§. XVIII.
What true Learning is.Though then we make not Human Learning necessary, yet we are far from excluding true Learning; to wit, that Learning which proceedeth from the inward Teachings and Instructions of the Spirit, whereby the Soul learneth the secret Ways of the Lord, becomes acquainted with many inward Travails and Exercises of the Mind; and learneth by a living Experience how to overcome Evil, and the Temptations of it, by following the Lord, and walking in his Light, and waiting daily for Wisdom and Knowledge immediately from the Revelation thereof; and so layeth up these heavenly and divine Lessons in the good Treasure of the Heart, as honest Mary did the Sayings which she heard, and Things which she observed: And also out of this Treasure of the Soul, as the good Scribe, brings forth Things new and old, according as the same Spirit moves, and gives true Liberty, and as the Glory of God requires, for whose Glory the Soul, which is the Temple of God, learneth to do all Things. The good Learning which is necessary to a true Minister.This is that good Learning which we think necessary to a true Minister; by and through which Learning a Man can well instruct, teach, and admonish in due Season, and testify for God from a certain Experience; as did David, Solomon, and the holy Prophets of old, and the blessed Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, who testified of what they had seen, heard, felt, and handled of the Word of Life, 1 John i. 1. Ministering the Gift according as they had received the same, as good Stewards of the manifold Grace of God; and preached not the uncertain Rumours of Men by Hearsay, which they had gathered merely in the Comprehension, while they were Strangers to the Thing in their own Experience in themselves: As to teach People how to believe, while themselves were unbelieving, or how to overcome Sin, while themselves are Slaves to it, as all ungracious Men are; or to believe and hope for an eternal Reward, which themselves have not as yet arrived at, &c.