as that thereby they might become inexcusable, and without offence towards God; both Jew and Gentile are sinful, for there is none that doth good, no not one, and therefore both Jew and Gentile are liable unto damnation; the Jews, because it is impossible for them to keep the Law, from the observance of which they expected life; the Gentile, because they were not obedient unto those common notions, and implanted truths they had of God and moral honesty. For however they pretended not to know God, and therefore not to hold the truth in unrighteousness, as 'tis evidently shown they do in the foregoing verse; yet our Apostle doth by force of Argument take away their false pretences, and plainly convinceth them of both in the words of my Text, which, as I suppose, are brought in to prevent a secret objection that the Gentile might frame against the doctrine of the precedent verse: for the Apostle being about to prove our justification only by faith, doth in the 18. verse dispute negatively, & show that works, in which both Jew and Gentile trusted, could never justify, they being so fare from making us appear righteous before God, that the wrath of God is revealed against them, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. The best works of natural men cannot free them from being guilty of ungodliness and unrighteousness, from the breach of the first and second Tables, and therefore is the wrath of God revealed from heaven, even against the best works of men. But what kind of men are these that stand thus charged with ungodliness and unrighteousness? Why? Such, saith Saint Paul, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; but you Gentiles do thus hold the truth in unrighteousness, 'tis you that suppress, smother, and imprison those truths that are in you concerning God and your neighbour, and therefore 'tis you primarily, who stand guilty of unrighteousness and ungodliness: and here you may suppose the froward Gentile muttering within himself, and thus cavilling at the Apostles minor, what Saint Paul, will you say, we hold the truth in unrighteousness? whereas we are altogether ignorant of God: the Jews indeed are without excuse, because in the Scriptures God is plainly revealed unto them; but as for us we sit in darkness, and the shadow of death, without the least glimmering or knowledge of God, and therefore pray forbear so hard a censure: no, saith the Apostle, say what you will, yet there is a light within you, and there are creatures without you, that will easily confute your fond opinion; it is not for Gentiles to plead ignorance, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for the invisible things of him, etc. So than you may have here the Gentiles plea refuted; they secretly seem to plead not guilty to the Apostles charge of their withholding the truth in unrighteousness: their plea seems to be taken from their ignorance of God, and could they have maintained this, they might easily have eluded that; wherefore Saint Paul to take away all shifts and evasions from them, and the better to confirm his charge, brings in two bills of reply against them, the first is grounded upon that natural light which God hath manifested unto them concerning himself; the second upon the creatures, which with a dumb kind of eloquence did every where proclaim the power of their Maker, and which were as a conduct and guidance unto them into the knowledge of the Godhead, which they vainly pretended to be ignorant of. To the first of these grounds I shall speak at present, and only more distincly handle what I have heretofore in a private Congregation represented in gross.  
Take the words as they lie in themselves, and you shall find in them aliquid allegatum, & aliquid probatum, an allegation, and a proof or reason of this allegation. The Gentile seems to plead ignorance; the Apostle allegeth the contrary, because, saith he, that which may be known of God is manifest in them: and lest he should seem to stick here, he brings in further evidence and proof, for what he had said in these words, for God hath shown it unto them.  
In both you may be pleased to take notice of, First, the matter alleged, their knowledge of God, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that which may be known of God, or that which is knowable of God, namely, by nature's discovery, not by extraordinary revelations, and Evangelicall dispensations, as Vorstius and others without reason conceive. For this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the preceding verse, which according unto Beza, and the best expositors is nothing but a natural knowledge of God, and of good and evil; the knowledge of God necessarily Implying, or at least upon inevitable consequence bringing in the knowledge of good and evil.  
2. Secondly, you may observe the qualification or manner of this their knowledge, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it is manifest as the light which shineth in them, and is so clear, that do what they can, they can never shut their eyes against it, or wholly blot it out.  
3. Thirdly, here are the subjects in whom this knowledge resides, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them (viz.) in the Gentiles, which some translate, amongst them, and so refer this knowledge to their learned ones, and Philosophers, who have left every where in their writings evident testimonies thereof; but our own translation, as I conceive, is most proper & nearer the original, and so in them will be as much as in their minds and consciences, as you will further hear anon.  
Fourthly, here is the Author of this knowledge in them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, God, ushered in with the rational particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for God hath shown it unto them, God, that is, partly by the light of nature in their consciences, and partly by the conduct of the creatures, hath so plainly declared and shown himself unto the Gentiles, that they cannot pretend their ignorance of him, or of their duty towards their neighbour.  
From the words thus opened you may gather this Observation, That there is, & ever hath been in all men, even in the Gentiles, a Natural light, whereby they have been directed unto God, and natural goodness.  
In the prosecution of which I shall show you, First, what is meant more fully by this Natural light.  
Secondly, I shall endeavour to demonstrate that it is and ever hath been in all men, even in the Gentiles.  
Thirdly, I shall inquire; whether or no, this natural light were sufficient unto the salvation of the Gentiles.  
And Lastly, I shall deduce some practical inferences, from what shall be said for our own use. For the understanding of the first point, namely what is meant, by this Natural light, or light of nature, we must note that man may be considered, either in his primitive creation, or in his corrupted sinful estate; if we consider, man first in his created integrity: so without doubt this light was a clear, distinct, penetrative and unerring light: for God framing all things according to that exact platform and Idea, which was eternally in himself, did accordingly bestow upon his creatures all things requisite unto their several species and conditions, and therefore man being the Masterpiece, (as I may so speak) of all his works, was by him primitively Invested with more noble endowments than any other creature whatsoever: for whereas other things were either by instinct or immediate direction of God ordered unto their several ends and his glory, man alone amongst the rest did clearly and rationally apprehend the will and greatness of his maker; other creatures did blindly serve him in their several Ranks and orders, but man being farther enlightened with an understanding and reasonable soul, did freely, and with choice cleave unto him as his chiefest good, so that Adam by virtue of that excellent light which God had infused unto him, did know God, and his will savingly, and with such a perfection as was most proper for his condition. For though it may be true what the Schoolmen say, that this concreated light and knowledge in our first parents might have been further increased by rational discourse, and supervenient grace, yet doubtless in itself, without any further addition it was sufficient to lead them into a saving knowledge of the will and true worship of God; these divine rays so enlightening the whole man, that the great Mysteries of God and salvation were as distinctly impressed upon his soul, as the Image of the Sun ever was upon the most pure and Crystalline glass.  
But now, Secondly, as the most beautiful picture, being sullied and daubed over, doth lose much of its form and grace, so likewise that excellent image of God in man, being once besmeared over with sin, did lose very much of its pristine glory and goodness, and therefore no wonder if the same light and knowledge of God in man, which before was so clear and distinct in us, is now through sin become dull, confused, and faint; for it is the nature of sin always to overcast and unite the soul with ignorance, as you may every where read in the Scriptures of the blindness, darkness, and ignorance of men in the state of Nature. Sin then interposing between God and us, this glorious light suffered a very fearful Eclipse, and as the faint glimmerings of a Lamp or Candle in the socket, was mingled with very much darkness and confusion: for though through sin it was not quite extinguished in us, as plainly appears by the text, yet so far was it dulled that we cannot by the remainders thereof either read the will of God, or from it derive any comfort unto ourselves. For as by a dull and obscure taper we may perhaps view a body in gross, whereas we cannot through the weakness of the light scan each particular part of it; why so here, by this light of nature we may apprehend indeed God & his worship in general, but we can never thereby dive more particularly into his will, or those his attributes of grace, pardoning mercy, love unto us in Christ, and the like, which none can fully understand without faith in Christ in whom alone are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, Col. 2. vers. 3.  
Well then, to draw to an head, by comparing these our two estates together, you may easily conceive what is meant by this natural light, or light of nature; for it is nothing else but those common ordinary notions and conceits remaining in the minds and consciences of men concerning God and natural goodness: in the first verse it is called the truth, because of those plain convictions it hath upon the consciences of natural men, and therefore they that resist this light, and walk not according unto its dictates are said to hold the truth in unrighteousness, that is, unjustly to stifle and keep under those apprehensions of God and goodness, from appearing in their Lives or Actions. And in the second of this Epistle, and the thirteenth, it is called the Law written in their hearts, from the command & awful power it hath over the hearts of men, in which it is engraven as with the point of a diamond; and therefore jamblicus an eminent Author calls it an inbred and  notion. We style this light of nature, common, ordinary notions and conceits; common they are, because they are congenial, and imbred in all men; and ordinary, because, though all men naturally have some slight and catching conceits at God, yet they neither know aright who or what kind of God this is, and therefore you may read Act. 17. vers. 23. of an Altar amongst the Athenians inscribed, Unto the unknown God: and Christ said the Samaritans worshipped they knew not what, Joh. 4. 22. Secondly, we say that these notions remain in the minds and consciences of men; for first, in the minds reside those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, those speculative, prime and fundamental truths, namely, that there is a God, that all effects have dependence upon some cause, and the like. And secondly, because in the consciences of men reside those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, those practical and moral principles, by which we conclude within ourselves, that since there is a God, he is to be worshipped, that we ought to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, that we ought to deal justly with all men, and the like. From whence it is that the Apostle saith of the Gentiles, that they do by nature the things contained in the Law, even the Gentiles have a natural Law imprinted in their hearts, by which they are carried unto those Common general duties which concern God and their neighbour; which will further be cleared unto you if you consider with me the second point, namely, that this light of nature is in all men; or rather thus, that there are some Common notions of God and goodness imprinted in the hearts of all men, even of the Gentiles. There is no man so over daubed with sin and filthiness, so benighted and overclouded with wretched ignorance, but hath oftentimes the flashes and immediate representations of the Deity darting in upon him, and there is no man of so debauched and lose a life, so benumbed and frozen affections, but hath ever and anon the secret whips and girds of a conscience to restrain him, together also with natural Impressions of goodness to thaw and melt him into more ingenuity; Now than that this light of nature,  
First, as it relates unto God, is in all, may appear both by scripture and by reason; as for scripture were there no other, my text would be sufficient proof that that which may be known of God is manifest in them, that is in the Gentiles, and so consequently in all. That which may be known of God, whereby is employed, that there are some things concerning God above the pitch and ken of this natural light, the mysteries indeed of the Trinity, of the Incarnation of Christ and the like are Riddles unto nature, neither can they ever be reached unto by humane disquisition; Yet it still remaineth certain that that which may be known of God, namely his being, his omnipotence and the like is manifest in them. In the 17. of the Acts vers. 26, 27, 28. you may have another proof for the Apostle there in his Sermon unto the Athenian Heathens, showing that God was not so far from them, but that he might even Palpando inveniri, as Beza translates it, be groped after, and easily found out. By that little natural light that was in them they might track the footsteps of Divinity, and haply find out in whom they lived, moved, and had their being: And so in the Acts, chap. 14. vers. 17. 'tis said that God left not himself without witness. There is within us an inbred light, as a domestic Chaplain continually to teach us, and without us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, as so many visible witnesses to take away ignorance, and all excuse from us; wherefore that of the Psalmist, The fool hath said in his heart, Psal. 14. 1. must not be understood as if a wicked man (for he is the fool here) could quite obliterate and put out the light of nature, and Knowledge of God in him (for Atheism can never find a perfect and continual assent in the heart of man) but only that he so works and lives without the fear of God, as if he were fully persuaded that there were no God at all. The reasons then to prove that the Knowledge of God is in all men Naturally, may be many, I shall name only two or three, and let pass the common consent of all Nations. Nulla gens tam barbara est, saith Tully, there is no nation so barbarous and destitute of Common reason, as not to acknowledge a God; to let pass also the Natural discourses, and ultimate resolutions of the minds of men into some Supreme cause, and first Mover of all things.  
1. First, the testimonies of the Heathens themselves do sufficiently evidence the truth; 'tis Paul's way of arguing with the Athenians, as certain also of your own Poets have said, we are also his Offspring, Acts 17. 28. He infers their knowledge of God, and the truth of his worship from their own mouths, and so may we also. Plato calls a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a creature naturally religious, and a worshipper of God: yea himself hath written so Divinely and Reverently of God, that many of the Ancients have gone about to prove him a Christian; though Bernard truly and wittily saith, whilst many would feign make Plato a Christian they prove themselves heathens. It would be as endless as it is needless to produce here the several testimonies which Heathen Authors do every where give to this truth, some amongst them sealing it with their blood, others every where professing it in their writings: and however there have been some few amongst them, who have denied this truth, yet I am persuaded their tongues went not along with their hearts. 'twas more their desire that there should be no God, than their opinion that there was none. As guilty prisoners wish the death of their Judge, only because they conceive him to be the instrument of their condemnation: in like manner these and such like men being conscious to themselves, of their own desperate wickedness desire the not being of him whose Justice they well know must needs take notice of and severely punish their offences.  
For, secondly, the Testimonies of their Consciences will easily declare that they have such a light and knowledge of God within them. There is no man so great, so absolute and independent from the command and beck of others, but is sometimes awed and controlled by a Power within his own breast, and those secret checks and lashes of Conscience upon the commission of some notorious offence, must needs make the stoutest sinner confess a power above him, which he fears, and a God unto whom he is accountable for all his Offences. Hence the Apostle showing the works of the Law to be written in the Hearts of the Gentiles, amplifies it further, and adds this as a kind of a reason, their consciences also bearing them witness, and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another, Rom. 2. vers. 15.  
Thirdly, the very multiplicity of the Heathenish Gods may (as I suppose) plainly show that they had this indelible principle written in their hearts; for though some of them had as many Gods as they had Onions and Leeks in their gardens; and though the Worship they ascribed unto these their Deities was as various as the several nations and opinions of men were; yet these their various Worships and Opinions of a God did plainly denote, that a God it was whom they sought and hunted after; for though they erred in particulars, yet they all agreed in this General, that a God there was. As the water of the same fountain may be diversely spread into several streams and eddyes, yet all these several streams & eddyes fall into one sea; so likewise though this principle of nature may flow and be divided into various opinions concerning God, yet these various opinions do all meet and concentre in this General notion and conceit of a God. And therefore the Apostle saith that the Athenians did generally worship the true God under the false mask and Inscription they gave unto him of the Unknown God, as you may see Acts 17. vers. 23.  
But, secondly, this Light of Nature as it relates unto Natural goodness is in all men; Natural goodness I say, for as for that legal goodness which supposeth, the righteousness of work, 'tis impossible for any son of Adam to have, for by the deeds of the Law there shall be no flesh justified in his sight, Rom. 3. 20. And as for that Evangelicall goodness which supposeth the righteousness of faith, no unbeliever can partake of it, for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Rom. 10. 17.  
It remains then that the Gentiles only had and still have the remainders of Natural goodness alone left in them; now that they had this will better appear by distinguishing of Natural goodness, which is either civil or moral; civil goodness I shall define to be that inbred propension in all men to maintain societies and natural life. This certainly was, and at this day is in the Heathens themselves: from whence else have proceeded those excellent positive Laws and Constitutions of Solon, Draco and others, by which as by so many sinews and ligaments, Commonwealths hath been joined and compacted together? From whence those noble inventions and sciences of Physic, Mathematic, Astronomy and the like, without which man's life would be neither comfortable not delightful? From whence those inferior Mechanical arts, by which rude and undigested things are curiously modified and prepared for the use of man? From whence are these, I say, and many of the like nature, but from that inbred Natural Life of Goodness in man, guiding and directing him unto the common Public good of humane society? Hence we read of Jaball and Juball and Tuball-Cain Gen. 4. cunning artificers and curious inventors, which yet notwithstanding were all mere natural men of the cursed race, and without the Covenant & Church of God.  
The second sort of natural goodness may be called moral, & it consists (as I conceive) in a man's obedience unto the dictates of reason, in embracing virtue & voiding vice. That the Gentiles were thus morally good, those admirable examples of their Justice, Fortitude, Temperance, and other the like virtues, do sufficiently declare. Some of them being so exactly rigorous in administering of Justice, that they have not spared their own sons offending: some again devoting themselves, and exposing their own throats to the sword for the good of their country: Others so Abstemious and Temperate, that in the greatest feasts of their Princes, they have not so much as touched any wine: Others so , that they have not admitted into their sight any object that might provoke them unto lust. It were easy here to make a particular induction through all the Commandments of the second Table, and prove unto you as aswell by instances of Scripture, as from profane authors, how that the Gentiles by their exact outward conformity unto reason, evidently showed the work of the Law to be written in their hearts. But examples of this kind are infinite; and not only examples, but precepts also; for what excellent rules do they every where prescribe for the steering and directing a man in the paths of Virtue? What grave and sage precepts, eschewing of evil, embracing of good? We must indeed confess, that these grave precepts, these excellent rules, however in general known and prescribed, were yet notwithstanding, when they came particularly to be applied, oftentimes little used or made good by the practice of their own Authors: such was that overruling power of Passion in the strictest Professors, that some of them have lived in the common practice of those vices which their judgements otherwise have disallowed; as we may read concerning Aristotle, than whom no one hath more commended chastity; and yet so little did he observe his own rules, that he would feign make a Goddess of his impure strumpet, and so Canonize his own lusts. Who writ more divinely concerning the contempt of the world than Seneca? and yet who a greater worldling? who more covetous than himself? as both Tacitus and Suetonius note of him. Who seemed better furnished with Moral principles than Zeno and Socrates? and yet even they so little obeyed them, that they relapsed into unnatural lusts, as Plutarch and Laërtius observe of them, and as Saint Paul of other Gentiles in the latter end of this Chapter. Wherefore it will not be amiss, now in the third place, to inquire, whether or no this Light of Nature be sufficient unto salvation: or, whether one may be saved by this light of nature without saith in Christ? This saith our Montacute, in the first of his Ecclesiastical Apparatus, is the opinion of many of the Fathers, Clemens Alexandrinus, Justin Martyr, Cyril of Alexandria, and others whom he there reckoneth up: how ever this same Author shows the contrary opinion of most of the rest; and sure I am that Austin in many of his books de Civitate Dei, is against them, and so are most of the Schoolmen, the Modern especially, together with most of the Popish Doctors and Protestant reformers. But to omit the citation of their words, which you may elsewhere find, that I may according to the judgement and sense of the best divines briefly and clearly state the point, I shall premise these four things.  
1. That the ignorance of Christ cannot in itself excuse a man, and free him from damnation. There is a twofold ignorance you know, either juris, when a man is ignorant of what he is bound to know; or facti, when he is only ignorant of some particular circumstance of what is done: this latter may excuse, as appears in the case of Abimelech: Gen. 20. 6. the former doth not; and therefore God having revealed his will in the Scriptures concerning himself and Christ, every man upon forfeiture of his salvation, was and is bound to know it. As if a Prince should publish a Proclamation out of a man's hearing, and in his absence, 'tis not his absence, or the not hearing thereof that can exempt him from punishment, if he disobeyes it.  
2. Secondly, that there are, & ever have been most of the Gentiles utterly destitute of any knowledge of Christ; and that whether it be an explicit, distinct, particular knowledge of him, and his offices, or an implicit only and general, concerning the truth and subsistence of such a Saviour: and therefore the incarnation of Christ is called an hidden mystery to former ages. Col. 1. vers. 26. and Saint Paul calls those times before Christ, the times of ignorance, Act. 17. 30.  
3. Thirdly, that the knowledge of Christ, and faith in him, is every way necessary unto salvation; necessary as the only means for the obtaining of it, for there is no other name given under heaven, whereby we must be saved, Act 4. 2. and necessary by virtue of the injunction and positive command of God, for this is his Commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, 1 Joh. 3. 23.  
4. Fourthly, that God may instill oftentimes this faith into the hearts of many by means altogether unknown unto us, and therefore that we ought not altogether to despair of the salvation of such Gentiles, who have endeavoured in their life time to follow the lights and dictates of right reason. I speak not this, as if God were bound to bestow faith or salvation upon such men, but only to magnify the unsearchable riches of his Mercy. And to gain a more charitable construction upon our following conclusion, these things then being premised, we assert the negative part of the question, and ground this conclusion, namely, that no Gentile living and dying without faith in Christ can be saved by walking according to the light of nature.  
