{h) P. 428. — ' This will take away the excuse, as St Austin argues well. If I had known, saith a wicked man, I would not have done this. Saith he, the pride of thy heart suggests that. Hadst thou not motions and admonitions '?' &c. Augustine has this idea in his ' Confessions,' with reference to himself and his long delays in tiun- ing to the Lord.
[i) P. 435. — ' True gold hath the virtue to comfort and strengthen the heat that
456 A FOUNTAIN SEALED.
alcliymy gold hatli not.' f'f, note r*, Vol. III. p. 530. The allusion above is to the extraordinary ' pill of ijold' which was a regular prescription in tlie days of Sibbes and long after. Kieliiird Baxter in his ' Life ' gives a description — grotesque in ita seriousness — of the terrible ordeal he passed through after having swallowed a very large one. G.
THE FOUNTAIN OPENED.
THE FOUNTAIN OPENED.
NOTE.
' The Fountain Opened ' forms one of the four treatises which compose the volume entitled ' Light from Heaven.' (Cf. Vol. IV. p. 400.) Its separate title-page is given below.* It naturally follows ' A Fountain Sealed.' G.
* THE FOVNTAINE OPENED:
OK,
THE MYSTERIE
OF GODLINESSE
Revealed.
BY
Tlie late learned Sf reverend Divine
Rich. S i bs,
Doctor in Divinitie, Master of Eatherine
Hall in Cambridge, and sometimes Preacher
at G K A Y E S-I N N E.
Joel 3. 18.
And a Foimtaine shall come forth of the House of the Lord, and shall zoater the valley of Shittim. E p H e s. 3. 3. He hath made Icnowne the Mysterie unto me, rchich in other ages was not made known unto the sonnes of 7nen.
LONDON,
Printed by E. Eursloiv for iV. Bourne, at the Royall
Exchange, and E Harford, at the gilt Bible in
Queenes-head Alley, in Vater-noster-Row.
1G38.
THE FOUNTAIN OPENED;
OH,
THE MYSTEEY OF GODLINESS EEVEALED.
And, tvithout controversy, preat is the mystery of godliness : God manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the ivorld, received up to glory. — 1 Tim. III. 16,
There are two things that God vahies more than all the world besides — the church and the truth. The church, that is the ' pillar and ground of truth,' as it is in the former verse. The truth of religion, that is the seed of the church. Now the blessed apostle St Paul being to furnish his scholar Timothy to the ministerial office, he doth it from two grounds especially : from the dignity of the church, which he was to instruct and converse in ; and from the excellency of the mysteries of the gospel, that excellent soul- saving truth. Hereupon he doth seriously exhort Timothy to take heed how he conversed in the church of God, in teaching the truth of God. The church of God, it is ' the house of God,' a company of people that God cares for more than for all mankind besides, for whom the world stands, for whom all things are. ' It is the church of the living God, tha pillar and ground of truth.' And for the truth of God, that must be taught in this church, that is so excellent a thing, that we see the blessed apostle here useth great words, high styles, lofty expressions concerning it. As the matter is high and great, so the holy apostle hath expressions suitable ; a full heart breeds full expressions. As no man went beyond St Paul, in the deep conceit of his own unworthiness and of his state by nature, so there was no man reached higher in large and rich thoughts and expres- sions of the excellency of Christ, and the good things we have by him ; as we see here, setting forth the excellency of the ministerial calling, being to deal with God's truth towards God's people, he sets forth evangelical truth gloriously here. ' Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness : God manifested in the flesh,' &c.
In these words, then, there is a preface ; and then, a particular explica- tion. There is a fountain or spring, and the streams issuing from it, the root and the branches. There is, as it were, a porch to this great house. Great buildings have fair entrances ; so this glorious description of the mysteries of the gospel, it hath a fair porch and entry to it. * Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.*
Then the fabric itself is parcelled out in six particulars : —
4G0 TOE FOUNTAIN OPENED.
God manifested in the flesh.
Justified in the Spirit.
Seen of angels.
Preached unto the Gentiles.
Believed on in the world.
Received up to glory.
First, For the preface, whereby he makes way to raise up the spirit of Timothy, and in him us, unto a reverent and holy attending to the blessed mysteries that follow.
' Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.'
In this preface, there is first the thing itself, ' godliness.'
Then the description of it, it is a ' mystery.'
And the adjunct, it is a 'great mystery.'
And then the seal of it, it is a great mystery ' without all controversy ; ' by the confession of all, as the word o/MoXoyou/Mhoj; signifies. There are none that ever felt the power of godliness, but they have confessed it to be a ' great mystery.'