Mutual Edification, the Duty of Chr Jlians. i he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know ; SERM. that is, if he be conceited of his knowledge I. in the chriftian religion, as a reputable ac- e-eNev complifhment, confidering it only as a fcience, or fpeculation, he has not yet attained to any right underftanding of it, fo as to anfwer its true intention. Yet Rill knowledge is necef- fary, and without it we can make no pro - grefs in religion ; for as by the vanity of their thoughts darkening their underftanding, the Gentiles were alienated from the life of God, fo it is by revealing the father to men, giving them juft notions of God and of their duty that our faviour reforms them ; they are re- newed in their minds, after the divine Image, firft in knowledge, and thereby in righteouf- nefs and true holinefs ; and it is by the unity of faith, and knowledge of the Son ef God, that the whole body of his fincere difciples grow up to a perfect man, to the meafiare of the flature of the fancy's of Chr Secondly, we muff be built up, and build up ourfelves in our molt holy faith, according to St. jude's diretion, in the 2oth verfe of his epiftle ; whether that exprefìion means the divine fyftem of chriftianity, as the faith 1 nifies in the 3d verfe of the fame epiftle, or the principle of faith in us, it amounts to the
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