amiliarity and intimate
Conversation with God; such an entire Communication and Intercourse,
that they might, if what they said were true, seem to be glorified
Spirits, rather than _Prophets_, subject to the like Infirmities with
other Men; and to have left the Church Militant to take their place in
the Triumphant. Not considering, that all this is only a pleasing sort
of an Amusement, a Fool's Paradise, and grounded upon no better Reason
or Foundation, than the Man that was distracted had to fancy himself an
Emperor, and all that came about him his Subjects. These Men do not
consider that we live in such an Age of the World, as we are not to
expect such extraordinary Effusions of the Spirit: All that we can
reasonably expect, or that God has promis'd, is, to give his Holy Spirit
to those that ask it of him; that is, so to guide them by his gracious
Assistance, as that they may overcome their Spiritual Enemies, and be
crown'd hereafter with Glory and Immortality; which certainly ought to
content any reasonable Man, without aspiring to _Immediate Revelation,
Prophecy_, obtaining the _Vision of God_, and such like Things,which God
has deny'd to us, whilst in this State.

Sec. 11. Indeed, if it were in _Religion_, as in _Arts and Sciences_, it
might with a great deal more Reason have been expected; that considering
the vast Distance of Time since the first planting of the Christian
Religion to this present Age, we might have been improved to a Degree of
Prophecy. For _Arts_ and _Sciences_ receive their Beginnings from very
small Hints at first, and are afterwards improved proportionally to the
Industry and Capacity of those who cultivate them; and therefore we may
reasonably expect, that the longer they continue, the more they will be
advanc'd. But the case is vastly different in Religion, which is always
best and purest at its first setting out. And there is a very good
Reason to be given, why it should be so; for after the first Covenant
made by God with Mankind in the Person of _Adam_: every other
Dispensation has found Men under a State of Corruption, and in the
actual Possession of Errors, diametrically opposite to those Truths
which it came to instruct them in; and therefore it was requisite that
the means to remove these at first, should bear Proportion with the
Difficulties they were to encounter. Upon which account, at the
Beginning of any new Dispensation, those Persons whom God was pleas'd to
employ to publish i