A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…

2. And that knowledge, which though it be not simply necessary to Salvation, necessitate medii, yet is Secondarily necessary to be in those that would be Saved, or necessary in some respects, and upon some suppositions, as,

1. 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 it self have not the necessity of a Mean.

2. Necessary, though not absolutely to the very Esse or Being of a Christian, ⟨p. 110⟩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 it self damnable.

2. Necessary, though not absolutely to the very Esse or Being of a Christian, ⟨p. 110⟩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 alwaies 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 it self damnable.