DISC. k1i ] EXTRAORDINARY WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT'. 2J1 to infer and conclude, that we are born of God, be- cause we find the image of God impressed on us, and those divine qualities wrought in us, which belong only; to his children. This has been the subject of the forego- ing discourse. I proceed now to consider the extraordinary witness of the Holy Spirit, when in a more immediate* and more sensible manner he raises in the hearts of some of his fa- vourités a powerful and a pleasant sense of their interest in the love of God. This extraordinary witness may be distinguished into two kinds. 1. It may imply some very uncommon and powerful Confirmation of the ordinary and rational witness, by most sensible impressions of divine love on the heart, by which it is raised to holy raptures, to heavenly joy and assurance. Perhaps the apostle Peter may have some respect to this; 1 Peter i. 8. where, speaking of Christ, he adds, whom;having not seen, ye love; inwhom, though . now ye see himnot, yet believing, ye rejoice withjoy un-. speakable, andfull ofglory. Here it is supposed in the text, that the persons to whom he writes were conscious of their own faith in an unseen Saviour, and their love to him ; and thence they could infer that they were accept, ed of God : But without some peculiar and more uncom- mon influences of the Holy Spirit, they could hardly be said to arise to such joy as was unspeakable and full of glory, or glorified joy, as the greek text expresses it, xapa e84aójtiEYn, a-kin to that which the saints possess in the glorified state/ 2. There_is-yét another sort of extraordinary witness of the spirit ; and that is, when in an immediate and powerful manner the Holy Spirit impresses the soul with an assurance of divine love, and gives the heart of a saint such a full discovery of his adoption, or interest in the favour of God, without the more slow and argumen- tative method ofcomparing the dispositions of their souls with some special characters of the children of God in scripture. The Spirit of God may witness in an extráor * By the word immediate here I do not mean without ordinances, such as prayer, meditation, &c. but rather sudden and speedy. 5
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