3. How thankful we should be for the smallest measure of his influence —
[If we have been taught truly and from our hearts to say that Jesus is the Lord, we then have certainly received the Holy Ghost; since it is by his gracious influence alone that we
*> John i. 18. and xvii. 26. ' John xv. 26. and xvi. 14.
^ Matt. xi. 27. ' John vi. 44. ™ Gal. iv. 19.
" John xvii. 3. " John viii. 21. P Rorn. viii. {).
q 2 Cor. iv. 6. ' 1 Cor. ii. f), 10.
are enabled to do so. The assertion in our text establishes this truth beyond a doubt : for " no man," however learned he may be, has any advantage over the poor in this respect. " If any man will be wise," he must divest himself of all his fancied pre-eminence, and " become a fool, that he may be wise^" On the other hand, if any man have attained a just knowledge of Christ, he has that, in comparison of which all other things are as dung and dross*. Let not any one then be cast down because he possesses a smaller measure of earthly distinctions : for there is an infinitely greater distance between the meanest believer and the most learned philosophers on earth, than can be found between any two persons that have been taught of God. The wisdom of this world is of no account in the sight of God ; and at all events it benefits men only for this present life : but he to whom the Holy Spirit has imparted even the smallest measure of the knowledge of Christ, possesses the choicest gift that God himself can bestow, and is made " wise unto ever- lasting salvation."]
s 1 Cor. iii. 18. * Phil. ill. 8.