feribes against the accidental mischief and inconvenience of knowledge, is not ignorance, but charity, to govern their knowledge, and to help them to make a right ufe of it: ver. 20. of that chapter after he had declared that the fervice of God ought to be performed in a known tongue, he immediately adds, Brethren, be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be ye men. He commends knowledge, he encourageth it, he requires it of all Chriftians; fo far is he from checking the purfuit of it, and depriving the people of the means of it. And indeed there is nothing in the Christian religion, but what is fit for every man to know, because there is nothing in it, but what is defigned to promote holinefs and a good life; and if men make any other ufe of their knowledge, it is their own fault, for it certainly tends to make men good; and being fo useful and neceffary to fo good a purpofe, men ought not to be debarred of it.

3. Let it be confidered, that the proper and natural effects and confequences of ignorance are equally pernicious, and much more certain and unavoidable, than thofe which are accidentally occafioned by knowledge; for fo far as a man is ignorant of his duty, it is impoffible he fhould do it. He that hath the knowledge of religion, may be a bad Chriftian; but he that is deftitute of it, can be none at all. Or if ignorance do beget and promote fome kind of devotion in men, it is fuch a devotion as is not properly religion, but fuperftition: the ignorant man may be zealously fuperftitious, but without fome measure of knowledge no man can be truly religious. That the foul be without knowledge it is not good, fays Solomon, Prov. xix. 2. becaufe good practices depend upon our knowledge, and must be directed by it; when as a man that is trained up only to the outward performance of fome things in religion, as to the faying over fo many prayers in an unknown tongue, this man cannot be truly religious, becaufe nothing is religious that is not a reasonable fervice; and no fervice can be reasonable, that is not directed by our understandings. Indeed, if the end of prayer were orrVOL. V. K k

ly to give God to understand what we want, it were all one what language we prayed in, and whether we understood what we asked of him or not; but fo long as the end of prayer is to teftify the fenfe of our own wants, and of our dependence upon God for the fupply of them, it is impoffible that any man fhould in any tolerable propriety of fpeech be faid to pray, who does not understand what he afks,; and the faying over fo many Pater Nofters by one that does not underftand the meaning of them, is no more a prayer than the repeating over fo many verses in Virgil. And if this were good reasoning, that men muft not be permitted to know fo much as they can in religion, for fear they fhould grow troublefome with their knowledge, then certainly the best way in the world to maintain peace in the Christian church, would be to let the people know nothing at all in religion; and the best way to fecure the ignorance of the people would be to keep the priests as ignorant as the people, and then to be fure they could teach them nothing but then the mischief would be, that out of a fondness to maintain peace in the Christian church, there would be no church, nor no Christianity; which would be the fame wife contrivance, as if a prince fhould deftroy his fubjects, to keep his kingdom quiet.

4. Let us likewise confider, that if this reafon be good, it is much stronger for with-holding the fcrip. tures from the priests, and the learned, than from the people; because the danger of starting errors and herefies, and countenancing them from fcripture, and managing them plaufibly, and with advantage, is much more to be feared from the learned, than from the common people; and the experience of all ages hath fhewn, that the great broachers and abettors of herefy in the Chriftian church, have been men of learning and wit; and most of the famous herefies that are recorded in ecclefiaftical hiftory, have their names from fome learned man or other: fo that it is a great mistake to think, that the way to prevent error and herefy in the church, is to take the Bible out of the hands of the people, fo long as the free

ufe

ufe of it is permitted to men of learning and fkill, in whofe hands the danger of perverting it is much greater. The ancient fathers, I am fure, do frequently preferibe to the people the conftant and careful reading of the holy fcriptures, as the fureft antidote against the poifon of dangerous errors, and damnable herefies; and if there be fo much danger of feduction into error from the oracles of truth, by what other or better means can we hope to be fecured against this danger? If the word of God be fo crofs and improper a means to this end, one would think that the teachings of men fhould be much less effectual; fo that men must either be left in their ignorance, or they must be permitted to learn from the word of truth; and whatever force this reason of the danger of herefy hath in it, to deprive the common people of the ufe of the fcriptures, I am fure it is much ftronger to wreft them out of the hands of the priests and the learned, because they are much more capa ble of perverting them to fo bad a purpose.

