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wretches, who have no feeling of God within them at all:"* And, that if we feel the heavy burden of our fins preffing our fouls, and tormenting us with the fear of death, hell, and damnation, we must steadfastly behold Chrift crucified, with the eyes of our heart."†

Our church farther declares, that "true faith is not in the mouth and outward profeffion only, bat liveth and stirreth inwardly in the heart, and that if we feel and perceive fuch a faith in us, we must rejoice;"‡ That" correction, though painful, bringeth with it a taste of God's goodness:" That "if after contrition, we feel our confciences at peace with God, through the remiffion of our fin, it is God who worketh that great miracle in us ;" and she prays, that, "as this knowledge and feeling is not in ourfelves, and, as by ourselves, it is not poffible to come by it, the Lord would give us grace to know these things, and feel them in our hearts."** She begs, that "God would affift us with his Holy Spirit, that we may hearken to the voice of the good Shepherd."tt She fets us upon afking continually, that the Lord would "lighten our darkness," and deliver us from the two heaviest plagues of Pharaoh," blindness and hardness of heart."‡‡ And fhe affirms, that if we will be profitable hearers of the fcriptures, we must keep under our carnal fenfes, taken by the outward words, fearch the inward meaning, and give place to the Holy Ghoft," whofe peculiar office it is to open our fpiritual fenfes, as he opened Lydia's heart.||||

If I did not think the teftimony of our bleffed res formers, founded upon that of the facred writers, of fufficient weight to turn the fcale of your fentiments, I could throw in the declarations of many ancient and modern divines. To inftance in two or three only: St. Cyrill, in the xiii Book of his Treafure, affirms,

Hom. on certain places of fcripture. † 2 Hom. on the paffion. Hom. on faith, 1st and 3d part. Hom. on the fear of death, 2d part. Hom. for Rogation week, 3d part. tt Hom. on repent. ad part, Even. prayer and Litany. Hom. on certain places of fcrip.

that, " men know Jefus is the Lord, by the Holy Ghoft, no otherwife than they, who tafte honey, know it is fweet, even by its proper quality." Dr. Smith of Queen's Coll. Cambridge, in his felect difcourses, obferves, after Plotinus, that "God is beft difcerned vospã zî åpũ by an intellectual touch of him." We muft, fays he, "fee with our eyes, to ule St. John's words; we must hear with our ears, and our hands muft handle the word of life, εστι γαρ ψυχῆς αισθησε τις for the foul hath its feufe as well as the body." And bishop Hopkins, in his treatife on the new birth, accounts for the papifts denying the knowledge of falvation, by faying, "It is no wonder, that they who will not trust their natural fenfes in the doctrine of tranfubftantiation, fhould not their fpiritual ones in the doctrine of affurance."

IH. But instead of proving the point by multiplying quotations, let me intreat you, fir, to weigh the following obfervations in the balance of reafon.

1. Do not all grant, there is fuch a thing as moral fenfe in the world, and that to be utterly void of it, is to be altogether unfit for focial life? If you had given a friend the greatest proofs of your love, would not he be inexcufable, if he felt no gratitude, and had abfolutely no fenfe of your kindness. Now, if moral fenfe and feeling are univerfally allowed, between man and man, in civil life, why fhould it appear incredible or irrational, that there fhould be fuch a thing, between God and man, in the divine life?

4. To conclude, if material objects cannot be perceived by man in his prefent ftate, but through the medium of one or other of his bodily fenfes; by a parity of reafon, fpiritual objects cannot be difcovered, but through one or other of the fenfes, which belong to the inward man. God being a Spirit, cannot be

worshipped in truth, unless he is known in fpirit. You may as foon imagine, how a blind man, by rea foning on what he feels or taftes can get true ideas of light and colours, as how one, who has no fpiritual fenfes opened, can, by all his reafoning and gueffing, attain an experimental knowledge of the invifible God.

Thus, from the joint teftimony of fcripture, of our church, and of reafon, it appears, that fpiritu al fenfes are a bleffed reality. I have dwelt fo long on the proof of their existence for two reasons. First, They are of infinite ufe in religion. Saving faith cannot fubfift and act without them. If St. Paul's definition of that grace be just, if it is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not feen," it must be a principle of fpiritual life, more or lefs, attended with the exercife of thefe fenfes; according to the poetic and evangelical lines of Dr. Young, "My heart awake,

FEEL the great truths: To FEEL is to be fir'd,
And to believe, Lorenzo, is to FEEL."

