18. Chapter V.
Chapter V.
Causes of ignorance of the mind of God
Causes of being ignorant of the mind of God revealed in the Scripture, and of errors about it — What they are, and how they are removed. The supposition we proceed on in this discourse is that God has revealed his mind and will to us in the holy Scripture, as to all things concerning his worship, with our faith and obedience in it. Upon having that, we inquire by what means we may attain saving knowledge of the mind of God, that is so revealed. And my principal design is to show what aid and assistance we receive from the Holy Ghost to that end. To further us in the knowledge of this, I will inquire into the causes and reasons of men’s ignorance and misapprehensions of the mind of God, as revealed, and how our minds are delivered from them.
It may be that this part of our discourse might have had a more proper place assigned to it, after we have given a fuller confirmation of the truth pleaded. But because an objection may arise against the truth contended for, from the consideration of what we will now assert, I thought it was not amiss to obviate it so as to further illustrate the doctrine itself which we labor in.
All men see, and most men complain of, that ignorance of the mind of God, and those abominable errors, attended with false worship, which abound in the world. How few there are who rightly understand and believe the truth! It is likewise known what divisions, scandals, animosities, violence, mutual rage and persecutions, ensue from this among those who are called Christians. Hence some take occasion to countenance themselves in an open declension to atheism; some to a great indifference in all religion; some to advance themselves and destroy others by the advantage of their opinions, according to their prevalence in some times and places. A brief inquiry into the causes of that darkness and ignorance which is in the world, among men who outwardly own the doctrine of the gospel, and especially of the errors and heresies which abound above what they have been in most ages, may be of use to preserve us from those evils. This is a subject that would require much time and diligence to handle it in a due manner. At present, I intend only to point at the heads of a few things, the observation of which may be of use for the end designed.
Those of the Roman church tell us that the cause of this is the obscurity, difficulty, and perplexity of the Scripture. "If men will trust to this as their only guide, they are sure to miscarry." Therefore, they say, the only relief in this matter is that we surrender our souls to the conduct of their church, which can neither err nor deceive.
Indeed, so said Adam of old, when charged with his sin and infidelity: "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." Genesis 3:12 But though it is an evil (indeed the greatest of evils) whose causes we inquire about, it seems generally more rational that we seek the causes in ourselves, rather than in anything God has done; for he alone is good, and we are evil.
It is granted that God has given us his word, or the holy Scripture, as a declaration of his mind and will. And therefore he has given it to us for this very end and purpose: that we may know them and do them. But because many men fail in this, and do not rightly understand what is revealed, but fall into pernicious errors and mistakes to his dishonor and their own ruin, is it fitting to say to God that this comes to pass because the revelation he made of these things is dark, obscure, and intricate? Or, "The Scripture which you have given us deceives us?" Would a due reverence or deference to the wisdom, goodness, and love of God toward mankind, be preserved in this?
"Men, ready for anything, are quick to find forbidden wickedness." 275
What will the prejudices and corrupt interests of men not carry them to! God will forever preserve those who are His in abhorrence of that religion, whatever it is, that by any means leads us to undervalue that revelation of himself which, in infinite wisdom and goodness, he has made to us. But is it because there is no reason to be given for this evil, from the minds of men themselves, that it is thus ascribed to God? May not all the wickedness that the world is filled with, be as well ascribed to him and what he has done? Does not each one see a sufficient cause for this in himself, if he were not delivered from it by the power of the Spirit and grace of God? Do not other men who fail in the right knowledge of God, especially in any important truth, sufficiently evidence in other things, that the root of this matter is in themselves? Alas! How dark the minds of poor mortals are, how full of pride and folly! I say with some confidence, that there is reason enough to charge all the errors, ignorance, and confusions in religion, that are or ever were in the world, on the minds of men, and on those depraved affections whose prevalence they are liable to. And this is without the least censure of obscurity, insufficiency, or intricacy in the Scripture. Those who do not understand this, are themselves profoundly ignorant of the state of all things above and here below.
