The Kings Bath, Section 8

The Kings Bath · Section 8

p. 190Vers. 17.

And lo,Vers. 17. a voice came from heauen, saying, This is my welbeloued Sonne, in whom I am well pleased.

Sect. 8.

HEre is the third sensible testimony of Christs most solemneThe voice from heauen testifying vntounto Christ. setting into his office, and that from heauen also, as the other were, and that by an audible voice: wherein are two things;

1. The circumstances, three: 1. Whose voice it was, The Fathers. 2. The place whence it came, From heauen. 3. The manner, It was a sensible and audible voice.

II. The substance, in which are three particulars: 1. That Christ is the Sonne of God: to note the relation between God p. 191and Christ. 2. That hee is his beloued Sonne; to note the neernesse of that relation. 3. The fruit of it, in whom I am well pleased.

1. The Person whose voice it was, is God the Father: for he saith, Thou art my beloued Sonne. EueryEvery testimony receiues validity and authority from the Testator, therefore this must needs be sound and good. God had giuen testimony to Christ by many famous men, euen all the Prophets, and now lately by Iohn Baptist, who was greater than a Prophet, that Christ was greater than he; yea more, had giuen testimony of him by a multitude of heauenly Angels, Luk. 1. 30. and 13. But not content with all this, he giues from heauen his owne testimony of him.

p. 1921. To strike vsus with reuerenceWhy God the Father giues testimony to his Sonne 4. Reasons. in receiuing this testimony, which hath this priuiledge aboue other parts of Scriptures, that it was vttered by Gods owne mouth, not by men or Angels.

2. To confirme vsus in the truth of the testimony, proceeding from him who is prima veritas, Truth it selfe (not onelyonly true) in his Essence, and much more in his words and workes, who cannot bee deceiued, nor deceiue vsus.

3. To shew the necessity of beleeuing this testimony, being the first and onelyonly principle in Christian Religion, without which foundation laid, can bee no religion, nor saluation, as we see in the Iewes and Turkes: That we might more firmly beleeue in the Sonne of God for p. 193life, Gods owne mouth testifieth so honourably of him. 4. That such a glorious commendation of this testimony might stir vp our best attention and affections in the vnfolding of it, wee hauehave heere the word of a King, which was neuer stained, and that not vttered by any Herald, or a Lord Chancellor, but from his owne mouth, which carryeth more waight with it: if God speake, woe to him that heares not.

2. The place whence, from Why the testimony concerning Christ was from heauen. 4. Reasons.heauen: for these reasons:

1. For more authority to the Person of Christ, whom God from heauen doth honour: and if God thus honour him, how ought we to honour him? 2. Pet. 1. 17. Hee receiued of God the Father honour and glory; when there came such a voice to him p. 194from the excellent glory, This is my beloued Sonne: which was verified not onelyonly in the time of his transfiguration, but here also.

2. Because the testimony containes the summe of the whole Gospell, to declare that the doctrine of the Gospell, which Christ deliuered to the world, was from heauen, because God from heauen so testifieth it to bee: wherein it differs from the doctrine of the Law, which although God renewed from heauen in the Tables of stone, yet was it written in the heart of man by nature; so was not the Gospell: but as after y^e fall it was immediately deliuerd by God to Adam in the promise: so here, by the same voice from heauē confirmed to be diuine & heauenly.

3. In respect of vsus, that wee should more carefully attend to p. 195the testimony it selfe, proceeding from the excellent glory, and that from the mouth of the God of glory, sitting in his chaire of Estate, seeing the word of a King in that place is more regarded. The contempt of the Law, giuen vponupon Mount Sinai, in the hand of Angels, was required at their hands: how shall they then escape, that despise him that speaketh from heauen? Hebr. 2. 2, 3. The Law being transgressed, the Gospell from heauen moderateth and pardoneth a man: but the Gospell frō heauen being despised, what can pleade for him?

4. To shew the extent of the Gospell, that it is to bee preached, and binds to the faith of it all the people vnderunder heauen: and herein it was not to bee inferiour to the Law, which God p. 196would hauehave acknowledged his owne by vttering it from heauen, and that not before he had sent Moses downe, lest it should hauehave been thought to be his, although it was so loud and piersing, as it could not possible bee but diuine, not humane.

