HAving thus taken notice of some Particulars of those many which may be employ’d to shew, how Noble the Objects are, that Theology proposes to be contemplated; I now proceed to some Considerations that may make us sensible how great an Obligation there lies on us, to addict our selves to the study of them.
Yet of the Particulars whereon this Obligation may be grounded, I shall now name but two, they being indeed comprehensive ones, Obedience, and Gratitude.
And first let me represent, that it needs not, I suppose, be solicitously proved, That ‘tis the Will and Command of God, that men should learn those Truths that he has been pleased to teach, whether concerning his Nature or Attributes, or the way wherein he will be Served and Worshipped by Man. For if we had not Injunctions of Scripture to that purpose, yet your Friend is too Rational a Man to believe, that God would so solemnly cause his Truths to be published to Mankind, both by Preaching and Writing, without Intention to Oblige, those (at least) that have the capacity and opportunity to enquire into some of them; and if it appear to be His will, that a person so qualified, should search after the most important Truths that he hath reveal’d, it cannot but be their duty to do so. For though the nature of the thing it self did not lay any Obligation on us, yet the Authority of Him that Commands it, would: since being the Supreme and Absolute Lord of all His Creatures, he has as well a full right to make what Laws he thinks fit, and enjoyn what service he thinks fit, as a power to punish those that either violate the one, or deny the other; and accordingly ‘tis very observable, that before Adam fell, and had forfeited his happy state by his own transgression, he not onely had a Law Impos’d upon him, but such a Law,1 as, being about a matter it self Indifferent (for so it was to eat or not to eat of the Tree of Life as well as of any other,) derived its whole power of obliging from the meer will and pleasure of the Law-giver. Whence we may learn, that Man is subject to the Laws of God, not as he is Obnoxious to him, but as he is a Rational Creature, and that the thing that is not a duty in its own nature, may become an indispensible one barely by its being commanded. And indeed, if our first Parent in the state of Innocency and Happiness, wherein he tasted of Gods Bounty, without, as yet, standing in need of his Mercy, was most strictly obliged out of meer Obedience to conform to a Law, the matter of which was indifferent in it self; sure we, in our laps’d condition, must be under a high Obligation to obey the declared will of God, whereby we are enjoyned to study his Truths, and perform that which has so much of intrinsick Goodness in it, that it would be a duty, though it were not commanded; and has such Recompences proposed to it, that it is not more a Duty, then it will be an Advantage.
But it is not onely Obedience and Interest that should engage us to the study of Divine things, but Gratitude, and that exacted by so many important Motives, that he who said, Ingratum si dixeris, omnia dixeris, could not think Ingratitude so much worse than ordinary Vices, as a contempt of the Duty I am pressing, would be worse than an ordinary Ingratitude.
It were not difficult on this occasion to manifest, that we are extremely great Debtors unto God, both as he is the Authour and the Preserver of our very Beings; and as he (immediately or mediately) fills up the measure of those continual Benefits with all the Prerogatives and other Favours we do receive from him as Men; and the higher Blessings, which (if we are not wanting to our selves) we may receive from him as Christians.
