248 The Gofpelliffyiterÿ Dire. itÍ holinefs appointed in the word of God, `are to be made ufe of in that right manner e tprefred in the direction. a. We muff endeavour diligently to know the word of God contained in the holy fcripture, and to improve it to this end, that we may be made wife unto falvation, through faith which is in Chrift Je fus, a Tim. iii. Y g. Other means of falvation are neceffary to the more abundant well-being of out faith, and of our new Rate in Chrift ; but this is ab- folutely neceffary to the very being thereof : becaufe faith cometh by hearing the word of God, and re- ceiveth him as manifefted by the word ; as I have before proved. Rahab the Canaanite was juftified by faith, before the had any vifible communion with the church in any of God's ordinances; yet not with- out the word of God, even the fame word, for fubliance, which was written in the fcriptures, and was then extant in the books of Mofes ; though that word was not-brought to her by any book of holy fcripture, nor by the preaching of any holy minifter, but by the report of the heathens, Joth. ii. 9, a a. But here our great work muft be, to get fuch a know- ledge of the word, as is necefTary and futlicieuLto guide us in the receiving Chrift, and walking in lim by faith. You muft not be of their minds that think the knowledge of the ten commandmentsto be fuf ficient to falvation, or that would have myfteries to remain hid from the underftanding of the vulgar, and nothing to be preached to them but what they can readily affent to, and receive by the light that is in all men : of which mind, it may be, fome minif- ters are, who unwittingly agree with the Quakers in a fundamental of their herefy. But you muft en- deavour chiefly, to know the myftery of the Father and the Sont as it is difcovered in the gofpel, where- in arehid all the treafures of wifdom and knowledge, Col. ii. 2, 3. which to know is life eternal, and the ignorance of it, is death eternal, John xvii. 3. a Cot,
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