attainable can you have easier means Inward Religion affords no Lesson for emaciating your Bodies with outward Fastings but commands a rational and moderate support of our Bodies sitting them the more for serving God We are not enjoyn'd to be Pilgrims and to take wearisom Journies as a Penance for Sin Christian Society and Communion will make us more watchful against Sin The Gospel does not enjoyn severity and niceties in outward Conversation which rather discourages than invites those who are without but allows a civil sweetness to all but there are Seasons of Retirement and Recollection from the business and pleasures of the World which a Christian ought to improve for more immediate Fellowship with God There are chosen hours wherein the Soul ascends to God by solemn Thoughts and ardent Desires and God descends into the soul by the Excitations of his Graces and the Influences of Joy and it is most unreasonable to think Religion to be sowre and unpleasant because wise and holy Christians prefer God before the Creature and Heaven before the Earth Begin therefore and go on in the right way with steady Resolutions not to stand still or draw back and you will have renewed Strength and Comfort afforded you will be advancing every day in your Journey till you arrive at the Celestial Canaan Fifthly Reflect not only upon the easiness of your means but also upon the certainty and comfort of obtaining your end of Holiness here and Happiness hereafter by them How are you able to spend your spirits upon Notions that have no other foundation than depraved Reason and little other design than Self-Applause and the Character of Learned or Leader of such a Party Let it be the great Work of Ministers to preach those Truths whereby we may have Communion with the Lord crucified here and with him glorified hereafter and thereby the Souls of the people will be confirmed in the blessed hope God has given an account of his Truths to be believed and obeyed yea to be try'd and the more strict and particular the Enquiry is the more certain of our Profession here and of our Priviledge hereafter It is superficial knowledge of Religion that occasions uncertainty in our selves but an inward serious sense of its Power will fortify us against all the fiery Darts of Satan Be at certainty therefore of your Persuasion here and as to your Inheritance hereafter I shall add this Who that sincerely and with perseverance pray'd for the Spirit of Truth that read and heard the Word with attention and application yet has remained in darkness and distracting doubts about eternal things God will make good his Promise Those that seek him shall praise him for the Revelation of his Goodness to them Sixthly Let this be the Reflection of the Reader of these Papers What Excuse at Christ's Tribunal can I make either for the ignorance of my mind as to the Truth of Christianity or the looseness of Conversation from God's Divine Rule after reading the great things in the Change of this Author's Soul the few and easy means that led him to it Can you think any thing else but as it witnesses for God on earth so it will witness against you above and aggravate your Sin and Punishment Light came into the world others comprehended it walk'd in it the Light that truly might obtain the Inheritance of the Saints in light but you chose rather to walk in darkness If you now think it not worth your while to endeavour the means of obtaining such a Pearl of Price as the true knowledge of Christianity and its Practice on earth and perfect Holiness and Happiness above the reward of it you may walk on under a Cloud of Delusion but you will find that inward Darkness will bring you to outer Darkness in an everlasting Hell Seventhly Let therefore your Meditations issue here I will in the strength of God begin the use of these Three Means according to the Prescription of this Witness for God and I will try whether I find the same Experiences or others as marvellous or more suited to my Case it being possible for me to use these three means when hearing the Word taking the Sacrament and communion with Saints are deni'd me yea easy and pleasant to admix them in all my business and pleasures To encourage which Resolution I shall subjoin the following Directory as a means of keeping up constant fellowship with God and your selves and as a Bulwark against the Prophanity and Error of the Age. LET me previously bring to your thoughts what has been already treated of to wit three Methods of God's conducting his Children thorough this lower life The conduct of his revealed Will in the Scriptures Of his divine Providence without And of his divine Spirit by his workings in the Soul answerable to which three Methods of condescending power and love three Duties have been proposed as means to be interested in this threefold divine blessing Observation of outward Providences as a help to know and to believe in his general and special Providence round the created and adopted sons of God serious Prayer as a help to know to experience the certainty of the spiritual operations of a divine spirit in the soul Reading the Scripture with Pool's Annotations a help to know notionally God's Will and experimentally to know it as Truth made out in his way of Providence and inward workings in the soul As necessary therefore to guide you to the right and continued use of these three easy Duties interesting the soul in these three marvellous blessings for which the Godhead will be admir'd lov'd and prais'd in our eternal state I give you my own course thorough a day as what has kept my self in constant heavenliness of frame and afforded me the astonishing enjoyments