We must therefore inquire after the causes and reasons of these things among ourselves; for only there will they be found. And these causes are of two sorts:
1. That which is general, and the spring of all others;
2. Those which are particular, which arise and branch out from there:
1. The first and general cause of all ignorance, error, and misunderstanding of the mind and will of God, as revealed in the Scripture — which exist among all sorts of men, whatever their particular circumstances — is the natural vanity and darkness with which the minds of all men are depraved. I fully declared elsewhere the nature of this depravation of our minds by the fall, and its effects. Therefore, I now take it for granted that the minds of all men are naturally prepossessed with this darkness and vanity, from which they are not and cannot be delivered, except by the saving illumination of the Spirit and grace of God. But because I have so largely addressed it both in the "Discourses of the Dispensation of the Spirit," book iii. chap. iii.,276 and those concerning the Apostasy of these latter times,277 I will not insist on it again.
I will observe only two things for our present purpose, namely —
(1.) That by this, the mind is kept from discerning the glory and beauty of spiritual, heavenly truth, and from being sensible of its power and efficacy, John 1.5.278
(2.) That by the same means, it is inclined toward all things that are vain, curious, superstitious, and carnal, suited to the interest of pride, lust, and all manner of corrupt affections. Hence, whatever other occasions of error and superstition may be given or taken, the basis of their receipt, and of all adherence to them, is the uncured vanity and darkness of the minds of men by nature. This is the mire in which this rush grows. And considering this, will rectify our thoughts concerning those we see daily who wander from the truth, or who live in those misapprehensions of the mind of God which they have imbibed, notwithstanding the clear revelation of it to the contrary. Some think it strange that it should be this way, and marvel at them; some are angry with them; and some would persecute and destroy them. We may make better use of this consideration; for we may learn from it the sad corruption and depravation of our minds in our estate of apostasy from God. Here lies the seed and spring of all the sin, evil, and disorder, which we behold and suffer under in religious concerns in this world. And if we consider it rightly, it will serve —
[1.] To impress a due sense of our own condition upon our minds, so that we may be humbled; in humility alone there is safety. "His soul which is proud is not upright in him," Habakkuk 2:4; for he draws back from God, and God has no pleasure in him, as the apostle expounds those words in Hebrews 10:38. It was in the principles of our nature to adhere sacredly to the first truth, to discern and abhor every false way.
We were created with that light of truth in our minds that was in every way able to guide us in all that we had to believe or do with respect to God, or to our own blessedness forever. But in place of this, through our wretched apostasy from God, our mind has become the seat and habitation of all vanity, disorder, and confusion. And in no way does this more reveal itself than in the readiness and proneness of multitudes to embrace whatever is crooked, perverse, and false in religion, notwithstanding the clear revelation that God has made in the Scripture, of the whole truth concerning it. A due reflection on this may teach us humility and self-abasement; for we are "by nature children of wrath, even as others;" Ephesians 2:3 nor do we have any good thing that we have not received.1 Corinthians 4:7 It is better, therefore, to be conversant with such thoughts on this occasion, than to be filled with contempt of, or wrath against, those whom we see still suffering under those woeful effects of the general apostasy from God, in which we were equally involved with them. Indeed —
[2.] It will teach us pity and compassion towards those whose minds run into the spiritual excesses mentioned. The merciful High priest of the whole church has "compassion on the ignorant, and on those who are out of the way," Hebrews 5:2; and it is conformity to him in all things which ought to be our principal design, if we desire to be like him in glory. Lack of this is the ruin of religion, and the true cause of all the troubles that its profession is encumbered with at this day.
