A golden mine opened, or, The glory of God's rich grace displayed in the…

Quest. But what Gift of the Holy Ghost is it which these Persons are said to have a taste of?

Answ. 1. The miraculous Operations of the Holy Ghost in the Times of the Gospel, in the extraordinary Gifts thereof, which are said to come down from Heaven in a way of Eminency, as Acts 1. 4, 5. and of those Gifts these Persons might have some taste, either by their receiving those Gifts themselves, (for that unsound Persons may do, And in thy Name we have cast out Devils: so 1 Cor. 13. 1, 2. And though I have all Faith, so that I could remove Mountains, and have not Charity, I am nothing:) or else they may be said to have a taste of those Gifts, by being wonderfully affected, by beholding the miraculous Operations of this Heavenly Gift wrought by others.

2. By tasting of the Heavenly Gift, it may refer to the Doctrine of the Gospel, it may denote their making some trial by Hearing, and diligently attending on the Doctrine of Salvation; there is a tasting for trial, either to receive, or refuse, as we commonly do Meats or other things: Every tasting is not a digesting, Men taste before they eat, and digest food. These Persons may taste of the Doctrine of Justification, taste of the Heavenly Gift or Doctrine of God's Free Grace, taste of the Ordinance of Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, and seem also to like the Heavenly Gift well in all these and in other respects, yet may feed all the while on some one Lust or another, on the Love of this World, or on their carnal and sensual Pleasures; and because they were never savingly renewed, having no new Nature, they could not feed on spiritual Things so as to digest them. No doubt it was, or is such a tasting as the full Stomach takes sometimes of Food, a full Stomach will taste, yet refuse to eat, they have no Appetite, these being glutted with the Love of other things; the Heavenly Gift is not so sweet to them, as Food is to an hungry Man.