The truth of this may, first, appear by considering the imperfection and worthlessness of their best natural works and virtues. We do not deny all manner of reward or profit unto such Gentiles who lived more virtuously than others; for besides the present tranquillity of Conscience they enjoyed in this world, like enough their torments may be more tolerable in the next: but this we may safely say, that the strictest of them either in life or profession could never fulfil the law, and so consequently never attain unto salvation. For there never hath been any more than two ways unto heaven, either by the Law, or by the Gospel; but as for the Law, it was impossible for them to fulfil it, and as for the Gospel, 'tis supposed in the question that they never believed it. I know very well, that there have been many who have gone about to Canonize the Gentiles for their excellent virtues; amongst whom is Zuinglius of latter days, and some of the Fathers of old: but certainly had they weighed even their best Actions in the balance of the Sanctuary, they had found them lighter than vanity itself. There are two things (as I conceive) mainly considerable in every action, the principle from whence it proceeds, and the end unto which it is directed; now both these in the Gentiles were carnal, and not the least way acceptable to God: for as for the Principle and fountain of their actions 'twas flesh, but flesh and blood can never inherit the Kingdom of heaven, 1 Cor, 15. 50. And that which is borne of the flesh is flesh, John 3. 6. And as for the end of their Actions, 'twas usually ambition and hope of praise, or covetousness and hope of reward. And this was the righteousness of the Pharisees, and yet our Saviour saith except our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, we shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, Mat: 5. 20. 'tis the end that makes the Action Good or Bad. almsgiving Materially and in itself considered is a good act, but then being performed by a Pharisee, for a bad end, it became evil: and so likewise the Virtuous Actions of the Gentiles may according to their outward matter be Morally good, when as if we consider either the Principle from whence they proceeded, or the End unto which they were directed, they were but at the best Splendida peccata, handsome and well dressed sins, and therefore neither ex congruo, as some of the Arminians and Papists hold, leading unto further Grace, nor at all Acceptable in the eyes of God.  
Secondly, this may further appear by considering the necessity of Faith unto salvation. For if it be true, that without faith it is impossible to please God, Heb. 11. 6. and if it be true also, that this only is life eternal to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, Joh. 17. 3. Then doubtless are those in a very sad condition who never so much as heard of this Author of Salvation, this Christ, in whom only God is well pleased. And however some men urge, that there is no such necessity for the Gentiles believing, because it was impossible for them thus to believe, having had heretofore no incomes or way to come to the knowledge of him; we answer.  
First, that absolutely there is no such impossibility; for then how came Job and others Gentiles into the pale of the Church: and according to some, the Law of Nature was sufficient to discover unto them a Christ; though this savours too much of Pelagianisme.  
Again, secondly, what though it was impossible for them barely by the light of nature to believe? yet shall we tax God of tying his creatures to impossibilities? certainly we cannot; for it was not God's fault but man's, who by his sinful fall contracted unto himself and his posterity such an impossibility. But I must hasten.  
Thirdly, this may further be made good unto you, by considering the vast disproportion and enmity that is between a Natural understanding and Spiritual Mysteries. The natural man, saith the Apostle, receiveth not the not the things of the spirit of God, for they are spiritually discerned, 1 Corin. 2. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 'tis, say some expositors from the narrowness and incapacity of the intellective faculty to receive those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, In the text indeed they are said to know the things of God but not the things of the spirit of God; and good reason to for it, for as water can ascend no higher than just the spring or fountain from whence it is derived, even so the knowledge which flows from the light of Nature can mount no further, then into those things which are proportioned and level with the same light. Should you tell a Pagan of three distinct persons united in the same nature, of an Infinite God wrapped up and cloistered in Finite humane flesh, of being twice borne before he can become a child of God; would he not (think you) rather laugh at, then believe the discourse, and suppose you rather went about to puzzle then instruct him? Doubtless a Bat may as soon face the Sun at noon day, or a purblind man read the smallest print at a miles distance, as a Carnal man can dive into, or discover such abstruse, sublime Mysteries. 'Tis the Word alone and spirit of God that unlocks unto us these hidden things of God, which blockish nature can never understand, much less discover. And therefore when Paul spoke unto the Athenians concerning the Resurrection, the text saith some of them mocked, and the same Apostle in the 1 Cor. 7. 2. saith the Gospel was unto the Greeks' foolishness: even the most learned of the Gentiles counted these mysteries ridiculous and absurd things. Unto these reasons I might add many more, and answer some objections, but I am afraid I should be tedious. Give me leave now but in a word or two particularly to apply of this point unto ourselves, what hath been Doctrinally spoken as touching the Gentiles, and so I shall conclude.  
First: then this should make us bewail the sad loss we sustained by Adam's Apostasy; us I say, for we are all by nature Gentiles, neither is there any man borne a Christian, As then when the sun is in a very great Eclipse, every man is apt to be struck with horror and Amazement, so likewise when we consider, how strange an Eclipse this primitive glorious light hath suffered through sin, we ought to be smitten through with grief, and seriously to bewail the cause of it. When a man looketh upon the Venerable ruins of some ancient, stately edifice, how apt is he to weep and melt over its desolations? And shall Man, that admirable fabric and Masterpiece of his Creator, fall into such confusion and darkness, and we be insensible of his ruins, and, as Nero once did upon Rome, look merrily upon his destruction? Certainly, were not a man wholly Engulphed in carnal pleasures, were not his heart so deeply steeped in worldly delight, he would sometimes let fall a tear or two upon the sad relics of his Primitive Glory, and mourn over his former happiness, now entoumbed in nothing but Misery and Darkness. For doubtless great matter there will be of sorrow unto us, to see that glorious fabric and beautiful Image of God sullied over with sin and ugliness; that Understanding which is the candle of the Lord, Prov. 20. 27. Now so overcharged with ignorance, unbelief and falsehood; with ignorance, in being not able to fathom either natural Causes or supernatural mysteries; with unbelief, in its backwardness to assent unto such things which are beyond the reach of purblind nature; and with falsehood, in its misapprehending and misjudging the truths of God: to see likewise what rebellious tumults and disorders there are in those Affections, which Originally were quietly subordinated unto the dictates and guidance of Reason; how madly they cast off the reins, and rush into sin, as a horse rusheth into the battle; how wildly they rage and Tyrannize over the discursive rational faculty, either bribing it to assent unto such things which upon deliberation it must needs disapprove off, or else violently tugging and haling it to give way unto the Execution of them. To consider also how that Conscience which primitively did enjoy a sweet tranquillity and peace, is now lashed with the guilt of Sin, affrighted with the glarings and preapprehensions of Hell fire, yea and become a very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bugbear unto us, a speculum and looking glass to reflect unto us both our Temporal and Eternal misery. I might here make an Anatomy of the whole man, and show unto you how in every part and faculty of the soul that Glorious Light, which God originally imprinted in our first parents, is now dim and almost quite extinguished through sin, such is the strange malignity of it to deface and blur the clearest Characters of God and Goodness in man. And therefore it should mightily humble every one of us, when we consider, that the Light whereby we primitively were directed unto Heaven, and so sweet a communion with God himself, is now so obscure in us, that we are feign to grope after him in the dark, with whom before we had so familiar Acquaintance. And then it should cause us to pray unto God, to enlighten our minds, to repair this decayed lump with the Oil of his Grace, that we may be enabled to seek after him in the way that he will be found, to bring us out of darkness into his marvellous light; out of the darkness of ignorance, that we may rightly know him and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent; out of the darkness of error, that we may know the truth, and discern things that differ; and out of the darkness of unbelief, that believing on him we may not see death, but have everlasting life.  
But now, secondly, as we ought to be humbled in the sense of this our great loss, so ought we likewise, since God hath manifested it unto us, and it is his gift, to be thankful for the remainders and sparks of this Light that now remain in us: for whereas God might have wrapped us up in eternal darkness, and have made us as brutish and irrational as the Beasts we formerly had dominion over, yet such was his goodness to us, that in the midst of judgements he remembered mercy; and though by reason of sin he might have deprived us of the very footsteps and relics of Natural Goodness, yet hath it pleased him still to lend us so much light, as may be a witness unto himself, and a Polestar as it were, to direct us in the paths of Goodness and Civility. Admirable hath been the effects which even this light hath produced from mere natural men; those rational discourses, and deep search into the bowels of nature, those sublime and raised speculations in things Philosophical, those rare examples of Temperance, Sobriety, and Justice, and what not? amongst the very Heathens, those curious inventions of Arts and Sciences, their civil deportment, and exact conformity unto the laws and constitutions of their Superiors. What are all these, I say, and many of the like nature, but products and rays of this Light? But now as water, the further it is from the fountain, the less pure and wholesome is it, so that strength of Reason in the Heathen Philosophers, by how much the more it wanders from God the Author of it, by so much the more deadly and poisonous was it unto them. God did manifest unto the Gentiles many useful and excellent things, but saith the Apostle, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their Imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Mark the evil fruits of unthankfulness, they did not acknowledge the Author of these gifts in them, and what followed? they became Vain in their reasonings, or disputations, when God did once leave them unto their own brains, whereunto they ascribed all their learning. What silly, simple conclusions did they frame concerning him? some, even of their wisest, denying his Providence, others again thinking, forsooth, that the management of the world would be too great a labour for One God, divided the burden between Multitudes of them, Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune, and I know not whom of their own stamp and making: so strangely was their reasons infatuated, that though they professed themselves to be wise, yet they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God, etc. Wherefore it mightily concerns every one of us in special, whom God hath advanced above the rude and ignorant multitude, to ascribe all our parts and learning unto God, as the Author of every good and perfect gift: who as he can instill the greatest Knowledge into the dullest piece of earth, so can he infatuate and destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Let not then the wise man glory in his wisdom. Alas, without God's blessing 'twill prove unto him, as one saith, but as the precious stone in a toad's head, rather a disease then an ornament; and as he said falsely of Paul, we may say truly of many men, that much learning hath made them mad: for there may be a kind of rational madness; a man may cum ratione insanire, and that when being unthankful unto God for what he hath, he makes his learning the fuel of his pride, and so by his reason argueth himself into hell. Remember the miserable end of Herod, a wise and eloquent man without doubt, for such did the plaudit of the people after his oration proclaim him to be; and yet he was eaten up of worms. Why? because, saith the Text, he gave not God the glory. We are apt to ascribe all our wit and learning unto our own reasons and inventions, but take heed, God resisteth the proud; he can by one blast of his displeasure enfeeble and weaken the powers of the soul, besott and infatuate the strongest judgement, befool and benumb the quickest wit; he can send an Apoplexy upon thee, to take away thy Memory, as Pliny somewhere reports of Messala Corvinus, that after a sickness he forgot his own name: he can lay asleep our understanding in a Lethargy, yea he can in the midst of our pride and unthankfulness dissolve into nothing by a sudden death all our arts and learning, and then where is the wise? where is the Scribe? where is the disputer of this world?  
3. The consideration of that knowledge of God and those moral virtues in the very Gentiles, should shame and reprove many amongst us, who, even amidst the glorious Light of the Holy Gospel, do fall fare short of them. There are many men, even in the Christian world, who, out of a certain proud curiosity, and damnable Scepticism, will call into question the very being of God, and think they are then more learned, when they contradict the unanimous consent and current of all men: and there are others again, who, out of an affected kind of Atheism, and that they might better practise their impieties, do endeavour to suppress and smother all thoughts arising in them of God, Providence, Resurrection, Heaven, and Hell. The former of these you may term the Speculative, the latter the Practical Atheist, than whom, saith Picus Mirandula, there is no greater monster in the world. The Scepticism, or rather Atheism of the one, their own consciences in this world may undeceive, the flames of Hell in the next will more fully resolve; the desperate wickedness of the other, if unrepented of, must expect by so much the severer censure of God's wrath, by how much the light they sin against is the greater. For tell me thou wretch, whosoever thou art, what Hell, what flames shall be prepared for thee? when an Ethnic Cato shall come and plead before that dreadful Tribunal, his equity and justice, and thou a Christian Magistrate shall be arraigued for thy partiality and wrong dealing: when a Plato shall present before God his studiousness and temperance, and thou a Christian Scholar shalt be condemned for thy Idleness and drunkenness; when a Stoic shall stand before the throne with his preciseness and strict living, and thou a Protestant shalt shake in the apprehensions of thy former looseness and irregular walkings. What shall I say? when a poor Heathen, who had nothing but the dim snuff of natural light to direct him, shall be pronounced more righteous then thou, who hast lived many years together under the bright beams and sunshine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Be afraid then and confounded ye sinners in Zion, you that dare so audaciously to commit those sins under the glorious aspect of the Gospel, which those who had but the faint glimpses of the Deity would have startled at. Be ashamed that any man should have occasion to cry out, O Holy Socrates, Holy Plato, and O Devilish Christian, O wicked Protestant. Our engagements are now greater to serve God, and our accounts will therefore be more heavy if we disobey him: the times of former ignorance God winked at, but now the axe is laid to the root of the tree. Every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be hewn down and cast into the fire.  
4. Fourthly and lastly, the consideration of the Insufficiency of this Light of nature to save the Gentiles, should teach us, First, everlastingly to admire and adore the unfathomable judgements of God unto these Gentiles of old, who suffered them to walk in their own ways, without any glimpses or knowledge of a Saviour, that we might tremble at his deep stupendious dispensations towards these poor sinners, and for ever extol his mercies towards us, in reserving us unto such glorious times as these of the Gospel are, wherein the Mysteries of Christ are not so much as mussled up in Types and Figures as among the Jews, much less wholly wrapped up in darkness, and kept totally undiscovered, as they were from the Gentiles; but every where gloriously displayed and unfolded before our eyes. And secondly, it may teach us, that neither Learning nor Moral Honesty can simply in themselves, conduce any thing unto salvation; for both these the Gentiles had in a very eminent manner, and yet for aught we know they may be now frying in the slames of Hell. First then, not learning; could a man with Solomon dive into the nature of all things, even from the tallest Cedar to the lowest shrub, could he speak in as many Languages as ever the several bvilders of Babel did, or did all the natural wisdom of men and Angels concentre and meet in him, yet by all these he is no nearer salvation than a beggar, or an Actor dressed in Royal apparel is unto a throne: Surgunt indocti, etc. 'tis a common but true saying: Illiterate ignorant men do oftentimes rise up and carry away the Crown of glory, whilst we with all our learning sink deeper into destruction. Doubtless, if Natural Abilities could avail any thing unto salvation, those infernal damned spirits had long since reobtained their Heavenly stations; who yet, notwithstanding all their primitive created wisdom, or their now experimental acquired knowledge, are, by reason of their sin, bound in chains of eternal darkness, and are there still reserved unto the judgement of the great day. I do not come here to declaim against Humane Learning; Friends (I suppose) it will find many, even in this our age; Enemies I am sure it hath none, but the ignorant: yet this we may safely say, that without Grace 'tis but enmity against God, so far namely, from attaining Heaven that it rather makes a man an instrument and weapon of Hell, and Marshal's sin (as I may so speak) in battle array against God. For unless it be duly tempered and corrected with Grace, there is I know not what secret poison and malignity in it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle expresseth it, 1 Cor. 8. 1. to inflate and puff men up, to Avocate and take off the mind from heavenly meditations, to bewitch and ensnare the heart with the name of applause & credit of the world; to throw the brain into strange contrivances and excessive cares and turmoils, how to preserve our reputation, how to rise and grow great in the world, how to promote Faction and Interest, how, finally, to please men rather then God. Whereas on the other side, there may be no greater promoter of God's Glory then a Sanctified Scholar; for as in a Picture, though the dark obscure Colours do add no real worth unto the more Oriental and bright ones, yet they serve to commend & set them forth; in like manner, though the supernatural gifts & graces of God may perhaps be nothing bettered by Humane Learning, yet concurring in the same person, they mutually add lustre, & Ornament to one another. Who a more meek and pious man than Moses? and yet he was Learned in all the Learning of the Egyptians. Who more Zealous and fervent in the cause of God than Paul? and yet he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. The sum of all is this, Natural Abilities sublimated and refined by Grace may much advance God's Glory and our own salvation, but without faith, and in themselves, they cannot bring us one step forward in our way to Heaven, nor set us above the pitch of Heathens, Gentiles, mere Natural men.  
And as Learning and Natural Abilities cannot, so neither can Moral Honesty or civil life lead us in themselves unto heaven. A civil carriage a mild and humble behaviour, temperance in diet, abstinence from outward gross acts of Vice, are things very commendable in themselves, as tending much to the advancement of Humane Society, to the removing of scandals amongst Brethren, and to the avoiding of temporal judgements: but then these and other the like virtues, if they may be so termed, a Cato, a Scipio, a mere Gentile may have, and yet be in a damnable Estate. Though a picture be never so tightly and curiously drawn, yet it is still but a picture, without life, sense or motion; and so though a man come never so near a Saint in outward appearance, yet he is but a man, dead in sin, and without the life of Christ. There may be in some men Politic and Secular Ends to bias them in outward goodness, there may be in others Carnal Fear to restrain them from evil, there may be also a kind of conformity to the Present fashion of Religion, which may put a man upon a morose behaviour, upon superficial and outward acts of piety: but then are not all these their Righteousnesses, think you, as filthy rags? when as they neither proceed from a right principle, the spirit of life; nor are performed in a right manner, neither in sincerity, nor true obedience; nor directed unto a good end, the Glory of God, and edification of their neighbours. So then from hence we may learn, that neither the Heathen, nor any else can attain unto Heaven by all their Learning, Virtues, Moral Honesty or Goodness whatsoever.   
ROM. I. 20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world, etc. 
THus much shall suffice to be spoken concerning the light of Nature: from this verse we shall show you the knowledge we have of God from the Creatures. Where you have,  
1. First, the object known, and that either generally set down, the invisible things of him, or more particularly explained, even his eternal power and Godhead. Those invisible things of God are his eternal power and Godhead.  
2. Secondly, here is the time when these invisible things began to be known from the creation of the world.  
3. Thirdly, because all knowledge is originally founded in the Senses, here is the outward instrument, the sight, are clearly seen, and the inward instrument whereby we attain this knowledge, the understanding, being understood. And because no object in se, much less invisible things, can be seen without some medium to convey it unto the organ, you have here,  
4. Fourthly, the Species, (as I may so speak) or means by which we come to see these invisible things, the Creatures, are clearly seen and understood by the things that are made.  
