Whence is it, that they can hate Father, Mother, Wife, Child, Liberty; yea, Life it self, and leave all at the Call and Command of their Maker, but from the knowledge of him who is (as Elkanah said to Hannah) better to them then ten Sons, then all Relations, then the whole ⟨p. 4⟩Creation. Those Stars vanish and disappear, when once this Sun of Righteousness ariseth: How quickly, how quietly, without any hesitancy or reluctancy, will Abraham leave his Country and Kindred, and Fathers House, when once the God of Glory appeareth to him, Acts 9.2, 3, 4. In a word, whence is it, that they escape the pollutions of the World (in which others are mired, drowned and destroyed,) but through the knowledge of God. 2 Pet. 2.20. Well may our Lord Jesus say, It is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. To know God affectionately, as our chiefest good, so as to give him our superlative esteem, and intensest love, is spiritual life here, in the habit or principle, as also in the act and exercise of it; and it is the beginning seed, preparation & way of our eternal life hereafter. But who can know that being which infinitely passeth all knowledge: He that would know God fully, must be God himself; and he who would tell you what God is in any measure answerable to his excellency, had need to know him as he is known of him. And supposing I were able to speak of the perfection of God, as one that, like the great Apostle, ⟨p. 5⟩had been caught up into the third Heavens: I question whether, if I had a Tongue to speak of him after that manner, ye had Ears to hear of him, or Hearts to understand what I should speak. But though I am not able to speak, nor you to hear of God, according to his perfection, yet through the assistance of the Holy Ghost so much may be spoken and heard of him, as may tend to our present Sanctification and future Salvation. Though we cannot see him as he is, yet we may see him as he is not; though the height of his being be above the reach of our Understandings, we may get some-what nearer to him (and indeed we have no other way while we are here then) by climbing upon the shoulders of all created excellencies, and there proclaiming, That none in the Heavens is to be compared to the Lord, that none among the Sons of the Mighty is like unto the Lord.
Whence is it, that they can hate Father, Mother, Wife, Child, Liberty; yea, Life it self, and leave all at the Call and Command of their Maker, but from the knowledge of him who is (as Elkanah said to Hannah) better to them then ten Sons, then all Relations, then the whole ⟨p. 4⟩Creation. Those Stars vanish and disappear, when once this Sun of Righteousness ariseth: How quickly, how quietly, without any hesistancy or reluctancy, will Abraham leave his Country and Kindred, and Fathers House, when once the God of Glory appeareth to him, Acts 9.2, 3, 4. In a word, whence is it, that they escape the pollutions of the World (in which others are mired, drown'd and destroyed,) but through the knowledge of God. 2 Pet. 2.20. Well may our Lord Jesus say, It is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. To know God affectionately, as our chiefest good, so as to give him our superlative esteem, and intensest love, is spiritual life here, in the habit or principle, as also in the act and exercise of it; and it is the beginning seed, preparation & way of our eternal life hereafter. But who can know that being which infinitely passeth all knowledge: He that would know God fully, must be God himself; and he who would tell you what God is in any measure answerable to his excellency, had need to know him as he is known of him. And supposing I were able to speak of the perfection of God, as one that, like the great Apostle, ⟨p. 5⟩had been caught up into the third Heavens: I question whether, if I had a Tongue to speak of him after that manner, ye had Ears to hear of him, or Hearts to understand what I should speak. But though I am not able to speak, nor you to hear of God, according to his perfection, yet through the assistance of the Holy Ghost so much may be spoken and heard of him, as may tend to our present Sanctification and future Salvation. Though we cannot see him as he is, yet we may see him as he is not; though the height of his being be above the reach of our Understandings, we may get some-what nearer to him (and indeed we have no other way while we are here then) by climbing upon the shoulders of all created excellencies, and there proclaiming, That none in the Heavens is to be compared to the Lord, that none among the Sons of the Mighty is like unto the Lord.
