goodness, mercy, loving-kindness, compassion, all-sufficiency, and to have the heart recur, "What is this to thee? this is none of thine"-the damned thus know, and die.

Affection. As "they that know thy name will put their trust in thee," Psalm 9:10, so those that know thy name will love thee, and fear thee, and rejoice in thee, and bless thy name. To know and hate God, to know and contemn God, to know and fly from God, to know and blaspheme and curse God, the devils thus know and tremble.

But especially that which distinguishes this saving from common knowledge is, its power and its

savor.

I. ITS POWER. The knowledge of God is mightymy preaching was not weak, but mighty in you, 2 Cor. 13:3. It hath,

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1. A transforming power. "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image." 2 Cor. 3:18. "Be ye not conformed to this present world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds." Rom. 12:2. The renovation of the mind both is this change, and works it further upon the whole soul; this new light is the new creature; old things pass away, all things become new, where the mind is savingly enlightened. God known in the soul, is God united with the soul; Christ revealed in the heart, is Christ formed upon the heart; there is life in this light, it is no other than the light of life. The knowledge of God comprehends, is involved in, and inspirits and ani

mates every grace and duty. As the same soul in the eye sees, in the ear hears, in the palate tastes-as the same juice is in the olive fatness, in the fig-tree sweetness, in the oak strength, in the rose fragrancy, in the lily beauty; so the same grace, which in the mind is light, in the heart is love, holy desire, holy fear, holy joy. Thus one says, that as feeling is inseparable from all the organs of sense- -as the eye feels and sees, the ear feels and hears, the palate feels and tastes, the nostrils feel and smell; so knowledge is involved in every grace. Faith knows and believes, charity knows and loves, temperance knows and abstains, patience knows and suffers, humility knows and stoops, repentance knows and mourns, obedience knows and does, compassion knows and pities, hope knows and expects, confidence knows and rejoices; and therefore we believe, and love, and obey, and hope, and rejoice, because we know.

God gives us this knowledge as the eye of our souls, and by that eye he enters with all his power and glory; that ye may know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, and be filled with all the fulness of God. Eph. 3:19. Daylight is not that light we receive by reflection from the moon and stars, at second-hand: when the sun is risen and come in among us, then it is day; when the Sun of righteousness is risen in the heart, there is the light of life; God is and God dwells in this light, and where God dwells every unclean thing vanishes. Can darkness dwell with the sun; can death dwell with life? According to the measure of the manifestation of God in us, so

far forth is sin necessarily vanished. Thou art but the carcass of a Christian, the light that is in thee is darkness, the life that is in thee is death, if thou be not in the whole man renewed after the image of him that created thee. If Christ be not formed in thy heart, if the love, the humility, the meekness, the patience, the compassion, the holiness of the Lord Jesus be not begotten in thee, whatever thou knowest, thou knowest nothing as thou oughtest to know; if thou hast all knowledge and hast not charity, and so if thou hast all knowledge and hast not humility, meekness, holiness, thou art but as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

Doubting Christian, that complainest of and bewailest thine ignorance, and fearest that thou knowest not God, look upwards where his glory dwells; lift up thine eyes and see. Or if thou canst not see, lift up thy heart for eyes: "Lord, where dwellest thou? let me see thy face, show me thy glory, pity the blind, let my blind eyes be opened, and my tongue shall be loosed and speak forth thy praise." Look upward, and if yet thou seest not thy God, look inward: canst thou see his face in thy soul? canst thou see his image on thy heart? canst thou behold in this glass the glory of the Lord, and find thyself changed into his image? then comfort thy heart, how shortsighted soever thou seemest to be, how dim soever thy candle burns, how weak soever in the knowledge of God thou complainest thou art, thou hast seen God, thou hast seen his face in peace. God that commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined

into thy heart, and given thee the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

2. A fructifying power. This sunshine makes a fruitful soil. My desire for you, saith the apostle, is "that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness." Col. 1:9-11. "Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God," Phil. 1:11; full of light and full of love, of faith, of patience, of humility, and fruitful in every good work. "A good man, out of the good treasure of the heart, bringeth forth good things; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things." 12:35. A good man hath a good treasure within him, a treasure of heavenly wisdom, of divine truth, a treasure of light; God hath shined into his heart; he is filled with all the fulness of God; and what is laid up within, he brings forth without. An evil man hath an evil treasure, Satan hath been filling his heart. "Why hath Satan filled thy heart?" Acts 5:3. The treasures of darkness are there, a treasure of lust and lies; falsehood and folly are found with him these treasures of darkness within bring forth darkness; dark souls lead dark lives; their way is dark, their deeds are darkness. Oh, how fruitful are sinners in their unfruitful works! "filled with

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all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity." Romans 1:29, 30. Their hearts are full, and thereupon their mouths full, their eyes full, their hands full; mouths full of cursings, eyes full of adultery, hands full of violence, filled with all unrighteousness. "O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil,” having such hearts, "speak good things?" All is evil that comes from you; and how can it be otherwise? Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. And in like manner, O generation of believers, how can ye, being good, but bring forth good things? Or how can you say or think there is a treasure of grace, a fountain of light within, when no streams spring forth? Penury in the life speaks no great plenty in the heart; the truths of God within you are the seed of God, the good seed that he sows in his fields: where there is good seed sown in good ground, you will expect a fruitful harvest; a barren crop speaks a barren soil, or no good seed sown there.

"Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." 1 John, 2:3. We know God. "But are you sure of it? Are you not mistaken?" No, we are not mistaken; we know that we know him. "But how do you know it?" Why, how are trees known? By their fruits ye shall know them. "How do ye know that this is indeed the tree of knowledge?" Why, see what fruits are hanging upon it: we keep the commandments; here is obedience growing, here is holiness and righteousness and mercy.