5. Fiftly and lastly, here is the end why God did thus manifest this knowledge unto them, viz. that they should be without excuse. For the invisible things, etc. In the former verse the Apostle shows that the Gentiles might know God by the Light of Nature, and lest they should pretend that not to be sufficient, he confirms it by the outward testimony of the creatures in these words, for the invisible things of him, etc. 'Tis true, God is wrapped up in such a glorious light, that no created eye is able to behold him, nay the Seraphims themselves are said to cover their faces with their wings, as dazzled with that glory and lustre that beams from him: and how, may the Gentile say, can we see this God who dwelleth in inaccessible light? How can we bleareyd worms see him, who is invisible? why saith Saint Paul, these are vain pretences, for the invisible things etc. Alas! you can look no where about you, but you may see this invisible God: each creature reads a Divinity Lecture unto you, and may catechise you in the knowledge of his eternal power and Godhead: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for the invisible things of God. etc. By which we must not, as Origen did, understand Angels, for the Gentiles might by the light of Nature, and by rational discourse and resolution of one cause into another, have gathered that there was a God, and yet for all that be ignorant of Angels, as being creatures in themselves not any wise subject unto sense, from whence their knowledge was deduced: neither could they clearly understand either the nature or being of them by any sensible creature. By invisible things then here, we must understand nothing else but what the Apostle sets down: viz. his eternal power and Godhead: by which is meant that continual Power, by which he created, and upheld all things, and that incomprehensible Nature of his, or, as Musculus saith, his goodness; his Power is every where laid open, and his Nature may every where be understood by the things that are made, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from the creation of the world. By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here, many will have signified the creature of the world, and so they will read it, for the invisible things of him, the creatures of the world, are clearly seen, etc. And this mistake (as I suppose) gave occasion to Bernard to interpret it of man, as being called creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Mark. 16. 15. Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to every creature, that is, to every man. But doubtless, neither the opinion of one or the other can here take place; for besides that it may make some Tautology in the words, since that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the creatures and the things that are made will be all one; besides this inconvenience, I say, the drift of the Apostle, and the elsewhere using of the same word for the creation itself, as Mark. 10. 6. from the beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the creation God made them male and female, together with the proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which usually denotes the date or time from whence a thing is deduced, doth make men consent unto our translation, and so from the creation of the world, is nothing else but that the creatures ever since the foundation of the world, have always proclaimed and set forth the glory and power of their Creator. Are clearly seen, being understood, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The Hebrews, saith Grotius on the place, do usually express both the inward and outward senses by the term of seeing, so that according to him, if I misconstrue him not, these two may imply the same thing. But whether they do or no it matters not much: sure I am that the Apostle going about to show by what degrees and steps we may Naturally come to the knowledge of God, it will better consist with the meaning of him to conceive, by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to be meant the outward Contemplative sense of seeing, by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inward Discursive Faculty of the understanding. For the creatures are first offered to the sight, and from thence are conveyed to the understanding, which presently must needs collect some Supreme Author and Maker of them. The beasts may see the creatures, but they cannot know God from them, because they are void of reason; A man sees, & concludes there is a God from them because his sight is improved and backed, on by an understanding. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the things that are made, that is, by the whole Creation, Sun, Moon, Stars, Water, Earth and all. Some by this word understand the works of God in general, and so include the works of Providence as well as the works of Creation, which sense, since it offers no injury to the Text, I shall make bold to follow, and show how as well by the works of Providence as Creation God may be known. For that they are without excuse. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 'Tis in the margin, that they may be without excuse, which I conceive to be the most gennine and nearest translation of the two. For indeed this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here in the Text may denote the end for which the knowledge of the creatures was manifested unto the Gentiles, as well as the consequent, or what followed upon the manifestation of them. But what may some one say? Doth God give knowledge only to condemn us? doth he manifest his creatures unto the Gentiles merely to make them inexcusable before him? We answer that the original and primary end why God primitively impressed upon man the light of nature and the knowledge of the creatures, was that thereby he might know and worship him aright; for had man continued in his Created integrity, these two Books had been sufficient to instruct him in the service of his Maker; but now man by sin having defaced that Glorious Image of God wherein he was made, it was not possible for him either by the light of Nature, or conduct of the Creatures to attain unto Heaven: there being another new way found out to save man, even by the Blood of Jesus, the two former are made altogether ineffectual, either to guide him in the true Worship of God, or instruct him in any saving knowledge of him. Well then, what must be the end and use of them? they remain still that's certain, the light of Nature is yet in us, though much blotted, the Creatures in themselves are as capable to guide us unto God, as ever, though through man's Blindness and Ignorance they are made ineffectual: therefore there must needs step in another end and use of them, and that is to stop our mouths, and make us void of excuse before God. Had this light of Nature, and book of the Creatures been never made effectual unto man's salvation, the Gentiles who had never any other light, might very well plead excuse; but now they being by our own default become unavailable, and God being not at all bound to bestow any further light upon any, it comes to pass that the Gentiles being not able to walk according to the knowledge they primitively had, are left without excuse. So then the Essential, Primary end of the Light of Nature, and the Creatures was to instruct man in the knowledge and true worship of God; the consequential, if I may so term it, and accidentary end is to the intent that they may be without excuse. This shall suffice concerning the words themselves, on which I have been the larger, because the Exposition of them may give much light to my ensuing discourse, which shall be grounded upon this proposition: viz. That God, though in his own Nature invisible, may yet by a Gentile, a mere Natural man, be reached unto, and discovered in his Works. For the better clearing of this Point, it will be convenient to distinguish concerning the Works of God, which are either ad intra, or ad extra; those ad intra are such which have no other object than God himself, and are eternally bounded within his own nature; such as are the Eternal generation of his Son, and Proceeding of the Holy Ghost: now as no one knoweth the inward workings and contrivances of the mind, save the spirit of a man, or he to whom he revealeth them, in like manner, there is no one that can faith am, or dive into these inward essential Works of God, save God himself, or those to whom his Word hath communicated them: nay indeed the best Saints of God in this their Earthly Tabernacle, though never so much enlightened by his Word and Spirit, cannot perfectly know, or conceive these his ineffable Works and Mysteries. True, they may substantially and in general know that such Works there be, for they are revealed in his Word; but then the strange manner of the Generation of the one, and Proceeding of the other, that admirable Energy and divine Reflection, by which he understands himself from all Eternity, they cannot but by Analogy, faint resemblances and conjectures apprehend: much less than can a mere Natural man, a Gentile discover and trace either God in these Works, or these Works in God. The second sort of God's Works are those ad extra: viz. such whose effect is in something without himself, or whose proper subject is the Creature: and these again are either such which do chief concern us in another case, as the Election of some unto salvation, and reprobation of other unto damnation, or else such which immediately concern either the Being, or Preservation of the Creature in this world; and these properly are the Works of Creation and Providence; & from these chief (I say) it is, that a Natural man knows God. This we shall prove, First, in the Works of Creation. Secondly, in the Works of Providence. And first we shall show in general, that the Creatures in themselves do every where set forth and proclaim a God. Secondly, we shall show by what ways and means the Creatures do thus bring us unto the knowledge of God.  
1. First then, that the creatures do every where proclaim a God is manifest from Psal. 19 1, 2, 3, 4. the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy work, etc. That glorious canopy which we behold above us, however in itself mute and dumb, doth yet notwithstanding set forth, as it were, unto us a declaration of its Creatour's Power, Goodness, and Wisdom: of his power in the framing and contriving so excellent a piece; of his Goodness, in ordering all its Motions and Revolutions unto the benefit of his Creatures; and of his Wisdom in allotting it so commodious a position and structure unto the performance of those offices, to which he hath ordained it: and so vers. 2. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge: that is, doth sufficiently Discipline and Instruct men in the knowledge of God, so that the most sottish and rude Gentile cannot plead ignorance. For what though their Philosophers alone could tell the several virtues and influences of the Stars, the periodical motion of the Sun & Moon, their just horizontal elevation and depression, and the like; yet day unto day, and night unto night doth sufficiently show forth, even to the most ignorant, who is the Author of this their Succession and Revolution: for so the Psalmist goes on vers. 3, 4. there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard, their line, Scriptura ipsorum, their writing is gone out throughout all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. Mark here how the Creatures are made the praecones, as it were of God, the Criers and Heralds of his glory. Doubtless there is a certain kind of dumb eloquence, even in Inanimate Creatures to persuade men to subscribe unto the mighty Creator of all things. Wherefore it was not without some cause, that Hermes an Ancient Philosopher among the Heathens, called the world the Image of God: for as the coin of a King doth represent the King whose coin it is, or as in the beholding of a curious Edifice, we cannot choose but in it admire the Art and Dexterity of the Artificer; in like manner the admirable structure of this neat Universe, the curious and subordinated disposition which one creature hath to another, the exact Symmetry and proportion of each part unto the whole, must needs lead us unto the Creator of them, and cause us to admire the infinite Power and Perfection of him, who out of nothing could raise so glorious a fabric. As than Protogenes at the very sight of a curious picture did presently guess it to be the workmanship of Apelles, because he knew that none could do the like; so likewise in the contemplation of these glorious Creatures of God, we may straightway conclude him to be the Author of them, because they are beyond the contrivance and art of any other: For there is no finite being that can make or add one hair unto our heads, much less can contribute any sense, life, or vital motion unto any thing. Many men indeed, as Zeuxis, Albertus Magnus, and others have endeavoured to imitate the God of nature in his works, but never could any one by all his Apish art, frame a natural and real creature: for besides the limitedness of his Nature, the narrowness of his Understanding, the inabilities of him to find out the true form, and peculiar operations of all things, there is a certain stubborness and disobedience (if I may so speak) in the matter itself, whereby it scorns, as it were, to be wracked and tortured into another form, than what the Sovereign of all things is pleased to impress upon it. God can out of dust build a man, but 'tis impossible for any man, be he of the most exquisite wit, invention, and judgement as he will, ever to raise the least contemptible Creature out of the most refined Matter. It remaineth therefore that the most minute, inconsiderable, lest thing in the world doth proclaim the power and greatness of a God, and so consequently lead us into the knowledge of him in whom all things live, move and have their being; for as pricks and quavers in Music do commend the cunning of the Artist, as well as louder and longer notes; or as the least pin or wheel in a watch, both by its Use and Ornament, doth set forth the art of the Watchmaker, even so the meanest and least of God's creatures do sufficiently proclaim the Power, Wisdom, and Virtue of their maker. Hence it is that the snow and hail are by the Psalmist brought in praising of God, Psalm. 148. 8. The whole world what is it else saith Cusanus but God Paraphased and expressed: here is the only difference between the smaller and greater creatures, that in the one, God is set forth in Characters as 'twere, in the other, in more great and Capital Leters.  
But thus much concerning the first point, which is to show in general that God is every where proclaimed and set forth by his Creatures. We shall now, secondly, show you how, and in what way God may be known by his Creatures. Theodoret, saith there be five ways by which we may come to the knowledge of God: the first is, by considering the Heavens, the Moon and the Stars which he hath ordained, the various motions, designs, and influences, the ranks and battalies (as I may so speak) of that Heavenly Host do abundantly show that there is some Supreme General and commander, by whose Wisdom and conduct they are thus managed. His second way is by considering the Elements below; that the wild raging Ocean should not presently overslow the whole face of the ground and that the Earth, naturally the heaviest of all simple bodies, should yet for all that be above the Waters: doubtless this is not from any blind chance or fortune, but from a God, which stilleth the raging of the Seas and madness of the Waves, and who, from the creation, for the good & commodity of man, gave the Earth the upper hand of the Waters. His third way, is from the structure of Man's Body; we need go no further than ourselves (as you shall hear more at large) for the knowledge of God: he is the worse of Sceptics, that will deny himself, and the truth of his own being; and he the most ignorant of Atheists, who cannot from himself conclude a God. 4. From the invention of Arts and Sciences, which doubtless are from God as being only the Author of every good and perfect gift. His fifth and last way, is from the Command and Rule which men have over Other Creatures; for doubtless 'tis God alone and not chance that causeth beasts of fare greater strength than any man patiently to submit unto his yoke and dominion. These are the five ways of Theodoret by the which (saith he) we may come to know God. But I dare not trespass so much upon you, as particularly to explain them. I shall only therefore in general show by what degrees and steps, or rather, by what kind of workings the understanding may argue from the Creature to the Creator: and the first way by which we may thus know God, is per viam negationis, by denying: that is, such things to the Creator, which we find to be imperfections and defects in the Creature; for when a Natural mind shall consider that corruption which the Creature is subject unto, those blemishes which it is sullied withal, it must needs conclude some higher Being, which is not incident to any of these. As Erratas and faults in Printing do suppose a more perfect copy, so likewise the imperfections and defects of the Creature, which are as it were the very transcript of God himself, may put us in mind of a more Perfect Original, and Exact platform of all things. The Psalmist, Psal. 115. 8. saith of Idols, that they that make them are like unto them, that is, as vain, mutable, and perishing as themselves: whereby likewise it implies on the contrary, that the true God is not like unto his Creatures in any such respect; because they all participating whatsoever they have of him, and depending on him, are subject to be destroyed, and altered according to the pleasure of him that made them, for hath not the Potter power over his clay? but now God being neither subject to any superior or inferior Cause, must needs be in himself Incorruptible, Immaterial and Unchangeable. Many things are in God, which also by way of Analogy and resemblance are in the Creatures, as Goodness, Truth, etc. and many things are in the Creatures, quatenùs Creatures, which cannot at all be Predicated, or spoken of God: such as are Locality, finiteness, a limited power, and the like; now as a mere Natural man will conclude Positively, that there is a God, who is all goodness, all truth, because he sees the Creatures depending on him, to have something of these in him; so likewise may he negatively conclude, that there is a God, who is neither Finite, of limited Power, or in a Place, because he sees these to be Imperfections, and Impotencies in the very Creatures. As for example, to explain my meaning, in a curious Picture a man may not only discover the eminent art of the Limner, but also gather, that though it be quatenùs a Picture very Exact and Perfect, yet that it is withal very much deficient, and destitute of those perfections of the Limner, life, sense, and motion: so likewise though the Creature, sub ratione creaturae, may be in its kind perfect, yet we may notwithstanding, from its being a Creature Finite, and limited, conclude that there is a God, who is not subject to this finiteness, and limitedness, but is an Infinite, Incomprehensible God, Blessed for ever. The second way by which we may gather that there is a God by the Creatures, is per viam causalitatis, by way of causality and influence (as I may so term it;) for when a man shall look out into the world, and behold the admirable and beautiful Palace, how stately it is roofed above with an Heaven, every where spangled and adorned with shining Pearl-like Stars, how curiously 'tis paved below with an Earth, always teeming with Riches and Varieties, how strongly fenced and walled about with an Ocean full of those scaly inhabitants, the Fish thereof; when we consider (I say) the World with the Glory thereof, we must needs acknowledge some one as the First causer of it; and unto whose glory, as it's ultimate end, it is ordained, even God Almighty, From whom and unto whom are all things. As in the viewing of a Clock, the hammer striking upon the bell, leads us unto the next wheel, that immediately moves it, this wheel unto another that moves it also, and so we are led on till at last we come to consider the Artificer himself that Originally caused them all thus to move: so likewise from the dependences and subordinations which one Inferior cause hath upon another, we are brought to the consideration of the Supreme Governor and Mover of all. I (saith God) will hear the Heavens, and they shall hear the Earth, and the earth shall hear the Corn, and the Wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel: Hos. 2. 21, 22. Here is the order and concatenation of Inferior Causes; Jezreel crying unto the corn, and the corn unto the earth, the earth unto the heavens, and both corn, earth, and heavens crying and leading unto God. You know that absurdities will follow in Philosophy, upon the allowing a progressus ad infinitum (i. e.) an endless rising up of one Cause above another, without a non ultra, and resting in one Prime and Original one, which may stay and ease the mind in its inquiries and poring upon the reasons of things. The inconveniences that would follow upon such a position were (as I conceive) next unto the Light of Nature, the main ground and motive that made the Heathen acknowledge a God: and hence it was too (as I suppose) that though many amongst the Heathens maintained the World to be Eternal, yet they acknowledged withal God as the Cause of it: As the Sun is the cause of light, though light be coëxistent with the Sun. True, there were some few amongst them, who held that God was not the Cause of the world, but Austin very well called this their opinion intollerabilis error, a most intolerable, senseless error, as being repugnant to the very Light of Nature, and convictions they might have from the very Creatures themselves. I might here enter very pertinently upon a discourse against the Eternity of the World, but it being a business of Philosophy, and besides having not had time to weigh and debate the matter in mine own thoughts, I shall omit it. What remains is this, that God by way of Causality, or by our arguing from the effect to the cause, may be known in the Creatures. The third way by which we may know God in his Creatures is per viam eminentiae, which floweth from the two former: for because God hath not those Imperfections in Being and Operation as his Creatures have, and because he is the Prime Cause and Mover of all things, therefore it will follow, that he is the most Perfect Being, that he doth Eminently contain whatsoever worth and goodness is scattered in his Creatures: as we may argue and say, that because all light that is in the air, be it little or much, proceedeth from the Sun, and therefore the Sun hath it in a more eminent and excellent degree; so likewise may we conclude, that since all Power, Goodness, Love, and the like, issueth from God unto the Creatures, therefore God hath these infinitely more excellent in him, than the Creatures. Therefore we read that in God are riches of grace, and treasures of wisdom, and the like: Ephes. 2. 7. Col. 2. 3. In the Creature there is no Goodness, but what is derivative and participated of God, but what is dregged and allayed with evil, and therefore Finite and Limited. But now Goodness is Essential unto God, and therefore, as himself, is Infinite, Independent, pure, without measure; and therefore as the Sun hath for these many years together scattered light, and influence, days and years upon the world, and yet doth still remain the same Sun, as full of light as ever; so likewise, though God from the Creation of the world hath not ceased continually to bestow, and communicate his riches unto his several Creatures, yet he is still the same God, as Rich in Goodness as ever. Wherefore doubtless it will come to pass, that by these glimmerings, and faint rays of Goodness in the Creatures, a mere Natural man, an Heathen may conclude that there is a God, in whom such Goodness dwelleth more fully and plentifully.  
And so much shall suffice to be spoken concerning the second point, and the Doctrinal part of my Text; let me crave your patience now, but to wind up all in a word of Application, and so I shall conclude.  
This should confute the damned Use 1 Atheists who either in Speculation or Practice doth deny the Being of that Deity, whom these creatures do so clearly represent, and voluntarily hoodwink himself from beholding the footsteps of these Infallible things of God, in the Works which he hath done; for so saith the Apostle, 2 Pet. 3. 5. This they are willingly ignorant of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the waters. Doubtless those men were wilfully blind, who when the Glorious Book of the Creatures is laid wide open before them, can yet notwithstanding not read the Author of them: for look up unto the Heavens thou Atheist, and view that Glorious cover, which every where attires this Lower world, and then tell me, is it not a God that thus speadeth out the Heavens like a curtain? are not those glorious bodies the Works of his hands? or thinkest thou that Chance or Fortune could so uniformly, for so many thousand years together, turn about that vast body of the Sun, which so constantly, as a bridegroom comes out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run his course? Thinkest thou that those Stars thou beholdest, were set a running by any kind of Fate? or that they throw down their Influences upon us by any design of their own, without a guidance of Providence? Look down upon the Earth: and tell me who was it that laid the foundations, and the corner stone thereof? Who was it that founded it upon the Floods? Can it be brought to pass by Chance, or any Confluence of Atoms, that this little ball of Earth should hang up in the air thus , poised by its own proper weight, and not rather reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man; that the wild Ocean doth not challenge the upper hand of the Earth, and overflow the surface of it; that even the Rain should so strangely ascend up into the Clouds, and there be Bottled up for the use of man: and that there should be no means, even in the joint Powers of all men, to unstop those bottles, or command the least drop from them? From whence come all these things? must thou not of necessity say, from some Almighty Power, who hangeth the Earth upon nothing, and who ruleth the raging of the Sea, and madness of the waves, and who bindeth up the waters in the thick clouds, and the clouds are not rend under them. There is not a Creature in the world, from the highest Heaven, to the lowest earth, from whence thou mayst not copy out a Lesson of the Eternal power and Godhead, and in whom as in a glass, thou mayst not see the Invisible things of him clearly reflected unto us from the things that are made. The serious contemplation of which, cannot but make the most Sottish Atheist cry out with the Prophet. O Lord, how manifold are all thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all, the earth is full of thy riches.  
