The Christians Charter, Chapter 10
CHAP. X. The fifth Prerogative Royal.
I Passe on to the next thing to come, which is.
5. Our Knowledge shall be clear. Knowledge is a beautifull thing; such was Adam's ambition to know more, that by tasting the Tree of Knowledge, he lost the Tree of Life: In Heaven our knowledge shall be cleare. Religion is a continued riddle; many things we have now but in the notion, which then we shall see perfectly; now we know but in part *1 Cor. 13.9.. The best Christian hath a vaile upon his eye, as the Iews have upon their heart; hereafter the vaile shall be taken off. Here we see through a glasse darkly, foreign, in a riddle, or mystery; then face to face: that is, clearly.
There are five Mysteries which God will clear up to us when we are in heaven.
1. The great Mystery of the Trinity: this we know but in part. Unity in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, where One makes Three, and Three make but One: this is bad Arithmetick, but good Divinity; we have but dark conceptions of it: it is a Mystery so deep, that we may soon wade beyond our depth.
Augustine being to write his Books of the Trinity, was taught modesty by a childe, who was lading the Sea into a little Spoon; to whom Augustine said, that he laboured in vaine, for his little Spoone would not containe the Sea; to whom the childe answered, My little Spoone will sooner hold this vast Ocean, then your shallow brain can containe the depth of the Trinity. How little a portion is known of God? If Iob asked the question, Who can understand the Thunder? we may much more ask,Job 26.14. Wo can understand the Trinity? but in heaven we shall see God as he is *1 Joh. 3.2., that is, perfectly.
Quest. But shall every Saint enjoy God so perfectly that he shall have the same knowledge that God hath.
Answ. the infinite essence of God shall app…ar to the Saints Tota, but not totaliter *Ioh. de combis comp…nd. Theol. lib. 7. cap. 26.; we shall have a full knowledge of God, but not know him fully, yet we shall take in so much of God as our humane nature is capable of; it will be a bright and a glorious knowledge: here we know him but ab effectu, by his Power, Wisdom, Mercy: we see but his back-parts, there we shall see him face to face.
2. The Mystery of the incarnation, *Joh. 1.14Christ assuming our humane nature, and marrying it to the divine. Therefore call'd, foreign. God-man. foreign God with us. A Mystery which the Angels in heaven adore *1 Pet. 1.12. God said, The man is become as one of us, Gen. 3.22. but now we may say, God himselfe is become as one of us! it was not only mirandum, but miraculum. There was nothing within the sphere of natural causes to produce it. The incarnation of Christ is catena aurea, a golden chaine made up of several links of Miracles. For instance, that the Creatour of heaven should become a creature;*Creator coeli creatus sub coelo. that eternity should be born; that he whom the heaven of heavens cannot containe, should be enclosed in the womb; that he who thunders in the clouds, should crie in the cradle *Qui to…itruat in coelis, clamat in cunabulis.; that he who rules the starres, should suck the breasts; that he who upholds all things by the Word of his Power, *Heb. 1.7.should himself be upheld; that a Virgin should conceive, that Christ should be made of a woman and of that woman which himself made; that the creature should give a being to the Creatour; that the Starre should give light to the Sunne; that the branch should beare the Vine; that the mother should be younger then the childe she bare, and the childe in the womb bigger then the mother; that he who is a Spirit should be made flesh; that Christ should be without father and without mother, yet have both, without mother in the God-head, without father in the Man-hood; that Christ being incarnate should have two natures (the divine and humane) and yet but one Person; that the divine nature should not be infused into the humane, nor the humane mixed with the divine, yet assumed into the Person of the Sonne of God, the humane nature not God, yet one with God. Here is, I say, a chaine of Miracles.
I acknowledge the mercy of the incarnation was great, we having now both affinity and consanguinity with Jesus Christ; Christs incarnation is the Saints inauguration.
The love of Christ in the incarnation was great; for herein he did set a patterne without a parallel, in clothing himself with our flesh, which is but walking ashes; he hath sowed as it were sackcloth to cloth of Gold, the humanity to the Deity. But though the incarnation be so rich a blessing, yet it is hard to say which is greater, the Mercy or the Mystery *1 Tim. 3.16.. It is a sacred depth, how doth it transcend reason, and even puzzle faith, We know but in part we see this only in a glasse darkly, but in heaven our knowledge shall be cleared up, we shall fully understand this divine riddle.
