A Treatise of Knowledge and Love, Part 2 · Chapter 9 – Chapter 10
Chap. IX.
The fifth Inference: What great cauſe men have to be thankful to God for the Conſtitution of the Chriſtian Religion: And how unexcuſable they are that will not learn ſo ſhort and ſweet, and ſafe a Leſſon.
SO excellent and every way ſuitable to our caſe is the Religion taught and inſtituted by Chriſt, as ſhould render it very acceptable to Mankind. And that on ſeveral accounts.
1. The brevity and plainneſs of Chriſtian Precepts, greatly accommodateth the neceſſity of Mankind. I ſay his neceſſity, leſt you think it is but his ſloth. Ars longa, Vita brevis, is the true and ſad complaint of Students. Had our Salvation been laid upon our Learning a Body of true Philoſophy, how deſperate would our caſe have been? For, 1. Mans great Intellectual weakneſs; 2. His want of leiſure would not have allowed him a knowledge that requireth a ſubtile wit and tedious ſtudies.
1. Moſt men have wits of the duller ſort: Such quickneſs, ſubtilty and ſolidity, as is neceſſary to great and difficult ſtudies, are very rare. So rare, as that few ſuch are found even amongſt the Preachers of the Goſpel: Of a multitude who by hard Studies and honeſt Hearts, are fit to Preach the Doctrine of Salvation, ſcarce one or two are found of ſo fine and exact a wit as to be fit judiciouſly to manage the curious Controverſies of the Schools. What a caſe then had Mankind been in, if none could have been wiſe and happy indeed, but theſe few of extraordinary capacity? The moſt publick and common good is the beſt. God is more merciful than to confine Salvation to ſubtilty of wit: Nor indeed is it a thing it ſelf ſo pleaſing to him as a Holy, Heavenly Heart and Life.
2. And we have Bodies that muſt have Proviſion and Employment: We have Families and Kindred that muſt be maintained: We live in Neighbourhoods and publick Societies, which call for much Duty, and take up much time. And our ſufferings and croſſes will take up ſome thoughts. Were it but Poverty alone, how much of our time will it alienate from contemplation? whilſt great neceſſities call for great care and continual labour? Can our common poor Labourers, (eſpecially Husbandmen) have leiſure to inform their minds with Philoſophy or curious Speculations?
Nay, we ſee by experience, that the more ſubtile and moſt vacant wits, that wholly addict themſelves to Philoſophy can bring it to no conſiderable certainty, and conſiſtency to this day, except in the few Rudiments or common Principles that all are agreed in. Inſomuch that thoſe do now take themſelves to be the chief or only wits, who are pulling down that which through ſo many Ages, from the beginning of the World, hath with ſo great wit and ſtudy been concluded on before them; and are now themſelves no higher than new Experimenters, who are beginning all anew again, to try whether they can retrieve the errours of Mankind, and make any thing of that which they think the World hath been ſo long unacquainted with: And they are yet but beginning at the Skin or Superficies of the World, and are got no further with all their wit, than Matter and Motion, with Figure, Site, Contexture, &c. But if they could live as long as Methuſalem, it is hoped they might come to know that beſides Matter and Motion; there are Eſſential Virtues called ſubſtantial Forms, or active Natures, and that there is a Vis Motiva, which is the cauſe of Motion, and a Virtus Intellectiva, and Wiſdom which is the cauſe of the Order of Motion, and a Vital Will and Love which is the perfection and end of all: In a word, they may live to know that there is ſuch a thing in the World as Life, and ſuch a thing as Active Nature, and ſuch a thing as Senſe and Soul, beſides Corporeal Matter and Motion, and conſequently that man is indeed man. But, alas, they muſt die ſooner, perhaps before they attain ſo far, and their Succeſſors muſt begin all anew again, as if none of all theſe great attempts had been made by their Predeceſſours, and ſo (by their method) we ſhall never reach deeper than the Skin, nor learn more than our, A B C And would we have ſuch a task made neceſſary to the Common Salvation, even for all the Poor and Vulgar, wits, which is ſo much too hard for our moſt ſubtile Students?
2. And Chriſtianity is as ſuitable to us, in the Benefit and Sweetneſs of it. What a happy Religion is it that employeth men in nothing but receiving good to themſelves, and in doing good to themſelves and others. Whoſe work is only the Receiving and Improving of Gods Mercies, and Loving and Delighting in all that is good, rejoycing in the taſts of Gods Love on Earth, and in the Hopes of perfect Felicity, Love and Joy for ever. Is not this a ſweeter life, than tireſom, unprofitable Speculations.
O then how unexcuſeable are our contemners of Religion, that live in wilful Ignorance and ungodlineſs, and think this eaſy and ſweet Religion, to be a tedious and intolerable thing! What impudent Calumniators and Blaſphemers are they of Chriſt and Holineſs, who deride and revile this ſweet and eaſy way to life, as if it were a ſlavery and an irkſom toil, unneceſſary to our Salvation, and unfit for a freeman, or at leaſt a Gentleman, (or a Servant of the fleſh and world) to practiſe. If Chriſt had ſet you but ſuch a task as Ariſtotle, or Plato did to their diſciples; ſo many notions, and ſo many Curioſities to learn; If he had written for you as many Books as Chryſippus did; If he had made neceſſary to your Salvation, all the arbitrary notions of Lullius, & all the Fanatick conceits of Campanella, and all the dreaming Hypotheſes of Carteſius, and all the Aſtronomical & Coſmographical difficulties of Ptolomy, Tycho-Brache, Copernicus and Galilaeus, and all the Chronological difficulties handled by Euſebius, Scaliger, Functius, Capellus, Petavius, &c. And all the curioſities in Philoſophy and Theology of Cajetane, Scotus, Ockam, Gabriel, &c. Then you might have had ſome excuſe for your averſation: But to accuſe and refuſe, and reproach ſo Compendious, ſo Eaſie, ſo Sweet, ſo Neceſſary a Doctrine and Religion, as that which is brought and taught by Chriſt, this is an ingratitude that hath no excuſe, unleſs Senſuality and Malignant enmity may paſs for an excuſe.