2. Secondly, hereby we may be taught, what is the right use of Philosophy, and other the like Arts, whereby we make inspection into the Creatures, namely, that thereby we may be raised up unto the consideration of God's Eternal Power and Godhead. The examining and considering of the Creatures, should raise our minds up unto God. There is no man so much an Atheist, but, if he hath eyes and reason, may be convinced of his folly by the very Creatures: For as Job said unto Zophar, Job 12. 8, 9 Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee, and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not that in all these the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? So we may say unto such men, go to the Inanimate Creatures, and they will teach thee God; go to the Vegetatives, and thou shalt find that every Herb proclaims a God; go to the Sensitive Creatures, and there thou shalt find the young ravens calling upon him for meat, and upbraiding thy damnable fottishnesse, who deniest him whom even they acknowledge: go, lastly, unto thyself, and so the very consideration of that curious art, and cunning in the contrivance of thy own Body, will lead thee up into heaven, and unto a God, and make thee cry out with the Psalmist, I am wonderfully and fearfully made, marvellous are thy works. Methinks it might be a notable way to convince an Atheist, even by the structure of his own Body, and instead of more subtle Arguments, to read an Anatomy Lecture unto him: for doubtless, could he be but distinctly led through all the Regions of the Body, and there be shown, in the upper room thereof, the curious fabric of the tender Brain, lodged in its several cells, and strongly fortified with a wall of scull, and the unknown Labyrinths and Meanders of an innumerable company of veins continually watering it: in this also could he but be made to understand the incomparable structure of the Eye; without, impaled about with strong bones, and sheltered with their lids, which as trapdoors being let down hinder foreign injuries; within, adorned with its several Tunicles and Humours, with its Membrains and Nerves, which constantly supply unto it Spirit and vigour from the Brain: from the very Motion of which Eye towards heaven it was, that Tully concluded a God there, able to help it. Can he (I say) be further shown the convenient position of the Heart, whereby, as from the Centre, it doth give Life and Motion to the whole; the orderly Pulsations of it, whereby the blood, which otherwise would become thick and muddy, is made to run clear and sweet throughout all the Conduits of the Body. To be short, were he made acquainted with the position, and several offices of the cooling lungs, the seething Stomach, the dying Liver, the fertile Womb, wherein, as the Prophet speaks, he is so curiously wrought. Besides these, were he shown the excellent use, and admirable composure of the Muscles, Arteries, Veins, Bones, Cartilages, and all other Organs and parts which concur to the making up of this Little World; what think you then, would this Atheist say? would he not presently cry out wonderfully, and fearfully am I made, none but the Power of God can make these, and none but the Wisdom of God can dispose these so made, unto so excellent uses. Certainly, the very consideration of a Body so neatly jointed and compacted together, so rarely contrived in the mutual Offices and Helps of each part unto the other, so well ordered and disposed in every the least Particle and Minute fibra thereof, must needs raise a mind not wholly shut up in darkness, and wilful ignorance to the contemplation of the Power and Wisdom of God. 'Twas a notable complaint somewhere of Galen in one of his books de usu partium, that men would be very apt to admire the Art and Workmanship of a Phidias, or an Apelles, but then very backward and averse from admiring and considering of God in this his fare more excellent work of Man. I fear I may take up his complaint in these our days: Many amongst us do know much of the Nature of the Creatures, and of the body of man, but then, I fear, 'tis a little vain discourse and ostentation, or a satisfaction of our Curiosities that is aimed at herein, more than the Praise and the Glory of God, and the better contemplating of him in his Creatures: whereas those that pretend unto the study of Nature, and the Creatures, have most reason of all other men to be Religious, and to think upon God, because they cannot but continually view in them the Finger, and Footsteps of God himself. 'Twas therefore a true saying of a renowned Statesman and Scholar of our own, that a smattering of natural Philosophy inclines men to Atheism, a deeper knowledge thereof brings them about to religion: because they better knowing the chain and link of things within themselves, and the several strange Natures and Generations of them, will the easier be led unto God, and his providence. Doubtless could but a good Philosopher, and a good Christian concentre in the same Person, as his Piety would much elevate his Philosophy, so would his Pbilosophy much confirm and advance his Piety: for certainly a serious inspection into the Creatures must needs then work much upon his Affections, and beget in him a farther Obedience unto love, fear, and admiration of that God, whom by experience he finds to be the Author, Preserver, and Governor of so Wonderful Works. The Book of the Creatures, indeed, cannot alone instruct us in a Saving knowledge of God, but being bound up together, as it were, with the Book of the Scriptures, we may see in them much of God, and learn much from them for the advantage of our Salvation.  
3. Thirdly, than we should be exhorted every one of us to study God in his works.  
1. Be exhorted to study him in his Creatures; behold a fair Volume laid open before your eyes, each Legible Character whereof doth no less speak the Intention and Study, then Command the Admiration. To pass by so Excellent Works without any consideration, will argue a Base Stupidity in us, and a base Contempt of God's glory. Shall a Play or a Romance, shall an Aristotle, or a Tully take up our Meditations, our days and nights, and shall not the Works of God have our spare Hours, those Works, which, being duly considered, may be as so many rounds in jacob's Ladder to lead us into Heaven, and give us a Glimpse of that Infinity, which blear-eyed Nature can never so well ken or mount unto? For what Seneca said of a Man, we may say likewise of all other Creatures, there dwells a God and Divinity in them; in the meanest, namely, of them we may trace the footsteps of a Deity, and find out him in whom we live, move, and have our being. Since than God hath endowed us with so noble a Sense, as our sight is, whereby we may clearly see those Invisible things of him, and since this Light of ours is further improved by the eye of an understanding soul, let us not be as the Psalmist calls them, Brutish Men that know not these things: As Beasts which commonly look upon this Palace and no more. But when we view these Bodies of ours, let us endeavour to see a God, who covered us in our Mother's Womb, and who still upholdeth these Mud-wals of clay by the Power of his Word. When we walk into the fields & there look upon the corn, the Herbs and the grass, let us meditate upon the God of them, who once said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding flowers, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind: and it did so; and if so be God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the Oven; shall he not much more clothe thee, O thou of little faith? When thou lookest up into Heaven, meditate upon that God, which ordained the Moon and the Stars, and which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleyades, and the Chambers of the south. When thou viewest any Creature, consider whose stamp it bears, and whose goodness is shown in the creating and preserving of it: Lastly, let us be exhorted to study God in his Works of Providence, and in his dispensations towards mankind; there are many, even amongst us Christians, who seeing things happen contrary to their desires and Carnal Reasons, as the godly to be dejected, and the wicked advanced, do implicitly deny a God, or at least wise, with the Epicureans, think that he sits idle in Heaven, without any respect or care had unto Mankind: whereas, did we not measure the depth of God's dispensations by our own shallow carnal reasons, we might even in the greatest huddle and confusion of things see a God, steering and directing them all to his own Glory. Though then thou seest sinne every where, even in the streets, to abound, know also that there is no evil in the City which the Lord hath not done; though thou seest the ungodly to flourish like a green bay-tree, and with David art puzzled with the consideration of it, yet with him enter into the House of God, and then thou shalt see the end of these men, namely, how that there is a God, who setteth them in slippery places, and who only feedeth them for the day of slaughter.  
Well then, to conclude, both in the Works of Creation and Providence, we ought to study God, because that in them we may read those invisible things of him: both of them are as spectacles unto us, to help us in the viewing of this Invisible God; and though indeed in Christ and in the Scriptures, we may read him fare more distinctly, yet so long as we are in these our Earthly Tabernacles, we ought to make use of these Representations of his Majesty, till the time come, when we shall not stand in need of these spectacles, when this glaste of the Creatures shall vanish in the General Conflagration of all things, and then we shall behold him face to face, and enjoy a most glorious prospect of his Divinity in those new heavens for evermore.  
FINIS.   
2 Tim. 3. 16, 17. All Scripture is given by inspiration, and is profitable for Doctrine, for Reproof, etc. 
WE are now to speak concerning the perspicuity and perfection of the Scriptures; concerning which I shall be more brief as I told you, because they have been so largely handled already by sundry learned men, unto the substance of whose writings there can indeed scarce any thing be added, unless perhaps farther illustration, and a more practical handling of them; the perspicuity of Scripture may be inferred from the use of it, here set down by the Apostle, it is profitable for Doctrine, (saith he) for Reproof, for Correction, for Instruction in Righteousness; four uses are here made mention of in Scripture, the two Doctrinal, teaching of truth and confuting errors; the two last practical, correction of vice and instruction of holy conversation; from whence I infer, that since it doth thus teach, thus convince, it must needs carry with it such a light and evidence of truth, that neither its doctrines may be rejected through their obscurity, nor its arguments gainsaid for want of clearness, and since also it is useful for Reformation of manners, and direction in a holy life, needs must its rules for this purpose be so plainly set down, that every one concerned in such duties, may be thereby instructed unto holiness, the Scriptures may be termed the first Elements of a Christian, a Child may go to school unto them, for saith the Apostle they are profitable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, as the word implies, for instruction of Children, even a Child may spell out the Scriptures, what is his duty toward God and his neighbour, and doubtless if a Child may read and understand the Scriptures, they are not so obscure, so intricate, so perplexed as some conceive them to be: in prosecution therefore of this point we shall show 1. that the Scriptures are in themselves perspicuous. 2. That they are more or less perspicuous according to the diversity of the subjects entertaining them. 3. We shall endeavour to show some reasons why God hath left some places more obscure than other.  
1. First, that the Scriptures are in themselves perspicuous, may appear by several texts. Ps. 19 8. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; they are pure, and therefore not alloyed with any muddiness, or clouded with any obscurity; they enlighten the eyes, and therefore carry along with them such evident plainness, that he who is not quite blinded may easily perceive the truth of them: So Ps. 119. 105. Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my paths; it doth, that is, by its perspicuity, and clearness, both as a lamp and light direct me in all my go: hence also it is, that the Scripture is called 2 Pet. 1. 19 A light that shineth in dark places, denoting out unto us, that the word not only in its own nature is light, but also that wheresoever it cometh it dispelleth darkness, as the Sun at his appearance forceth away the night, the fogs and mists, as Solomon, a man of the profoundest wisdom that ever lived, said, that he writ to give subtlety to the simple, to the young men knowledge and discretion, Prov. 1. 4. there is in the Word of God such innate plainness and perspicuity, that the simplest man may thereby be enlightened, the youngest instructed: but here when we say the Scriptures are plain and easy to be understood, we must distinguish concerning fundamentals and things necessary to be known, and circumstantials, or such things whose exact knowledge is not so necessary unto salvation, those matters which belong unto a saving knowledge of God are plainly set down, such as are the commandments, and the doctrine contained in the Apostles Creed, but now there are some things, which either relating to some particular customs of the Jew or Gentile, or unto the proper times wherein the Scriptures were severally writ, may be accounted hard, and not so plain, as that we may primâ front and without much learning and study understand them; however, a Christian may be saved without any knowledge of these, though not so without the other: A man may go to Heaven without knowing whether the Temple were built in such or such a year, or whether Job lived before Moses or after him, yet he cannot without understanding that he must believe in Christ, that he is a sinner, and the like: thus in other sciences there are some indemonstrable principles so plainly set down, that no man can question them, and other things again not altogether so essential, somewhat doubtful and darkly proposed: but what may some one say, the Mystery of the Trinity, and the distinction of the persons in the Godhead are fundamental doctrines, yet they are above the reach of reason, and therefore obscure: well 'tis true, these and the like Doctrines are obscure, but then as in Geometry, the same thing may be dark in its self, and yet by a demonstration plainly set down unto us in holy writ, and we ought to be contented with what that teacheth us concerning them, and however the very fundamentals of our Religion are by some disputed of, and called into question, yet this proceedeth rather from the perverseness and crookedness of men's minds, then that they are obscure and doubtfully set down in Scripture, neither are they less to be received of us, because they question them, than the doctrine of motion is in Philosophy, though a certain foolish Philosopher did once deny it: So the Apostle saith 2 Pet. 3. 16. that there are somethings in Paul's Epistles hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstastable wrist, as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction: mark here, there are somethings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not all things, but some things only, namely such as he speaks of here in this Chapter, the last judgement and destruction of the world, the time and manner of which things are not essential unto our salvation, & these things so hard, are wrested by unlearned unstable men, that is, men ignorant of the Scriptures and not balanced with the Spirit, unholy, ungodly men, and therefore as the same sun may be light, and yet not appear so to be unto a blind man, the same book plain and legible, and yet unto dull and dim eyes, dark and obscure; in like manner, the same things, which are plain and perspicuous unto the Godly Regenerate men, whose eyes God openeth, are for the most riddles and strange things unto the wicked, whom the God of this world hath blinded: we shall therefore in the Second place show you, that they are more or less perspicuous according to the diversity of the subjects entertaining them; objective, and in themselves, they are perspicuous, but subjective, & in respect of men, they are more or less plain, according as men are Regenerated or Unregenerated: the whole world you know is divided into the Regenerate and Unregenerate, this is an adequate division of all men, and therefore we shall  
1. Inquire concerning the the plainness and obscurity of the Scriptures in relation unto irregenerate men, and we shall lay down this position, that no wicked irregenerate man can savingly know the Scriptures; or thus, that the Scriptures though plain in their natures, are yet dark and obscure unto irregenerate men: If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, 2 Cor. 4. 3. our Gospel saith the Apostle is as clear as the light, but who can find fault with the Sun if it gives not light to a blind man, it is hid indeed, but than it is to those that are lost, to ungodly men; for the carnal man preceiveth not the things of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 2. the Scriptures all throughout contain in them Spiritual things, and therefore as a mere sensible Creature cannot judge of the discourses and reasonings of men, so neither can a mere rational man perceive or disscover the Mysteries of the Spirit, which is only proper to him, unto whom the Spirit revealeth them, as the Apostle elsewhere speaks; you know the Scripture is divided into the Law and the Gospel, and unregenerate men are said to be either within or without the Church, now an unregenerate man, a Gentile without the Church, may have an historical knowledge of the Law, for saith the Apostle Rom. 2. 14. they do by nature the things contained in the Law, but as from an old eaten manuscript a man may gather a word or sentence or two, when yet notwithstanding he is not able to find out the drift, scope, and end of it, because through its ancientness it is much worn and perished; in like manner from those old relics and vestigies of that Law written in the hearts of the Gentiles they might discover some things which pertained unto their duties towards God and their Neighbour, but then they could not know therefrom the intent of the Law, which was to drive them to a Christ, they could not know, that by it they could not be justified, they understood not the end and drift for which God wrote this Law in their hearts, & therefore though they might have an Historical, yet they could not have a Saving knowledge thereof.  
But Secondly, as for the Gospel, a Gentile cannot have either an Historical or saving knowledge of it without it be preached unto them, or by some extraordinary way, unknown unto us, infused into them, for Faith (ordinarily, that is) cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, therefore the opinion of those, who think that by the light of nature a man may come to the knowledge of Christ and the Gospel, is to be rejected.  
2. Secondly a Christian unregenerate man within the Church, may have an Historical contemplative knowledge of the Law and Gospel, but not saving particular knowledge of either, for it is to them foolishness, 1 Cor. 2. 14. and therefore it is rather a scandal and stumbling block unto them, than a light and saving rule, it cannot be expected therefore that the Scriptures should seem plain unto them, whose noisome lusts do cast a mist and a cloud before their understandings, and whose interests and prejudices against the Doctrine of them, suffereth them not to behold their purity and clearness. Secondly, as ungodly irregenerate men cannot have any saving clear knowledge of the Scriptures; so on the contrary, Godly regenerate Christians may have it: for unto them alone it is given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God, but to others in parables, that when they see, they should not see, and when they hear, they should not understand; and so 2 Cor. 3 15, 16. 'tis said, until this day when Moses is read the veil is laid over their hearts, nevertheless, when they shall turn unto the Lord, the Veil shall be taken away. Repentance and the Spirit of regeneration doth remove all obstacles, and dispel all clouds, which do otherwise overcast the understandings of natural men; there are many things contained in Scripture, there is History, which in general, though not in each particular circumstance, may easily be understood of an enlightened Christian; there are Prophecies which are either fulfilled, or yet remain unaccomplished, the former may be known by applications of their events, the latter we may assure ourselves will be fulfilled in their appointed time; there are commands of God, which being a declaration of his will, are plainly set down, and are as plainly understood, for a Christian knoweth the mind of Christ, and the will of his Father; there are also Promises, which being made only to God's Children, are by them only rightly apprehended, for unto Abraham and his seed were the Promises, Gal. 3. 16. There are lastly, threaten, which being denounced against sin, are truly feared of those alone who make conscience of sinning; as a strange language doth seem very uncouth and ridiculous, unto such as have no experience of it, whereas on the contrary, it is most acceptable and delightful to such as understand it: in like manner the language of the Scriptures, however they may seem strange and unreasonable to such as are not acquainted with God and his holy Word, yet to a Regenerate Child of God, and such an one as rightly understands them, they are had in great esteem, yea and are more precious to them then the honey or the honeycomb; now we delight only in such things which we understand, for Knowledge according to Aristotle is the rest of the Soul, a man may poor and read all day in a Book, yet if he understandeth not, 'twill minister little comfort, or pleasure to him, and therefore the Scriptures being so great a delight unto the Godly, for saith David, My delight is in thy Law, and my study therein day and night, it will follow, that they do easily understand the meaning of them: but may some one say, doth not David pray also unto God to give him understanding that he may learn his Commandments, how are they then so easily to be understood of an Elect Child of God? we answer, that in this place Ps. 119. 73. the Prophet doth not speak of an outward understanding of the Scriptures, for who doubteth but that a Grammatical and Historical knowledge he had of them, but he prayeth for an inward assurance & comfort from them, which ought continually to be the prayers of every one who intends to benefit by the reading of them; besides, this availeth nothing, for we do not say that the Scriptures are plain unto any, without Gods opening their eyes, and revealing unto them the mysteries of his Kingdom: farther, a man may say, that if the Scriptures are thus plain, as you will have them, what need you then take all this pains in expounding of them, to what purpose are so many Commentators and Interpreters of them? We answer, that though the Doctrine of Faith be plainly set down, yet other things there be in the Scripture, which may by reason of our ignorance stand in need of a Commentary, which also may be farther useful for the more largely opening of the Scripture, which a new beginner cannot do himself, thus the Elements of Euclid are very plain & perspicuous in themselves, though notwithstanding for the benefit of young beginners they are farther illustrated and demonstrated by those that writ on him: thus you see then, that the Scriptures are plain and perspicuous unto a Regenerate Child of God, though unto wicked Unregenerate men of the world they may appear otherwise, not through any defect of light in themselves, but through the muddiness and darkness of their own minds; As unto diseased and ill affected eyes, all things even the brightest, will appear of the same yellow colour that they at present are affected with.  