It is true for the most part, that there is an interposition of corrupt affections seducing the minds of men from the truth; they are tossed up and down with these, and so they are driven with the winds of temptations that befall them. But is it humanity to stand on the shore, and seeing men in a storm at sea, in which at any moment they are liable to be cast adrift and perish, to storm at them ourselves, or to shoot them to death, or to throw fire into their vessel, because they are in danger of being drowned? Yet we deal no differently with those whom we persecute because they miss the knowledge of the truth. And it may be that we raise a worse storm in ourselves as to our own morals, than they suffer under in their intellectuals. Concerning such persons, the advice of the apostle is this: "On some have compassion, making a distinction: but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire," Jude 1:22-23. Some are so given up in their apostasy that they "sin unto death;" we are not to concern ourselves with such, 1 John 5:16. But it is very rare that we can safely make that judgment concerning anyone in this world; though sometimes, no doubt, we may, or this rule concerning them would never have been given. As to all others — the worst of them, those who are in the fire — the frame of our minds’ acting towards them is presented to us here: we ought to be possessed with and moved by compassion for their present state, and fear of their future ruin. But how few are those who are so framed and minded towards them, especially to those who by their enormous errors seem to be fallen into the fire of God’s displeasure! Men think that anger, wrath, fury, and contempt are their duty towards such persons; there is usually more contriving as to how they may be temporally destroyed than how they may be eternally saved. But such men profess the truth by chance, as it were. They never knew what it means to learn truth rightly, nor from where the knowledge of it is to be received, nor were they ever under its power or conduct. Our proper work is to save such persons, as we are able, "pulling them out of the fire." Jude 1:23 Duties of difficulty and danger to ourselves may be required for it. If we had secular power with us, it would be easier to throw men into temporal fire for their errors, than to free them from eternal fire by the truth. But if we were governed by compassion for their souls and fear for their ruin, as it is our duty to be, then we would not decline any office of love required for it.
[3.] Has God led us into the truth, has he kept us from every false way? — it is evident that we have abundant cause for gratitude and fruitfulness. It is a condition more desperate than that of the most pernicious errors, to "hold the truth in unrighteousness;" and as good not to know the Lord Jesus Christ, as to be barren in the knowledge of him. We see that it is not of ourselves that we know the truth, or love it, or abide in the profession of it. We have nothing of this kind but what we have received.1 Corinthians 4:7 Humility in ourselves, usefulness towards others, and thankfulness to God, ought to be the effects of this consideration. This is the first general cause of men’s misapprehension of the mind and will of God as revealed in the Scripture. The revelation itself is plain, perspicuous, and full of light; but this "light shines in darkness, and the darkness comprehends it not." The natural darkness and blindness which is in the minds of men, with the vanity and instability which attend them, causes them to wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction. And for this sort of men to complain of the obscurity of the Scripture, as they do horribly in the Papacy, is the same as if a company of blind men were to cry out about an eclipse of the sun when he shines in his full strength and glory. How this darkness is removed and taken away by the effectual operation of the Holy Spirit in our illumination, I have discussed at large elsewhere.
2. Corrupt affections, prevalent in the minds of men, hinder them from a right understanding of the mind of God in the Scripture. For hereby they are effectively inclined to wrest and pervert the truth, or are filled with prejudices against it. This is the next cause of all ignorance and error, where we must seek the particular causes of them that were proposed before. The principal reason why most men do not attain a right understanding of the mind and will of God in the Scripture, is the corrupt affections that are predominant in their own minds, by which they are exposed to all sorts of impressions and seductions from Satan and the agents for his kingdom and interest. So one apostle tells us that "unlearned and unstable men wrest the Scripture, to their own destruction," 2 Peter 3:16; and another, that these unlearned and unstable persons are "men of corrupt minds," 1 Timothy 6:5; 2 Timothy 3:8; — that is, those whose minds are particularly under the power of perverse and corrupt affections. For these affections are, Ephesians 2:3, "the wills of the mind," 279 which carry it with an impetuous inclination towards their own satisfaction, and render it obstinate and perverse in its adherence to this. These are the root of that "filthiness and overflow of wickedness" which must be cast out before we can "receive with meekness the ingrafted word," James 1:21. A few of them may be named:
(1.) Pride, or carnal confidence in our own wisdom and ability of mind for all the ends of our duty towards God, especially of understanding his mind and will, either keeps the souls of men under the bondage of darkness and ignorance, or it precipitates them into foolish apprehensions or pernicious errors. Just as spiritual pride is the worst sort of pride, so this is the worst degree of spiritual pride: namely, when men do not acknowledge God in these things as they should, but lean on their own understandings.Proverbs 3:5 This is what ruined the Pharisees of old, that they could not understand the mind of God in anything to their advantage. It is the meek, the humble, the lowly in mind, those who are like little children, that God has promised to teach. This is an eternal and unalterable law of God’s appointment, that whoever would learn His mind and will as revealed in the Scripture, must be humble and lowly, renouncing all trust and confidence in themselves. And whatever men of another frame come to know, they do not know it according to the mind of God, nor according to their own duty, nor to their advantage. Whatever knowledge they may have, however conspicuous it may be made by their natural and acquired abilities, however it may be garnished with a mixture of secular literature, whatever contempt of others it may raise them to — such as the Pharisees had of the people, whom they esteemed accursed because they did not know the law — yet they know nothing as they should, nothing to the glory of God, nothing to the spiritual advantage of their own souls. And of what account is their knowledge? Indeed, the knowledge of a proud man is the throne of Satan in his mind. To suppose that persons under the predominance of pride, self-conceit, and self-confidence, can understand the mind of God as revealed in a due manner, is to renounce the Scriptures, or innumerable positive testimonies given in them to the contrary. Such persons cannot make use of any one means of spiritual knowledge that God requires of them in a way of duty, nor can they improve to their good any one truth which they may know. Therefore, our Savior tells the proud Pharisees, notwithstanding all their skill in the letter and tittles of the Scripture, that "they had not heard the voice of God at any time, nor seen his shape, nor did they have his word abiding in them," John 5:37-38. They had no right knowledge of Him, as He had revealed and declared himself.
