Thomas Manton · 49 of 57

The Eleventh Verse. · Part 4

(3dly.) It is a wise, a prudent, and a directive light. You shall see unbelief is opposed to folly, as well as to ignorance: Luke xxiv. 25, ‘O ye fools, and slow of heart to believe!’ Many have faith, but they have not wisdom. Faith is a spiritual wisdom; it is a grace that hath judgment in it; not only apprehension, but judgment. There is a foolish knowledge that puffeth up, loose apprehensions of the doctrine of the gospel that feed pride: 1 Cor. viii. 1, ‘Knowledge puffeth up.’ Knowledge goeth the wrong way when it gets up into the tongue and the head only. But this is a knowledge in which there is wisdom, which teacheth us to make the best choice for ourselves. Wisdom implieth something more than bare knowledge and empty speculations; it is a directive light, not only an idea or model of truth in our brains, which the apostle calleth μόρφωσιν τῆς γνωσεως, a form of knowledge, a platform of knowledge gathered into some compendiums or method for their own or others’ good, able to branch out things, and talk well of them, a map and perfect system of all the enjoyments of the saints; for alas! such things may be easily learned from others’ experience; but such a knowledge as is able to guide us in all the actings of our spirits, such a knowledge as aimeth at a right frame of affections. We shall easily discern knowledge by the ends and use of it. It is not merely that we may conceive distinctly of the Godhead, to better our art and skill, and to be able to discourse of Christ, but that we may glorify him, that we may honour him in our lives,—that is the end and the aim. Some desire to know God, as a painter desireth to know a man that he may take his image and likeness, and so draw his picture, and set it out in paint upon a table. Others know Christ as a child doth his father, that he may become the lively image and resemblance of him, that men may read their heavenly Father in their conversations: Mat. v. 16, ‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.’ Not that we may paint out God and Christ in words, but that we may become a lively representation of him in our lives. Faith is wise, it doth not aim only at abstracted conceits of God, but to know him so as we may live by it.

(4thly.) It is affective; that is, it is such a knowledge as, besides the representation of the object, leaveth an impression upon the affections, and stirreth up desires and delights: as Prov. ii. 10, ‘When wisdom entereth upon thy heart.’ The heart, in the scripture dialect, is the seat of the affections, of esteem, desire, and delight; it stirreth up affiance, and embracing of Christ and his righteousness to salvation, when there is heat as well as light, if it provoke affections and suit able inclinations, and there is a powerful sway upon the whole spirit. As the church saith, Lam. iii. 51, ‘Mine eye affecteth my heart.’ There are proportionable affections stirred to the apprehensions that we have of Christ; and the gospel as a light, by the further concurrence of the Spirit, breaketh the force of contrary inclinations, and causeth yearnings and languishings in the soul after Christ. This must be understood rightly, for the most abstract speculations do suppose some inclination in the soul; but it must be answerable. And besides, in the first work of the Spirit upon the heart, there is not only an enlightening, but some impressions of joy. The stony ground received the word with joy, Mat. xiii. There may be some flashes of joy in the apprehension of Christ, though it be but a conditional proffer, some slight apprehensions of happiness in having Christ, when we look upon it as a probable way for salvation, and yet have no interest in him. As the Jews mistook John for Christ, so many mistake these preparations for grace or a real work, Heb. vi. 5. This is called a ‘tasting of the good word,’ a causing of contentment in the joy the word holdeth forth. Therefore it is not to be understood by these flashy joys and transient glances, but by the settled and serious constitution of the spirit towards God, when the whole frame, stream, and bent of the soul goeth that way. As it is not a few thoughts and affections that make a man bad, but the frame and bent of his thoughts and affections, so here, it is not some glancing desires, or some slight wishes, but the general bent and delight of the spirit. Saving knowledge begets standing affections and gracious dispositions, that are as the chariots of Aminadab to carry out the soul towards Christ.

