The same author in one of his epistles hath this remarkable relation, viz., That the same day wherein Jerome died, he was in his study, and had got pen, ink, and paper to write something of the glory of heaven to Jerome, and suddenly he saw a light breaking into his study, and smelt also a very sweet smell, and this voice he thought he heard : * O Augustine, what doest thou ? dost think to put the eea into a little vessel ? When the heavens shall cease from their continual motion, then shalt thou be able to understand what the glory of heaven is, and not before, except you come to feel it as I now do.'' Certainly, the glory of heaven is beyond all conception and all expression, and so is that portion that is a little hinted at in the following discourse. And, indeed, a full description of that God, that is the believer s portion, is a work too high for an Aaron when standing upon mount Hor ; or for a Moses, when standing on the top of Nebo after a Pisgah prospect ; yea, it is a work too high and too hard for all those blessed seraphims that are still a-crying before the throne of God, * Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.'^ No finite being, though never so glorious, can ever be able fully to comprehend an infinite being. In the second verse of the sixth of Isaiah, we read that each seraphim had six wings, and that with twain he covered the face of God, with twain his feet, and with twain he did fly, intimating, as one well observes upon the place,' that with twain they covered his face, the face of God, not their own face, and with twain they covered has feet, not their own feet. They covered his face, his beginning being unknown ; they covered his feet, his end being incomprehensible ; only the middle are to be seen, the things which are, whereby there may be some glimmering knowledge made out what God is. The wise man hit it, when he said, ' That which is afar off and exceeding deep, who can find it out f Eccles. vii. 24.* Who can find out what God is ? The knowledge of him a prio7'i is so far off, that he whose arm is able to break even a bow of steel is not able to reach it ; so far off, that he who is able to make his nest with the eagle is not able to fly unto it ; and so exceeding deep, that he who could follow the leviathan could not fathom it ; that he who could set out the centre of the earth, is not able to find it out ; and who then is able to reach it ? In a word, so far ofl'and so deep too, that ' the depth saith. It is not in me ; and the sea saith, It is not in me.' It is such a deep to men and angels as far exceeds the capacity of both. Augustine speaking to that question, What God is ? gives this answer :* ' Surely such a one as he, who, when he is spoken of, cannot be spoken of ; who, when he is considered, cannot be considered of; who, when he is com- pared to anything, cannot be compared ; ami when he is defined, groweth greater by defining of him. If that great apostle, that learned his divinity among the angels, yea, to whom the Holy Ghost was an
* See Index under Jerome for other references to this. — O. ' Nnm. XX. 28 ; Deut. xxxii. 49, and xxxiv. 1 ; Isa. vi. 3.
" Vide Origen on the text.
* There are many depths in God which our shallow reason cannot fathom ; and, indeed, it is the credit of our religion, and the glory of our God, that he is unsearchable.
' Augustine, defide contra Arrianum, cap. vi.
EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 5
immediate tutor, did know but * in part/ then certainly those that are most acute and judicious in divine knowledge may very well conclude, that tbey know but part of that part that was known to him/' As for my own part,. I dare pretend but to a spark of that knowledge that others . have attained to, and yet who can tell but that God may turn this spark into such a flame as may warm the hearts of many of his dear and precious ones. Much is done many times by a spark.
O sirs ! catch not at the present profits, pleasured, preferments, and honours of this world, but ' lay up a good foundation for the time to come,' provide for eternity, make sure your interest and propriety in God. It was an excellent saying of Lewis of Bavyer [Bavaria ?], em- peror of Germany : ' Such goods,' said he, ' are worth getting and own- ing, as will not sink or wash away if a shipwreck happen.' How many of you have lost your all by shipwrecks ! and how hath divine provi- dence by your multiplied crosses and losses taught you that, that the good things and the great things of this world cannot be made sure ! How many of you have had rich inheritances left you by your fathers, besides the great portions that you have had with your wives, and the vast estates that you have gained by trading ; but what is become of all ? Is not all buried in the deep, or in the grave of oblivion ? Oh the unconstancy and the grand impostury of this world ! Oh the flux and reflux of riches, greatness, honours, and preferments T How many men have we seen shining in their worldly pomp and glory like stars in the firmament, who are now vanished into smoke or comets ! How hath the moon of many great men's riches and honour been eclipsed at the full, and the sun of their pomp gone down at noon !
' It was,' saith the historian [Justinian], ' a wonderful precedent of vanity and variety of human condition to see mighty Xerxes to float and fly away in a small vessel, who but a little before wanted sea-room for his navy.' The Dutch, to express the world's vanity and uncer- tainty, have very wittily pictured a man with a full blown bladder on his shoulders, and another standing by pricking the bladder with a pin, with this motto, Quam subito, How soon is all blown down ! I am not willing to make the porch too wide, else I might have given you famous instances of the vanity and uncertainty of all worldly wealth, pomp, and glory, from the Assyrian, Chaldean, Persian, Grecian, and Roman king- doms, whose glory now lies all in the dust. By all this it is most evident that earthly portions cannot be made sure, they ' make them- selves wings, and they fly away,' Prov. xxiii. 5.
Oh ! but now God is a portion that may be made sure. In the time of the Marian persecution, there was a woman, who, being convened before bloody Bonner, then bishop of London, upon the trial of religion, he threatened her that he would take away her husband from her : saith she, Christ is my husband. I will take away thy child ; Christ, saith she, is better to me than ten sons. I will strip thee, saith he, of all thy outward comforts ; but Christ is mine, saith she, and you can- not strip me of him.'* A Christian may be stripped of anything but his God ; he may be stripped of his estate, his friends, his relations, his
^ Such are not only good echolars, but also great scholars, who have learned con- tentedly to be ignorant where God would not have them knowing. ^ ' Mr Foxe, Acts and Monum. [See under Bonner. — G.]
6 AN ARK FOR ALL GOD'S NOAHS.