Till profeffors fee the neceffity of believing, in this manner, they reft in a refined form of godlinefs. To the confidence of the Antinomians, they may indeed, join the high profeffion of the foolish virgins. They may even crown their partial affent to the truths of the gofpel with the zeal of Pharifees, and the regularity of moralifts; but ftill they stop fhort of the new creation, the new birth, the life of God in the foul of man. Nay more, they ftumble at fome of the most important truths of Chriftianity, and think the dif coveries, that found believers have of Christ and the fpiritual world, are enthufiaftical delufions, or, at leaft, extraordinary favours, which they can very well. do without. Thus, even while they allow the power of godliness in others, they reft fatisfied without experiencing it in themfelves.

Secondly, What I fhall write will depend very much. on the existence of fpiritual fenfes; and if this letter convinces you, that they are opened in every new.

born foul, you will more eafily believe, Chrift can and does manifeft himself by that proper medium; and my letters on divine manifestations will meet with a lefs prejudiced reader.

That Emmanuel, the light of the world, may direct me to write with fobernefs and truth, and you to read with attention and candour, is the fincere prayer of, Sir, Yours, &c.

SECOND LETTER.

SIR,

HAVING proved in my first letter, the existence of the fpiritual fenfes, to which the Lord`manifefts himself; I fhall now enter upon that fubject, by letting you know, as far as my pen can do it,

I. What is the nature of that manifeftation, which makes the believer more than conqueror over fin and death.

1. Mistake me not, Sir, for the pleasure of calling me enthufiaft. I do not infift, as you may imagine, upon a manifeftation of the voice, body, or blood of our Lord to our external fenfes. Pilate heard Chrift's voice, the Jews faw his body, the foldiers handled it, and fome of them were literally fprinkled with his blood; but this aufwered no fpiritual end: They knew not God manifeft in the fleth.

2. Nor do I understand fuch a knowledge of our Redeemer's doctrine, offices, promifes and performances, as the natural man can attain, by the force of his understanding and memory. All carnal profeffors, all foolish virgins, by converfing with true Chriftians, hearing gospel fermons, and reading evangelical books, attain to the hiftorical, and doctrinal knowledge of Jefus Chrift. Their understandings are informed; but, alas! their hearts remain unchanged. Acquainted with the letter, they continue ignorant of the Spirit. Boafting, perhaps, of the greatness of Chrift's

falvation, they remain altogether unfaved; and, full of talk about what he hath done for them, they know nothing of Christ in them, the hope of glory.

3. Much lefs do I mean fuch a reprefentation of our Lord's perfon and fufferings, as the natural man can form to himself, by the force of a warm imagination. Many, by feeing a ftriking picture of Jefus bleeding on the crofs, or hearing a pathetic difcourfe on his agony in the garden, are deeply affected and melted into tears. They raife in themselves, a lively idea of a great and good man unjustly tortured to death; their foft paffions are wrought upon, and pity fills their heaving breafts. But, alas! they remain ftrangers to the revelation of the Son of God by the Holy Ghoft. The murder of Julius Cæfar, pathetically defcribed, would have the fame effect upon them, as the crucifixion of Jefus Chrift. A deep play would touch them as eafily as a deep fermon, and much to the fame pur pofe; for in either cafe, their impreffions and their tears are generally wiped away together.

4. Nor yet do I understand good defires, meltings of heart, victories over particular corruptions, a confidence that the Lord can and will fave us, power to ftay ourselves on fome promifes, gleams of joy, rays of comfort, enlivening hopes, touches of love; no, not even foretastes of chriftian liberty, and of the good word of God. These are rather the delightful drawings of the Father than the powerful revelation of the Son. Thefe, like the ftar, that led the wife men for a time, then disappeared, and appeared again, are helps. and encouragement, to come to Chrift, and not a divine union with him, by the revelation of himself.

I can more eafily tell you, Sir, what this revelation is not, than what it is. The tongues of men and angels want proper words to exprefs the fweetnefs and glory, with which the Son of God vifits the fouls that cannot reft without him. This bleffing is not to be deferibed, but enjoyed. It is to be written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on paper, er tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart.

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