(5thly.) It is practical, as it doth not stay in the brain, but goeth down to the affections; and it doth not stay there, but gets out into the conversation and into the actions. When men pretend to know much and practise little, it is a sign their knowledge is but slight and trivial; and it is so far from being a privilege, that it obligeth us to many stripes: Luke xii. 47, ‘That servant which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.’ There is a knowledge that doth not end in doing, but alas! that is but a fancied knowledge rather than true: 1 John ii. 4, ‘He that saith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.’ Saving light and true apprehensions of Christ will end in practice: 3 John 11, ‘He that doeth evil hath not seen God.’ A true sight and apprehension of God is renewing and transforming; false apprehensions cannot work it: therefore the apostle saith: 2 Cor. iii. 18, ‘But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory.’ God’s glory maketh us shine like Moses’s face when he talked with God. The greater acquaintance with him, the more holy, and heavenly, and spiritual; the life will be according to the light, and the light of Christ will carry the glory of Christ into the heart, and make it shine out in the conversation. Like windows that shine in the day when the sun is risen, so we may arise and shine, for the glory of the Lord is risen upon us, and holiness of conversation is made to depend upon the clearness of the apprehension of Christ: Eph. iv. 2, ‘But ye have not so learned Christ;’ that is, to walk in such looseness as the Gentiles did. A true sight of him maketh us the same that Christ is.

(6thly.) It is spiritual: I mean, such as is begotten by the power of the Spirit, not a taking up of reports of Jesus Christ, but a closing with him upon the revelation made of him; not upon the reports of men, but the Spirit’s testimony: John iv. 42, ‘Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.’ They would not take him upon the common report, but had heard his own voice; not only upon the belief of the church, but upon Christ’s own voice, that maketh it sure to the soul: 1 John v. 6, ‘And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.’

Use 1. Serveth for information, to show us the misery of those that are without knowledge. Without knowledge, without faith; and without faith, without God, without a promise. It was a great reproach that Nahash would lay upon Israel, that he would put out their right eyes: 1 Sam. xi. 12. And the great design the god of this world hath upon the men of the world is to blind their eyes, that they may not come to the knowledge of the truth. Ignorance is one of God’s sorest judgments; when he hath left off threatening of other things, then he threateneth a blind heart and a vain mind. Oh that we could be sensible of it! Ignorance is twofold: either—

1, Necessary; or

2. Negligent.

1. Necessary ignorance, which is otherwise called the ignorance of pure negation, when men do not know God in Christ, because they have not heard of him. And it happeneth in two cases—either in the total want of means, or the want of due means. I shall a little examine the particulars, that you may not think they do not concern you, or that you may make this use of it, at least, to affect your hearts with pity and compassion towards them that want it. When Christ saw the blindness of the Jews, he wept over them, because ‘the things which belong to their peace ‘were ‘hid from their eyes.’ Luke xix. 41, 42. Oh, how may we weep over many corners of this kingdom, where Jesus Christ is not so much as named: Rom. xv. 2, ‘Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.’ And not only that, but that we may be sensible of our mercies, and bless God for our enjoyments. When Christ had told his disciples of the gross ignorance of others, he presently added, Mat. xiii. 16, ‘Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear’! Oh, what a mercy is it that it is otherwise with you! So far you may reckon yourselves blessed, as you have more advantages of increasing your knowledge, and bettering your apprehensions of God in Christ. Therefore consider how ill it is with them that want means, or the due means. ‘Faith cometh by hearing;’ God dealeth with us in a way suitable to our intellectual nature, and beginneth with knowledge. How should they know? and yet their case is very sad.

[1.] As to those that want the means. ‘God leaveth no man without some witness of himself. Those that have not the word and Spirit, they have showers of rain and fruitful seasons; God is not wanting to them. If they have not those larger and clearer discoveries of God, yet their ignorance is deadly and fatal to them: Prov. xxix. 18, ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish.’ Oh, think of such unhappy times, when frequenting of ordinances was counted a crime, the want of which will be your undoing; for the apostle saith Christ cometh ‘to render vengeance to them that know not God,’ 2 Thes. i. 8. Men think if their lives be not vicious, and they have good meanings, it will be well with them; they are not troubled for their ignorance. I tell you, Christ will come in flames of fire to them that know not God, and obey not the gospel. A vain mind is as bad as vile affections. The blind and the lame, they were equally an abomination to God; and it is every way as dangerous to want knowledge as obedience. Oh, consider the sad state of such souls and places where there are no means! Our Saviour saith, ‘He that knoweth not the will of God shall have few stripes;’ he doth not say no stripes, Luke xii. 48. Ignorance will not excuse them. What a sorry privilege is it that they shall have a cooler hell?

