"a Acts ix. 3, &c. Divine light lays upon a man felix necessitas, a happy necessity of obeying God, &c.
436 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34
up a great pot of gold, brought it to him, Tamberlairi asked whether it had his father's stamp upon it ; but when he saw it had the Roman stamp, and not his father's, he would not own it. So God at last will own no knowledge, but that which leaves the stamp of Christ, the print of Christ, the image of Christ upon the heart, but that which changes and transforms the soul, that makes a man a, new man, another man than what he was before divine light shined upon him.
(3.) The third property. That knowledge that accompanies salva- tion is experimental knowledge. It is knowledge that springs from a spiritual sense and taste of holy and heavenly things. Cant. i. 2, ' Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine.'' The spouse had experienced the sweetness of Christ's love; ' his loves,' says she, 'is better than wine,' though wine is an excellent creature, a useful creature, a, comfortable and delightful creature, a reviving and restorative creature. And this draws out her heart, and makes her insatiable in longing, and very earnest in coveting, not a kiss, but kisses, not a little, but much of Christ. Her knowledge being ex- perimental, she is impatient and restless, till she was drawn into the nearest and highest communion and fellowship with Christ. So in ver. 13, 'A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me ; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.' Myrrh is marvellous sweet and savoury, ' so is my well-beloved unto me, says the spouse ;' I have found Jesus Christ to be marvellous sweet and savoury to my soul. Myrrh is bitter to the taste, though it be sweet to the smell ; so is my well-beloved unto me, says the spouse.^ I have found him to be bitter and bloody to the old man, to the ignoble and worser part of man ; and I have found him to be sweet and lovely to the new man, to the regenerate man, to the noble part of man. I have found him to be a bitter and a bloody enemy to my sins, and at the same time to be a sweet and precious friend unto my soul.' Myrrh is of a preserving nature, it is hot and dry in the second degree, as the naturalists observe ; so is my well-beloved unto me, says the spouse. Oh ! I have found the Lord Jesus preserving my soul from closing with such and such temptations, and from falling under the power of such and such corruptions, and from fainting under such and such afflictions, &c.* Considerable to the same purpose is that of Philip, i. 9, ' And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge, and in all judgment.* The Greek word that is here rendered 'judgment,' properly signifies sense,' not "a corporal, but a spiritual sense and taste, an inward experi- mental knowledge of holy and heavenly things. The apostle well knew that all notional and speculative knowledge would leave men on this side heaven, and therefore he earnestly prays that their knowledge might be experimental, that being the knowledge that accompanies salvation, that will give a man at last a possession of salvation. Verily, that knowledge that is only notional, speculative, and general, that is
' *im. By loves, his (plural) loves, she means all the fruits of his love, viz. righteous* ness, holiness, joy, peace, assurance, &c.
2 Ps. xlv. 8 ; Prov. vii. 17. So Pliny, lib. xii. c. 15, 16, &c. [Rather c. 83-35.— G.]
3 Every good man hath in him two men, Rom. vii. 15-25 ; Gal. v. 17.
* Austin thanks God that his heart and the temptation did not meet together. ^ aiffHirii, sense. The soul hath her senses as well as the body, and they must be exercised, Heb. v. 14.
Rom. VIII. 32-04.] heaven on eaeth. 437
gathered out of books, discourses, and other outward advantages, is such a knowledge that will make men sit down on this side salvation, as it did Judas, Demas, the scribes and pharisees, &c.' Christ will at last shut the door of hope, of help, of consolation and salvation, upon all those that know much of him notionally, but nothing feelingly, as you may see in his shutting the door of happiness against the foolish virgins. Mat. xxv. 11, 12, and against those forward professors, preachers, and workers of miracles, Mat. vii. 22, who had much speculative know- ledge, but no experimental knowledge ; who had much outward general knowledge of Christ, but no spiritual inward acquaintance with Christ.^