But here I had almost forgotten to put you in mind of this caution: viz. That though all things necessary unto Salvation are plainly delivered in Scriptures, yet that they were not so plainly held forth unto the Faithful under the old Testament, us now they are unto them under the New, for we must know that the Promises under the Law were either Clouded and Muffled up in Types and Figures, or else couched and employed only in Symbolical figurative expressions; for the Prophets of old did seldom speak but in figures: Moses his face did shine indeed, but then there was a veil over it, and so Christ was represented indeed under the Old Testament, but through a cloud and mist, hence the Apostle saith that the mystery of the Gospel was kept secret since the world began, but now 'tis made manifest; that is, compare the times of the Old Testament with these of the New, & the Gospel than will seem quite to have been hid, in comparison of what it is now, for so we must understand the words, it being the manner of the Scriptures, when they compare two things together, to express the less negatively: a knowledge of Christ without doubt the ancient Jews had, for otherwise to what purpose would it be said Joh. 8. 56. Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, & he sow it, & was glad, & that they dranck of that Spiritual Rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ, 1 Cor. 10. 4. to what purpose also would those Promises & Prophesys of Christ be, unless they had had some knowledge of him; a knowledge than they had of him, that's certain, but then this was only a confused, implicit knowledge of him, not a distinct, particular, & explicit one: as now we know in general, that great will be the Glory that shall be revealed upon us in Heaven, both in body and soul; but yet we cannot define certainly what kind of Glory it will be, until this Mortal shall have put on Immortality, this Corruption that Incorruption: so likewise the Patriarches of old knew, and believed in a Christ to come, but then they did not explicitly and distinctly understand his particular Offices, his Death and Resurrection, and the like, for of these the Apostle tells us for a time, because the fuller manifestation of these mysteries was reserved until the fullness of time, and the accomplishment of them; hence the Apostle saith, that the Fathers of Old did not actually receive the Promises, but saith he, they saw them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, Heb. 11. 13. As therefore a man by the help of a glass may discover another at three or four mile's distance, and not be able distinctly and throughly to view him all over; so likewise the faithful in old time, through the glass of the Law, did know Christ's coming; but then they saw him afar off, saith the Apostle, and therefore he could not circumstantially and clearly be manifested unto them; and so likewise it is in relation unto the knowledge of the Trinity and other mysteries; they were darkly and emblematically, as I may so speak, hinted only in the Old Testament, God thus ordering it, that his people might more eagerly desire and pray for their fuller revelation. But now to us under the New Testament, these things are more clearly laid open unto us, so that we ought not to expect farther revelation of them, than what we have in the Word already; for saith the Apostle, All the Promises of God in him are yea and Amen: that is, they are throughly accomplished and perfected in him, and therefore they must needs be more plain and evident unto us now, than they were unto the Fathers of old time: the Old Testament then, and the matter therein contained, was not altogether so perspicuous unto the faithful before Christ, as now it is unto us after him: and this shall suffice for the second point, and so much also shall suffice briefly for the perspicuity of the Scriptures. We shall now speak something concerning the perfection of them; as the Scriptures are perspicuous, so also they are most perfect, (that is) necessary to be known of us in relation both to our faith & manners: this is plain from the end of them here set down, Namely, that the man of God may be made perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works: from whence we may conclude, that if the Minister of the Gospel, for he is the man of God, may out of the Scriptures furnish himself with all things necessary, both for his Salvation & his office, it will follow that they are fully perfect for instruction of all men, both in Doctrine and manners; this will farther appear from Ps. 19 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: and Ps. 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfections, but thy commandment is exceeding large: and so Luk. 16. 29. Abraham there showeth in the Parable, that Moses and the Prophets were sufficient to keep men from damnation, even the doctrine of the Old Testament contains in it all things necessary for man's Salvation: whoever denyeth the truth of this point, must of necessity say, that either first God did not perfectly and fully reveal his will to the Prophets and Apostles: which how absurd it is the Scriptures teach; for Joh. 14. 26. 'tis said there, that the spirit should teach them all things: and Joh. 16. 13. the Spirit will guide you into all truth; or else they must say, that the Prophets and Apostles did not set down the full and perfect substance of what was revealed unto them, which Saint Paul doth plainly seem to contradict, for Act. 20. 27. I have not shunned (saith he) to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Or else thirdlly, he must be forced to say, that it seemed not good to the Spirit fully and perfectly to reveal the will of God, and so in writing to transmit it unto posterity, for thus the Papists say in defence of their traditions, that God indeed did reveal to the Prophets and Apostles his whole will, concerning our Salvation, but yet all was not written, but some things were communicated say they, viva voce unto the rest of the Church, which never were written, but still were derived unto posterity: but doth not this opinion plainly accuse the Scriptures of falsehood, when it is said Deut. 12. 32. Whatsoever things I command you, observe to do it, thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it, & Gal. 1. 9 If any man Preach any other Gospel unto you then that ye have received, let him be accursed: which two texts being compared with that of Exod. 24. 4. Where 'tis said, that Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and with that forementioned place of the Acts, where Paul saith, that he did not shun to declare unto them all the Counsel of God: these places I say, compared with one another, do evidently show that all things necessary for Salvation were written; & that this written word alone ought to be the rule & canon of our faith: for since by them we attain unto Eternal Life, we are made wise unto Salvation, since by them also the man of God is made perfect, and throughly furnished: Without controversy they contain in them all things necessary to be known of us, either in regard of our faith or manners, all things necessary I say, for otherwise many other things there might be traditionally conveyed unto the Church, such as are the perpetual virginity of Mary, the names of Jannes and Jambres mentioned by Paul only, the Prophecy of Enoch, Judas 14. part of the Gencology of Christ, Luk. 3 Satan striving for Moses body, Judas 9 and other the like, which things they may be known or not known, without any prejudice to our Salvation; and being not doctrinal, may very well be received from hand to hand, and not mentioned in Scriptures: but how say the Papists, can ye know Canonical books from Apocryphal but by the tradition of the Church? We answer, that these may be distinguished from the other, by that innate light, majesty, and truth that is in them; besides, though a new convert and beginner may first learn it from the Church, yet afterwards they know it upon grounds of Scripture; thus an ignorant man may be told of the King's coin, but it is not that telling, but the King's stamp that maketh it currant & good coin. Again, for the maintenance of their unwritten traditions they urge that of the 2 Thes. 2. 15. Therefore brethren stand fast, & hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our Epistle, than which saith Whitaker, Nullum probabiliorem Papistae locum inveniunt: but unto this we answer, that they were the same things which Paul spoke and writ; so that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not signify a divers doctrine from that which afterwards was written; and so also the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not always a note of disjunction, but sometimes also of conjunction, as may appear by comparing the Original of the 1 Cor. 13. 8. Besides this, it appears that the Canon of the new Testament was not yet established: Yea saith the same Whitaker I affirm, that there was no book unless it were the Gospel of Matthew before the Epistles to the Thessalonians, wherefore though the Apostle did bid the Thessalonians hold fast that Doctrine or those Traditions, which he delivered unto them, yet they might very well be, & indeed according to substance were, set down in writing afterwards by the same Apostle; wherefore briefly to conclude this point, since these Scriptures are purposely written for our learning, and to be are witness of Christ, and to teach the way unto everlasting life, doubtless God will have no Doctrine received of us but what is in them, or consonant unto them; Traditions then however in point of ceremony, discipline, or other less substantial matters, may be received, yet in points of faith and Doctrine they are in no wise to be obtruded upon us, or entertained by us. And thus much briefly for the Authority, Perspicuity, and Perfection of the Scriptures, concerning which, I might have spoken far more largely out of the Fathers, Common-places, Catechists, and polemical Divines, but intending brevity upon this point, I thought it more useful for you and myself, wholly to examine the aforesaid points by Scripture, yet so, that I have given you a short glance and view of what they have said too. I shall only now shut up all with a use or two of what hath been now and heretofore spoken. Hence then  
1. We may learn the excellency Use. 1 of holy Scriptures above all other books and writings whatsoever; we usually esteem of writings according to the eminency, and worth of their Authors; why now all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and therefore we should have them in so much account, by how much the nobler the contriver of them is, for as David said of Goliath his sword, there is none to that, 1 Sam. 21. 9 So may we say of the Scriptures, there is none to them, the word of God is as a two edged sword dividing between the Joints and the Marrow, so that what Aristotle said of the knowledge of the soul, that a little of it was better than a great deal of another science: We may also say of the knowledge of the holy Scriptures, a little knowledge of them will stand us in more steed, than all the vain and perishing knowledge of profane Writers: Can the time and shortness of our lives suffer us to swallow up and devour whole Libraries, as big as that of Alexandria, or this of our own: were it possible for us critically to go over and examine all those elaborated pieces of humane invention, could we perfectly Anatomize and trace nature in all her secret wind and operations; yet all this knowledge in itself, however it may place us above the clouds in men's opinions, may for all that be an occasion for God to hurl us deeper into Hell: But behold here a Book, that is able to make us wise unto Salvation, that directs and points us out a way unto eternal Life, yea which raiseth our minds up unto the contemplation of those mysteries, which the Angels themselves did desire to peep into; a Book that unlocks unto us the very Cabinetand secret Counsels of God himself, that revealeth and layeth open those mysteries of Godliness, those hidden things of God, which were before from all eternity clasped up in the bosom of the Almighty, that gives a landscape as 'twere, and map of Heavenly Joy, that out of darkness brings us into marvellous light, that maketh us from Children of wrath to become heirs of Heaven; from slaves freeborn; from Devils to become Saints. All other books, either by the teeth of time are worn out of memory, or in the ruins of Kingdoms receive their graves, but not one jot or tittle of this shall pass away, till all things be fulfilled. It hath been hitherto for some thousand years preserved amidst the hatred of all the world against it, the persecutions of Tyrants, the malice and fury of Devils, and shall so unto the end of the world continue, though wicked men, Tyrants, and Devils should all combine their joint forces to extinguish it, they may with more success and easiness go about to blot the Sun out of the Firmament, then to take this glorious Light from the Church & people of God: so that it was not without much reason that a holy Man once said, That he had rather all the books beside in the world should be burnt, than that one leaf of God's Word should be destroyed: for doubtless the least sentence therein comprised, is more worth than all the voluminous Offsprings and works of man's brain. Wherefore  
2. This should exhort every one Use. 2 of us, to a diligent reading and studying these holy Scriptures, search the Scriptures saith our Saviour, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the word implies a kind of a ●●nting after them, or a narrow and painful seeking into them, as men do for Gold and Silver, and let the word of God dwell in you, that is, let it be as familiar unto you, as he that dwells under the same roof with you, and not only so, but dwell in you richly, let your minds be as throughly adorned with them, as a great man's house is with rich utensils & hang, and now let us examine ourselves whether we do thus earnestly search after them, whether our hearts be thus furnished with them; are we not rather like those Canonists of the Church of Rome, who some say will confirm their Law text, & this too taken upon trust from others, or like that Bishop mentioned in the book of Martyrs, who thanked God he never knew what was meant by the Old or New Testament: doubtless there is no greater folly or madness in the world, if we rightly consider it, then to hanker after humane knowledge, and to be careless of divine understanding, greedily to devour husks, and yet to loath Manna, and like those Indians, to prefer toys and baubles before Gold & precious treasure. But I need not (I hope) accuse any here of any such ignorance or neglect; all that I desire is, a more diligent studying of the word, and more conscionable practice of it; for reading & knowing without practice, will but aggravate our damnation: however, we ought to be stirred up to so necessary a duty as this is, especially in such times, wherein the meanest sort of people will upbraid our neglect of it, amongst many of whom, to our shame be it spoken, the Bible according to the letter is better known then ever Aristotle was amongst us, and will it not then much redound unto our disgrace, if the Apron should pose the Gown in those things which most concern them, if poor illiterate Mechanics should in the Doctrine of the Scripture confound a Learned Rabbi. My Brethren, you cannot be ignorant what prejudices some of the meaner sort of people have against us in this respect, and therefore besides the Salvation of our souls, which should be the main end of all, even politic respects should engage us to double our diligence in studying of the Holy Scriptures; for believe me, however easy they may seem to some, yet the full and clear understanding of them may very well take up our whole care and studies; there are Originals to be known & consulted withal, antiquity to be searched into and discussed, several places to be reconciled, various acceptations of words and phrases to be weighed, and compared together: there are besides these many things without the Scriptures very needful, Grammar, to know the propriety of words: Rhetoric, to understand the several Tropes and figures contained therein: Logic, to deduce consequences, and artificially to open places of Scripture: and all three together, properly and distinctly to analyse, resolve, and open the particular chapters and Books thereof; which I conceive to be the nearest, and most compendious way for the understanding the drift and scope of Holy writ: now all these should be as so many several ties and engagements upon us continually to strike upon this anvil, night and day to study, read, and meditate upon the Holy Scriptures, especially for us who either actually are in, or else intent the calling of the Ministry. But what may some of the younger sort here say, if the Scriptures be so hard as you make them, your exhortation will little prevail with us, you will rather deter us from reading them: to such I answer, that though many things in Scriptures be hard, yet the main Doctrines thereof, which concern our Salvation, are plainly set down, and as easily to be understood; besides, as the Orator notes of the Elements of Sciences, and Sciences themselves, that they seem hard and difficult only to the first undertakers of them: so may we say of the Holy Scriptures, their seeming difficulties will easily be conquered, and made unto those that familiarly use & read them, as a strange language by use and custom becomes easy and familiar; there are many things indeed in holy writ folded up in obscurity, but this is to make us more earnestly pray unto God to open our eyes, that we may behold the wondrous things of his Law: this is to tame the pride and arrogance of our nature, which is apt to spurn and undervalue things obvious, this is to inflame and raise up a generous holy mind unto a continual reading and studying of them; for as we count that man most valiant, who will venture upon hard and difficult erterprises, in like manner may we esteem that man most holy and best minded, who will (as I may so speak) dare to be pious, and conquer all the seeming difficulties of the Holy Scriptures with his desire to know them, and his industry to find them out; wherefore as the voice once said unto Austin, so let me say unto you all, tollite, legite, take up the word, read it; perhaps you may find something therein that may damp and frighten your wild lusts, as they say that holy Father was presently converted upon the reading of that text Rom. 13. 12. The night is fare spent, the day is at hand, let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light: tollite, legite, perhaps you may find there something that may strike into your souls an holy amazement and sacred horror for your sins past, as Junius saith of himself, that he was strucken with amazement by a divine kind of Authority, and so turned from his Atheism upon the reading of the 1 Chapter of John: Again, tollite, legite, perhaps you saw light through some temptations answered, some grievances of Conscience pacified upon thy diligent observance of his word, some judgement denounced against thy sins, some good thing or other, that may either comfort thee, or encourage thee in thy farther reading of them: tollite, legite, take it up and read it, but read it with reverence, it is the Word of God, read it with discretion and judgements, by marking the connexion of them, by comparing one place with another, and by examining all things according to the Analogy of Faith, and by applying that which thou readest unto thy own particular use and estate: read it lastly with method and order, distinctly going over that Book which thou undertakest, lest thou be always learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth. Oh but read it I do, perhaps two Chapters a day, besides I hear it read twice a day in this very place, but yet I can find no Spiritual comfort from it, it doth not move me for all that, what shall I do then to have comfort from it? The answering of this case will be very proper for us; for many of us I doubt not do hear and read the word, but then I fear we are as little moved with it as the benches we sit upon, or the ground we tread on; but let such a man consider his fearful estate, who can thus hear judgements denounced and yet not be shaken, mercies promised and yet not be melted; let him consider what a fearful thing it is to hear or read God speaking, and he to have his mind another way, for God to thunder out in his Word, and yet he to sleep all the while securely in his sin: how can he expect Heaven who is thus careless of the instrument of his Salvation? doubtless that God who commanded the Jews in the 6. Deut. 8. To bind his Laws for a sign upon their hands, and that they should be as frontlets between their eyes, and that they should write them upon the posts and gates of their houses, must needs be mightily provoked at their contempt, who will not give his word any admission into their hearts or ears, wherefore if such men do desire to be moved, or to receive any comfort from their reading or hearing the word,  
1. They must continually pray unto God to take from them their heart of stone, and give unto them an heart of flesh, bestow upon them likewise the Spirit of wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of him that the eyes of their understanding being enlightened, they may know what is the hope of their calling, Ephes. 1. 16, 17.  
2. They must examine themselves what worldly cares do distract their minds, what prejudices and temptations do enter into their hearts at the reading of the Word, which are like the thorns (in the parable) choking the good seed of the Word.  
3. They must seriously meditate upon the Word, read, and endeavour to remember it, for as meat doth that man little good, whose stomach hath not a retentive faculty in it to retain and digest it, in like manner the Word of God being not chewed upon (as 'twere) by meditation, and well remembered, doth become useless and unprofitable to us; so than we must not only read the Word, but we must practise it also, we must lay it up in our hearts, and bring forth the fruits of it in a holy and Godly Conversation. I might here farther enlarge upon this point, and confirm my exhortation of reading the holy Scriptures from their plainness and perfection, their subject and matter of them altogether divine, from their end, the Glory of God and man's Salvation, from their principal Author, GOD, and from many other Arguments, but I shall crave leave here abruptly to break off and conclude.   
2 Tim. 3. 16, 17. All Scripture is given by inspiration, and is profitable for Doctrine, for Reproof, for Correction, for Instruction in Righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 
COncerning the Book of Nature and the Creatures we have already spoken, we are to speak Concerning the Book of the Scriptures; by the two former I told you we had only a confused ineffectual knowledge of God, by this latter we have a more clear, distinct, and saving knowledge of him; should we have been left only to the light of nature within us, and the conduct of the Creatures without us, we might have eternally groped in darkness, and never have come unto Salvation, for though these may direct us unto a God, yet they do not properly unto a Christ, nature can never throughly discover the will of God, and the right means unto Salvation, and though God be delineated and drawn out (as 'twere) in his Creatures, yet it is but in dark colours, seen he may be, and understood in them, but never exactly worshipped and served through them, there must be then some higher Principle and fountain, from whence we may draw the knowledge of his will, his grace, and goodness towards mankind, his love unto us from all Eternity in designing his Son to die for us, and to reveal unto us all those high mysteries of Religion, which otherwise nature can never reach unto; now that which doth these things must needs be the Word of God, which instructing heretofore the old Patriarches, either by Oracles or Vision, was at length by Moses proclaimed unto the Church, and set down in writing, that so all might plainly see who he was, what kind of worship he did approve of, and by what means he would bring them unto Heaven, so that as Christ said unto the woman of Samaria, joh. 4. 22. That both she and her nation worshipped they knew not what, we say likewise of the Gentiles, they worshipped they knew not what God, or the true one in a false manner, for before Christ's time God's words being consigned & closeted within the Church of the Jews, no wonder that the Gentiles without the pale became vain in their imaginations, and worshipped the Creature more than the Creator; and now after Christ, many Nations either through malice rejecting the Scriptures, or through negligence being ignorant of them; no wonder that they are given up to worship the Host of Heaven, and to follow after Idols, and lying vanities: for as old and dim eyes, though they may behold a fair volume, yet they cannot speak or read perhaps two words together without the help of spectacles, or some other glass; in like manner, though a purblind natural man, a Gentile, may see God in the large volume of his creatures, yet without the light and help of holy Scriptures he can never discover his will, and the true manner wherein he will be worshipped; the Scriptures alone are the Cannon and Rule unto which we must square ourselves in the service of God, the principium cognoscendi, that instrument and ladder, whereby we may climb up into Heaven, and have a more intimate and clear knowledge of God, then possibly we can attain unto, either by the light of nature, or conduct of the Creatures. Wherefore leaving the two former Books of Nature and the Creatures; we must enter now into a higher form (as it were,) and learn the book of the Scriptures; it shall be my task therefore at present to open unto you the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures out of these words, in prosecution of which, as of all other heads ensuing, I shall as I have told you endeavour to couch my matter in as short a room as I can, that so I may the more speedily go over the sum and substance of Christian Religion, which is the intent of this exercise, and then I shall with all plainness, perspicuity, and method both open and apply the Doctrine, familiarly illustrating those things that are knotty and hard, without rambling and fetching in of things which will not consist with my intended brevity and method: As for the Doctrine of the holy Scriptures, which being a beaten path, I shall with less pains go over. These words as I conceive are the most pertinent whereon I may build it, which are brought in as an argument to strengthen and confirm the Doctrine which Timothy had sucked in even from his youth, and received from Paul, for he showing (in the beginning of this Chapter) the dangers of the latter times, and the errors of evil men and seducers, doth give his Son Timothy an antidote against their poison, exhorting him in the 14. verse, to continue in the Doctrine which he had received: the times indeed are very evil, errors very rife, persecutions every where offered to the professors of the Gospel, but (saith he) continue thou in the things which thou hast learned etc. this exhortation he seems to press by several arguments, thou must continue in sound Doctrine.  
1. Because thou hast learned it, it was to that purpose deposited with thee, and instilled into thee, that thou mightest continue in it.  
2. Because thou hast been assured of it, and therefore 'twould argue want of Judgement and folly in thee to fall from it, and because thou knowest of whom thou hast learned it, not from any impostor or seducer, but from a Paul, an Apostle acted by the Spirit, & teaching nothing but what he hath from Christ and the Holy Ghost, and therefore whose authority ought to bind thee to persevere in the things thou hast learned.  
