Dr. HOOPER's SERMON BEFORE THE King & Queen, At Whitehall, Jan. xiv. 1693/4.   

A SERMON Preached before the King & Queen, AT WHITEHALL, January xiv. 1693/4.  
By GEO. HOOPER, Dean of Canterbury, and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their MAJESTY'S.  
Published by Their Majesty's Command.  
LONDON, Printed by Tho. Warren, for Walter Kettilby, at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Churchyard, MDCXCIV.   

A SERMON Preached before the King and Queen.  JOHN seven. 17. 
If any one will do His will, he shall know of the Doctrine, whether it be of God.  
UPon our Blessed Saviour's Appearance among men, there must have been much Inquiry and Dispute concerning Him. His Miracles and his Doctrines were both of them singular and extraordinary; they amazed and confounded the World: his mighty Works making a change in the course of Nature, and his surprising Discourses tending to as great an alteration in the Doctrines they had received from their Fathers and Rabbis. Neither of them could be opposed; his Actions not to be denied, and his Words not to be contradicted: and yet the People knew not well what to think; were not come to a Resolution, whether he was to be believed; whether he spoke from God, or Himself, or it may be from an evil Spirit.  
The People were astonished at his Doctrine, he spoke it with that supernatural Authority. Never man spoke like this Man, was the Return, the Officers sent to apprehend him, make, in this Chapter, to their Masters the Highpriest and Pharisees. Neither did any man ever do like him: for when Christ shall come, will he do more miracles than this man? was the Challenge of those that did believe. And that the rest believed not on him, who had done among them such works as no man had done, was judged by our Lord, in this Gospel, to be the great Aggravation of their Sin. For his Works were evident unexceptionable Testimonies of his Mission, and to them he frequently remits the unbelievers for their full Conviction.  
And yet, for all this, there were not many who believed on him; those not the Rulers or the Learned: neither continued they long in that just and well-grounded Persuasion. Those who had seen his late great Miracle of the Loaves; had fed of it, had satisfied their Hunger and their Doubts, almost all left him, in a very little while, for one hard Saying. Many of his Disciples went back, and walked not with him, insomuch that the Twelve were asked, Whether they would departed from him also? And when afterwards he came up to Jerusalem, there was great murmuring concerning him. Some say, he is a good man; some say, nay, but he deceiveth the people. They knew not how he should know Letters, who had never learned; and therefore in the best construction they would make, Was not his Doctrine from himself, and of his own Devising? Now from the Reflection of these Surmises, he here justifies himself in such a manner, as retorts all the blame of those Doubts upon the unbelievers themselves: giving them a plain account of this their Ignorance, which thus perplexes them. My Doctrine, says he, is not my own, but from him that sent me: and so much you could not but have known, had you been rightly qualified for it. But that after which you seem to be so curious and inquisitive, you are not very likely to understand, in the Method you take, and the Disposition you are of; if ye would discern the Will of God, ye must be willing to do it: He that will, is desirous and ready to, do God's Will, he shall know it. This is the Truth directly and primarily intended by the Text, relating to the Doctrine as propounded to be known. There is too another Consequent to this, and to which the Words may extend; regarding the same Doctrine as known already: If any one will or shall do the will of God, which he now knows in part, he shall know it better and further; be more confirmed and advanced in that his Knowledge, by the Practice.  
The first Proposition is this; If any one is willing to do the Will of God, as soon as he may have the Favour to be acquainted with it; he, when it shall be told him, shall not fail to know, and discern it. And this Willingness to do, we are to understand to be such, as may answer in some measure to the Dignity, Reasonableness, and Necessity of the Work; the Doing the Will of the great God: a Will the most wise, the most holy, the most just, most worthy to take place; to which it is our Honour, our Perfection and our Happiness to conform, and no less our Duty and our Interest: we that have been created by the Power of his Almighty Will, ever since sustained by its gracious Providence, still dependant, and eternally obnoxious to the Favour or Displeasure of his final Will to be hereafter declared, when he shall come to call us to account for that part of his Will he has already enjoined.  
