being fully deliver'd by such Miraculous Testimony as cannot reasonably be deny'd so that those who will not be induc'd in the exercise of their Freedom to study this Revelation which God be thanked he has given us in Writing and observe or practice the Terms of their Happiness it proposes can never certainly be prevail'd upon by any other Courses that Heaven can design nor do I mean that this Spirit should dictate words to People which perhaps he never did either to Prophets or Apostles only presenting a Scheme of Divine Truths to their Minds but leaving the Language to themselves to be express'd according to their different ways of Education and the prevailing Temper in them as we may observe their Figures and Stile ever answer'd these I say I do not mean that the Spirit should dictate words to People enable them to speak even the known Doctrines or Rules of the Gospel after an Extempore manner which would supersede their own Faculties and probably be an occasion of their Neglects in Heavenly Knowledge as it would greatly administer to Spiritual Pride and Contempt of others both which we may see the example of in a sort of Men among us that only conceit these things of themselves But my meaning is that the Spirit communicates such Light and Grace such clearer Informations of all saving Truths with respect to the Understanding such stronger Motives towards the rectifying of the Will upon our compliance with the means afforded us our due perusal of the Sacred Volumes the Dictates of this Spirit our honest Endeavours in the ways of Godliness according to the Precepts deliver'd in those Volumes as will secure us from any dangerous Error in point of Doctrine and enable us against all our evil Affections for every Vertue of a Christian Life we ever obediently following his Guidance and comporting with him This I mean by the larger Gifts of the holy Spirit in a Gospel-state that being dispens'd on our due Concourse with his first Motions a Vertuous Temper by that means after some measure obtain'd in our Minds they are only in order to our farther attainment of that Temper to afford our infirm lapsed Natures proper Assistances for that end not to operate in fluent Discourses or particular Revelations when we already have a complete Book given forth by this Spirit of our Faith and Practice that is of our whole Duty what God enjoyns us or is requir'd of us in the nature of Things with regard to our eternal Bliss and especially we cannot suppose this holy Inspirer thus to operate after this manner where Men imploy not their main Industry do not diligently Meditate in this Heavenly Book which Moses with respect to the Old Testament commanded his Charge the Israelites to do Night and Day Deut. 6.7.11.19 nor prepare their Minds by a more eminent degree of Gospel-Morals or Holiness of Life as some People who must be Conscious of their Defects in both these Instances unreasonably maintain of themselves and others that they are enabl'd whether to Preach or to Pray and I am apt to think as much without Fore-thought or Study too as the Apostles were And then as to this Doctrine of Habits the establishing the Spiritual Life the Heavenly Felicities and Joys upon them which I all-along here do as I do likewise the more liberal Gifts of the blessed Comforter in our Souls tho' this may not possibly be admitted by all but a pure Obedience not as it any ways disposes us for them accounted the Term of those great Rewards yet this Doctrine I think however it may be rejected plainly appears to be the Import of the Gospel-Law as this is not satisfy'd with outward Performances Opus operatum bare Acts of Obedience but every where condemns such giving them their deserv'd Stile of Hypocrisie when they are alone and requiring a compliance of the reasonable part a reconcilement of the Heart to its several Precepts that these be observ'd or conform'd withal in our very Thoughts which would be quite a needless Discipline unless an inward frame thus attainable were necessary for the Graces our Lord purchased the Joys he proposes And besides our blessed Saviour expresly says he repeats it to us that we must be born again or else we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God John 1.13.3.3 5. that is as he explains it we are to obtain a new Nature quite in opposition to the Desires of Flesh have another Temper advanc'd in our Spirits according to the Mind and Will of God so as that we may be capable of his Heavenly Bliss And the Apostles frequently tell us in Emblematical Phrases with reference to Christ that we must put off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh be altogether dead to them buried with our blessed Redeemer in Baptism when taking upon us his holy Profession we are to renounce those abominable Practices and likewise thro' the Faith of the operation of God his Almighty Power declaring it self in our honest