George

Also it is not good for a person to be without knowledge, and he who makes haste with his feet errs (Proverbs 19:2).

The want of that knowledge which we need for our direction through life, is very pernicious; for we are in a dangerous world, full of pits and snares; and the man that has not eyes in his head, must fall, sooner or later, into destruction. When the blind are led by the blind, they cannot well avoid falling into the ditch. But blind sinners are led by a quick-sighted and crafty devil, who will certainly land them in perdition.

Although we have knowledge in our heads, it will not profit us, unless we have it also in our hearts. Knowledge, when it is not loved and reduced into practice, will serve only to bear testimony for God against the abuser of light, and to heighten his condemnation. A man of much knowledge, and a bad practice, carries about him, like Uriah, that which will prove his own death.

To want knowledge, is not good: to have knowledge, and not to use it as the directory of our life, cannot be one jot better; and he that hasteth with his feet, and takes no heed to his way, sinneth.

It is no sin, but a duty, to run in the way of God’s commandments; and it was an evidence of David’s wisdom, that he made haste, and delayed not to run out of the paths of sin, when he considered whither they would lead him; but to run on, without consideration, whithersoever our fancy or our passions lead us, exposes us to much sin and danger; and therefore we are commanded to walk circumspectly, keeping our eye upon the ground we tread, that it may not be slippery, and observing the rule of duty, that we may not transgress it. Even in those businesses that are lawful, we will be drawn into sin, without circumspection; for the devil has snares spread for us everywhere in this evil world, and he that makes haste to be rich, shall not be innocent.

Although we ought to run in the ways of the Lord, and not faint, yet rashness in our religious course will be attended with much sin. We must carry the lamp of truth with us, otherwise, by running in the dark, we will certainly stumble.

As rashness and inconsideration are sinful, so they are the causes of a great deal of the sin that is in the world. Men would not choose, or at least they would not so resolutely keep the ways of iniquity, were it not that they want knowledge and thought, as Isaiah clearly shews in the case of idolaters.