The Will of this our great LORD, he that is thus willing to do, will first be as earnest and zealous to know; diligent and heedful in his Attention; punctual and exact in his Inquiries; lest he should be defective or mistaken, when he comes to act, in an Affair of so high a Nature, and of such weighty Consequence.  
And such a desire to know, it must be confessed, would certainly follow: But this may not seem at first sight to have been meant here by our Saviour; and though he reflects upon his Auditor's Unwillingness to do, yet their Eagerness to know must we not suppose him to admit? For very great Multitudes followed into Deserts to hear him: and much Discourse, and great Debates there were, concerning him and his Doctrine.  
But notwithstanding all this Appearance of Willingness to hear and to be informed, there might have been no such great desire to know.  
For Curiosity and Inquisitiveness is satisfied often with something short of Knowledge. It is enough sometimes to have went to the Place, whither others throng; to have made up one of the Assembly, and to have seen the famed Preacher. Men too when they hear, do not always attend; their Eyes gaze, and their Thoughts wander: Or if they do, it may be to the graceful Mien, the sweet Voice, the elegant Style, the pathetic or the rational way of the Discourse, and not to the merit of the Argument, and purpose of the Doctrine.  
Though they went not out into the wilderness to see a Reed shaken with the wind, yet they might go to see a Man that cured such a Neighbour; to be present at some strange sight themselves; to be able to report a Miracle of their own knowledge; or to be Guests at one of those wonderful Entertainments. Or else they might have went to hear one, who spared not the Greatest, who rebuked the High-Priests, and corrected the Scribes and Pharisees.  
They might too have heard so much, as not to be ignorant, and yet not so much as to know; as much as would let them understand something of the Dispute in fashion, and enable them to maintain one side of the Argument; to hold up Conversation, and to talk of Jesus: but not to make a judgement in good earnest; a practical one, by which they would determine their Actions, and which they would stand by with their Lives: such a real effectual one, as they would have made, had they been willing to do.  
But though in the general, they might be willing to know, and not only hear him gladly, but do many things for his sake; yet many things still there might be, which they might be either unfit or unwilling to understand: either their former Prejudices might obstruct, or their Interests and Passions disturb and oppose; if their will to do God's Will were not firm and resolute, strong enough to set aside those Hindrances, and overrule all Contradictions.  
The power of single Praepossession, and speculative Prejudice, is well known. An Opinion once possessed of us claims a kind of Right, a legal Favour to be shown it; and if the Possession be ancient, and time out of mind, the Title is not easy to be evicted: But as a Prejudice, it is a Point already judged and settled, hardly to be brought into question before the same Judge, much less to be reversed by him. And for such Reasons only, it might have been hard for an innocent Pharisee, to find the Ceremonies and Observations of his Sect disparaged and discharged; those which the great Rabbis had encouraged, and the Tradition of their Forefathers had recommended: but much less could he ever admit, that the Ceremonial Law of Moses was to give way, and that a Greater than Moses himself was now speaking unto them. He might be willing to do the Divine Will, as he now apprehended it to be, conformable to his Education and Practice: willing to do the Will of God, but as willing, at the same time, to do the will of Moses and the Elders.  
But if now we suppose this Pharisee to be some governing Master, whose Authority is founded in his Knowledge of those Traditions; and whose high satisfaction it is to fit in Moses his Seat, and to be called Rabbi: he is then so much addicted to them, not only by Praepossession of Mind, but by the Prae-ingagement of his Affections, that should Moses himself have come, he might not have been willing to leave the Chair; much less to hear any of his old oracular Learning upon the Law, which made him Great, but that of no effect, censured and condemned by this Lawgiver. For he is not so willing to do God's Will, as to preserve his own Place and Reputation; that we may not imagine he would be controlled by our Saviour, and descend to learn from the Galilean, and one that never knew Letters.  
