Ten Sermons, Collection of sermons · Sermon 3
Add to your Faith Vertue.
SERMON III.
2 Pet. I. 5.
And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith vertue, and to vertue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance.
THE Promises of the Gospel are accepted even by hard and impenitent hearts; But the Commandments of God find not the like entertainment. Many that hear with pleasure the glad tidings of the Salvation offered by Jesus Christ, cannot abide to hear the necessary duties to enjoy it.
But it is in vain to think on the one without the other. And after we have announced to you, with St. Paul, Tit. 2.11. that the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, we must tell you with the same breath that which followeth, Teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.
Such is our Apostles order in my Text. For these words, And besides this, oblige me to begin somewhat besides my Text. The Apostle having represented to Christians, in the two precedent Verses, what God had done for them, declareth in this Text, what he expects of them. What he hath done for us is exprest in these magnificent terms: The divine power hath given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and vertue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
So much God doth for us; Much above all that we can either ask or think; but yet not enough to excuse us from doing our part. It is not relying upon these great and precious promises that will serve our turn, without giving all diligence to obey the Commandments of him that giveth these good promises. There is a [besides this:] And besides this (saith he) giving all diligence, add to your faith vertue, and to vertue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. It seems he will never have done heaping vertues one upon the neck of another. And indeed it is a task that must never be ended, till we have quite done with the World, and with our lives, still giving diligence, and adding still vertue to faith, and knowledge to vertue, and so making to our selves stairs of vertues to Heaven.
These Vertues are those Pearls of great price, for which a Man must sell all that he hath, and buy them. Of these eight Pearls I have taken the first four to weigh and consider, with God's assistance. Faith, Vertue, Knowledge, Temperance. And there is a string that threds these Pearls, and must go along in the exposition of each part: Viz. Give all diligence to add. This would be understood as many times repeated as there are Vertues mentioned: Give all diligence to add to your faith vertue; Give all diligence to add to vertue knowledge; Give all diligence to add to knowledge temperance. And here is for you such a Necklace of Pearls, as Solomon would have to be an ornament of grace about your Head, and chains about your Neck. Now these Pearls are so curiously strung together, that the latter hath a relation to all the former, Vertue to Faith ; Knowledge, to Faith and Vertue; Temperance, to Faith, Vertue and Knowledge. But they w7ould be viewed severally and insisted upon with maturity.
I. As for the first, which is Faith, the truth is, my Text doth not greatly require an exposition of it. It is well if my Audience do not. For faith is not here commanded but presupposed. St. Peter faith not, Give diligence to get faith, but to add to your faith. In the first Verse of the Epistle, he addresseth himself to those that have the like precious faith with him, to none else; He accounteth none worthy or capable of his doctrine but the faithful. And now whether the Apostle writes to you, or not; And whether instead of saying, Add to your faith, we should not say, Get ye fome faith, I leave it to the feveral conferences. But if never before, yet now, let us labour to get faith, and learn what faith is.
The Faith required here is justifying Faith, well grounded upon that doctrine of faith, of which the Apostle spake in the first verse (for there the word of faith signifies the doctrine)that precious doctrine of faith, whereby the divine power gives us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. The personal faith grounded upon that doctrine of faith, is a recourse to the mercy of God by the merits of Jesus Christ, a sure mercy promised in the Gospel, that whosoever believeth on him, shall not perish but have everlasting life. Upon which promise the faithful conscience assumeth thus, Now I believe on Jesus Christ; and hence draweth this conclusion, Then I shall not perish but have everlasting life. Justifying faith is nothing else but that Syllogism.
This doctrine which is the plain ground and the A. B. C. of the Gospel, is grown an intricate matter by too much explication. Some confine Faith to the understanding, and make it no more but a firm assent of the understanding to the truth of God. It is the faint and languid definition which Bellarmin and too many with him give to Faith: A definition which barreth confidence and personal application from the nature of Faith.
