Mather - Houston-Packer Collection BS478 .M3 1705

18 The Gofpel Preached under the Old er come fromGod : For no mancan do there Miracles that thou doeft, ex; cept God be with him. The Lord may work Miracles now. But he doth not now fend forth any perfonwith a Commiffion to do it, as he did of old. 7. Bya fpecial and peculiar kind of intimacy and familiarity ; as it were mouth tomoath,without Parable or Riddle ; without Obfcurty ; with all poffible familiarity. And this was Mofes his priviledge, Numb. 12.8 with him will I (peak mouth to mouth ; apparently, and not in dark fpee- ches, Elrod'. 33. t I, 23. The Lord fpake to him face to face, as a man fpeaketh to his Friend, thou (halt fee my back parts That phrafe offpeaking mouth to mouth, notes the clearnefs, and certainty, andfamilia- rity of it : as when fofeph faith, ye fee it is my mouth that fpeaketh unto you, Gen. 45. 12. This was a priviledge peculiar unto Mofes, Deut. 34. 10. There arofe no prophet like him ftnce, whom the Lord knew face to face That which comes neareft to it Teems to be the ineffable things that Paul faw and heard in the third heaven, 2 Cor. i Z. I, a, 3, 4 and the Revelation given to the Apoflle 5'ohn in the Ifle of Patmos, whieh is the cleareft, and yet withal the deepeft and molt wonderful of all the Prophefies recorded in the Scripture. There be two ,Queßions may arife here, which would be briefly fpo- kèn to. Queft. r. Whether there were not counterfeits of thefe things; and if there were, how did they discern the Lords voice in thefeextraordinary difpenfati- ons fromSatan's Voice in his delufions? Anfw. It is true, therewere counterfeits of them ; there were Vifi- ons, Dreams, feeming Miracles, Impulfes from Satan, as well as from God. Diabolus eft Deifimia. Hencethat Caution of Mofes, Deut. 13. I. And henceare thole complaints of the Prophet Yeremy, cap. 14. 13. 14, 15. And that is a famous Inftance of a lying Spirit in the mouths of 4babs Prophets, t Kings 22.22.23. Therefore to have a Vifion, to dream f Lange an& fupernatural Dreams, to have a powerful Impetus and afflatus from a Spirit, are not things fimply peculiar to the true Prophets of God. But though Satan did, partly out ofCraft, todeceive thereby the more effeanally, and partly out of Blafphemy and Malice, to put an affront as it were upon God, ufe ways and means of deceiving, that had fome refemblance ofGod's own ways and Ordinances; yet there were mitnifeft and palpable differences between them. I fhall name but thefe four ; _r. The Lord did not ufually fuller Satan to transform himfelffo far intoanAngel ofLight,as to come in thefe ways unto his own people, unto fuçh as were truly Godly. Search the Scriptures, and you will not find, that

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