[2.] That want due means. This is as bad or worse than the former. Men rest in that which carrieth the face of an ordinance; and usually it is harder to teach them who know something in religion than those who know nothing at all; for a little knowledge does but prepossess the mind with carnal truth and prejudices, and the real truth is rejected with more stubbornness. Consider the sadness of such an estate. Men think to cause all the blame to reflect upon their teachers, they have been taught so; but what saith our Saviour: Mat. xv. 14, ‘If the blind lead the blind, they shall both fall into the ditch.’ Ignorant, misled people will perish with their blind guides: Isa. ix. 16, ‘For the leaders of this people cause them to err, and they that are led of them are destroyed.’ And indeed it is but just. Men make them their darlings, and humour them in the way of their lusts. Ill instruments would be cast out if cast out of the people’s hearts: Jer. v. 31, ‘The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end thereof?’ What will be the end of this? It is the property of this blindness to love those that do increase it. If naturally blind, we would have a good guide. Elymas, the sorcerer, sought for one to lead him by the hand, Acts xiii. 11. But oh, how sad is their case that dote upon their blind guides!—these are the people’s idols every where. Thus for necessary ignorance; I mean, that which must needs be so.

2. Ignorance that ariseth from negligence; that is, when men have means and do not improve them. This is sad, and increaseth the sin, when you have the gospel, and do not suffer it to shine in upon your souls: John xv. 22, ‘If I had not spoken unto them, they had not had sin;’ that is, not so much sin. The great aggravation of sin is from the advantages and opportunities you have to do better. All your privileges do but heighten your offence if you neglect to improve them. If you have but the witness of sense and reason, you are left without excuse; how much more when you have the word and Spirit. Christ often threateneth heavier judgments to those places that were privy and conscious to his mighty works, and more glorious discoveries, and the testimonies of his Godhead. Look, as it will be a great vexation to the men of the world at the last day, that the saints’ Saviour will be their judge; so the gospel, the word of salvation, will become a killing word to them that have it preached, and yet do not benefit by it. There are divers degrees of this negligent ignorance, which I shall name.

[1.] When men have not any proportionable measures of knowledge to their means,—men that have sat a long time under the word, and yet their foolish heart is darkened within them, and they know little of the mysteries of salvation, and scarce get rid of their natural thoughts and apprehensions of God; this is sad, and yet this may in some measure befall the people of God: John xiv. 9, ‘Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?’ Have you had so many conferences and sermons, and are yet to seek? Heb. v. 12, ‘When for the time ye ought to be teachers of others, ye have need that one should teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God.’ After all the pains taken with them, men must still be kept to their milk and first rudiments, and still we must be forced to press you from things odious to mere nature. And when we should go up to spiritual evils, unbelief, resting in duties, want of making the most of Christ, want of communion and commerce with him; we find that we must deal with you about drunkenness, and surfeiting, and excess in sensual things, you being in the lowest form of godliness, scarce brought to a seemly pitch of morality, so that sublime discoveries do but amuse you or harden you, and are certainly lost upon you. When the apostle could not by all his endeavours bring them off from their ceremonies, he sadly complaineth, Gal. iv. 10, 11, ‘Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.’ All the choice discoveries of Christ were to no purpose. If they were at that pass, oh, what a sad thing it was that notwithstanding all the pains the apostle had taken with them, they would still stick at a ceremony, when there is so small a proficiency, that we can scarce bring them to the low things of Christianity.

