instruction from David, as an instruction to David, and so the catechist may seem to be David, and no more; yet since this criticism upon the word, Le David, argues but a possibility that it may, and not a necessity that it must be so, we accompany St. Hierome, and indeed the whole body of the fathers, in accepting this instruction from God himself, it is no other than God himself that says, I will instruct thee, &c. No other than God himself can undertake so much as is promised in this text. For here is first, a rectifying of the understanding, I will instruct thee, and in the original there is somewhat more than our translation reaches to; it is there, Intelligere faciam te, I will make thee understand. Man can instruct, God only can make us understand. And then it is Faciam te, I will make thee, thee understand; the work is the Lord's, the understanding is the man's: for God does not work in man, as the devil did in idols, and in pythonissis, and in centriloquis, in possessed persons, who had no voluntary concurrence with the action of the devil, but were merely passive; God works so in man, as that he makes man work too, faciam te, I will make thee understand; that that shall be done shall be done by me, but in thee; the power that rectifies the act is God's, the act is man's; Faciam te, says God, I will make thee, thee, every particular person, (for that arises out of this singular and distribute word, Thee, which threatens no exception, no exclusion) I will make every person, to whom I present instruction, capable of that instruction, and if he receive it not, it is only his, and not my fault. And so this first part is an instruction de credendis, of such things, as by God's rectifying of our understanding, we are bound to believe. And then in a second part, there follows a more particular instructing, Docebo, I will teach thee, and that in via, in the way; it is not only de via, to teach thee, which is the way, that thou mayest find it, but in via, how to keep the way, when thou art in it; he will teach thee, not only ut gradiaris, that thou mayst walk in it, and not sleep, but quomodo gradieris, how thou mayst walk in it, and not stray; and so this second part is an institution de agendis, of those things, which, thine understanding being formerly rectified, and deduced into a belief, thou art bound to do. And then in the last words of the text, I will guide thee with mine eye, there is a

third part, an establishment, a confirmation, by an incessant watchfulness in God; he will consider, consult upon us, (for so much the original word imports) he will not leave us to contingencies, to fortune, no nor to his own general providence, by which all creatures are universally in his protection, and administration, but he will ponder us, consider us, study us; and that with his eye, which is the sharpest, and most sensible organ and instrument, soonest feels, if anything be amiss, and so inclines him quickly to rectify us; and so this third part is an instruction de sperandis, it hath evermore a relation to the future, to the constancy and perseverance, of God's goodness towards us; to the end, and in the end, he will guide us with his eye: except the eye of God can be put out, we cannot be put out of his sight, and his care. So that, both our freight which we are to take in, that is, what we are to believe concerning God; and the voyage which we are to make, how we are to steer and govern our course, that is, our behaviour and conversation in the household of the faithful; and then the haven to which we must go, that is, our assurance of arriving at the heavenly Jerusalem, are expressed in this chart, in this map, in this instruction, in this text, I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go, I will guide thee with mine eye. And when you have done all this, believed aright, and lived according to that belief, and died according to that life, in the last voice, surgite, you shall find a venite, as soon as you are called from the dust of the grave, you shall Enter into your Master's joy, and be no more called servants, but friends, no more friends, but sons, no more sons, but heirs, no more heirs, but co-heirs with the only Son of God, no more co-heirs, but idem Spiritus, the same Spirit with the Lord.

First then, the office which God by his blessed Spirit, through us, in his church, undertakes, is to instruct. And this being done so by God himself, God sending his Spirit, his Spirit working in his ministers, his ministers labouring in his church, it is strange that St. Paul speaking so, in the name of God, and his Spirit, and his ministers, and his church, should be put to entreat his hearers, to suffer a word of exhortation. ye, brethren, suffer a word of exhortation.

Ileb. xiii. 22.

