So for feeling: Jer. iii. 25, ' We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us ; for we have sinned against the Lord our God.' Men may feel the blows of his providence, and be sensible of the natural inconvenience, yet they have not a spiritual feeling so as to be affected with God's displeasure, and have a kindly impression left upon the soul, that may make them return to God.
[2.] It differs from the outward senses, because they can by a spiritual sense discern that which cannot be discerned by the outward sense ; aa in that place, Heb. xi. 27, ' By faith Moses saw him that was invisible ; ' see the invisible God, and are as much affected with his eye and pre- sence as if he were before the eyes of the body, as others are awed by the presence of a worldly potentate ; this is matter of internal sense. So for taste ; they have meat which the world knows not of, invisible comforts, John iv. 37. They have hidden manna to feed upon, and are as deeply affected with a sense of God's love, and hopes of eternal life, as others are with all outward dainties. Then as to feeling; many things the outward sense cannot discern ; sometimes they feel spiritual agonies, heartbreakings : when all is well and sound without, a man would wonder what they should be troubled about, that abound in wealtli and all worldly comforts and accommodations. They have an inward feeling, they feel that which worldly men feel not; when they are afflicted in their spirits, carnal comforts can work nothing upon them; when they are afflicted outwardly, spiritual comforts ease theii heart. And as they feel soul agonies and soul comforts, so they feel the operations of the spiritual life ; they have a feeling of the power of the Spirit working in them ; they live, and know that they live, Now no man knows that he lives but by sense ; therefore if a child of God knows he lives, he hath internal sense as well as external. We know we live naturally by natural sense, and we know we live spiritually by spiritual sense : Gal. ii. 20, ' I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me;' he lived, and knew that he lived. They have a life which they feel within themselves, the operations and motions of the spiritual life ; they feel its impulsions to duty, its abhorrences from sin ; tendency of soul to God, and spiritual supports ; and they feel the stirrings of the old nature, workings of heart towards sin and vanity, which the out- ward senses cannot discover.
[3.] The outward senses sometimes set the inward senses awork. The sweetness of those good things which are liable to sense, puts us in mind of the sweetness of better things ; as the prodigal's husks put him in mind of the bread in his father's house ; or as the priests of
4G SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CIX.
Mercury among the heatlien, when ilicy were eating figs, they were to ciy, Truth is sweet, because the god whom they worsliipped was sup- posed to be the inventor of arts, and the discoverer of truth. So Christians, when by the outward taste they find anything sweet, the inward sense is set awork, and they have a more lively feeling of spiritual comforts ; as JDavid, honey is sweet, but the word of God was 'sweeter than honey to him, or the honej^comb.' Thus Christ, when he was eating bread, ' Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the king- dom of God,' Luke xiv. 15; and they that have Christ's sj^irit, they act suitably.
2. Tins sense differs from a bare and simple act of the understand- ing. Why? For a man may know things that he doth not feel. Simple apprehension is one thing, and an impression another. An apprehension of the sharpness of pain is not a feeling of the sharpness of pain. Jesus Christ had a full apprehension of his sufferings all his life-long, but felt them not until his agonies, therefore he said, John xii. 27, ' Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say?' We have notions of good and evil, when we neither taste the one nor the other. It is one thing to know sin to be the greatest evil, and another thing to feel it to be so ; to know the excellency of Christ's lov^e, and to taste the sweetness of it, this doth not only constitute a difference between a renewed and carnal man, but sometimes between a renewed man and himself
[1.] Between renewed men and carnal men ; they know the same truths, yet have not the same affections. A carnal man may talk of truths according to godliness, and may dispute of them, and hold opinions about them, but doth not taste them ; so he does but know the grace of God in conceit, not in truth and realit}', as the expression is, Col. i. 6. As a man only that hath read of honey may have a fancy and imagination of the sweetness of it, but he that tastes it knows it in truth and in effect ; they know the grace of God, and the happiness of being in communion with God, by the light of nature, in conceit, but not in reality ; but the other they taste it : 'If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious,' 1 Peter ii. 3. There is an impression of sweetness left upon the soul, and real experience of the goodness of God in Christ, so as to make them affect him with all their hearts, to choose him for their portion, and to make his will their only rule, and obey and serve him, whatever it cost them. They have such a taste of this sweetness, as doth engage their hearts to a close and constant adherence to Christ. Carnal men have only a naked knowledge of these things, weak and ineffectual notions and apprehensions about them ; and if the sublimity, reasonableness and suitableness of these truths to soul necessities cause any taste, it is but slight, slender, and insufficient. So indeed temporaries and hypocrites are said to ' taste the heavenly gift, the good word of God, and powers of the world to come,' Heb. vi. 4. They have some languishing apprehensions, but they do not so taste them as to relish and feed upon them. They do not relish Christ himself, but only some benefit which they hope to get by him upon slight and easy terms ; have not such experience and sweetness of God in Clirist, as that their souls should constantly cleave to him. It may be their fancy may be pleased a little in a supposition