Others will acknowledge no other faith but a certain confidence, without the least wavering, that Christ is ours and his merits, and exclude from the number of the faithful all such as doubt. Both are in fault and run to opposite extremes.
As for that faith confined to the assent of the understanding; If we must only believe that St. Luke and St. John have truly related the history of Christ's Passion, and must not attempt to lay our whole trust on the merit of it, nor apply it to our selves for fear of presumption, certainly we are in an ill case; In no better case than the Devil, for he believeth the truth of God's promises, but dares not apply them to himself.
And as for the full confidence in God's mercy through Jesus Christ without any doubting, it is indeed the highest degree of faith, if it be upon good ground. Blessed and holy is he that hath that right confidence. And then it will be right when it worketh love, humility and repentance in the heart. That full confidence we must all aim unto, and never leave till we obtain it. But as handsomness and strength are not the essence, but the perfection of man's body; likewise a full confidence of our salvation upon good ground, is not the essence but the perfection of faith. So that as you would not deny a Child or a lame Man to be a true Man; Likewise you must not deny a trembling or a halting faith to be a true faith, when a good soul saith, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. For observe that he that spake so, obtained of the Lord what he would have. To teach us, that the humble penitent soul that can but take his recourse unto Christ, hath faith enough to obtain his mercy.
These two acts of faith must be distinguisht, The direct act, which embraceth the mercy of God through Jesus Christ; And the reflected act, which is the assurance and comfort that the soul feeleth by embracing the mercy of God in Jesus Christ.
The justifying act of faith is the direct act, not the reflected. For it is evident, that we are justified before God, because we embrace the mercy of God through the merits of Jesus Christ, not by the assurance and comfort arising out of it in our consciences. Wherefore it is a very ill consequence to say, I have no comfort, therefore I have no faith; for you are not justified by your comfort in God's mercy through Jesus Christ, but by our recourse to it. Were this well apprehended, it would ease many troubled consciences. Come unto me, saith Christ, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, Matth. 11.28. Coming to Christ with a contrite heart, labouring and heavy laden, is believing on him; and many believe to salvation, that believe not yet to comfort. In effect coming to Christ in the style of Christ is believing on him. Him that cometh to me, I will in to wise cast out, saith he, Joh. 6.37. And two Verses before, He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth in me shall never thirst. So in the sense of the Lord Jesus, coming to him and believing on him are all one. And they that come to him as the true and sole object of their faith, are certainly justified, though they be not presently comforted. They are justified by faith, when they believe not their own faith.
Let us be Disciples of the Disciples of Christ, learning of them to pray to him; Lord increase our faith; there being no essential want in the world, either for the spiritual or the temporal, but comes for want of faith. Let him that mistrusteth God's mercy, have recourse nevertheless unto that mercy. Let him hope against hope. Let him wrestle, as Jacob, by a holy obstinacy, and not let the Lord go till he hath got a blessing. Yea he that hath the right faith, let him get it again. As you love God, as you love your own salvation, let that ground be one fast. It is the life of the Soul. It is the ground-work of all vertues. Even for the world it is the spring of wealth and content. Wherefore it is laid down here first of all, as the foundation upon which all goodness and happiness are built. All instructions raised in the Soul, and not upon this ground, are built upon sand, and will end in ruine. So much for faith.
II. Now when we have once faith we have not done; Besides this (saith our Apostle) we must give all diligence to add to our faith, vertue: For faith is the life of the soul, and Vertue is the pulse and activity of the soul. Life is an active principle; It will be doing. You may be sure that there is no life of faith, where there is no activity of vertue.
The Greek word for vertue signifieth properly valour in war; foreign. St. Peter then would have us to add to our faith constancy and courage, as St. Paul charged Timothy to fight the good fight of faith, 1 Tim. 6.2. and 2 Tim. 2.3. he will have him to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. A fit lesson for all Christians, especially for those that are of Timothy's Order; For Ministers being more aimed at by the oppositions of the Devil and the world, have more need to put on the whole armour of God, and to add to their faith, vertue and resolution.