Endeavours We must be raised with him to righteousness of Life Col. 2.12 Rom. 6.3 That we must crucifie the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts whatever proceeds from that evil Principle Gal. 5.24 that we being Dead as Christians should be to these Worldly Enjoyments and our true Life hid with Christ in God we must mortifie the Members of our Unregenerate Man which are set upon the Earth Earthly Interests or Pleasures there recounted by that Apostle Col. 3.3 5. This old Man we are injoyn'd again to put off which is corrupt according to the deceitful Lusts and to put on the new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Eph. 4.22 24. Col. 3.9 10. we must be transform'd by the renewing of our Minds Rom. 12.2 All which places being so many Testimonies of the holy Spirit besides the plain Assertion of our Saviour evidently set forth that 't is something beyond a mere Obedience which duly distinguishing may be accounted the Effect thereof where sincerely perform'd from just Motives viz. a Habit of Piety as our Minds are recover'd from the Affections of Body a Spiritualiz'd Temper with such sort of Appetites or Desires in it that disposes Men for their eternal Bliss not the pure Instances of Obedience only which may possibly be perform'd even habitually too thro' a kind of Mechanism or for sinister Purposes without any amendment of Spirit or reformation in the Soul the sensual Nature with its proper Offspring still being the reigning Principle in such Persons And the Apostle expresly confirms this that it must be a Habit of Christian Purity a Triumph or Mastery over the Desires of Flesh that founds the Disposition for our true Happiness declaring likewise that an Indulgence of these lower Appetites is the Genuine Cause of our eternal Sufferings the fruitful Parent or Seed-plot of our Miseries whence they naturally spring To be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and Peace And again if ye live
it were a flash in our Minds as also Thoughts often long detain'd or continu'd on our Spirits and press'd upon them these still pursuing us with great Importunity towards some Instance of Vertue or to heighten our Remorse for some ill Behaviour when as our Minds so beset with the Affections of Sense are roving and inconstant and especially not apt to fix on a Pious Meditation and least of all on such as causes Trouble to them these so haunting our Souls and overcoming all the Pastimes of the World to remove them nay sometimes mastering our utmost Contrivance the whole command we have of our Wills against them and at last obtaining their happy Effect These with the other particulars at least must be thankfully acknowledg'd to the loving Spirit of God preventing us and as Convictions thereof And this blessed Spirit with all his saving Gifts or Influences is the Procurement of our holy Redeemer who by his so highly Meritorious Sufferings besides the Pardon of our Trespasses on the only true Term thereof John 7.38 Tit. 3.6 obtain'd such liberal Measures of Grace on our account to attend our smallest Endeavours with them nay even excite these first of all as if we fail not our Compliance with those Heavenly Succours will rescue us from the Power of our past Offences secure our Christian Behaviour or Vertues against every Temptation that shall at any time be permitted to befal us and while we duly peruse the written Revelation vouchsafed to us replenish our Minds with all Sacred Knowledge influential on Godliness every necessary Article of a Saving Faith We have these Advantages this common Treasure thro' our Lord's Mediation for all Mankind as it were extraneous or without our selves but which may be brought into the Faculties of our Souls and rendred an inward might of theirs if we please The Graces of the Spirit if we hinder not their force will enable us for the highest Exercises of Piety every inveterate Appetite of our Natures all the Assaults of Sin upon us must submit to him being allow'd to possess our Minds and display his infinite Efficacy in them that can only be resisted by our selves or the obstinacy of our Wills against him God will exhibit the same invincible Strength in us and along with us for Moral Purposes that he wrought in Christ after a Physical manner when he rais'd him from the Dead Eph. 1.19 20. Hence then being thus throughly furnish'd unto all good Works we must be sure to reduce these Heavenly Vertues or Powers into Act Crucify the whole Body of Sin the old Man after the Image of the disobedient Adam with the Affections and Lusts Gal. 5.24 so that we pronounce not of our Satisfactions nor establish our Notions and Estimate of Things thro' the Instigations of these or with respect to them we must thro' these gracious supplies afforded us that are only effectual in our Endeavours with them repress and keep under the Appetites of Body rescue our Minds from the