PART III. ofgracious A#éc ions. IT me, that fuch a Revolution is come to pals this Day in the Ottoman Empire, it is the very fame Sort of Revelation, as if it were revealed to me that fuch a Revolution would come to pals there this Day come twelve-month ; becaufe, tho' one is prefent and the other future, yet botliare equally hidden from me, any other Way than by immediate Revelation. When Samuel told Saul that the Affes which he went to Peek were found, and that his Father had left caring for the Affes and forrowed for him ; this was by the fame Kind of Revelation, as that by which he told Saul, that in the Plain of Tabor, there fhould meet him three Men going up to God to Bethel, ( r Sam. to. 2, 3. ) tho' one of there Things was future and the other was not. So when Elifha told the King of Ifrael the Words that the King of Syria fpake in his Bed- chamber, it was by the fame Kind of Revelation with that by which he foretold many Things to come. 'Tis evident that this Revelation of fecret Fads by immediate Sug- geflion, has nothing of the Nature of a fpiritual and divine Operation, in the Senfe fore-mentioned : There is nothing at all in the Nature of the Perceptions or Ideas themfelves,which are excited in the Mind, that is divinely excellent, and fo, far above all the Ideas of natural Men ; tho' the Manner of exciting the Ideas be extraordinary. In thole Things which are fpiritual, as has been Chown, not only the Manner of EEet7, but the EJ''e7 wrought is divine, and fo vailly above all that can be in an unfanEtified Mind. Now limply the having an Idea of Fabts, letting afide the Manner of pro- ducing thofe Ideas, is nothing beyond what the Minds of wicked Men are fafceptible of, without any Goodnefs ii., 'em ; and they all, either have or will have, the Knowledge of the Truth of the greateff. and moft important Fads, that have been, are, or $hall be. And as to the extraordinary Manner of producing the Ideas or Per- ception of Faces, even by immediate Suggeftion, there is nothing in it, but what the Minds of natural Men, while they are yet natural Men, are capable of ; as is manifeft in Balaam, and-,others fpoken of in the Scripture. And therefore it appears that there is nothing ap- pertaining to this immediate Suggeftion of fecre..'F sts that is fpi- ritual, in the Senfe in which it has been proved that. gracious Ope- rations are fo. If there be nothing in the Ideas tl;emfelves, which is holy and divine, and fo nothing but what may be in aMind not fanc- tified,thenGod can put 'em into theMind by iz rnediatePower, without faneifyiig it As there is nothing in the Idea of aRainbow itfelf, that is of a holy and divine Nature ; fo that there is nothing hinders but that an unfanaified Mind may receive that Idea : SoGod if he pleafes, and when he pleafes, immediately, and in an extraordinary Manner, may excite that Idea in an unfan&ified Mind. So allo, as there is nothing in the Idea or Knowledge that fuch and fuel particular Perfons are forgiven and accepted of God, and entitled toi-leaven., but. what wi- fati4tificd
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=