114 TtJe jirit Sign PART II`I. ately by=God to them, as tho' the Words that Moment proceeded out of the Month of God as fpoken to them So that they take it as a Voice from God, 'immediately revealing to 'em their happy Cir- cumftances, and promifing Inch and fuch great Things to them : And this it is that affects and elevates them. There is no new fpirituaI Underftand<ingof'the divine Things, contained in the Scripture, or new fpiritual Senfe of the glorious-Things taught in that Part of the Bible, going before their Affectión,.and being the Foundation of it : All the new -Underftanding they have, or think they have, to be the Founda- tion of their Affection, -is this, that the Words are fpoke to them, be- caufe they come fo futdet ly and extraordinarily, And fo this Affec- tion is built wholly on the.Sand ; :becaufe it is built on "a Conclufion for which they have no Foundation. For, as has been Ihown,< the fudden comingof the Words to their. Minds, is no Evidence that.the bringing 'em to their Minds in that Manner; was from God. And if it was true that God brought the Words to their Minds, and they certainly knew it, that would not be fpiritual Knowledge ; it may be without any fpiritual Senfe.: Balaam might know that the Words ,which God fuggefted to him; were indeed fuggefted to him by God,, and yet have no fpiritual Knowledge. So that thefe Affections which are built on that Notion, that.Texts of Scripture are fent immediate- ly fromGod, are built on no fpiritual Foundation, and are vain and delufve. Perfons who have their Affeaions thus railed, if they fhould be. enquired of,. whether they have any new Senfe of the Ex- cellency of Things contained in thofe Scriptures, would probably fay, es, without Hefitation But it is true no otherwife thin thus, that -when they have taken up that Notion, that the Words are fpoken immediately to them, that makes them feem fweet to. 'em, and they own the Things which thefe Scriptures fay to 'em, for excellent Things, and wonderful Things. As for Inftance, fuppoung there were the Words which were fuddenly brought to their Minds, Fear not, it is your Father'sgood Pleajure to give you the Kingdom; they having confidently taken up a Notion that the Words were as it were immediately fpoken from Heaven to them, as an immediate Revelation, that God was their Father, and had given the Kingdom to them, they are greatly affectedby it, and the Words feem fweet to 'em ; and oh, they fay, they are excellent Things that are contained in , thefe Words ! but the Reafon why the Promife feems excellent to 'em, is only bdcaufe they think it is made to them immediately t All the Senfe they have of any Glory in them, is only from Self-Love, and from their own imagined Intereft in the Words : Not that they had any View or Senfe of the holy and glorious Nature of the. Kingdom of Heaven, and the fpiritual Glory of that God who gives it, and of his excellent Grace to finful Men, in offering and giving them this. Kingdom,of his own goodPleafure,preceeding their imaginedIntereft in there
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=