Of these latter the Apostle speaks in the words which I have just read ; which will lead me to set before you,
I. The advantage which the spiritual man enjoys above all others —
" He judges all things" —
[Of course, we must understand this observation as relat- ing to those things only which come properly before him as a spiritual man : for, in relation to arts and sciences, or indeed to any thing which is within the reach of the natural man, he has no advantage whatever. Solomon speaks in the same unqua- lified terms: "Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the Lord, understand all things^." St. John also uses nearly the same language : " Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things^.'' But common sense, as well as experience, shews, that we must limit the assertion to those things which pertain to the salvation of the soul. And here I might enumerate a great variety of things : but I will content myself with specifying two, which will carry their own evidence along with them.
The spiritual man, then, " discerns" {that is the meaning of the word, which we translate "judgeth," and it is so translated in the margni of our Bibles) wherein true happiness consists : he sees it, knows it, feels it, and has his judgment completely made up upon it. He discerns that his happiness, as a rational and immortal being, is bound up in communion with God as a reconciled God and Father, and in a conformity to his image. By this view of happiness, all earthly things are cut off at once from any share of this honour, any further than they are made subservient to the bringing of Almighty God nigh unto us, or to the transformation of our souls into his likeness. In forming this judgment, the spiritual man inquires what con- stituted the happiness of man in his first creation. And here he has no more doubt than he has about the happiness of the heavenly hosts. xAnd with this agrees his own experience. For he can have no comfort in his soul whilst he is in doubt whether God is reconciled to him, or whilst the light of God's reconciled countenance is hid from him. Nor can he find any true comfort whilst he feels within him any reigning sin, or any unmortified lust whatever
Next, he discerns the means by which alone this happiness can be attained. He sees that it can be attained only by the simple exercise of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is by that only that he can obtain reconciliation with God, or a sense of
a Prov. xxviii. 5. ^ 1 John ii. 20, 27.