A Body of Practical Divinity

1. Whether we have Knowledge. 2. Whether it be rightly Qualified.

(1.) We are to examine whether we have Knowledge, else we cannot give God a reasonable Service, Rom. 12.1. Knowledge is a necessary Requisite in a Communicant. Without Knowledge there can be no Fitness for the Sacrament. A Person cannot be fit to come to the Lord's Table who hath no Goodness, but without Knowledge the Mind is not good, Prov. 19.2. Some say they have good Hearts, tho they want Knowledge. As if one should say, His Eye is good, but it wants Sight. Under the Law, when the Plague of Leprosy was in a Man's Head, the Priest was to pronounce him unclean. The ignorant Person hath the Plague in his Head, he is unclean. Ignorance is the Womb of Lust, 1 Pet. 1.14. Therefore it is requisite before we come, to Examine our selves what Knowledge we have in the main Fundamentals of Religion. Let it not be said of us, that to this Day the Veil is upon our Heart, 2 Cor. 3.15. But sure in this Intelligent Age we cannot but have some Insight into the Mysteries of the Gospel. I rather fear, we are like Rachel, who was fair and well-sighted, but barren: Therefore,

(1.) We are to examine whether we have Knowledge, else we cannot give God a reasonable Service, Rom. 12.1. Knowledge is a necessary Requisite in a Communicant. Without Knowledge there can be no Fitness for the Sacrament. A Person cannot be fit to come to the Lord's Table who hath no Goodness, but without Knowledge the Mina is not good, Prov. 19.2. Some say they have good Hearts, tho they want Knowledge. As if one should say, His Eye is good, but it wants Sight. Under the Law, when the Plague of Leprosie was in a Man's Head, the Priest was to pronounce him unclean. The ignorant Person hath the Plague in his Head, he is unclean. Ignorance is the Womb of Lust,