2. Because of the excellency of understanding ; therefore we should make it our request to God. Here are four considerations : —
[1.] Knowledge in the general is man's excellency. It is our privi-
VER. 144.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 31
lege above the beasts ; many of them excel us in beauty of colour, in strength, and nimbleness, and vivacity, and long life, and acuteness of sense ; but we excel them in knowledge. And so God hath taught us more than the beasts of the field. Man is a rational creature, his life standeth in light : John i. 4, ' In him was life, and the life was the light of men.' Other'creatures have life, but not such a life as is light, are not endowed with a reasonable soul and a faculty of understand- in«\ The more of knowledge there is increased in us, the more of man there is in us.
[2.] Divine knowledge is better than all other knowledge ; to know God's nature and will, to know how God will be pleased, and how we may come to enjoy him ; all other knowledge doth but please the fancy, this doth us good to the heart : Jer. ix. 23, 24, ' Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the mighty man glory in his might ; let not the rich man glory in his riches : but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me ; ' as not in strength, so not in natural wisdom. Here I may take the argument of the text. Men do not properly live if they want the light of heavenly wisdom ; without divine knowledge a man is little better than a beast. The endowment of reason was not given us merely to shift for our- selves, or provide for the animal life ; other creatures do that better by instinct and natural sagacity, and are contented with less. No; man's life was given him for some other end, to know and serve his Maker.
[3.] Of all the knowledge of God, practical knowledge is better than speculative ; not so much subtlely to be able to discourse of his nature as to obey his will : Jer. xxii. 16, ' He judged the cause of the poor and needy ; was not this to know me ? saith the Lord.' The know- ledge of God is not measured by sharpness of wit, but by serious ready practice ; not strength of parts, but a good and honest heart ; so to understand as to keep them : Ps. cxi. 10, ' The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and a good understanding have all they that do his commandments.' They understand best, not who can discourse most subtlely, but who live most holily. When our faith is more strong, our reverence of God increased, our obedience more ready, then is our knowledge sound ; when we follow those courses which we know God delighteth in, Jer. ix. 24, and study to please him in all things : 1 John ii. 4, ' He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.' He that doth not make conscience of his duty, he knoweth no such sovereign being as God is, that hath power to command, to save, and to destroy : Titus i. 16, ' They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him.' So 1 John iii. 6, ' Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him nor known him.' Well, then, in giving his word, God's end was not to make trial of their wits, who could most sharply conceive ; nor of their memories, who could most firmly retain ; nor of their eloquence, who could most neatly discourse ; but of their hearts, who would most obediently submit to him : that is knowledge indeed which tendeth to use and practice. Look, as scire malum non est malum — to know evil is not evil, for God knoweth evil, yet his knowledge is not evil ; so scire bonum, non est bonum, to know that which is good doth not make a man good. This is the distinction between understanding and will ; the under-
32 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CLXI.
standing draweth the object to itself, but the will is drawn by the ob- ject to it. If I understand anything, I am not in a moral sense that which I understand ; but if I will anything, or love anything, I am what I will and love. This is the difference between the two faculties.
[4.] Transforming, regenerating, saving knowledge is the best part of practical knowledge. I add tins because general knowledge may produce good life, or some outward conformity in the unregenerate : 2 Peter ii. 20, ' For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' Those that are destitute of the saving knowledge of Christ, they may cleanse their external conversation by that rational conviction, though not spiritual illumination, though strangers to inward mortification, and unrenewed in heart ; yea, avoid gross sins, perform external duties. Oh ! but the lively saving light, such as subdueth the heart to God, such as maketh a thorough change in us, that is the best : 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.' When we so know Christ as to be like him, this is like heaven's knowledge : 1 John iii. 2, ' And when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' Common truths have another efficacy, when they understand them by the lively light of the Spirit ; when men know the torments of hell so as to flee from them : Mat. iii. 7, ' Flee from wrath to come ; ' as a man would out of a ship that is sinking or a house falling. So when we see heaven so as it maketh us seek after it, Heb. iv. 1, so to know Christ as to be made like him, this will do us good, and this is one of God's best gifts.