sh. They may be termed a kind of
spiritual sensuality, wherein the soul letting itself go too far, by
reason of the sweetness it finds in them, falls imperceptibly into
decay. The crafty enemy presents such sort of interior elevations and
raptures for baits to entrap the soul, to fill it with vanity and
self-love, to fix its esteem and attention on the gifts of God, and to
hinder it from following Jesus Christ in the way of renunciation and of
death to all things.

And as to distinct interior words, they too are subject to illusion;
the enemy can form and counterfeit them. Or if they come from a good
angel (for God Himself never speaks thus) we may mistake and
misapprehend them. They are spoken in a divine manner, but we construe
them in a human and carnal manner.

But the immediate word of God has neither tone nor articulation. It is
mute, silent, and unutterable. It is Jesus Christ Himself, the real and
essential Word who in the center of the soul that is disposed for
receiving Him, never one moment ceases from His living, fruitful, and
divine operation.

Oh, thou Word made flesh, whose silence is inexpressible eloquence,
Thou canst never be misapprehended or mistaken. Thou becomest the life
of our life, and the soul of our soul. How infinitely is thy language
elevated above all the utterances of human and finite articulation. Thy
adorable power, all efficacious in the soul that has received it,
communicates itself through them to others. As a divine seed it becomes
fruitful to eternal life.

The revelations of things to come are also very dangerous. The Devil
can counterfeit them, as he did formerly in the heathen temples, where
he uttered oracles. Frequently they raise false ideas, vain hopes, and
frivolous expectations. They take up the mind with future events,
hinder it from dying to self, and prevent it following Jesus Christ in
His poverty, abnegation, and death.

Widely different is the revelation of Jesus Christ, made to the soul
when the eternal Word is communicated. (Gal. 1:16.) It makes us new
creatures, created anew in Him. This revelation is what the Devil
cannot counterfeit. From hence proceeds the only safe transport of
ecstasy, which is operated by naked faith alone, and dying even to the
gifts of God. As long as the soul continues resting in gifts, it does
not fully renounce itself. Never passing into God the soul loses the
real enjoyment of the Giver, by attachments to the gifts. This is truly