But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.-Acts A SUPPLEMENT ΤΟ THE MORNING EXERCISE. (CONTINUED.) SERMON V. BY THE REV. EDWARD VEAL, B.D., SENIOR FELLOW OF TRINITY-COLLEGE, DUBLIN. FOR THAT WHAT SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE THEY OUGHT TO SEEK For it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favour.-Isaiah xxvii. 11. IN this and the precedent verse we have a dreadful denunciation of judgment upon either the oppressors and enemies of God's people, or upon obstinate and incorrigible sinners among God's people; together with the reason of that denunciation, or cause of that judgment threatened. I. The judgment denounced is, 1. Great desolation as to their outward state. (Verse 10, and former part of verse 11.) 2. Utter destruction, final ruin.-"He that made them will not have mercy on them." (Verse 11.) It is the highest severity, where no Saviour is to be found, where "judgment is executed "without mercy" (James ii. 13 :) and this is amplified by the consideration, (1.) Partly of the inflicter of the judgment.-It is God himself, "He that made them." They were not to fall into the hands merely of men like themselves, their fellow-creatures; but "into the hands of the living God." (Heb. x. 31.) (2.) Partly of kindness formerly received from him." He that made them; He that formed them;" that is, He that created them, gave them their being, (if we understand it of the enemies of God's people,) or He that not only made them as his creatures, but formed them to be his servants, formed them into a state and into a church, (if we understand the words as spoken of God's people themselves,) and so had given them their being, not only a natural one, but a civil and ecclesiastical one: He that had formerly done so much for them, vouchsafed them such choice mercies, yet now would renounce all kindness to them, "have no mercy on them, show them no favour." II. The cause of the judgment to be inflicted.-"It is a people of no understanding," niby 5, "It is not a people of understanding;" as much as to say, "It is not a people of any understanding;" or, as we read it, "It is a people of no understanding;" it is a sottish, ignorant people, such as take no notice of any thing, know not God, observe not his works, understand not their duty. Other sins, no doubt, they were chargeable with; but the Lord takes notice especially of their ignorance, and it is for that they are here threatened. Hence we take notice, that, OBSERVATION I. Ignorance of God, his truths or ways, is no security against his judgments." Pour out thy fury upon the Heathen that know thee not," &c. (Jer. x. 25.) OBSERV. II. The knowledge of the will and ways of God is necessary for them that expect to find favour with God.-They that desire God would save them, must labour to know him. That some knowledge of the will of God is needful to all those that expect to be saved, (for we set aside the case of infants,) I suppose is clear in itself. But when you hear this doctrine, you may be ready to ask, What is that knowledge which they who would be saved should seek after? And when that is answered, you may again inquire, What means you are to use for the obtaining of it. And so the case to be spoken to is this, What spiritual knowledge, or knowledge of the things of God, (for other knowledge at present we take no notice of, however commendable in itself, or secondarily useful to higher ends,) they ought to seek for, who desire to be saved; and how such knowledge may be attained. THE CASE. : Of this case there be two parts. I shall speak distinctly to each and so first show what is that knowledge we are to seek after; and then give directions for the attaining of it. I. What knowledge they are to labour after, who expect to be saved.— In answer to which I must premise something by way of distinction, something by way of concession, and then add other things by way of proposition for the fuller determining the case in hand. 1. DISTINCTION (1.) We must distinguish between that knowledge which is simply and absolutely necessary to the salvation of all men; so that no man can be saved without it, but whosoever falls short of it must certainly perish for lack of it; such knowledge the want of which is always actually damning, and that even in them that have not the means of obtaining it, as Heathens who have no revealed light; for in them it is the occasion of their perishing: as a man's not knowing the only medicine in the world that could cure him when sick, would be the occasion of his death, and so would be his undoing, though not his fault. DISTINC. (2.) And that knowledge, which, though it be not simply necessary to salvation, necessitate medii, ["through necessity of the means,"] yet is secondarily necessary to be in those that would be saved, or necessary in some respects and upon some suppositions; as,— (i.) On the account of the circumstances wherein men are, and the capacity they are in for the gaining of knowledge, whereby they are brought under the obligation of a command to labour after it; and so they have the necessity of duty to seek that knowledge, though that knowledge itself have not the necessity of a mean. (ii.) Necessary, though not absolutely to the very esse, or "being," of a Christian and his salvation, yet to his bene esse, his "well-being" as a Christian, his better and more comfortable management of the affairs of his salvation. The want of this knowledge, if it be not always actually damning, as when God giveth men repentance; yet proceeding in those that are in condition to obtain it not from want of means or capacity, but from gross negligence, or contempt of the truth, it must needs be in itself damnable. 2. BY WAY OF CONCESSION. It is a difficult thing to determine just how much knowledge is absolutely necessary to salvation, to define the minimum quod sic * (so to speak) of divine knowledge, so as to say that whoever falls one degree short of it cannot be saved. That there be certain prime fundamental doctrines of religion, which are so necessary to salvation that men cannot in an ordinary way be saved without the knowledge of them, is, I think, confessed by the generality of those that pretend to Christian religion, or to any hopes of salvation. But which in particular those fundamentals are, and how many, is not alike clear. A controversy it is which I shall not need to touch upon, not only as being a tender point, but as not being concerned in my present design, as will further appear in the following propositions. It will little avail us in our present circumstances, amidst such plentiful means of knowledge, and so much truth as is revealed to us, to know just how much knowledge is absolutely needful to salvation; as suppose,-how much would have been sufficient for the salvation of a believing Jew before our Saviour's coming in the flesh;—or what knowledge might be sufficient for the salvation of, and consistent with truth of grace in, some poor Christian in the darker corners of the earth, as among the Indians, or Abyssinians. But our business is to see what knowledge we ourselves, considering our condition, (dismissing others in differing circumstances,) are to labour after in obedience to God's command, and for our more holy and comfortable walking with God, and carrying on the affairs of our salvation. And therefore, though my text lead me directly enough to the former, yet I shall confine myself to the latter, making it my business rather to press men to labour after much knowledge, than trouble myself or others with unedifying distinctions about or uncertain catalogues of fundamentals, or truths absolutely needful to be known; which I suppose few in the world be so magisterial as peremptorily to define. And, for my part, if I could certainly determine which those truths are, I should take heed to whom I told them, lest I should encourage men, slothful enough of themselves, to rest satisfied in a lesser measure of spiritual knowledge, when a greater might be gotten. "The smallest portion which is thus necessary."-Edit. |