of the Law and followed that their School-master it would have led them to Christ. This is the Assertion primarily intended by the Text regarding those who were then to receive the Gospel there remains the other respecting us who have already received it If any one will do the Will of God which he does know he shall know it better Now what was but intimated before is here more expresly to be observed that Knowledge is of two kinds the one simple and speculative where the Vnderstanding conceives and assents by it self our Will and Affections standing by and taking no part the other mixt and compounded by the intervention of the Will where that is interested in what is to be asserted or practised and must concurr in the Allowance of it And the first of these even the speculative whether it consists in apprehending what the Doctrine means or in conceiving its Truth and Reasonableness is by Practice both ways very much facilitated and confirmed In Mathematical Sciences the way of performing a Problem however demonstratively assigned remains further to be verified by the Operation and in considerations of Nature the Will of God wrought by his own hands the best method of Knowledge is that which is Experimental and Works too which puts the Divine Materials into our hands and looks not only upon their Surface in some single View but turns them and surveys them on all sides weighs and examines opens and searches their inmost Recesses For this sort of Truth as Gold is to be labour'd after and dug for and not to be judg'd only by the Sight but by the Touch and the Scale or by the Hammer and the Fire And if this be true in the Speculation of what God himself has been pleased to make much more will it be in the Knowledge of that which we by his Command are to Doe For it can be no otherwise with the practical Doctrine of God than it is acknowledged to be in the Arts and practical Professions of Men where the true Insight is not so much from the Apprehensions we may have by Discourse and Meditation as by Dealing in them and being actually exercis'd and conversant about them the knowledge of such things as are to be done which arises from our mental Conceptions being but as the rough Draught or first Lines of a Picture and that when it is consummated by experience as a finish'd Piece raised with all its Lineaments and Colours Or rather the Notional Knowledge is as the Picture and the Active as the Thing it self the one being but in Imagination and as a Dream and the other Real and Solid and Sensible For whoever is our Instructor and how plainly soever he may express himself we are yet to learn in things practical from Exercise and Vse the last Master and the best Interpreter This obtains in the Arts of Government or War or Merchandise in any of the Affairs of this World and holds as true in Ethical Knowledge and the Business of Religion For as the Natural Philosopher forbad the uninstructed in Geometry to enter his School so the Moralist has it is known discouraged his too Youthful Auditors as unfit for his Lectures not only because they might not yet patiently hear of Moderation of their Passions and Pleasure but because till they had begun to practise it they could not rightly understand it not being yet by reason of Vse exercis'd to discern such Good and Evil. Temperance for example is in this like to the Pleasures from which it orders us to abstain that it cannot be conceived only from Words must be tasted too if we would know its Nature and its Relish Justice likewise and Charity are best understood by their Practitioners those in any case of Difficulty would prove better Directors than the more studied Casuist would solve and remove the Doubts which these would serve only to intricate and to multiply They would too by the Exercise of those Vertues see more reason for them more of their Suitableness to the well-disposed Nature of Man than Books could speak or Theory discover In like manner He that constantly and devoutly prays to his Maker best apprehends the Nature of the Duty and best perceives the Use and Comfort of it better than those who have heard or made long Discourses about it The Meaning of the Lord's Prayer is more sensibly understood by one that prays it over to God earnestly and concernedly with Dependance on the Divine Greatness and Goodness in reference to the daily Occurrences of his Life than it can be by the critical Consideration of the best Commentator alone And he that thus daily addresses to his Father which is in Heaven with a dutiful Resignation and filial Trust has more of satisfactory Assurance and inward Peace than the Children of this World can imagine or he himself express And thus taking the Vnderstanding by it self and unaffected with our Will the Will of God is better known by being done If done by others it is more conspicuous to us on their Lives and better explain'd and illustrated by the Example but if by our selves and made one of our own Actions it is then taken into us habituated and incorporated