A Treatise of Knowledge and Love, Title page – To the reader
A TREATISE OF Knowledge and Love COMPARED. In two Parts:
I. Of Falſly Pretended Knowledge.
II. Of True Saving Knowledge and Love.
I. Againſt Haſty Judging, and Falſe Conceits of Knowledge, and for neceſſary Suſpenſion. II. The Excellency of Divine Love, and the Happineſs of being Known and Loved of God. Written as greatly needful to the Safety and PEACE of every Chriſtian, and of the Church. The only certain way to eſcape falſe Religions, Hereſies, Sects, and Malignant Prejudices, Perſecutions and Sinful Wars: All cauſed by falſly pretended Knowledge, and haſty Judging, by Proud Ignorant men, who know not their Ignorance.
By RICHARD BAXTER; Who by God's bleſſing on long and hard Studies, hath learned to know that he knoweth but little, and to ſuſpend his Judgment of Uncertainties, and to take Great, Neceſſary, Certain things, for the food of his Faith, and Comforts, and the Meaſure of his Church-Communion.
Prov. 14 16.
A wiſe man feareth and departeth from evil: But the FOOL RAGETH and is CONFIDENT.
2 Cor. 11.3.
But I fear leſt by any means, as the Serpent beguiled EVE by his ſubtilty; ſo your minds ſhould be CORRƲPTED from the SIMPLICITY which is in Chriſt.
1 Cor. 1.25.
The fooliſhneſs of God is wiſer than men, and the weakneſs of God is ſtronger than men. v. 20. Hath not God made f…oli…h the wiſdom of this world? c. 2.6. We ſpeak wiſdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wiſdom of this world.
2 Tim. 2.15.
Study to ſhew thy ſelf approved to God; a workman that needed not be aſhamed, rightly DIVIDING the word of Truth. 16. But ſhun profane and vain o…lings, for they will increaſe unto more ungodlineſs.
Auguſt. Enchirid. cap. 59.
(De Corporibus Angelorum) Cum iſta queruntur▪ & a ſicut poteſt quiſque conjectat, non inutiliter exercentur ingenia ſi adhibeatur diſceptantia moderata, & abſit error opinantium ſe ſcire quod neſciunt. Quod enim opes eſt ut hec & hujuſmodi affirmentur, vel negentur, vel definiantur cum diſ…rimine, quando ſine crimine neſciuntur?
LONDON, Printed for Tho. Parkhurſt at the Bible and Three Crowns, at the lower end of Cheapſide, near Mercers Chapel. 1689.
TO THE Right Worshipful Sir HENRY ASHHURST, AND THE Lady DIANA HIS WIFE.
SIR,
YOur Name is not prefixed to this Treatiſe, either as accuſing you of the Sin herein detected, or as praiſing you for thoſe Virtues, which good Men are more pleaſed to poſſeſs and exerciſe, than to have proclaimed, though they be as Light, that is hardly hid. But it is to vent and exerciſe that Gratitude which loveth not the concealment of ſuch Friendſhip and Kindneſs, as you and your Lady Eminently, and your Relatives and Hers, [the Children of the Lord Paget] have long obliged me by: And it is to Poſterity that I record your Kindneſs, more than for this Age, to which it hath publickly notified it ſelf, during my publick Accuſations, Reproaches, Sentences, Impriſonments, and before and ſince: Who knoweth you that knoweth not hereof? And it is to renew the record of that Love and Honour which I owed to your deceaſed Father (formerly, pthough too ſlenderly recorded,) to be the Heir and Imitater of whoſe Faith, Piety, Charity, Patience, Humility, Meekneſs, Impartiality, Sincerity and Perſeverance, is as great an Honour and Bleſſing as I can wiſh you, next to the conformity to our higheſt pattern. And though he was averſe to worldly Pomp and Grandeur, and deſired that his Children ſhould not affect it, yet God that will honour thoſe that honour him, hath advanced his Children, I believe partly for his ſake: But I intreat you all (and ſome other of my Friends whom God hath raiſed as a Bleſſing to their Pious and Charitable Parents and themſelves) to watch carefully leſt the deceitful World and Fleſh, do turn ſuch Bleſſings into Golden Fetters, and to be ſure to uſe them as they would find at laſt on their account.
And as you are a Member of the preſent Houſe of Commons, I think the Subject of this Treatiſe is not unneceſſary to your conſideration and daily care: That when proof, and notorious, and ſad Experience telleth us what diſtractions have befaln Church and State, by Mens ſelf-conceited, erroneous ruſhing upon ſin and falſhood, as if it were Certainly Good and True, and how little Poſterity feareth and avoideth this confounding Vice, though Hiſtory tell us that it hath been the Deluge that in all Ages hath drowned the peace and welfare of the World, you may be wary, and try before you venture, in doubtful caſes, eſpecially where the Sacred and Civil Intereſt of this and many other Lands, doth probably lye on the determination? Do you think all that ventured upon the Actions and Changes, that have toſt up and down both Churches and Kingdoms, by Diviſions, Perſecutions and Wars, had not done better to ſuſpend their Judgments, till they could have more certainly determined? Who ſhould proceed more cautelouſly than Biſhops? And where rather than in Councils? And in what rather than about Faith and Publick Government and Order? And had Biſhops and Councils torn the Church, and Empires, and Kingdoms, as they have done by aſpiring after Superiority, and by contentious Writings, and condemning each other, and by contradictory and erroneous, and perſecuting Canons, or by raiſing Wars and Depoſing Princes, ever ſince 400, or 500, or 600 years after Chriſt, if not ſooner, if they had known their ignorance, and ſuſpended in ſuch dangerous caſes till they were ſure?
