376 SERMONS Upon Serm.43, in hint. For all their great Patts,they are but Spiritual Fools,they have no true Wifdom, civoi roì. So are all Carnal Men : Titus 3. 3. We our felves alfe were fometimes fao/iJb out of our Wits. They do not underfland things Spiritual,and fuch as tend to maintain Communion with God : they love, and do thofe things with delight that are againfl all Reafon, hurtful to Body and Soul. Natural Men are fometimes reprefented as Fools that judg amifs ; fometimes as Infants that know nothing. Ifa. 28. 9. Whom f all he teach Knowledg ? and wham Thal he make to underffand Doilrinre ? they that are weaned from the Milk, and drawn from theBreaff. Sometimes as Beafls, that are uncapable of Underflanding ; Pfal. 32. 9. Be ye not as the Horfe, or as the Mule, that hath no vn- derffanding. Fools they are in their choice, that prefer a Nut or an Apple before a Jewel ; they fpend all their time in looking after Riches, and Honours, and fuch kind of things as do not conduce to Eternity ; for Carnal Pleafures forfeit their Souls, and yet think themfelves very wife. In their Courfe, they make War with Heaven, and enter into the Lifts with God, as if they were ftronger than he. In their prefumption, they give out themfelves for the Sons of God, when they are the Devil's Children ; as if a Man, born of a Beggar, fhould pretend to be the Son of a King. Fools and Mad-men challenge all Lands as theirs, fo do they all Promifes and Comforts : With- in a little while, experience will thew them to be Fools; their Eyes are never opened to fee their Folly, till it be too late : Luke 13. so. Thou Fool, this Night thy Soul fball be required of thee. ¡ter. 17. t t. As a Partridg ftteth on Eggs, and hatcheth them not ; fo he that getteth Riches, and not by Right, Thall leave them in the midlf of his Days, and at his End fhall he a Fool. There is no Fool tothe Carnal Fool ; Godly Men are only wife, that are wife to fave their Souls. Vfi. It informeth us; I. Of our Mifery by Nature. For as the Reprobate loft World are, fo are we all by Nature, we have no Knowledg of the True God. Job It. r a. Vain Man would be wife, tho Man be born like a wild Ajes Colt. We are apt to think our felves Angels, but we are Bealts. Every one affehts the repute of Wifdom, we would rather be accoun- ted Wicked, than Weak. If a Man were born with an Affes Head, or were monftrous and mithapen in his Body, this were fad. it is worfe to be born with the Heart of an Afs, to be born like a Wild -Affes Colt, with fuch grofs and rude Conceits of God and Holy Things. This is our Etlate by Nature. a. The Danger of Ignorance ; it is the date of the Reprobate World. It is good to think of it, partly, that we may avoid it our felves, and ftrive for Knowledg ; part- ly, that we may be thankful, if we have obtained Knowledg ; and partly, that we might pity others, as Chrift wept over Jerufalem, Luke 19. 41, 42. And when he war come near, he beheld the City, and wept over it, faying, If thou hadli known, even thou, at !toff in this thy Day, the things which belong unto thy Peace ! but now they are hid from thine Eyes. It is one of God's foreft Judgments ; when the Lord hath left chreatning other things, then he threatens a blind Heart, and a vain Mind. The great reproach that Nahafli would lay upon Ifrael, was to put out their right Eyes. The great Defign of the God of this World, upon the Men of this World, is to put out their Eyes, that they might not come to the Knowledg of the Truth. 3. Poltive Ignorance is a fign that we are of the World; I mean, where we have Means and Opportunities to the contrary, and do not come to the Knowledg of God, and of his Ways. t John 2. 13. I write unto you little Children, becaufe ye have known the Father. God hath no Child fo little but he knows his Father. The blind World knows him not ; when there is Night in the Underftanding, or Froft in the Heart, it is a fign of a Worlding, when Men are ignorant, unteachable, and do not grow in Knowledg. God's Children many times may be ignorant, and do not profit according to their Advantages. John 14. 9. Have I been fo long with thee, and yet haft thou not known me, Philip ? that is, not known fo diftinaly God the Father, and me, as com- ing out from him. But God's Children are not altogether unteachable. 4. We have no reafon to truft the Judgment of Carnal Men in matters of Godlinefs, for they do not knowGod. Can blind Men judg of Colours ? I urge it, that you may not be difcouraged, tho the World fcoff at Holinefs; who would take notice of the Judgment of Fools ? 5. That Ignorance is not only the Badg of filly weak Perlons, but of great Men, and thofe that are carnally Wife. Mat. I I. 25. I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of Hea- ven and Earth, becaufe thou haft hid theft things from the Wife and Prudent, and revealed d
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