The saints dignity and duty· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardness. /…The saints dignitie and dutie· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardnesse. /…

Alas, my brethren, the truth is, it is too too evident. We can speak of great matters, and (as the Apostle saith) we think we know something, but this I am sure of, that though we have lived long under the means, and have enjoyed abundance of light, yet notwithstanding if a man should go from house to house, even in this City where the means of knowledge are more then ordinary, he should find a marvellous poor deal of sanctifying and saving knowledge, yea, I do assure you, of any reasonable common knowledge in matters of Religion. If you ask, What is the ground of all this? I will answer briefly in two or three words.

Alas, my brethren, the truth is, it is too too evident. We can speak of great matters, and (as the Apostle saith) we thinke we know something, but this I am sure of, that though wee have lived long under the means, and have enjoyed abundance of light, yet notwithstanding if a man should go from house to house, even in this City where the means of knowledge are more then ordinary, he should find a marvellous poor deal of sanctifying and saving knowledge, yea, I doe assure you, of any reasonable common knowledge in matters of Religion. If you ask, What is the ground of all this? I will answer briefly in two or three words.

The first cause why men get no more knowledge, notwithstanding they have the means of knowledge, I take to be the ⟨p. 197⟩blindness of their minds, the weakness of their judgements, the ignorance that is in their understanding. Though they have all the outward helps that any people have under heaven, yet having a want in themselves, and a weakness in their own powers and natural principles, it is impossible that ever they should receive any good by those means. This is the very cause which the Apostle Paul allegeth, Ephes. 4.18. why the Gentiles were estranged from the life of God, namely, because their understandings were darkened, and because of the ignorance that was in their minds, and the blindness of their heart. It skilleth not how bright and clear the Sun shineth, if in the mean time the visive faculty be wanting; if a man have no eyes to see, he is never the better for the greatest light in the world: So it is here; as long as men are full of blindness and ignorance in their understandings, though the light of the Gospel shine in their very faces, it is no marvel they benefit not thereby, for alas they have no eyes. The fault is not in the Gospel; for that is light: but the fault is in their own souls; their understanding is darkened, the scales of ignorance are grown over the eyes of their mind, they want an inward principle of spiritual sight, and so they are not able to reap any benefit by the most excellent means in the world as they should do. That is the first Reason.