2. " And besides, the very word itself, to taste, ordinarily in Scripture imports a real communion with, or participation and en- joyment (if the thing be good) of, that which was said to be tasted. ' O taste and see,' saith David, ' that the Lord is good,' Ps. xxxiv. 8. His intent, doubtless, was, not to invite men to a slight or superficial taste of the goodness of God, but to a real, cordial, and thorough experiment and satisfactory enjoyment of it. So when he that made the great invitation in the parable expressed himself thus to his servants, ' For I say unto you. That none of those which were bidden shall taste of my supper,' Luke xiv. 24, his meaning clearly was, that they should not partake of the sweetness and benefit with those who should accept of his invitation and come unto it. In like manner, when Peter speaketh thus to his Christian Jews, ' If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious,' 1 Pet. ii. 3, his meaning
XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 651
(questionless) is, not to press liis exhortation, directed unto them in the former verse, upon a consideration of any hght or vanishing taste, such as hypocrites and false-hearted Christians may have, of the graciousness of the Lord, but of such a taste wherein they had had a real, inward, and sensible experiment thereof.
3. " And besides, according to the sense of our adversaries in the present debate, if the taste of the heavenly gift we speak of should imply no more but only a faint or weak perception of the sweetness and glorious excellency of it, yet even this may be sufficient to evince truth of grace and faith in men : for their opinion is, that a man may be a true believer with a grain of mustard-seed only, — that is, with a very slender relish and taste of spiritual things; yea, their sense is, that in some cases of desertion, and under the guilt of some enor- mous courses, they may have little or no taste of them at all."
A71S. To the first discourse, considering what hath been already delivered, I shall only add, that although it be no aggravation of the sin of apostasy that they who fall into it have but " tasted of the heavenly gift," yet it is that they have tasted of it. That taste of its relish, preciousness, and sweetness, which they have obtained, whereby they are distinguished from them whose blindness and hard- ness keep them up to a total disrelish and contempt of it, is abun- dantly enough to render their sin heinous and abominable. When men, by the preaching of the word, shall be startled in their sins, troubled in their consciences, forced to seek out for a remedy, and shall come so far as to have some (though but a light) taste of the excellency of the gospel and the remedy provided for sinners in Jesus Christ; and then, through the strength of their lusts and cor- ruptions, shall cast it off, reject it, and spit out of their mouth, as it were, all that of it whereby they found the least savour in it,- — no crea- ture under heaven can be guilty of more abominable undervaluing of the Lord Christ and the love of God in him than such persons. What degree of love, joy, repentance, peace, faith, persons many times arrive unto, when, with Herod, they have "heard the word gladly, and done many things willingly," etc., hath been by others abundantly demonstrated. This sufficeth our present purpose, that they do make such a progress in the ways of God, and find so much excellency in the treasure of grace and mercy which he hath pro- vided in Jesus Christ, and [which he] tenders in the gospel, that he cannot but look upon their ajiostasy and renunciation of him (where- by they proclaim to all the world, as much as in them lies, that there is not that real goodness, worth, and excellency to be found in him as some pretend) as the highest scorn and contempt of him and his love in Christ; and [he] revenges it accordingly.
To the second, which consists of instances collected by the Ke- monstrants to manifest the use of the word " tasting" to be other
652 DOCTllINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
than what we here confine it to, I say, first, that the word, as it is appHed to spirituals, being borrowed and metaphorical, not in its analogy to be extended beyond making trial for our coming to some knowledge of a thing in its nature, the use of it in one place cannot prescribe to the sense of it in another, no more than any other meta- phorical expression whatever; but it must, in the several places of its residence, be interpreted according to the most peculiar restriction that the matter treated of doth require. If, then, Mr Goodwin can prove that any thing in this place under consideration enforces such a sense, all his other instances are needless; if he cannot, they are useless.
It might easily be manifested, and hath been done by others already, that in all the places mentioned by Mr Goodwin, the word is not expressly significant of any thorough, solid eating and partici- pation of that which is said to be tasted, as is pretended. But to manifest this is not our concernment, there being no reason in the world to enforce any such sense as is contended for in the place under present consideration.