248 sermons upon psalm cxix. [Ser. CLXXXIV.
in our knowledge, or any other grace; and besides, by it we are suitably affected to what we know.
(2.) There is a special knowledge of divine mysteries wrought in us by the special and sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost ; this is ' the wisdom which comethfrom above,' which ' is first pure, and then peaceable,' James iii. 17, which humbleth the man that hath it, for the more he knoweth of (rod, the more his own opinion and estima- tion of himself is lessened : Job xlii. 5, 6, ' I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee ; therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.' I have spoken unadvisedly of God. This knowledge also maketh him serious, and is operative upon the heart, and worketh love to the thing known : John iv. 10, ' If thou knewest the gift,' &c. ; and maketh us to know God in Christ, so as to acknowledge him, and give him due honour, respect, and reverence. It is a knowledge joined with oblectation and affection. This know- ledge is considerable as to its beginning and increase.
(1st.) Its beginning, the first removing of the natural blindness and darkness of our understandings, so that we have a clear discerning of the things of God when the scales fall from our eyes. Naturally we were ignorant of God and the way to heaven, but now, brought to the saving knowledge of God in Christ, we are acquainted with both. The first creature which God made was light ; so in the new creation, the new creatine is illuminated with a heavenly light, and cured of its former blindness, that we see things in another manner than ever we saw them before : 1 Peter ii. 9, ' Called out of darkness into his mar- vellous light ;' as a man brought out of a dark dungeon into an open light. And Acts xxvi. 18, ' To open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.' So Eph. v. 8, ' Ye were sometimes darkness, but now light in the Lord.' To be seeing is better than to be blind, to be in light than to be in darkness. This is God's first work, and it is marvellous in our eyes ; it is double, when we first begin to have a clear knowledge of our own misery, Rev. iii. 18. Whereas before we lived in gross ignorance of our own condition ; so when we begin to see the remedy, as well as our misery ; 2 Cor. iv. 6, ' God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' The first thing that God convinceth us of is our own sin, guilt, and misery. So that those things that either we knew not, or did swim loose in the brain, we begin now to be affected with them. We talked before of sin as a thing of course, and were wont to marvel why men kept such a deal ado about sin ; but now the case is altered. God hath opened his eyes, and therefore he complaineth of it as the greatest burden, and fain would be rid of it at any rate. He beginneth to seek after Christ as his only remedy, and nothing will satisfy him but Christ; and all things are but dung and dross in comparison of the excellency of Christ, and that he may be found in him. He lamenteth his case, and can trust himself nowhere but in Christ's hands. A natural man slippeth into a heedless credulity, and either doth not look upon the gospel as a real truth, or else is not affected with it so as to venture his salvation in that bottom.
VER. 171.] SERMONS UPON TSALM CX1X. 249
(2d.) As to the increase and progress, and so those that are taught of God need to be taught of God again, and to seek a further increase of spiritual wisdom, or a further degree of the saving knowledge of divine mysteries; as the apostle prayeth for the Ephesians, towards whom he acknowledged God had abounded in all wisdom and prudence, yet prayeth that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that the eyes of their understandings might be opened, Eph. i. 17, 18, with the 8th verse. We are yet ignorant in many things, for we know but in part, not fully rooted in the knowledge of these things which we know. They need to be refreshed with new illumination from God, that our knowledge may be active and livety, and stand out against new and daily temptations, and that oblivion and forgetfulness, which is a kind of ignorance, and is apt ever and anon to creep upon us, may be prevented, and truths may be ready at hand for our use, James i. 5. And this is that which David beggeth an increase of knowledge for ; he, being a holy man and a prophet, needed not the first illumination : and every degree is a great favour, to be acknowledged with praise.