Men infected with this leaven,280 having their minds tainted with it, have been the great corrupters of divine truth in all ages. Such have been the ringleaders of all heresies; and such were those who have turned the knowledge of the will of God proposed in the Scripture into a wrangling science, filled with niceties,281 subtleties, curiosities, futile terms of art, and other fuel for the minds of fiery contenders in wrangling disputations. And this kind of self-confidence is apt to befall all sorts of men. Those of the lowliest capacity may be infected with it no less than the wisest or most learned. And we frequently see persons whose weakness in all sound knowledge, and insufficiency for the use of proper means for attaining it, might seem to call them to humility and lowliness of mind in an eminent manner. Yet they are lifted up to such a degree of spiritual pride and conceit of their own understandings, as to render them useless, troublesome, and offensive to men of sober minds. But principally exposed to this are those who either really or in their own apprehensions are exalted above others in secular learning, and natural or acquired abilities. For such men are apt to think that they must necessarily know the meaning of the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures better than others, or at least that they can do so if they will only set themselves about it. But what principally hinders them from doing so, is their conceit that they can do so.
They mistake for divine knowledge, that which is the great obstruction to it in them.
(2.) The love of honor and praise among men is another corrupt affection of mind, of the same nature and efficacy as that named before. This is so branded by our Savior as an insuperable obstacle against the admission of sacred light and truth, that no more need be added to this. See John 5.44, 12.43.282
(3.) A pertinacious283 adherence to corrupt traditions and inveterate errors, quite shuts the way to all wisdom and spiritual understanding. This ruined the church of the Jews of old, and at present it makes that of the Romanists incurable. What their forefathers have professed, what they themselves have imbibed from their infancy, what all their outward circumstances are involved in, what they have advantage by, what gains a reputation with those in whom they are principally concerned — that will be the truth with them, and nothing else. To persons whose minds are wholly vitiated with the leaven of this corrupt affection, there is not a line in the Scripture whose sense can be truly and clearly represented; it all appears to support and represent what their prejudices frame in their minds. When the Lord Christ first came forth to preach the gospel, a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him," Matthew 3:17; Matthew 17:5. Nor was this command given to those alone who heard it immediately from the "excellent glory," as Peter says, 2 Peter 1:17 — but as recorded in the word, it is given equally to everyone who would learn anything of the mind and will of God in a due manner. No man can learn except by "hearing him;" we are sent to him for learning our spiritual knowledge. And in no other way does he speak to us than by his word and Spirit. But where the minds of men are prepossessed with apprehensions of what they have received from the authority of other teachers, they have neither desire, design, readiness, nor willingness to hear him. But if men will not forego all pre-imbibed opinions, prejudices, and conceptions of mind — however riveted into them by traditions, custom, veneration of elders, and secular advantages — to hearken to and receive whatever the Spirit will speak to them, and do it with a humble, lowly frame of heart, then they will never learn the truth, nor attain a "full assurance of understanding" in the mysteries of God. These inveterate prejudices are at this day those which principally shut out the truth, and set men together by the ears284 all over the world, about religion and its concerns. From this come all the strife, rage, tumult, and persecution that the world is filled with. If men could but once agree to lay down all those presumptions at the feet of Jesus Christ, which either wit, learning, custom, interest, or advantage have influenced them with, and resolve in sincerity to comply with that alone which he teaches them, and forego whatever is inconsistent with it, then the ways to truth and peace would be more laid open than they are otherwise likely to be.
