"We must not, however, misunderstand the Apostle, as though this unction of the Holy One superseded an attention to the word of God, or the necessity of continual diligence on our part. The word of God is, after all, our only directory : and to imagine, as some do, that the light within renders the written word unnecessary, is a very dangerous error. The light within is necessary, just as the light of the sun is for the discovery of time upon the dial : but as the dial is of no use without the sun, so neither will the sun suffice without the dial. And, whatever office the Holy Spirit executes, he executes it by and through the written word. Nor let it be supposed that we can acquire divine knowledge without much studious application to the word of God : for Solomon tells us, that it is not by either prayer or study, separately, that we can attain knowledge : it must be by both combined : " If we cry after knowledge, and search for it as for hid treasures, then shall we understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of Godm."
It is proper I should yet further guard against an idea, that this divine unction supersedes the necessity of diffidence on our part : for though it is true, that, on the great leading and fundamental doctrines of the fall, and of the recovery by Jesus Christ, the inward witness of these truths may suffice to pre- serve us, there are ten thousand errors, into which we may
e Jer. xvii. 9. f Phil. hi. 9. s John xv. 5.
h Prov. xxviii. ">. ' Rom. viii. 13. k 2 Cor. xii. 9.
1 2 Cor. hi. 18. m Prov. ii. 3 — 5.