Of Knowledge. 121 what the worfhipper himfelf does not know; SERM. without love to, without confidence in, or a V. defire of imitating the moral perfe&ions of the`--" wifeft and belt of beings, but mifreprefenting him and changing his glory into the image of a weak, paffionate, cruel, and capricious Being, pleafed with the mifery of his crea- tures, and pleafed with trifles. There is no- thing like this in the chriftian religion; I mean that true chriftianity which the fcripture contains ; but a manly rational woríhip, and the practice of fubftantial virtue with under - ftanding. Agreeably to this, the apoftle in the text, exhorts us to add knowledge to our faith and virtue, that is, a right underftand- ing of chriftianity to our receiving it, and to our profeffing and adhering to it, and to all the duties it prefcribes with zeal and cou- rage ; otherwife, our religion degenerates into a mere form, and our zeal into a fenfe- lefs paílion, which is neither pleafing to God, nor profitable to ourfelves. The fame muff be faid with refpeft to the other graces he mentions, temperance, patience, godlinefs, and charity, which, everyone of them, to their fincerity, that is, their very being, requires the illumination of the underftanding. For they do not confift in outward ats, but prin- cipally
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