most unnatural subjection to them that they may be able to exert themselves freely possess a clear Reason retriev'd and set at liberty from sensual Byasses which so being a right Conduct of Life and discerning things truly as far as its natural Sphere reaches will easily submit to the farther Enlightnings of Divine Grace that always both prevents us contributes to the forming of such a just Habit of intelligent Creatures and then more plentifully comes in with it Now this true Christian Principle our reasonable Natures or Faculties recover'd into their free Estate and then attended with more liberal or less interrupted Influences of Grace where it informs or directs the Man in respect of himself it prompts to the strictest Temperance or Purity even with regard to the inmost Propensions or Motions of the Heart that these ever be repress'd where they are enormous and being brought into Act would be a Transgression of the Gospel-Law It inspires a Man with the truest Thoughts both of the Entertainments or Delights of Sense and those relating to Mind that the one are mere Brutal Instances if some kinds of Intemperance be not worse than those without any Example in inferiour Creatures quite unbecoming a reasonable Being and that when the Soul once consents to such or entertains it self with polluted Phansies the Resolution of this our thinking Part one way or other being that which determines the quality of our Actions the Trespass is over in a right account there laying no difference between our allowing the luscious and unlawful relishes of Sense within our selves and the acting there of but the Contagion of the Fact or the Injury reflecting and redounding on others in the latter case and 't will suggest to us that the use of our upper Natures as independently as we can of their gross Companions the pure and abstracted Exercises of our Spirits on their right Objects being our suitable Acts or proper to our kind must constitute all our unallay'd Pleasures our true Delights And with respect to our Brethren who partake with us in the same nature it will incite an equal regard the same common Offices where opportunity is afforded to all of these that it would insist on in the nearest Interest or Instance of Self It helps a Man as it delivers him from the confinements of Sense to a true notion of the Grounds and Reasons of a general Beneficence or undistinguish'd Advantage where he is capable thereof as well to others as his own Soul not only that every Person stands in the same Prerogatives both with regard to the parts he consists of and the Gospel-Promises or the Heavenly Bounties he may enjoy if he pleases so that according to an equitable Verdict no Preference lays but because the Benefits we confer on others are more so on our own account reflect larger and better Advantages to our selves when we supply the wants of any in any respect there not only springs up a great satisfaction in our own Breasts the Results of Love the sweet the most delightful Passion of Joy as we have defeated the Afflictions of our Brethren in some measure at least afforded them a present Relief if not mended their case for afterwards which must needs communicate the same comfort wherever the true Christian Temper and Sympathy is not to reckon the Pleasure that so belongs to beneficent Persons of their being in the favour as they may well suppose and better regard of all People which gives them the confidence of their own Kind that they can freely address any of them and affords all the benefits of Converse and Society that Men are so made for that is so necessary in Humane Life with one another Or if because of their other Vertues all which are link'd in a Chain together so that one cannot really and in truth be without the rest the Reproofs these are in a wicked World they be disappointed of the due Treatment they might reasonably expect and meet only with
Insults instead thereof 't will more than support them that they have done their part been Friendly and Bountiful as they were able and not deserv'd such usage from any I say not only these Advantages attend Beneficence where Men are so loosned from Self and the World as to be able to procure them and be Possessors of them but one far greater is still behind our Minds are improv'd and gradually carry'd on by the proper Acts of this great Gospel-Affection of Charity to farther Attainments of the Habit thereof and so still can admit of freer Communications of God's good Spirit or Grace into them which if they can admit be sure they shall enjoy These Advantages questionless in all respects the first Christians experienc'd who so bravely surmounted the intanglements of Property the great Bane of most Vertues among Christians and resign'd it up among all their Brethren equally distributing or bequeathing their Estates as every one had need more to others than they left for their own share