Certain Questions and Answers Concerning the Knowledge of God, Preface
To his beloued, and Christian Auditors, and all other in the citie of Bristoll, which desire the true knowledge of God. W. Burton wisheth the encrease of all true godlinesse in this life, and eternall felicitie in the life to come.
IF you doe well consider (beloued Christians) that the ignorance of God, (the mother of Popish deuotion) is the fountaine of all impietie, and the authour of eternall confusion. Then I hope you will easily confesse, that the publishing of these fewe questions and answeres, concerning the knowledge of God, is no needles thing. By the ignorance of God, I meane either not to know that there is a God at all, or els not to know what is the nature of this God whom we ought to serue. Most men will confesse that there is a God, but what maner of God he is, they cannot tell. And therefore while they frame vntounto themselues a God after their owne blinde affections: they make an idoll of the true God, & according to that conceipt which they hauehave of him, they lead al their whole life. That the ignorance of God and his nature; is the principall cause of all vngodlinesse in this life, and of euerlasting condemnation after this life: it doth manifestly appeare, not onelyonly by the testimony of the holie scriptures, but also by the light of nature it selfe.
The scriptures are plaine in this case. First,Psal. 10.4. the Prophet Dauid, painting out a notorious wicked man, saith this of him. The wicked is so proude that hee seeketh not for God: he thinketh alwaies, there is no God: now marke his life, in the seuenth verse. His mouth is full of cursing, deceipt and fraud, vnderunder his tongue is mischiefe and iniquitie. 8. He lieth in the villages: in the secret places doth he murther the innocent: his eies are bent against the poore, &c. Read the 11.12.13. and 14. verses to shew the fruites of such as think there is no God. Again in the 50. Psalm, from the 16. verse to the ende of the 20. noting the hipocrisie, the obstinacie, the impudencie, the theftes, the whoredoms, the filthie mouthes, and vnnaturall affections of the wicked, in the 21. verse he sets down the cause of al, to be this. Thou thoughtest (saith God) that I was like thy selfe: to let vsus see, the fruites of such as know not the nature of God, but make an idoll of him, and thinke him to be as a man and a good fellow like vntounto themselues. When the Prophet Esai wold shew the cause of the Iewes idolatrie,Esai. 40.18.19.20, 21.22. he saith, that the ignorance of God is the cause therof: and therfore labouring to draw them from their idolatrie, he doth it by describing vntounto them the true God. Read from the 18. verse to the ende of the chapter. When the lord shewed Ezechiel the abhominations of the auncients of Israel, he vsed these words: Sonne of man, hast thou seene what the auncientes of the house of Israel do in the darke, euerie one in the chamber of his imagerie, for they say, The The Lord seeth vsus not, The Lord hath forsaken the earth: to shew that the cause of their iniquitie, was their false perswasion, and ignorance of God, for although they knew that there was a God, yet they tooke him to bee but as a man, that could not see them in the dark, and that he was in heauen idly not medling with the things vponupon earth. Thus you heare how the Prophets with one consent do crie out and tel vsus if the ignorance of God is the cause of all impietie, and vngodlinesse. And that it bringeth eternall damnation in the end, is plainly testified by the Apostle S. Paul: who saith in 2. Thes. 1.7.8. That the Lorde Iesus shall shew himselfe from heauen with his mightie Angels, in flaming fire, rendring vengeance vntounto them that do not know God, and obey not the gospell of our Lord Iesus Christ. Where the Apostle sheweth that disobedience to the gospell, floweth from the ignorance of God, because we cannot obey him whom we know not, and the reward of both is the iust vengeance of God.
As this is plainly proued by the scriptures, so it is no lesse euident by the light of naturall reason. For when such a conceipt shal once come into our minds, that God is as man, and hath no more power then a man, no more wisedome then a man, no more iustice, no more merciemercy, no more truth, no more goodnesse then a man hath, we are far inough of from the true feare and seruice of God. For then we feare him as a man, & wee serue him as a man, then the which nothing can be more blasphemous, nor intollerable. For as an idle scholler lookes on his booke only when his maisters eye is vponupon him, so the wicked onelye feare God (and that with a slauishe feare) when they perceiue sensibly by some plague that gods hand is vponupon them. Whereas the godlie (who know what manner of God they serue) they feare to offend him at all times, and in all places, because they know him to be euerlasting and eueryevery where▪ &c.
The Papists hauehave thought & do think God to be like a man, and so they picture him, and so they serue him, so they feare him, and so they louelove him. And therfore in their temples they prouide for his eyes goodly sights, and glorious shewes of guilding and painting. &c. To delight his eares withall they hauehave curious piping and singing: for his smelling, they hauehave their censings and perfumes, and so is al their whole seruice of God in outward shewes onelye, as if god were a man in deede: which filthy doctrine of theirs, ariseth of their grosse vnderstanding of the Scriptures, and word of God.
Then by this time (beloued Christians) I hope you see how needfull it was for me, and how necessarie it shalbe for you, to labour that wee maye bee instructed and builded vp in the true knowldge of God, that so we may be the better able to make straight steppes vntounto Godlines. Otherwise, if we be not instructed in the waies of God, when we shalbe exhorted to serue him, we wilbe ready to answere with the wicked, of whom Iob speaketh, Iob. 21.15. Who is the almightie that we should serue him? and what profite should we hauehave, if we should pray vntounto him?
Throughout my booke for the most part, I hauehave onelye quoted the places of scripture, which I hauehave added for the profe of eueryevery point, and not expressed the words of the places themselues: partely for the auoiding of tediousnes, but speciallye because I would hauehave you take occasion by searching for them, to be better acquainted with the scriptures, then you hauehave bene hetherto.
And seeing as for your benefite (beloued bretheren in the Lord Iesus) and at the request of some of you which heard me, I hauehave aduētured to make these my poore labours publique to the viewe of all, and subiect to the censures of all: I beseeche you, that as at the first hearing of them, you were generally desirous of them, so now you would vouchsafe the reading of them, to your further profit and encrease in the true sauing knowledge of god. The lord almighty make our louelove aboūd in all knowledge and iudgement, and the same God sanctifie our knowledge, and make our affections holye, that we may discerne things that differ, and that we may be sincere and without offence vntounto the comming of the Lord Iesus,Phil. 1.9.10. that we may be filled with the fruites of righteousnes, which are by Iesus Christ, vntounto the praise and glorye of GOD. Amen.
Your seruant for Christ his sake. W. Burton.