(4.) Spiritual sloth is of the same nature, and it produces the same effect. The Scripture frequently charges us to use the utmost of our diligence to search out and discover spiritual truth, proposing to us the example of those who have done so before.285 And any rational man would judge that if it had not been so expressly given us in charge from God himself, if it had not been a means appointed and sanctified to this end, the nature of the thing itself, with its importance to our duty and blessedness, are still sufficient to convince us of its necessity. It is truth, it is heavenly truth, that we inquire after; our eternal blessedness or misery depends on the knowledge or ignorance of that truth. And it is in a due perception of this alone, that the faculties of our minds are perfected according to the measure which they are capable of in this life. In this alone can the mind of man find rest, peace, and satisfaction. And without it, the mind must always wander in restless uncertainties and disquieting vanities. It is a notion implanted in the minds of all men that all truth lies deep, and that there is great difficulty in attaining it. The minds of most are imposed on by specious appearances of falsehood. Therefore, all wise men have agreed that without our utmost care and diligence in the investigation of the truth, we must be content to walk in the shades of ignorance and error. And if it is this way in earthly things, then how much more in heavenly! Just as spiritual, supernatural truth is to be valued incomparably above that which relates to natural things, so it is more abstruse and difficult to investigate. But this folly has befallen the minds of most men: they suppose that of all things, there is least need to use pains and diligence in inquiring after those things which the angels themselves desire to bow down and look into, and which the prophets of old inquired and searched after with all diligence. Whatever their notion of this may be, practically it is evident that most men, through pride, sloth, and love of sin, are wholly negligent in this. Or at least they will not apply themselves to those spiritual means without which the knowledge of divine truth will not be attained. It is generally supposed that men may be as wise in these things as they need to be, at a very easy rate. The folly of men in this can never be bewailed enough. They regard spiritual truth as if they had no concern in it, beyond what custom and tradition put on them, in reading chapters or hearing sermons. They are wholly under the power of sloth as to any means of spiritual knowledge.
Some, indeed, will labor diligently in the study of those things which the Scripture has in common with other arts and sciences. Such are the languages in which it was written, the stories contained in it, the ways of arguing which it uses with scholastic accuracy, in expressing the truth supposed to be contained in it. These things are great in themselves, but they go for nothing when they are alone.
Men under the utmost efficacy of spiritual sloth may be diligent in them, and make great progress in their improvement. But they are spiritual objects and duties that this sloth prevails to alienate the minds of men from, and to make them negligent of. What those duties are, I will afterward manifest. The consideration, I say, of the state of things in the world, evidences a great probability that the number is very small of those who diligently, humbly, and conscientiously endeavor to learn the truth from the voice of God in the Scripture; or to grow wise in the mysteries of the gospel by those ways alone in which that wisdom is attainable. This comes about,
through the pride and self-conceit of the minds of many, refusing to comply with the means of spiritual knowledge, and excluding all gracious qualifications indispensably required for attaining it; through the power of corrupt traditions, imprisoning the minds of men in a fatal adherence to them, preventing all thoughts of a holy, ingenuous inquiry into the mind of God by the only safe, infallible revelation of it; through the power of spiritual sloth, indisposing the minds of most to an immediate search of the Scripture — partly with apprehensions of its difficulty, and partly with notions of learning the truth contained in it by other means; and through a traditional course of studying divinity as an art or science, to be learned out of the writings of men. Is it any wonder, then, if many, the greatest number of men, wander after vain imaginations of their own or others, while the truth is neglected or despised?