if those needed more This Christian Principle moves the Man upon the generous grounds of Value or Esteem of his own Kind and Friendship towards it and as its Instances are repeated continually promotes that happy Temper in him as free from all Suspicions as private Designs As to the behaviour of Heathens towards their Brethren or whose Actions proceed not on the Gospel-doctrines such a Principle in their Soul all their Politics and Morals in this respect are influenc'd from a Jealousie of Humane Nature to fence as well as they can against Insults and Injuries and offer less Hardships to other People on this alone slavish score that they return not greater or retaliate upon them Good Humour and Benignity towards their Creator's and their own Image which acts the Christian is no Motive with them This is the Spirit of the Leviathan and other Materialists as I may so call them of the Epicurean Herd who have writ of Governments and put their Systems of Ethics upon us that have their Foundations in Sense only viz. Reason hindred as to its true prospects and warp'd by it And as to the Duties respecting God the Man thus retriev'd into the freedom of his Reason from its Servitude to Sense and thus capable of the Influences of the Spirit of Grace and thus enliven'd or quickn'd thereby he can easily bafle all the attacks of Atheism carry his Faith and Assurance above the Region of Matter believe an eternal Omnipresent Spirit no ways liable to Bodily Eyes and other Immortal Spirits likewise created by him that can only be the subjects of Reason and Thought one whereof he knows is lodg'd or confin'd within his feeble outside his Tabernacle of Clay and performs all the intelligent Acts there Discerning their reasonableness the relation they bear to the Nature of Man he will readily observe every Rule of the Gospel the strictest Precepts of Righteousness and Vertue and having purify'd his Mind by that means brought down the stubborn Principle of Flesh the Seat of haughty Conceit and Pride and no Interest of his laying cross to the most comfortable Notion of an Almighty Good and Just Being he will not only entertain this great Doctrine without the least diffidence but extremely triumph in it build all his Trust or Affiances upon it and make it the support of his whole Life whatever Circumstances he be concern'd among giving up his Assent to whatever is reveal'd after his Conviction of the Revelation it self tho' he no ways comprehends the internal Reason or Mode thereof as not only that one Spirit existing from nothing or without any Cause pervades the Universe is present in every part thereof to observe and govern all Events but that there are three complete Subsistences distinguish'd every one by personal Acts in the strictest unity of a spiritual Being This he is fully persuaded of being plainly deliver'd in the inspir'd Books notwithstanding that he cannot account for it by any Faculties he has the Carnal Part being well subdu'd as I observ'd before in which Arrogance is founded there is nothing to oppose God but the Mind presently submits to whatever he declares even concerning the unconceivable Mysteries of his Nature as every Creature that must needs be finite in its Powers the highest Seraphin thinking wisely and understanding it self will certainly do Such a Person so acting above the Principle of Sense and he only can be duly Conversant in Spiritual Exercises with a just Intention address God offer up a more fervent Supplication to him entertain himself suitably in Contemplation of him the study of his All-perfect Being or Nature as as he 's more deliver'd from the importunity of the Fleshy Appetites that so obstruct these blissful Instances whence he will enlarge the Faculties of his Soul thro' this right determination this due use of them that they shall be able to discern more of God in their own mere act while they attain their native Aspirings more Yet nevertheless but a small part of this Sacred Knowledge is thus obtain'd in this happy Person being so qualify'd in his own Temper the holy Spirit will diffuse himself freely upon him and still by farther improv'd Beams as this Christian Habit is more advanc'd till his own weak Faculties be as it were absorpt in the Rays of this Comforter and he only see and act thro' Him as far as God can reveal himself to a Virtuous Soul a Saint of His or work by him and produce the Fruits of Holiness in him consistently with the Freedom of a voluntary Creature that must have its Behaviour reckoned to it self This blessed Spirit will then be another vital Form within him wholy over-ruling his own Spirit which being more recover'd into its pure Nature and less subject to the will of the Flesh the Root of Disobedience or Corrupt Desire must be more easily governable by him under his Conduct in all things more securely led thro' his clearer Suggestions to every Instance of a