Yet he is; I beseech
And the strangeness

of the case is exalted in this, that the word there is παρακλησέως, Solatii, and so the Vulgate reads it, and justly, Ct sufferatis verbum solatii, I beseech ye to suffer a word of comfort. What will ye hear willingly, if ye do not willingly hear words of comfort? With what shall we exercise your holy joy and cheerfulness, if even words of comfort must exercise your patience! And yet we must beseech you to suffer, even our words of comfort; for, we can propose no true comfort unto you, but such as carries some irksomeness, some bitterness with it; we can create no true joy, no true acquiescence in you, without some exercise of your patience too. We cannot promise you peace with God, without a war in yourselves, nor reconciliation to him, without falling out with yourselves, nor eternal joy in the next world, without a solemn remorse for the sinful abuses of this. We cannot promise you a good to-morrow, without sending ye back to the consideration of an ill yesterday; for your hearing to-day is not enough, except ye repent yesterday. But yet, though with St. Paul we be put to beseech you, ut sufferatis, That ye would suffer instruction, though we must sometimes exercise your patience, yet it is but verbum instructionis, a word of instruction; and though instruction be increpation, (for as the word is solatium, comfort, so we have told you it is, it is increpation too, for all true comfort hath increpation in it) yet it may easily be suffered because it is but cerbum, but a word, a word and away. We would not dwell upon increpations, and chidings, and bitternesses; we would pierce but so deep as might make you search your wounds, when you come home to your chamber, to bring you to a tenderness there, not to a paleness or blushing here. We never stay so long upon denouncing the judgments of God, but that we would, as fain as you, be at an end of that paragraph, of that period, of that point, that we might come into a calm, and into a lee-shore, and tell you of the mercies of God in Christ Jesus. You may suffer instruction, though instruction be increpation, for it is but a word of instruction, we have soon done; and you may suffer, them because they are but verba, not verbera, they are but words, and not blows. It is not traditio Satana, a delivering you up to Satan, it is not the confusion of face, nor consternation of spirit, nor a jealousy and suspicion of God's

good purpose upon you, that we would induce by our instruction, though it be increpation, but only a sense of your sins, and of the majesty of God violated by them, and so to a better capacity of this instruction, which the Holy Ghost here presents, in credendis, in those things which you are bound to believe; of which his first degree is, Intelligere te faciam, He will make ye understand, he will work upon your understanding, for, so much (as we noted to you at first) doth that word, which we translate here, I will instruct thee, comprehend.

Oportet accedentem credere; the apostle seems to make that our first step, He that comes to God, must believe. So it is our first step to God, to believe, but there is a step towards God, before it come to faith, which is, to understand; God works first upon the understanding. God proceeds in our conversion, and regeneration, as he did in our first creation. There man was nothing; but God breathed not a soul into that nothing; but of a clod of earth he made a body, and into that body infused a soul. Man in his conversion, is nothing, does nothing. His body is not verier dust in the grave, till a resurrection, then his soul is dust in his body, till a resuscitation by grace. But then this grace does not work upon this nothingness that is in man, upon this mere privation; but grace finds out man's natural faculties, and exalts them to a capacity, and a susceptibleness of the working thereof, and so by the understanding infuses faith. Therefore God begins his instruction here at the understanding; and he does not say at first, Faciam te credere, I will make thee to believe, but Faciam te intelligere, I will make thee understand.

That then being God's method, to make us understand, certainly those things which belong to our salvation, are not inintelligibilia, not in-intelligible, un-understandable, unconceivable things, but the articles of faith are discernible by reason. For though reason cannot apprehend that a virgin should have a son, or that God should be made man and die, if we put our reason primarily and immediately upon the article single, (for so it is the object of faith only) yet if we pursue God's method, and see what our understanding can do, we shall see, that out of ratiocination and discourse, and probabilities, and verisimilitudes, at

5 Heb. xi. 6.

last will arise evident and necessary conclusions; such as these, That as there is a God, that God must be worshipped according to his will, that therefore that will of God must be declared and manifested somewhere, that this is done in some permanent way, in some Scripture, which is the word of God, that this book, which we call the Bible, is, by better reasons than any others can pretend, that Scripture; and when our reason hath carried us so far, as to accept these Scriptures for the word of God, then all the particular articles, a virgin's son, and a mortal God, will follow evidently enough. And then those two propositions, Mysteria credenda ut intelligantur, Mysteries of religion must be believed before they be understood, and Mysteria intelligenda ut credantur, Mysteries of religion must be understood before they can be believed, will be all one; for God exalts our natural faculty of understanding by grace to apprehend them, and then to that submission and assent, which he by grace produces out of our understanding, by a succeeding and more powerful grace he sets to the seal of faith. Wait thou therefore upon God, his way; present unto him an humble and a diligent understanding; conclude not too desperately against thyself, if thou have not yet attained to all degrees of faith, but admit that preparation, which God offers to thine understanding, by an assiduous and a sedulous hearing; for a narrower faith that proceeds out of a true understanding, shall carry thee farther than a faith that seems larger, but is wrapped up in an implicit ignorance; no man believes profitably, that knows not why he believes. The subject then, that this work is wrought in, is that faculty, man's understanding; there God begins in the instruction of this text, Thou shalt understand, thou shalt; the act shall be thine, but yet, the power is mine, Faciam te, I will make thee understand, which is another consideration in this part.

God doth not determine his promise here, in a faciam ut intelligas, I will cast an understanding upon thee, I will cause an understanding to fall upon thee, but it is faciam te intelligere, I will make thee to understand, thou shalt be an agent in thine own salvation. When God made the ass speak under Balaam, God went not so far as this first step, (not to the faciam ut intelligas) he imprinted, infused no understanding in that beast. When