And here especially I would speak to the younger sort, that they should labour for this stablishing betimes, before they be engaged in the world, and before other businesses possess them over-deeply ; for falsehood hath more correspondency, and suits better with our corruption, specially if it be forced from subtle wits. It prevails much with unstable dispositions. Those that are uncatechised and ungrounded, they are soon led away ; and, therefore, with other studies we should study the truth, and remember that our best calling is to be a Christian, and our best honour to be able to stand for the truth we profess.
Labour to have fundamental graces established, and then all will be stab- lished. If the root be strengthened, the tree stands fast ; radical graces must be strengthened.
First, HumiUtiJ. The foundation of religion is very low, and humility and abasing is in all parts of religion. Every grace hath a mixture of humi- lity, because our graces ai'e from God ; they are dependencies. Now humility is an emptying grace, and acknowledgeth, that in myself I am nothing. Spiritual poverty with humility acknowledgeth that I in myself am a dependent creature. If God withhold his influence, if God withdraw his grace, I shall be as other men, as Samson when his hair was cut. Our strength is in God altogether. Let us praj^ that we may be humble ; ' God gives grace to the humble,' James iv. 6. ' When I am weak,' saith blessed St Paul, ' then I am strong;' that is, when I am humble, and feel, and acknowledge my weakness, ' then I am strong,' 2 Cor. xii. 10 ; or else a man is not strong when he is weak, but when he feels and acknowledgeth his weakness. Therefore let us labour to grow in humility and self-denial, and we shall grow in strength.
2. Then again, another radical gi-ace to be stablished is Faith. Depend upon God altogether ; for considering our strength is out of ourselves, and faith being a grace that goes out of om'selves, and lays hold of that that is out of ourselves, faith is necessary to our stablishing, ' Believe, and ye shall be stablished,' saith the prophet, 1 Pet. v. 10.* Though the promise be sure in itself, yet we must be established by faith. How doth God stablish us '? By working a spirit of faith ; therefore strengthen faith, strengthen all other graces. All have their issue from faith.
3. And faith comes from sound knoivIeJ;/e ; knowledge therefore hath the
* Qu. ' Isa. vii. 9 '? '—Ed. VOL. ni. £6
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name of faith, ' This is etonial life, ta Iniow ihtu',' 1 John v. 20 ; Rlronfffhen and increase laiowk'dffo. Historical faith is nothin<,' l)iit knowledf^'c ; when wo know the word of God to he as it is ; and that is the ground of justi- fying faith and dependence. For the more I know God in covenant as he hath revealed himself, and tlie more I know the promise, and the more I know Christ, the more I shall depend upon him, and trust in him. ' They that know th}' name will trust in thee,' Ps. ix. 10.
Therefore let us labour for certainty of knowledge, that we may have certainty of fixith. What is the reason that our faith is weak ? ]iecause men care not to increase their knowledge. The moi'e we know of God, the more we shall trust him. The more we know of a man that we have bonds from, that he is an able man, and just of his word, we shall trust him more, and the more our security upon his promise and bond is increased. So the more we know of God as he hath revealed liimself in liis word, and his voluntary covenant he hath made with us, and performed in the examples of Scripture, the more we know him, the more we shall trust him.
And this must l)e a spiritual knowledge ; not only a bare, naked reading, but it must be spiritual, like the truth itself. We must see and know spi- ritual things in their own light. To know them by their own light is to know them .by the Spirit. You know the Spirit dictated the Scripture to the prophets and apostles, the Spirit did all : they wrote as they were acted by the Spirit. Now the same Spirit must inform our understanding, and take away the veil of ignorance and infidelity, I say, the Spirit must do it : we must know spiritual things in their own light.
Therefore a carnal man can never be a good divine, though he have never so much knowledge. An illiterate man of another calling may be a better divine than a great scholar. Why ? Because the one hath only notional knowdedge, discoursive knowledge, to gather by strength of parts one thing from another. Divinity is a kind of art, and as far as it is an art to prove one thing by another ; so a natural man may do wonders in it, and yet know nothing in its own spiritual light. That is the reason the devil him- self knows nothing. He is a spirit of darkness, because he knows nothing spiritually and comfortably ; therefore as there must be humility and faith for our stablishing, so there must be spiritual knowledge.