good purpose upon you, that we would induce by our instruction, though it be increpation, but only a sense of your sins, and of ⚫ the majesty of God violated by them, and so to a better capacity of this instruction, which the Holy Ghost here presents, in credendis, in those things which you are bound to believe; of which his first degree is, Intelligere te faciam, He will make ye understand, he will work upon your understanding, for, so much (as we noted to you at first) doth that word, which we translate here, I will instruct thee, comprehend. Oportet accedentem credere; the apostle seems to make that our first step, He that comes to God, must believe. So it is our first step to God, to believe, but there is a step towards God, before it come to faith, which is, to understand; God works first upon the understanding. God proceeds in our conversion, and regeneration, as he did in our first creation. There man was nothing; but God breathed not a soul into that nothing; but of a clod of earth he made a body, and into that body infused a soul. Man in his conversion, is nothing, does nothing. His body is not verier dust in the grave, till a resurrection, then his soul is dust in his body, till a resuscitation by grace. But then this grace does not work upon this nothingness that is in man, upon this mere privation; but grace finds out man's natural faculties, and exalts them to a capacity, and a susceptibleness of the working thereof, and so by the understanding infuses faith. Therefore God begins his instruction here at the understanding; and he does not say at first, Faciam te credere, I will make thee to believe, but Faciam te intelligere, I will make thee understand. That then being God's method, to make us understand, certainly those things which belong to our salvation, are not inintelligibilia, not in-intelligible, un-understandable, unconceivable things, but the articles of faith are discernible by reason. For though reason cannot apprehend that a virgin should have a son, or that God should be made man and die, if we put our reason primarily and immediately upon the article single, (for so it is the object of faith only) yet if we pursue God's method, and see what our understanding can do, we shall see, that out of ratiocination and discourse, and probabilities, and verisimilitudes, at 5 Heb. xi. 6. last will arise evident and necessary conclusions; such as these, That as there is a God, that God must be worshipped according o to his will, that therefore that will of God must be declared and manifested somewhere, that this is done in some permanent way, in some Scripture, which is the word of God, that this book, which we call the Bible, is, by better reasons than any others can pretend, that Scripture; and when our reason hath carried us so far, as to accept these Scriptures for the word of God, then all the particular articles, a virgin's son, and a mortal God, will follow evidently enough. And then those two propositions, Mysteria credenda ut intelligantur, Mysteries of religion must be believed before they be understood, and Mysteria intelligenda ut credantur, Mysteries of religion must be understood before they can be believed, will be all one; for God exalts our natural faculty of understanding by grace to apprehend them, and then to that submission and assent, which he by grace produces out of our understanding, by a succeeding and more powerful grace he sets to the seal of faith. Wait thou therefore upon God, his way; present unto him an humble and a diligent understanding; conclude not too desperately against thyself, if thou have not yet attained to all degrees of faith, but admit that preparation, which God offers to thine understanding, by an assiduous and a sedulous hearing; for a narrower faith that proceeds out of a true understanding, shall carry thee farther than a faith that seems larger, but is wrapped up in an implicit ignorance; no man believes profitably, that knows not why he believes. The subject then, that this work is wrought in, is that faculty, man's understanding; there God begins in the instruction of this text, Thou shalt understand, thou shalt; the act shall be thine, but yet, the power is mine, Faciam te, I will make thee understand, which is another consideration in this part. God doth not determine his promise here, in a faciam ut intelligas, I will cast an understanding upon thee, I will cause an understanding to fall upon thee, but it is faciam te intelligere, I will make thee to understand, thou shalt be an agent in thine own salvation. When God made the ass speak under Balaam, God went not so far as this first step, (not to the faciam ut intelligas) he imprinted, infused no understanding in that beast. When God suffers the hypocrite to praise him, he imprints no understanding; here is a frustra colunt, It is a worship that is no worship, when it is with the lips only, and the heart far off. So when a papist cries Templum Domini, templum Domini, Visibility of a church, infallibility in a church, here is no understanding; he pretends to believe as the church believes, but he knows not what the church believes; no, nor he neither upon whom he relies for his instruction, his priest, his confessor. They are deceived that think every priest or jesuit, that comes hither, knows the tenets of that church; it is a more reserved, a more perplexed, a more involved matter than so. To contract this consideration, when a preacher speaks well, and destroys as fast by his ill life, as he builds by his good doctrine, here is no understanding neither. A good understanding have all they that keep the commandments; not all they that preach them, but that keep them; it is all they, and only they. There is no other assurance but that; Hereby we are sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments'. This is our criterium, and only this; hereby we know it, and by nothing else. So that as he that is