53. I don’t call you from a sober use of human learning, but I would fain persuade you to think nothing worthy of your notice in books and study, but that which applies to the amendment of the heart, which makes you more holy, more divine, more heavenly, than you would be without it. You want nothing, but to have the corruption of your natural birth removed, to have the nature, life, and spirit of Jesus Christ derived into you. As this is all you want, so let this be all that you seek from books, study, or men. This is the only certain way to become eminent divines, instructed to the kingdom of heaven. And above all, let me tell you that the book of all books is your own heart, in which are written and engraven the deepest lessons of divine instruction. Learn therefore to be deeply attentive to the presence of God in your heart, who is always speaking, always instructing, always illuminating that heart that is attentive to him: and be assured of this, that so much as you have of inward attention to God, of love and adherence to his holy light and Spirit, so much as you have of real, unaffected humility and meekness; so much as you are dead to your own will, so much as you have of purity of heart; so much and no more, nor any further, do you see and know the truths of God. These virtues are the only eyes, and ears and senses, by which you will understand every thing in scripture, in that manner in which God would have it understood, both for your own good, and the good of other people.
54. It was owing to this purity of heart, and attendance upon God, that an ancient widow named _Anna_, knew him to be the true Messiah, whom the rulers, chief priests, and doctors of the law, condemned as an impostor. Had they, instead of their adherence to critical knowledge and rabbinical learning, been devoted to God in such purity of heart as she was, they had known as much of the kingdom of God, as she did. Place therefore all your hope, all your learned help and skill, in the ardent love and practice of _these virtues_. And then, you will be able ministers, holy priests, and messengers of God; your cleansed hearts, like so many purified mirrors, will be always penetrated, always illuminated by the rays of divine light, and you will no more need the critics, to tell you what God speaks to you in the scriptures. But of all men in the world, the critical dealers in words and particles, know the least of them, and make the vainest attempts to understand them. Scripture considered as a doctrine of _life_, _faith_ and _salvation_ in Jesus Christ, is a sealed or unsealed, an open or shut up book to every heart, in the same proportion as it stands turned to the world, or turned to God. Nothing understands God, but the Spirit of God; nothing brings the Spirit of God into any mind but the renouncing all for it, the turning wholly unto it, and the depending wholly upon it. * Human learning is by no means to be rejected from religion, for it is of the same use, and affords the same assistance to religion, that the _alphabet_, _writing_ and _printing_ does. But if it is raised from this kind and degree of assistance, if it is considered as a key, or the key to the mysteries of our redemption, instead of opening to us the kingdom of God, it locks us up in our own darkness. God is an all speaking, _all working_, _all illuminating_ essence, possessing the depth of every creature according to its nature; and when we turn from all impediments, this divine essence becomes as certainly the true light of our minds here, as it will be hereafter. This is not enthusiasm, but the words of truth and soberness; and it is the running away from this enthusiasm, that has made so many great scholars as useless to the church as tinkling cymbals, and Christendom a mere _Babel_ of learned confusion.
Some ANIMADVERSIONS upon Dr. ♦TRAPP’s late REPLY.
HAD I the spirit of an _adversary_, or were inclined to find entertainment for the _satirical reader_, it would not be easy for me to overlook the opportunity which Dr. _♦Trapp_’s Reply has put into my hands; but as I don’t want to lessen any appearance of ability which the Doctor has shewn on this occasion; so whatever _personally_ concerns him, either as a _writer_, a _scholar_, a _disputant_, a _divine_, or a _Christian_, shall have no reflection from me; and tho’ by this means, some sort of readers may be less pleased, yet, the more Christian reader will be glad to find, that thus I must leave _two thirds_ of his reply untouched; and as I neither have, nor (by the grace of God) ever will have any _personal contention_ with any man whatever, so all the _triumph_ which the Doctor has gained over me by that flow of wrath and contempt which he has let loose upon me, I shall leave him quietly to enjoy.
♦ “Trap” replaced with “Trapp”