3. The Mystery of Scripture: The hard knots of Scripture shall be untied, and darke Prophecies fulfilled. There is a sacred depth in Scripture which we must adore: some places of Scripture are hard in the sense, others dark in the phrase, and cannot well be translated in regard of ambiguity; one Hebrew word having such various and sometimes contrary significations, that it is very difficult to know which is the genuine sense. As it is with a traveller which is not skilled in his way, when he comes to a turning where the way parts, he is at a stand, and knowes not which way to take; I might give some instances. It is true, all things purely necessary in the Word of God, are cleare: but there are some sacred depths that we cannot fathom, and this may make us long after Heaven, when our light shall be clear. So for Prophecies, some are very abstruse and profound; Divines may shoot their arrowes, but it is hard to say how neare they come to the mark: 'tis dubious whether in such a particular age and century of the Church, such a Prophecie was fulfilled. The Iewes have a saying when they meet with an hard Scripture they understand not, Elias veniet & solvet nodos: Elias will come and interpret these things to us; we expect not Elias, but when we are in Heaven we shall understand Prophecies, our knowledg shall be clear.
4. The great Mystery of Providence shall be cleared up. Providence is Regina mundi, the Queen of the world; it is the hand that turns all the wheels in the universe; Chrysostome calls it the Pilot that steeres the ship of the Creation. Providences are often darke; God writes sometimes in short-hand▪ the characters of Providence are so various and strange, and our eyes are so dimme, that we know not what to make of Providence: hence we are ready to censure that which we do not understand: we think that things are very excentrick and disorderly; Gods Providence is sometimes secret▪ alwayes wise. The dispensations of Providence are often sad, judgement beginning at the house of God, and the just man perishing in his righteousnesse, Eccles. 7.15. that is, while he is pursuing a righteous cause: though his way be pious, it is not alwayes prosperous: and on the other side, those that work wickednesse are set up, yea, they that tempt God are delivered, Mal. 3.15. though now our candle be in a dark lanthorn, and the people of God cannot tell what God is a doing, yet when they are in heaven they shall see the reason of these transactions *Joh. 13.7: they shall see that every Providence served for the fulfilling of Gods Promise, viz. that all things shall work together for good, Rom. 8.28. In a Watch the wheeles seeme to move crosse one to another, but all carry on the motion of the Watch, all serve to make the Alarm strike; so the wheeles of Providence seeme to move crosse, but all shall carry on the good of the elect; all the lines shall meet at last in the centre of the Promise; in heaven, as we shall see Mercy and Justice, so we shall see Promises, and Providences kissing each other: Our light shall be cleare. When a man is at the bottome of an hill, he cannot see very farre: but when he is on the top, he may see many miles distant. Here the Saints of God are in the valley of tears, they are at the bottome of the hill, and cannot tell what God is a doing: but when they come to Heaven, and shall be on the top of the mount, they shall see all the glorious transactions of Gods Providence; never a Providence but they shall see either a wonder or a mercy wrapt up in it. A Limner at the first makes but a rude draught in the picture, here an eye, there an hand; but when he hath limn'd it out in all its parts and lineaments, and laid them in their colours, it's beautifull to behold. We that live in this age of the Church, see but a rude draught, as it were some dark pieces of Gods Providence represented, and it is impossible that we should judge of Gods work by pieces; but when we come to Heaven & see the full body and portraiture of Gods Providence drawne out in its vive colours, it will be a most glorious sight to behold: Providence shall be unridled.
5. The Mystery of hearts. We shall see an heart-anatomy, Eccles. 12.14.Eccles. 12.14. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing. We shall see the designes and cabinet-counsels of mens hearts discovered; then the hypocrites mask shall fall off. O the black conclave that is in the heart of man *Ps. 64.6.; The heart is deep: it may be compared to a River, which hath faire streames running on the top, but when this river comes to be drained, there lies abundance of vermine at the bottome: thus it is with mans heart, there are fair streames running on the top, a civil life, a religious profession; but at the day of judgement, when God shall draine this river▪ and make a discovery of hearts, then all the vermine of ambition, covetousnesse, shall appeare, all shall come out: then we shall see whether Iehu's designe was zeal for God, or the Kingdome: we shall see clearly whether Iezabel had more minde to keep a fast, or to get Naboths Vineyard: then we shall see whether Herod had more minde to worship Christ, or to worry him; all the secrets of mens hearts shall be laid open: Me thinks, it would be worth dying to see this sight. We shall then see who is the Achan, who the Iudas; the womens paint falls off from their faces, when they come neere the fire; before the scorching heat of Gods justice, the hypocrites paint will drop off▪ and the Treason hid in the heart will be visible: These mysteries will God reveal to us: our knowledge shall be clear.