3. The manner of the testimony, by an audible and sensible voice: How the Father vttered this voice, is needlesse to enquire, seeing we know, that he who made the tongue, can either speake without a tongue, or by secret inspiration and reuelation, as to Isaiah, 2. King. 20. 4. or frame a tongue and organs of voice at his pleasure, to vtter and make knowne his will and good pleasure to his creatures: or speake by creatures, as Angels in humane shape, or other creatures, sensible as Baalams p. 197Asse; or insensible, as the bush of fire. It is much more material to enquire into the end and vse of it, which was, to make the Sonne of God knowne vntounto the world, that the faith of men might be fixed on him for saluation.

Hence note, in that the LordObser. 1. from heauen teacheth by voice, his wonderfull care, that will not suffer vsus to want any means to helpe vsus in the knowledge of the meanes of saluation: he had taught them and vsus before, by the sense of sight, seeing the heauens opened, and the Spirit visibly descending; and now hee teacheth the eare by a voice: for, he knowes our dulnesse, security, slownesse of heart to beleeue, and applies himselfe eueryevery way to helpe vsus: hee setteth out his glory by his workes and creatures, p. 198he addeth his Word confirmed by many powerfull miracles; to his audible word he hath annexed his visible word the Sacraments; hee hath set vp a constant ministery in his Church, and eueryevery way fitted it to the edification of his people, so as he may now say, What could I doe more for thee, O Israel?

Is God thus carefull of our profiting eueryevery way?Vse 1. then how damnable and excuslesse shall the carelesnes of the most bee in the matter of their saluation? in which regard it had beene good for many a man, that God had neuer made his will knowne to him, that he neuer had heard the word, or receiued the Sacraments: for, all tends but to his deeper condemnation, because of his neglect and formall vse. p. 199When our Sauior said of Iudas, It had bin good for him he had neuer bin borne: did not hee in effect say the same, It had bin good for him he had neuer bin a Disciple of Christ, neuer had heard Christ, or preached Christ, because the more excellent meanes he had, the greater was his sin and iudgement?

Againe,Vse 2. hereby God cleareth his righteous Iudgement, in the iust damnation of the wicked and vnbeleeuers: O Israel, thy destruction is of thy selfe: say not, What can I remedy it if God will not saue me? nay, what can God do more then he hath done? He hath giuen thee strong and excellent means, & preached the Gospell from heauen by his owne mouth, and sent it to all nations vnderunder heauen in their owne language, in an audible p. 200and intelligible voice: if thou wilt now wilfully refuse the meanes, thy blood be vponupon thy owne head, that which will dye, let it dye; thou art in the sea of thy sins, ready to bee drownd, good helpe is offred, but thou refusest it & must dye in thy sin: thy case is that of Ierusalem, How oftē would I hauehave gathred thee, and thou wouldest not?

2 Note,Obser. 2. Theodoret, out of the like ground, gathereth the same doctrine, and notably vrgeth it against Images, on Deut. quest. 1. that it is Gods pleasure that wee should bee taught the matter of saluation by voice, and attend to that: Here was a visible openning of the heauens, a glorious presence of the Spirit in the shape of a Doue resting on Christ: but when the Lord will hauehave Christ published and proclaimed the Messiah, this must be done by voice. Deut. 4. 12, 14. Thou heardest a voice, but sawest no image, therefore p. 201take heede to thy selfe, and corrupt not thy selfe by any image.

1.Reasons. Herein his mercy hath appointed a familiar and fit instruction, 1meet for our weakenesse, not comming to his Church in his owne Maiesty.

2. Herein he aduanceth our 2nature, teaching vsus great mysteries by such as our selues, sanctifying the tongues of men, and not Angels.

3. Herein he magnifyes his 3power, who by so weake meanes worketh saluation: earthen vessels are vsed, that the power may be seen to be of God, 2 Cor. 4. 7. The voice of men by Gods power conquers the world.

4. Hereby he tryes our obedience, 4whether we vvill yeeld to a vveake voice, vvhereas he might force vsus by povver.

This makes against the PapistsVse. p. 202position, that images are Lay-mens bookes:Melius docet interdū pictura, quàm Scriptura, Bellarm. de Imag. Cap. 10. for 1. The people of Israel were as rude and elementary as any, yet God permitted them no such bookes, but straightly forbade it. 2. Images are dumbe, and how can they teach? they hauehave mouthes, and speake not: If they teach, it must be by an interpreter, and an interpreter can teach better without them. 3. Let them be Lay-mens books, what doe they teach? Hab. 2. 18. They are teachers of lyes, and Zach. 10. 2. The Idols speak vanity. If a man would learne lyes, let him gaze vponupon these bookes.

