2. This carnal knowledge is but to feed and furnish and please a carnal fancy; because it is some adding to our understandings, and because it is naturally pleasant to know, and because it brings in some novelty and variety, and because it makes us seem wiser than other men, and furnisheth us with matter of discourse and ostentation, and rids the mind of some troublesome doubts; therefore even the worst have a mind to know. But this is the knowledge that must be denied: that which must be valued and sought after, is, To know God, that we may love, and reverence, and trust, and admire, and honour him, and enjoy him: To know Christ, that we may have more Communion with him: To know the word and works of God, that in them we may know his nature and his will: and knowing his will, may serve him and please him: These must be the ends of Christian knowledge. There is nothing in the world that God hath revealed, but in its place we may be willing to know, so that we stick not in the creature, or sense of the words, or common verities, but use every thing as a book or looking-glass: we love not a book so much for the letters as for the matter which they contain: & we love not a Glass for it self so much as for its use to show us the face which we would see in it: so if we go to the creatures but as a book in which we may read the mind of God, and see his nature, and as a glass in which his glory doth shine forth, our study and knowledge will be sanctified and divine. And thus as Paul would know nothing but Christ Crucified, so every Christian should be able to ⟨p. 210⟩say, that he would know nothing but God in Christ: for though we know a thousand matters, and that of the lowest nature in themselves, yet as long as we study them not for themselves but for God, it is not them that we know so much, as God in them; and so all is but the knowing of God: even as in our duty, though the works may be many and mean that we are employed in, yet all is but the serving of God, as long as we do them all for him: this is the main difference between an unsanctified scholar and a servant of God in all their studies: One of them is but recreating his curious fancy or inquisitive mind, and seeking matter of honour and applause, or some way or other studying for himself:
2. This carnal knowledge is but to feed and furnish and please a carnal fancy; because it is some adding to our understandings, and because it is naturally pleasant to know, and because it brings in some novelty and variety, and because it makes us seem wiser than other men, and furnisheth us with matter of discourse and ostentation, and rids the mind of some troublesom doubts; therefore even the worst have a mind to know. But this is the knowledge that must be denied: that which must be valued and sought after, is, To know God, that we may love, and reverence, and trust, and admire, and honour him, and enjoy him: To know Christ, that we may have more Communion with him: To know the word and works of God, that in them we may know his nature and his will: and knowing his will, may serve him and please him: These must be the ends of Christian knowledge. There is nothing in the world that God hath revealed, but in its place we may be willing to know, so that we stick not in the creature, or sense of the words, or common verities, but use every thing as a book or looking-glass: we love not a book so much for the letters as for the matter which they contain: & we love not a Glass for it self so much as for its use to shew us the face which we would see in it: so if we go to the creatures but as a book in which we may read the mind of God, and see his nature, and as a glass in which his glory doth shine forth, our study and knowledge will be sanctified and divine. And thus as Paul would know nothing but Christ Crucified, so every Christian should be able to ⟨p. 210⟩say, that he would know nothing but God in Christ: for though we know a thousand matters, and that of the lowest nature in themselves, yet as long as we study them not for themselves but for God, it is not them that we know so much, as God in them; and so all is but the knowing of God: even as in our duty, though the works may be many and mean that we are employed in, yet all is but the serving of God, as long as we do them all for him: this is the main difference between an unsanctified scholar and a servant of God in all their studies: One of them is but recreating his curious fancy or inquisitive mind, and seeking matter of honour and applause, or some way or other studying for himself:
