Ioó `Z'he fir, Sign PART III. a clear Apprehenfion of Things fpiritual by the Name of Light; and an having fnch an Apprehenfì.on of fuch or fuch Things, by theName of;feeing Inch Things acid the Conviction of the Judgment, and the Perfwafion of the Will, by the Word of Chrift in the Gnfpel, we finnify by fpiritually hearing the Cali of Chr : And the Scripture it feif abounds with fuch like figurative Expreffions. Perfons hearing thefe often ufed, and having prefs'd upon them theNeceslity of having their Eyes open'd, and having a Difcovery of fpiritual Things ; and Peeing Chrift in his Glory, and having the inward Call, and the like, they ignorantly look and wait for fome fuch external Difcoveries, and imaginary Views as have been fpoken of ; and when they have them, are confident that now their Eyes are open'd, now Chrift has difco vered himfelf to them, and they are his Children ; and hence are ex- ceedingly affected and elevated with their Deliverance and Happinefs, and many Kinds of AffeEtions are at once let in a violent Motion in them. But it is exceeding apparent that fuch Ideas have nothing in them which is fpiritual and divine, in the Senfe wherein it has been demon - flrated that all gracious Experiences are fpiritual and divine. Thefe external Ideas are in no wife.of fuch a Sort, that they are entirely, and in their whole Nature diverfe from all that Men have by Nature, perfectly different from, and vaftly above any Senfation which 'tis peabie a Man fhould have by any natural Senfe or Principle, fo that in order to bave them, a Man muff have a new fpiritual and divine Senfe given him, in order to have any Senfations of that Sort : So far from this, that they are Ideas of the fame Sort which we have by the external Senfes, that are fome of the inferiour Powersof the humane Nature ; they are meerly Ideas of external: Objeas, or Ideas of that Nature, of the fame outward fenfitive Kind ; the fame Sort of Sen- fations of Mind (differing not in Degree, but only in Circumftances) that we have by thofe natural Principles which are common to .us, with the Beafts, viz. the five external Senfes. This is a low, mile- rable Notion of fpiritual Senfe,,to fuppofe that 'tis only a conceiving or imagining that Sort of Ideas which we have by our animal Senfes, which Scales the Beafts have in as great Perfection as we ; it is, as it were, a turning Chrift, or the divine Nature in the Soul, into ameer Animal. There is nothing wanting in the Soul, as it is by Nature, to render it incapable of being the Subjea of all thefe external Ideas, without any new Principles. A natural Man is capable of having an Idea-; and a lively iist of Shapes and Colours and Sounds when they ire abfent, and as Firahle as a regenerateMan is So there is nothing supernatural in them. And 'tis known by abundant Experience, that 'tisnot the advancing or perfecting humaneNature,which makes Perfons more capable of having fuch lively and ftrong imaginaryldeas, but that on the contrary, the Weaknefs of Body andMind, and Dif- tempers
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