But we must leave to Vertue a larger extent, her full extent, taking it for the whole work of sanctification. Of which although Faith be also a part, it may be distinguisht (as it is distinct indeed) from other parts of sanctification, in two things: 1. That faith justifieth us before God, which other vertues do not: 2. And that it is not only a part of sanctification, but also the cause of it, and sits as a Mother in the Family of Vertues.
But as Faith and Vertue are distinct here, they are here conjoyned also, Add to your Faith, Vertue. St. Peter will have them to go together. And the truth is, they hold together very close; for the same faith that justifieth us, doth also sanctifie us. Yea by the very act of justification we are sanctified; for he that faithfully apprehends and applieth to himself the mercy of God and the righteousness of Christ, is thereby, ipso facto, toucht with an unfeigned humility, and with a fervent love of God. And these are the two principal vertues growing upon the stock of faith, which afterwards multiply and branch themselves into all good habits and good acts.
You see what great cause St. Peter had to command us to joyn to our faith vertue, since they are so conjunct by nature, that faith cannot work one of her main offices, which is, to embrace Christ and justifie the conscience, without doing together her other great work, which is to produce Vertue, even humility and love; for without them, trust in God's mercy would not be faith, but presumption and madness.
Which near conjunction made many to say, that we are justified by being sanctified; that is, in other terms, that we are justified by works: which if we admit, fare you well with the Gospel, we are fallen to the conditions of the Law.
Indeed the justifying act of faith is a good work, yet it justifieth not the conscience because it is a good work, but because it layeth hold on Jesus Christ who is the Lord our righteousness. It is by vertue of the object not of the action of faith, that we are justified.
This temper then must be kept, To acknowledge that Faith and Vertue are inseparable; And that Faith doth not justifie except it sanctifie: But we must take heed of saying, that by being sanctified we are justified, or that our works bear any share in our justification.
But that we confound not the doctrines of justification and sanctification, we must not confound the words as some do. Hold fast the form of sound words, 2 Tim. 1.13. A necessary doctrine for Divines at all times. For it is the ordinary method of Satan, when he will bring in new doctrines, to bring forth new words, or alter the signification of the old.
Then to retain the right form and the right use of sound words, this precept of Adding to our faith vertue, is as good as saying, Shew me thy faith by thy works. For we must make our faith an obligation to vertue, and our vertue a necessary consequence of our faith. Truly if we did rightly apprehend the nature and the necessary consequences of faith, we should never be deceived in examining whether we be in the faith, nor slack in the work of our regeneration, when we find that we have faith. Such is the efficacy of faith, that by it we are accounted dead to sin in the death of Christ, and risen to righteousness in his resurrection. Upon which St. Paul insisteth very much in the sixth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. And the drift of that doctrine is in the second Verse, If we be dead to sin, how shall we live any longer therein?
Our Christian duty calls us to examine whether we be dead to sin by our faith into Christ, dead for our sins. Whether we have buried our old Man in his Grave. Whether we be risen to righteousness in his resurrection. Whether we have added at least some vertue to our faith, that we may know whether we have any faith at all. Have we been patient in injuries, sober and holy in our conversation, just in our dealings, charitable not only in our deeds, but in our words and judgments? Have we sometimes taken our selves in hand to cool our greediness, to heat our charity, to subdue these worldly hearts of ours full of wantonness and pride? Have our hearts gone along with our prayers when we pray'd for our sanctification?
If thus we have given all diligence to sanctifie our selves, and crucifie and bury our old man with Christ; Though after that there remain too many roots of the old weeds within us, we shall find that in God's book of accounts a sincere endeavour is taken for a vertuous performance. Wherefore the Apostle saith not barely, Add to your faith vertue, but give all diligence to add to your faith vertue.
This is a precious word, Give all diligence; We were undone but for it. Were we to be judged by our Vertue, there were no hope for us: But our gracious Master that knows our weakness, looks for our diligence rather than our performance. Give all diligence, it will be accepted for vertue.