in us intimately and intirely perceived Whereas too all Humane Designs are generally fairer in the Idea than the Practice on the contrary the Divine Pleasure must be more lik'd and approv'd when it is reduced into Act and really exhibited who ever shall put it in Execution but much more will it delight us if perform'd by our selves it will then become our Pleasure too and we look back with the Satisfaction of our Creator and see that All is good which we have done according to his Will But secondly if we consider this Knowledge not formed by the Understanding only but with the agreement of the Will as it is in all the Affairs of this and the other World then Doing and Practice will be found still more necessary for the advancing and completing it For though in Matters of Knowledge the Will has no direct proper Concurrence nor is the Consent of it strictly necessary to the Assent of the Understanding yet it has such a tacit but effectual Influence such a domestick conjugal Authority that the Understanding is seldom firmly or long on that side to which the other Faculty is not inclined and therefore as far as doing contributes to reconcile keep up and fortifie the Will so much it prepares and disposes for the preserving as well as the receiving of Knowledge Now the doing of God's Will does operate on ours with this threefold Advantage 1. The Practice of the Duty takes off from the strangeness of it and removes all the imaginary Difficulty we fansied to be in the Work before we set upon it The Task was before represented to us as some good Man may be to those who have not practised him a rigid morose austere thing whereas after Conversation and some Familiarity there is nothing
something of the Dispute in fashion and enable them to maintain one side of the Argument to hold up Conversation and to talk of Jesus but not to make a judgment in good earnest a practical one by which they would determine their Actions and which they would stand by with their Lives such a real effectual one as they would have made had they been willing to do But though in the general they might be willing to know and not only hear him gladly but do many things for his sake yet many things still there might be which they might be either unfit or unwilling to understand either their former Prejudices might obstruct or their Interests and Passions disturb and oppose if their will to do God's Will were not firm and resolute strong enough to set aside those Hinderances and over-rule all Contradictions The power of single Praepossession and speculative Prejudice is well known An Opinion once possess'd of us claims a kind of Right a legal Favour to be shewn it and if the Possession be ancient and time out of mind the Title is not easie to be evicted But as a Prejudice it is a Point already judg'd and settled hardly to be brought into question before the same Judge much less to be revers'd by him And for such Reasons only it might have been hard for an innocent Pharisee to find the Ceremonies and Observations of his Sect disparag'd and discharg'd those which the great Rabbies had encouraged and the Tradition of their Fore-fathers had recommended but much less could he ever admit that the Ceremonial Law of Moses was to give way and that a Greater than Moses himself was now speaking unto them He might be willing to do the Divine Will as he now apprehended it to be conformable to his Education and Practice willing to do the Will of God but as willing at the same time to do the will of Moses and the Elders But if now we suppose this Pharisee to be some governing Master whose Authority is founded in his Knowledge of those Traditions and whose high satisfaction it is to fit in Moses his Seat and to be called Rabbi he is then so much addicted to them not only by Praepossession of Mind but by the Prae-ingagement of his Affections that should Moses himself have come he might not have been willing to leave the Chair much less to hear any of his old oracular Learning upon the Law which made him Great but that of no effect censur'd and condemn'd by this Law-giver For he is not so willing to do God's Will as to preserve his own Place and Reputation that we may not imagine he would be controll'd by our Saviour and descend to learn from the Galilean and one that never knew Letters But still if we go further and understand some one of the avaritious malicious lewd and hypocritical Pharisees as unwilling then as he would be to forego his Vices so unwilling will he be to understand the Law against them much more to receive a New one which shall oppose him with a more express and more peremptory Declaration And on this account it was that all our Saviour's Miracles were not of force enough to convince them of his Authority His single Sermon on the Mount and the Holiness there prescrib'd would never suffer them to be perswaded by him The Pharisees that were covetous derided him for his charitable Directions and those who brought the Adulteress before him and were not guiltless enough