Sermons Author:John Scott Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SERMON II. Job xlii. S, 6.—" I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and as... more »hes." All of us have " heard of God with the hearing of the ear;" but who among us have heard as Job heard of him ? If not, our hearing may aggravate our guilt and condemnation. Some of us may flatter ourselves that " our eyes have seen God ;" but have these lively apprehensions of him been the visions of a heated imagination, the delusions of Satan, or the spiritual manifestations of the Most High, to sanctified souls ? Have they produced in us the same fruits they produced in Job ? In consequence of our enlarged discoveries of God, have we " abhorred ourselves, and repented in dust and ashes ?" Should we say, " this is language becoming notorious sinners only when first returning to God," we would prove ourselves to be ignorant of God, when " he manifesteth himself to his people in that other way than he does to the world." And should we imagine that affliction is not a season for intimate intercourse with God, and of high self-improvement, the experience of Job, described in these verses, is fitted to set us right. For these reasons, the text deserves the serious attention of us all. The substance of it may be comprehended under these two heads,—1st, The degrees of the saving knowledge of God possessed by Job at different times; 2d, The effect of the higher degrees on his heart. I. The degrees of the saving knowledge of God possessed by Job at different times. The first of these is described by him in these words,—" I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear." This, however, is not the unavailing hearsay knowledge of God, alas, too common in the visible church. There are few or none among you, who has not o...« less