I know you are none of them who dare pretend to a Certain Knowledge, that all thoſe Oaths, Declarations, Covenants, Practices impoſed by Laws and Canons on Miniſters and People in this Land, in the Act of Uniformity, the Corporation Act, the Veſtry Act, the Militia Act, the five Mile Act of Baniſhment, &c. are ſo Good and Lawful, as will juſtifie the Execution of them, and the ſilencing, ejecting, ruining, and judging to lye from ſix Months to ſix in the common Jails till they die, 2000 as faithful Miniſters of Chriſt as any Nation hath under Heaven, unleſs they forbear to Preach the Goſpel to which they are vowed, or venture their Souls on that which they fear to be ſins ſo great as they are loth to name: When Chriſt will ſentence them to Everlaſting puniſhment, who did not viſit, feed, clothe him in the leaſt of them, whom he calls his Brethren. Before Men ſilence conditionally the whole Miniſtry of ſuch a Kingdom, and actually 2000 ſuch, while the wounding, dividing conſequents may be ſo eaſily foreſeen, and before men deliberately and reſolutely continue and keep up ſuch Battering Engines on pretence of Uniformity and Obedience to Men, and before they venture to own this to that Lord who hath made other terms of Church Unity and Peace, it nearly concerneth them to think, and think on it a thouſand times: A ſuſpended judgment is here ſafer than prefidence and confident rage.
And alſo they that deſire an Abolition of Epiſcopacy, ſhould a thouſand times bethink them firſt what True and Primitive Epiſcopacy is, and whether the Epiſcopi Gregis, or eorum Praeſides, or true Evangeliſts, or Apoſtolical General Biſhops, diſarmed and duely choſen, be any injury to the Church? And whether the Jews had not been a National Chriſtian Church under the Twelve Apoſtles and Seventy, if they had not rejected him that would have gathered them as the Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings.
They that cannot deny that Chriſt ſetled a Superior Rank of Miniſters, appointing them beſides their Extraordinaries, the work of Gathering and Over-ſeeing many Churches, promiſing therein to be with them to the end of the World, and that only Matthias muſt make up the National number of ſuch, though Juſtus had been with Chriſt as well as he, muſt be the Provers that this Rank and Imparity was reverſed by him that did Inſtitute it, if they affirm it: And not without proof charge Chriſt with ſeeming levity and mutability, as ſetling a Form of Miniſtry and Government, which he would have continue but one Age: Much leſs muſt they impoſe ſuch an unproved affirmation as the terms of Church Concord.
Woe, woe, woe! how effectually hath Satan almoſt undone the Chriſtian World, by getting in naughty Miniſters and Magiſtrates, where he could not utterly Extirpate Chriſtianity by Arms? Thereby making Rulers and Preachers the Captains of the malignant Enemies of ſeriouſneſs in that Religion which they Profeſs and Preach themſelves: And if in ſuch Hypocriſie they Convert a Soul, they hate him as an Enemy for believing them: And thereby tempt Religious Men to miſtake the Crime of the naughty Preacher, as the fault of the Office, and to oppoſe the Office for the Perſons ſake; and ſo Miniſtry and Chriſtianity is deſpiſed by too many.
The ſhutting of their Church Doors, and condemning to Scorn and Beggery, and Jails, thoſe that were as wiſe and faithful as themſelves (unleſs fearing heinous ſin made them worſe,) ſhould have been by the Perſecutors long and deeply thought on, twenty eight years ago▪ and ever ſince, by them that believe that Chriſt will judge them. And ſo ſhould all Doctrines and Practices that tend to unwarrantable ſeparations and diviſions by others. Things of this moment ſhould not be ventured on, nor Papiſts made both Lords and Executioners by our diſtracted Combates with each other, and the miſerable Nation and undone Church, left to no better a remedy than a non putaremus, and to hear the worldly Tyrants, and the tempted Sufferers accuſing each other, and diſputing when the Houſe is burnt who was in the fault.
I think he was moſt faulty that could moſt eaſily have helped it, and would not: But if Great and Rich Men will be the ſtrength of the Factious, as they have moſt to loſe, they may be the greateſt loſers.
All this hath been ſaid, to tell you how nearly the Doctrine of this Book, for neceſſary Doubting and a humble Underſtanding, and for Chriſtian Love, and againſt pretended Knowledge and raſh Judging, doth concern the duty and ſafety of this Nation, Church and State.
My late Book of the Engliſh Nonconformity fully evinceth this, and more; but blinding Prejudice, Worldlineſs and Faction, give leave to few of the guilty to read it.
I reſt your much obliged Servant, Rich. Baxter. July 31. 1689.
TO THE READER.
Reader,
UPon the Review of this Book, written long ago, I find, 1. That it is a Subject as neceſſary now as ever, Experience telling us that the Diſeaſe is ſo far from being Cured, that it is become our publick ſhame and danger, and if the wonderful Mercy of God prevent it not, is like to be the ſpeedy confuſion and ruine of the Land. 2. As to the manner of this writing, I find the effects of the failing of my Memory, in the oft repeating of the ſame things, with little diverſification: But I will not for that caſt it away, conſidering, 1. That perhaps oft repeating may make the matter the better remembered; and if it do the work intended, no matter though the Author be not applauded. 2. And men may think juſtly that what is oft repeated dropt not from the Author inconſiderately, nor is taken by him to be ſmall and uſeleſs; but is that digeſted Truth which he would moſt inculcate. 3. And thoſe who blame their weakneſs, who accuſe the Church Liturgy of too much repetition, I ſuppoſe will not be much offended with it in our Writings, while the dulneſs and forgetfulneſs of many Readers maketh it needful.
Aug. 3. 1689. Rich. Baxter.