3. O Timothy thou must continue in those things thou hast learned, because from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, v. 15. thou hast been so long versed in the sacred truth, so long learned and received it, that now it would be a most base thing for thee to recede from it; read it thou hast from thy Child hood, and therefore hold it fast thou shouldest in thy riper years; this argument he backs on  
4. From the perfection and profitable effect of the Sacred Scriptures, they are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus, thou must therefore continue in the Doctrine and Word of God, because if thou believest in that, 'tis able to instruct thee unto Heaven, and eternal Salvation, these arguments he puts down in the 14, & 15. verses, now he goes on in these words read unto you to persuade him to persevere in the faith and Doctrine of the Scriptures, for saith he, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, the Authority therefore of it should bind thee to continue in the maintenance of it; and 'tis profitable for Doctrine, for Reproof, for Correction, for instruction in righteousness, and therefore the great profit of it in instructing thee in all things, which tend to Religion or well living, and also its perspicuity in laying down all manner of things plainly, which make either for Doctrine, or for decision of controversies or for regulating men's manners, either in public or private; and then in the 17. verse, the Apostle confirms his exhortation from the end of the Holy Scriptures, which is, that the man of God may be perfect, etc. it is perfect in itself, and therefore it doth make men perfect, and throughly instructed unto all good works: since then saith Paul the Doctrine which thou hast learned hath so noble an Author of it as God, hath so profitable an use as to make men wise unto Salvation, to instruct, to reprove, to correct, and since it hath so admirable perfection in it, as to make the man of God perfect, & throughly furnished unto all good works, good reason then my son Timothy, that be the times what they will, be errors never so plausibly entertained, and truth never so violently opposed, that thou notwithstanding shouldest continue in the things which thou hast learned, in the Doctrine of the Scriptures which thou hast received: And this is the drift of the Apostle in this Chapter. The well understanding of which, together with the words read unto you, will much conduce to the opening of this my present Doctrine of the Scriptures: I shall therefore expound the words themselves more distinctly, and in the opening of them briefly touch upon some things, which I cannot handle at large, and then I shall come to what I mainly intent: well then here is the subject spoken of, the Scripture, set forth by its Author, GOD, by its use, 'tis profitable for Doctrine etc. by its end, which is, that the man of God may be perfect etc. All Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all writing, for so the Word of God is called Scripture by way of eminency, it is the chiefest of all other writings which are so far accounted good or bad as they come near to, or decline from this: but here saith Beza, when the Apostle saith all Scripture, we must take heed lest we understand any besides that which we call Canonical, (that is) such books, which by reason of their Antiquity, their argument, and divine doctrine they treat of, their efficacious and lively manner and method of their discourses, are the Canon, yea rule and touchstone, by which all Doctrines and Writings whatever are to be tried; for there are other Books which either because the names of their Authors were unknown to the Prophets and Apostles are called Apocryphal or hidden, which though otherwise containing many useful & profitable instructions, are yet notwithstanding to be hid and laid aside, when any truth comes to be tried. And therefore when our Apostle saith that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, we must exclude those Apocryphal Books, for since they are neither written in the Hebrew tongue, nor by any Prophet, of which Malachy was the last, nor taken notice of by Christ and his Apostles, since also they contain many things absurd and contrary one to another, we have reason to suspect that they were never given by inspiration of God: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Scripture is inspired of God, or as the word implies breathed from God; those notions, words, and phrases, which may every where occur in holy Writ, were dictated unto the penmen thereof by the Holy Ghost himself, so that Prophecy came not of old time by the will of men, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved, 2 Pet. 1. 21. wherefore we read not, thus saith Jeremiah, or thus saith Isaiah; but thus saith the Lord, and the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it: but what may some say, is all that is contained in the Scripture the Word of God? Why then those impostures and calumnies of Satan set down in the 3. of Gen. and 4. of Matthew; those erroneous say of Jobs Wife unto him, to curse God and die, with the like, are the Word of God. We answer, that these and the like say only historically set down, being abstractedly in themselves considered, are not from God; but then consider the truth of them, and the end for which they are set down, so they are: As we may say, that Tacitus is the Author of that whole Book, though many things in it are supposed to be spoken from other men; and as the same wax, though of little worth in itself, yet sealed and put in a bond may be of great concernment and value, in like manner those speeches of Heathen Authors cited by the Holy Ghost, as that of Aratus Act. 17. 28. and that of Epimenides Titus 1. 12. though of little worth, as they came from such men, yet being inserted into holy writ receive divine Authority, and may be of great moment unto our Salvation; many things there be also in Scripture, which quoad praeceptum may have greater Authority than other, but ratione Authoris are equal. As the Commandments of the first Table are more severely enjoined then those of the second, yet the same God writ them both; thus gold may be more precious than gold in weight and shape, though not in purity: it remains then, that all Scripture some way or other is given by inspiration of God, and therefore it is all one to say, the Scripture saith, and God saith, as may farther appear from the 9 of the Romans 25. verse. and Gal. 4 30. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable: many are the commodities of the written Word, for besides that it is a standing rule, whereby we may try all other Doctrines, as the Bareans tried Paul's Doctrine by searching the Scriptures, whether those things were so, Act. 17. 11. and therefore as those that carry false and Adulterate coin about them cannot endure to hear of a touchstone, so likewise those cheats in Religion, the Papists, will not suffer the Scriptures to be read, lest thereby their impostures should be laid open, and their folly appear unto all men: besides, this commodity I say, the Apostle saith, that 'tis profitable,  
1. For Instruction, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for the discovering (that is) of such things unto us, which without it we could never have known; there are Mysteries of Godliness, and abscondite hidden things of God, which humane reason can never unveil or fathom; that an infinite God should be cloistered up in a Virgin's womb, that he should leave Heaven and lie in a Manger for the Redemption of his enemies, and the like, is above the reach and disquisition of a natural understanding, and therefore we must of necessity be farther enlightened by the Word of God before we attain unto the knowledge of these things; it is profitable also for instruction of us in the fall & restauration of man, in the Sacraments, yea in all things necessary unto Salvation; it instructeth and teacheth us how wretched we are by nature, how happy by Grace, how to beat down principalities and powers, how to want, and how to abound, how finally to be wise unto Salvation:  
2. 'Tis profitable saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for reproof, there is no error so plausibly broached, so strongly fortified and maintained by humane reason, but may be beat down and vanquished by Scripture, and therefore saith the Apostle He that is Spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man, 1 Cor. 2 18. He that is rightly informed in the holy Scriptures, he to whom the Spirit hath revealed the will of God, and who knoweth the mind of Christ, may without the assistance of foreign traditions, testimonies of the Fathers, and the like, not only know, but also confute such errors: as are repugnant unto sound Doctrine and the Analogy of Faith: the Word of God is called a light: Psal. 119. 105. and therefore as by light only we know what darkness is, so by the same word may we understand what is erroneous and false in religion: As we say, that a right thing is a sufficient judge of its own straightness and the crookedness of another body: so that there is an elenctical power (as I may so speak) in the very Scriptures themselves, to stop the mouths of gainsayers, and to quash & put to silence the impious opinions and errors of ungodly men.  
3. 'Tis profitable for correction, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for the reformation (that is) for an amendment of all things amiss, either in life or manners; there is not the least deviation from the Law of God, either in thought, word, or deed, but it doth espy and correct. A man can never sinne so closely but it will find him out, for the Word of God tryeth the reins & the heart, it is a two edged sword, dividing betwixt this joints & the marrow, & is a discoveres of the thoughts and intents of the heart, Heb. 4. 12. As it doth teach what things are right, so it doth correct & amend what things are out of order.  
4. 'Tis profitable for instruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, instruant Patriarchae etiam errantes. The title of the 32. Psalm is a Psalm of instruction, the word seems to me to imply the great profit of the Scriptures, even for the instruction of Children and young men: so fare was our Apostle from forbidding any of what sort soever the reading of the Scriptures, that he makes it one of the main ends and uses of the written Word to instruct all men, even unto Children: hence it is that v. 15. the Apostle approves in Timothy, that from a Child he had read the Scriptures: and I am verily persuaded that the Romanists withhold the reading of Scriptures from the people more out of a point of policy, than Religion, or ground they have for it out of the Word itself; for it seems altogether repugnant, first, to the Commands of God, who enjoined Moses to read the Law before all Israel, Men, Children, and strangers within thy gate without any distinction, Deut. 31. 12. And who bids us search the Scriptures, Joh. 5. 39? and who commands that the Word of God should dwell in us richly and abundantly? Had not laymen and ordinary people souls to be saved, as well as the greater Cardinals and Priests, there were some reason that these precious things should not be cast unto such dogs, these Jewels to such Swine, but they expecting life from the same Christ as greater Scholars, why should they not with them have the same means to obtain it? if the command of God lie thus indefinitely upon all men, why should they be debarred from obeying that command? Secondly 'tis repugnant to the very design of God in revealing his will in the Holy Scriptures, for whatsoever things were written a foretime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope, Rom. 15. 4. why was the word written, but that we might have hope? and shall not a layman have hope of Salvation? will you exclude the common people from the hope of Heaven? if not, why then shall they not have this hope through patience and comfort of the Scriptures? again, Ephes. 6. 12. 17. the Apostle there showing how that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalites and powers, etc. bids them therefore take to themselves the Helmet of Salvation, & the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God: and now ought not poor ignorant souls thus to wrestle, thus to fight against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against Spiritual wickedness in high places? why then shall they not have this comfort? Why should they not be armed with that sword of the Spirit, the Word of God? When a Prince setteth forth a Proclamation 'tis penned in a language that all his Subjects may understand it, and doubtless 'tis the intent and end of God in proclaiming his Will and Word unto mankind, that all his People should read and understand what wondrous things he there revealeth for their Salvation; for otherwise what a vain unprofitable thing would it be to kindle a light merely to put it under a bushel, to bestow a rich treasure upon us (for so the Word is called) to be hid and clasped in a box: to give us a rule whereunto we should square our lives, even his Holy Word, only that it should be shut up and cabineted in an unknown language: it is in my judgement the highest piece of injustice in the Church of Rome thus to deprive the people of the bread of life, and instead thereof to obtrude upon them their own hypocritical leaven, their fopperyes and traditions; to obstruct and seal up the fountain, and then to feed them with the muddy streams of their own inventions; yea indeed to damn men's souls merely out of a devilish kind of policy to secure their own state and interest: but say they, there is no such necessity certainly for the common people's reading the Scriptures, when as in the times of the old Testament there were many Believers, as Job & his friends, who yet living not among the Jews, to whom then only were committed the Oracles of God, were destitute of the holy Scriptures: we answer, that as for Job & his friends they lived by computation of the best divines before the Law and the written Word; whereas had they lived after it they had been bound to have the Scripture after it was delivered; besides, what if it be granted that some believers there were under the Old Testament, who de facto had not the Scriptures, must it therefore now de jure be true, that the commonalty ought not to have them? under the Old Testament perhaps God might by vision, or some other extraordinary way, reveal his will unto some of the Gentiles, as unto Job & others before their Conversion, which ways being not now to be expected, reason it is that all People should now fetch their knowledge of God from the Scriptures. Again, they object that Paul writ not his Epistle unto the Romans in Latin, which was their vulgar tongue, but in Greek, therefore to put the Scriptures in a vulgar tongue is not needful: we answer, that the reason of this was, that those sacred monuments of Paul being to instruct all people besides the Romans, the Spirit thought it most convenient to write it in such a language which might most universally be understood, now that the greek was then most known unto all Nations appears not only out of profane Authors, but also out of the Scriptures themselves: as from Rom. 1. 16. and other places, where the Apostle under the name of Greek comprehends all the Gentiles: but we must not here stand too long upon these things; it remains that since the Scripture is profitable for instruction in Righteousness, good reason therefore it is, that all people being thus to be instructed should read the holy Scriptures, whose end it is (as the Apostle goes on) that the man of God may be perfect and throughly furnished unto all good works, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, i. e. by comparing the 1 Tim. 6. 11. with this, the Minister or interpreter of God, such as Timothy was himself, that he might be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works: that he namely, who is of greatest concernment, and knowledge in the Church, may out of the Scriptures furnish himself with the knowledge of such duties, which belong unto God and his neighbour, there is no kind of good work or duty, which can be thought upon, but the Scripture doth prescribe and prepare us unto: and this is the meaning of the words, on which I have been the longer, because by them I have taken occasion to resolve you of such doubts, which for brevity sake I cannot at large and distinctly handle: from the words themselves you may note these three common observations.  
1. That the Scriptures are of divine authority, for they are inspired of God.  
2. That they are most perspicuous, and in the main most easily to be understood: for otherwise how could they be profitable for our instruction in righteousness.  
3. That they are most perfect: for if the Minister himself can draw out of them all things necessary unto his duty, it will follow doubtless that they contain all things necessary for our Salvation, and that they are most perfect.  
1. Then we shall show, that the Scriptures are of Divine authority: what these Scriptures are none here I suppose can be ignorant of, for you must needs conclude from what hath been spoken, that they are the Word of God, or holy books written by the inspiration of God, to make us wise unto Salvation; so that in the very frontispeice (as 'twere) of the definition you may discover from whence they proceed; God is the Author of them that is certain, and 'twere as absurd for a Christian to deny this, as for any man to deny that beams and rays proceed from the Son, and therefore he that calls into question, or denys that the Scriptures are the Word of God, is as unworthy the name of a Christian, as he is of a Philosopher or a Metaphysitian, that disallowes of a natural body or entity, because these are things which are necessary to be presupposed of him: should all the men of the world unanimously conspire to deny that the Scriptures are the Word of God, yet are they no less divine and authentical than the Sun would be light, if all men otherwise were blinded: let Turks and Pagans say what they will, yet the Scriptures will be still God's word, and there are such sufficient reasons for to prove it, that he that is not either wilfully blinded or maliciously bend must needs confess the same; for that they are from God, and so in themselves of divine Authority, sundry reasons may be given, we shall only for brevity sakename three or four: For besides that they do most clearly reveal unto us the nature and works of God, as the three Persons in the Trinity, the mystery of the regeneration, and the like things, altogether above the reach and contrivance of man; besides the impartialnesse and candour of the Penmen of them, for so Moses setteth down the incest of his Parents, of whom he was begotten, Ex. 6. 2. and his own disobedience, Numb. 11. 11. Jonah his murmuring, and Jeremiah his fretting, which undoubtedly shows that they were not biased with any carnal respects, but altogether overruled and inspired by an higher Spirit; besides also the quality & condition of the Penmen, Amos an herdsman, Matthew a publican, the Apostles many of them fishermen, which evidently show that there was some higher power which did instill into them that profoundness of wisdom, which all the art and Philosophy in the world can never reach unto: Add to these the consent and holy conspiracy (as 'twere) between all their writings, notwithstanding the great difference of times they wrote in, the remoteness of places, and the diversity of matters whereof they have written; so incredible and divine is their mutual harmony, that you would rather think one man writ them with divers penns, than that divers men writ them by one Spirit; besides these and sundry other reasons, I say, which may sufficiently declare who is the principal Author of this holy writ, another great argument & testimony of their original is, first, the truth and events of Scripture Prophecies; Can any man, Angel, or created being foretell future contingent events, can they tell the very name of a man, and the time of his birth a hundred years before hand, as the Spirit by Esay did concerning Cyrus? and in the 1 of the Kings 13. concerning a Josias by name above 300 years say Annalist's before he was borne? could ever any of the cheating Oracles of the Heathens, or any counterfeited Sibyl tell of a Messiah to be borne 4000 years after, & then to come to pass just as 'twas foretold, as it did according to the promise made to Adam, Gen. 3. 15. we ourselves of this Nation are living examples of the truth of holy predictions & succeeding events, the Scriptures many thousand years ago did foretell the calling of the Gentiles, for in him say they shall the Gentiles trust, and all the ends of the earth shall see the Salvation of God, and behold the Prophecy accomplished in ourselves: we who heretofore sat in darkness and the shadow of death, do now lie under glorious light, who before were not a people, but are now a people; 'twere endless to relate unto you all the Prophecies which were exactly accomplished according to the times, places, and circumstances foretold:  
2. But secondly, the miracles that were wrought by, and did accompany the teachers and writers of the Word, may sufficiently confirm our faith in the authority of the Scriptures themselves, unless we are worse than the Magicians, who upon the Miracle of louse could cry out this is the finger of God, Exod. 8. 19 but how may we know that the Miracles we read in the Gospels are true, since by some the Gospel itself is doubted of? Answer, that were they not true they would have either been refuted or rejected by the men of those days, but so fare were they then from that (as a learned man notes) that Josephus a Jew, an enemy to the Christian truth, did acknowledge Christ to be the worker of many miracles.  
A 3d main argument of the Divinity of the Scriptures, may be that admirable force and power which they have upon the minds and hearts of men, which believe in them, sometimes to humble and cast down, sometimes to comfort and raise up the Spirits, what vigour doth it put into a man enabling him to resist even his own desires, to fight against his own flesh and blood, to suffer and bear all afflictions and tribulations for Christ his sake: show me any humane eloquence that can alter and change the very natures of men, that can over-awe, keep under hatches the rebellions, mutinies, and motions of the flesh, that can put a Felix into a trembling, a stubborn Pharaoh into a relenting, that can give light unto the simple, stop the mouth of gainsayers, that can divide between the heart and the world, between a man's self and his self; humane eloquence that can only move and persuade, this force and command; it comes with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, thus saith the Lord, and therefore exacts obedience. Add to all these the testimonies of all times concerning the Scriptures, their Antiquity, Moses being borne before the very Gods of the Heathens, the latest of the Prophets matching the ancientest of the Philosophers; add also their constant preservation and continuance even till now, maugre all the fury and rage of Tyrants, the malice of Devils and devilish men, who have done, and do still oppose these holy writings; add finally unto all these, the testimonies of an army of Martyrs, maintaining even to death the truth of the Scriptures; men of all sorts, ignorant, who though they could not dispute, could yet die for the truth, wise, rich, poor, of all ages and sexes, women, children, aged folks, enduring all manner of torments, with all manner of torments, with all patience and constancy for the maintenance of God's Word, and the truths therein contained; these with many other reasons may sufficiently demonstrate, that God alone is the Author of the Scriptures: but now as there may be many witnesses unto a bond, and yet still all be of little moment, unless the seal be put on too, in like manner all these witnesses and arguments here produced will be of little concernment unto our Salvation, unless they be sealed with the Spirit of promise, as the Apostle speaks Ephes. 1. 13. we may be convicted by the foregoing arguments that God is the Author of the Holy Scriptures, but yet they can never per se work faith nor a full assurance of them, unless the Spirit which beareth witness unto our Spirits, jointly cooperates and opens our eyes more fully to see this light: for as Hagar, Gen. 21. 19 could not see the fountain that was near her until God had opened her eyes, so neither can we perfectly discern or savingly know the holy Scriptures until the Holy Ghost doth open our eyes, as David speaks, to behold the marvellous things of the Law: we have▪ therefore occasion here to inquire, how it may appear unto us that the Scriptures are the Word of God, or how a man may savingly and truly know that the Scriptures are the Word of God and of divine authority? the Papists they say that the reason why they believe the Scriptures are the Word of God, is because the Church saith so, we say that the reason why we believe them so to be, is because they are in themselves worthy of all belief, and because the Spirit of God witnesseth and sealeth unto our Spirits that they are the Word, of God; now whether the witness of men, or the witness of God be greater, judge ye: however it hath been a point very much controverted and canvassed on both sides, therefore I shall endeavour briefly and clearly to state it, and to make you understand the absurdity and vanity of their position. Our thesis, on which I shall ground my Discourse, shall be this, namely that the Authority of the Scriptures in esse cognito and quoad nos doth not so depend on the Church as on their own innate light, and testimony of the Spirit within us: the terms of this Thesis being explained you will easily understand the whole matter; I say then, that the Authority of the Scriptures in esse cognito, and quoad nos, for though some of the Papists have been so impudent as to affirm, that the Scriptures have no more divine authority in them without the Testimony of the Church, than Aesop's Fables or Ovid's Metamorphosis hath, yet some of the modern and ingenuous of them do acknowledge, that in themselves indeed they are of divine authority, yet this cannot (say they) otherwise appear unto us then by the testimony of the Church: we say then, that they may otherwise appear unto us to be God's Word then by the church, as we may know that light is light, and gold is gold by their own qualities and lustre, without any man's telling of us that they are so; besides, if they are as they confess of divine authority in themselves, by what Law then can their Church usurp authority over them, unless (as needs it must come to pass) they account the authority of their Church above that of God, and so become no less blasphemers then absurd.  