But still if we go further, and understand some one of the avaricious, malicious, lewd and hypocritical Pharisees; as unwilling then as he would be to forego his Vices, so unwilling will he be to understand the Law against them; much more to receive a New one, which shall oppose him with a more express, and more peremptory Declaration. And on this account it was, that all our Saviour's Miracles were not of force enough to convince them of his Authority: His single Sermon on the Mount, and the Holiness there prescribed, would never suffer them to be persuaded by him. The Pharisees that were covetous, derided him for his charitable Directions: and those who brought the Adulteress before him, and were not guiltless enough from the same Crime to prosecute it far, as they left the Accusation, so they fled from his Reproof. They all therefore sought instead of being instructed by his Words to have something thence to inform against him. As many Vices as there were, so many Adversaries there generally were to his Doctrine; practical Prejudices, with which they were praepossessed, as with so many Daemons; and which would not be persuaded, nor argued out: for what had they to do with the Son of David? This is that Diabolical Race, which paid him less respect than the Devils themselves; They would not come out at his Command: but rather treated Him, as those impure Spirits did the Sons of Sceva, fell upon him, and drove him out; not removed him out of a Country by Entreaty, as the Gadarens, but out of the World, with all Despite and Cruelty; as the greatest Malefactor of the Three; as guilty of Treason against Caesar, and of Blasphemy against God, because guilty of Opposition to their Corruptions.  
For he that has no mind to be denied any sinful Pleasure he indulges, or any ungodly Advantage he values, will be very averse from hearing, that such an Abstinence is the Will of God; will either cavil at the Message, and dispute its Authority, or wrest and interpret it to his own Will. Nay so far, we know, Men otherwise of good Understandings, may be brought by Adherence to their Lusts, as to deny the natural Notions of common Justice, and to question the being of their Maker: they will not comply with the Directions he has given; and therefore they will neither know his Pleasure, nor his Person: who is the Lord?  
This is the great Impediment of Knowledge our Saviour here means; a Dullness of Understanding, not for want of Ability, but Will to apprehend; in those who hear, and will not understand; and seeing see, but will not perceive; because their Heart is waxed gross, and their Ears are dull of hearing, and their Eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their Eyes, and hear with their Ears, and understand with their Hearts, and be converted.  
Whereas on the other side, if there were a Willingness to do God's Will, there would be no need of any great Intellectual Abilities to perceive it. The Duties of Justice and Mercy are easily discerned by the meanest Capacity; Judgement to come, Man naturally forebodes; and the Being of a God, it is a Difficulty to the Understanding not to allow: The Doubts and Obscurities arise not from the Nature of the things to be considered, nor from the Weakness of the Faculty that should consider, but from the Prevarication of our sensual Desires; we are swayed by some indirect means, that appear not to have any Influence upon us; some little favourite consideration, which we are loath to own; but by which we are governed effectually.  
Had the Auditors therefore of Christ come ready disposed to have obeyed God's Will, without any Reserve for their own; with no Inclination nor Passion but for his Service; they would have perceived the Almighty Power in the Miracles our Saviour did, and discerned the Divine Law in the Instructions he gave them: had they first stripped themselves of their Prejudices, and their Lusts; they would quickly have forsaken all the rest of the World, and followed him. If the Revelation of Moses had prevailed upon them to do God's Will with their whole Heart, and whole Soul, the Nation of the Jews would have owned their Messiah: and had they been true Disciples of the Law, and followed that their Schoolmaster; it would have led them to Christ.  
This is the Assertion primarily intended by the Text, regarding those who were then to receive the Gospel: there remains the other, respecting us who have already received it; If any one will do the Will of God, which he does know, he shall know it better.  
Now what was but intimated before, is here more expressly to be observed; that Knowledge is of two kinds, the one simple, and speculative; where the Understanding conceives and assents by itself, our Will and Affections standing by, and taking no part: the other mixed, and compounded by the intervention of the Will, where that is interested in what is to be asserted, or practised, and must concur in the Allowance of it.  
