statements are perfectly consistent, because the word hnow has different senses. There is. a sense in which all men know God ; they all, from the constitution of their nature, and from the works of God, know that there is a being on whom they are dependent, and to whom they are responsible. But this is not the knowledge of God which is said to be " eternal life." It is therefore perfectly consistent to attribute the for- mer knowledge to the heathen, though he denies to them the latter. So here it is consistent to say that all Christians have a theoretical knowledge of the truth that there is but one God, and that idols are nothing, and yet say that this know- ledge is not practical and controlling in all. It is one of the great beauties of the Scriptures, that the sacred writers in the calm consciousness of truth, in the use of popular, as distin- guished from philosophical language, affirm and deny the same verbal proposition, assured that the consistency and intent of their statements will make their way to the heart and con- science. That the apostle is here speaking of theoretical, as dis- tinguished from true, practical knowledge, is plain from what he says of it. Itpuffeth up. The Greek word here used (<^uo-io(o,) is, in the New Testament, employed in the sense of the word (^uo-aw,) which means to blow^ to fill with wind^ to inflate ; and then, to render vain and conceited. Mere theoretical or speculative knowledge, that is, knowledge divorced from love, tends to inflate the mind, i. e. renders it vain and conceited. It is a great mistake, therefore, to suppose that mere know- ledge, without religion, elevates and refines men, or can purify society. It is essential, but it is insufficient.
Charity edifieth. Charity is an inadequate and unhappy translation of the Greek word (dyaTny), because, agreeably to its Latin derivation, it properly means the feeling which arises from the perception of the wants and sufferings of others, and the consequent desire to reheve them. Love {ayairq, a word pecuUar to Hellenistic Greek,) is much more comprehensive than this, not only because it may have God for its object, but also because, when exercised towards men it includes compla- cency and delight as well as benevolence. It is of this com- prehensive virtue the apostle treats at length in the thirteenth chapter of this epistle, and of which he here says, it edifies. It does not terminate on itself, as knowledge does, but goes out of itself, and seeks its happiness in another, and Hves and acts for others. It is, therefore, something incomparably