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EXTRAORDINARY
WITNESS
OF
THE
SPIRIT.
`DISC.
EST.
will
take of
the things
of
Christ, and
sh
ew
them
to
'the
soul';
he
will
guide
his
people into the
same
truths
to
which
he
witnessed
so
gloriously in
the
primitive
times;
and
'will confirm believers in the faith
of
the
holy
scrip-
tures
;"
.JÓ/172
xvi.
13,
14.
Iv.
The
witness
of
the Spirit
draws
out
the
heart
to
some special degrees
of
love to
God,
and engages
it
in
warm and'
lively thanksgivings
for such divine and unde-
served favours
:
The
soul admires the
rich grace' and
goodness
of
God in Christ Jesus. Thence
will
arise an
'utter
aversion
to
all.
sin,
an hatred of
every thing
that
is
displeasing
to
God,
a powerful
sense
of
indwelling cor-
ruption,
'a
watchful care to
please
God
in
every thing,
and
to
make
some
humble
returns of
love for such Ines-
tirnable favours,
and
divine manifestations
;
whereas the
warm
presumptions
of
fancy,
or
the
delusions of the
devil, leave
the
soul
in
a
more careless and unholy
frame
;
or,
at
least, they are oftentimes
attended, or
-quickly followed, by some
powerful
temptation
to gross
iniquity
:
which
the deluded soul-too often and too
ea-
sily
complies with
:
And
there
have been many instances,
wherein persons
under
the power
of
vain
delusions from
the
devil,
have
been
drawn away to the
practice
of
vari-
ous sorts
of
crimes,
and particularly
to
foul and
scanda-
lolls sins.
In
the
last
place,
I
might add also in
general,
that
though the Spirit
of God
may witness in
an
extraordi-
nary
manner
to
our
adoption, when the soul cannot
plainly
see
or
does
not
actually
and
plainly
recollect the
characters
of
adoption
in
itself;
yet it never
leaves
the
soul without awakening the exercise'
of
such graces
as
are
indeed
the sure marks and evidences
of
the children
of
God.: Where the Spirit
comes,
it
will
bring some
of
its
own fruits with
it, in
a sensible
manner. Now
the
fruits
of
the
Spirit are
love,
joy,
peace,
long
=
su
/fering, gentle-
ness,
goodness,
faith,
meekness,
temperance;
Gal.
v:
22.
If
we
are comforted
by
the Spirit,
we
shall crucify
the
'flesh
with
its
affections and lusts, and
endeavour
to walk
and
live as becomes
the
sons
and daughters
of
such
a
Father
as
God
is.
.
Upon
the whole
I
conclude,
that
it
does
not
seen
to
be agreeable
to
the
wisdom
and providence
of
God,
in
the
government
of
the world,
to
suffer the devil
so
exactly,
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