they be an acceptable offering to him, when they were cleansed and purified from their corruption1. Thus also must your learning be sanctified : it must not be set in competition with the word of God, but be made subservient to it. Beware then lest it blind your eyes, and fill you with a conceit that you do not need to be taught of God : for what the Apostle says is alike applicable to the philosopher and the peasant, " If any man will be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise." We must have the docility of " little children, if wTe would enter into the kingdom of heaven ;" and if we will not humble ourselves in that manner, God has told us, that " he will take the wise in their own craftiness." In subserviency to the Gospel, your learning will be an invaluable blessing : but in opposition to it, it will prove a curse ; for God will " confound the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."
Are we then desirous of attaining these heavenly treasures ? Let us seek after them in the Holy Scriptures : and whilst we seek for knowledge as silver, and " search for it as for hid treasures, let us cry to God for it, and lift up our voice to him ; since it is the Lord alone that giveth wisdom, and out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding"1." Let us beg of God to " give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him ; that the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from from the dead11." In this way we may hope to " acquaint ourselves with God," and to attain the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Then we may hope also to " shine as lights in a dark world," and " be as cities set upon
1 Numb. xxxi. 23, 54. ra Prov. ii. 1—6. n Eph. i. 16—20.