SERMON IV.
EXTRACT I.
"I conceive that the only medium whereby we can come to a knowledge of God, is by attending to the manifestations of his grace, or life, in our spirits, or souls."
Thus the revelation in the Holy Scripture, as a medium to a knowledge of God, is set at nought and rejected, in order to make way for this delusive notion of "the inward light." But the humble Christian, whilst he reverently acknowledges that it is by the Holy Spirit his understanding is opened, and the sacred truths of the Bible are savingly applied to his heart, will also acknowledge, that it is by the written revelation of the Spirit of God, he has the true knowledge of God.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said to the lawyers, "Ye have taken away the key of knowledge; ye enter not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." This reproach must doubtless have been incurred, by their having perverted the Scriptures; "making the word of God of none effect, through their traditions,"—see Mark, vii. 13?.—or because they had deprived the people of the use of them.
