!

Of the true Foundation of KNOwledge. knowing God, or the things relating to their falvation aright, they drink in wrong opinions of him; from which it is harder to be difintangled, than while the foul remains a blank, or Tabula rafa. For they that conceit themselves wife, are worse to deal with than they that are fenfible of their ignorance. Nor hath it been lefs the device of the devil, the great enemy of mankind, to perfuade men into wrong notions of God, than to keep them altogether from acknowledging him; the latter taking with few, becaufe odious; but the other having been the conftant ruin of the world: for there hath fcarce been a nation found, but hath had fome notions or other of religion; fo that not from their denying any Deity, but from their mistakes and mifapprehenfions of it, hath proceeded all the idolatry and fuperftition of the world; yea, hence even atheism itself hath proceeded: for thefe many and various opinions of God and religion, being fo much mixed with the gueffings and uncertain judgments of men, have begotten in many the opinion, That there is no God at all. This, and much more that might be faid, may fhew how dangerous it is to mifs in this firft ftep: All that come not in by the right door, are accounted as thieves and robbers.

17

Again, How needful and defirable that knowledge is, which brings life eternal, Epictetus fhew- Epictetus. eth, faying excellently well, cap. 38. IDIOTI TÒ KugiŃtatov, &c. Know, that the main foundation of piety is this, To have ôçðà's úæorífers, right opinions and apprehenfions of God.

This therefore I judged neceffary, as a firft principle, in the first place, to affirm; and I fuppose will not need much farther explanation or defence, as being generally acknowledged by all (and in these things that are without controverfy I love to be brief) as that which will easily commend

mend itself to every man's reafon and confcience; and therefore I fhall proceed to the next propofition; which, though it be nothing lefs certain, yet by the malice of Satan, and ignorance of many, comes far more under debate.

PROPOSITION II.

Of IMMEDIATE REVELATION.

Mat.11.27 Seeing no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and be to whom the Son revealeth him; and feeing the revelation of the Son is in and by the Spirit; therefore the teftimony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true knowledge of God hath been, is, and can be only revealed; who as, by the moving of his own Spirit, he difpofed the chaos of this world into that wonderful order in which it was in the beginning, and created man a living foul, to rule and govern it, fo by the revelation of the fame Spirit he hath manifefted himself all along unto the fons of men, both patriarchs, prophets, and apoftles; which revelations of God by the Spirit, whether by outward voices and appearances, dreams, or inward objective manifeftations in the heart, were of old the formal object of their faith, and remain yet so to be; fince the object of the faints faith is the fame in all ages, though held forth under divers adminiftrations. Moreover, thefe divine inward revelations, which we make abfolutely neceffary for the building up of true faith, neither do nor can ever contradict the outward teftimony of the fcriptures, or right and found reafon. Yet from hence it will not follow, that these divine revelations are to be fubjected to the teft, either of the outward testimony of the fcriptures, or of the natural reafon

reafon of man, as to a more noble or certain rule and touchftone; for this divine revelation, and inward illumination, is that which is evident and clear of itfelf, forcing, by its own evidence and clearnefs, the well-difpofed understanding to affent, irresistibly moving the fame thereunto, even as the common principles of natural truths do move and incline the mind to a natural affent: as, that the whole is greater than its part; that two contradictories can neither be both true, nor both falfe.

§. I.

I

rejected

T is very probable, that many carnal and Revelation natural Chriftians will oppofe this propo- by apoftate fition; who being wholly unacquainted with the Christians. movings and actings of God's Spirit upon their hearts, judge the fame nothing neceffary; and fome are apt to flout at it as ridiculous: yea, to. that height are the generality of Chriftians apofta-; tized and degenerated, that though there be not. any thing more plainly afferted, more feriously recommended, or more certainly attested, in all the writings of the holy fcriptures, yet nothing is lefs minded and more rejected by all forts of Chriftians, than immediate and divine revelation; infomuch that once to lay claim to it is matter of reproach. Whereas of old none were ever judged Chriftians, but fuch as had the Spirit of Chrift, Rom. viii. 9. But now many do boldly call themfelves Chriftians, who make no difficulty of confeffing they are without it, and laugh at fuch as fay they have it. Of old they were accounted the fons of God, who were led by the Spirit of God, ibid. ver. 14. But now many aver themselves fons of God, who know nothing of this leader; and he that affirms himself so led, is, by the pretended orthodox of this age, prefently proclaimed an heretick. The reason hereof is very manifeft, viz. Because many in these days, under the name of Chriftians, do experimenC

tally

1

Knowledge

and literal

ed.

tally find, that they are not actuated nor led by God's Spirit; yea, many great doctors, divines, teachers and bishops of Chriftianity, (commonly fo called) have wholly fhut their ears from hearing, and their eyes from feeing, this inward guide, and fo are become strangers unto it; whence they are, by their own experience, brought to this ftrait, either to confefs that they are as yet ignorant of God, and have only the fhadow 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 propofpiritual fition, we do diftinguish betwixt the certain knowdiftinguish ledge of God, and the uncertain; betwixt the fpiritual knowledge, and the literal; the faving heartknowledge, and the foaring, airy head-knowledge. The laft, we confefs, may be divers ways obtained; but the first, by no other way than the inward immediate manifeftation and revelation of God's Spirit, fhining in and upon the heart, enlightening and opening the understanding.

§. II. Having then proposed to myself, in these propofitions, to affirm thofe 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 fuch, that it hath been acknowledged by fome of the most refined and famous of all forts of profeffors of Christianity in all ages; who being truly upright-hearted, and earneft feekers of the Lord, (however stated under the difadvantages and epidemical errors of their feveral fects or ages) the true feed in them hath been anfwered by God's Love, who hath had regard to the good, and hath had of his elect ones among all; who finding a diftafte and difguft in all other outward

means,

means, even in the very principles and precepts more particularly relative to their own forms and focieties, 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 thefe following teftimonies of the ancients.

Tract. Ep.

1. "It is the inward mafter (faith Auguftine); that Aug. ex teacheth, it is Chrift that teacheth, it is infpiration Joh. 3. that teacheth: where this infpiration and unction is wanting, it is in yain 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 needlefs for us to cry out."

1. 1. Strom.

2. "There is a difference (faith Clemens Alexan- Clem.Alex. drinus) betwixt that which any one faith of the truth, and that which the truth itfelf, interpreting itself, faith. A conjecture of truth, differeth from the truth itself; a fimilitude of a thing differeth from the thing itself; it is one thing that is acquired by exercife and difcipline, and another thing, which by power and faith." Laftly, the fame Clemens faith, Truth is neither hard to be arrived at, nor Pædag. is it impoffible to apprehend it; for it is most nigh unto us, even in our houses, as the most wife Mofes hath infinuated,?!.

3. "How is it (faith Tertullian) that fince the Tertulliadeyil always worketh, and stirreth up the mind to veland. Viriniquity, that the work of God fhould either ceafe, ginibus, or defift to act? Since for this end the Lord did fend cap. 1. the 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 (faith he) to speak unto you, but ye cannot as yet bear them; but when that Spirit of truth fhall come, be fball lead you into all truth, and fhall teach you these things that are to come. But of this his work we have spoken above. What is

C 2

then