Gospel-Behaviour So that such a Person may say with St. Paul 'T is not he that lives but this blessed Inspirer this Spirit of Christ that lives in him Gal. 2.20 This would be the circumstance of all Men if this gently operating but invincible might where it is duly comply'd withal were not hindred mainly as to most People altogether in some by unmortify'd Carnal Desires For this Heavenly Advocate our Lord obtain'd for us acting conformably to our free Constitution in still small Voices gentle Whispers to our Souls or Breathings upon them such as leave the Compliance entirely at our Pleasure and the Action our own with the Retributions belonging to it his workings can no ways possibly be perceiv'd among reigning Affections Appetites set in their full Strength whether to sensual Delights or Profits nor he attain any of his blessed Effects in those Persons where these are after such a manner as our Saviour tells us most part of People being such that the world cannot receive him
John 14.17 Now when we have arriv'd at this as I may say Science of God thro' our honest Compliance with the first Motions of Divine Grace as also faithfully pursu'd a Vertuous Attainment in every respect to purchase farther Measures thereof and so have obtain'd in these Heavenly Enlightnings a more convictive Assurance of his infinite Goodness so abundantly exemplify'd to us-ward his Fatherly Providence or care of us here and the everlasting Joys the Rewards he has prepar'd for our Christian Obedience after this frail State is ended when by this means we have arriv'd at these more enlarg'd notices of God and more fully discover'd that he is Love we must needs be induc'd these certain Conclusions laid up in our Minds cannot but have a prevailing Efficacy on Humane Liberty to a more vigorous and earnest Endeavour of a Gospel-Holiness if it were only in Gratitude to our great Benefactor that we should not offend him and not a means of our own Bliss which Gospel-Holiness will ever draw down more plentiful Influxes of the blessed Comforter the Spirit of Truth into our Minds in the same degree that it self is and ever augment this Science of God a Gospel-Knowledge and Vertue or Piety being mutual Causes of one another Let us now observe what attends this Christian Habit how it recompences Men for their Pious Diligence their Honest Labours in acquiring it what its happy Effects are And when our Actions answer the true bent the first inclination stampt on our Souls are under the direction of free Reason and the more plentifully display'd Beams of the Spirit when our Behaviour is thus govern'd in all respects how secure shall we be from every thing that can interrupt our Happiness whether the Disturbances that always accompany a sinful Instance in any particular a pursuance of sensual Affection too far or Diseases of Body or Remorses of Mind that immediately follow the sinful Instance or will not long stay behind especially this latter and worse sort that at least will awaken in another World if perchance thro' the deceitfulness of sin they be stifl'd here when being stript of all sensitive Delights we shall have nothing to afford never so little interruption to them But we shall not only be thus negatively happy by this means but as far as our Natures are Purify'd and Capable enjoy all the positive Degrees of Happiness every sensual Extravagancy repress'd every Allurement or Temptation repell'd founds a Satisfaction much above what results from our shameful Compliance with it which will be no momentary transient Business but ever endure and be a comfortable Reflection in our Minds The subjecting of our inferiour Natures and the government of our selves according to our best our reasonable Faculties and the holy Spirit influencing these must needs afford us the most pleasurable Resentment one of the chiefest the truest Happiness belonging to Men. But when these best Faculties of ours in the light of Grace are determin'd on their proper their most suitable Object viz. God towards which they can never move with too much Transport what a Theatre of Heavenly Thoughts will this offer to them or they be then furnish'd withal such as answer our Natures and can satisfie all the Capacities of our Souls and which will ever entertain them with fresh wonders while they are fixt on a perfection that has no bounds and can never be comprehended by created Beings And as to the quiet enjoyment of our Lives these farther Discoveries into this vast Ocean where there is still an infinite Prospect or Sight beyond viz. God how will they establish our Affiance in him render us secure in our dependence on him not only advance a resign'd temper or submission in our Spirits with regard to his sundry Methods with us but a chearful Obedience to his hardest Precepts tho' we should not discern the Reasons of either the one or the other because being then more fully persuaded