all, this word, thee, excludes none. And so we pass to our second part, Instruction, de agendis, what we are to do, I will teach thee in the way thou shalt go. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God; and faciet intelligere, God shall make him understand: God shall; I may study, and then, you may hear me, but God only makes us all understand; for the understanding is the door of faith, and that door he opens, and he shuts: so by understanding, he brings us to believe. But then, he that truly believes, finds that he hath something to do too; and he says to himself, Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his ways? And he cannot tell himself; he asks them whom God hath sent to tell him, his ministers, Viri, fratres, Men and brethren what shall we do to be saved? And by their leading, he goes to the Spirit of God, to God himself, and says, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And that good master will teach him what to do, which is the promise of this part of instruction in our text, I will teach thee in the way thou shalt go. And plus est docere, quam instruere, God promises more in this, that he will teach thee in the way, than in the former, that he would make thee understand. Not that the matter or subject in this part, is the greater, (for the former had relation to faith, and this but to good works) but that it intimates a more frequent recourse to us, and a more studious care of us, and a more provident vigilancy over us, and a more familiar conversation with us, that God accompanies us in all our way, and directs us in all our particular actions, than that by understanding he hath brought us to believe. He that horses a man well for a journey, or he that rewards a man well for a journey, does a greater work, than he that goes along with him as a guide; but yet there is aliquid magis in the guide, there is a more continual, a more incessant courtesy in him. We sce in the Roman church, they are not in their beads, without credoes, they believe enough; and lest that should not be enough, they have made a new creed of more articles than that, in the Council of Trent, and to testify a strong faith therein, they must swear they believe it: and then they have to every creed, more Pater nosters, they petition enough, ask enough at God's hands; 17 Gregory. 10 Matt. xix, 16, they have credoes enow, Pater nosters enow, and Ave Marias more than enow; but when we consider them in the Commandments, what we are to do, (as great workers as they pretend to be) though they enlarge their credoes, and multiply their Pater nosters, they contract the Commandments, and put two into one, for fear of meeting one against images. This then expresses God's daily care of us, that he teaches us the way. But then, even that implies, that we are all out of our way; still all bends, all conduces to that, an humble acknowledgment of our own weakness, a present recourse to the love and power of God; the first thing I look for in the exposition of any Scripture, and the nearest way to the literal sense thereof, is, what may most deject and vilify man, what may most exalt, and glorify God. We are all, all out of our way; but God deals not alike with all; for, for the wicked, Their way is dark and slippery1a, and then, the angel of the Lord persecutes them; but for those whom he loves, He will weigh the paths of the just, (says our later translation) and, He will make the paths of the righteous equal and eren", says our former; it shall be a path often beaten by him, for it is not righteousness, to be righteous once a year, at Easter, nor once a week, upon Sunday. An anniversay righteousness, an hebdomadary righteousness, a Sabbatarian righteousness is no righteousness. But it is a path; and so made even, without occasions of stumbling; that is, he shall be able to walk in any profession, and to make good any station, and not be diverted by the power of any temptations incident to that calling. The angel of the Lord, the evil angel, distrust and diffidence, shall persecute the wicked, in his dark and slippery way; this is no teaching; but because the godly have a teaching, even their direction hath a correction too; God beats his scholars into their way too. The difference is expressed in the prophet, When the Lord hath given you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, (for in God's school that is scholar's fare) yet, says God, Thy teachers shall not be removed from thee into a corner; still in thine affliction thou shalt have a teacher, or even the affliction itself shall be God's usher; and thou shalt have evidence of 18 Psalm xxxv. 6. 19 Isaiah xxvi. 7. 20 Isaiah xxx. 21. it, thy teacher shall not be removed into a corner; thou shalt see it; and (as it follows there) Thine ears shall hear a voice behind thee; (that is, a voice arising even from that affliction that thou hast suffered) and that voice shall say, This is the way, walk ye in it; as dark as affliction is, it shall show thee the way, Hac est via, This is the way, as much as affliction enfeebles thee, yet it shall enable thee to walk in it, ambulate in ea. God is a schoolmaster; not as the law was, to teach with a sword in his hand; but yet he teaches with a rod in his hand, though not with a sword. Now in teaching us the way, he instructs us de via, and in via; which is the way, and what is to be done in it. He sees all our ways; All my ways are before thee, says David". And he sees them not so as though they belonged not to him, for he considers them, Does not he behold all my ways, and tell all my steps 22? He sees them, and sees our irremediable danger in them; Formido, et fovea, et laqueus, Fear, and a pit, and snares are upon thee; Upon whom? There we see the generality of this single word, thee, that