278 SEVENTH SERMON not most clear and satisfactory expedients to be drawn out of God's word, if a man have his judgment and senses after a spiritual manner exercised in the search- ing of it. That we are so often at a stand how to state such a question, how to satisfy such a scruple, how to clear and expedite such a difficulty, how to repel such a temptation, how to manage such an action, how to order our ways with an even and com- posed spirit in the various conditions whereinto we are cast in this world, doth not arise from any defect in the word of God, which is perfect and able to furnish us unto every good work, but only from our own ignorance and unacquaintance with it, who know not how to draw the general rule, and to apply it to our own particular cases. And this cannot but be matter of great humiliation unto us in these sad and distracted times, when besides our civil breaches, which threaten desolation to the state, there should be so many and wide divisions in the church ; that after so long enjoyment of the word of God, the scripture should be to so many men as a sealed book, and they, like the Egyptians, have the dark side of this glorious pillar towards them still, that men should be tossed to and fro like children, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, and suffer themselves to be bewitched, devoured, brought into bondage, spoiled, led away captive, unskilful in the word of righteous- ness, unable to discern good and evil, to prove and try the spirits whether they be of God, always learn- ing, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth ; and this not only in matters problematical, or circumstantial, wherein learned and godly men may differ one from another, and yet still the peace and unity of the church be preserved, (for things of this nature ought not to be occasions of schism, or
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