5. and laftly, This danger was as great and vifible in the age of the Apostles, as it is now; and yet they took a quite contrary courfe: there were herefies then, as well as now, and either the fcriptures were not thought, by being in the hands of the people, to be the caufe of them, or they did not think the taking of them out of their hands a proper remedy. The Apoftles in all their epiftles do earnestly exhort the people to grow in knowledge, and commend them for fearching the fcriptures, and charge them that the word of God fhould dwell richly in thent. And St Peter takes particular notice of fome men wresting some difficult paffages in St Paul's epiftles, as likewife in the other feriptures, to their own de ftruction, 2 Pet.iii. 16.; where, fpeaking of St Paul's epiftles, he fays, there are fome things hard to be underflood, which they that are unlearned and unftable wreft, as they do alfo the other scriptures, unto their own deftruction. Here the danger objected is taken notice of; but the remedy prefcribed by St Peter, is not to take from the people the ufe of the fcriptures,

Kk 2

andi

and to keep them in ignorance; but after he had cautioned against the like weakness and errors, he exhorts them to grow in knowledge: ver. 17. 18. Ye therefore, beloved, feeing ye know these things before, (that is, feeing ye are fo plainly told and warned of this danger), bervare left ye alfo, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfaftnefs. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift, (that is, of the Chriftian religion); believing, it feems, that the more knowledge they had in religion, the lefs they would be in danger of falling into damnable errors. I proceed to the

II. Second obfervation, viz. That the knowledge of our duty, and the practice of it, may be, and often are feparated. This likewife is fuppofed in the text, that men may, and often do know the will of God, and their duty, and yet fail in the practice of it.. Our Saviour elfewhere fuppofeth, that many know their mafter's will who do not do it; and he compares thofe that hear his fayings, and do them not, to a foolifh man that built his houfe upon the fand. And St James fpcaks of fome, who are hearers of the word only, but not doers of it, and for that reafon fall fhort of happiness. And this is no wonder, because the attaining to that knowledge of religion which is neceflary to falvation is no difficult task. A great part of it is written on our hearts, and we cannot be ignorant of it if we would; as that there is a God, and a providence, and another ftate after this life, wherein we fhall be rewarded, or punifhed, according as we have lived here in this world; that God is to be worshipped, to be prayed to for what we want, and to be praifed for what we enjoy, Thus far nature inftructs men in religion, and in the great duties of morality, as juftice, and temperance, and the like. And as for revealed religion, as that Jefus Chrift the son of God came in our nature to fave us, by revealing our duty more clearly and fully to us, by giving us a more perfect example of holinefs and obedience in his own life and converfation, and by dying for our fins, and rifing again for our juftification; thefe are things

which men may easily understand; and yet for all that, they are difficultly brought to the practice of religion.

I fhall inftance in three forts of perfons, in whom the knowledge of religion is more remarkably feparated from the practice of it; and for diftinction's fake, I may call them by thefe three names; the fpeculative, the formal, and the hypocritical Christian. The first of these makes religion only a fcience, the fecond takes it up for a fashion, the third makes fome worldly advantage of it, and ferves fome fecular interest and design by it. All these are upon feveral accounts concerned to understand fomething of religion; but yet will not be brought to the practice of

it.

1. The first of thefe, whom I'call the fpeculative Christian, is he who makes religion only a science, and studies it as a piece of learning, and part of that general knowledge in which he affects the reputation of being a mafter. He hath no defign to practife it, but he is loth to be ignorant of it, because the knowledge of it is a good ornament of converfation, and will ferve for difcourfe and entertainment among thofe who are difpofed to be grave and ferious; and because he does not intend to practise it, he paffeth over those things which are plain and eafy to be understood, and applies himfelf chiefly to the confide-ration of thofe things which are more abftrufe, and will afford matter of controverfy and fubtle difpute,, as the doctrine of the Trinity, predeftination, freewill, and the like. Of this temper feem many of the fchoolmen of old to have been, who made it their great ftudy and business to puzzle religion, and to make: every thing in it intricate, by ftarting infinite queftions and difficulties about the plainest truths: and of the fame rank usually are the heads and leaders of parties and factions in religion, who by needlefs controverfies and endlefs difputes about fomething or other, commonly of no great moment in religion, hinder themselves and others from minding the practice: of the great and fubftantial duties of a good life, 2. There

Kk3.