when "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little child lead them :" when "the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den:" when "they shall not hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

I have but one word more; if you please to give me leave; that after your care for the advancement of religion, and the public good of the commonwealth, you would think it worthy of you to promote ingenious learning, and cast a favourable influence upon it. I mean, not that only which furnisheth the pulpit, which you seem to be very regardful of; but that, which is more remote from such popular use, in the several kinds of it, which yet are all of them both very subservient to religion, and useful to the commmonwealth. There is indeed a fevdoraideia, as the philosopher tells us, a bastardly kind of literature, and a fevdwvvuos yvwous, as the apostle instructeth us, a knowledge falsely so called; which deserve not to be pleaded for. But the noble and generous improvement of our understanding faculty, in the true contemplation of the wisdom, goodness, and other attributes of God, in this great fabric of the universe, cannot easily be disparaged, without a blemish cast upon the Maker of it. Doubtless, we may as well enjoy that which God hath communicated of himself to the creatures, by this larger faculty of our understandings, as by those narrow and low fa

culties of our senses; and yet nobody counts it to be unlawful to hear a lesson played upon the lute, or to smell at a rose. And these raised improvements of our natural understandings may be as well subservient and subordinate to a Divine light in our minds, as the natural use of these outward creatures here below to the life of God in our hearts. Nay, all true knowledge doth of itself naturally tend to God, who is the fountain of it; and would ever be raising of our souls up upon its wings thither, did not we κατέχειν ἐν ἀδικίᾳ, detain it, and hold it down, in unrighteousness, as the apostle speaketh. All philosophy to a wise man, to a truly sanctified mind, as he in Plutarch speaketh, is but üλŋ rñs Oɛoλoyías, matter for Divinity to work upon. Religion is the queen of all those inward endowments of the soul; and all pure natural knowledge, all virgin and undeflowered arts and sciences, are her handmaids, that rise up, and call her blessed. I need not tell you how much the skill of tongues and languages, besides the excellent use of all philology in general, conduceth to the right understanding of the letter of sacred writings, on which the spiritual notions must be built; for none can possibly be ignorant of that, which have but once heard of a translation of the Bible. The apostle exhorteth private Christians to "whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, to think on those things:" and therefore it may well become you, noble gentlemen, in your public sphere to encourage so noble a thing as knowledge is, which will reflect so much lustre and honour back again

upon yourselves. That God would direct you in all your counsels, and still bless you, and prosper you in all your sincere endeavours for the public good, is the hearty prayer of,

Your most humble Servant,

RALPH CUDWORTH.

SERMON I.

And hereby we do know, that we know him, if we keep his commandments.—He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.-1 JOHN ii. 3, 4.

We have much inquiry concerning knowledge in these latter times. The sons of Adam are now as busy as ever himself was about the tree of knowledge of good and evil, shaking the boughs of it, and scrambling for the fruit; whilst, I fear, many are too unmindful of the tree of life. And though there be now no cherubims with their flaming swords to fright men off from it; yet the way, that leads to it, seems to be so solitary and untrodden as if there were but few that had any mind to taste of the fruit of it. There be many, that speak of new glimpses and discoveries of truth, of dawnings of gospel light; and no question but God hath reserved much of this for the very evening and sun-set of the world; for in the latter days knowledge shall be increased: but yet I wish we could in the mean time see that day to dawn, which the apostle speaks of, and that “day-star to arise in men's hearts." I wish, whilst we talk of light, and dispute about truth, we could walk more as "children of the light." Whereas, if St. John's rule be good here in the text, that no man truly knows Christ, but he that keepeth his commandments; it is much to be suspected, that many of us, who pretend to light, have a thick

and gloomy darkness within, overspreading our

souls.

There be now many large volumes and discourses written concerning Christ, thousands of controversies discussed, infinite problems determined concerning his Divinity, humanity, union of both together, and what not; so that our bookish Christians, that have all their religion in writings and papers, think they are now completely furnished with all kinds of knowledge concerning Christ; and when they see all their leaves lying about them, they think they have a goodly stock of knowledge and truth, and cannot possibly miss of the way to heaven; as if religion were nothing but a little book-craft, a mere paper-skill.

But if St. John's rule here be good, we must not judge of our knowing of Christ by our skill in books and papers, but by our keeping of his commandments. And that, I fear, will discover many of us (notwithstanding all this light which we boast of round about us) to have nothing but Egyptian darkness within our hearts.

The vulgar sort think, that they know Christ enough out of their creeds, and catechisms, and confessions of faith; and if they have but a little acquainted themselves with these, and like parrots conned the words of them, they doubt not, but, that they are sufficiently instructed in all the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Many of the more learned, if they can but wrangle and dispute about Christ, imagine themselves to be grown great proficients in the school of Christ.

The greatest part of the world, whether learned or unlearned, think, that there is no need of purging and purifying of their hearts for the right