of his both immense Wisdom and Goodness we shall be certain that he can order nothing in our behalf but with relation to our true advantage our chiefest good And with reference to Prayer the indispensable Duty of our sort of Creatures so frail so indigent as we are these clearer and farther notices of God can only support a true Devotion enable us to pray with a due Attention considering his awful his tremendous Majesty and for Blessings in general without determining him or particularizing upon him which always proceeds from some unsubdu'd Carnal-Affections that are ever most eager for their proper Gratifications such as we should continually be restrain'd from and so these will place us indifferent as we should be in the disposals of Heaven the special distributions of the Divine Foresight with respect to any of us that God sees most convenient for us or our present state most requires As these enlarg'd Evidences of God will abundantly satisfie us that whatever he does in our private Concerns every particular Dispensation of his to us-ward is determin'd from Goodness and the kind working of a Fatherly Love So they alone can furnish us with the Reasons of Thankfulness at all times and beget that pious habit in our Souls Now these assur'd Doctrines of a Soveraign Being which can only be advanc'd from a due conquest of the Fleshly Affections and the freedom of Reason especially imploying it self on the Inspir'd Writings and the more liberal the less hindr'd Influences of Divine Grace by that means seeing the natural and proper Effects of the love and benignity of our Heavenly Father are again open'd and let loose towards sinful Men thro' Christ Jesus these assur'd Doctrines of a Soveraign Being what grounds of undisturb'd Contentment and Happiness must they be in every state of this present Pilgrimage 't will be impossible that any Events should discompose us when we are firmly possess'd of these several Articles of Faith in God But then still farther as we more put forth these proper Duties of Faith in him Prayer Affiance Resignation and the like we form our selves more into his Image or Similitude and become more capable of his pure Emanations the only true Light and Wisdom proceeding from him and he actually too displays these more in our Minds that we shall apprehend and know thro' them that is with respect to the reveal'd Truths which only are of true concernment to us much above the reach of our own Faculties or what they could attain in their best state by any Improvements they are capable of these reveal'd Truths being the most important Objects of our Knowledge will appear more evident and brighter to our Souls in the Beams of the Spirit more plentifully diffus'd or acting upon them when by means at least of some degree of a suitable frame a more advanc'd Gospel Temper there is less Impediment to those Heavenly Shinings Whence our principal Thoughts our main Desires the Themes of our Converse the delights we take in the Society of our Brethren will
be all with regard to God and Vertue which may be a sign to our selves that we are in this bless'd State as our Saviour speaks concerning a truly Regenerate Person That which is born of the spirit is spirit John 3.6 We shall then be intimately united to God partake of a blessed Communion with him in all the Bounties of his diffusive Nature as we attain to be true Christians or are created again in Christ Jesus after his Image Eph. 4.23 we shall thus be those Sheep of our Saviour that are safe in his Father's hand whom none can be able to pluck away from him John 10.28 29. being kept by the Power of God thro' Faith unto Salvation James 1.5 These are the great Enjoyments and Happiness that a Christian Temper possesses one of an enliven'd Soul a Person quickned by the Spirit of God enjoys even in this Life among all the Perplexities and Troubles of it But when we come into the Heavenly part of this bless'd state these grosly constituted these refractory Bodies to the motions of our Minds being chang'd into Celestial Spiritualiz'd ones compliant in all things and the Pious Habits the Propensions we have gain'd from a Life of Vertue and towards God exerting themselves freely with the Influences of Grace that now informing such dispos'd Subjects are under no restraints what bright displays of Divine Truth shall we perceive in our Minds what farther discoveries of the Mysteries of the Deity shall we be ever replenish'd withal how will the deep contrivances of the wisdom of God and his infinite Love not only in the Creation but more signally in the manner of his Redemption of the lapsed World and his Goverment of it his several Dispensations with regard to the untoward dispositions of his free Creatures whom he bestow'd so much of his own Prerogative upon or made them such Images of himself how will these great Subjects that we so little attain at present the