A30241:361
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, or, Christs prayer before his passion explicated, and both practically and polemically improved by Anthony Burgess ...
London: printed by Abraham Miller for Thomas Underhill, 1656
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Sermon 14: The Necessity of Divine Knowledge, And Arraignment of Ignorance.
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 First, In respect of the Object it self, there are many duties God and Christ require of us, which we are never able to perform without some knowledge of them. I grant that as the Stars do differ in their glory and light, so one man may far exceed another in knowledge,1 yea, God doth not require so much of some as he doth of others, such a degree of knowledge will God accept of in some, which he will not in others, so that according to the means and opportunities of knowledge more or less is required: We grant also some may know more then they can express through some impediments or other, but there is none can be saved who lay not in some measure a competent knowledge in Christianity, because there are several duties required, which he that knoweth nothing of God cannot perform acceptably.
And First, In respect of the Object it self, there are many duties God and Christ require of us, which we are never able to perform without some knowledge of them. I grant that as the Starres do differ in their glory and light, so one man may farre exceed another in knowledge,1 yea, God doth not require so much of some as he doth of others, such a degree of knowledge will God accept of in some, which he will not in others, so that according to the means and opportunities of knowledge more or lesse is required: We grant also some may know more then they can expresse through some impediments or other, but there is none can be saved who lay not in some measure a competent knowledge in Christianity, because there are severall duties required, which he that knoweth nothing of God cannot perform acceptably.
- 1I. In respect of some duties we owe unto God which cannot be acceptably performed without knowledge
As 1. Every man that will be saved must worship the true God and not the false: But without some knowledge this can never be; Why is the first and second Commandment so plain to have no other God but him, and to worship him in his way, and that he is a jealous God in this matter, like an Husband whose jealousy is his rage against his adulterous Wife; Why is all this but to show that of all sinners, an Idolater is sure to be excluded from the kingdom of heaven; Now the ignorant man worshippeth that which others do where he liveth, but whether it be God or an Idol that he understands not. The Athenians had an Altar dedicated To the unknown God,