PREFACE AND NOTES, BY GEORGE HERBERT, TO THE DIVINE CONSIDERATIONS, TREATING OF THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE MOST PROFITABLE, MOST NECESSARY, AND MOST PERFECT IN OUR CHRISTIAN PROFESSION, BY JOHN VALDESSO. MR. G. HERBERT TO MASTER N[ICHOLAS] F[ARRER,] UPON HIS TRANSLATION OF VALDESSO. MY Y dear and deserving Brother, your Valdesso I now return with many thanks, and some notes, in which, perhaps, you will discover some care, which I forbear not in the midst of my griefs ; first, for your sake, because I would do nothing negligently that you commit unto me; secondly, for the author's sake, whom I conceive to have been a true servant of God, and to such, and all that is theirs, I owe diligence; thirdly, for the church's sake, to whom by printing it, I would have you consecrate it. You owe the church a debt, and God hath put this into your hands (as he sent the fish with money to Saint Peter), to discharge it; happily also with this (as his thoughts are fruitful), in * Printed at Cambridge, 1646. 102 tending the honour of his servant the author, who being obscured in his own country, he would have to flourish in this land of light and region of the Gospel, among his chosen. It is true there are some things which I like not in him, as my fragments will express, when you read them; nevertheless I wish you by all means to publish it, for these three eminent things observable therein : first, that God in the midst of popery should open the eyes of one to understand and express so clearly and excellently the intent of the Gospel, in the acceptation of Christ's righteousness (as he showeth through all his Considerations), a thing strangely buried and darkened by the adversaries and their great stumbling-block. Secondly, the great honour and reverence, which he every where bears towards our dear Master and Lord, concluding every Consideration almost with his holy name, and setting his merit forth so piously; for which I do so love him, that were there nothing else, I would print it, that with it the honour of my Lord might be published. Thirdly, the many pious rules of ordering our life, about mortification, and observation of God's kingdom within us, and the working thereof, of which he was a very diligent observer. These three things are very eminent in the author, and overweigh the defects, as I conceive, towards the publishing thereof. From Bemmerton, near Salisbury, Septemb. 29, 1632. 103 NOTES TO THE DIVINE CONSIDERATIONS, DLEY PAGE 33. E often useth this manner of speech, believing by Revelation, whereby I understand he meaneth only the effectual operation or illumination of the Holy Spirit, testifying and applying the revealed truth of the Gospel, and not any private enthusiasms or revelations as if he should say, A general apprehension, or assent to the promises of the Gospel, by hearsay or relation from others, is not that which filleth the heart with joy and peace in believing, but the Spirit's bearing witness with our spirit, revealing and applying the general promises to every one in particular, with such sincerity and efficacy, that it makes him godly, righteous; and sober all his life long. This I call believing by Revelation, and not by relation. Valdesso, in the passage to which this note is attached, considers the state of that man who, though hard of belief, and difficult to be persuaded, has at length been awakened to the truths of the Gospel, as infinitely preferable to the hasty faith which the man who is easily persuaded to adopt any opinion, is too often induced to yield to the promises of the Gospel. The former, as having resigned his prejudices to the force VN of truth, is said to believe by Revelation; whereas the latter, as having yielded to the Gospel the same weak assent which any other doctrines equally might have drawn from him, is said to believe by relation, by human persuasion and the opinion of mankind. PAGE 107. I much mislike the comparison of Images and Holy Scriptures, as if they were both but alphabets, and after a time to be left. The Holy Scriptures have not only an elementary use, but a use of perfection; neither can they ever be exhausted (as pictures may by a plenary circumspection), but still, even to the most learned and perfect in them, there is somewhat to be learned more: therefore David desireth God, in the 119th Psalm, to open his eyes, that he might see the wondrous things of his law, and that he would make them his study; although, by other words of the same psalm, it is evident that he was not meanly conversant in them. Indeed, he that shall so attend to the back of the letter as to neglect the consideration of God's work in his heart through the word, doth amiss; both are to be done: the Scriptures still used, and God's work within us still observed, who works by his word, and ever in the reading of it. As for that text, They shall be all taught of God, it being Scripture, cannot be spoken to the disparagement of Scripture; but the meaning is this, that God in the days of the Gospel will not give an outward law of ceremonies as of old, but such a one as shall still have the assistance of the Holy Spirit applying it to our hearts, and ever outrunning the teacher, as it did when Peter taught Cornelius. There the case is plain: Cornelius had revelation, yet Peter was to be sent for; and those that have inspirations must still use Peter, God's word: if we make another sense of the text, we shall overthrow all means save catechizing, and set up enthusiasms. In the Scriptures are Doctrines, these ever teach more and more. In this note Herbert justly objects to a very quaint and far-fetched comparison which the author draws between the Books of Holy Scripture and the Images of the Roman Catholic Church. As the unlearned are fond of placing pictorial images in different situations, in order that the objects of their belief might never be absent from their minds, so the learned delight to heap up copies of the Holy Scriptures, with notes, comments, and explanations of wise men, that they may be furnished with every information which they may desire on the subject of the Christian faith. But, in both cases alike, those who are not endued with the true inspiration of the Spirit, confine themselves to the study of these |
