Works, Part 4 · Religious instruction · Chapter 44
CHAP. XLIIII. Of knowledge and ignorance, and how to seeke God, and of Sathans sophistrie, &c.
KNowledge and other giftes of God not sanctified keep vsus from the sight of sinne, and perswade vsus that they will excuse vsus from wrath to come, vntill our sinnes be pulled out by the eares.
2 Knowledge must goe before obedience, obedience must followe after knowledge with all chreerefulnes.
3 The Egyptians by all Gods wonders might hauehave knowne him, but they considered not his works, so they refused knowledge; therefore the Lord by a great destruction would make them feele that he was God indeede: which may teach vsus to get knowledge, while the meanes are offered, for if we will not know him while he sheweth himselfe fauourable, we shall certainly know him to our owne fearefull condemnation.
4 All our disobedience commeth of this, that we knowe not the Lord. And wheresoeuer the word of the Lord is, hee will moue those that be his to beleeue, though he did the same things from the wise of the world.
5 There is none almost but at one time or other do seeke God; though the commonHow wee ought to seeke God and how many seeke him peruersly sort, at the last cast in extreame danger, when health and friendes faile them, goe to him. But Malachie saith, GOD is a King, and will hauehave his Senioritie: & in this order of seeking manie good men are deceiued, for so they deale not falsly, they thinke they may scratch woridly riches, but the Lord will not hauehave vsus take the siluer of worldly things, before gold of godlines; Neither must the seruant first waite some houres on himselfe, and then on his master, but contrarilie; because as there is a seeking, so in seeking there is an order: And this is Gods prerogatiue to be sought first Matth. 23. he is a foole which thinkes the gold of the temple, that is riches, better then the Pietie of the temple, which sanctifiethriches▪ Salomons chaire must be our direction. Abraham sought obediēce before his own countrie Ioseph and Moses sought GOD rather then Pharaoh: but wee seeke preposterously, giuing youth to pleasure, old age to God, we make our eldest childrē Lawyers, the second or yongest, diuines; whereas our fathers made the first-borne to seruein the Priesthood. In our contracts, wee first seeke wealth, and then religion; a cursed match: well, while wee thus seeke God, we shall neuer finde him. Wherefore let vsus seeke God in his word, and that not in a peece of the word, but in all the word: not making conscience of some sinne, and yet …etaining other sinne, God will not be diuided, nor quartered in qualities, because hee is indiuisible in substance. Manie vse a restrained obedience, and the world hath euer a placard for some sinne. Such a one was he that would hauehave a dispēsation for kneeling in the house of R…mmon with his maister. Ananias would keepe some part to himselfe, GOD will bee sought totally in respect of his Worde, as also hee requireth an vniuersalitie in seeking of himselfe. We must not seeke God and the world together, wee must not hauehave two strings to our bowe: hauing one eye on the word and another on the world. We must not thinke if we hauehave God it is well; if we hauehave him not, it is no great harme, purposing a pietie to out felues, so long as wee be in the Church, and promising to our selues immunitie being out of the Church.
6 Samuel the first builder (we reade) of Colledges: calleth his Colledge Naioth, that is,1. Sam. 19. 18. Schooles. euen beautie it selfe, where must be no deformitie, for a small spot in beautie, is a great blemish. Againe, Colledges are as Epitomes of the Common-wealth, as Athens was of Greece; and what a thing were it in an Epitome to finde superfl…tie. Vniuersities are the eyes of the Common-wealth, and a mote in the eye is a great trouble. Briefly, Vniuersities be the Lebanon of the Lorde, from whence timber must be fetched to build the Temple. They be the Conduits, to deriue water into the whole land. They be the Rocks or Bayes, where Salt is prepared to season. They be the polished Saphires to garnish the house of the Lord.
