PART III. ofgracious 4ífthous, 157 power Men'sStrength, and be more than they can endure ; but if the moral Beauty of God be hid, the Enmity of the Heart will remain in its full Strength, no Love will be enkindled, all will not be effectual to gain the Will, but that will remain inflexible ; whereas the firft Glimpfe of the moral and fpiritual Glory of G od Mining into the Heart, produces all thefe Effects, as it were with omnipo- tent Power, which nothing can withfland. The Senfe that natural-Men may have of the awful Greatnefs of God may aft-ea them various Ways ; it may not only terrify them, but it may elevate them, and raife their Joy and Praife, as their Cit.- cumflances may be. This will be the natural Efec`t of it, under the real or fuppofed Receipt of fume extraordinary Mercy from God, by the Inf'iuence of meer Principles of Nature. It has been Ihown already, that the Receipt of Kindnefs may, by the Influence of natu- ral Principles, affea the Heart with Gratitude and Praife to God ; but if a Perfon, at the fame Time that he receives remarkable Kind- nefs from God, has a Senfe of his infinite Greatnefs, and that he, is but Nothing in Comparifon of him, furely this will naturally raife his Gratitude and Praife the higher, for Rindnefs to one fo much infe -- riour. A Senfe of God's Greatnefs had this Effe& upon Nebuchad- nezzar, under the Receipt of that extraordinaryFavour of bisReflorati- on, after he had been driven from Men, and had his dwelling with the Beans : A Senfe of God's exceeding Greatnefs raifes his Gratitude very high ; fo that he does, in the moil lofty Terms, extol and mag- nify God, and calls upon all the World to do it with him : And much more, if a natural Man, at the fame. Time that he is greatly affeaced with God's infinite Greatnefs and Majeffy, entertains a flrong Conceit that this great God has made him his Child and fpecial Fa- vourite, and promifed him eternal Glory in his higheft Love ; will this have a Tendency, according to the Courfe of Nature, to raife bis Joy and Praife to a great Height. Therefore, 'tis beyond Doubt, that too much Weight has been laid, by many Perfons of late, on Difcoveries of God's Greatnefs, awful Majeffy, and natural Perfeaion, operating after this Manner, without any real View of the holy, lovely Majefly of God. And Experience does abundantly witnefs to what Reafon and Scripture declare as to this Matter ; there having been very many Perfons, who have feem'd to be overpower'd with the Greatnefs and awful Majeàty of God, and confequentially elevated in the Manner that has - been fpoken of, who have been very far from having Appearances of a chriflian Spirit and Temper, in any Manner of Proportion, or Fruits in Praaice in any wife agreeable ; but their Difcoveries have worked in a way contrary to the Operation of truly fpiritual Difco- veries. Not
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