HAT
then is that which includes the knowledge of good and evil blended
together, and is decked with the pleasures of sense? I think I am not
aiming wide of the mark in employing, as a starting-point for my
speculation, the sense of "knowable ." It is not, I think, "science"
which the Scripture here means by "knowledge"; but I find a certain
distinction, according to Scriptural use, between "knowledge" and
"discernment": for to "discern" skilfully the good from the evil, the
Apostle says is a mark of a more perfect condition and of "exercised
senses ," for which reason also he bids us "prove all things ," and
says that "discernment" belongs to the spiritual man : but "knowledge"
is not always to be understood of skill and acquaintance with
anything, but of the disposition towards what is agreeable,-as "the
Lord knoweth them that are His "; and He says to Moses, "I knew thee
above all "; while of those condemned in their wickedness He Who knows
all things says, "I never knew you ."