7 It is a parte of the Diuels Sophistrie, as in good things to seuer the meanes from theThe Diuels sophistrie disioyneth things conioyned by the Lord. ende; so in euill things to separate the ende from the meanes. Dauid ioyneth both together, Psalm. 119. I am thine, O Lord saue mee. The Diuell perswadeth vsus, God will saue vsus, but makes vsus neuer looke to that I am thine. In euill hee beareth vsus in hand, we may vse the meanes, and neuer come to the ende, and so clip off halfe: as when hee can suffer this. Eccles. …1. 9▪ Reioyce O young man, he would leaue out this, But thou shalt come to iudgement, But these hath God ioyned together, and neither the subtilty of youth, nor any wit of man, nor all the Diuels in hell can separate them; the pleasures of the flesh, and the iudgements of God: as to our first parents, Eate yee shall not die: to who me some Salomon might hauehave saide, if it seeme pleasant to you, eate it, but death shall come. So in these two that Ezechiel Pleasures.hath ioyned: the ease of the Pastour, and the blood required at his hands; he might hauehave said, Go to, build you tabernacles, where you may take most profit, and giuegive eare to wealth:The wisdome of God is apparent in all the …rd and yet in some place more then in aenother. yet God shall bring you to iudgement. God with an Adamant chaine hath knit the pleasures of this world with iudgement, he that hath one must hauehave both.
8 There are many places most effectuall, and worthier meditation, than others in the Scripture, wherein Spiritus multum spirauit, for I thinke that the Spirit not onelyonly bloweth where it listeth, but also when, and in what measure hee listeth. As in some places, namely Psalme 45. and 49. 1…. the Lord calleth as it were a congregation of all sorts and conditions, signifying some great point of wisedome; that he requireth so great a Theatre. The ancient expositours say this wisedome is, where this word Selah is …ound▪ For whether it signifie,Diáphthalma. as the seuentie Interpreters say, a great pause, that the verse going before may be meditated on; or a repetition, as Rabbi Abraham saith, that that verse for it excellencie should bee twice sung, or both, as Tremellius; it must needes signifie great wisedome and matter in the verse.
9 These dayes shall not continue alwayes, but there shall come a day wherein the conscienceIt is a fool…, choise to chuse earthl… things before, and rather then heauen… things, & to make God the last, & least part in our desires. shall be dismayed, a day of death, wherein wee will not care for riches, beautie, learning, praise, or estimation. And yet there be some that care not for this: which louelove as Tully saith of Verres, siluer better then heauen, they thinke it a greater matter to liue in a beggerly estate, then to loose their soules. But this is follie, prooued by two reasons. First, thus do the beasts: Balaams wisdome, and his A…es wisdome is all one. For the Asse which hath but a soule of one life, & when he dieth, his soule vanisheth into the ayre, if he hauehave a good pasture, and then get a Lyons skin to make the beasts of the field afraid of him, & can kicke one with his heeles, and make him lie before him, this is a beasts honour: but the honour of a man is greater, which hath two liues, to whom this life ought onelyonly to be for the suretie of the soule; and rather a way to another life, then a life it selfe. This hath bene answered by the Fathers; I will deale so with the world that I may remember God, but a learnedCaelarum Arge…um. father saith, Thou must put in first & more, or els leaue out, I will remember God Deceiue not thy selfe, thou giuest all to the world: God will not onelyonly bee serued, but in his order. Malachie calleth him a great King, and therefore he looketh for the first seruice, and Daniel calleth him the Ancient of dayes, a great Senior, and therefore hee will be serued before his Iuniors, Luc. 17. The seruant that had laboured all day, is not bidden first to eate andPriùs & plus. drinke, but to serue his maister, and then to take his repast. Contrarie is our practise, as in marriage, wee looke for beautie and riches first, and then after our religion comes in for a corollarie, wee will not be much against it. Ionathan must carry Saules armour, and Mephibosheth must looke to the Arke. We make choise before God: we bestow our first yeeres on our selues, and then the rest wee bestow on God. Those are vaine men which will first seeke the adiectiues, & caetera, then the kingdome of GOD. Augustine saith, if thou wiltCouetousnes, in the ministerie. needes, thou mayest seeke, but thou shalt neuer finde. I hauehave heard and knowne amongst vsus those, that would make accounts first to be well prouided for, and then they would serue God in their callings, who hauing gotten three hundred, or foure hundred by the yeare, then hauehave bin further off then they were before. The second reason is, if any man be so foolish, he shall yet be more foolish, he preferreth the shadow of these transitory things before the eternall things: they shal loose both the shadow & the thing it selfe, as Aesops dog did.Riches hauehave two endes. 1. Either to leaue thee, 2. or thou shalt leaue them. Augustine saith, they shall hauehave an ende, either their owne: that is, they shall leaue thee, as Iobs goods did him: or thine, thou shalt leaue them, as the glutton in the Gospel: but that which is worst, whē they shal hauehave left thee, yet the sinne whereby thou gottest them, shall remaine with thee▪ Genes. chapt. 4. Sinne sleepeth at the doore, it is quiet all thy life long, but when wee goe out of the doore of this life, it shall compasse about our heeles and our hands, and we shall neuer be rid of it.