from the same Crime to prosecute it far as they left the Accusation so they fled from his Reproof They all therefore sought instead of being instructed by his Words to have something thence to inform against him As many Vices as there were so many Adversaries there generally were to his Doctrine practical Prejudices with which they were praepossess'd as with so many Daemons and which would not be perswaded nor argued out for what had they to do with the Son of David This is that Diabolical Race which paid him less respect than the Devils themselves They would not come out at his Command but rather treated Him as those impure Spirits did the Sons of Sceva fell upon him and drove him out not remov'd him out of a Country by Intreaty as the Gadarens but out of the World with all Despight and Cruelty as the greatest Malefactor of the Three as guilty of Treason against Caesar and of Blasphemy against God because guilty of Opposition to their Corruptions For he that has no mind to be deny'd any sinful Pleasure he indulges or any ungodly Advantage he values will be very averse from hearing that such an Abstinence is the Will of God will either cavil at the Message and dispute its Authority or wrest and interpret it to his own Will Nay so far we know Men otherwise of good Vnderstandings may be brought by Adherence to their Lusts as to deny the natural Notions of common Justice and to question the being of their Maker they will not comply with the Directions he has given and therefore they will neither know his Pleasure nor his Person who is the Lord This is the great Impediment of Knowledge our Saviour here means a Dullness of Vnderstanding not for want of Ability but Will to apprehend in those who hear and will not understand and seeing see but will not perceive because their Heart is waxed gross and their Ears are dull of hearing and their Eyes have they clos'd lest they should see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and understand with their Hearts and be converted Whereas on the other side if there were a Willingness to do God's Will there would be no need of any great Intellectual Abilities to perceive it The Duties of Justice and Mercy are easily discern'd by the meanest Capacity Judgment to come Man naturally forebodes and the Being of a God it is a Difficulty to the Understanding not to allow The Doubts and Obscurities arise not from the Nature of the things to be consider'd nor from the Weakness of the Faculty that should consider but from the Prevarication of our sensual Desires we are sway'd by some indirect means that appear not to have any Influence upon us some little favourite consideration which we are loth to own but by which we are govern'd effectually Had the Auditors therefore of Christ come ready dispos'd to have obey'd God's Will without any Reserve for their own with no Inclination nor Passion but for his Service they would have perceiv'd the Almighty Power in the Miracles our Saviour did and discern'd the Divine Law in the Instructions he gave them had they first stripped themselves of their Prejudices and their Lusts they would quickly have forsaken all the rest of the World and followed him If the Revelation of Moses had prevailed upon them to do God's Will with their whole Heart and whole Soul the Nation of the Jews would have own'd their Messiah and had they been true Disciples
us by our Saviour and experimentally discovering that His Yoke is easie and Burthen light that His Paths are Paths of Pleasure and Peace This is the Seraphick State of Holy Men who now believe not only what they have heard but perceive and know what their Eyes have seen and their Hands have handled and their Souls have enjoyed of the Word of Life Then from the Heart continuing its first Motion and actuated with Devotion and Zeal fresh supplies of Spirits are sent back again to the Head the Warmth of the Breast is inkindled into a Flame and New Light springing up from that Holy Heat the upper Sphaere of Man like Heaven is full of Brightness and Joy In this manner the Knowledge of God's Will is to be improv'd by us It comes by Hearing and may be imagined by Meditation but it really increases strengthens and is fix'd by Actions of Obedience and reducing it into Practice It is not therefore to be wonder'd That such as doe not those things which are convenient become of Reprobate Minds and that they lose the Knowledge of God who like not to retain it Neither shall we admire if there are those who are in appearance always learning but never come to the Knowledge of Christ Their Ears itch and they heap up to themselves Teachers but their Hands are idle their Feet are straying and their Souls have no Inclination to try and to obey They have heard much and some Fancy of their Duty they may have or may speak its Language they have wrote it may be and can repeat but the Repetition of all moral Discourses should be by Practice and they transcribed into our Conversation They edifie not they say by this Man's Sermon and by the