Use 1. I beseech you, therefore, labour for hioidedfje of God ' in the face of Jesus Christ,' and to grow in it every day more and more. ' Without knowledge the soul is not good,' Prov. xix. 2. The soul is dark, and therefore those that be enemies of knowledge, are enemies to the salvation of God's people. They are enemies of God's glory, because God's glory shineth in the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But this is a clear truth.
Use 2. To make it more useful ; every man thinks he knoweth Christ. But knowledge of God's glory in Christ is another matter.
(1.) It is a purifying knowledge, and it is a sanctifying knowledge.
(2.) It is a knowledge that is both full and experimental. It is a know- ledge with a taste. It is a knowledge that brings a man to salvation. He relisheth divine truths. Every divine truth hath a sweetness and a savour in it, and our souls are to relish it. If there be not relish in the palate, the relish in meat is to no purpose. And therefore God giveth knowledge
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. XV, VER. G. 335
per modum gustrts. When things are to us as in themselves, then things have a sweet rehsh. God's favour and souship, and grace and peace, they have sweet relish in themselves.
And as they are in themselves, so they are to every Christian. There ia a harmony or suitableness in every Christian to divine truths wrought in him. If we have not a relish of divine truths, undoubtedly we know them not as we should.
Use 3. And it in a hwwledfie ivith application of interest in the things, when we know God to be our God, and Christ to be our Christ, heaven to be ours, and all the promises to be ours, for that is the nature of faith to make its own, whatsoever it layeth hold on. What good doth Christ, and the glory of God in Christ, if we know not Christ, and God in Christ, and make applications that God and Christ may be ours ? Therefore the sacraments are ordained for the particular attaining to the knowledge of Christ, that as we are really interested in what we receive, and turn it into ourselves, so by faith we have intei'est in Christ, and ho is one with us, and we with him.
Use 4. And then this knowledge is a transforming knowledge, suitable to the object. In nature, objects have an influence into the things that appre- hend them. If a man look on a lovely object, it stirs up affection of love ; if on hateful objects, it stirs up affection of hatred. But much more in divine things, for they have not only influences into the spirit, but a Spirit accompanying the influence to transform the soul. So that by reason of the object and the Spirit, all divine truths have a transforming force.
Therefore, he that knoweth God to be his God, transforms himself to be his Son. He that knoweth Christ as he should, transformeth himself to be like Christ, to labour for the gracious bountifulness, free obedience, and disposition of Christ. We cannot know Christ as we should, by a spiritual knowledge, without it transform us to the likeness of the thing we know. The knowledge of the glory of God in Christ, will make us glorious Chris- tians. Apprehending glory we shall be glorious, as the apostle saith, 2 Cor. iii. 18 : ' Beholding the face of God in Christ, /Mra,aoPfo-j/j,sSa, we are changed from glory to glory,' that is, from one degree of grace to another.
Wherein is our happiness ? For what is the happiness of a Christian, but to be like Christ, and in Christ like God ? The very heathen could say, likeness to God, and communion with God, is the foundation of all happiness. Therefore, this transforming happiness, by which we look to be saved, which makes us more like Christ, that we must labour after, this may be sufficient to stir up our afiections, to labour to know God iu Christ, being that which is most excellent knowledge. The right know- ledge of God in Christ is that that the very angels have a desire to look unto, 1 Pet. i. 12. It is a knowledge we should more desire than angels ; for if we know God in Christ as we should do, we are above angels. Did God take the nature of angels ? Are they the mystical body of Christ ? No. They are the acquaintance of Christ's, but not the spouse of Christ. In both these respects we are above angels. And shall not we study that more than angels, that have more interest therein than angels ? Is not the knowledge of this glorious ? and shall not we study to know that, that raiseth our natures above the angels themselves ? So we should do. And so we will do, if we have the Spirit of God, as Paul, Phil. iii. 7, 8 : 'I count all dung and dross,' not in comparison of Christ, but 5ioi ro v'jios^oii rrig yvwtrew; X^iffrou Itisou tou
33G COMMENTARY ON
Kuo/ou /zoL/, in comparison of tlie cxcrllmt hnoivJcdge of Christ Jesus my Lord. The ri^'lit knowlcd^'c of God shiniiif^ in tlio face of Christ, Avith an iutcrcstiii}^* knowledge of Christ to be my Saviour, God my Father, myself to be a temple of the Holy Ghost, a member of Christ, heir of heaven, to know I am by grace whut Christ is by nature : what is all the world to this, if we had hearts to consider of it ? And therefore labour to pri/.e and value this knowledge every day more and more, to beg the Spirit of reve- lation, that God would reveal himself to us in Christ more and more : pray for the Spirit that knoweth the secrets of God and Christ, that wc may know God to bo our God, and Christ to be our Saviour. And let it be tho desires of our hearts, that God would give us deep knowledge of him, in particular : not only in general, but that he would reveal his fatherly love in Christ, and Christ's sweet love to us.