knowledge whereof must most entertain our pure Minds and unite them to God with an inseparable Affection that nothing can remove how will these still more appear and be manifested to us which will ever afford our Minds thus without all Impediments thus in their utmost preparation fresh Scenes unperceiv'd Instances both of Wisdom and Goodness till they can arrive at Omniscience or comprehend Infinity that is throughout endless Ages Being with St. Paul and even in a more purify'd Habit than he then was literally and really in Body and Spirit rapt up into the third Heaven we shall see and discern unutterable Things that our narrow Languages answering our scant Knowledge here can no ways express nor we now apprehend if a charitable Angel should be induc'd to declare them to us the Glories of the Spiritual World and the Divine Actings with respect to the Souls of Men far transcending the wonders of this material one New Faculties shall be then afforded us or which are now hindred thro' the disadvantages of this State open'd in our Minds whence we shall discern naked Spirit the substance of immaterial Natures even the great Omnipresent Creator of all by as evident a sight as we now do Body To see God which is the Promise to the Pure in Heart Matt. 5.8 those that follow Holiness Heb. 12.14 not thro' a Glass darkly that is thro' the gross Instruments of our outward Senses which reason for the most takes its first hints from and works or exercises it self upon tho' they cannot admit or at all acquaint us even with the contexture of Earthly Bodies to see God not by means of these from the Characters we gather of his infinite Perfections in this visible Universe but face to face know even as we are known 1 Cor. 13.12 to see him as he is 1 John 3.2 plainly distinguishes between the knowledge of this and the other World and one would think sets forth another mode of Apprehension of the now unperceivable Objects there answerable to the present Conviction of our Senses and corporeal Sight Indeed we may be satisfy'd of the Being of Spirit as assuredly as we can be of Matter but then this is by long Deductions laborious Demonstration not immediate Intuition or a present glance which seems to explain the foremention'd Phrases the one kind of these ways of Knowledge as affording sufficient Evidence of the greatest Truths if we duly imploy our Faculties about them being proper for our Probation or the Trial of our Honesty and the other for the Reward thereof Now this Apprehension or Knowledge of God after an Intuitive manner as it must be larger and more comprehensive what a rapturous Love of him will it kindle in our Breasts that Passion that founds our utmost Happiness when thus rightly plac'd How will this command all our Appetites towards him and still create new ones as the former are answer'd and have drunk their fill Ecclus 24.21 Eager Desires that can never be satisfy'd are a true cause of our Felicity here by means whereof as our Thirst is more we shall continually more Communicate with him and be always drawing down fresh Supplies from that only inexhaustible Spring which will send forth Rivers of Pleasure for evermore This is the Christian Habit or Principle a Revival from the dead State of Nature when thro' a Course of Gospel-Obedience we have well master'd the Affections of Sense the lower Gratifications that the Soul perceives and enjoys from thence and so partake of larger Communications of Grace or the Divine Nature 't is this that makes us capable of our true Felicity the Kingdom of our Saviour which is within us as he tells us Luke 17.21 both here and hereafter And thus having given an account of the freer Influences of the holy Spirit in the Souls of Men as they have more prepar'd themselves by a Gospel-Virtue I would not be understood concerning Revelation properly speaking as if I meant that he should discover some farther Instances of the Mind of God to us-ward than is declar'd in the New Testament a higher state of Holiness now requir'd as some fondly talk of the Kingdom of the Spirit some more particulars to be believ'd or practis'd not to mention some Doctrines and Explications of certain Places repugnant to the Tenour of the rest of the Scriptures which must proceed from another Author or that he should repeat by some new Teachers and such Gifts in them as he bestow'd on the Apostles even their very Doctrines only perhaps in variety of Expressions which so mainly delight some People especially if deliver'd in a Canting Stile conceited Phrases that more strike the Phansie than inform the Understanding such as our now pretended Prophets commonly use whereas in truth there is no need of all this which if once requisite must be done over again in every Age but there is no need of this the whole Counsel of God for the recovery of the lapsed World to his Grace or Favour and the Methods he us'd to that purpose