But truly this is no light task, to give all diligence. You have not discharged it when you have given your Ministers fair leave to speak, and graced them so much as to stay out the Sermon: God will have your hands as well as your ears, and all the days of the week as well as the first.
Observe the word all; St. Peter saith not, give some but give all diligence. He will have all our hearts, all our minds, all our strength. For since Christ gave his whole self for us, Godhead, Manhood, Body and Soul; be ye sure he will not be satisfied with parcels of our poor selves, and of our weak diligence. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and seek him with their whole heart, Psal. 119. Let us give our whole selves to God, and keep nothing behind. Let our Soul bless the Lord, and all that is within us bless his holy Name, Psal. 103. So much for Vertue.
III. Now the way to further our diligence in adding to our faith vertue, is to add to vertue knowledge. When the good Wife in the Parable would sweep the house, she lighted the Candle. Labouring for vertue and sanctification, is sweeping the house within us; but the light of knowledge must be by: Else if we go about to sweep the house of our hearts, or the house of the Church, without the light of a right knowledge, we may commit the fault of the Roman vulgar version in that place, evertit domum, instead of everrit; It will be overthrowing instead of sweeping: Instead of making the house clean, we shall pull it down.
The knowledge of God is mentioned in the two Verses before my Text; A knowledge that brings grace and peace, and all things pertaining unto life and godliness. Such a knowledge is part of faith, and is grounded upon authority. But in this Text the Apostle means (as I take it) that knowledge which is gotten by study and reason, yet upon the ground of faith. Two reasons I have to take it so. The one, that we are bidden to add to our faith knowledge, as a thing different from faith; The other, that the word foreign, which is here translated diligence, properly signifies study. This knowledge then is got by study and diligence. And the Apostle would have us all Students, Women and all, at least enough to be always ready to give an answer to every one that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us. So much he requireth in his first Epistle, c. 3.15.
What! to give a reason of our hope? Cognoscere causas! Felix qui potuit. It is a high degree of knowledge; and God demands no less. God will be served by every creature of his in its own kind. We are reasonable creatures, God will have from us a reasonable service, foreign. God by his mercy sets up the light of faith in our soul: But unless we pour the oyl of knowledge into the lamp of faith, the lamp of faith will out; never deceive your selves: And then God knoweth what vertue you shall work in the dark. My people is destroyed for want of knowledge. Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, saith the Lord, Hoseah 4.6.
Certainly destruction comes upon Souls for want of knowledge. For as the new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, Col. 3.10. So the old man of sin is made up of ignorance, after the image of him that created him, even the Devil. Look over all the histories of the Church; Whensoever there was an ignorant, it was also an ungodly age; for the want of knowledge was ever attended with the want of faith and vertue.
As learned as we are, or think to be, it is the want of knowledge that undoeth us. For what is the reason that some are carried away by their intemperance and voluptuousness; others are plotting mischief to rise by the fall of their Neighbours? It is because they know neither Gods Commandments nor promises, or regard them not, which is the worst ignorance. Tell me not, here is a Learned man, it is pity he is not honest; I tell you he is an Ignorant; He knows not so much as his duty. Would the World remember that God is Holy, that he is All-seeing, that he is the searcher of hearts, that he loveth righteousness and abhorreth iniquity, and that he will certainly bring every work into judgment; Sure there would be more equity, more charity, more sobriety, more devotion. David's question was a wise one, Psal. 14.4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, that eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord? As if he had said, Had they knowledge in any reasonable measure, they could not be so mischievous; They would not oppress their neighbours; They would be careful to call upon the Lord, who would lead them in the ways of truth and righteousness. Ignorance with them was the cause of all mischiefs, and so it is with us.
But even they that would be good, may come short of it, unless they add to vertue knowledge, and examine upon what ground they do good: Whether they do good to the poor, because they are the members of Christ, or to avoid their clamour. Whether they be sober to save their consciences, or to save charges. Whether they go to Church to obey God, or to obey custome. Whether they be just in their outward dealing to please God, or to get credit or advancement in the World. Whether they take upon them the Ministery for the Office, or for the Benefice. Had we all the inspired gifts of the Primitive Christians when this Epistle was written, yet should we need to add to our vertue knowledge: Else vertue would not stand upon faith, nor faith upon God.
