how much is there of it in the present day ! How many are *' fond of vain jangling, desiring to be teachers, though they understand not what they say, nor whereof they affirm," but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmises, and perverse disputings'^ !" Whereas the one rule of conduct to a Christian should be this : " We that ai'e strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves*^." In truth, I scarcely know whether ignorance itself be not preferable to knowledge so absurd : for ignorance is destructive to ourselves only; whereas a contemptuous spirit of dictation is injurious to the whole Church. But this I know, at all events, that " if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth him- self*^;" and that true wisdom is, to " esteem others better and wiser than ourselves^."]
But let me turn from this painful subject, to mark,
II. The qualities with which our knowledge should be imbued —
Knowledge is doubtless a most signal blessing, if it be accompanied with those dispositions which will turn it to good account. It should in every instance be blended,
I. With humility — [The effect of knowledge should always be, to shew us how little we know. In every science under heaven we can advance but a little way: after a few steps, we are wholly out of our depth. And, if this be the case with respect to sciences which admit of demonstration, how much more must it be so in reference to religion, where we know nothing but by revelation ! Look at the philosophers of Greece and Rome, and see how little they knew, either of God or man. The most unlearned person who has been instructed in the knowledge of the Gospel has juster views of God, and of man, than all the wise men of antiquity put together. Yet what does the most exalted Christian know, either of the one or the other? Of God we have no positive knowledge at all : our knowledge of him is altogether negative. We know that He is not a material being; and therefore we call him a Spirit: but we know no more what a Spirit is, than we did the hour that we were born. We assign to him certain perfections : but what those perfections are in themselves, or how they are exercised, we know scarcely any thing: we only know that he is ?iot weak,
= 1 Tim. i. 0, 7. and vi. 4. ^ Rom. xv. 1.
c Gal. vi. .3. f Phil. ii. 3.