But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full
age,
&c.] Or perfect; see ( 1
Corinthians 2:6 ) . This does not intend a perfection of
justification; for though some have a greater degree of faith
than others, and a clearer discovery of their justification, yet
babes in Christ are as perfectly justified as more grown and
experienced believers; nor a perfection of sanctification, for
there is no perfection of holiness but in Christ; and though the
work of sanctification may be in greater perfection in one saint
than in another, yet all are imperfect in this life; and as to a
perfection of parts, babes have this as well as adult persons:
but it designs a perfection of knowledge; for though none are
entirely perfect, yet some have arrived to a greater degree of
the knowledge of Gospel mysteries than others, and to these the
strong meat of the Gospel belongs; they are capable of
understanding the more mysterious parts of the Gospel; of
searching into the deep things of God; and of receiving and
digesting the more sublime truths of the Christian religion:
even those who by reason of use, have their senses
exercised to
discern both good and evil;
that is, their spiritual senses, the internal senses of the
understanding and judgment, signified by external ones; as by
seeing the Son; hearing the voice of Christ; savouring or
smelling a sweet odour in the things of God, and Christ; tasting
that the Lord is gracious; feeling and handling the word of life,
as these are held forth in the everlasting Gospel: and these
being exercised on their proper object, by use, an habit is
contracted; and such are qualified for discerning, as between
moral good and evil, and the worse and better state of the
church, and between law and Gospel, so between the doctrines of
Christ, and the doctrines of men; who find they differ: the
doctrines of Christ such experienced persons find to be good,
wholesome, nourishing, and salutary; and the doctrines of men to
be evil, to eat, as does a canker, and to be pernicious,
poisonous, and damnable; and the discernment they make, and the
judgment they form, are not according to the dictates of carnal
reason, but according to the Scriptures of truth, and their own
experience.