VeR. 17.] SERBIONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 387
Men will not search when they have a mind to hate and condemn any- thing which unqnestionably concerns God's interest in the world.
4. Some think ignorance is the mother of devotion, and that men leave off to be good when they grow more knowing. Snrely that is the fanlt of the men, not of the knowledge ; for all divine truths be- friend sanctification. Others say the world is too wise to be governed ; and since everyone came to know religion, and dispute of it, it breedeth factions. But this is unjust also ; it were well if the world were too wise to be brought under a kingdom of darkness. If men will impose on the church of God things which they ought not, they have cause to impute the divisions to their own tyranny and usurpation, not to the scriptures or the study of the scriptures ; as if this principle of an easy implicit faith, to believe as the church believeth, were more effectual to produce true piety and goodness than the knowledge of God's will. This is to set men above God, as if they by their testimony and impo- sitions did more safely secure the interest of religion in the world than God hath done by a book indited by his own Spirit, or as if that were dangerous to be commonly read or meditated upon. In short, God's children are children of light, and the children of light must not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. None will deprive others of this privilege but those that have no mind to it them- selves.
Use 2. Is to press us to get this knowledge and understanding of God's will. The apostle speaketh to children of light ; and none of us know so much but we may know more.
1. Labour to get a more full knowledge of heavenly mysteries, especiall}'' of those which are necessary to salvation, not excluding other truths which secure the necessary things ; for we must not always be children, and keep to our milk : Heb. v. 12, 13, ' For when for the time ye ought to be teacheis, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk, is unskilful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.' Besides, there are maculce et vulnera intellectiis, the spots and the wounds of the understanding Dangerous are the wounds, but errors as spots much hinder our edification and growth in grace ; for all grace is either light or strength, and strength is increased by the increase of light : 2 Peter i. 2, ' Grace and peace be multiplied unto you, through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.'
2. Get a more clear knowledge. Fulness relateth to the object, or matters known ; clearness to the subject or faculty knowing, A christian should see further into those truths which he doth already know : Hosea vi. 3, ' Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord.' Moses' first request was, 'Tell me thy name ;' his second,
* Show me thy glory.' The godly are unsatisfied : Prov. xxx. 2, 3,
* Snrely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the under- standing of a man. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the know- ledge of the holy.' To know a truth as we ought to know it : 1 Cor. viii. 2, 3, 'And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know ; but if any man love God, i the same is known of him.' New light is not a finding out new truths, but a seeing further into the same truths. Our <jrrowth in knowledge
388 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SeR. XXI.
is ratlier intensive as to degrees than extensive as to objects ; not know- ing new truths but when okl principles are improved : Prov. iv. 18, * But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day ; ' Ps. cxix. 18, ' Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.' David doth not pray that God would make another law, but that God would give him a clearer understanding of this.
3. Get a more certain knowledge, or more confirmed knowledge in the truth : Acts ii. 36, ' Let the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ ; ' John xvii. 8, ' For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.' Not by hearsay and tradition, but solid evidence : John iv. 42, * Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.'
4. Get a more distinct knowledge. Truths are best known in their frame and dependence. A confused knowledge is always unsatis- factory, it is not cognitio quietativa, till we see how one truth agreeth ■with another, as the curtains of the tabernacle were fastened by loops ; till we are able to ' compare things spiritual with spiritual,' 1 Cor. ii. 13, or know things according to the analogy of faith : Rom. xii, 3, ' For, I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.' Every truth must be known in its order and place, other- wise we have but a confused notion of things, as the blind man saw men walking like trees.