slothful in his work, is even the brother of him that is a great waster3; so he that builds not with both hands, life and doctrine, is slothful in his work. He that preaches against sin, and doth it, Instruit Dominum quomodo eum condemnet', He doth not so much teach his auditory, how to escape condemnation, as teach God how to condemn him. In these cases there is no understanding at all; in the case of the ass, and the hypocrite, and the blind Romanist, and the vicious preacher. In some other cases, there is understanding given, but without any concurrence, any co-operation of man, as in those often visions, and dreams, and manifestations of God, to the prophets, and his other servants; there was a faciam ut intelligas, God would make his pleasure known unto them, but yet not as in this text, where God makes use of the man himself for his own salvation. But yet it is God, and God alone that does all this, that rectifies our understanding, as well as that establishes our faith. It is my soul that says to mine eye, faciam te videre, I will make thee see, and my soul that says to 6 Psalm cxi. 10. 7 1 John ii. 3. 9 Chrysostom. mine ear, faciam te audire, I will make thee hear, and without that soul, that eye and ear could no more see nor hear, than the eyes and ears of an idol; so it is my God that says to my soul, faciam te intelligere, I will make thee understand. And therefore as thou art bound to infinite thanksgivings to God, when he hath brought thee to faith, to forget not thy tribute by the way, to bless and magnify him, if he have enlarged thy desire of understanding, and thy capacity of understanding, and thy means of understanding; for, as howsoever a man may forget the order of the letters, after he is come to read perfectly, and forget the rules of his grammar, after he is come to speak perfectly, yet by those letters, and by that grammar he came to that perfection; so, though faith be of an infinite exaltation above understanding, yet, as though our understanding be above our senses, yet by our senses we come to understand, so by our understanding we come to believe. And though the Holy Ghost repeat that more than once, Domine quis credidit? Lord who believes our report? And that, Shall the Son of man find faith upon earth when he comes? Though he complain of want of faith, yet he multiplies infinitely that complaint for want of understanding, and there are ten non intelligunts for one non credunt, ten increpations, that his people did not understand, for one that they did not believe; because, though faith be a nobler operation, God takes it always worst in us, to neglect those things which are nearest us, as he doth to neglect the ordinary and necessary duties of religion, and search curiously into the unrevealed purposes of his secret counsels. And this instruction to the understanding, he seems in this text to extend to all, for this singular word, Te, I will make Thee, thee to understand, includes no exclusion, but is an offer, a proImise to all, which is our other and last consideration in this first part. In this consideration, let us stop a little upon this question, why the Scriptures of God, more than any other book, do still speak in this singular person, and in this familiar person? Still tu, and tibi, and te; thou must love God, God speaks to thee, God hath care of thee. Certainly in those passages, which are from lower persons to princes, no author is of a more humble, and reverential, and ceremonial phrase, than the phrase of the Scrip 10 ture is. Who could go lower than David to Saul, that calls himself a flea, and a dead dog1o? Who could go higher than Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, O king, thou art king of kings; in all places, the children of men, the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, are given into thy hand"; thy greatness reacheth to heaven, and thy dominions to the ends of the earth 12. So is it also in persons nearer in nature, and nearer in rank; Jacob bows seven times to the ground13, in the presence of his brother Esau, and my lord, and my lord, at every word. The Scripture phrase is as ceremonial and as observant of distances, as any, and yet still full of this familiar word too, Tu and Tuus, Thou and Thine. And we also, we who deal most with the Scriptures, are more accustomed to the same phrase than any other kind of speakers are. In a parliament, who is ever heard to say, Thou must needs grant this, Thou mayest be bold to yield to this? Or who ever speaks so to a judge in any court? Nay, the king himself will not speak to the people in that phrase. And yet in the presence of the greatest, we say ordinarily, amend thy life, and God be merciful to thee, and I absolve thee of all thy sins. Beloved, in the Scriptures, God speaks either to the church, his and so he may be bold, and would be familiar with them; or else he speaks so, as that he would be thought by thee to speak singularly to thy soul in particular. Know then, that Christ Jesus hath done enough for the salvation of all; but know too, that if there had been no other name written in the book of life but thine, he would have died for thee. Of those which were given him, he lost none; but if there had been none given him, but thou, rather than have lost thee, he would have given the same price for thee, that he gave for the whole world. And therefore when thou hearest his mercies distributed in that particular, and that familiar phrase, faciam te, I will make thee understand, thou knowest not whether he speak to any other in the congregation or no; be sure that he speak to thee; which he does, if thou hearken to him, and answer him. If thou canst not find that he means thee yet, that he speaks to thee now, if thou think he speak rather to some other, whose faith and good life thou pre 10 1 Sam. xxiv. 15; 2 Sam ix. 8 12 Dan. iv. 19. spouse, and to his children, 11 Dan. ii. 37. 13 Gen. xxxiii. 3. |