cautions us against " glorying in any thing, but in the under- standing and knowing of God " as displaying justice and mercy in the person of Christ^. Our Lord himself affirms that, " to know God, and Jesus Christ as sent by him, is life eternal •=." And St. Paul, in his nervous mode of expression, " counts all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord'^."]
But by " the knowledge of the Lord" we must of necessity understand a practical and experimental knowledge of him —
[Were a specidative knowledge sufficient, Balaam, and even the devils themselves, might vindicate their claim to religion ; since he could boast, that he " knew the knowledge of the Almighty," and indeed prophesied of Christ in very exalted terms®; and they could say to Christ, "We know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God^" But the only knowledge that can be considered as constituting religion, is that which the apostle so emphatically described and so earnestly desired; *' I count all things but dung, that I may win Christ, and know him in the power of his resurrection, in the fellowship of his sufferings, and in a conformity to his deaths." St. John, with a simplicity peculiar to himself, confirms this truth, saying, *' Hereby do we know that we know him, if we keep his com- mandments : he that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him'\"]
Painful as the general want of this religion is at present, we shall be comforted in considering,
II. In what manner it shall hereafter prevail—
The comparison, which the prophet makes between the diffusion of true religion and the waters of the unfathomable and boundless ocean, leads us naturally to observe, that the knowledge of the Lord in that day will be,
1. Universal in its extent —
[Improbable as this event may appear, there is scarcely any other so frequently and so plainly foretold in the prophetic writings as this. David, in a Psalm where he not only speaks of Christ, but even personates him, says, " All the ends of the earth shall remember themselves and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him ; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the
^ Jer. ix. 23, 24. " John xvii. 1. ^ Phil. iii. 8.
e Numb.xxiv. 16, 17. ^ Luke iv. 34. s Phil. iii. 10.
'1 1 John ii. 3, 4.