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and philosophical learning "in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus." Phil. 3. 8. Other knowledge swells the mind, and increases the esteem of ourselves, this gives us a sincere view of our state. It discovers our misery in its causes, and the almighty mercy that saves us. Other knowledge enlightens the understanding, without changing the heart, but this inspires us with the love of God, with the hatred of sin, and makes us truly better. In seeking after other knowledge, the mind is perplexed by endless inquiries: here it is at rest, as the wavering needle is fixed when turned to its beloved star. Ignoranee of other things may be without any real damage to us; for we may be directed by the skilful how to preserve life and estate. But this knowledge is absolutely necessary to justify, sanctify, and save us. All other knowledge is useless at the hour of death, Isa. 53. then the richest stock of learning is lost, the vessel being split wherein the treasure was laid; but this pearl of inestimable price is both the ornament of our prosperity, and the support of our adversity. A little ray of this is infinitely more desirable, than the light of all human sciences in their lustre and perfection.

And what an amazing folly is it, that men, who are possessed with an earnest passion of knowing, should waste their time and strength in searching after things, the knowledge of which cannot remove the evils that oppress them, and be careless of the saving knowledge of the gospel? Were there no other reason to diminish the esteem of earthly knowledge, but the difficulty of its acquisition, that error often surprises those who are searching after truth, this might check our intemperate pursuit of it. Sin hath not only shortened our understandings, but our lives, that we cannot arrive to the perfect discovery of inferior objects. But suppose that one, by his vast mind, should comprehend all created things, from the centre of the earth to the circumference of the heavens, and were not savingly enlightened in the mys tery of our redemption, with all his knowledge he would be a prey to satan, and increase the triumphs of hell. The historian upbraids the Roman luxury, that with so much cost and hazard they should send to foreign parts, for trees that were beautiful but barren, and produced a shadow only without fruit. * With

* Quis non miretur umbræ tantum gratia alieno ex petitam orbe? Plin.

greater reason we may wonder, that men should, with the expence of their precious hours purchase barren curiosities, which are unprofitable to their last end. How can a condemned criminal, who is in suspence between life and death, attend to study the secrets of nature and art, when all his thoughts are taken up how to prevent the execution of the sentence? And it is no less than a prodigy of madness, that men, who have but a short and uncertain space allowed them to escape the wrath to come, should rack their brains in studying things impertinent to salvation, and neglect the knowledge of a Redeemer. Especially when there is so clear a revelation of him: " the righteousness of faith doth not command us to ascend to the heavens, or descend into the deep to make a discovery of it; but the word is nigh us, that discovers the certain way to a happy immortality." Rom. 10. 6,7. Seneca, a philosopher, and a courtier, valued his being in the world only upon this account, that he might contemplate the starry heaven. (Senec. pref. 1. nat. quæst.) He only saw the visible beauty of the firmament, but was ignorant of the glory within it, and of the way that leads to it; yet, to our shame, he speaks, that the sight of it made him despise the earth, and without the contemplation of the celestial bodies, he esteemed his continuance in the world not the life of a man, but the toil of a beast. But what transports had he been in, if he had been acquainted with the contrivance of our redemption, the admirable order of its parts, and the beauty that results from the composition of the whole ? "But we that with open face may in the glass of the gospel behold the glory of the Lord, turn away our eyes from it to vanity." 2 Cor. 3. 18. Here the complaint is more just, Ad sapientiam quis accedit? quis dignam judicat nisi quam in transitu noverit? We content ourselves with slight and transient glances, but do not seriously and fixedly consider this blessed design of God, upon which the beginning of our happiness in this, and the perfection of it in the next life is built. Let us provoke ourselves by the example of the angels,

* Quid erat cur in numero viventium me positum esse gauderem ? an ut cibos & potum percolarem? ut hoc corpus casu rum, ad fluidum, periturumque nisi subinde impleatur, farcirem ? & viverem ægri minister? ut morţi timerem cui omnes nascimur? Detrahe hoc inestimabile bonum, non est vita tanti ut sudem, ut æstuem. O quam contempta res est homo nisi supra humana se erexerit!

who are not concerned in this redemption as man is; for they continued in their fidelity to their Creator, and were always happy in his favour; and where there is no alienation between parties, reconcilement is unnecessary; yet they are students with us in the same book, and unite all their powers in the contemplation of this mystery: they are represented stooping to pry into these secrets, 1 Pet. 1. 12. to signify their delight in what they know, and their desire to advance in the knowledge of them. With what intention then should we study the gospel, who are the subject and end of it!

CHAP. VII.

