A25478:489
A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…
A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically resolved by sundry ministers
London: printed for Thomas Cockerill, 1676
Sermon 5: What Spiritual knowledge they ought to seek for that desire to be saved, and by what me…
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
And thus we see in these propositions, what knowledge we are to labour after in order to Salvation. Only I add two Cautions against two ordinary vices, which Men are very liable to in their enquiring after knowledge.1
- 1Nihil igitur certius est quàm alterū Angelicae cognitionis genus, quo post Deum, & quae in Deo sunt, reliqua intelligunt, non ita perfectum esse, quin in hoc cognitionis genere quotidie proficere possint, novi Semper aliquid discendo ac novo modo cognoscendo. Zanch. de dei ope. ib.Nihil igitur certius est quàm alterū Angelicae cognitionis genus, quo post Deum, & quae in Deo sunt, reliqua intelligunt, non ita perfectum esse, quin in hoc cognitionis genere quotidie proficere possint, novi Semper aliquid discendo ac novo modo cognoscendo. Zanch. de dei ope. ib.
Caut. 1. Take heed of curiosity, which is the itch of the mind: It is not a kindly appetite, but a fond longing, or an ambitious vain affectation of knowing those things which we are least concerned, or not at all concerned to know; and which, if known, would do us little good. It is a lust, and therefore not to be indulged in our selves, but mortified. It appears,
1. In making inquiries into these things which God hath not revealed; Deut. 29.29. Secret things belong to the Lord our God; but things that are revealed; unto us and to our Children, &c. This curiosity our Saviour checks in his Disciples, Act. 1.6. Wilt thou (say they) at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel? Our Saviour replies, It is not for you to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. God hath revealed enough to us in his Word for our use and furtherance in Faith and Holiness, and to desire to know more, is to desire to be wiser than God would have us. We must not pry into those things which it is only God's Prerogative to know. The Angels themselves know not some things, and we should be content, as well as they, not to be omniscient. It is dangerous peeping into God's Ark: you