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CHAP. I.

Of illlumination. I. The diftinguishing characters of illuminating truths. 1. They purify us. 2. They nourish and ftrengthen us. 3. They delight us. 4. They procure us a glorious reward. II. The nature illuminating knowledge. 1. It must be deeply rooted. 2. It must be diftinct and clear. 3. It must be thoroughly concocted.

§. I.

W point of illumination, as it does

HAT it is. It happens in the

in that of happiness: all men, at first hearing, form in general an agreeable and pleafing notion of it; all men admire and love it; but few have any diftinct and true understanding of thofe things which 'tis made up of. All men conceive illumination to be a ftate of light and knowledge, as they do happiness to be a ftate of pleasure: but are as little agreed in particular, wherein confifts the light or knowledge which makes the one, as wherein confifts the pleasure that makes the other. The luft and paffion of fome, the fuperftition and prejudice of others; curiofity and confidence, weakness and defign, enthusiasm and fancy, embroil and perplex all things. However, every honeft man hath a clue, by which he may efcape out of this labyrinth. The fcripture fhines with bright and gracious beams

through

throughout all this darkness: and, if we will attend to it, we cannot wander into any dangerous mistake. This describes the ftate of illumination very plainly to us, calling it fometimes wisdom, fometimes knowledge and understanding; fometimes faith, fometimes the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Next, it acquaints us with the defign and end of it; namely, to convert us from the power of Satan to the fervice of the living God, to purify and fanctify us, to enable us to approve the holy, acceptable, and perfect will of God, and, in one word, to make us wife unto falvation. Nay, it proceeds further, and points out to us particularly the truths, in the knowledge of which illumination confifts. Thus the Old Teftament reckons wisdom to be, fometimes the knowledge of God, fometimes the knowledge of his law, fometimes the understanding of proverbs and parables; thefe containing as it were the foul of moral inftruction, and wrapping up in a few and lively words, whatever the experience of the aged, or the obfervation of men of the most piercing judgment, thought beft deferved to be tranfmitted to pofterity. But all this amounts to the fame thing, and all the descriptions of wisdom in the Old Testament may be fummed up into that one, fob xxvii. 28. Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart

L 3

from

from evil is understanding. The New Tef tament tells us, this is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and fefus Christ whom thou hast jent: that Chrift is the way, the truth and the life: that in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge: that true understanding confifts in knowing the will of God; which will is our fanctification. And when St. Paul underftands by wisdom, as fometimes he does, the penetrating into the fpirit and mystery, the depths and receffes of the Old Teftament, and difcovering the great defign of man's redemption, carried on through all the ages of the world, and through a wife variety of difpenfations, this alters not the notion of illumination: for this does not point out to us any new or different truths; but only regards one peculiar way of explaining, or establishing and confirming the great Chriftian doctrines. To conclude; we may eafily learn what fort of knowledge the Spirit of God recommends to us above all other, from those petitions which St. Paul puts up for the Ephefians and Coloffians. For the former prays thus ; that the God of our Lord Jefus Chrift, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints,

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faints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward, who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which be wrought in Chrift, when he raised him from the dead, and fet him at his own right band in the heavenly places, &c. Eph. i. 17, 18, 19, 20: For the latter thus that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleafing, being fruitful in every good work, and increafing in the knowledge of God, Col. i. 9, 10. If from these and the like texts we form a general idea of illumination, it will be this: illumination is a state of knowledge, confifting in the abolishing or relinquishing those errors, which deprave and pervert our affections, and undermine and fupplant the empire and authority of reafon; and in entertaining and embracing those truths, which purify the one, and reftore and establish the other: and all this in order to entitle us to the favour of God, and a bleffed eternity. I might content my felf with this general delineation of illumination: but because this is a fubject from which we cannot but reap fo much pleasure and advantage, as will abundantly requite whatever labour can be bestowed upon it; I will proceed to a fuller difcovery of it, if I can.

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Illumination then being a state of knowledge, and the object of this knowledge being truth, 'tis plain, that in order to form a juft and distinct notion of illumination, it will be neceffary to enquire into two things: First, What kind of truths; and next, what kind of knowledge of these truths, conftitutes illumination.

1. Of the truths which illuminate: we have many noble characters in the Old Tef tament and the New, which diftinguish thefe from truths of an inferior nature: all which are, I think, comprized by Solomon in very few words; Prov xxiv. 13, 14. My fon, faith he, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honey-comb, which is fweet to thy tafte; fo fhall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy foul, when thou haft found it; then there fhall be a reward, and thy expectation Shall not be cut off. Solomon here, as is very ufual with infpired writers, does compare fpiritual with corporeal things, or illuftrates the one by the other. He tells us, that what honey is to the body, that wisdom is to the foul: and recommending the former from two incomparable properties, its miniftring to health and pleafure, he recommends the latter from advantages, which bear indeed fome refemblance; but are as much fuperior to thefe, as the foul is to the body. My fon, eat thou honey, because it is good; i. e. be

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