The simple speculation of the gospel not sufficient without a real belief, and cordial acceptance. The reasons why the Jews and Gentiles conspired in the contempt of it, How just it is to resign up the understanding to revelation. God knows his own nature and will, and cannot deceive us. We must believe the things that are clearly revealed, though we do not understand the manner of their existence: although they are attended with seeming contradictions. No article of faith is really repugnant to reason. We must distinguish between things incomprehensible and inconceivable. Between corrupt and right reason. How reason is subservient to faith. Humility and holiness qualify for the belief of the gospel-mysteries. A naked belief of supernatural truths is unprofitable for salvation. An effectual assent that prevails upon the will, and renders the whole man obsequious, is due to the quality of the gospel-revelation,

THE simple speculation of this glorious mystery, will be of no profit without a real belief of it, and a cordial acceptance of salvation, upon the terms which the divine wisdom prescribes. The gospel requires the obedience of the understanding, and of the will; unless it obtains a full possession of the soul, there is no saving efficacy derived from it. And such is the sublimity and purity of the object, that till reason is sanctified and subdued, it cannot sincerely entertain it. I will therefore distinctly consider the opposition which carnal reason hath made against it; and

show how just it is that the human understanding should, with reverence, yield up itself to the word of God, that reveals this great mystery to us.

The apostle tells us, 1 Cor. 1. That Jews and Gentiles conspired in the contempt of the gospel. Reason cannot hear without great astonishment, for the appearing contradiction between the terms, that God should be made man, and the eternal die. The Jews esteemed it an intolerable blasphemy, and without any process of law were ready to stone the Lord Jesus, "that being a man, he should make himself equal with God." John 10. 33. And they upbraided him in his sufferings that he could not save himself. "If he be the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross, and we will believe on him." Mat. 27. 42. The Gentiles despised the gospel as an absurd ill-contrived fable, 1 Cor. 1. 23. For what in appearance is more unbecoming God, and injurious to his perfections, than to take the frail garment of flesh, to be torn and trampled on? * Their natural knowledge of the Deity inclined them to think the incarnation impossible. There is no resemblance of it in the whole compass of nature. For natural union supposes the parts incomplete, and capable of perfection by their joining together: but that a being infinitely perfect should assume by personal union a nature inferior to itself, the heathens looked on it as a fable, forged according to the model of the fictions concerning Danae and Antiope. Orig. cont. Cels. And the doctrine of our Saviour's death on the cross they rejected, as an impiety contumelious to God. They judged it inconsistent with the majesty and happiness of the Deity, to ascribe to him that which is the punishment of the most guilty and miserable. In the account of carnal reason, they thought more worthily of God by denying that of him, which is only due to the worst of men. Celsus, (Orig. contra Cels. lib. 1.) who, with as much subtilty as malice, urges all, that with any appearance, could be objected against our Saviour, principally insists on his poverty and sufferings, the meanness and misery of his condition in the world. It was fit, saith he, "that the Son of God should appear as the sun, which renders itself conspicuous by its own light:" but the gospel having declared the word to be

* Negant deo dignum, ut homo fieri vellet, seque infirmitate carnis oneraret, ut passionibus, ut doloribus, ut morti se ipse subjiceret. Lact.

the Son of God, relates, that he was a man of sorrows, that had no power to defend himself, and was deserted by his Father and followers, scourged with rods, and shamefully executed. * He could not reconcile so many things that seemed utterly incompatible, as sovereignty and servitude, innocence and punishment, the lowest of human miseries, death, with the highest of divine honours, adoration. Briefly, nothing was more contrary to flesh and blood, than to believe that person to be the Redeemer of the world, who did not rescue himself from his enemies; and to expect immortality from him that was overcome by death. Now the causes of this infidelity are,

1. The darkness of the mind, which is so corrupted by original pravity, that it cannot behold heavenly mysteries in their proper light, so as to acquiesce in the truth of them. "The natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. 2. 14. The apostle takes notice of the disaffection of the heart, and the incapacity of the mind, not prepared and illustrated by grace, to embrace and discern spiritual things in their verity and beauty. There is a great disproportion between the natural understanding, though elevated and enlarged by secular learning, and supernatural truth. For though the rational soul is a spirit, as it is distinguished from corporeal beings; yet till it is purged from error, and vicious affections, it can never discover the divinity of things spiritual, so as to embrace them with certainty and delight. As there must be a spirit of revelation to unveil the object, so of wisdom to enlighten the eye, that it may be prepared for the reception of it. As heaven is only seen by its own light, so Christ is by his own spirit. Divine objects, and faith that discerns them, are of the same original, and of the same quality. The natural understanding, as the effects declare, is like the funeral lamps, which, by the ancients, were put into sepulchres, to guard the ashes of their dead friends, which shine so long as they are kept close, a thick moist vapour feeding them, and repairing what was consumed: but, in opening the sepulchres, and exposing them to the free air, they presently faint and expire. Thus natural reason,

* Κέλσος ὀνειδίζει τῷ Σωτηρι ἐπὶ τῶ πάθει, ως μη βοήθεν τι υπο τε πατρος, ἢ μη δυνηθέντι ἑαυτῶ βοηθῆσαι;

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