(5.) Again, there is in the minds of men by nature, a love of sin, which causes them to hate the truth; and none can understand it but those who love it. In the visible church, most men come to know of the truth of the gospel, whether they will to or not, as it were. And they find the general design of it to be a separation between them and their sins. This puts them at a distance from it in their affection; and on this, they can never make any near approach to the truth in knowledge or understanding. So we are assured, John 3:19-20 : "Light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. For every one that does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be reproved." Persons under the power of this frame, sit under shades of ignorance and corrupt imaginations. And even if they were to attempt to learn the truth, they would never be able to do so.
(6.) Lastly, Satan by his temptations and suggestions, variously affects the minds of men, hindering them from discerning the mind of God as revealed in the Scripture: "The god of this world blinds the eyes of those who do not believe, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them," 2 Corinthians 4:4. The ways and means by which Satan does so — the instruments which he uses, the artifices and methods which he applies to his ends, with his application286 of himself to them, according to all occasions, circumstances, opportunities, and provocations, in great variety — would be worth our inquiring into; but we would digress too much from our present design.
I have but mentioned these things, as instances of the true and originating causes of the lack of understanding and misunderstanding, of the revelation of the mind of God in the Scripture. Many more of the same nature might be added to them, and their effectual operations be declared to the same end; but the mention of them here is only occasional, and as such it will not allow for further discussion. Yet it is by these and like depraved affections, that the original darkness and enmity of the minds of men against spiritual truth and all its mysteries, exert themselves; and from them proceed all the error, superstition, and false worship that the world is filled with.
While the minds of men are thus affected, they cannot understand and receive divine, spiritual truths in a due manner; and so they are ready and prone to embrace whatever is contrary to them. Therefore, if it is the work of the Spirit of God alone, in the renovation of our minds, to free them from the power of these vicious, depraved habits, and consequently from the advantages that Satan thereby has against them, there is a special work of his that is necessary to enable us to learn the truth as we should. And for those who have no regard for these things — who suppose that in the study of the Scripture, all things come alike to all, to the clean and to the unclean, to the humble and the proud, to those who hate the garment spotted with the flesh and those who both love sin and live in it — they seem to know nothing of the design, nature, power, use, or end of the gospel. The removal of these hindrances and obstacles, is the work of the Spirit of God alone; for —
1. He alone communicates that spiritual light to our minds which is the foundation of all our relief against these obstacles of and oppositions to a saving understanding of the mind of God.
2. In particular, he frees, delivers, and purges our minds from all those corrupt affections and prejudices which are partly inbred in them, and partly assumed by or imposed on them. For the artifice of Satan, in turning the minds of men from the truth, is by bringing them under the power of corrupt and vicious habits, which expel that frame of spirit which is indispensably necessary to those who would learn it. It is, indeed, our duty to so purify and purge ourselves.287
We ought to cast out "all filthiness and overflow of wickedness," that we may "receive with meekness the ingrafted word," James 1:21; to "purge ourselves from these things, that we may be vessels for honor, sanctified and fit for our Master’s use, and prepared for every good work," 2 Timothy 2:21. If it is not this way with us, let the pride and folly of men pretend what they please, we cannot learn, know, or teach the mind of God as we should. We do not inquire what men may do without giving glory to God, or bringing any spiritual advantage to their own souls, seeing that it belongs only equivocally to Christian religion. But although it is our duty to thus purge ourselves, it is by the grace of the Holy Spirit that we do so. Those who would exclude the efficacious operations of the Holy Ghost in anything, under a pretense of it being our own duty — or on the other hand, who would exclude the necessity of diligence in our duties, on the pretense that it is all of his grace and its efficacy — admit only half the gospel, and reject the other. The whole gospel asserts and requires them both, in every good act and work. Therefore, purging ourselves is not absolutely in the power of our natural abilities. For these corrupt affections possess and are predominant in the mind itself; and all its actings are suited to their nature and influenced by their power. Therefore, it can never free itself from them by its own native ability. But it is the work of this great Purifier and Sanctifier of the church, to free our minds from these corrupt affections and inveterate prejudices by which we are alienated from the truth, and by which we are inclined to false conceptions of the mind of God. Unless this is done, we will in vain think to learn the truth as it is in Jesus. See 1 Corinthians 6:11; Titus 3:3-5; Romans 8:13; Eph 4.20-24.288
3. The Spirit implants in our minds spiritual habits and principles, contrary and opposite to those corrupt affections, and by which they are subdued and expelled. By Him our minds are made humble, meek, and teachable, through submission to the authority of the word, and a conscientious endeavor to conform ourselves to it.