And the first of these, even the speculative, whether it consists in apprehending what the Doctrine means, or in conceiving its Truth and Reasonableness, is by Practice both ways very much facilitated and confirmed. In Mathematical Sciences, the way of performing a Problem, however demonstratively assigned, remains further to be verified by the Operation; and in considerations of Nature, the Will of God wrought by his own hands, the best method of Knowledge is that which is Experimental, and Works too; which puts the Divine Materials into our hands, and looks not only upon their Surface in some single View, but turns them, and surveys them on all sides; weighs and examines, opens and searches their inmost Recesses. For this sort of Truth, as Gold, is to be laboured after, and dug for; and not to be judged only by the Sight, but by the Touch and the Scale, or by the Hammer and the Fire. And if this be true in the Speculation of what God himself has been pleased to make, much more will it be in the Knowledge of that, which we, by his Command, are to Do. For it can be no otherwise with the practical Doctrine of God, than it is acknowledged to be in the Arts and practical Professions of Men: where the true Insight is not so much from the Apprehensions we may have by Discourse and Meditation, as by Dealing in them, and being actually exercised and conversant about them: the knowledge of such things as are to be done, which arises from our mental Conceptions, being but as the rough Draught or first Lines of a Picture; and that when it is consummated by experience, as a finished Piece, raised with all its Lineaments and Colours. Or rather the Notional Knowledge is as the Picture, and the Active as the Thing itself: the one being but in Imagination, and as a Dream; and the other Real, and Solid, and Sensible. For whoever is our Instructor, and how plainly soever he may express himself; we are yet to learn in things practical, from Exercise and Use, the last Master and the best Interpreter.  
This obtains in the Arts of Government, or War, or Merchandise, in any of the Affairs of this World: and holds as true in Ethical Knowledge, and the Business of Religion. For as the Natural Philosopher forbade the uninstructed in Geometry to enter his School; so the Moralist has, it is known, discouraged his too Youthful Auditors as unfit for his Lectures: not only because they might not yet patiently hear of Moderation of their Passions and Pleasure; but because, till they had begun to practise it, they could not rightly understand it, not being yet, by reason of Use, exercised to discern such Good and Evil. Temperance, for example, is in this, like to the Pleasures, from which it order us to abstain, that it cannot be conceived only from Words, must be tasted too, if we would know its Nature and its Relish. Justice likewise and Charity are best understood by their Practitioners: those in any case of Difficulty would prove better Directors than the more studied Casuist; would solve and remove the Doubts, which these would serve only to intricate and to multiply. They would too by the Exercise of those Virtues, see more reason for them; more of their Suitableness to the well-disposed Nature of Man, than Books could speak, or Theory discover. In like manner; He that constantly and devoutly prays to his Maker, best apprehends the Nature of the Duty, and best perceives the Use and Comfort of it: better than those who have heard, or made long Discourses about it. The Meaning of the Lord's Prayer, is more sensibly understood by one that prays it over to God, earnestly and concernedly, with Dependence on the Divine Greatness and Goodness, in reference to the daily Occurrences of his Life; than it can be by the critical Consideration of the best Commentator alone. And he that thus daily addresses to his Father which is in Heaven, with a dutiful Resignation, and filial Trust, has more of satisfactory Assurance and inward Peace, than the Children of this World can imagine, or he himself express.  
And thus, taking the Understanding by itself, and unaffected with our Will, the Will of God is better known by being done. If done by others, it is more conspicuous to us on their Lives, and better explained and illustrated by the Example; but if by ourselves, and made one of our own Actions, it is then taken into us, habituated and incorporated in us, intimately and entirely perceived. Whereas too all Humane Designs are generally fairer in the Idea, than the Practice; on the contrary, the Divine Pleasure must be more liked and approved, when it is reduced into Act, and really exhibited, who ever shall put it in Execution: but much more will it delight us, if performed by ourselves; it will then become our Pleasure too, and we look back with the Satisfaction of our Creator, and see that All is good, which we have done, according to his Will.  