This lesson regards Divines especially, through whom, as so many chanels of mercy, the knowledge of God is conveighed unto his People. For (saith Malachi 2.7.) the Priests lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts.
That part of the Priests office under the Law, to teach the People, is now past to the Ministers of the Gospel. I say not, that they are heirs of the Levitical Priesthood; but in this they succeed them, that at their mouths the people should seek the Law, and they are the Ministers of the Lord of Hosts. So necessity lieth upon the Minister to be learned in the Evangelical Law; not a Novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil, 1 Tim. 3.6. Here St. Paul sheweth how ignorance and pride are going hand in hand, and both ushering the Devil: For commonly the least learned are the most peremptory; And then the Devil hath fair play, being guarded with ignorance and boldness, to set himself forth like an Angel of light.
Blessed and holy is that Minister of God's Word, who is first of all truly endowed with faith and vertue, and then soundly grounded in holy knowledge, and takes no less pain to feed his learning than to vent it, supplying his layings out with his comings in: Whose mouth out of the fulness of his heart speaketh good things; like that rich housholder of the Parable, fetching out of his treasury things new and old, employing them not for ostentation but edification, which he promotes no less by his life than doctrine. Such men commonly, though they be not sparing of their pains, are not lavish of their words, and have more skill in stuffing than spinning out; bringing forth much holy matter with little noise; Like great Rivers, which gliding gently enrich the Land with commerce and plenty. For it seems that God would have the High Priests Robe to be deckt with Pomegranats and Bells mingled together, to teach his Ministers, that he loveth not a sound without fruit, and will not have the Church served with an empty noise.
We learn who are the Pastors after Gods heart, Jer. 3.15. I will give them Pastors according to my heart, which shall feed them with knowledge and understanding, not amuse them with tales and flourishes, and with that invention which I have many times admired, how a Man can find variety enough to say nothing in a million of words: But all that is hollow meat; It is verba dare populo: For though words without knowledge, set forth with much vehemency, may stir the passion of the people, they feed not their consciences. Then it fareth with the deluded souls according to Isaiah's comparison, Isa. 29.8. It is as when a hungry man dreameth that he eateth, but he awaketh, and his soul is empty.
This is plain dealing, to speak the duty of Ministers before the People: And I do it, because all shall know that there is no hidden mystery of craftiness among us, and that we will not do the work of the Lord deceitfully. Also to shew that we know our duty in some measure. And although we will always suffer our selves to be admonisht by godly, learned and discreet Persons of the Laity, and thank them too; we may spare the pains of some of the lowest capacity and the highest presumption, who like no Text of Scripture so well as this, Psal. 119. I am wiser than all my teachers, and would put down all teachers and all teaching. But these that would put down all teaching would be teachers themselves, set up by their own authority, mistaking an itch of contention and intemperance of words, for an inward calling; yet understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. For take them from their usual themes of Invective, and put them upon a plain principle, say it be Justification, say it be Regeneration; and without doubt the very questions of their Catechism would put them shrewdly to it: Like those Disciples of Ephesus, who likely thought themselves jolly men, but when it came to the proof, they knew not whether there was any Holy Ghost.
In one thing I concur with them: They wish for the putting down of all Ministery in the Church; I wish it also. But how? I wish withal for that glorious time when there will be no more need of it, when the Kingdom of Christ shall be come in glory; That blessed time when the prophecy of Jeremy shall be fulfilled, c. 31. v. 34. They shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall know me from the least of them to the greatest, saith the Lord. O that the blessed time were come, promised Isa. 11.9. The Land shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea! Then indeed all Ministery must go down, for what need of Ministers, when Christ our great Master shall be all in all? Till then let Ministers teach knowledge, and let the People learn it. In this mystical body some are the mouth, some are the ear; Let not the ear justle the mouth out of office. Let none think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but think soberly, Rom. 12.3. But this intrencheth upon the fourth Point, Add to knowledge temperance; To which I pass.
