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Moreover, as a Man cannot serve God; when he hath a Mind to do it, fo neither will he have a Mind or Heart to ferve him unless he first knows him. For the motions of the Will are always regulated by the ultimate Dictates of the &tical Understanding, fo that a Man chufes or refufes, loves or hates, defires or abhors, according as he knows any. Object that is prefented to him to be Good or Evil. And therefore how can I chufe God as my chiefeft Good, unless I firft know him to be fo; or love him as I ought, above all things, unless I first know him to be better than all things; or perform any true Service to him, unlefs I first know him to be fuch a one, as deferves to have true fervice performed unto him.

Nay, Laftly, Nothing that we do can be accepted as a Service to God, unlefs it be both grounded upon, and dire cted by a right Knowledge of him. God would not accept of blind Sacrifices under the Law; much lefs will he accept of blind Services now under the Gospel ; and therefore he expects and requires now, that whatsoever we do, either to or for him, be a xon λalería, a reafonable Service, Rom. 12. 1. That our Souls as well as Bodies, yea, and the

Rational

Rational as well as Senfitive Part be employ'd in all the Services which we perform to him; which certainly can not be, unless we firft know him; fo that there is an indifpenfable Connection betwixt our knowing and ferving God; it being as impoffible for any Man to ferve him, that doth not first know him, as it is to know him aright, and not to ferve him.

But howfoever indifpenfable this Connection be in its own nature, the Church of Rome can make a fhift to difpenfe with it; yea, fo far as to affert, That Ignorance is the Mother of Deovotion. But you must excufe them, for they do not mean by Devotion as we do, the real ferving of God, but only the performing of fome outward Services to him. And fuch a kind of Devotion, I confefs, Ignorance may be the Mother of: But a Man must be grofly ignorant that thinks this to be Devotion, which is but a piece of Pageantry, a mocking inftead of ferving God. And, for my part, I cannot but tremble to think what a difmal, what a dreadful Account the Heads of that Church muft hereafter give for daring to keep the People in fo much Ignorance as they do ; o as to render them uncapable of fer

ving God, that fo they may be the more ready to ferve the Church; that is, the Interests and Designs of the Court of Rome.

But let them look to that; whilst we, in the mean while, ftudy to know God before all things elfe, considering,

First, God therefore made us that we might knot him, and that we might know that he made us. And therefore it is that he hath made Rational Creatüres capable of reflecting upon him that made us fo: Neither did he only make us at firft, but he still preferves us; we feed daily at his Table, and live upon his Bounty. And the very Beafts, that any of us keep, know thofe that keep them; and fhall we be more brutish than Brutes themselves, and notknow him that keeps and maintains us? O how justly may God then call Heaven and Earth to witness against us, as he did once against his People Ifrael! Ifa. 1. 2, 3, 4.

Secondly, There is none of us but have attained to Knowledge in other things: Some of us have fearched into Arts and Sciences, others are acquainted with feveral Languages; none of us but are, or would be expert in the

the Affairs of this World, and underftand the Myfteries of our several Trades and Callings; what, and shall he alone, by whom we know other things, be himself unknown unto us? What is, if this be not, a juft Cause, wherefore God fhould infatuate and deptive us of all our Knowledge in other things? feeing we labour more to know them, than him from whom we receive our Knowledge.

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Thirdly, Ignorance of God is itfelf one of the greatest Sins that we can be guilty of, and which God is most angry for, Hof. 4. 4. And there God himfelf imputes the Deftruction of his, Poople, to the want of Knowledge, v. 6. Nay, and it is that Sin too that makes way for all the reft. For what is the Reason that many fo frequently Blafpheme God's Name, flight his Service, tranfgrefs his Laws, and incenfe his Wrath against them, but meerly because they do not know him, how Great, how Glorious, how Terrible a God he is? For did they but thus rightly know him, they could not but regard the Thoughts of doing any thing that is offenfive to him: And therefore the true Knowledge of God would be the beft Security and the most fovereign

Antidote

Antidote in the World against the Infection of Sin, and the prevalency of Temptations over us, neither would it only preferve us from Sin, but put us upon Duty and Service, and direct us also in the performance of it. Infomuch that the hardest Duty will be easy to one that knows God; the eafieft will be hard to one that knows him not. Hard, did I fay? Yea, and impoffible too; for although a Man may know God, and yet not ferve him, it is impoffible that any Man fhould ferve God unless he knows him; Knowledge itself being both the firft Duty that we owe to God, and the Foundation of all the reft.

And therefore, to conclude, if any defire to perform the Vow they made in their Baptifm, to love and fear, to bonour and obey the Eternal God that made them? If any defire to be Chriftians indeed, and holy in all manner of Converfation? If any defire to truft on the Promifes, and obferve the Precepts of the Great Creator and Poffeffor of the World, to live above the Snares of Death, and to antedate the Foys of Heaven? If any defire to live the Life, and to die the Death of the Righteous, to ferve God here, fo as to

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