2. There is no serving or enjoying of God but by knowledge. I do not plead for a naked knowledge, and an inactive speculation, but such as is accompanied with faith, love, and obedience, otherwise it is no true knowledge. No knowledge, no faith : Kom. x. 14, ' How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard ? ' We must know what Christ is before we can trust him with our souls. Would a woman accept of a man when she knows not what he is, nor from whence he came ? Can the soul rest itself with Christ, and venture its salvation upon him, till it knows what he is ? 2 Tim. i. 12, ' I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.' Faith is an advised act, it is a child of light. Presumption is but a blind adventure, an act that is done hand-over-head, without advice and care ; but faith certainly presupposeth knowledge. The blind man speaks reason in this, when Christ asked him, ' Dost thou believe on the Son of God?' John ix. 35. He answered, ver. 36, ' Who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him ?' And then for love. No know- ledge, no love. An unknown object never affects us. Love proceeds from sight. Those that have a sight of the excellences of God, by the light of the Spirit accompanying the word, they love the Lord. And then where there is no love, there is no knowledge : 1 John iv. 8, ' He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love.' And then for worship and obedience, that is also the fruit of knowledge ; that worship which is performed to the unknown God is never right. As those fruits that grow out of the sun are crabbed and sour, so all such acts of worship as proceed not from light and knowledge are not right and genuine. There cannot be a greater preservative from sin than knowledge : 3 Jolm 11, ' He that doeth evil hath not seen God.' Cer- tainly he that makes a trade and course of sin was never acquainted with God : 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.' And there
120 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XLIII.
can be no enjoyment of God without knowledge, neither in a way of grace nor in a way of comfort. Not in a way of grace : there can be no grace without knowledge ; if we be renewed and changed, it is by knowledge : Col. iii. 10, ' And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.' If we be strengthened in affliction, and enabled for the duties of every condition, it is by knowledge : Phil. iv. 12, ' I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound ; everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.' All communications of grace are conveyed by light. Nor can there be any enjoyment of God in a way of comfort without light and knowledge. Fears are in the dark ; till we have a distinct knowledge of the nature and tenor of the covenant we are full of fears and doubts, which vanish as a mist before the sun when know- ledge is wrought.
Second proposition. There is no knowledge of the true God without the knowledge of Christ as mediator. For two reasons : —
1. Because God will accept no honour from the creature but in and through Jesus Christ : John v. 23, * That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father that hath sent him.' God hath revealed himself in Christ, and you make God an idol if you think of him otherwise.
2. Because God out of Christ is not comfortable, but terrible. The fallen creature cannot converse with God without a mediator. As waters, which are salt in the sea, strained through the earth, are sweet in rivers, so are the attributes of God in and through Christ sweet and comfortable to the soul ; for we cannot draw nigh to God without a screen.
Use. To press us to get knowledge. The more knowledge, the more a man ; the more ignorant, the more brutish : Ps. xlix. 20, ' Man that is in honour, and void of understanding, is like the beasts that perish.' And again, as knowledge doth distinguish you from beasts, so the knowledge of God doth distinguish you from other men ; to know God is your excellency above other men : Jer. ix. 23. 24, ' Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let 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, that I am the Lord,' &c. As if he had said, If you will needs glory, it is not who is most wealthy, nor most mighty, nor most wise, but who hath the greatest knowledge of God in Christ. Above all, know God in Christ, that is most comfortable. Homble est de Deo extra Christum cogitare. It is a horrible thing to think of God out of Christ. God in Christ is the greatest mercy the world was ever acquainted with; this is a speculation fit for angels: 1 Peter i. 12, ' Which things the angels desire to look into ;' Eph. iii. 10, ' To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.' And therefore much more should it be the study of saints. But do not rest in a naked contemplation ; there is ' a form of knowledge,' Kom. ii. 20, as well as ' a form of godliness,' 2 Tim. iii. 5, which is nothing