But secondly, if we consider this Knowledge, not form by the Understanding only, but with the agreement of the Will; as it is in all the Affairs of this and the other World: then Doing and Practice will be found still more necessary for the advancing and completing it. For though in Matters of Knowledge the Will has no direct proper Concurrence, nor is the Consent of it strictly necessary to the Assent of the Understanding; yet it has such a tacit but effectual Influence, such a domestic conjugal Authority, that the Understanding is seldom firmly or long on that side, to which the other Faculty is not inclined: and therefore as far as doing contributes to reconcile, keep up, and fortify the Will; so much it prepares and disposes for the preserving, as well as the receiving, of Knowledge.  
Now the doing of God's Will, does operate on ours, with this threefold Advantage.  
1. The Practice of the Duty takes off from the strangeness of it, and removeth all the imaginary Difficulty we fancied to be in the Work, before we set upon it. The Task was before represented to us, as some good Man may be to those who have not practised him; a rigid, morose, austere thing: whereas, after Conversation, and some Familiarity, there is nothing whose Company less offends, or which we better affect. While we keep off at a distance from the Exercises of Religion; its Enemies, and ours, have a fair Opportunity to , and to raise up such Imaginations in us as shall agree with their Interest: but if we would but approach, and make trial, we should discover the Calumny; it would then appear, that there was no Lion in the way, or at the end; and that the false Spies we had sent forth to discover the Holy Land, had made to us a most unfaithful Description. And may I not say, that is with Religion itself, as with those few edifying Orders in Use with us about it? It is a burdensome Yoke, an intolerable Imposition, unnecessary, foolish, any thing that Detraction shall think fit to say, to those who are ignorant of it, and not well acquainted with it: whereas if we came a little nearer, and experienced it ourselves, we should then begin to wonder at the unjust Surmises we were brought to entertain before; and take nothing to be more unreasonable, and more vain, than such Representations as those.  
For to give the Case of all Christian Duties in the Instance of one, the Holy Communion; how many are they who are well enough informed, that it is a necessary part of Divine Worship; a Sacrament to which we are as much obliged, as we were to the other? And yet how are Men generally kept off from it by strange Conceits, such as can have no place, but in idle Minds? It is a Mystery, from which the profane and ungodly should absent: but to many, who are to be encouraged to come, it is the more a Mystery, because they come not at all. There is something in it, they know not what, they are afraid of: and the Action, instead of being Reverend, is Frightful to them. Upon the thought of it there is a Damp and Melancholy on their Minds; though the Subject of it be Thanks and Praise, and the Invitation be to a Feast. Though there be no more serious Confession of their Sins, than what they should make every day; no other Renunciation of them, than what their Baptism presumes already; yet they imagine some new terrible Work is to be undertaken, and that they shall come under danger of Condemnation, if they go thither; from which too they shall escape, if they stay away.  
Upon the first Apprehensions of a God, no wonder if some natural fearfulness seizes us; and when the spiritual World is mentioned, Spectres may arise in weaker Minds, and seem to stand in their way: but if they will but go on, these empty Shadows will immediately disappear; and if we draw near to the Divine Majesty, we shall not be amazed and dis-heartened, but assured and encouraged by that Gracious Presence.  
Many vain Fears there are in the Christian Warfare, before which often the Raw and Unexperienced shamefully fly without a stroke struck, to be cured, as we see, by Use and Action: and some groundless Aversion there may be to our Duty, which the Practice of it will reconcile: but there is besides much real Danger, and direct actual Opposition, to be considered in the second place.  
2. For to confess the Truth; we are not only as Strangers to the Will of God, but there is something within us, which is an Enemy to it, and wars against it: Rebellious Lusts, that would be willing to make a Resistance; and watch all Opportunities, to withdraw the Obedience of the Will, and to corrupt the Integrity of the Judgement.  