And 1. whereas Bellarmine saith, that the Image of God and the holy Trinity is a teacher of truth: I answere, The Scripture saith it is a teacher of lyes, and so I will proue it.

p. 2031.E…ce à te cogitationem minimè decentem Magnitudinem Dei: nè paruum reddas eum qui magnus est, &c. Basil. in Hexam. Homil. decima. God is a Spirit and inuisible: now how can this be paynted or carued? he that saith hee can do it, must needs lye.

2. God is infinite and incircumscriptible, wants beginning and ending: he that saith he can paynt such a thing, is a lowd lyar: his image or idol is made by man, and moth-eaten, and consumed by wormes and rotten.

3. God is a working act, neuer idle: but the Image neuer stirres vnstirr'd: therefore it is a lye.

4. God hath beeing of himselfe, and all things are sustained in him: the image hath being from the hands of man, and is not able to vphold it selfe no more then Dagon was, if it bee not strongly vndershored: therefore it is a lye to say it resembles God.

p. 2045. It is a lye and idolatry, to conceiue or fixe the name of God vponupon a picture, that hath nothing but what man will giuegive it: and doeth not the Lord accuse the Israelites by common sense, in the example of one that goes into the Wood and hewes a tree, then makes a fire of one end to warme him, and a God of the other to worship? Are there not as good blockes and stones, lying vponupon the floore and pauement, as they be that are set vp for idols?

II. As for the picture of the Trinity, which is most horrible idolatry, painting God either a man with three heads (making him a monster:) or**But here your owne Aquinas leaues you. Ipsi Deo, cū sit incorporeus, nulla imago corporalis poterat poni: quia, vt Damascenus dicit, insipientiae summae est, & impietatis, figurare quod est diuinū, Part 3. quaest. 25. art. 3. So doth Durandus, speaking of the images of the Trinity, Fatuum est imagines facere, vel eas venerari: …n 3. sent. d…st. 5. quaest. 2. …. 15. So also doth your owne Romane Catechisme, Diuinum numen violari, si quis conetur diuinitatis formam aliquo artisicio effingere: Part. 3. cap. 2. quaest. 11. the Father like an old man with a childe at his knee, and a Doue betweene them. Bellarmine himselfe fainteth, when he saith, it is not certaine, p. 205but an opinion of the Church, whether any pictures of the Trinity be to be made: And further, that those images must not be multiplied, because they giuegive occasion of blaspheming. Besides, these pictures are as senslesse as wicked: 1. To picture the Father, as a man with the whole world in his hand, to note his creation and prouidence (which the Rhemists, in Act. 17. 5. commend so highly, as whence the people may take much good:) is a teacher of lyes, because it restraines creation and gouernment to the Father. 2. To picture the Father as an old man, and the Sonne (who is as old as he) like a child, is a lye, and not footed, in the 7. of Daniel, where the ancient of dayes is the whole Deity. 3. To adde to these two p. 206the image of a Doue for the holy Ghost, is (as it is said, Rom. 1. 23. 25.) to turne the whole glory of God into a lye, and to transforme most heathenishly the glory of the immortall God, into the similitude of a mortall man, or feathered fowle. 4. If the Diuinity can be pictured, then may the three Persons: but hee that will say he can conceiue either the Trinity, or expresse the Diuinity, hee is a lyar; much lesse carue or paint any thing like them.

IIIFor the picture of Christ: though I know sundry of the learned are of another minde, yet I thinke it neither can nor may be pictured, and the reasons to the contrary are none, or weake: And I hauehave thought of these grounds, which sway with me till I heare or see stronger:

p. 2071. Christs Diuinity cannot be expressed in an image, and it is dangerous in a picture to separate them which God neuer disioyned: to diuide his natures, sauoureth of the Nestorian heresie; to offer to paint the Godhead of Christ, as they hauehave, who to expresse it, hauehave made a Rainebow, &c. This is to fall into the heresie of Eutyches, confounding the natures, and circumscribing the Godhead; both wayes it must be a lying image, no way speaking trueth.

2. Make an image of Christ, as man, it is but of his bodily shape; and as (D. Fulke saith) an image of his bodily shape, is no more his shape then another mans: make such an image, and what difference betweene his & the thiefes that was crucified with him?

p. 2083. The Scriptures, which speake so much of his doctrine, workes, and all other circumstances, speake not a word of any lineament and portrayture of his body, wherein Gods wisedome preuented the true painting of his body, which if any goe about to doe, it must be a lying image.

