Hosea 4:6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge

The knowledge of Christ is profound and large; all other sciences are but shadows; this is a boundless, bottomless ocean; no creature has a line long enough to fathom the depth of it; there is height, length, depth and breadth ascribed to it, Eph. 3: 18, yea, it passeth knowledge. There is “a manifold wisdom of God in Christ,” Eph. 3: 10. It is of many sorts and forms, of many folds and plates: it is indeed simple, pure and unmixed with any thing but itself, yet it is manifold in degrees, kinds and administrations; though something of Christ be unfolded in one age, and something in another, yet eternity itself cannot fully unfold him. I see something, said Luther, which blessed Austin saw not; and those that come after me, will see that which I see not. It is in the studying of Christ, as in the planting of a new discovered country; at first men sit down by the sea-side, upon the skirts and borders of the land; and there they dwell, but by degrees they search farther and farther into the heart of the country. Ah, the best of us are yet but upon the borders of this vast continent!

4thly, The study of Jesus Christ is the most noble subject that ever a soul spent itself upon; those that rack and torture their brains upon other studies, like children, weary themselves at a low game; the eagle plays at the sun itself. The angels study this doctrine, and stoop down to look into this deep abyss. What are the truths discovered in Christ, but the very secrets that from eternity lay hid in the bosom of God? Eph. 3: 8, 9. God’s heart is opened to men in Christ, John 1: 18. This makes the gospel such a glorious dispensation, because Christ is so gloriously revealed therein, 2 Cor. 3: 9. and the studying of Christ in the gospel, stamps such a heavenly glory upon the contemplating soul, ver. 18.

It is the most sweet and comfortable knowledge; to be studying Jesus Christ, what is it but to be digging among all the veins and springs of comfort? And the deeper you dig, the more do these springs flow upon you. How are hearts ravished with the discoveries of Christ in the gospel? what ecstasies, meltings, transports, do gracious souls meet there? Doubtless, Philip’s ecstasy, John 1: 25. “eurekamen Iesoun”, “We have found Jesus,” was far beyond that of Archimedes. A believer could sit from morning to night, to hear discourses of Christ; “His mouth is most sweet”, Cant. 5: 16.