By the grace of God, and much to our benefit, he used his intellectual gifts to glorify God through Jesus Christ. The complete discourse, along with nine other of his sermons and dissertations, are found in the book On Knowing Christ . Every Christian should make a business of endeavouring to grow in knowledge in divinity. But if the apostle had entertained this notion, he would never have blamed the christian Hebrews for not having acquired knowledge enough to be teachers. There is no other way by which any means of grace whatsoever can be of any benefit, but by knowledge.
All teaching is in vain, without learning.
Therefore the preaching of the gospel would be wholly to no purpose, if it conveyed no knowledge to the mind. There is an order of men which Christ has appointed on purpose to be teachers in his church. But they teach in vain, if no knowledge in these things is gained by their teaching. It is impossible that their teaching and preaching should be a means of grace, or of any good in the hearts of their hearers, any otherwise than by knowledge imparted to the understanding. Otherwise it would be of as much benefit to the auditory, if the minister should preach in some unknown tongue.