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. /…

You that are tradesmen, or you that have children, will any man say, my child is a good Scholar, for he hath gone so long to school; or, my Apprentice hath good skill in his trade, because he hath served me so many years? It is true, he ought to be so: but it doth not follow, that because he hath had such and such helps, and lived so long under them, that therefore he is so. So it is here: there is no reason for any man to ground his assurance of salvation on his enjoyment of the means, or to imagine that God hath wrought mercifully for him in the matter of knowledge, which accompanieth life and happiness, because of his long living under a good ministry: no, it is not enough to have the preaching of the word among us, and to have the means and helps of saving knowledge; you may have all these, and yet remain ignorant and blind, and be a people of no understanding.

You that are tradesmen, or you that have children, will any man say, my child is a good Schollar, for he hath gone so long to schoole; or, my Apprentise hath good skill in his trade, because he hath served me so many yeares? It is true, he ought to be so: but it doth not follow, that because he hath had such and such helps, and lived so long under them, that therefore he is so. So it is here: there is no reason for any man to ground his assurance of salvation on his injoyment of the meanes, or to imagine that God hath wrought mercifully for him in the matter of knowledge, which accompanieth life and happiness, because of his long living under a good ministry: no, it is not enough to have the preaching of the word among us, and to have the meanes and helps of saving knowledge; you may have all these, and yet remain ignorant and blind, and be a people of no understanding.

Secondly, this is a word of instruction to us. We are hence given to understand the sinfulness of our nature, and the blindness of our minds, seeing a man may have all the means under heaven, and yet all prove unprofitable to him; may enjoy all the helps that God hath set up in his Church for the good of peoples souls, and yet receive no good by them. What a strange heart is ours? Yet so it is even amongst many of us in this place, and I wish it were not so ⟨p. 213⟩