of Grace and that with so great ease to lawful business and diversions Your knowing my hurrying affairs and the enjoyments of Grace I have experiene'd and given forth now to the world would be sufficiently convincing how easy and how comfortable no ways detracting from diligence in business or lawful recreations this blessed life of Religion is and since I am not to be known I desire to impart the way I walk in for your imitation and soon you 'll be convinc'd of the reality and sweetness of inward Christianity however the meer profession thereof expose it to the Censure of others as burden melancholy and the like The Day is to be divided in three parts the Morning the Course of the Day and the Evening The Evening I appropriate principally to the exercise of that Noble Faculty of the Soul Even-Reflection the two former parts principally to Apprehension and Observation First therefore After awaking or in the time of dressing observe the frame of your Souls whether serious or not whether it seems to be the bent of your mind to think upon God and your Duties to him or whether there wants a force upon your soul thereto Secondly After dressing
THE Private Christian's WITNESS FOR Christianity In Opposition to the Notional and Erroneous Apprehensions OF THE Arminian Socinian and Deist of the AGE With the Easy and True Means leading the Prophane Meer Professor and Lazy Christian to the same Experience as Preservative against the Infection of each and against the ill Example of the Practical Blemishes in Lazy Christians Conversation LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultry 1697. THE PREFACE BY A Friend of the Author 's SINCE the Fall of Man by his Rebellious Sin he incurr'd the forfeiture of his Felicity that principally consisted in Communion with God The Divine Goodness is like a sealed Fountain all comforting Emanations are obstructed Divine Justice is a consuming Fire to all guilty and polluted Creatures The Son of God by his precious Merits and Intercession is a Mediator of Reconciliation and Communion All our Ascents to God in spiritual Duties and his Descents to us by communicating Graces and Comforts are through Christ He introduces our Persons into the Divine Presence he purifies our Services from their Defilements and Defects and presents them with acceptance to his Father Our Communion with God is managed by the Influences of the Holy Spirit into the Soul and the returns of the Soul to God by the Energy and Efficacy of the Spirit In all the parts of Divine Worship the Spirit composes the Mind with the Reverence of God's invisible and adorable Majesty He encourages our trust in his Mercy and raises our Affections from Earth to Heaven This is a difficult heighth which the carnal Nature cannot arrive to Prayer is a Duty of daily Revolution but cannot be performed in an acceptable manner without the Spirit 's Assistance The Holy Spirit is the Seal of God's Love to Believers that can never be cancell'd that distinguishes them from the unrenewed World and appropriates them to God He first works those Graces in the Soul wherein the Image of God consists and by illustrating them in the view of Conscience witnesses that they are God's Children He is therefore styled the Spirit of Adoption The Spirit ratifies the Truth of the Gospel to those who have felt his sanctifying and comsorting Operations There are some Doctrines in the Gospel of impossible discovery by the light of Reason and when reveal'd are incomprehensible Now there is such Evidence beyond all exception That the Gospel is a Divine Revelation that any Doctrine declared in it though sublime and supernatural and contrary to our carnal Prejudices and Passions justly requires our assent to it We must distinguish between the evidence of the Object and the evidence of the testimony An Object is evident by its own Light and the impression it makes immediately on the Mind Thus it discerns between Truth and Falshood between what is fair and what is fraudulent as the Eye sees the difference between the day and night The Evidence of the Testimony is when the proof of the Truth is resolved into the Veracity and Authority of God who is Infallible For he cannot be deceived nor deceive Now of the Gospel's Divine Original there are external Characters and Signs and internal Of the external Characters Miracles are the most conspicuous Of the internal the sanctifying and comforting Operations of the Spirit in the Souls of Men are most sensible and convincing For certainly humane Nature tho' assisted by Moral Counsels and Constancy could never produce such Divine Effects The Holiness and Comfort that the Spirit in Concomitancy with the Gospel works in sincere Christians produces a more clear and strong assurance of its Truth than the sight of Miracles For Holiness is an Attribute as truly Divine as Power and has a nearer Affinity with the Nature of God 't is his peculiar Glory The cleansing and changing the Heart of a Sinner the calming of the afflicted Conscience are a more eminent effect of Power than the turning of a Wilderness into a Paradise or the laying Storms and Tempests The sanctifying and comforting Virtue of the Spirit by the Word is a more inward and lasting proof than Miracles A Miracle like a sudden flash of Lightning astonishes Men at the present and causes them to consider what is proposed but when the surprize is over they may neglect their Duty But real Holiness in the heart and life like the Sun irradiates the Mind with a constant light He that believes has the witness within himself Inward Experimental Religion is perceived by the Sense of them that have it and cannot be so clearly