Knowl itual and ed. their eyes from seeing, this inward guide, and so are become strangers unto it; whence they are, by their own experience, brought to this strait, either to confess that they are as yet ignorant of God, and have only the shadow of knowledge, and not the true knowledge of him, or that this knowledge is acquired without immediate revelation. For the better understanding then of this propoedge spir- sition, we do distinguish betwixt the certain knowlliteral dis- edge of God, and the uncertain; betwixt the spirtinguish itual knowledge and the literal; the saving heartknowledge, and the soaring airy head-knowledge. The last, we confess, may be divers ways obtained; but the first, by no other way than the inward immediate manifestation and revelation of God's Spirit, shining in and upon the heart, enlightening and opening the understanding. §. II. Having then proposed to myself, in these propositions, to affirm those things which relate to the true and effectual knowledge which brings life eternal with it, therefore I have truly affirmed that this knowledge is no otherways attained, and that none have any true ground to believe they have attained it, who have it not by this revelation of God's Spirit. The certainty of which truth is such, that it hath been acknowledged by some of the most refined and famous of all sorts of professors of Christianity in all ages; who being truly upright-hearted, and earnest seekers of the Lord, (however stated under the disadvantages and epidemical errors of their several sects or ages,) the true seed in them hath been answered by God's love, who hath had regard to the good, and hath had of his elect ones among all; who finding a distaste and disgust in all other outward means, even in the very principles and precepts more particularly relative to their own forms and societies, have at last concluded, with one voice, that there was no true knowledge of God, but that which is revealed inwardly by his own Spirit. Whereof take these following testimonies of the ancients. 1. "It is the inward master (saith Augustine) that Aug. ex Tract. Ep. teacheth, it is Christ that teacheth, it is inspiration Joh. 3. that teacheth: where this inspiration and unction is wanting, it is in vain that words from without are beaten in." And thereafter: "For he that created us, and redeemed us, and called us by faith, and dwelleth in us by his Spirit, unless he speaketh unto us inwardly, it is needless for us to cry out." 2. “There is a difference (saith Clemens Alexan- Clem Alex. drinus) betwixt that which any one saith of the truth, 1. 1. Strom. and that which the truth itself, interpreting itself, saith. A conjecture of truth differeth from the truth itself; a similitude of a thing differeth from the thing itself; it is one thing that is acquired by exercise and discipline; and another thing which, by power and faith." Lastly, the same Clemens saith, "Truth is Pædag. neither hard to be arrived at, nor is it impossible to apprehend it; for it is most nigh unto us, even in our houses, as the most wise Moses hath insinuated." 3. "How is it (saith Tertullian) that since the devil Tertulliaalways worketh, and stirreth up the mind to iniqui- nus Lib. de ty,that the work of God should either cease,or desist Virginibus to act? Since for this end the Lord did send the cap. 1. Comforter, that because human weakness could not at once bear all things, knowledge might be by little and little directed, formed, and brought to perfection, by the holy Spirit, that vicar of the Lord. I have many things yet (saith he) to speak unto you, but ye cannot as yet bear them; but when that Spirit of truth shall come, he shall lead you into all truth, and shall teach you these things that are to come. But of this his work we have spoken above. What is then the administration of the Comforter, but that discipline be directed, and the scriptures revealed? &c." 4. "The law (saith Hierom) is spiritual, and there Hierom. Ep. Pau ie need of a revelation to understand it." And in his lin. 103. Epistle 150. to Hedibia, Quest. 11. he saith, "The whole Epistle to the Romans needs an interpretation,it being involved in so great obscurities,that for the understanding thereof we need the help of the holy Spirit, who through the apostle dictated it." 5. "So great things (saith Athanasius) doth our carn. Ver- Saviour daily: he draws unto piety, persuades unto virtue, teaches immortality, excites to the desire of heavenly things, reveals the knowledge of the Father, inspires power against death, and shows himself unto every one." Athanasius de In bi Dei. Greg. Mag. Hom. 30. upon the Gospel. Cyril.Alex. in Thesau ro lib. 13. c. 3. Bernard in Luther. tom. 5. p. 76. you 6. Gregory the Great, upon these words [He shall teach all things] saith, "That unless the same Spirit is present in the heart of the hearer, in vain is the discourse of the doctor; let no man then ascribe unto the man that teacheth, what he understands from the mouth of him that speaketh; for unless he that teacheth be within, the tongue of the doctor, that is without, laboureth in vain." 7. Cyrillus Alexandrinus plainly affirmeth, "That men know that Jesus is the Lord by the holy Ghost, no otherwise, than they who taste honey know that it is sweet, even by its proper quality." 