[2.] When men have some knowledge with the means, but it is flashy and superficial. Men do not know God as they ought to know him, as the apostle’s word is. All their knowledge ends in speculation; their lives do not answer it: Titus i. 16, ‘They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him.’ Superficial and slender knowledge will not reach the heart, and go down as low as the conversation. Some are like toads, that have a jewel in their heads, when their whole bodies are poison; like the devil, that taketh Christ to the top of the pinnacle, that he might throw him down again. Some men have light in their understandings, when their conversations are foul and defiled. Oh, consider, mere knowledge will not profit when you know only to aggravate your wickedness. Quid prodest, &c. What will it profit to be dignified with learning and knowledge, and to perish at last? The name of the evil angels is δαιμονια, because of their knowledge; they are intellectual natures. The good angels know the will of God, and do it: Ps. ciii. 20, ‘They do his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his word.’ Christ leadeth us to heaven for a pattern of duty: ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ You shall find the saints of God drawing out their knowledge into practice, as David prayeth for it upon this ground: Ps. cxix. 34, ‘Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law.’ That was his end, to know so as he might be guided in his way: Ps. cxix. 11, ‘Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.’ He had laid up some principles that he might argue from them, and draw them out to every case; and upon every temptation might bring out these truths, and enforce them upon his heart. It is true, sometimes the people of God may be too backward, and too often cherish an empty knowledge and naked apprehension, which the apostle calleth a being ‘barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ,’ 2 Peter i. 8. They know his plenty, but do not make use of it; his comforts, but are not refreshed by them; his will, but do not do it. This is a being barren and unfruitful; but it should not be so. Therefore, bewail that your affections are not heated, your conversations bettered and amended by what you know.

[3.] Those that have knowledge of Christ, but abuse their knowledge to countenance their lusts, and to defend their sins. Oh, this is sad! The Gnostics were so called from their knowledge, and yet were the impurest heretics. These are those who, as the apostle saith, Gal. v. 13, ‘Use their liberty as an occasion to the flesh,’ and make the knowledge of Christ the ground of looseness and laziness: Jude 4, ‘Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness;’ that is, the knowledge of the gospel. Carnal hearts are like the sea, that turneth everything into the nature of itself, even the sweet influences of heaven into salt waters. The learning of Christ, and the looking upon Christ, is made the great ground of holiness everywhere in the scripture; and they make it the ground of carnal liberty and a loose life: like the devil, the more cunning the more wicked; the more knowing, the more hurt they do to their own souls, and to the souls of others.

[4.] When men grossly affect their ignorance. And this is seen in two things:—

(1.) By the unteachableness of their hearts. They are not knowing or tractable; the plainest truths of God are riddles to them. A child of God may be ignorant, but a child of God cannot be unteachable. There is a suitableness and cognation between his spirit and divine truths; there is something in his heart that answereth to it, though he never heard it before. When God regenerates the heart, he introduceth a frame of truth, something that is of kin, and answer able to everything that is revealed. But now it is not so with wicked men; they are carried aside with contrary inclinations, that their spirits bear no proportion with truth. As the apostle saith of silly women laden with sin, and led away with divers lusts, 2 Tim. iii. 7, they are ‘ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth;’ that is, they make not use of the advantages, occasions, and opportunities of learning; for otherwise it might be the description of a godly man; they never reach the uttermost truths of the spiritual life, though always learning. Oh, it is a sad thing this untractableness and unteachableness of heart! Men cannot tell what to make of divine things: Isa. xxviii. 9, ‘Whom shall I teach knowledge, and whom shall I make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts;’ that is, he were as good go and prattle with poor infants as teach them. Men have unsavoury, injudicious minds that do not relish the things of God.

(2.) By downright opposition, raging against the light. As the Ethiopians, that are said once a year solemnly to curse the sun; so their hearts rage against knowledge, because it reviveth guilt: Job xxi. 14, ‘They say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.’ They did not desire knowledge. This is the perverseness of man’s nature, to love his own blindness, to refuse the means of helping and relieving his soul. We are not only blind, but mad; when we cannot keep out the light, we rage against it: Jer. xliv. 16, 17, ‘As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee; but we will certainly do what soever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth.’ Who would not pity such mad persons as these? Here is the result of blindness and ignorance, desperate opposition against the word. They will have their old ways, their old principles, their old customs. Oh, the malignity that is in their hearts!

Use 2. Is exhortation, to press you to get knowledge. If faith be knowledge, there lieth a great necessity upon you to get it. You can as well be without the sun in the world as without knowledge and light in the heart.

1. To get knowledge. Shall I press it in the general,—the knowledge of divine things, and the knowledge of God in Christ?

