2. The sufficiency of this knowledge. For understanding of this, you must know that all breviates, where religion is reduced to a few heads, must be enlarged according to the just extent of the rule of faith ; as in the commandments, where all moral duties are reduced to ten words ; so in the summaries of the gospel, far more is intended than is expressed.
As for instance, there are two things in the text — the means and the object; the means, ' know ;' the object, ' thee,' and ' Jesus Christ.'
1. The means, ' know.' It implieth acknowledgment, faith, fear, reverence, love, worship, and the glorifying God in our conversations. For it is easy to prove out of scripture the necessary concurrence of all these things in their order and place. For if I know God to be the only true God, I must fear, reverence, and obey him, or else I do liot glorify him as God; as it is said of the heathens, Rom. i. 21,
150 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. III.
' When they knew Grod, they glorified him not as God.' (It is not n naked sight of his essence that will save a man: I must know him for a practical end, to choose him, and carry myself to him as an all-suffi- cient portion : I must honour him as the giver of all things ; revere and worship him as the just governor of the world ; and live purely, as he is pure ; and worship him in a way suitable to the infiniteness, perfectness, and simplicity of his nature. A man is not saved by holding a right opinion of God. A man may be a christian in opinion and a pagan in life. So if I know Jesus Christ to be sent of God as mediator, I am to close with him, receive him as such by an active faith: Acts iv. 12, ' There is no salvation in any other;' not only by no other, but in him ; it noteth rmion and close adherence, and not only that I should be of this opinion. As when a man is ready to perish in the floods, it is not enough to see land, but he must reach it, stand upon it, if he would be safe ; so we must get into the ark ; many saw it and scofied, but all others were drowned in that general wrack that were not in it. There was no security for the manslayer till he got into the city of refuge : Phil. iii. 9, ' That I may be found in him.' It is not enough to cry. Lord, Lord ; to have a naked opinion, or general and loose desires.
2. For the object, ' To know thee the only true God.' There are many articles comprised that are necessary to salvation ; as that God is but one: Deut. vi. 4, ' Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord.' One in three persons : 1 John v. 7, ' There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost ; and these three are one.' This God is a spirit: John iv. 24, ' God is a spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth.' He is holy, just, infinite, the creator of all things ; that he upholdeth all things in his eternal decree, raising some_ to glory, leaving others, by their sins, to come to judgment: Eom. ix. 22, 23, ' Wha't if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction ; and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory ? ' All these articles concerning God. So concerning Christ, that he is the second person, incarnate, anointed to be a Saviour, ' to convince the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment,' John xvi. 8. Of man's misery by nature, redemption by Christ, necessity of holiness, as a foundation of glory ; all the articles of the practical catechism. It is a pestilent opinion to think that every man may be saved if he do in the general acknowledge Christ. It is said. Acts ii. 21, ' Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved ;' not ' on the Lord,' but ' on the name of the Lord.' By the name of the Lord is meant all that which shall be revealed to us of the Lord Jesus in the scrip- tures. The meaning is, whosoever doth receive, acknowledge, and worship Christ, according to what the scriptures do reveal and testify of him, shall be saved. Many think the differences of Christendom vain, and this general faith enough ; but if a general acknowledgment were enough, why hath God revealed so many things, and given us such an ample rule, if with safety to salvation we may be ignorant M'hetiier he were true God and true man ; whether he redeemed us by
VeR. 3.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 151
satisfaction, or justified us by works, yea or no? They seem to tax the scriptures of redundances, and the apostles of rash zeal, for dis- puting with such earnestness for the faith of the saints, as Paul against Justiciaries, James against the Antinomists and Libertines, if a general profession of Christ was enough. So they tax the martyrs of folly, that would shed their blood for less-concerning articles. So all be resolved into Christ, men think it is enough: we need not inquire into the manner of the application of his righteousness, the efficacy and merit of his jDassion ; as if it were enough to hold a few generals, and the more implicit our faith the better. Whereas the Lord would have us to abound in knowledge ; and if we persist in any particular error against light, or do not search it out, our case is dangerous, if not damnable. I shall not tnke upon me to determine what articles are absolutely necessary to salvation; it will be hard to define, and we know not by what rule to proceed. In the general, it is exceeding dangerous to lessen the misery of man's nature, the merit and satis- faction of Christ, or the care of good works ; these are contrary to that doctrine which the Spirit teacheth and urgetli in the church : John xvi. 8, ' When he is come, he w^ill convince the world of sin, of right- eousness, and of judgment.' All that can be certain is, that those opinions which are irreconcilable with the covenant of grace, or do overturn the pillar upon which it standeth, are irreconcilable with salvation./