IV. Temperance in the proper and ordinary sense signifieth sobriety. But here I take it as meant in a metaphorical and borrowed sense, for modesty in our knowledge. For since the Apostle joyneth these two, Add to knowledge temperance, it is most like that he means it in the sense most convenient to knowledge. Now because these four good habits hold together, Temperance which is the fourth, hath a relation to each of the three former. For that we be not overweening with the conceit of our faith, nor proud in the ostentation of our vertue, nor over-born with the sail of our knowledge, St. Peter will have us to add to them all temperance. Without it faith will degenerate into carnal security, the study of good works into affected singularity, knowledge into curiosity and peremptoriness: But Temperance is the seasoning of all vertues, and there is none but will admit this caution, Nè quid nimis, nothing too much. Not that one can be too vertuous, but one may over-do vertuous acts; though not in the substance, yet in the circumstance; and then the circumstance drowns the subs ance.
Besides, as full bodies and the pride of blood are much subject to inflammations, which will turn and corrupt the whole mass of the blood; So Vertues when they are once foreign, in their height and prime, are much subject to be inflamed with presumption; a wicked leaven which leaveneth the whole lump of vertues, of which the falls of Satan and Adam are lamentable examples. But Temperance is that granum salis, that precious salt, which preserveth all vertues from rankling; And of all vertues the intellectual, comprehended in this word knowledge, stand in most need of it.
Temperance in knowledge ought to be considered two ways, in the subject and in the object.
As for the subject, weak understandings ought not to be overcharged with knowledge; And this care belongs to Parents and Masters. For commonly the weakest wits have the strongest conceit of their capacity; And in that strong conceit lyeth their weakness. Weak brains ought to be temperate in knowledge, just as they ought to be temperate in Wine, for excess in either of these may take their wits off the hooks. It is not only Poetry, that is Vinum daemonum; The Devil will use any knowledge, and the best sooner then any, to intoxicate the brain, and make it drunk even with goodness: But of all excesses in knowledge, a surfeit of Divinity is pernicious to weak Souls, whether they be bold or timorous.
For if with their weakness they are bold and passionate, then their little learning will fill them with a high conceit of themselves, and a head-strong wilfulness to set up and defend heresies. And whether they defend good or bad doctrine, they do it not so much with reasons, as with a furious zeal, which being assisted with number and strength will break into strange effects, even to the destruction of whole Nations; as it was done by the Donatists in Africa, and might be done by Papists or Quakers in England, if God and our Superiours would let them.
But if a surfeit of Theology gets into a weak timorous soul, it works another effect, which is trouble of Conscience. For as Meats of hard digestion in a weak stomach breed crudities, and bring qualms and colick; Likewise hard matters of Divinity breed obstructions and pangs of discomfort, in weak consciences. Let such good souls keep themselves to their Prayer-book and Meditations of God's love, and leave high questions to the Schools.
These are the cautions of Temperance in holy knowledge, in regard of the subject: But now where the subject is strong enough, and the wit may bear knowledge, there is need of another caution of temperance in the Object; and that not for the quantity of knowledge, but the choice; For if a sound wit can hit once the right object of holy knowledge, there is no great danger of too much. Though God had given us a Lease of three such lives as that of Methuselah, we could not in all that time compass that skill in which St. Paul did happily lose himself, when he said, Eph. 3.18. Let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith, that being rooted and grounded in love, ye may be able to comprehend with all Saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. And see what scope he gives to your knowledge in the following words, That you may be filled with all the fulness of God. This is further than you can go in this life, go ye never so fast. There you need not the bridle of Temperance. All then lyeth in the choice of your knowledge, in setting a right byas upon your knowledge. Let it take once the right chanel, and then let it go as far as it will, it will never do any hurt. Study the breadth, the length, the depth, the height of the love of God to us, and never fear to go too far.
