[1.] This taste is accompanied, or it may be so, with delight, pleasure, and satisfaction in hearing of the word preached, especially when it is dispensed by any skilful “master of assemblies,” who finds out “acceptable words,” or “words of delight,” which yet are “upright, and words of truth,” Eccles. xii. 10, 11. So was it with those naughty Jews, Ezek. xxxiii. 31, 32; and with Herod, who heard John the Bap- tist gladly, finding delight and pleasure in his preaching. So was it with multitudes that pressed after Christ to hear the word; and so it is to be feared that it is with many in the days wherein we live.
[2.] It gives not only delight in hearing, but some joy in the things heard. Such are the hearers of the word whom our Saviour compared to the stony ground; they receive it with joy, Matt. xiii. 20, as it was with the hearers of John the Baptist, John v. 35. The word, as tasted only, hath this effect on their minds, that they shall rejoice in the things they hear, not with abiding solid joy, not with joy unspeakable and full of glory, but with that which is temporary and evanid. And this ariseth from that satisfaction which they find in hearing of the good things declared; such are mercy, pardon, grace, immortality, and glory. They cannot but rejoice sometimes at the hearing of them, though they will not be at the pains of getting an interest in them.
[3.] The word only thus tasted of will work on men a change and reformation of their lives, with a readiness unto the performance of many duties, 2 Pet. ii. 18, 20; Mark vi. 20. And—
[4.] What inward effects it may have on the minds and affections
HEB, VI. 4.6 EXPLAINED, 3l
of men, in illumination, conviction, and humiliation, I have declared _at large elsewhere. But, all this while, this is but tasting. The word _ of the gospel, and Christ preached therein, is the food of our souls; and true faith doth not only taste it, but feed upon it, whereby it is turned into grace and spiritual nourishment in the heart. And hereunto is required:—Ist. The laying it up, or treasuring of it in _ the heart, Luke i. 66, ii. 19. No nourishment will ever be obtained _ by food unless it be received into the stomach, where the means and _ causes of digestion and communication are placed; and if the word be not placed in the heart by fixed meditation and delight, it may please for a season, but it will not nourish the soul. 2dly. Food must be mixed and incorporated with the digestive humour, power, and faculty of the stomach, whereinsoever it consists, or it will not nourish. Give a man never so much food, if there be any noxious _ humour in the stomach hindering it from mixing itself with the means of digestion, it will no way profit him; and until the word in the heart be mixed and incorporated with faith, it will not advan- tage us, Heb. iv. 2;—and there is nothing hereof where there is a taste of the word only. 3dly. When men feed on the word, it is turned into a principle of life, spiritual strength, and growth within; _ which a taste of it only will not give. As food, when it is digested, turns into flesh and blood and spirits, so doth the word, and Christ therein, unto the souls of men spiritually. Hence Christ becometh “our dife,” and “ liveth in us,” as the efficient cause of our spiritual life, Gal. 11. 20; Col. iii. 3; and-we grow and increase by the word, 1 Pet. ii, 2. A mere taste, though it may yield present refreshment, yet it communicates no abiding strength. Hence multitudes relish the word when it is preached, but never attain life, or strength, or growth by it. 4thly. The word received as it ought will transform the soul into the likeness of God, who sends us this food to change our whole _ spiritual constitution, and to render our nature like unto his, in “righteousness and true holiness,” Eph. iv. 21-24; 2 Cor. iii. 18. This a taste only will effect nothing towards; nor, to conclude, will it give us such a love of the truth as to abide by it in trials or temptations, 2 Thess. ii. 10, nor bring forth the fruits of it in uni- versal obedience. And I might farther discourse from hence of the _ deplorable condition of them who satisfy their minds in mere notions of the truth, and empty speculations about it, without once attaining so much as a taste of the goodness of the word,—of which sort there are many in the world; as also show the necessity, which all the hearers of the word lie under, of a severe scrutiny into their own souls, whether they do not rest in a taste only of the word, but come short of feeding upon it and of Christ therein, but that I must not divert from the text. What hath been here spoken was needful to
as
32 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF APOSTASY.
declare the true state and condition of the persons spoken of. The second proposition mentioned hath been treated of elsewhere. LASTLY, It isadded, Avvdpers re wed Aovros aiaivoc,—“ And the powers of the world to come.” Avyderg are N33 or MiNPBS , the mighty, great, miraculous operations and works of the Holy Ghost. What they were, and how they were wrought among these Hebrews, hath been declared in our Exposition on chap. ii. 4, whither I refer the reader; and they are known from the Acts of the Apostles, where sundry instances of them are recorded. I have also proved on that chapter, that by “The world to come,” our apostle in this epistle intends the days of the Messiah, that being the usual name of it in the church at that time, as the new world which God had promised to create. Wherefore these “powers of the world to come” were the gifts where- by those signs, wonders, and mighty works, were then wrought by the Holy Ghost, according as it was foretold by the prophets that they should be so. See Joel ii. 28-82 compared with Acts ii. 16-21. These the persons spoken of are supposed to have tasted, for the particle re refers to yevoaévoug foregoing. Either they had been wrought in and by themselves, or by others in their sight, whereby they had had an experience of the glorious and powerful working of the Holy Ghost in the confirmation of the gospel. Yea, I do judge that themselves in their own persons were partakers of these powers, in the gift of tongues and other miraculous operations; which was the highest ag- gravation possible of their apostasy, and that which - peculiarly ren- dered their recovery impossible: for there is not in the Scripture an impossibility put upon the recovery of any but such as peculiarly sin against the Holy Ghost ;—and although that guilt may be otherwise contracted, yet in none so signally as by this of rejecting that truth which was confirmed by his mighty operations in them that re- jected it; which could not be done without an ascription of his divine power unto the devil. Yet would I not fix on extraordinary gifts exclusively unto those that are ordinary. They also are of the “powers of the world to come;” so is every thing that belongs to the erection or preservation of the new world, or the kingdom of Christ. To the first setting up of a kingdom great and mighty power is re- quired; but being set up, the ordinary dispensation of power will