But all this will be more evidently made out in the following points.
Bocf. 1. Divine teaching is necessary for all those that would walk in the way of God's statutes.
1. We have lost our way to true happiness. Adam lost it, and all mankind in him ; ever since we have been wandering up and down : Ps. xiv. 3, ' They are all gone aside,' i.e., gone out of the way of holi- ness as it leadeth to true happiness : Eccles. vii. 29, ' God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions ; ' wander in a maze. Man at first, that had perfect Avisdom to discern the way to true happiness, and ability to pursue it, now is full of crooked coun- sels, being darkened with ignorance in his mind, and abominable errors and mistakes, and seconded with lusts and passions.
2. We can never find it of ourselves till God reveal it to us : * He hath showed thee, 0 man, what is good,' Micah vi. 8. It is well for man that he hath God for his teacher, who hath given him a stated rule by which good and evil may be determined.
[1.] Because there are many things which nature would never reveal to him ; as the whole doctrine of redemption by Christ. The book of the creatures discovereth the mercy of God, but giveth not the least hint of the way how that mercy should come unto us, speaketh nothing of God incarnate, two natures in Christ's person, the two cove- nants, the way of salvation by Christ's death, &c. These could never be known by natural reason, for all these things proceed from the mere motion of God's will, without any other cause moving there- unto than his own love and compassion : John iii. 16, ' God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.^ And how^ could any man divine what God purposed in his heart, unless he himself revealed it ?
[2.] Because those things that nature teacheth it teacheth but darkly, and with little satisfaction, without the help of scriptures; as that there is one God, the first cause of all, omnipotent, Avise, righteous, good, and that it is reasonable he should be served ; that reasonable creatures have immortal souls, and so die not as the beasts ; that there is no true happiness m these things wherein men ordinarily seek it ; that since virtue and vice receive not suitable recompenses here, there must be punishment and rcAvard after this life ; that men live justly, do as they AA-ould be done to, be sober and temperate ; that reason be not enslaved to sensual appetite ; all Avhich nature revealeth but darkly : so that the Avisest men that have lived according to this light in one thing or other have been found fools : Eom. i. 22, ' Professing themselves Avise, they became fools.' But all these things are clearly revealed in scrip- ture, which discovers the nature and way of Avorshipping the true God, Avhat that rcAvard and punishment after this life is, and the right way of obtaining the one and eschewing the other, Avith Aveiglity arguments to enforce these things.
[3.] That Ave may have assurance that the worship Avhicli we give to God is pleasing to him, there must be a revelation of his
342 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [Ser. XXXVI.
will ; otherwise, when we have tired ourselves in an endless maze of superstitions, he might turn us off with ' Who hath required these things at your hands?' Isa. i. 12. Therefore, for our security and assurance it concerneth us to have a stated rule under Grod's own hand, and God must be both author and object of worship.
3. Besides the external revelation there must be an inward teach- ing : ' They shall all be taught of God,' John vi. 45 ; not all the j)rophets that wrote scripture, but all that come to Christ for salva- tion. And this is prophesied of that time when the canon and rule of faith should be most complete ; then there will be still a need that they should be taught of God before their hearts be drawn into Christ. As the book of the scriptures is necessary to expound the book of the creatures, so and much more is the light of the Spirit to expound the book of the scriptures. Others teach the ear, but God openeth the heart. The rule is one thing, and the guide is another. The means were never intended to take off our dependence upon God, but to engage it rather, that we may look up for his blessing : 1 Cor. iii. 6, ' I have planted, Apollos -watered, but God gave the increase ;' 2 Cor. iv. 6, ' God, that commanded (6 e'LTTwv) light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' Though the gospel hath enough in it to evidence itself to the consciences of men, yet God must make use of his creating power before this light can break in upon our hearts with any efficacy and influence : ' The law is light,' Prov. vi. 23. Yet not comprehended by darkness : John i. 5, ' The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not,' which rests in the hearts of all men that remain in their natural condition. It is not enough to see any object to have the light of the sun, unless we have the light of the eje. The scripture is our external light, as the sun is to the world ; the understanding is our internal light. Now this eye is become blind in all natural men, and in the best it is most imperfect ; therefore the eyes of the understanding must be opened by the spirit of wisdom and revelation, Eph. i. 17, 18. Though truths be plainly revealed by the Spirit of God in scripture, yet there must be a removal of that natural darkness and blindness that is upon our understandings. Outward light doth not make the object conspicuous without a faculty of seeing in the eye ; a blind man cannot see at noonday, nor the sharpest sight at midnight. The work of the Spirit is to take off the scales from our eyes, that we may see clearly what the scripture speaketh clearly. Now scripture is perfected, that is the great work, to strengthen the faculty.