10 Knowledge of the word is as necessary an arte for Christians, as the arte of Husbandrie is necessary for Husbandmen. Men can say, they can learne nothing of the Preachers, but to louelove GOD aboue all, and our Neighbours as our selues: and as for this lesson, they say they are not now to goe to schoole. But this is as much as if one should say, HusbandrieObiection of the multitude against knowledge answered. is an easie thing, and there is nothing to bee learned there, but to Sowe, Plough, and Reape: and yet to set his hand to any of these without knowledge of the trade, he is altogether foolish. Well then, as in this, so in all other Artes we will confesse that we cannot come to the practise of particulars without knowledge of the principles: and yet come to the great Arte of Knowledge, which is the maine profession of all, and needeth most teachers and best schollers; and wee thinke we can learne that with sitting still, and taking of our case. But there is a knowledge of the worlde, and they that come to be our schoolemaisters to that, they shall bee had in high estimation. Howsoeuer we account of knowledge, the Prophet sayth, that vnderunder CHRIST our knowledge excelleth the knowledge of the Priestes; and in Pauls time, the women were so full of vnderstanding, that the Apostle was faine to take order that they should not speake in their open assemblies, where they would needes bee speaking. The holy Ghost, Colos. chap. 3. would not hauehaveHowsoeuer o…r fathers were mercifull, iust, &c. yet they were guiltie of ignorance, and the people of our time contrary want merciemercy and iustice. the word of God to dwell in vsus beggerly, thinnely or strangely, but plentifully: and surely without this knowledge we know nothing to doe as we should doe it. And for this cause in the former age, though the diuell could be content men should be as merciful, and as true dealers, as they would; because they were guiltie of Ignorance, and wanted knowledge to direct them herein: yet now because knowledge is come, he cares not how vnmerciful and deceitfull men become, nay now he takes away merciemercy, and truth, and knowledge, and all. The reason is, because we make no more precious account of knowledge; we can bee content to sitte at home by the fire, rather than to come abroad to heare; or if the diuell giuegive vsus leaue, and we get so much masterie of the diuell, that we come to the sermon, yet sleepe ourtakes vsus, and we are as good as absent; or else if wee be waking, we goe away before it be done; or if we tarrie, as soone as we be gone we commit all to forgetfulnesse. And so if with want of knowledge wee be mercifull and true dealers, it is but after our owne braine, and because the Lord hath not planted, the Lord will roote it out. The end of all is, if men will not grow in the knowledge of God his wil, they shal neuer come to the knowledge of God, that is, they shall not knowe God his mercy, God his trueth, glory and blessednesse, neither will he euer know vsus. For as without the knowledge of Gods will, there is not, nor shall be any knowledge of God, so if we know not God, God will neuer know vsus.
11 When we shalbe ioyned to God the Father, the Sonne, and the holy Ghost, then shal we know, as we are knowne, then shall all teares be wiped from our eyes, then shall our infirmities be taken from vsus, then shall we dwel with the Angels, and with al the hosts of heauen in most happie blessednesse it selfe. We see now by this chaine, not forged by our own braine, but framed out of Gods word, that hee is indeede blessed whom God chooseth, whom Christ redeemeth, whom the Spirit reneweth, whom faith stayeth, whom the word, Prayer, Sacraments and Discipline buildevp in the Lord, in whom faith breedeth peace, peace sinceritie, sinceritie louelove, louelove a feare of displeasing, and a care of pleasing God, in whom this care striueth to a mortification in pouertie of minde, this pouertie comming from a mourning heart, possessed in a meeke spirit, and aspiring to true righteousnesse, all these things being ioyned with that sanctification which lamenteth the sins of others, and relieueth the wants of others, knowing to vse prosperity and aduersitie as pledges of Gods fauour: and vndoubtedly looking for the kingdome of heauen in the life to come. If any of these linkes be missing, the chaine is broken, if any of these members be wanting, the body of blessednesse is lame and dismembred.