Doth Chriſt deliver you from the maze of Imaginary Curioſities, and from the burdens of worldly wiſdom called Philoſophy, and of Phariſaical Traditions, and Jewiſh Ceremonies, and make you a light burden, an eaſy Yoak, and Commandments that are not grievous, and after all this, muſt he be requited with Rejection and Reproach, and your Burdens and Snares be taken for more tolerable than your deliverance? You make a double forfeiture of Salvation, who are ſo unwilling to be ſaved.
Be thankful, O Chriſtians, to your heavenly Maſter, for tracing you out ſo plain and ſweet a way. Be thankful that he hath cut ſhort thoſe tireſom ſtudies, by which your task-maſters would confound you, under pretence of making you like Gods, in ſome more ſubtile and ſublime Speculations than Vulgar wits can reach. Now all that are willing may be Religious, and be ſaved: It is not confined to men of learning. The way is ſo ſweet, as ſheweth it ſuitable to the end. It is but [Believe Gods Love and Promiſes of Salvation by Chriſt, till you are filled with Love and its delights, and live in the pleaſures of Gratitude and Holineſs, and in the Joyful hopes of endleſs Glory:] And is not this an eaſy Yoak! Saith our Heavenly Poet Mr. G. Herbert, in his Poem called Divinity p. 127.
As men for fear the Stars ſhould Sleep and Nod,
And trip at night, have Spheres ſupply'd;
As if a Star were duller than a clod,
Which knows his way without a guide,
Juſt ſo the other Heaven they alſo ſerve,
Divinities tranſcendent Sky,
Which with the Edge of wit they Cut and Carve,
Reaſon Triumphs, and Faith lies by.
— But all his Doctrine which he taught and gave,
Was clear as heav'n from whence it came;
At leaſt thoſe Beams of truth which only ſave,
Surpaſs in Brightneſs any Flame:
Love God, and Love your Neighbours, watch and pray,
Do as you would be done unto.
O dark inſtructions! even as dark as day!
Who can theſe Gordian Knots undo?
Chap. 10.
The ſixth Inference: How little reaſon ungodly men have to be proud of their Learning, or of any ſort of Knowledge or Wiſdom whatſoever.
AS the ancient Gnoſticks, being puffed up with their corrupt Platonick Speculations, lookt down with contempt upon ordinary Chriſtians, as ſilly ignorants in compariſon of them, and yet had not wiſdom enough to preſerve them from the Luſts and Pollutions of the world; Even ſo is it with abundance of the worldly Clergy and ungodly Scholars in this age. They think their Learning ſetteth them many degrees above the Vulgar, and giveth them right to be Reverenced as the Oracles or Rabbies of the World; When yet (poor Souls!) They have not learned (by all their Reading, Studies and Diſputings) to Love God and Holineſs, better than the Riches and Preferments of the World. And ſome of them not better than a Cup of ſtrong drink, or than the brutiſh pleaſures of Senſe and Fleſh. It is a pitiful thing to ſee the Pulpit made a Stage for the oſtentation of this ſelf-ſhaming, ſelf-condemning Pride and Folly: For a man under pretence of ſerving God, and helping other men to Heaven, to make it his errand to tell the hearers, that he is a very Wiſe and Learned man; who hath not wit enough to chooſe a holy, humble life, nor to make ſure of Heaven or to ſave his Soul; nor perhaps to keep out of the Tavern, or Ale-houſe the next week, nor the ſame day to forbear the venting of his worldly, carnal mind. What is ſuch Learning, but a Game of Imagination, in which the Phantaſie ſports it ſelf with names and notions; or worſe, the materials which are uſed in the ſervice of ſin, the fuel of pride, the blinder and deceiver of ſuch as were too ignorant before, being a meer ſhadow and name of Knowledge? What good will it do a man tormented with the Gout, or Stone, or by miſerable poverty, to know the names of various herbs, or to read the titles of the Apothecaries boxes, or to read on a ſign-poſt, Here is a good ordinary? And what good will it do a carnal, unſanctified Soul, that muſt be in Hell for ever, to know the Hebrew roots or points, or to diſcourſe of Carteſius his materia ſubtilis & globuli aetherei, &c. Or of Epicurus and Gaſſendus Atomes, or to look on the Planets in Galileus Glaſſes, while he caſteth away all his hopes of Heaven, by his unbelief, and his preferring the pleaſures of the fleſh? Will it comfort a man that is caſt out of Gods preſence, and condemned to utter darkneſs, to remember, that he was once a good Mathematician, or Logician, or Muſician, or that he had wit to get riches and preferments in the world, and to climb up to the heighth of honour and dominion? It is a pitiful thing to hear, a man boaſt of his wit, while he is madly rejecting the only felicity, forſaking God, eſteeming vanity, and damning his Soul! The Lord deliver us from ſuch wit and learning. Is it not enough to refuſe Heaven and chooſe Hell (in the certain cauſes) to loſe the only day of their hopes, and in the midſt of light, to be incomparably worſe than mad, but they muſt needs be accounted wiſe and learned, in all this ſelf-deſtroying folly? As if (like the Phyſician who boaſted that he killed men according to the Rules of art) it were the heighth of their ambition to go learnedly to Hell, and with Reverend gravity and wit, to live here like brutes, and hereafter with Devils for evermore.