Knowledge from which they think they are edified they may not be built but puffed up But how should they edifie who sit still only and hear Faith being no more to be built up and finish'd by Preaching than a House would be erected by the Discourse of the best Architect Much less should we expect a Superstructure if as in the Confusion of a Babel their Actions agreed not with the Speech and what was endeavoured to be raised at the Ear they with the foolish Woman were still pulling down with their hands But this is to be the Consolation of the illiterate if honest-hearted Christian that although there be those that appear more knowing are skill'd in the Notions and History of God's Will can give an account of all the Disputes of Christianity and can determine them yet that all this is but smattering and learned Ignorance without any true Sense and sound Judgment that those only are in the right Method of Divine Knowledge who are obeying God and observing his Will they are the Profound and the Illuminate and know the Doctrine as it ought to be known their Light now shines before men and they shall shine as Stars for ever and ever And may I further observe that the Reflection of our Saviour which gives an account of that contradiction which opposes his Doctrine gives too a reason of all the Differences and Debates that have been raised in it For these would infallibly be much less if not quite cease were those who eagerly dispute his Will as zealous and earnest to perform it were not Men more warmly concerned for the Honour and Interest of their Party or themselves than they are really desirous to understand the Mind of Christ For if any one truly gives himself up to do his Will he will not be apt to enter into needless Contests about what is not practical nor strive most to know what is not to be done And then when he comes to the Question so much of his Lord's Will he will at first observe as to be modest and meek and tractable not suffer his Passions and Animosities to join in the Enquiry he will not bring so much as a Wish on one part much less shall any humane Pre-ingagements decide the Controversie And if so one cannot but think and sure we are not in this partial our selves that the Papal Infallibility for Example and their Transubstantiation would be no longer defended nor their gross Falshoods be set up for Catholick Truths Neither on the other side would ancient Laudable Practices be any longer Idolatrous and Antichristian Were we not carnal and walked we not as Men favouring our selves and doing our own Will there might be neither Heresie nor Schism did we resign our selves up to the Truth on which side soever it should appear And certainly the Sacredness and Moment of the Cause where God's Will is in question would require such a Caution as in lesser Matters is inforc'd by an Oath that we should judge without Favour and Affection Hatred and Malice that those at least who take upon themselves to judge of his Law should judge righteous Judgment For what is fit to be said after any Accident that befals us by the Providence of God is as proper to be premis'd before a Dispute concerning his Revelation Thy will be done O Father which art in Heaven And were our part of it done on Earth as it is in Heaven it might almost be known in the same manner Happy it would be for the Arts said an Ancient if none but the Skilful and the Artists judg'd of them and no less happy would it be for Religion if only the truly religious and the sincere Christian were to determine the Points in Difference This Advantage would undoubtedly result that the Disputers would not be very many as well as that the Disputes would be no more than necessary fairly debated and soon composed Whereas now all Religious Controversies are managed like Wars for Religion rais'd and fought not always by the most Religious Men. The Question is concerning some Point of Faith or Manners and should be argued by Godly Spirits But the World and the Flesh they come in and intermeddle and they are as Auxiliaries on either side whose Interest it is the Cause should never be decided For were not Christianity divided what Enemy would it have but those its sworn Enemies against whom it had declar'd in Baptism And against these it would then join its Vnited Force in a Holy League and never cease until they were intirely subdued In these many Differences of thinking concerning our Saviour's Person and Pleasure we piously hope that he will mercifully consider the Infirmities and Errors of Men and accept the Services of the Well-meaning pardoning their Ignorance and want of Discernment if not too careless and too wilful But lest we betray our selves and others into a further Mistake we shall do well to take along with us this his Observation and remember that generally all our Ignorance is wilful for want of Will to do God's Will And when Ignorance shall come to be pleaded in the day when He shall judge the secrets of mens hearts it may then amount to no better an Excuse than if instead