I wonder at the stupidity and hellish pride and malice of men's hearts, that think any man can be too exact in the main duties of Christianity, in the expression of their love to God, in the obedience of their lives ; in abstinence from the filthiness of the world, and the like. Can a man that looks for these excellent transcendent things be too careful of his life ? I beseech you yourselves be judges.
THE END OF THE FIEST SERMON.
THE SECOND SERMON. As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, <£c. — 1 Cor. II. 9.
The apostle sets out the gospel here with all the commendations that any skill in the world can be commended by. From the author of it, ' God.' From the depth of it, it is ' wisdom ;' in a mystery, ' hidden wisdom.' From the antiquity of it, ' it was ordained before the world was.' From the benefit and use of it, ' for our glory.' God is content his wisdom shoidd he honoured in glorifying tis, such is his love. And then when it was revealed, that none of the ' princes of the world' (he means not only com- manding potentates, but, he being a scholar himself, esteemed philosophers, Pharisees, and learned men to be princes, because the excellency of a man is in the refined part of man, his soul), none of these princes of the world, for all their skill and knowledge, knew this.
In this verse he shews the reason why 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,' &c. He removes knowledge, by removing the way and means of knowledge. The means of knowledge in this world is by the passage and entrance of the senses. Now, this heavenly mystery of the gospel, it is such a knowledge as doth not enter into the soul by the senses.
The points we propounded were these : 1. That God hath a people in the world, whom he favours in a special manner.
Then, secondly, for these that he accounts his friends, he hath prepared great matters. Kings prepare great matters for those they mean to advance ; what shall we think then God will do for his friends ?
Now, these things prepared, they are great matters indeed ; for, in the third place, they are such as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, <£c.
A GLANCE OF HEAVEN. 1G5
And then, in the fourth place, the disposition and qnaUfication of those for whom God. hiitJi prepared such (jreat matters. It is for those ' that love him ; ' not for his enemies, or for all men indifferently, but for those that love him.
Of the first and second I spake in the former ; and I will not now stand to speak of them, but enlarge myself in the two last.
The things that God hath prepared for tliem that love him, are such excellent things as neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, do. He means the natural eye, and car, and understanding, or heart of man.
There be three degrees of discovery of heavenly things :
First, In the doctrine of them ; and so they are hid to them that are out of the church.
And then, secondly, in the spiritual meaning of them ; and so they are hid to carnal men in the church.
And then, thirdly, in regard of the full comprehension of them, as they are indeed ; and so they are reserved for heaven. We have but a little glimpse of them, a little light into them iu this world. Now, in this place is meant the things that are discovered in the gospel, especially as they are apprehended by the Spirit, together with the consummation of them in heaven. For they differ only in degree, the discovery of the heavenly things in the gospel here ; the privileges, and graces, and comforts of God's children, and the consummation of them in heaven. And we may . reason from the lesser to the greater, if so be that a natural man — though he have natural eyes, and ears, and wits about him — cannot conceive the hidden mysteries of the gospel spiritually with application ; much more unable is he, and much less can he conceive, those things of a better life. Now the things of the gospel, the privileges, the graces, and comforts which Christ, the spring and head of them all, in whom all ai'e, and whence we have all, cannot be comprehended by a natural man. He can discourse of them as far as his natural wit conceives them, but not under- stand heavenly things in their own light as heavenly things, as the things of the gospel. They can talk of repentance — that we commonly speak of, which is a myster}' — but notwithstanding who knows repentance by the light proper to it, but he that by the Spirit of God hath sin discovered to him in its own colours ! He knows what it is to grieve for sin.
The sick man knows what it is to be sick. The physician knows it by definition, by books, and so he can enlarge it ; but if he be not sick, the sick patient will speak to better purpose. So there is a mystery in the common things of the gospel, repentance and gi-ief for sin. A holy man feels it another matter, because he feels sin discovered by the Spirit of God. And so in faith, in the love of God, and eveiy gi*ace of the gospel is a mystery. If one come to the Schoolmen, they will tell you of faith, and dispute learnedly of it, and deduce this from that ; but when he comes to be in extremity, when the terrors of the Lord are upon him, when he comes to use it, he is a mere stranger to it ; to cast himself, being a sinful creature, into the arms of God's mercy, he cannot do it without a further light of the Spirit discovering the hidden love of God to him in particular ; and so for other graces. Therefore they do but speak of these things — men that are unsanctified — as a blind man doth of colours. They inwardly scorn the truth they speak of; and those to whom they speak, if by the power of God's Spirit they come to profit by the things they teach, if themselves be carnal, they hate them. A carnal man believes not a whit of what he saith ; he hath only a common light for the good of others, a