Wherein then lyeth the dangerous intemperance of going too far in holy knowledge? My Brethren, it lyeth in presuming to know what God hath hidden from us: When Men go about to unlock the Closet of God's counsel with the Key of humane reason, and storm when they find their Key too short to reach to the bottom of that great Lock.
I would gladly know of those curious People that would unlock God's Council-Chamber, and cannot abide to be saved unless they know why God damneth not their Neighbours; Do they fully understand the Articles of their Creed? Do they know, do they feel that love of Christ which passeth knowledge? Do they know, do they feel what obligations the death and resurrection of Christ layeth upon them? Have they learned their distance with God, and how far they may and may not presume with him in prayer? what temper of knowledge, reverence, love, fear, humility, and confidence they must have in their breast, that they may worship God in Spirit and in truth?
Before we have learned well these necessary things, is it time for us to enquire of the concurrence of God's grace with man's will, and of the high inscrutable points of God's eternal decree? Shall we pry into his hidden counsel before we well know his revealed will?
It is indeed our duty to learn, and our comfort to believe this doctrine, Eph. 1.5. that God hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will; To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in his beloved. Yet to keep your search in these high points within the limits of temperance, I recommend unto you these three short Cautions.
1. Remember, that God's Essence and Wisdom being infinite cannot be comprehended by a finite mind.
2. Remember, that if the actions of God agree not with the rules of your reason, These rules of reason were made for man, not for God.
3. Remember, that the knowledge prescribed by St. Paul, to be filled with all the fulness of God, is not the knowledge of Gods counsel, but that of his will and love.
But what! Coelum ipsum petimus stultitiâ. We mount towards Heaven, not by faith and love, but by boldness and curiosity. But if ever any get to Paradise that way, we may safely give him leave to shut the door after him.
But I am afraid that many have more need of diligence that temperance in knowledge. And the intemperance that spoils their knowledge is not the improper and metaphorical, which is curiosity; but the literal and downright intemperance in meat and drink. For whereas St. Paul exhorted Timothy to use a little Wine, they (to make a work of supererogation) use a great deal of Wine. Which is a direct and material opposition to the knowledge of God, for it throweth liquor upon that holy lamp of divine knowledge. It is true, that some will brew controversie with strong drink, and are shrewd Disputants when they are among their Pots. But those disputes shew that their light of God's knowledge is opprest, like a Candle that spitteth and sparkleth when the wick is moist.
They say that Wine sharpens the wit; But I am sure that sobriety preserveth the truth. St. Paul sets them both together, Act. 26.25. I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. And it is a necessary lesson at all times for the preserving of holy knowledge, to add to knowledge temperance, both in the one sense and in the other.
It is one of Heraclitus his Aenigma's foreign, Dry light is the best; That is, The more the light of your understanding is free from the fogg of the vapours of your stomach, the fitter it is for knowledge. As a pure air transmitteth the light better than a mist.
How clear then, how pure ought that mind to be, which is to entertain such a pure light as the knowledge of God and our salvation? Even when we keep within bounds in our opinion, I fear that being so faithful in lifting up a health will violate our faithfulness to God: And that sending the Cup round so often without need, will smother knowledge, and in time wear away both temperance, and knowledg, and virtue, and Faith and all. For as the growth of the new man proceeds from faith to vertue, and from vertue to knowledge, and from knowledge to temperance; Likewise the decrease of the new man will fall from intemperance to ignorance, from ignorance to vice, and from vice to unbelief; and then the Tree is pluckt up by the roots.
The Lord enable us by his good Spirit to break down the old strong holds of unbelief in our sinful nature: Giving us a Faith that may be to us a mother of Vertue, a Vertue that may feed faith her mother, a knowledge that may instruct our vertue, and a temperance that may season our knowledge. Yea Lord grant us so to be made new creatures by that grace of thine which bringeth wisdom and salvation, as to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, through Jesus Christ our Lord:
To whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be Glory now and for ever more. Amen.
The End of the Third Sermon.