nd it the
more profound. But there are some mysteries small and some great. There is
a difference amongst them; all are not of one stature, of one measure. The
mystery of Christ's incarnation and death and resurrection, is one of the
great mysteries of religion, "God manifest in the flesh." Yet I conceive
there is a greater mystery than it, and of all mysteries in nature or
divinity I know none equal to this,--the Holy Trinity. And it must needs be
greatest of all, and without controversy greatest, because it is the
beginning and end of all,--_fons et finis omnium_. All mysteries have their
rise here, and all of them return hither. This is furthest removed from
the understandings of men,--what God himself is, for himself is infinitely
above any manifestation of himself. God is greater than God manifested in
the flesh, though in that respect he be too great for us to conceive.
There is a natural desire in all men to know, and, if any thing be secret
and wonderful the desire is the more inflamed after the knowledge of it.
The very difficulty or impossibility of attaining it, instead of
restraining the curiosity of man's spirit, doth rather incense it.
_Nitimur in vetitum_(140) is the fruit, the sad fruit we plucked and eat
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If the Lord reveal any
thing plainly in his word to men, that is despised and set at nought,
because it is plain, whereas the most plain truths, which are beyond all
controversy, are the most necessary, and most profitable, for our eternal
salvation. But if there be any secret mystery in the Scriptures, which the
Lord hath only pointed out more obscurely to us, reserving the distinct
and clear understanding of it to himself, (Deut. xxix. 29.),--that is the
apple which our accursed natures will long for, and catch after, though
there be never so much choice of excellent saving fruit in the paradise of
the Scriptures besides. If the ark be covered to keep men from looking
into it, that doth rather provoke the curious spirit of man to pry into
it, 1 Sam. vi. 10. If the Lord show his wonderful glory in the mount, and
charge his people not to come near, lest the glorious presence of God kill
them, he must put rails about it, to keep them back, or else they will be
meddling. Such is the unbridled license of our minds, and the perverse
dispositions of our natures, that where God familiarly invites us to
come,--what he earnestly presseth us to search and know,--that