A Treatise of Knowledge and Love, Part 2 · Chapter 3
Chap. III.
Doct. 3. Therefore Knowledge is to be valued, ſought and uſed, as it tendeth to our Love of God.
THis third Doctrine is much of the Scope of the Text: All means are for their end: So far as Knowledge is a means of love, it muſt needs hence have the meaſure of its worth, and we the motives of our deſires of it, and the direction for our uſing of it.
1. All knowledge that kindleth not the love of God in us, is ſo narrow, and ſmall that it deſerveth not indeed the name of Knowledge: For the neceſſary things that ſuch a perſon is Ignorant of, are a thouſand times more or greater, than that little which he knoweth: For, 1. What is it that he is Ignorant of?
1. He hath no ſound and real Knowledge of God. For if he knew God, truly, he could not but love him: Goodneſs is ſo naturally the Object of the will, that if men well knew the infinite Good, they muſt needs love him: However there is a partial knowledge that is ſeparable from ſincere Love.
2. He that knoweth not and loveth not God, neither knoweth nor loveth any creature truly and effectually either as it is of God, or Through him, or To him; Either as it beareth the Impreſs of the Glorious Efficient, or as it is ordered to its end by the moſt wiſe Director, or as it is a means to lead up Souls to God, or to Glorify and pleaſe him, no nor to make man truly happy. And can he be ſaid indeed to know any Creature that knoweth it not in any of theſe reſpects that knoweth neither its Original, Order or Uſe? Doth a Dog or a Gooſe know a Book of Philoſophy, becauſe he looketh on it, and ſeeth the bulk? Doth he know a Clock or Watch, who knoweth no more of it, but that it hath ſuch Parts and Shapes, made of Iron and Braſs? It is moſt evident that an unholy perſon knoweth nothing, that is, no one Being, though he may know aliquid de re aliqua, ſomething of ſome Being: For he that knoweth not the Nature, Order or Uſe and End of a Being, cannot properly be ſaid to know that Being, but only ſecundum quid, or ſome Accidents of it, or to have a general Knowledge that it is a Subſtance, or a ſomething, he knoweth not what. As an Epicurean can call all things compacted Atomes, or Matter and Motion. An ungodly man is juſt like one that ſtudieth the art of a Scrivener or Printer, to make the Letters, and place them by art, but never learnt to read or know the ſignification of the Letters which he maketh or compoſeth.
Or if any may be ſaid to have a Speculative knowledge of all this in the Creature (the Nature, Order, and Uſe,) yet he is without the true Practical Knowledge, which is it that only is Knowledge indeed, and of uſe and benefit to man. For to be able to ſpeak or write a true Propoſition about God or the Creature, is not properly to know God or the Creature, but to know names and words concerning them: It is but a Logical Knowledge of Notions, and not the knowledge of the Thing it ſelf, to be able to ſay and know that this or that concerning it, is true or falſe. Nothing more deceiveth mankind, both in point of Learning and of Religion, and Salvation, than miſtaking the Organical or Logical Knowledge of ſecond Notions, Words, Propoſitions, Inferences and Methods, for the Real Knowledge of the Things themſelves; And thinking that they know a thing, becauſe they know what to ſay of it.
He knoweth not a Countrey, who is only able by the Map or hear-ſay to deſcribe it. He knoweth not Motion, Light, Heat, Cold, Sweet, Bitter, that knoweth no more than to give a true definition of it. And as this is true of things ſenſible, which muſt themſelves be perceived firſt by ſenſe, ſo is it of things ſpiritual, which muſt themſelves be perceived firſt by Intellection, and not only the notions and definitions of them. He that doth not intuitively or by internal immediate perception, know what it is to Underſtand, to Remember, to Will and Nill, to Love and Hate, and conſequently to be able to do theſe acts, doth not know what a man is, or what a Reaſonable Soul is, and what an Intellectual Spirit is, though he could (were it poſſible) without theſe, learn the Definition of a Man, a Soul, a Spirit. A definition or word of art ſpoken by a Parrot, or a madman proveth not that he knoweth the thing.
Practical objects are not truly known without a Practical Knowledge of them. He knoweth not what meat is, that knoweth not that it muſt be eaten, and how to eat it. He only knoweth his clothing that knoweth how to put it on. He only knoweth a Pen, a Gun, or other inſtrument, that knoweth how to uſe it. Now the ungodly, not knowing how any creature ſignifieth the Divine perfections, nor how by it to aſcend to the Knowledge and Love of God, do indeed know nothing with a proper formal Knowledge.
2. And what is it that ſuch men know or ſeem to know, which may be compared with their Ignorance? To give them their due praiſe, they know how to eat as well as a Dog, though not ſo ſubtilly as an Ox or Sheep, that can diſtinguiſh graſs before he taſte it. He can tell how to drink, tho' not by ſo conſtant a temperance as a Beaſt. He can ſpeak better than a Parrot: He can build him a houſe as apt for his uſe, as a Swallow or other Birds can do for theirs. He can lay up for the time to come, more ſubtilly than a Fox, or Ant, though nothing ſo orderly and by wonderful ſelf-conficiency, as the Bees: He can look upwards, and ſee the Birds that ſoar and fly in the Air, though he cannot imitate them: He can look into the ſurface of the Waters, and Artificially paſs over them in Ships, though he cannot live in them, or glide through them as the fiſh: He can maſter thoſe that are weaker than himſelf, as the great Dogs do the little ones, and carry away the bone from them all: He can glory in his Strength, though it be leſs than a Horſe's, an Oxe's, an Elephant's, or a Whale's. He can kill and eat his fellow Animals, as well as a Pike among the Fiſhes, a Kite among the Birds, or a Wolf or Dog among the Beaſts: He can more craftily than the Fox entrap and enſnare them (the Fiſhes, Birds and Beaſts;) yea as artificially as a Spider doth the Flies, to make up what he wants, of the Hawk, or Dog for ſwift purſuit, or of the Lyon for rapacious Strength. He can ſing; and ſo can the Linnet, the Owſel the Lark and Nightingale: He can make his Bed as ſoft as the Birds their Neſts, or as other creatures that love their eaſe: He can generate and breed up his Off-ſpring, though not with that conſtancy of affection, and accurateneſs of Skill and Induſtry, as a Hen her Chickens, or moſt other animals do their young. Yea he can live in Society, Families, Commonwealths▪ though much more diſorderly, contentiouſly and to the diſturbance if not deſtruction of each other, than Pigeons in their Dove-houſe or the flight of Stares, or Larks, or Lapwings, or the flocks of Sheep, and leſs accurately than the Bees do in their Hive.
All this and more we can ſpeak of the praiſes of the Knowledge or Wiſdom of an ungodly man, that never learnt to Know and Love his God, nor any thing truly worthy of a man: And is all this worthy the name of Knowledge? Their Character could not be fitlier given, than here it is by the Apoſtle: They know nothing as they ought to know. But of this more next.