8. "Therefore (saith Bernard) we daily exhort you, brethren, that ye walk the ways of the heart, and that your souls be always in your hands, that ye may hear what the Lord saith in you." And again, upon these words of the apostle, [Let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord,] "With which threefold vice (saith he) all sorts of religious men are less or more dangerously affected, because they do not so diligently attend, with the ears of the heart, to what the Spirit of truth,which flatters none, inwardly speaks. This was the very basis, and main foundation, upon which the primitive reformers built. Luther, in his book to the nobility of Germany, saith, "This is certain, that no man can make himself a teacher of the holy scriptures, but the holy Spirit alone." And upon the Magnificat he saith, "No man can rightly know God, or understand the word of God, unless he immediately receive it from the Holy Spirit; neither can any one receive it from the Holy Spirit, except he find it by experience in himself; and in this experience the Holy Ghost teacheth, as in his proper school; out of which school nothing is taught but mere talk." 23 lancthon. rit alone Philip Melancthon, in his annotations upon John Phil. Mevi. "Those who hear only an outward and bodily voice, hear the creature; but God is a Spirit, and is neither discerned, nor known, nor heard, but by the Spirit; and therefore to hear the voice of God, to see God, is to know and hear the Spirit. By the By the SpiSpirit alone God is known and perceived. Which God is also the more serious to this day do acknowledge, known. even all such who satisfy themselves not with the superficies of religion, and use it not as a cover or art. Yea, all those who apply themselves effectually to Christianity, and are not satisfied until they have found its effectual work upon their hearts, redeeming them from sin, do feel that no knowledge effectually prevails to the producing of this,but that which proceeds from the warm influence of God's Spirit upon the heart, and from the comfortable shining of his light upon their understanding." of Cam ing book And therefore to this purpose a modern author, viz. Dr. Smith of Cambridge, in his select discourses, Dr. Smith saith well; "To seek our divinity merely in books bridge, and writings, is to seek the living among the dead; concernwe do but in vain many times seek God in these, divinity. where his truth is too often not so much enshrined as entombed. Intra te quære Deum, Seek God within thine own soul. He is best discerned voɛpã nap (as Plotinus phraseth it) by an intellectual touch of him. We must see with our eyes, and hear with our ears, and our hands must handle the word of life, (to express it in St. John's words,) ἕξι και ψυχῆς αίθησις τις, &c. The soul itself hath its sense as well as the body. And there Apostacy fore David, when he would teach us to know what the divine goodness is, calls not for speculation, but sensation: Taste, and see how good the Lord is. That is not the best and truest knowledge of God which is wrought out by the labour and sweat of the brain, but that which is kindled within us, by an heavenly warmth in our hearts." And again: "There is a knowing of the truth as it is in Jesus, as it is in a Christ-like nature; as it is in that sweet, mild, humble, and loving Spirit of Jesus, which spreads itself, like a morning sun, upon the souls of good men, full of light and life. It profits little to know Christ himself after the flesh; but he gives his Spirit to good men, that searcheth the deep things of God." And again: "It is but a thin airy knowledge that is got by mere speculation, which is ushered in by syllogisms and demonstrations; but that which springs forth from true goodness, is θειότερον τι πάσης υποSéiews, (as Origen speaks,) It brings such a divine light into the soul, as is more clear and convincing than any demonstration." §. III. That this certain and undoubted method and a false of the true knowledge of God hath been brought edge intro- out of use, hath been none of the least devices of knowl. duced. the devil, to secure mankind to his kingdom. For after the light and glory of the Christian religion had prevailed over a good part of the world, and dispelled the thick mists of the heathenish doctrine of the plurality of gods, he that knew there was no probability of deluding the world any longer that way, did then puff man up with false knowledge of the true God; setting him on work to seek God the wrong way, and persuading him to be content with such a knowledge as was of his own acquiring, and not of God's teaching. And this device hath proved the more successful, because accommodated to the natural and corrupt spirit and temper of man, who above all things affects to exalt himself; in which exaltation, as God is |