Popery condemned by scripture and the fathers - End Time Deception

t244< rOPERt COND£:\IN£D BY ^
the idea that the scriptures convey light and sensations
to the mind, by which they may be known
and felt to bo the word of God. Were he to
read them with a little more attention, he would
be able to trace his
merriment to his own ignorance.
In David's days, the entrance of God's
word not only gave light*,
but appears to have
been attended with such peculiar sensations, as
made him account it
sv/eeter than honey and the
honey-comb f* The apostle Paul also seems to
have imagined, that an exhibition of the wordof
God might be followed by such convictions
of its truth, as to produce the exercise of divine
faith :
" My speech and my preaching was not
"'•
with the enticing words of man's wisdom., but
" in dem.onstration cf the Spirit and of power :
" That your faith should not stand in the wis-
" dom of men, but in the pov^'cr of God t."
I am willing to grant,
that the scriptures have
never as yet produced these effects upon the R.
But does he think the sun has no light,
because
his usefulness does not extend to the blind
Eyes are as necessary as light to make objects visible.
A little attention to the doctrines cf the
gospel will teach him, that an exhibition of the
truth produces faith, only where the understanding
is prepared to receive it. On this account,
the scriptures' inculcate the necessity of an internal
change by the operation of the Spirit, who
is
* Ps3'. cxix. r3C. i P^al. xix, ic, t i Ccr. ii, 4. 5.