4. Hee neede not be painted on a Table, being so liuely described in the Word and Sacraments,Gal. 3 1.Gal 3:1 and crucified before our eyes; We hold the image of Christ more dangerous then any other, because of the excellency of his person, Pet. Mart. loc. com. class. 2. cap. 5. sect. 26.there is the length of the Lord, there is the Crucifix; and in eueryevery Christian thou hast an image of Christ: looke vponupon him and louelove him, for the image hee beares of Christ.

5. Such a picture or image cannot safely be made, in respect of the dignity of the Person, whose very humanity in composito, p. 209as vnited vntounto the Deity, is to be adored & worshipped aboue all men and Angels: for it is a true position, Totus Christus adorandus. And I maruaile the more, that P. Martyr, In 1. King. 71 Kgs 7so iudicious a Diuine, and learned, should permit the painting of Christs humanity, and yet afterwards confesse how prone the men of our age are vntounto idolatry, that they adore stockes, stones, reliques of Saints, reuersions of the Sacrament, &c.Omnino errare meruerunt, qui Christum et Apostolos eius non in sanctis codicibus, sed in pictis parietibus quaesierunt, August. de consensu Euangelist. lib. 1. ca. 10. bow downe before them, light Candels, burne Incense, inuocate and call for that at their hands, which better creatures cannot giuegive: surely these things stand not well with the former. For images of Saints, it is a lye to pray to them in earth, that are in heauen, a lye to giuegive them mouthes, and they cannot speak, p. 210eyes and they cannot see.

But though we hauehave not images of God,Obiect. or Christ, or the Saints in religious vse, may wee not hauehave them in ciuill vse, suppose for an ornament or history?

Whatsoeuer image hath bin deuised or beautified by Idolaters,Answ. which hath serued, or may hereafter serue in idolatrous vse, the same we must either destroy; or if wee reserue them for priuate vse, wee must so deface them, as their honour and good opinion be vtterly laid in the dust. The reasons heereof are these:

I1. It is Gods commaundement, Exod. 23. 4. Thou shalt vtterly ouerthrow and breake in pieces their images: and 34. 13. Thou shalt ouerthrow their Altars, breake their images, and cut p. 211downe their Groues. Deut. 7. 5, 6. and 25. 26. The images ye shall burne: Couet not the gold and siluer, lest yee be ensnared therewith. Ezek. 20. 7. Let eueryevery man cast away the abominations of his eyes, and defile not your selues with the Idols of Egypt. If the Leprosie had once taken a garment, or vessell, the garment or vessell must be burnt with fire, Leuit. 23. 51. Which what did it signifie other, then that all instruments of idolatry (which is a farre more hatefull leprosie then that of the body) ought to be destroyed, and that wee should hauehave nothing to doe with them; but rather then they should remain to be prouocations to idolatry, to burne them with fire?

II2. In regard of the idoll or image it selfe, whether of Christ, Saints, &c.

p. 21211. In respect of what it hath beene: it hath beene an instrument and an obiect of idolatry, a signe of God despised, a conuicted instrument of Gods dishonour, an alluring harlot that hath drawne the glory of the Creator vponupon it selfe. Can that man be thought chaste, that cannot forbeare the picture and iewels of an harlot? for a subiect to keepe a monument of the enemies conquest, argues a treacherous minde.

2. In respect of what images are, mens deuices, not named by any Prophet or Apostle, but in despight and detestation of them, abominations, Ezek. 14. 6. teachers of lyes, dung to God, and so called, such things as ought not to be named among Christians. Now if an idoll be as dung to God, ought it not to p. 213be so to vsus? If God hauehave polluted them, shall wee count them cleane? and do we account them dung, when we garnish our best roomes with them?

Againe, they be Idolothytes, things sacrificed to deuils; and no Corinthian, no Christian may eate an Idolothyte, for any ciuill vse or commodity: Say not then, The creature is good, and beautifull, and vtterly changed in the vse: this plea will not preserue it by the Papists doctrine it selfe: for thus the Rhemists (in Reu. 2. Sect. 8.) describe an Idolothyte; Though the creature be good by creation, it doth become an Idolothyte, and is made execrable by the prophane blessings of heretiques and idolaters. Shall not wee yeeld as much? nay, the image is no creature of God (though the matter p. 214be) nor good, and therefore by Popish doctrine it selfe, we may not reserue it: for Aquinas himselfe saith, In rebus infructuosis we may not communicate with Gentiles, though in fructuosis we may.

