mus,

life that exerts itself by them. Our Lord settied the point, when he declared to Nicode that no man can see the kingdom of God, the kingdom of grace here, and of glory hereafter, except he is first born of God, born of the Spirit; just as no child can see this world, except he is first born of a woman, born of the desh. Hence it appears, that a regenerate soul hath his spiritual senses opened, and made capable of discerning what belongs to the spiritual world, as a new born infant hath his natural senses unlocked, and begins to see, hear, and taste, what belongs to the material world into which he enters.

II. These declarations of the Lord, his prophets, and apostles, need no confirma tion. Nevertheless, to show you, Sir, that I do not mistake their meaning, I shall add the testimony of our own excellent church. As she strictly agrees with the scripture, she makes also frequent mention of spiritual sensations, and you know, Sir, that sensa tions necessarily suppose senses. She prays, that God would "give us a due sense of his inestimable love in the redemption of the world, by our Lord Jesus Christ."* She begs, that he would "make us know and feel there is no other name than that of Je

* Thanksgiving.

sus, whereby we must be saved."* She affirms, that true penitents feel "the burden of their sins intolerable;" that godly persons" feel in themselves the workings of Christ's Spirit;"+ that "the Lord speaks presently to us in the scriptures, to the great and endless comfort of all that have any feeling of God in them at all;" that "godly men felt, inwardly, the Holy Ghost inflaming their hearts with the fear and love of God, and that they are miserable wretches, who have no feeling of God within them at all:" And, that if we feel the heavy burden of our sins pressing our souls, and tormenting us with the fear of death, hell, and damnation, we must steadfastly benoid Christ crucified, with the eyes of our heart." Our church farther declares, that true faith is not in the mouth and outward profession only, but liveth" and stirreth inwardly in the heart, and that if we feel and perceive such a faith in us, we must rejoice;"** that "correction, though painful, bringeth with it a taste of God's goodness:" That "if after contrition, wel feel our consciences at peace with God,

*Office for the sick. † Communion., 17 Article Hom. on certain places of scripture. ¶ 2 Hom, on the passion. ** Hom. on faith, 1st and 3d part. Hom. on the fear of death, 2d part.

through the remission of our sin, it is God who worketh that great miracle in us;" and she prays, that, "as this knowledge and feeling is not in ourselves, and as by ourselves, it is not possible 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 assist us with his Holy Spirit, that we may hearken to the voice of the good Shepherd." She sets us upon asking continually, that the Lord would "lighten our darkness," and deliver us from the two heaviest plagues of Pharaoh, "blindness and hardness of heart." And she affirms, that if we will be profitable hearers of the scriptures, we must keep under our carnal senses, taken by the outward words, search the inward meaning, and give place to the Holy Ghost," whose pe culiar office it is to open our spiritual senses, as he opened Lydia's heart.S

If I did not think the testimony of our blessed reformers, founded upon that of the sacred writers, of sufficient weight to turn the scale of your sentiments, I could throw in the declarations of many ancient and mo

Hom. for Rogation week, 3d part. † Hom. on repent. 2d part. Even. prayer and Litany. § Hom. on certain places of scripture.

dern divines. To instance, in two or three only: St. Cyrill, in the xiii Book of his Treasure, affirms, that, "men know Jesus is the Lord, by the Holy Ghost, no other. wise than they, who taste honey, know it is sweet,even by its proper quality:" Dr.Smith of Queen's College, Cambridge, in his select discourses, observes, after Plotinus, that "God is best discerned voɛpã TMn à¶n by intellectual touch of him.” We must, says he,

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see with our eyes, to use St. John's words; we must hear with our ears, and our hands must handle the word of life, εστι γαρ ψύχης αισθησε τις for the soul hath its sense as well as the body." And bishop Hopkins, in his treatise on the new birth, accounts for the papists denying the knowledge of salvation, by saying, "It is no wonder, that they who will not trust their natural senses in the doctrine of transubstantiation, should not their spiritual ones in the doctrine of assurance."

III. But instead of proving the point by multiplying quotations, let me intreat you, sir, to weigh the following observations in the balance of reason.

1. Do not all grant, there is such a thing as moral sense in the world, and that to be utterly void of it, is to be altogether unfit for social life? If you had given a friend

the greatest proofs of your love, would not he be inexcusable, if he felt no gratitude, and had absolutely no sense of your kindness. Now, if moral sense and feeling are universally allowed, between man and man, in civil life, why should it appear incredi ble or irrational, that there should be such a thing, between God and man, in the divine life?

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4. To conclude, if material objects cannot be perceived by man in his present state, but through the medium of one or other of his bodily senses; by a parity of reason, spiritual objects cannot be discovered, but through one or other of the senses, which belong to the inward man. God being a Spirit, cannot be worshipped in truth, unless he is known in spirit. You may as soon imagine, how a blind man, by reasoning on what he feels or tastes can get true ideas of light and colours, as how one, who has no spiritual senses opened, can, by all his reasoning and guessing, attain an experimental knowledge of the invisible God.

Thus, from the joint testimony of scrip