464 WHAT LIGHT MUST derstanding is, and he is humbly conscious of the darkness of his own. Therefore he is not conceitedly wise, nor a boaster of his knowledge ; but saith, as Paul, (1. Cor. viii. 2.) " If any man think that he knoweth any thing, (that is, is proudly conceited of his own knowledge,) he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." And hence it is, that though he daily grow in the firmer appre- hension of necessary truths, yet he is never confident and peremp- tory about uncertain, doubtful things; and therefore he is not apt a to be quarrelsome and contentious, nor yet censorious against those that differ from him in matters of no greater moment. And hence it is' that he runneth not into sects; nor burneth with the feverish, dividing zeal, nor yet is scandalously mutable in his opinions ; be- cause, as one that is conscious of his ignorance, he doth not rashly receive things which he understands not, but suspendeth his judg- ment till evidence make him fit to judge; and joineth with neither of the contendingparties, till he is sure to know, indeed, whichof them is right ; and thus he avoideth that dishonoring of religion, which the scandalous Christian is wofully guilty of; .who, with an unhumbled understanding, groweth confident upon quick and in- sufficient information, and judgeth before he understandeth the case, and before he hath heard or read, and considered, what on both sides may be said, and what is necessary to a true understanding. And thus, either by audacious prating of what henever understood, or reviling and censuring men wiser than himself, or by making himself a judge where he hath need to be many years a learner, or making a religion ofhis own mistakes, and setting up dividing sects to propagate them, or else by shameful mutability and unset- tledness, he becometh a scandal to harden d unbelievers, and a dis- ease to the church, an shame to his profession : read James iii. 15-17. Conceited wisdom kindleth acontentious zeal, and is not of God, but from beneath. . IV: The Christian, who.glorifieth God by his religion, is one that so liveth that menmay perceive that his carnal interest is not the end and ruler of his life; but that God is his end, and to please him is his work and his reward, in which he-is comforted, though the flesh and the world be never so much displeased ; and that the perfect light and love of God in the unseen glory of another life is the sanctifying sum of all his hopes, for which all the world must be forsaken. To talk much of heaven, and to be as much and eager for the world as others, is the way by which the scan- dalous hypocrite doth 'bring religion into contempt. It is no high, nor very honorable work, to talk of the vanity of the world, but to live above it, and,to'be out of the power of it; nor is it any great matter to speak' honorably of heaven, but to live as believ-
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