it is all; for so, it follows there, upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. The danger then is general, and the Lord knows it; Who then can teach us a better way, but he? But how doth he teach us this way? When God had promised Moses to send an angel to show the people their way, (I will send an angel before thee) Moses says to God, See, thou sayest, Lead this people forth, and thou hast not showed me whom thou wilt send with me"; (so those translators thought good to render it) God had told him of an angel, but that satisfied not Moses; he must have something showed to him, he must see his guide. If thy presence go not with me, carry me not from hence 25, says he to God. For, wherein shall it be known, that I, and thy people have found favour in thy sight? Shall it not be when thou goest up with us? And therefore God satisfies him, My presence shall go with thee. Go? but how? says Moses; Wilt thou be pleased to show me thy glory"? Shall we see anything? They did see that pillar in which God was, and that presence, that pillar showed the way. To us, the church is that pillar; in 21 Psalm cxix. 168. 22 Job xxxi. 4. 25 Ver. 15. 23 Isaiah xxiv. 17. 26 Ver. 18. that, God shows us our way. For strength it is a pillar, and a pillar for firmness and fixation: but yet the church is neither an equal pillar, always fire, but sometimes cloud too; the church is more and less visible, sometimes in splendour, sometimes in an eclipse; neither is it so a fixed pillar, as that it is not in divers places. The church is not so fixed to Rome, as that it is not communicated to other nations, nor so limited in itself, as that it may not admit changes, in those things that appertain to order, and discipline. Our way, that God teaches us, is the church; that is a pillar; fixed, for fundamental things, but yet a moveable pillar, for things indifferent, and arbitrary. Thus he teaches, quid via, which is the way, it is the church, the pillar of truth. He teaches next, quid in via, what is to be done in the way; for, that counsel of the apostle, See that ye walk circumspectly", presumes a man to be in the way; else he would have cried to have stopped him, or to have turned him, and not bid him go on, how circumspectly soever. But, In my path, says David, (not making any doubt but that he was in a right path) in my path, the proud have laid a snare for me, and spread a net with cords; Ad manum orbitæ, (says the original) even at the hand of the path;, that path which should (as it were) reach out a hand to lead me, hath a snare in it. And therefore, says David, with so much vehemence in the entrance of that Psalm, Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man, who purposeth to overthrow my goings; though I go in the right way, the true church, yet purposes to overthrow me there. This evil man works upon us: the man of sin; in those instruments that still cast that snare in our way, in our church, there is a minority, an invisibility, and a fallibility in your church; you begun but yesterday in Luther, and you are fallen out already in Calvin. So also works this evil man amongst us, in those schismatics, who cast that snare in our way, your way (though it be in part mended) hath yet impressions of the steps of the beast, and it is a circular, and giddy way, that will bring us back again to Rome. And therefore, beloved, though you be in the way, see ye walk circumspectly, for the snares that both these have cast in the way, the reproaches, and defamations that both these have cast upon our church. But when thou hast escaped both these snares, of papist, and schismatic, pray still to be delivered from that evil man, that is within thee. Non tantum potest hominem decipere, quam per organum hominis, The devil hath not so powerful an instrument, nor so subtile an engine upon thee as thyself. Quis in hoc seculo non patitur hominem malum? Who in this world (or if he go so far out of this world, as never to see man but himself) is not troubled with this evil man? When thou prayest with David, to be delivered from this evil man, if God ask thee whom thou meanest, must thou not say, thyself? Canst thou show God a worse? Qui non est malus, nihil à malo mali patitur31; If a man were not evil in himself, the worst thing in the world could not hurt him; the devil would not offer to give fire, if there were no powder in thy heart. What that evil man is, that is in another, I cannot know: I cannot always discern another's snare; for, What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him? Thy spirit knows what the evil man that is in thee, is. Deliver thyself of that evil man that ensnares thee in thy way; though thou come to church; yea even when thou art there. David repeats this word A viro malo, From the evil man, twice in that Psalm. In one place, A viro malo, is in that name, Meish, which is a name of man proper only to the stronger sex, and intimates snares and temptations of stronger power, as when fear, or favour tempts a man to come to a superstitious, and idolatrous service. In the other it is but Meadam, and that is a name common to men, and women, and children, and intimates, that omissions, negligences, infirmities, may encumber us, ensnare us, though we be in the way, even in the true place of God's service; and the eye may be ensnared as dangerously, and as damnably in this place, as the ear, or the tongue in the chamber. As St. Hierome says, Nuga in ore sacerdotis sunt sacrilegium, An idle word in a churchman's mouth is sacrilege; so a wanton look in the church, is an adultery. Now when God hath thus taught us the way, what it is, that is, brought us to the true church, (for till then, all is diversion, all banishment) and taught us in via, what to do in that 30 Augustine. 29 Hierome. |