The Heavenly Academy, Chapter 6
CHAP. VI.
Wayes and meanes of admittance into the heavenly Academie, and taking degrees in it.
BY that which hath been said it appeares, that there is a higher Academie as well as a lower; and that the higher hath some excellencies above the lower. True it is, that though there be a difference, yet there must not necessarily follow a division: yea, much rather there should follow a conjunction; and hee that is in the lower, should strive to bee in both at once. And indeed this is a maine businesse of this worke, to conjoyne things which God hath not separated; and not to diminish, but to advance the lower, by lifting it up to the higher.
Now to ascend from the lower to the higher, there are certaine staires and steps, by which men usually goe up, and become Disciples and Pupills of the heavenly Teacher. A first step is that which should ever bee first in intention, though last in assecution; A right end. When wee come to God to bee taught, we must propose an end worthy of God; And surely none but God is an end worthy of God. A most perverse and base disorder it were, to make man the end of God; and much more confused and disorderly were it, to make God to serve man, in his service of some base lust: for then may he not only say, Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins; but, thou hast made me to serve thy sins. Thou puttest God below thy sins, and puttest thy sins to be thy gods. And how canst thou expect that God should by his teaching give thee an excellence above others, when thou by his owne gifts doest intend to put, either his creature which hee hath made, or sin which hee made not, above him; and him infinitely below himselfe. Wherefore let not ambition make aNon cogito in Ecclesiasticis honoribus ventosa tempora transigere; sed cogito me Principi Pastorum omnium rationem de commissis ovibus redditurum. Aug. Epist. 203.worldly pomp (which thou hast renounced in thy Baptisme) nor the pride of life, and outward preferment, thy end; but account and propose God himselfe before thee, as thy highest preferment, exceeding great reward, and all-sufficient end. Neither make earth the end of Heaven, nor put the god Mammon in the place of the true God, neither seeke the gifts of his Spirit, that thou mayest make money of them. This is a right, and withall a most base symony, and therefore prepare thy selfe to receive the answer which was made unto Simon thy father; Thou art in the gall of bitternesse, and bond of iniquitie; and thou art verie unfit for a part and fellowship among the Disciples of the heavenly Teacher. Know that this high Academie is not a place for Prentices, therein to learn a trade and occupation for worldly gaine; but the Teacher being the King of Heaven, hee teacheth his Schollers to be Kings; even first to seek, and at last to attaine an heavenly Kingdom. And earthly things are promised to be given as attendants upon this heavenly Kingdome. Therefore as as the Heaven is high above the earth, so let it be in thy thought and intention: make God thy end, who makes Heaven by his presence to be Heaven. Desire his gifts, to glorifie the Giver by thē here, and to be glorified by him hereafter eternally in his heavenly Kingdom. But if thou make earth thy heaven, and this world thy god; this false heaven, and false god after a while will forsake thee, and the true Heaven, and true GOD, whom thou hast despised, will not receive thee. In the meane time expect no gift from God, except such as the Quailes, which perchance may bring some food to thy lust, but leannesse and judgement to thy soule. If with Balaam, thou lookest out for prophecies, that by them thou mightst gaine the wages of unrighteousnesse, though thou fall into a trance, and art enlightened, to make others see by thy light; yet thou thy selfe art still a child of darknesse, and by thy light encreasest thy owne stripes; and being in the way of Balaam, art likely to come to his wayes end, even a death among the unrighteous.
Yea, seeke not the gifts themselves for themselves, neither make them their owne end. It is a pleasant thing for the eye of the body to behold the light of the Sun; but to behold a spirituall light, which shineth from the highest light, is farre more pleasant to a spirit: yet must a reasonable spirit know, that to behold the highest Spirit himselfe, is the highest pleasure; and therefore these lower gifts of the Spirit are far more valuable, for shewing us by their light the way to the sight of the highest Spirit, than for the light it selfe by which they shew it.
Wherefore it remaines still, that God be proposed as the end of his gifts, whereof hee is the beginning. God was his owne end in the giving of them, and it is both thy dutie, wisedome, and benefit, to have the same end which he hath. If thou joyne with God in his end, it is most likely he will joyne with thee in the meanes, and in the increase of them toward his owne end. For God will not be wanting to his owne end, which were to bee wanting to himselfe. Therefore enlarge thy selfe as much as thou canst, in this intention of making God thy end, wherein the more thou increasest, the more it is likely he will increase his teaching of thee, and the degrees of his gifts in thee. And according to thy degrees of grace, shall be thy degrees in glorie: as thou hast sought him much in the gifts of his grace, so by them shalt thou find him much here, and much enjoy him hereafter in glorie.