But to shew, in how many Particulars, and to how high a Degree, God is our Benefactor, were to lanch out into too Immense a Subject; which ‘twere the less proper for me to do, because I have in other Papers discours’d of those matters already.2 I will therefore single out a Motive of Gratitude, which will be peculiarly pertinent to our present purpose. For whereas your Friend does so highly value himself upon the Study of Natural Philosophy, and despises not onely Divines, but States-men, and even the Learned’st Men in other parts of Philosophy and Knowledge, because they are not vers’d in Physicks; he ows to God that very Skill, among many other Vouchsafements. For it is God who made Man unlike the Horse and the Mule,3 who have no understanding, and endow’d him with that noble power of Reason, by the exercise of which he attains to whatever knowledge he has of Natural things above the Beasts that perish. For, that may justly be applied to our other Acquisitions, which Moses, by Gods appointment, told the Israelites concerning the Acquists of Riches; where he bids the people beware, That when their Herds, and their Flocks, and other Treasures were multipli’d, their heart be not lifted up,4 and prompt them to say, My power, and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth. But, (subjoyns that excellent Person,5 as well as Matchless Law-giver) Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.6 But to make Men Rational Creatures, is not all God has done towards the making them Philosophers. For, to the knowledge of particular things, Objects are as well requisite as Faculties; and if we admit the probable Opinion of Divines, who teach us, that the Angels were created before the Material World, as being meant by those Sons of God,7 and Morning Stars, that with glad Songs and Acclamations celebrated the Foundations of the Earth; we must allow, that there were many creatures endowed with at least as much Reason as your Friend, who yet were unacquainted with the Mysteries of Nature, since She her self had not yet receiv’d a Being. Wherefore God having as well made the World, as given Man the Faculties whereby he is enabled to contemplate it; Naturalists are as much obliged to God for their Knowledge, as we are for our Intelligence to those that write us Secrets in Cyphers, and teach us the skill of decyphering things so written; or to those who write what would fill a Page in the compass of a single Peny, and present us to boot a Microscope to enable us to read it. And as the Naturalist hath peculiar Inducements to Gratitude for the Endowment of Knowledge; so Ingenuity lays this peculiar Obligation on him to express his Gratitude in the way I have been recommending, That ‘tis one of the acceptablest ways it can be express’d in; especially since by this way, Philosophers may not onely exercise their own gratitude towards God, but procure him that of others. How pleasing mens hearty Praises are to God, may appear among other things, by what is said and done by that Royal Poet, whom God was pleased to declare a man after his own heart; for he introduces God pronouncing,8 Whoso offereth Praise, glorifieth me; where the word our Interpreters render offereth, in the Hebrew signifies to Sacrifice; with which agrees, that else-where those that pay God their Praises, are said to Sacrifice to him the calves of their lips.9 And that excellent Person, to whom God vouchsafed so particular a Testimony, was so assiduous in this Exercise, that the Book which we, following the Greek, call Psalms, is, in the Original, from the things it most abounds with, called Sepher Tehillim, i. e. The Book of Praises. And to let you see, that many of his Praises were such, as the Naturalist may best give, he exclaims in one place,10 How manifold are thy works, O Lord? how wisely hast thou made them, (as Junius and Tremellius render it, and the Hebrew will bear) and else-where,11 The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work, &c. Again, in another place,12 I will praise thee, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. And not content with many of the like Expressions, he does several times in a devout Transport, and Poetical strain, invite the Heavens, and the Stars, and the Earth, and the Seas, and all the other Inanimate Creatures, to joyn with him in the celebration of their common Maker. Which though it seem to be meerly a Poetical Scheme, yet in some sort it might become a Naturalist, who by making out the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of the Creator, and by reflecting thence on those Particulars wherein those Attributes shine, may, by such a devout Consideration of the Creatures, make them, in a sense, joyn with him in glorifying their Author.
In any other case, I dare say, your Friend is not so ill natur’d, but that he would think it an unkind piece of Ingratitude, if some great and excellent Prince, having freely and transcendently obliged him, he should not concern himself to know what manner of Man his Benefactor is; and should not be solicitous to inform himself of those particulars, relating to the Person and Affairs of that obliging Monarch, which were not onely in themselves worthy of any mans Curiosity, but about which the Prince had solemnly declar’d he was very desirous to have men Inquisitive. And sure ‘tis very disingenious, to undervalue or neglect the knowledge of God Himself for a Knowledge which we cannot attain without him, and by which he design’d to bring us to that study we neglect for it: which is not onely not to use him as a Benefactor, but as if he meant to punish him (if I may so speak) for having oblieged us, since we so abuse some of his Favours, as to make them Inducements to our Unthankful Disregard of his Intentions in the rest. And this Ingratitude is the more culpable, because the Laws of Ingenuity, and of Justice it self, charge us to Glorifie the Maker of all things visible, not onely upon our own account, but upon that of all his other works. For by Gods endowing of none but Man here below with a Reasonable Soul, not onely he is the sole visible Being that can return Thanks and Praises in the World, and thereby is oblieged to do so, both for himself, and for the rest of the Creation; but ‘tis for Mans advantage, that God has left no other visible Beings in the World, by which he can be studied and celebrated. For, Reason is such a Ray of Divinity, that, if God had vouchsafed it to other parts of the Universe besides Man, the absolute Empire of Man over the rest of the World must have been shar’d, or abridg’d. So that he, to whom it was equally easie to make Creatures Superior to Man (as the Scripture tells us of Legions, and Myriads of Angels) as to make them Inferiour to him, dealt so obligingly with Mankind, as rather to Trust (if I may so speak) our Ingenuity, whether he shall reap any Celebrations from the Creatures we converse with, than Lessen our Empire over them, or our Prerogatives above them.