The Evidence of the Truth may have brought us to some Knowledge, and our Carnal Affections were forced at present to suffer the Conviction of the Mind: And had the well-informed Soul been active and diligent, setting the Will on work, and employing it upon its acknowledged Duty, subduing and suppressing the contrary Inclinations; it might then have gained an entire Consent, and established for ever its just Dominion. But if, on the other side, it be idle, and sees not to the Execution of its own and the Divine Pleasure; this is both a sure Indication, that our sensual part remains too powerful; and a sad Prognostic, that it will quickly recover its ground, and, finally prevail. When the Convictions begin to cool, and the Impressions on our Mind grow fainter, than it will regain its force; undermine, and at last ruin, the Knowledge that had been raised: It will again captivate the Understanding, and, like a barbarous Conqueror, put out its Eyes.  
The very Omission of our Duty impairs its Knowledge. It is as a Sleep of the Soul, and under its Truce our Carnal Desires refresh and gather strength: there is too a cessation of Sense, as well as of Motion; a present Forgetfulness of God, and temporary Ignorance of his Will. But if we are thence engaged into Actual Transgression, we then avowedly contradict his Precepts, and make open War against his Sacred Truths; destroying, as far as we can, all the Records of them, and breaking not only the Commandments, but the Tables themselves. The Knowledge of them is troublesome and opposing, and must be suppressed.  
By Doing of any Wickedness a Blot is contracted; which not only blemishes the Soul, but blackens and darkens it: And a contrary Course of Repentance afterwards, is not more necessary to atone for the Gild, than it is to change the Depravation of the Mind, and to recover and re-establish its former Sentiments. For as there are some Vices, which naturally affect the Head, rendering it unfit to think and recollect, and disabling it for any Science: so have All of them something of that stupifying Nature, particularly indisposing for Divine Knowledge; sending up such Fumes, as by a peculiar Malignancy assault and poison all Notions of Goodness and Virtue, and mortify the Spiritual Understanding.  
The Knowledge of our Duty, is as a Light set up within us, to be maintained by constant Supplies, and in perpetual Motion. It may be obscured by the shining in of the World, through our Senses and Imagination: it may be suffocated, if only by the Damp, arising from an earthy and yet not well purged Breast; grow pale and dim, and then go out: but by the active Contrariety of wicked and ungodly Practices, it is certainly extinguished, drowned as by many Waters.  
So necessary is the Exercise of our Knowledge, to its Preservation. But then further,  
3. By Doing of the Will of God, at length we attain to the Habit of Doing it willingly; and begin to have new Pleasure in the Discharge of our Duty. According as our Carnal Affections are suppressed, our Spiritual Desires arise; and upon the Mortification of the Old Man, the New Man grows up, and improves: the Consent of the Sanctified Will, being at last utterly and absolutely given to the Assent of the Understanding; and we not only allowing the Doctrine of God, to be true and reasonable in the speculation, but embracing it with our whole heart, and entirely affectionate to it: proceeding so to the Knowledge of one farther Truth, delivered us by our Saviour, and experimentally discovering, that His Yoke is easy, and Burden light; that His Paths are Paths of Pleasure and Peace. This is the Seraphic State of Holy Men, who now believe not only what they have heard, but perceive and know what their Eyes have seen, and their Hands have handled, and their Souls have enjoyed, of the Word of Life. Then from the Heart, continuing its first Motion, and actuated with Devotion and Zeal, fresh supplies of Spirits are sent back again to the Head; the Warmth of the Breast is enkindled into a Flame; and New Light springing up from that Holy Heat, the upper Sphere of Man, like Heaven, is full of Brightness and Joy.  
In this manner, the Knowledge of God's Will is to be improved by us; It comes by Hearing, and may be imagined by Meditation; but it really increases, strengthens, and is fixed, by Actions of Obedience, and reducing it into Practice.  