[1.] The knowledge of divine things in the general. And here consider:—

(1.) You cannot be well without it: Prov. xix. 2, ‘That the soul be without knowledge, it is not good.’ Men will plead thus: We are ignorant, but we hope we have a good meaning: the spirit cannot be good without knowledge. This shows the goodness of your spirits.

(2.) It is your excellency above the beasts: the more knowledge, the more manly; and the more ignorant, the more brutish: Ps. xlix. 12, ‘Nevertheless man, being in honour, abideth not, but is like the beasts that perish.’ In all communications of grace, God beginneth with the understanding. The perfection of man is his angelical nature: Job xxxv. 11, ‘Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven.’ Common light is man’s excellency, but to have a mind to know God distinguishes you from other men. Others may go beyond you in other things, but this will be your excellency, to know him: Jer. ix. 23, 24, ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord.’ If you will glory, there is your glory. It is not who is most wealthy, or who most mighty, or who most wise; this is your excellency above other men, that excel in wisdom and knowledge. They may be able, with Berengarius, to dispute de omni scibili, from the cedar to the hyssop, from the highest star to the lowest mineral, yet yours is a better knowledge: 1 Cor. i. 20, ‘Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?’ The great prejudice against divine knowledge is, because men do not know the excellency of it. The Gentiles refused the gospel, because they would fain be conversant about the nobler sciences, and because those would enrich their senses with wisdom, which they seemed to want in the gospel: 1 Cor. ii. 6, ‘Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect; yet not the wisdom of the world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought.’ Oh, if you had eyes to see it, you would find this to be the greatest wisdom; here is your excellency.

(3.) You cannot serve God without it. The papists say, ignorance is the mother of devotion, whereas it is the great hindrance of it: 1 Chron. xxviii. 9, ‘And thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind.’ There is the method and order: first, know him, and then the heart and the will must follow. God doth not love blind obedience. Christ reproveth the Samaritans for worshipping they knew not what, John iv. 22. And Paul calleth it superstition in the Athenians to build an altar to the unknown God. Simple credulity may be very awful, and the light may work upon our fear, but rational service is performed most with love and delight.

2. Above all things know God in Christ: John xvii. 3, ‘And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.’ Not only to know the true God, but Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent. 2 Cor. iv. 6, it is said, God ‘giveth the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’ He being the express image of the Father, there is the express representation of him. I am afraid Christians do not prize the knowledge of God in Christ so much as they should. Oh, consider, there you have the most comfortable representation of him: Ps. cxvi. 5, this is David’s rejoicing, ‘Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.’ Oh, that you could see both together, that is most beneficial. Remember it is said, ‘by the knowledge of him,’ or ‘by his knowledge,’ in the text. The knowledge of Christ carrieth the image of Christ into the soul: John i. 14, ‘And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.’ And then in the 17th verse, ‘Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.’ All the good of your souls cometh this way. The more particular discoveries your hearts have of him, the better it is for you.

Secondly, Grow up in the knowledge of Christ: 2 Peter iii. 18, ‘But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.’ Search out more of the particularities of his love. When men think they have knowledge enough, they know nothing: 1 Cor. viii. 2, ‘He that thinketh he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing as he ought to know.’ You have not knowledge enough to see your ignorance: 1 Cor. xiv. 20, ‘In understanding be ye men.’ Do not think that you know all things that can be taught; you cannot so easily go through all the dimensions, height, breadth, depth and length.

The means are these:—

1. Be conversant with the word, in reading of it. Therefore it is said, Ps. xix. 8, ‘The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.’ St Austin calleth the scriptures his chief light.

2. In hearing, wait upon God in it: Isa. ii. 3, ‘Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways.’ Wait at the doors of wisdom, that God may cause your souls to lie under the power of truth.

3. Pray instantly and earnestly: Jer. xxxi. 34, ‘They shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord.’ It is his covenant promise to give understanding, therefore ask it of God. The blind man would not hold his peace, Luke xviii. 39-41, ‘But cried so much the more, Lord, that I may receive my sight.’

4. Meditate often upon the love of Christ, search out all the particularities of it. The Indian gymnosophists would all the day be gazing upon the beauty of the sun; oh! view the Sun of Righteousness in all his glorious beams and influences with more delight and pleasure.