But I fear, that, notwithstanding all the Excellency of reveal’d Truths, and consequently of that onely Authentic Repository of them, the Scripture, you, as well as I, have met with some (for I hope there are not many) Virtuosi, that think to excuse the neglect of the study of it, by alledging, that to them who are Laymen, not Ecclesiasticks, there is requir’d to Salvation the Explicit knowledge but of very few Points, which are so plainly summ’d up in the Apostles Creed, and are so often and conspicuously set down in the Scripture, that one needs not much search or study it to find them there.
In answer to this Allegation, I readily grant,13 that through the great goodness of God, who is willing to have all men saved, and come to the knowledge of the Truth, that is necessary to be so, there are much fewer Articles absolutely necessary to be by all men distinctly believed, than may be met with in divers long Confessions of Faith, some of which have, I fear, less promoted Knowledge than impair’d Charity. But then it may be also consider’d, 1. That ‘tis not so easie for a Rational Man, that will trouble himself to enquire no farther than the Apostles Creed, to satisfie himself upon good grounds, that all the Fundamental Articles of Christianity are contain’d in it. 2. That the Creed proposes onely the Credenda,14 not the Agenda of Religion; whereas the Scriptures were designed, not onely to teach us what Truths we are to believe, but by what Rules we are to live; the obedience to the Laws of Christianity being as necessary to Salvation, as the belief of its Mysteries. 3. That besides the things which are absolutely necessary, there are several that are highly useful, to make us more clearly understand, and more rationally and firmly believe, and more steadily practise, the points that are necessary. 4. And since, whether or no those words of our Saviour to the Jews, […],15 be to be rendred in the Imperative or the Indicative Mode; St. Paul would have the word of Christ to dwell richly in us, (by which, whether he mean the holy Scriptures then extant, or the Doctrine of Christ, is not here material;) thereby teaching us, that searching into the matters of Religion may become necessary as a Duty, though it were not otherwise necessary as a Means of attaining Salvation. And indeed ‘tis far more pardonable to want or miss the knowledge of Truths, than to despise or neglect it. And the goodness of God to illiterate or mistaken persons, is to be suppos’d meant in pity to our Frailties, not to encourage our Laziness; nor is it necessary, that he that pardons those Seekers of his Truths that miss them, should excuse those Despisers that will not seek them.
But whether or no by this design’d neglect of Theology the persons, I deal with, do sufficiently consult their own safety, I doubt they will not much recommend their Ingenuity. For to have received from God a greater measure of Intellectual Abilities than the generality of Christians, and yet willingly to come short of very many of them, in the knowledge of the Mysteries and other Truths of Christianity, which he often invites us, if not expresly commands, to search after, is a course that will not relish of over-much gratitude. Is it a piece of That, and of Ingenuity, to receive ones Understanding and ones Hopes of Eternal Felicity from the Goodness of God, without being sollicitous of what may be known of his Nature and Purposes by so excellent a way as his own Revelation of them? To dispute anxiously about the Properties of an Atome, and be careless about the Inquiry into the Attributes of the great God, who formed all things;16 to investigate the spontaneous generation of such vile Creatures as Insects, than the Mysterious Generation of the Adorable Son of God; and, in a word, to be more concern’d to know every thing that makes a Corporeal part of the World, than the Divine and Incorporeal Authour of the whole?