33. In respect of what these images may be: they are snares, and may be the occasions of grosse idolatry to posterity: it is as a iewell borrowed frō Egypt, and may in time prooue matter to make a Calfe of. It is a ruled case, Hee that doth not hinder idolatry when hee may, doth commit it; Qui non prohibet cùm potest, facit, yea iubet; and hee partakes in idolatry, that rootes not out, where hee may, all reliques & monuments of it. Nay, suppose a superstitious person come into thy house so swept and garnished for him, and fall p. 215downe, or vncouer his head, or make secret prayers (as they must by the principles of their doctrine) to the images thou hast set vp, art not thou now an accessary, nay a principall? didst not thou lay this snare & stumbling blocke before thy brother? wast not thou the bawd to his spirituall fornication? Thou oughtest to hauehave remoued this stumbling blocke, and gotten the harlot punisht: for the image tempteth to spirituall fornication, as the scandalous presence of a woman doth a light minde to bodily. The Law pronounceth a curse on him that layes a stumbling blocke before the blinde. Finally, such a one is farre from seeking to propagate the purity of Gods worship to posterity.

3. In respect of thy selfe, to p. 216IIIshew thy selfe zealous for Gods pure worship, and bewray thy vtter detestation of idolatry: thou must destroy eueryevery such Agagite, which God hath pronounced sentence of death vponupon: shall thy eyes spare, nay, thy eyes feede themselues vponupon such brokers of idolatry? shall thy hands aduance, and thy care beautifie such abetters of superstition? how doest thou destroy their memory? Dauid would not once mention their names, Psal. 16. 4. And how darest thou? Those things, which by our doctrine of Homilies and Statute-lawes of the land, are swept out as dung out of our Churches, how is thy house a little church, if thou there take them vp, and nourish them?

I esteeme them but as an ornament.Obiect.

p. 217An ornament is an indifferent thing,Answ. and must be ruled by the squares of Gods glory, edification of men, thy owne sober and faithfull vse, by vertue of a word: this ornament fights with all these.

I honour it not,Obiect. it is but a picture in ciuill vse.

Hezekiah honoured not the brazen serpent,Answ. which was of an other manner of institution, nor himselfe was in danger so to do: but because there was danger of abuse in others, hee brake it in pieces. Againe, to expresse the dalliance of adulterie vponupon a stage, is vtterly vnlawfull, by Ephes. 5. 4. It will not serue a Player for excuse, to say, I hauehave no purpose to commit the act of adulterie; therefore hee may bring adulterous dalliances vponupon the stage: so this is one of p. 218the things which must not bee named, though thou doest not meane to vse it as a Popish picture.

I may vse the gold of it in someObiect. other ciuill vse, why not in this?

I know not whether a manAnsw. can account it a ciuill vse of an image, though the grosse corruption be taken away, or rather a secret kinde of worship, at least too much reuerence & respect, to set them vp, to cloath or couer them with precious things, to praise the curious workmanship of them, and commend them to others so to bee. Secondly, whatsoeuer a man may doe with the gold in other vses, sure I am, the gold of an image is abominable, euen in priuate vse, when the idoll is countenanced and not disfigured. Deut. 27. 15. Cursed is hee that shall p. 219make an image, the worke of the hands of the craftsman, and set it in a secret place: and all the people shall say, Amen. Thirdly, the Iewes might not vse them in priuate vse, but burne them, Deut. 7. 25. But yet we, defacing and dismembring the images, may vse the gold, &c. For as Augustine, P. Martyr, and Caluine thinke, that Law is Iudiciall, though the ground of it be morall, and the vse of it to back the morall.

Lastly, looke vponupon the examples of holy men, after Gods example taking away the names of Baalim; Iacobs zeale, not onelyonly burning the bodies of Idols, but abolishing their eare-rings, which were costly; Elias abhorring Baals altar as wel as himself; Iehu destroying not onelyonly Baal himselfe, but his Temple also, p. 220Vestry, and all his trinkets; Daniel detesting Bels meate, as well as Bel himselfe; Ioshua razing all the monuments of idolatry of the Canaanites that hee could finde, chap. 23. 7.

