I answer briefly in this place, It is true there are, and ever were, some, yea many, who " profess that they know God, but in works deny him, being abominable and disobedient." The knowledge which such men may attain, and which they make profession of, belongs not unto our inquiry ; and we may easily discern both what it is in itself, and wherein it differs from that true knowledge of God which it is our duty to have: for, —
1. There is in the Scripture, with respect unto the mind and will of God revealed therein, with the mysteries of truth and grace, men- tion of yvuffig and hviyvudic, — "knowledge" and " acknowledgment." The former, if it be alone, affects only the speculative part of the
156 CAUSES, WAYS, AND MEANS, ETC. [BOOK VI., PART II.
mind with notions of truth; and it is of very little use, but subject unto the highest abuse: 1 Cor. viii. 1, 'H yvuaig <pu<noT. It is that which puffs up men into all their proud contentions about religion, which the world is filled withal. The other gives the mind an ex- perience of the power and efficacy of the truth known or discovered, so as to transform the soul and all its affections into it, and thereby to give a " full assurance of understanding" unto the mind itself, Phil, i. 9; Luke i. 4; Col. i. 6, 9, 10, ii. 2, hi. 10; Rom. x. 2; Eph. i. 17, iv. 13; 1 Tim. ii. 4; 2 Tim. ii. 25, iii. 7; Tit. i. 1 ; 2 Pet. i. 2, 3, 8, ii. 20. It is not worth disputing at all what knowledge of the first kind, or what degree therein, men, any men, the worst of men, may attain by their industry and skill in other common arts and sciences ; for what if they should make such a proficiency therein as to be filled with pride in themselves, and to confound others with their subtile disputations, will any real profit redound hence unto them- selves, or the world, or the church of God? It cloth not, therefore, deserve the least contention about it. But that acknowledgment of the truth which affects the heart, and conforms the soul unto the will of God revealed, is not attainable in any degree without the saving illumination of the Spirit of God.
2. Men may have a knowledge of words, and the meaning of pro- positions in the Scripture, who have no knowledge of the things themselves designed in them. The things revealed in the Scripture are expressed in propositions whose words and terms are intelligible unto the common reason of mankind. Every rational man, especi- ally if he be skilled in those common sciences and arts which all writings refer unto, may, without any especial aid of the Holy Ghost, know the meaning of the propositions that are laid down in, or drawn from the Scripture; yea, they can do so who believe not one word of it to be true, and they do so, as well as the best of them, who have no other help in the understanding of the Scripture but their own reason, let them profess to believe what they will. And what- ever men understand of the meaning of the words, expressions, and propositions in the Scripture, if they believe not the things which they declare, they do not in any sense know the mind and will of God in them; for to know a thing as the mind of God, and not to assent unto its truth, implieth a contradiction. I shall never grant that a man understands the Scripture aright who understands the words of it only, and not the things which is the mind of God in them. For instance, the Jews understand the words of the Scripture of the Old Testament in its own original language, and they are able to perceive the grammatical sense and construction of the pro- positions contained in it, — they are unacquainted with them and their writings who will not acknowledge their skill, subtilty, and
CHAP. III.] SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION PROVED FROM SCRIPTURE. 157
accuracy in these things, — yet will not any Christian say they un- derstand the mind of God in the Old Testament. The apostle showeth the contrary, and giveth the reason for it, in the place before insisted on, 2 Cor. iii. Such a knowledge of the Scripture no wise man will value, let it be attained how it will.
3. This knowledge that may be thus attained doth only inform the mind in the way of an artificial science, but doth not really illuminate it ; and to this end men have turned divinity into an art, like other common human arts and sciences, and so they learn it, instead of a spiritual wisdom and understanding of divine myste- ries. It is true that the knowledge of common learned arts and sciences is of great use unto the understanding of the Scriptures, as unto what they have in common with other writings, and what they refer unto that is of human cognizance ; but to bring in all the terms, notions, and rules of those arts and sciences into divinity, and by the mixture of them with it to compose a scheme of divine know- ledge, is all one as if a man should design to make up his house of the scaffolds which he only useth in the building of it. Such is that knowledge of the mind of God in the Scripture which many aim at and content themselves withal ; and it may be attained, as any other art or science may, without any supernatural aid of the Holy Spirit, and is sufficient to drive a trade with; which, as things are stated in the world, men may use and exercise unto their great advantage. But, as was said before, it is not that which we inquire after. That wisdom in the mystery of the gospel, that knowledge of the mind and will of God in the Scripture, which affects the heart, and trans- forms the mind in the renovation of it unto the approbation of the