It is not therefore to be wondered, That such as do not those things which are convenient, become of Reprobate Minds: and that they lose the Knowledge of God, who like not to retain it. Neither shall we admire, if there are those who are in appearance always learning, but never come to the Knowledge of Christ. Their Ears itch, and they heap up to themselves Teachers; but their Hands are idle, their Feet are straying, and their Souls have no Inclination to try, and to obey. They have heard much, and some Fancy of their Duty they may have, or may speak its Language; they have wrote it may be, and can repeat: but the Repetition of all moral Discourses should be by Practice, and they transcribed into our Conversation. They edify not, they say, by this Man's Sermon: and by the Knowledge, from which they think they are edified, they may not be built, but puffed up. But how should they edify, who sit still only and hear? Faith being no more to be built up and finished by Preaching, than a House would be erected by the Discourse of the best Architect. Much less should we expect a Superstructure, if, as in the Confusion of a Babel, their Actions agreed not with the Speech; and what was endeavoured to be raised at the Ear, they, with the foolish Woman, were still pulling down with their hands.  
But this is to be the Consolation of the illiterate, if honest-hearted, Christian; that although there be those that appear more knowing, are skilled in the Notions and History of God's Will, can give an account of all the Disputes of Christianity, and can determine them; yet that all this is but smattering and learned Ignorance, without any true Sense, and sound Judgement; that those only are in the right Method of Divine Knowledge, who are obeying God, and observing his Will; they are the Profound and the Illuminate; and know the Doctrine as it ought to be known: their Light now shines before men; and they shall shine as Stars for ever and ever.  
And may I further observe, that the Reflection of our Saviour, which gives an account of that contradiction which opposes his Doctrine, gives too a reason of all the Differences and Debates that have been raised in it. For these would infallibly be much less, if not quite cease, were those, who eagerly dispute his Will, as zealous and earnest to perform it: were not Men more warmly concerned for the Honour and Interest of their Party, or themselves; than they are really desirous to understand the Mind of Christ. For if any one truly gives himself up to do his Will; he will not be apt to enter into needless Contests, about what is not practical; nor strive most to know, what is not to be done: And then when he comes to the Question, so much of his Lord's Will he will at first observe, as to be modest, and meek, and tractable; not suffer his Passions and Animosities to join in the Enquiry: he will not bring so much as a Wish on one part, much less shall any humane Pre-ingagements decide the Controversy. And if so, one cannot but think, (and sure we are not in this partial ourselves) that the Papal Infallibility, for Example, and their Transubstantiation would be no longer defended, nor their gross Falsehoods be set up for Catholic Truths: Neither, on the other side, would ancient Laudable Practices be any longer Idolatrous and Antichristian. Were we not carnal, and walked we not as Men, favouring ourselves, and doing our own Will; there might be neither Heresy nor Schism; did we resign ourselves up to the Truth, on which side soever it should appear. And certainly the Sacredness and Moment of the Cause, where God's Will is in question, would require such a Caution, as, in lesser Matters, is enforced by an Oath; that we should judge without Favour and Affection, Hatred and Malice; that those at lest who take upon themselves to judge of his Law, should judge righteous Judgement. For what is fit to be said after any Accident that befalls us by the Providence of God, is as proper to be premised before a Dispute concerning his Revelation: Thy will be done, O Father, which art in Heaven. And were our part of it done on Earth as it is in Heaven, it might almost be known in the same manner.  
Happy it would be for the Arts, said an Ancient, if none but the Skilful and the Artists judged of them: and no less happy would it be for Religion, if only the truly religious, and the sincere Christian, were to determine the Points in Difference. This Advantage would undoubtedly result, that the Disputers would not be very many; as well as that the Disputes would be no more than necessary; fairly debated, and soon composed. Whereas now all Religious Controversies are managed like Wars for Religion; raised, and fought not always by the most Religious Men. The Question is concerning some Point of Faith or Manners; and should be argued by Godly Spirits: But the World and the Flesh, they come in and intermeddle; and they are as Auxiliaries on either side, whose Interest it is the Cause should never be decided. For were not Christianity divided, what Enemy would it have but those its sworn Enemies, against whom it had declared in Baptism? And against these it would then join its United Force in a Holy League, and never cease until they were entirely subdued.  