demonstrated by Words Who can see a Taste From hence many ignorant and prophane Persons expose the Operations of the Spirit to ignominy and contempt as the dotages of Enthusiasts And Doctrinal Professors who owe their Religion to Tradition and Education and are meerly Titular Christians cannot understand and believe what the Saints really enjoy They are hardned in their Unbelief because many have father'd the bastards of their deluded fancies upon the Spirit But to shew the unreasonableness of this pretence consider It were strange that the low life of Sense has perceptive Faculties that living Creatures feel that they live and the spiritual Life more raised and excellent than the rational should not perceive it self Is it possible there should be such a Prodigy that the Soul should live the life of Holiness and Joy like a Plant without the knowledge of it Or Because many are deceived with a false Light and pleased with a Delusion does it follow that those who have vital Experience of Religion are deceived One may Dream that he is Awake but a Man that is Awake knows himself to be so The Delusion of one doth not weaken the assurance of another If it be enquir'd How shall we distinguish between the Genuine Operations of the Spirit and the Spurious and Counterfeit A clear answer may be given 1. By the light of the Spirit we may discover and know his Operations This is no vicious Circle I know I have a reasonable Soul by the light of Reason For the Understanding that discovers other objects in the direct act is the object of it self in the reflective act Thus I know that I have the Holy Spirit as a principle of Divine life acting in me by the light of the Spirit 2. It is the peculiar Character of the Spirit 's Operations they are all in Consent and Congruity with the Word of God for he is the Inditer of the Word and cannot contradict himself They make Men more Holy and Heavenly and as the Star directed the Wise-Men to Christ the light of the Spirit always directs us to him as the Fountain of Grace and Salvation And for the satisfaction of those who desire to know when the Blessings they receive are obtain'd by Prayer and are not the effects of God's general Providence I shall only desire them to consider whether their Prayers are by the Spirit 's Influence which is known by the frame of the Soul in
perform a distinct worship of Christ in Prayer and do hope that I am under the instruction and inward power of that Divine Spirit whom he has promised should guide us unto all Truth in the use of his means John 14.26 What is a guide otherwise in Nature and way of power upon the Soul than that the product only of religious Education and of the Notional Knowledge of Christianity As by the word of Truth with a frequent use of the Sacrament so by this very experience I have been wonderfully established in the truth of the Godhead of Christ against all the Socinianism falsehoods of the men of this Age in that Duty of the Holy Sacrament I have often been so ravish'd with the Contemplation of Christ's Love in himself as God and Man that at the very time I have been in great exercise of pity towards those poor Creatures who deny his Godhead and have oft thought with my self that unacquaintance with themselves on God's own word experience in their Soul was the occasion of their distrust of Christ as God How weak are the Socinian Arguments against our Blessed Redeemer as God And tho they be prevalent upon some unacquainted with God's word at least not experimentally felt as truth upon their Souls yet they are easily to be repell'd by the Scriptural discovery of Christ's Two distinct Natures in One Person for ever And how much more weak will they appear at that blessed day of Resurrection when they shall see him in his perfect Glory as God-Man Redeemer of lost Man and the Judge of them that would not comprehend him as a Glorious God What is more plain than that Scriptural evidence of the Godhead of Christ in the First Epistle of John chap. 5. v. 20 And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us understanding that we might know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Christ Jesus this is the true God and eternal life if we are in him ingrasted by the operation of his Divine Spirit we shall draw forth such knowledge of him both as certainly come against all the Jews on Earth and as God and Eternal Life against all the Socinians at this day from my own experience I desire to put my poor Seal to this scripture-Scripture-truth discoverable in what I have already laid before you I do believe That the Professor of Christianity turning Socinian never knew Christ any other way than by a notional Knowledge pleasing to its self but never feeling that saving-knowledge of him by the work of a Divine Spirit in the use of means planting or watring Grace in the Soul John c. 1. v. 3. All things were made by him and in v 10. The world was made by him and it knew him not undoubtedly therefore he made up one of them Gen. 1.26 who said Let us make man one in Nature though three Persons distinct Is not the Soul a Man One in Essence tho' different in its Faculties of Judgment Will and Affections Colos ch 1. v. 14 15 16. By him to wit the Son that Redeemed us the Image of God the first born from the Dead all things were Created he was before all things and all things consist by him which are never applicable to Christ unless he be God as well as Man Again God's attribute of Omnipotence could never be appropriated to him if he were not God as well as Man John 2.24 But Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all Men. John 6.64 For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believ'd