The cause and cure of ignorance, error, enmity, atheisme, prophanesse, &c., or, A most hopefull and speedy way to grace and salvation, by plucking up impediments by the roote reduced to explication, confirmation, application, tending to illumination, sanctification, devotion / by R. Younge ...

SECT. 65.

Quest. WHat instruction from the premisses?

Ans. As it ought to stop all wicked mens mouthes: so it may both serve

for direction and comfort to the godly, and to informe all.

First, If it be so, that all naturall men are uncapable of divine and supernaturall knowledge, that they are blinde touch∣ing spirituall things: let not any carnall wretch hereafter dare to speake evill of the things, actions and persons, which are out of the reach of his capasity, but silently suspend his judgement, untill he is better informed. For as it pertain∣eth not to the rusticke to judge of Let∣ters, so it belongeth not to naturall men to judge of spirituall things. And in mat∣ters of sensure, nothing but a certaine knowledge should make us give a cer∣tain judgement; & in the mean time, con∣fesse, that Ioseph may know his brethren although they know not him. He which is spirituall, discerneth all things; yet he himselfe is Iudged of no man, 1 Cor. 2.14. that is, of no naturall man.

2. Let those that have used to speake evill of the way of truth, learne to kicke no more against the pricks, lest they bring the same curse upon themselves, that those did, which brought up an evill report of the holy Land, viz. that, As they never entred into the terrestriall

Canaan: So these never enter into the Celestiall. Yea, put case they shall think to doe God good service in it: for there is a way. saith Solomon, that seem∣eth right to a man, but the issues thereof are the wayes of death Pro. 14.22.

As many shall thinke, they doe God good service, in putting his children so death, Ioh. 16.2. even that Monke thought no lesse, who poysoned Henry the seventh Empe∣ror of Germany with the sacramentall bread. And so did the Powder Traytors, intending to blow up the whole State. Maximinian thought, the blood of christians would be an acceptable sacri∣fice to his Gods. So Francis the second of France; And Phillip the second of Spaine: thought of the Lutherans blood in their dominions. In the sixth councell of Toledo it was inacted; that the King of Spaine, should suffer none to live in his domini∣ons that professed not the Roman Catho∣lique Religion: Whereupon King Philip having hardly escaped shipwrack, as he returned from the Low Countries said: he was delivered by the singular provi∣dence of God, to root out Lutheranisme; which he presently began to doe; pro∣sessing that he had rather have no Sub∣jects

then such. In which opinion many depart: But as men go to a Lottery, with heads full of hopes: but returne with hearts full of blankes; so will it one day fare with these men.

3 If all who deride and persecute the godly, are ignorant persons, as hath been proved: then let not Gods children be discouraged, maugre all slander and op∣position; nor thinke the worse of them∣selves, if such reproach them never so. The Corinthians exceedingly slighted Paul, he was this and he was that; But what saith Pa••l? With me it is a very small thing, that I sh••uld be judged of you, 1 Cor. 43.3, 4▪ Alasse! the best of them ••aw no more than Saint Pauls outside; the grace of his heart, the raptures of his soule, the ravishing delights of the inward man, and the like spirituall priviledges, more glorious than the states of Kingdomes, were to these sensualists as a covered messe. And indeed, naturall men are as ••it to judge of spirituall matters, as ••••••nd men are fit to judge of colours. We know Litle child••ē will often laugh at wise men when they are about serious & necessary affairs & busines, which notwithstanding is not an argument of the unworthines

of the things they laugh at, but of the fol∣ly of them which laugh. Wil the Merchāt be discouraged, because his wine pleas∣eth not a sick mans palat; when those that are in health commend it, and himselfe knowes it to be good? Much lesse cause have we to be discouraged, having more certainety to rely upon. Our enemies have Sense, Reason, and Experience to confirme their judgements; but we have them, with an advantage of three infalliable witnesses, Gods word, and Spirit, and Faith. Wherefore hencefor∣ward let us take our Saviours Councell, and seeke to justifie our judgements to the children of Wisdome, of whom she is justified; and not to fooles, by whom shee is daily crucified. Neither let any thinke the better of such whom they ex∣toll, for the blinde eate many a flye.

4 This shews that they suspect much, because they know little, as Children in the darke suppose they see, what they see not. They complaine, like the Owle, of the glory of the Sun, when the fault is in their own eyes, They are blind, yet the misery is, they see not that they are blinde; and therefore believing that they see, they accuse others of

schisme, when indeed themselves are only guilty of prejudice; as a blinde man running against one that seeth, calls him blinde that did not shunne him. They are like Harpast, a blinde woman in Seneca's family, who would not be perswaded that shee was blinde; but found fault with the house where∣in she was, as being over darke.

5. If none are truly wise, but such as have past the second birth, it gives us to understand that the regenerate (for the most part) sleep nigh halfe their time in ignorance, that the wicked are never awake. And if this Wise∣dome commeth downe from the Fa∣ther of lights, and that we cannot have it, except God vouchsafe to give it us; It may teach us to be humble, Ioh. 42.6. And not like the Ape, that is proud of his Masters Jacket. Heavenly notions grow not in us, we spin them not out of our owne breasts: And thankfull; for it they be given, let us not forget the giver.

6. If all naturall men are like blinde Sampson without his guide, not able without the Holy ••hosts direction to finde out the pillars of the house, the

principles of faith, let us not wonder that they swerve so much from the godly, in their judgements and pra∣ctice. Is it any strange thing, to see a blinde man stumble and fall? Yea, let us condole all their disasters, and drop some teares, in pity and compassion for their great and grievous misery.

7. And lastly, If with God one sparke of spirituall experimentall and saving knowledge be of more worth than all secular Wisdome, and Lear∣ning; then strive we for that knowledge which will make the knower blessed. Let us so be learned; that we may bee saved. Let us not in our hearing, and reading, and communication, doe as little children, that looke only upon the Babyes in a booke, without regard to the matter therein contained: but like men in years, have more respect to the pith and solidity of the matter, than to the phrase; and to the profit of our soules than the pleasing of our senses. And so much of the second cause.

Notes

• Instructi∣on from the premi∣ses. 1. For all natu∣rall men.
• 2 For such as speake evill of the way of truth,
• When they doe worst they think they doe well.
• 3 For Gods peo∣ple.
• A fourth Use.
• A fifth use.
• A sixt use.
• A seventh use.