The Drunkards Character, Section 155
§ 155.
SEcondly,2 Ignorance is th… cause of all sinne. another maine reason is ignorance; yea, ignorance, if we rightly consider it, is the cause of all sinne; sinne indeed; at first was the cause of ignorance but now ignorance is the cause of sinne. Swearing, and lying, and killing, and stea…eing, and whoring, (I may well adde drunkennesse) abound, saith the Prophet, because there is no knowledge of God in the Land, Hosea, 4. 1. 2. It is a people that doe erre in their hearts, saith God, why? because they have not knowne my wayes, Psal. 95. 10. yee are deceived, saith our Saviour, because ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God, Matth. 22. 29. when Christ wept over Hierusalem, what was the cause? even their blindnesse; If thou hadst knowne, saith he, at the least, in this thy day, those things which how are hid from thine eyes, Luk. 19. 42. Because men know not the wages of evill, therefore they doe it; and because they would securely doe it, therefore they refuse to know it. Oh that men knew how good it is to obay, to disobay how evill, then should we have a new world; but the Devill takes an order for that, where he can prevaile; and therefore he hath the Po…e, in one part of the world, who will allow his subjects (I meane the Layty) no divine learning; the Turke in another, who denies to his any learning at all: and this is no small advantage unto him, for that Edict of Iulianus the Emperour, whereby it was interdicted unto Christians, to be admitted into Scholes, Lectures, and other exercises of learning, was esteemed a more pernicious engine and machination against the Christi…n faith, then were all the sanguinary per…ecutions of his predecessors.
Ob: But blessed be God, and our gracious Soveraigne, may some say, this is not our case, we have plenty of light in our Horizon, our Land abounds, both with humane and divine learning.
A…sw. Very true, and it is a blessing, which we can never be sufficiently thankfull for; and yet the Devill takes such an order, that the odds is not much, betweene our light, and their darknesse: for, either, Wizard-like, he prese…s things in a false glasse; or, Sorcerer-like, he makes things appeare other then they are, by deception of our spirituall sight; or, Sophister-like, he darkens the truth (which the Word will not suffer to bee conceald) with subtils distinctions, as a man that puts out the candle with snuffing it; or, Casuistlike, he fills mens heads, with a world of Problemes and Paradoxes; their hearts and consciences, with a thousand needlesse and endlesse questions, unprofitable, cold, and bloodlesse impertinencies, whereby the sound and saving knowledge of Iesus Christ, and him crucified (which was the onelyonly care and studie of St. Paul: I Cor. 2. 2.) is the portion but of a few, even amongst us, as the effect shewes: for, are not most men, to whom the Gospell is so gloriously preach't, cheifely guided according to the Rudiments of the world, and not after Christ? Col. 2. 8.
Quest. But will any now, in this cleare Sunne-shine of the Gospell, be perswaded that they know not Christ crucified?
Answer. It is too true, that few know him,R…ghtly a …anknows no more then be practiseth. for if they knew Christ, they could not but love him; and loving him, they would keepe his commandements, Iob. 14. 15. for hereby, saith St. Iohn, is it knowne that we know him, if we keepe his Commandements, 1 Ioh. 2. 3. but he that saith, I know him, and yet keepeth not his Commandements, is a lyer, and there is no truth in him, ver. the 4.
Rightly, a man knowes no more then he practiseth; it is said of Christ, 2 Cor. 5. 21. that he knew no sin, because he did no sin; in which sense, he knowes no good that doth no good; and he may know much, that cannot utter much, as a Martyr answered Bishop Bonner, My Lord, I cannot dispute for the truth, but I ca… dye for the truth: a good argument, to prove that he knew Christ, for mens actions expresse their knowledge better then their words.
Vertue is ordained a wife for knowledge, and where …hese two joyne, there will proceede from them a Noble prodiene, a generation of good workes: but they that wander in by pathes, declare themselves ignorant of the right way of salvation, Rom. 3. 17. That is but a raw knowledge, which is not digested into practise.
What's the difference, betweene Christianity and infidelity, but holinesse? For as Rhetoricke, is the Art of speaking well; and Logicke, the art of disputing well; and Magistracy, the art of governing well: so Christianity is the art of liveing well. It is not worth the name of knowledge, that may be heard onelyonly, and not seene: good discourse is but the froth of wisdome, the pure and solid substance of it, is in well framed actions; when we are wise in our hands, as the Dutch are said to be. These things if ye know, happy are ye if ye doe them, Iohn, 13. 17. and in Deut. 4. 6. keepe the Commandements of God, and doe them, for this is your wisdome and understanding before God and men.
The Knowledge that saves us,He that hath saveing knowledge, bath every other grace. is more then a bare apprehension of God; it knowes his power, and therefore feares him; knowes his justice, and therefore serves him; knowes his mercy, and therefore trusts him; knowes his goodnesse, and therefore loves him; &c. for he that hath the saving knowledge of God, hath every other grace; there is a sweete correspondence betweene every one, where there is any one in truth. As in the generation, the head is not without the body, nor the body without each member, nor the soule without it's powers and faculties: so in the regeneration, where there is any one grace in truth, there is every one, 2 Cor. 5. 17. but see it in particulars. They that know thy name, saith the Psalmist, will trust in thee, Psal. 9. 10. there's saith. Let him that rejeyceth, rejoyce in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, Ier: 9. 24. ther's joy. Hee that knoweth God, heareth us, I Ioh. 4. 6. there is an awfull attention to the Word preach't. If thou knewest me, saith our Saviour, thou wouldest have asked of me, Iohn, 4. 10. ther's the Spirit of prayer and supplication. He that knoweth God, loveth God, and the children of God. I Iohn. 4. 7. 8. He that knoweth God, keepeth his Commandements, I Iohn, 2. 3. Now I know thee, saith Iob to God, I abhorre my selfe, and repent in dust and ashes, Iob. 42. 5. 6. He that knoweth God, is borne of God, I Iohn, 4. 7. there is love, obedience, hurnility, godly sorrow, regeneration, I might goe on, and instance in every other grace. For as feeleing is inseparable to all the Organs of sense, the eye, sees and feeles; the care, heares and feeles; the palat, tastes & feeles; the nosthrills, smell and feele: so knowledge is involved in every grace, faith, knowes and beleives; charity, knowes and loves; patience, knowes and suffers; temperance, knowes and abstaines; humility, knowes and stoopes; repentance, knowes, and mournes; obedience, knowes and does; confidence, knowes and rejoyees; hope, knowes and expects; compassion, knowes and pities. Yea, as there is a power of water in every thing that growes, it is fatnesse, in the Olive; sweetnesse, in the Figg; cheerefulnesse, in the Grape; strength, in the Oake; talenesse, in the Cedar; rednesse in the Rose; whitenesse, in the Lilly, &c. so knowledge. is in the hand, obedience; in the mouth, benediction; in the knee, humility; in the eye, compassion; in the heart, charity; in the whole body and soule, piety.
Alasse! if menhad the true knowledge of Iesus Christ, it would disperse and dispell all the blacke clouds of their raigning finnes in a moment: as the Sunne doth no sooner shew his face, but the darknesse vanisheth: or as Caesar did no sooner looke upon his enemies, but they were gone. Egypt swarmed with Locusts, till the west winde came, that left not one. He cannot delight in sinne, nor dote upon the world, that knowes Christ savingly.