The Heavenly Academy, Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII.
A third step: Conformitie to God.
LIkenesse drawes love, and love causeth a communication of counsells: yea, love it selfe is a likenesse to him who is Love, and thus love from love drawes a partaking of secrets: when the heart and wayes of man areaIn quantum ad puritatem conscientiae pervenit, quantumcunque voluntatem suam mortificando animae conjunxit, seque vnū cum Deo fecit, in tantum spiritualia cognoscit, & Dei voluntatem intelligit. Rich. de Sanct. Vict. in Cantic. cap 7. agreeable to Gods heart, then the heart of God is (as it were) great with that affection which longs to communicate. Shall I hide the thing that I doe from Abraham (saith the Lord) seeing Abraham both keepes the wayes of the Lord, and will teach his children to keep it? The Psalmist also professeth, that hee got many degrees of wisedome, by his walking with God in the Lawes of God, even by the conformitie of his heart and wayes to the heart and will of God. Thereby (saith hee) I am wiser than mine enemies, wiser than old men; yea, wiser than my Teachers. No doubt he had obtained his prayer of God; Lighten mine eyes, and I shall see wonderfull things in thy Law.
And as likenesse is it selfe a reason, that moves God to be thy Teacher, so it carries with it a second reason: Where is likenesse and conformitie to God, there is also a covenant with God: where the Law of God is so written in the heart, that by this writing the heart is framed according to Gods heart,Jerem. 31. 33, 34. there is covenant betweene God that wrote this Law, and him in in whom it is written. God is hisbPater vos non docuit, quo modo potestis me agnoscere? omnes regni illius homines docibiles Dei erunt, non ab hominibus audient; Et si ab hominibus audiunt, tamen quod intelligunt, intus datur, intus coruscat, intus revelatur. Aug. in Ioan. 6. Tract. 26. Father and Teacher, and he is Gods Son and Disciple. Hee saith plainly, thou art his son, and hee saith truely, (his promises are Yea &Gal. 4. 7, 24. Amen) that thou art his Disciple,Esa. 54. 13. for he promiseth, that thou shalt beJoh. 6. 45. taught of God. And David upon triall, acknowledgeth the truth of this teaching, when hee saith; The secret of the Lord isPsal. 25. 14. with them that feare him; and his covenant, to make them to know it. Hee hath not onelyonly made a covenant with them, but hee makes them to know it; he doth both give it, and teach it.
Thirdly, there is a friendship between those that are conformed unto God, and God to whom they are conformed. Abraham, the father of the faithfull, was called the friend of God; and the faithfull children of Abraham are also called his friends. God is no complementer, and therefore if hee allow them the terme, hee allowes them also the truth of this friendship.Joh. 15. 15. Yee are my friends (saith our Saviour) if yee doe whatsoever I command you. Now wee know that a friend will tell a friend his counsells. So saith our Saviour, Because yee are my friends, therefore whatsover I have heard of the Father, I make knowne unto you.
Fourthly, there is a marriage between Christ and his Church, the Church in this marriage is one spirit with him, as in naturall marriages two are one flesh. And if there be such a marriage, there is also a marriage-love betweene them. Now marriage-love doth communicate counsells: and it is so hard, if not impossible, for marriage-love to deny such a communication, that the woman who could onelyonly make her challenge upon a counterfeit shape of marriage, yet thinks it fit to object this question: How canst thou say that thou lovest me, when thy heart is not with mee? And why is not his heart with her; Because hee doth not tell her his counsells? even such counsells, as being told, may endanger his libertie and life. But Christ, the best husband, having given his life for his Spouse, and himselfe to his Spouse in a sacred union, how shall hee not with his life and himselfe give her his counsells also? It is his owne word: If the wives be ignorant or doubtfull, let them aske their husbands. Herein hee implyeth, That if the wives doe ask their husbands, they being asked should be willing to reach their wives. Surely, if Christ require this willingnesse to teach in lower and meaner husbands, whose knowledge, yea whose love cannot be here in perfection, will not this husband, who is light it selfe and love it selfe, teach his owne wife by this most perfect light, and from this most perfect love? Yea certainely, in the bed of love he will not onelyonly tell her the words of his counsells;1 Joh. 2. 20, 27. but by a sacred unction (being one spirit with her) hee will make her to see the counsells of his words: hee will give her an inward and spirituall eye, to see the inward riches and realities of his counsells. So that whereas the world cannot see the wisedome of God, and the precious things contained in it, for the mysterie; the Spouse by this new light, looking within the veile ofEphes. 1. 18, 19. the mysterie, shall see the wisedome of God, and most excellent treasures contained in it, presented and offered by it.
Wherefore that God in Christ may bee thy Teacher, study this conformitie to God, which by likenesse, by covenant, by friendship, by marriage-love, may draw him to teach thee: And first put off the old man, corrupt with deceivable lusts, which cause in thee a deformitie, yea, an enmitie against God. The uncircumcision of the flesh hath in it a contrarietie to God and his wisedome, and makes thee adverse to Gods teaching, and God unwilling to teach thee. It is also a veile upon the eye of thy soule, & hides thy sight from his light, & his light from thy sight. And untill a spirituall circumcision doe take off this veile, thou art in the schoole of the Prince of darknesse, and art not yet teachable by the Father of lights. But if this veile of the old man be first removed by mortification, & thou shalt in the second place put on the new man, wherein is the image of God (light agreeable to his light, and a love of him who is Love, and of that which hee loves) then God will delight in thee, as a father in the son that resembles him; and as a father his son, he will delight to teach and nurture thee. If thou keep this image cleare, that God may see his face in it, he will therein also see his covenant, and seeing his covenant, hee will take thee for his friend, yea, for his spouse; and by all these, as by so many cords of love, hee will be drawne to teach thee. Being thus pure in heart, thou shalt see God: thou shalt see him here guiding and teaching thee, and hereafter in presentiall vision eternally blessing thee.