If any say (which is the last shift) that those were heathenish idols, and worse than these: I answer, that Popish idolatrie is as base as euer the Heathens was, and as odious to God, more pernicious to vsus. For the originall of it, Bucer saith, Insiciari non potest vsum idolorum à gentibus in ecclesiam irrepsisse, It cannot bee denied but that the vse of idols crept into the Church from the Heathens: And that Romish idolatry is as base and foule as theirs, I prooue by these arguments:

I. To giuegive diuine worship to base, dead, and rotten creatures, p. 221is as base idolatrie as any the Heathens could commit: But the Papists giuegive diuine worship to such creatures: therefore, &c. For the assumption, the scope of D. Reynolds his second booke, De idololat. Rom. eccles. is to proue that they giuegive diuine worship to fiue such things, as 1. Saints, dead men. 2. Relikes, rottē bones. 3. Images, painted blockes. 4. Consecrate things, oyle, salt, spittle, waxe, creame. 5. Breaden hosts. And in the same booke he affirmes, that to worship a woodden crosse and a piece of bread, is as grosse idolatrie as euer was.

Obiect. The Papists doe not thinke their idols to be gods.

Answ. Few or none of the Heathens did so, as it is well proued by Master White in his booke called, The way to the p. 222Church, pag. 398.

II. Pezelius, answering the Iesuites Catechisme, in sundrie places, proues at large, that there is no difference between Popish and Heathenish idolatrie, nominibus mutatis, onelyonly the names changed. Pag. 225. Eadem est ratio idololatriae apud Papistas, quae olim apud Gentiles fuit, siue ipsa simulachra, siue vsum & cultum consideres: and proues it by reason, and the testimony of Augustine and Athanasius: And after, Prorsus eadem idololatria, and, Imò grauius peccant Papistae quàm Ethnici, pag. 230. pag. 152. 153. &c. Inter idololatriam gentium, & cultum sanctorum apud Pontisicios, nihil interest: and he concludeth, Nec ouum ouo, neque lac lacti similius, quàm cultus sanctorum apud Pontisicios, & idolorum apud Ethnicos. And Master White in his p. 223booke forenamed, sect. 5. parag. 7. 8. prooueth, that the Papists worship stocks and stones as the Gentiles did.

III. Master Perkins, in a book of his owne setting forth, not in few places, hath the very words, Refor. Cath. 9. point: Papists vnderunder new termes maintaine the idolatrie of the Heathen. Popish idolatrie is a grosse as euer any was among the Heathen. In the practice of a reformed Catholike, Popish idolatrie exceeds the idolatrie of the Heathen, In his Aduertisement to Romane Catholikes. And, the Popish Host is as abominable an idoll as euer was. To whom Bucer in Psal. 115. accordeth, saying thus of the Popish Church in worshipping of the Virgin Mary and the Saints, En omnia facit, quae olim idolis suis insana p. 224gentilitas.

IV. Adde one thing out of the Scriptures: If Rome be called Egypt, Sodom, and Babylon, then the idolatry of all these Heathenish places runs into it: But the first is true, therefore also the second. Againe, If it be a cage of vncleane birds, and an habitation of diuels, if any worse can be said of any Heathens, Romish idolatrie shall not be the worst.

3. Note,Obser. 3. that God the Father, vttering so audible a voyce concerning his Sonne, he will be knowne of vsus, not so much in his owne substance, as in his Sonne; nor by curious prying into the excellencie of his Maiestie, as by sober attending to his voyce and Word. And the many manners of Gods speaking vntounto men, all confirme the p. 225same: sometimes hee is said to speake out of fire that none dare approach; sometimes out of a darke cloud (a cloud, because out of mans reach; and darke, because if it were not so, none might satisfie their curiositie in seeing any thing:) sometimes out of a whirlewinde, a fierce creature which men are afraid of; and sometimes out of the light, but such as is inaccessible. And good reason, that such high and diuine knowledge should bee thus deliuered, because, being matters of faith, they must be insensible, and hee that commeth to God, must beleeue, not see; neither is the eye of the body of such capacitie and piercing brightnes, as to behold things of infinite and inuisible nature. God, in giuing the Law, made a law against p. 226pryers and gazers, and seuerely punished those that pryed into the Arke.

Those that despise the still voyce of God in the ministery,Vse 1. shall neuer see God in Christ; see him and feele him they shall in his power and iustice, neuer in his fauour and louelove, who refuse the tender of his louelove and gracious calling.

Againe,Vse 2. no maruell if ignorance and Egyptiacall darknesse raigne in Popish countreyes, where the voyce and Word of God must not be heard, read, or knowne: Satan and his lims know where their strength lyeth, and that the strength of his kingdome of darknesse standeth in ignorance and darknesse.