2. I say, that the authority of the Scriptures in esse cognito and quoad nos, doth not so much depend upon the Church, as on their own innate light, and testimony of the Spirit within us; doth not so much I say, for I do not deny but that the Church is a great confirmer of the truth and divinity of the Scriptures, and that it doth execute many good offices toward them. As  
First, it is a witness unto them, and a keeper and preserver of them; but now will any one be so absurd to say, that the records or writings of a King do receive authority from their Notary or Register, because he keeps them?  
Secondly, the Church may discern and judge between true and false supposititions Scriptures, and that by examining them according to the original Canon and platform of Moses his Law, for my sheep saith our Saviour John 10. hear my voice, and so can distinguish it from another; but now as a Goldsmith may by his weights and touchstone distinguish Gold from Copper, & yet not be said to make the Gold, yea or to make it so unto us, but only to make us the more easily believe that Gold it is, in like manner the Church in its examining & distinguishing of Scriptures can be only said to confirm unto us the divinity of them, not in any wise, either in themselves or unto us, to make them divine.  
The third thing that the Church doth, is to preach and divulge the Scriptures; but now as we believe and obey the Proclamation of a King, not because such an one proclaimeth it, but for itself, so likewise we obey and believe the Scriptures not for the Church, but it's own sake.  
Fourthly, the Church doth expound and interpret Scriptures; but now as a faithful Interpreter of an Ambassador doth not either add or take from the true sense and meaning of him, so likewise neither doth or ought the true Church to add or diminish any thing of Holy Writ, and therefore much less hath it power to make it in any wise of any greater price or value then really it is in itself, and this is all the true power that the Church can challenge in relation unto the holy Scriptures: wherefore the true Church we honour in respect of these things, but we do not adore it and make it of greater Authority than the Scriptures themselves. Wherefore  
3. We say, that the Authority of them doth not so much depend on the Church, as on their own innate light, and testimony of the Holy Spirit within us; their own innate light I say for saith Chamier there is in the Scriptures a peculiaris genius and strain, whereby they may upon examination be easily discovered to be the Word of God, as a Critic will know by the phrase and stile, and the like, that such a book is Lyvies, such an one Juvenals, so also will a Christian upon the due search & trial of the holy Scriptures by their matter Heavenly, by their stile deep, and by their divine phrase mystical, presently conclude that they are the Word of God, and that they can have no other Author than the King of Heaven: and then farther I say there is required a Testimony of the holy Spirit within us, which Spirit is as I may so speak the seal unto all the rest, and peculiar only to God's Children, a man may by the hearsay of the Church historically know the Scriptures, but this will no more comfort his heart then the discourses concerning honey and sweetmeats will the stomach: a man may also be convicted of the truth of the Word from those arguments I pressed even now, and yet he may be no more converted by them then the Jews were at the Miracles of Christ, which they knew were wrought by a divine power: well than what is it that must ultimately persuade us and assure a child of God certitudine fidei with an assurance of faith that the Scriptures are the Word of God? the Church that cannot, for how can that infuse faith, which the Scriptures every where set forth to be the Gift of God? what then is it that assures us? doubtless the Spirit of God coworking with us, and upon our prayers and diligent reading and examining of the Word, assuring us that this Word which was thus confirmed by miracles, thus verified by the truth of the Prophecies contained in it, this Word that hath so perfect a consent within its self, that hath so admirable efficacy upon the hearers and readers thereof, that hath been so wonderfully preserved in all ages, that this Word, and this Word only, is the Word of God, and of divine authority; so then, the Church that can only report unto us, the Spirit that doth firmly persuade us; the Church that can ministerially only ingenerate an opinion in us, the Spirit a Faith and certainty of the Scriptures: as then men may hear a very great report of another's worth, learning, and counsel, and yet be never fully satisfied concerning it, till they find it so to be by their own experience; or as those Samaritans who did believe in part on Christ for the saying of the woman, were yet notwithstanding further confirmed & established in the faith of him, when they heard his own words John 4. 24. in like manner though we may historically believe that the Scriptures are the Word of God because the Church saith so, yet this testimony of the Church doth minister little assurance or satisfaction unto a child of God, until it be farther backed on and established by a farther testimony of the Spirit, which undoubtedly must be the firmest assurance a man can have, because it is that alone which doth open the eyes to behold the wondrous things of the Law, Psal. 119. 18. 'tis that alone which leadeth into all truth, Joh. 16. 13. 'tis that alone which inseparably accompanies the faithful in the Scriptures, My Spirit which is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not departed out of thy mouth, Isa. 59 21. and therefore 'tis that alone which gives strongest evidence unto its self speaking in the Scriptures, if ye receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater saith S. Paul; the witness of the Church is but the witness of men, therefore the witness of the Spirit is greater: but say they, the Spirit speaketh by the Church, and therefore we must believe the Church only when it testifyes of the Scriptures: Whitaker answers for me, that if so be the Spirit doth thus speak by the Church, from whence then hath the Church this assurance but from the Spirit, and so our belief of the Scriptures must ultimately resolve of necessity into the Testimony of the Spirit: again they say, that the Church was before the Scriptures; we answer, no by no means, for then how can the Word be called the everlasting wisdom of God, and the immortal seed, of which the Church is borne: the Church was before the written Word but not before the unwritten. Ask a Papist how they know that the Church is of such authority, and they will prove it by the Scriptures, and therefore the authority proving, must needs be of greater esteem, and before the authority proved: but is not the Church called the pillar and ground of truth? yes, but what doth a candle receive any light from the candlestick, because it sticks in it? what though the Church is the seat and mansion place of the Scriptures, yet were it possible that there were no Church in the World, yet is not the Scripture of less authority than now it is; the Church than is only a ministerial pillar to preserve, keep, and set forth the word, not a fundamental one to uphold and give being unto it: and here I might wade farther into a Discourse concerning the authority of the Church and the Scriptures, but it having been so fully handled already and answered by multitudes of eminent men, I shall go no farther: it remains that I should practically apply what hath been already spoken, but this, together with the other propertyes of Scriptures, their perspicuity and perfection, I shall leave to the next part.   

This is the AUTHORS' last Sermon that ever He preached, which was at S. Mary's in Oxon. March 20. 1655.  Phil. c. 3. v. 8. first part. Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. 
IN this Chapter the Apostle arms his Philippians against their false teachers, by opposing his own judgement and example to their erroneous and lying suggestions. There were a company of profane persons started up in the Church of Philippi, whom Paul counts no better than dogs, evil workers, and of the concision, verse 2. who instead of circumcising their hearts, went about rather to cut and rend asunder the Church; these men now being left to be brought from their old fleshly confidences, the works of the Law, did vaunt much of their outward privileges, and would fain slink into circumcision, and other ceremonial performances, and join them with Christ, teaching that these were necessary to Justification, as well as faith in him. The Apostle therefore in zeal to the truth, and the better to quell these false Doctors, deals with them at their own weapon; and because he must needs Glory, when they force him to it, he falls upon them with his own privileges, and shows wherein he may boast as well, nay more than the best of them; if any man thinketh he hath whereof he may trust in the flesh, I more, v. 4, 5, 6 but well, (saith he) do you think that either you or I are the better for these things, or a jot the nearer Heaven? certainly in no wise, and therefore I would have you Philippians (to whom I writ) take notice for your own example, that I am of a contrary judgement to these seducers; for what things were gain to me etc. 'tis true indeed saith Saint Paul before my conversion, I verily thought circumcision, outward privileges, and my own legal righteousness a great gain and vantage to me; I soothed myself up (vain Pharisee as I was) and thought Heaven was my due and right; but when once the knowledge of Christ dawn'd in upon me, those things which in my judgement were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gain, profitable to me (that is) and meritorious in order to my Salvation, I presently thought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, things that I were like to lose by, should I trust in them, rather hinderers than promoters of my Salvation; yea doubtless and at this present time, now that I am a grown Christian, rooted and settled in the knowledge of Christ; yet I count my present good works and righteousnesses yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quaecunque in mundo sunt (saith Ambrose) all my learning and parts, every thing besides, but loss, pernicious, raw, empty things for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. The more I know Christ, the less still of good I know by myself, after all things I find it best to rely upon his imputed righteousness; so that the words of my text are a confirmation, or if you will, a farther amplification of what he said in the preceding verse: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea doubtless in good truth, what I said (verse 7.) was true at my first conversion, is much more true now, viz. that I count all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: So that here Paul passeth his vote for the knowledge of Christ, against all things besides; in this there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excellency admirable virtue; in those nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loss and dog's meat, fit only for such dogs as false teachers to seduce and delight in: the words in themselves and in their relation to the former, will afford many observations.  
1. Obs. That no outward privileges are of any profit to Salvation: Paul, circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, when he comes to know Christ counts all these but loss.  
2. No righteousness of our own either before or after conversion can justify us before God. Those outward good works, by which Paul thought in his Pharisaical condition to have gained Heaven by, before his conversion, he counts loss; yea doubtless and all things besides, he means his goodness also after conversion, this he counts no better for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.  
3. That there is an extraordinary excellency in the knowledge of Christ above all things besides; or if you please, that the knowledge of Christ is the most excellent knowledge that is. I might prosecute all these, but I shall pitch only on the latter, as being most suitable to the place and company I speak to. In prosecution of the point, I shall show unto you first, what is meant by the knowledge of Christ. Secondly, I shall show unto you what qualifications there be in this knowledge, that may denominate it so excellent. Thirdly, I shall more particularly show unto you, whence it is that this knowledge is so excellent. Fourthly, apply the point.  
1. What is meant by the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord: there is a twofold knowledge of things; first, a bare Historical and speculative, the second a practical experimental knowledge; The first is only a superficial view, and glance of the understanding upon the truth and being of things; thus the Devils do believe, & thus even reprobates may know Christ; As a man may know a country in a Map or table, which yet he is never like to see; so may the most debauched wicked wretch in the world have some scantling book-knowledge of Christ, and yet never enjoy him in Heaven hereafter; he may be able to draw a scholastic Metaphysical scheme of Christ his natures, his offices, his states of humility, exaltation, and the like; he may be able to discourse profoundly of his Incarnation, the Hypostatical union, and whole mystery of our redemption, and yet with all his learning sink deeper into Hell: though his brain may be full of notional truths, yet his heart may be empty of any comfortable experiences of his Lord and Saviour, He cannot with Thomas say, my Lord and my God; but as the Grecks, that came up to worship at the feast Joh. 12. would feign see Jesus, yet more out of curiosity, then desire to be instructed by him; so do such seek after and study Christ more in order to the satisfaction of their understandings, than conversion of their souls. But  
2. There is a practical experimental knowledge, where the truths that we know have a strong impression upon our souls, so as to work and transform them into the same image with the thing known; when we do not rest in the bare contemplation of the thing, but perfectly love and are ravished with the excellencyes of it: and this is that knowledge of Christ that Paul prefers in the text, he counts all things as loss and dung in comparison of it, the more he knew Christ, the less he regarded other things; the more he was taken with him, the more willing was he to be ruled by him as his Lord, to obey his precepts, to be answerable to him in all things; now this practical knowledge of Christ includes therefore these three things as I suppose in it.  
First, Assent to his Doctrine, Word, and Promises. Every science before it is perfectly gotten supposeth an assent to some undemonstrable principles, which are foundations of it; thus, for one instance; before the understanding can build farther in the Mathematics it presumes this as a ground that Totum est majus sua parte: so that even in these things faith seems to be principium intellectus, as Cusanus speaks, the prime engine that sets the understanding a-work in the pursuit of knowledge; and therefore we can never come to a distinct saving knowledge of Christ, unless we first believe in his Word and Doctrine; A Turk may know Christ so fare as by hear-say and History, yet he cannot be said savingly to know him, because he denies his assent unto the Gospel, which is the ordinary way of discovering him to a man; As when those that pretend to be disciples of any great Philosopher or Scholar do wholly submit themselves to his dogmata, writings, and opinions; as for example, the Peripatetics to Aristotle; the Scotists to Scotus; the Thomists to Thomas his Doctrine; insomuch that they do even swear to resign up their judgements to the words of their Master, why so? much more ought Christians to give their assent unto the Word of their Lord & master Christ; therefore John 10. 'tis said, that his Sheep hear his voice and follow him; they presently adhere to his word, and accordingly obey him in it, He that heareth my Word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting Life, Joh. 5. 24. we must first hearken to his Word before we can believe on him, and have everlasting life.  
Secondly, it implies affection to Christ. For as Gods knowing his people implies his love towards them in Scripture, the Lord knows the way of the Righteous, Psal. 1. v. 6. so his people's knowing of God implies also affection towards him; hence Christ saith that he knows his sheep, and is known of them, John 10. 14. which implies on both sides a mutual love to each other: for so expressly v. 15. he saith he will lay down his life for his sheep. Hence ignorance is every where in holy writ made the ground of men's hatred and disaffection to Christ, and his people; had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory, 1 Cor. 2. 8. and John 15. 21. and c. 16. v. 3. All these things (meaning persecutions) saith Christ, they will do unto you, because they have not known the Father nor me: did a man throughly and savingly know Christ he would be more in love with him; for there is such an intimacy and union between the truth and goodness of divine objects, that whosoever rightly understands the one will presently embrace the other; so that be sure, that is but a vain empty knowledge of Christ, where the characters of it are not imprinted in our hearts and affections; even in common discourse, when we say I know such a one is of excellent parts, of a sweet and good disposition; this implies our secret esteem and respect unto the person; and how can we be said truly to know him as the fairest of ten-thousand, as our Saviour, Reconciler, Lord and God? unless our hearts be carried forth in a high esteem and love of him: 'tis said Jam. 2. 19 The Devils do believe and therefore tremble; certainly did they know there was any mercy in store for them (as now there is nothing but vengeance) as they now tremble and fear, so they would then love and admire Christ; and did we but justly understand the admirable goodness and excellencies of Christ, we should be more taken with him, we should keep his commandments with more observance, and fear more to displease him then we do. O let us never say we know Christ, that we have intimacy and acquaintance with him, when our hearts are fare from him; when we have an Idea of him in our Brain, and not so much as a lust Crucified by the Knowledge of his death, not one grace the more implanted by the knowledge of his Resurrection; when we pretend to know him, yet grieve his Spirit, wound his glory, trample under foot his blood, disobey his precepts, and prefer a Barrabas, a robber, a sin that dispoiles him of his Glory before the Lord of life; believe it, this knowledge of Christ is scientia affectiva; it must sink deeper than so into our affections, and transform the whole man into the image of Christ, otherwise it is but a counterfeit, not a real knowledge of him.  
Thirdly, this practical knowledge of Christ implies a particuliar application of him to our own souls; what good will it do me to know there is gold in the Indies, unless I had it in my coffer, or to know when I am hungry that there is in such a place honey and food, unless I did taste it myself? no more good will the knowledge of Christ do us, unless we do eat him and drink him by faith, and can say with Paul in the text, I know him to be my Lord that hath redeemed me and will save me: you will not count him a good Physician that knoweth only the name, figure, and shape of an herb in Gerhard or Mathiolus, and not the use and application of the same, and so neither can ye call him a knowing Christian that can discourse only of Christ in general, being in the mean while ignorant of the benefits and the comfortable application of them: he may still for all this lay under the curse, under the pangs of conscience, the sense of the wrath of God, the tyranny of sin and Satan, unless he can feel Christ's spirit, as Thomas did corporally, and say, My Lord and My God, Joh. 20. 28. in all true knowledge the Acts of the understanding are reflexive, the soul will start back and rebound upon its self, it will first go out unto Christ its direct object, and then turn in upon its self, and examine its own interest in him. Hence saith Saint Paul in the 2 Cor. 13. v. 5. Examine yourselves whether you be in the Faith, let your souls retire into themselves, and there diligently examine the matter, and you will quickly find whether you believe in Christ or have any communion with him, which cannot be rightly known unless you so examine yourselves, and so much shall suffice to be spoken of the first point.  
The second is the qualifications of this knowledge.  
1. 'Tis a revealed supernatural knowledge. Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, saith Christ of himself to Simon Peter, but my Father which is in Heaven, Mat. 16. v. 17. neither carnal reason nor humane wisdom can ever suggest Christ unto us: 'tis God alone that reveals his Son in us, Gal. 1. v. 16. Nature can rise no higher than things within its own bounds and sphere: As water cannot run above its own fountain: now the knowledge of Christ doth much exceed the reach of natural disquisition, 'tis the wisdom of God in a mystery, hidden wisdom, which none of the princes of this world knew, 1 Cor. 2. we attain usually unto natural knowledge by much industry & turmoil of body & mind, when our understanding doth out of some imperfect hintes, and blushes of the causes of things, by degrees hack and hue out the truth of them, and by much labour and toil we get and serve out of nature the small knowledge that we have; whereas now all the toil and study in the world will never advance a mere natural man to the knowledge of Christ, because I suppose he hath not so much as a hint from nature to set him a work in the pursuit of it: that there should be three persons in the Essence, that the second of these persons, God the Son, should be made man, and be degraded to the form of a servant, be borne of a virgin, die, and in death get a victory over death, and the like, are such riddles to a natural man, that he cannot possibly receive them, as the Apostle expresseth it 1 Cor. 2. 15. neither can he in his most extravagant and roving apprehensions fasten or light upon them: which makes me think that Trismegistus and Plato had been peeping into the books of Moses, when they speak so emphatically of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, yea and the Spirit of God, as they are quoted by Lud. Vives & Morney in their books de veritate Religionis, so that the mere historical knowledge of Christ doth originally arise from revelation, how much more than doth the true saving knowledge of him descend immediately from the Spirit of God, enlightening our understandings to see him, opening our hearts to embrace him, and guiding us into all truth, 'tis not our poring upon a body of Divinity, our running over the Schoolmen, and spending our oil and labour in the bare speculation of these truths, that bring us to a saving knowledge of Christ; but we must be all taught of God, and wait upon the blessed influences of his Spirit with an humble soul, with prayers and tears, and fasting and weeping and mourning for our ignorance, that God would come from above into us and instruct us in the excellent knowledge of him, who indeed to them that perish is foolishness, but to them that are called the wisdom of God, and the power of God.  
2 This is the alone saving knowledge, that is, this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, joh. 17. 3. There is no other name given under Heaven by whom we can be saved; and he is the way, the truth, and the life, and the door by whom alone we have entrance into Heaven, how can we enter into life, but by the way, by the door? how can we see the Father but by the Son, who reveals him? So that to assign Salvation to such as never so much as dreamt of Christ, is a presumption not justifiable by Scripture or reason: I cannot conceive how the dim snuff of natural light should be sufficient to guide a man to Heaven. 'Tis only that light of the world, as the Evangelist saith, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that Sun of the soul (as the Father styles him) that shows us the way to eternal happiness, since without faith in him 'tis impossible to please God, and all the best righteousnesses of natural men are but menstruous rags, splendid abominations; A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, neither do we gather grapes of thorns; we may in charity hope, we cannot out of the Scripture conclude, that any are saved without the knowledge of Christ: neither the Jews simply by their Law, nor the Gentiles by their Philosophy could ever reach Heaven. Though Clemens Alexandrinus, and many of the Schoolmen, & Zuinglius seem to teach the contrary, perhaps more out of charity to so many poor souls, that otherwise they thought must inevitably perish, than any solid grounds they had from Scripture for it: and seriously who could without trembling think of the sad condition of those poor wretches that the revealed Word of God concludes them under, were it not for this, that God has unsearchable ways to save those that we most despair of, that the infinite merciful creator can by means altogether unknown to us, display his Son even to those that sit in darkness, and the regions of death. But to hasten.  