It was always agreed that ordinarily, preparations are required for receiving divine illuminations; and in assigning them, many have been greatly deceived. Hence some, in the expectation of receiving divine revelations, have been imposed on by diabolical delusions which, by the working of their imaginations, they had prepared their minds to give an easy admission to. So it was among the heathen of old, who invented many ways to this purpose, some of them horrid and dreadful; and so it still is with all enthusiasts.289 But God himself has plainly declared what the qualifications are of those souls who are (or ever will be) fit to be made partakers of divine teachings. And these are (as frequently expressed) meekness, humility, godly fear, reverence, submission of soul and conscience to the authority of God, with a resolve and readiness for all that obedience which He requires of us, especially that which is internal, in the hidden man of the heart.
Maybe some will judge that when we assign these things as means or preparations for this, we wander far from the matter of our inquiry: namely, how we may come to the knowledge of the mind of God in the Scripture, or how we may rightly understand the Scripture. For although these are good things (and that cannot be denied),
"It is ridiculous to urge them as necessary to this end, or being of any use to attain it. Learning, arts, languages, sciences, with the rules of their exercise, and the advantage of ecclesiastical dignity, are the things that are of use in this, and they alone."
Ans. We acknowledge that most of these things, and various others of the same kind, are of great use to the end designed, in their proper place. And what the due use of them is, will be declared afterward. But we must not forego what the Scripture plainly instructs us in, and which the nature of the things themselves evidence to be necessary, in order to comply with290 the arrogance and fancy of anyone, or to free ourselves from their contempt.
It is such an understanding of the Scripture, of the divine revelation of the mind of God in this, in which the spiritual illumination of our minds consists, and which we inquire after. It is that knowledge which is useful and profitable to the proper ends of the Scripture towards us, that which we are taught by God, so that we may live to him. These are the ends of all true knowledge. See 2Tim 3.14-17.291 And for this end, furnishing the mind with the graces mentioned before, is the best preparation. One who denies this, bids defiance to the gospel. "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." 1 Peter 5:5 Whatever may be the parts or abilities of men, whatever diligence they may use in the investigation of the truth, whatever disciplinary knowledge they may attain by it, the Spirit of God never did nor ever will instruct a proud, unhumbled soul in the right knowledge of the Scripture, because it is a divine revelation. It is these gracious qualifications alone by which we may be enabled to "cast out all filthiness and overflow of wickedness," so as to "receive with meekness the ingrafted word, which is able to save our souls." James 1:21 Our blessed Savior tells us, that "unless we are converted, and become like little children, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven," Matthew 18:3. We cannot do so unless we become humble, meek, tender, weaned from high thoughts of ourselves, and purged from prejudices by corrupt affections. I do not value that knowledge which will not conduct us into the "kingdom of heaven," or which will be excluded from there. So God has promised that "he will guide the meek in judgment; he will teach the meek his way. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him; and he will show them his covenant." "What man fears the Lord? He will teach him in the way," Psalms 25:9; Psalms 25:12; Psalms 25:14. And so we are plainly told that "evil men do not understand judgment; but those who seek the Lord understand all things," Proverbs 28:5.
Now all these graces by which men are made teachable, and capable of divine mysteries — so as to learn the truth as it is in Jesus, to understand the mind of God in the Scriptures — are worked in them by the Holy Spirit; and these graces belong to his work upon our minds in our illumination. Without this work, the hearts of all men are fat, their ears are heavy, and their eyes are sealed, that they can neither hear, nor perceive, nor understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God.Isaiah 6:10
These things belong to the work of the Holy Spirit upon our minds in our illumination, or in his enabling us to rightly understand the mind of God in the Scripture. Various other instances might be given to the same purpose. Whoever is thus graciously prepared and disposed by him, will be taught in the knowledge of the will of God, so far as he is concerned to know it in point of duty, and abides in the ordinary use of outward means. So too there are various other things necessary to attain further useful degrees of this knowledge and understanding. I will treat those afterward.