In these many Differences of thinking, concerning our Saviour's Person, and Pleasure, we piously hope, that he will mercifully consider the Infirmities and Errors of Men, and accept the Services of the Well-meaning; pardoning their Ignorance and want of Discernment, if not too careless and too wilful. But lest we betray ourselves and others into a further Mistake, we shall do well to take along with us this his Observation; and remember that generally all our Ignorance is wilful, for want of Will to do God's Will. And when Ignorance shall come to be pleaded, in the day when He shall judge the secrets of men's hearts, it may then amount to no better an Excuse, than if instead of saying, we did not Know his Will; we should allege in our Justification, that we were not willing to Do it. Through our humane Infirmity, we did mistake in the Duties of our Religion: but our Infirmity was this, That we were unwilling to obey. A much more absurd return, than the careless Servant made in the Parable of the Talents: Lord, I knew that thou wert a hard Master, and didst expect Obedience at my hands; and therefore I would not understand thee.  
But it is not our Duty only, to inquire the Will of God; it is our Privilege and Honour, to be able to understand it. It's Study is the noblest Exercise, and its Attainment the highest Ambition of a Rational Mind: the Knowledge so great a Favour, that we should have endeavoured after it at any price; Should have bought that Learning with the expense of our Liberty; And to be permitted to Understand, should have offered to Obey. That way the generous Appetite of Science, should have moved in an Intelligent Creature; nor has God, in his ordinary method, vouchsafed to reveal himself to Man, on any other Condition. His Disciples are to be his vowed Servants: to such only will he appear, and certainly with no other will he dwell. Ever since the first ungrateful Attempt to Know his Will, by Transgressing it; a Readiness to obey, has been made the Preparative to that Knowledge; and Obedience, the Preservative: the very Nature of his Doctrine requiring in us some Praedisposition, a probationary Obsequiousness, without which it will not be imparted; and God having done it that Honour, as that the Unworthy should of themselves be rendered Vnqualified and Uncapable, justly praecondemned to this Darkness now, to whom is reserved the blackness of Darkness for ever. For to the , says God, What hast thou to do with my Law, seeing thou hatest to be reform, and hast cast my Words behind thee? Be thou ignorant as thou art, as thou pretendest, or deservest to be; and await the Issue. For a Desire to Know, while we care not to Do, is such an impertinent, saucy Curiosity, as can never be gratified by our Lord: and not to Do, what we already Know, is so highly affronting, that there remains no bolder a Presumption, but to pretend to further Information; nor can a lesser Punishment, for the Abuse of this Knowledge, be expected, than its Forfeiture.  
The Doctrine of God, however it may be esteemed by Men, is valued by the Author; a Talon, committed to the Hopeful only, and the Promising; nor to any, but upon Account. If we put it to no Use, it will, of its own Nature, rust and diminish; may be lost through Negligence, or stolen by our Enemy, or taken away by the Great Owner. But, if we exercise and employ it, it will increase and multiply, of itself and by the natural Effect of our Industry; and will besides be wonderfully blessed and augmented by the Special Favour of our Lord: who is gone indeed into a far Country, but so, as still to oversee, assist, and direct, the honest Care and dutiful Labour of his Servants below.  
For, to our assured Encouragement, the miraculous Power, that first openly introduced the Christian Doctrine, still invisibly attends it; to cherish, as heretofore, the willing Beginning of its Disciples, and to help on their obedient Endeavours. And this Will, whoever will Do, not only will Know it in orderly Consequence; but he shall Know it, supernaturally enabled by Divine Grace: our Performance as certainly rewarded here, with a progressive Knowledge; as it shall be hereafter, with the Joys of our Master, and his Immediate Beatific Vision.  
FINIS.