3. This knowledge of Christ is a pleasant knowledge: All knowledge (as the Philosopher notes) carries a secret content and pleasure along with it, and therefore videre & speculari quaerimus ut gaudeamus; As delightful colours are unto the eye, so is truth unto the understanding, a comfortable refreshing thing; now the knowledge of Christ must be pleasant in its very first dawning to a benighted soul, for the entrance of it giveth light and understanding to the simple, Ps 119. v. 130. must not the approach of light be needs be pleasant to those under the poles after half a years darkness, or unto such as are borne blind, or have been kept in a dungeon all their days before; and can the Sun of Righteousness think ye be otherwise when he riseth in a poor soul, that hath laid thirty, forty, perhaps fifty years together in blindness and ignorance? O how comfortable a thing will it then be unto him to see himself translated out of darkness into marvellous light, to find the eyes of his understanding opened, the veil taken off, and his sins pardoned, which were as a thick cloud to hinder him from the sight of his Saviour, all the ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness and her paths peace, Prov. 3. 17. What more pleasant than light? why Christ is the true light: Joh. 1. what more delightsome to the taste then honey? His statutes are sweeter than the honey or honeycomb, Psal. 19 what more taketh us then ease and rest? his very yoke is easy and his burden light, Mat. 11. 'tis ignorance of Christ that makes his ways seem unpleasant to us; for no man ever took any pleasure in that which he understands not; hence those inward loathe of his Word, those rise and heart-burnings against the simplicity of the Gospel in profane persons; these are people of no understanding, they never knew what belonged to the inward comforts and refreshments of the Spirit; what delight there is in keeping God's Law, what pleasure 'tis for a thirsty soul to drink of the water of life, for a hungry soul to feed upon Manna and the bread that came down from Heaven? they know what comfort there is in the kisses of his mouth, in his love that is better than wine, in his abode and supping with you; and therefore no wonder that all their delight is to dowze themselves in carnal pleasures, to eat and drink and rise up to play, that they are so averse from duties, so sad and heavy in spiritual performances, that they so much loath his Word, his people, his Ambassadors, his gracious motions, and invitations, the truth of all is this, they know not Christ, and therefore they have no pleasure in him.  
4. This knowledge is a satisfying knowledge: other knowledge is like some sance, which when you receive into you, begets a fresh and new appetite; the knowledge of the one thing doth set the teeth on edge, as here, and makes us thirst after more, whereas Christ is an object fitted and suited to the most vast and boundless desires of the soul, and therefore what the Phylospher said of natural knowledge, we may more properly say of divine, that 'tis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rest and repose of the soul; whereas natural bodies in their proper places, so the soul of man rests contented and satisfied in Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, Col. 2. v. 3. There is enough in him to fill the soul up to the brim, and to answer all the impatient rovings and agitations of our Spirits after knowledge; in him dwelleth all fullness, fullness of Grace to sanctify us, fullness of righteousness to justify us, fullness of Glory to crown us: no natural object can satisfy the soul, because the desires there of being boundless, & infinite, it presently digests & swallows up all finite things, but now Christ both in his nature and Graces is so commensurate and proportionable an object for the soul, that it may eternally feed upon him to full content and satisfaction; His mercies infinite, his love infinite, his Graces are inexhaustible, for God hath not given the Spirit by measure, and his gifts and graces are compared by the Prophet to a feaest of marrow and fat things, Is. 25, v. 6. because as these do satisfy the sensual, so those the intellectual appetite, it satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness, Psal. 107. v. 9 wherefore then saith the Prophet Esay 55. v. 2. do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satufyeth not, Harken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.  
Lastly, This is an ever-increasing rising knowledge, there is a growth in it 2 Pet. 3. 18. we go from one degree of it to another till we become perfect men; in our first conversion we are but children and babes in Christ, of little understanding and knowledge, till by prayer, temptations, experiences, often supplies and returns of grace, we become strong in faith, nothing doubting, and increase in wisdom and all spiritual understanding, Christ doth not discover himself all at once to the Soul but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peicemeale 
Heb. 1. 1.  and in divers manners, here a little, and there a little. As in natural science the mind doth not usually grasp & comprehend the whole circumference of a thing together, but insensibly by degrees creeps upon truth, takes and (as I may so speak) steals off that veil that hides the nature of it from us; thus Christ by degrees irradiates and shines upon the soul, and so we may be the more sensible of our former ignorance, and more thankful for our present illumination: he never so clearly presents himself to any, but that the knowledge is still improveable, and may receive farther increase; for at the best in this world we do view but in a glass darkly, we are feign to borrow the spectacles of his Word, his ordinances, and his Sacraments to look on him, our justs and corruptions as so many evil vapours hinder us from a full prospect of him, yet generally we see him clearer and clearer, as these rags of flesh wear and rot from off us, till at length when the soul is got lose of this prison of clay, it knows him immediately without the help of a glass, now we know him but in part, but we shall know him even as also we are known, 1 Cor. 13. 12.  
The third point is to discover unto you more particularly wherein the excellency of this knowledge consists, and 'tis I suppose 1. In the object and things known. 3. In the influences it hath upon the party knowing.  
1. The things known by this knowledge of Christ are most excellent: the nobler the object, the nobler the science; now in what noble sublime matter this knowledge deals, is plain; whether we consider the personal excellenceis of Christ, the graces and perfections of his nature, the glory, beauty, and comeliness of his person, which must needs ravish, and take up our thoughts; though to fasten here and go no farther is but to admire the glittering of the show, not considering the pearls within, & to poor upon a picture, not regarding the living party it represents. Faith as the Spouse in the Canticles seems to be pleased even with the outward draught and comeliness of a Saviour, to see him in glory sittting at God's right hand, but than it eyes him chiefly as a crucified Saviour; as therefore Paul desires to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified, as the only and chief concernment to him; or whether the Promises of Christ, those breasts of consolation at which this knowledge lies still sucking and delighting itself in, they are excellent things, precious Promises, in which the soul can find more comfort than in all the earthly joys & pleasures of this world; or lastly, whether we consider the mysteries it contains, they are admirable mysteries, and without controversy (saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 3. v. 16.) Great is the mystery of Godliness, God was manifest in the flesh, justified of the Spirit, seen of Angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into Glory; Every trade and profession we say hath a mystery in it, something (that is) which is not known to every one: sure I am, that a Christians profession is altogether taken up in a mystery, such a mystery that had the Angels themselves (pardon the expression) been bound apprentice to understand it, they had without God's special revelation remained altogether ignorant of it; for the 1 of Pet. 1. 12. 'tis said the Angels themselves do desire to look into it: even now that this great mystery of our Redemption is made manifest unto the world, see 'tis so full of admirable inscrutable excellencies, that the Angels themselves desire yet to be Pupils unto it; and are curious to learn more continually of it.  
2. The excellency of this knowledge may be discovered in the effects and influences of it; which are first, to discover God more clearly unto us: secondly, to discover ourselves unto ourselves.  
1. It discovers God more clearly unto us, for Christ is the brightness of his Glory, and the express image of his person, Heb. 1. 3. So that look as we know the Sun by its light, and a natural father usually by his Son, who carries his substantial image, so is God seen in Christ, and therefore the Apostle Col. 1. v. 15. saith, he is the Image of the invisible God, God himself he lives in inaccessible light, no man can see him and live, but it hath pleased him to manifest himself in Christ, in whom dwells the Godhead bodily, whatsoever glory, whatsoever wisdom, whatsoever power is in God, is plainly drawn forth and expressed in Christ; he is the essential substantial copy (if I may so speak with reverence) of his Father, in whom alone he is most legibly and clearly to be read; the creatures indeed do in their kind represent God, but then a very broken and imperfect copy they are of him, so that the Gentiles by falsely spelling and putting together their letters read God in a monstrous prodigious manner and become vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened, Rom. 1. As men that read in an old motheaten broken manuscript may easily mistake the original meaning; so methinks the Gentiles having nothing to study God in, but the dull and dark print of the Creatures, presently fell into gross mistakes and multitudes of errors concerning him, for they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto coruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts and creeping things, Rom. 1. v. 23. but now Christ is so clear a representation of his Father, that if we know him aright, we cannot mistake God at all, He and his Father are one, so that you may comprehend and know him as it were, for he that seethe him seethe the Father, and he that cometh to him, cometh to the Father, as in St John 'tis every where expressed.  
2. This knowledge of Christ discovers ourselves also unto ourselves: the knowledge of ourselves is one of the best and most divine knowledge that is: Ecaelo descendit the heathen could say, now we cannot know Christ aright, but we must know ourselves also, know in what a miserable and wretched estate we are without him, how vile and loathsome we are in our own natures, how base and worthless our best performances, how ugly and deformed our persons, and our services are in the eyes of God. As when the beams of the Sun come into a room they discover all the dust and filthiness in the room, so when Christ beams in upon the soul, the filthiness and corruption of our hearts and lives do strait way appear, we then see what a horrid thing sin is, that put so blessed a Saviour to so cruel a death: we see what a cursed slavery we are all in by nature, to the law, to sin, to Satan, till the Son doth make us free: before we know Christ, the Devil doth cast a mist before our eyes, & so hoodwinks our souls that we cannot see where we are, what we are, or whither we are going; till he takes the veil from off our eyes, and then by our present light we know what it was to be in darkness: Through Grace we know what sin is, how to debase ourselves and advance Christ.  
First, Is it so, that the knowledge of Use. Christ is the most excellent knowledge; more to be desired then gold, yea then most fine gold, more precious than Rubies; is it the glory of a Christian to be more perfect in this, to teach this, to learn this? then it should reprove all those who make not this the main end & scope of their studies and endeavours. As  
1. Such carnal dispensers of the Word, that use rather to speak in enticing words of man's wisdom, then in demonstration of the Spirit and power; and that dress their discourses in the Apish & foolish conceptions of man's wit; neglecting in the mean while the sacred Word, which alone is able to make both themselves and their Auditors wise unto Salvation; such in the language of S. Paul do make the Cross of Christ of none effect, 1 Cor. 1. 17. whilst they labour to possess men with the love of their affected strains more than with the naked and simple truth of the Gospel: and therefore the good Apostle professeth, that he did determine to know nothing amongst the Corinthians, save Jesus Christ and him crucified: He could have flaunted as well as the best of those seducers, and have trimmed his speeches with as much elegancy as any, but saith he, away with such trash to the herd of mankind, that had rather feed upon such husks than the bread of life; let others vaunt as they please, and you expect what you will from me, yet this is my resolution not to know any thing saving Jesus Christ: and therefore exceedingly to be blamed are all they, that contrary to his Word preach to the ear and not unto the heart; & seek rather to gratify the sensual corrupt affections of men, then to implant in them the saving knowledge of Christ. O beloved! we are to deal with the souls of men; to rescue them from Hell, and to pluck them out of the paws of the Devil, by whom they are led captive. We meet again too too often with poor ignorant wretches to instruct, who scarce know whether there be any Christ, any Holy Ghost; moreover we are not to deal with flesh and blood, but with principalityes and powers; the lusts of men they are to be blasted and beaten down by us; the consciences of men to be wrought upon and satisfied, sins to be convicted the righteousness of Christ to be pressed; the Cross of Christ which is foolishness to the world to be preached; this is our labour, this our work, & what need we then to daub with untempered mortar, and to mix humane inventions with sacred truths: why is that zealous thirst after applause, and to set up ourselves more than our Saviour? why is it then men desire oftentimes more to display their own reading then the knowledge of Christ and him crucified? not as if there were no use of humane learning in the mystery of the Word, Paul himself made use of a Poet to convince the Athenians, Act. 17. nor do we speak this to countenance those that do the work of the Lord negligently, and bring the lame, sapless, undigested notions, to this sacrifice: doubtless God that requires the whole man, requires the brain as well as the heart in this service, and he gives us talents not to lay up in a napkin, but to bring themforth as occasion shall require for his Glory and the Churches good; we all know by sad experience, into what disorders and inconveniences, the contempt of secular learning hath brought many giddy souls of this Nation, and how prostituted and disregarded the careless management, and wanton itch of preaching hath made the office of the ministry. O that God would be pleased to convince all of us, especially the forward youth of this University, of the tremendous burden that lies upon the shoulders of a Minister, Opus Angelis formidandum, but to return: I say we do not hereby discountenance learning, or learned and painful preaching, especially in due place and time, but only we ought to take heed, that Hagar do not justle out Sarah; that the handmaid, secular learning do not take place in our affections above the free woman, the knowledge of Christ; that our Sermons savour not more of learning, then of grace, and that our design be not to get more admirers of our parts, than Disciples of Christ.  
2. This would reprove all those in general, that are more in love with humane knowledge, then that the knowledge of Christ, are more taken with an Aristotle, a Plato, perhaps a Romance, or playbook, than a Prophet or an Apostle; suffering in the mean while poor illiterate men to rise up and carry away Heaven from them, whilst they with all their learning sink down into Hell; I wish there were not too many in the world more intimate with nature then with Grace; and less Christians than Scholars; but let me ask these great Masters of Israel why the mysteries of the Gospel, and the knowledge of Christ should be so much slighted by them? is it because 'tis foolishness unto them, why let them know, that the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and all the empty cisterns of worldly wisdom, are nothing comparable to those treasures of wisdom and knowledge, that are hid in Christ: or is it because there is more reputation that attends worldly knowledge? why alas! what credit is it to be accounted wise amongst a company of fools? and such the Scriptures every where term the world and carnal men; the World indeed vilisies and hates Christ, because it knows him not, but then Christ professeth he will not know them at the last day, and O then what will become of the wise, the Scribe, the disputer of this world? will it not then appear that the wisdom of this world was foolishness; and that they bought the esteem of learning at a dear rate, when they shall see indeed, that not many wise men after the flesh are saved; or lastly, is it because they find more content in worldly wisdom? why let the wise man speak what content there can be therein Eccles. 1. 18. in much wisdom there is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow: how much toil and vexation in getting it, how much care for fear of losing it, yea how little comfort in the enjoyment of it? so many lusts still interposing and clouding their severest meditations, so much thoughtfulness to uphold their esteem in the world, so much envy at others eminency, so much distraction by occasion of new doubts and difficulties etc. whereas now the true saving knowledge of Christ brings a serenity and composedness of mind with it, purgeth and resineth the soul from those dark mists of corruption, sanctifyes and sweetens all other learning, and exerciseth all other parts which are but loss and dung without it; and why then should this so excellent knowledge be thought so contemptible amongst many? why should they as so many wild Indians prefer glass, beads, and toys before precious stones? or like that Schoolmaster fancied by Rob. Gallus gnaw upon flintes and pebbles amidst sweetmeats and most delicate fare? why should men be so greedy after the jejune and empty knowledge of the creatures, and yet so remiss in the pursuit of Heavenly wisdom? O that we could all understand that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the greatest glory of our wisdom to be wise unto Salvation.  
3. Therefore this should exhort us all to study Jesus Christ; and to labour after the knowledge of him, whom only to know is eternal life: all knowledge is in itself desirable; it being the best gloss and varnish that sets forth an intellectual being; and hence saith Lactantius, God hath limned and armed man's inside with reason that he might distinguish him from all the creatures of lower forms; so that he seems lesser than a man, that is not taken even with natural truth & wisdom; and certainly he is less than a Christian, that desires not Heavenly and Spiritual wisdom: 'tis natural for all things to desire their perfection; now then as the knowledge of natural things is the perfection of a man, so the knowledge of Christ is the perfection of a Christian, and therefore Solomon bids us seek after it more than choice gold, Prov. 8, v. 10. we all desire wisdom, why in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom, and therefore enough to fill up all the vast and boundless desires of our immortal souls; 'tis only fools that despise wisdom, Prov. 1. as therefore you desire not to be branded with the name of fools, go unto Christ, who is the wisdom of God, the author of of every good and perfect gift, and if any of you lack this wisdom let him ask of God, that giveth unto all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him, Jam. 1. v. 5.  
So that the 1. direction for the attaining of this knowledge of Christ may be the prayer of faith, let him ask in faith nothing wavering, pray unto God that he would show thee thy natural blindness, ignorance, and stupidity; what a fool thou art by nature; how destitute of any saving knowledge; and that then he would send his Spirit into thy inward parts, to enlighten thy mind and to bring thee out of darkness into marvellous light; pray unto him that Christ may be made unto thee wisdom, that thou mayst know him here in his Person, in his Offices, in his benefits, know him in the pardon of thy sins, in the subduing of thy corruptions; as thy King that will save thee, thy Priest that hath redeemed thee, thy Prophet that doth instruct thee.  
2. Labour to see the inconveniences and miseries that will follow upon thy not knowing of Christ; indeed we can know nothing besides him that can minister any comfort unto us; in Heaven above what is to be known there? but an angry sin revenging God, an implacable judge, whom no man hath seen, nor ever shall see in the way of mercy, unless the Son reveal him unto him: in the earth, what objects can we fix upon that are not our mortal enemies without Christ? all the Creatures they are ready to snap at us, and revenge the quarrel of God against sin upon us: in Hell what can we know but that 'tis our place, that 'tis prepared alone for those that know not God? for so saith the Apostle, that Christ at the last day shall be revealed from Heaven, with his mighty Angels, in flaming fire to take vengeance on those that know not God, 2 Thess. 1. 8. again, labour to see what inconveniences the want of the saving knowledge of Christ will bring us unto; a man that walks in the dark will be ever apt to stumble and fall, and so 'tis here, he that is without any Spiritual light within, must needs walk in much danger; thus the Gospel was to the Jews a stumbling block, because they were ignorant of its excellencies; and thus the ordinances of Christ are stumbling blocks to them that know him not, they hate them, the people of Christ are despised, they having no knowledge eat them up as they would eat bread, Psal. 14. 4. did men but throughly know Christ, they would be more in love with his ordinances, with his people, with his Ministers, with Salvation, with their own souls: labour then to see these inconveniences of spiritual ignorance, be ashamed of thyself, and lay about thee with all thy might for to gain more knowledge. To this end,  
3. Study Christ's books, the Holy Scripture, and thou shalt by the grace of God come to a knowledge of him: these alone are able to make thee perfect and wise unto Salvation; they are those wells out of which we may draw plenty of the waters of Salvation; those precious mines out of which we may dig treasures of wisdom; let us search them therefore not with a search of curiosity, to discourse and talk of them, but with a search of humility to amend our lives by them, and to furnish ourselves with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ; other books can only unfold nature unto thee, and that but imperfectly too: this reveals mysteries that Angels themselves did desire to peep into: so that there is more real worth comprised in one versicle of them, than there is in all the voluminous Offsprings and works of man's brain; as the very shave and filings of gold and precious stones are of more value then whole heaps of dirt and pebbles.  
To conclude therefore, since we have so excellent a knowledge before us, more to be desired then Gold, yea then much fine gold, more precious than Rubies, since we have such plentiful mines before us, as the Scriptures, out of which we may dig these treasures, what remains but that we still labour to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and continually to study him on earth, whom we all hope to enjoy in Heaven: as travellers will learn the manners and customs of the people and country they are to go unto; so let us study Heaven and Christ in his Word, that so we may comfortably possess him at the end of our pilgrimage in Heaven hereafter. We know not how soon Christ may summon us before him, and that day come, when ourselves and all our natural knowledge must be wrapped up in the same sheet together; the shortness and uncertainty of our days bespeaks our double diligence, and no longer to play the truants in the School of Christ, but to redeem the time we have lost, and to improve the few days we have before us towards the advancement of this knowledge: let us study Christ, let us preach Christ, let us live to Christ, that so these seed plots of learning may not be accounted the seminaries of Atheism and heresy, as the Schools of the Philosophers were in primitive times, but the Seminaries of the knowledge of Christ: fare be it that in these our Christian Athens there should be an unknown God, an unknown Christ; great are our means, our advantages, and opportunities in the attaining of this knowledge, and great therefore and sad will be our accounts at the last day, if we neglect it: As therefore we tender the good of oursoules, as ever we expect the fruition of Christ in glory, let it be our constant care to study him here, & to contemplate him in the glasses of his word and ordinances, till at length this our imperfect knowledge of him be swallowed up in vision, and a comfortable enjoyment of him, with whom is fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore.  
FINIS.