And then, is it not, think you, a great piece of respect, that these men pay to those Truths, which God thought fit to send sometimes Prophets and Apostles, sometimes Angels, and sometimes his onely Son himself to reveal, that such Truths are so little valued by them, that rather than take the pains to study them, they will implicitly, and at adventures believe, what that Society of Christians, they chance to be born and bred in, have (truly or falsly) delivered concerning them? And does it argue a due regard to points of Religion, that those, who would not believe a Proposition in Staticks, perhaps about a meer Point, the Centre of Gravity, or in Geometry, about the Properties of some nameless curve Line, or some such other things, (which to ignore, is usually not a blemish, and about which, to be mistaken, is more usually without danger,) should yet take up the Articles of Faith, concerning matters of great and everlasting Consequence, upon the Authority of Men, Fallible as themselves, when satisfaction may be had without them from the Infallible Word of God? In this very unlike those Bereans,17 whom the Evangelist honours with the Title of Noble, that when the Doctrines of the Gospel were proposed to them, they searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Again, if a man should refuse to learn to read any more, than just as much as may serve his turn, by intituling him to the benefit of the Clergy, to save him from hanging, would these men think so small a measure of Literature, as he had acquir’d on such an account, could prove that man to be a Lover of Learning; and yet a neglecter of the study of all not absolutely necessary-Divine Truths, during ones life, because the belief of the Articles of the Creed may make a shift to keep him from being doom’d to Hell for Ignorance after his death, will not by (what in a Learned man must be) so pitiful a degree of knowledge be much better intitled to that Ingenuous Love of God and his Truths, that becomes a Rational Creature and a Christian.
The antient Prophets, though honour’d by God with direct Illuminations,18 were yet very solicitous to find out and learn the very Circumstances of the Evangelical Dispensations, which yet they did not know. And some of the Gospel Mysteries are of so noble and excellent a nature, that the Angels themselves desire to look into them.19 And though all the Evangelical Truths are not precisely necessary to be known, it may be both a Duty not to despise the study of them, and a Happiness to employ our selves about it. It was the earnest Prayer of a great King,20 and no less a Prophet, that his eyes might be opened to behold (not the obvious and necessary Truths, but) the wondrous things of Gods Law. He is pronounced Happy in the beginning of the Apocalypse,21 that reads and observes the things contain’d in that dark and obscure part of Scripture. And ‘tis not onely those Truths that make Articles of the Creed, but divers other Doctrines of the Gospel, that Christ himself judged worthy to be concluded with this Epiphonema, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear; on which the excellent Grotius makes this just Paraphrase,22 Intellectus nobis à Deo potissimum datus est, ut eum intendamus documentis ad pietatem pertinentibus
← Part 1, Section 1 · Contents · Part 1, Section 3 →
Footnotes
-
Gen. ij.16, 17. ↩
-
Seraph. Love. ↩
-
Psal. xxxij.9. ↩
-
Deut. viij.10, 11, 12, ↩
-
13, 14, ↩
-
18, ↩
-
Job xxxviij.5, 6, 7. ↩
-
Psa. L.23. ↩
-
Hos. xiv.2. ↩
-
Psal. civ.24. ↩
-
Psal. xix.1. ↩
-
Psal. cxxxix.14. ↩
-
1 Tim. ij.4. ↩
-
Joh. xiij.7. Heb. v.9. ↩
-
Joh. v.39. Search, or, You search the Scriptures. Coloss. iij.16. ↩
-
Prov. xxvj.10. ↩
-
Acts xvij.11. ↩
-
1 Pe[…]. j.10, 11. ↩
-
1 Pet. j.[…]2. ↩
-
Psal. cxix.18. ↩
-
Revel. j. ↩
-
Matth. xj.15. Mark iv.[…], 23. Luke viij.8. ↩