not and who should betray him In the sixth verse of the same Chapter it is said That Jesus knew he had been a long time in that case Isaiah 8.13 Sanctifie the Lord of Host let him be your fear and dread he shall be for a sanctuary but for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both houses of Israel Who is this Lord of Hosts that is to be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence It is express'd in the ninth Chapter of the Romans and 32 Verse They stumbled at the stumbling-stone Isaiah c. 6. Who can read it throughout and compare it with the 12th chapter of John v. 38. and not be convinced of the Deity of Christ therefore they could not believe because Isaiah said He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see and be converted as is set down in the latter part of that 6th Chapter of Isaiah and in the 41st verse of the same chapter of John it is express'd These things said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of him as in the former part of that 6th chapter he did express it Sitting upon a throne high and lifted up his train filling the temple Seraphims standing above it crying one to another Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory by the comparing of both Chapters its plain that it was Christ that is thus described and whether such a description be applicable to meer man I leave it to any Christian to judge of Withour further running over the Scriptures attesting the Divinity of Christ or further enlarging upon the personal experience of freeness of worship to him in Prayer and other Duties in that change of Soul wherein Faith to Christ was implanted I 'll only add one Scripture more not only accusing of Socinians themselves but these of Christ's Flock who encourage their Erroneous Doctrine by too familiar converse with their persons It is the 2d Epistle of John the 9th and 10th verses Who abides not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God and if that of his being God but now made out be not one great part of the Doctrine of Christ I know not how we shall understand his satisfaction of God as is described in his word In the 10th verse it is said If any deceivers come unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive them not in your house neither bid them speed both being an argument of Familliarity but justly reproving those who are so far from giving such discouragement to Deceivers that if by them can be diverted Splenetick Vapours by acuteness of their Wit and diverting Conversation they shall have as great if not greater room in their Society or Houses as those whose delight is to communicate and discourse the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Grace By this means we hug the tools of spreading Errors in our Bosoms To proceed in the Narrative of God's further method of carrying on this great inward change in the use of his usual means I shall First of all lay before you the Experiences of the certainty of the Souls access to God in Prayer of the seriousness of frame therein that the prophane and meer Professor though never so outwardly Religious are altogether unacquainted with the experiences of the certainty of Christ's Spirit interceding in us in
in the Lord 's affording me heavenliness of frame and the intercession of his Divine Spirit for an event in Prayer when all hopes from any thing else had been remov'd and no ground of hope left but what was drawn from this frame of Soul in Prayer and the full quiet of mind concerning the event brought forth by the same Divine Hand I could set down numerous instances of the imminency of Death to Friends and Acquaintances where nothing of probable hope was left but what was drawâ— from this experience of the Spirit of God interceding with me by carrying me out to ask in a manner far above my self for their Recovery and then against all probable expectation the recovery has followed Yea at this very time I can instance a Child who for some time was laid out as Dead but in my humble hope Alive and that purely from the sensible power given me to ask its life of the Lord Who knows the things of God but the Spirit of God as the Spirit of Man alone knows the secret Thoughts and Will of Man and if the Spirit of God know the Mind of God and his design of bestowing an event unknown to our selves it is not so strange that unexpectedly and suddenly in the use of that blessed Duty of Prayer Christ's Spirit should breathe upon us strength to ask what we designed not but what he knew would be through that method discovering the reality of a Divine Spirit who is to help our Infirmities who neither know what to ask nor how to ask of our selves only by keeping in the Obedience of God's Will to Prayer and thereby lay our selves in God's road to receive Divine Direction both to ask what we did not premeditate and in a manner above our own natural corrupted capacity If the Spirit of God know the Will of God against an event no wonder he draws his Divine influence from the Soul in Petitioning to obtain it and no other warmth in Prayer appears than what is the product of self and the great desire of obtaining it far differing from that seriousness that is the effect of a Divine Spirit the right observation whereof greatly helps the Christian to distinguish the one and the other I know that great care is here to be taken not to entertain hopes of obtaining every Petition that God has not absolutely promised or by Petitioning without Resignation to his Will but from experience of God's condescending-way of training up Babes in Christianity I hope I may say that the Spirit of God never intercedes with us in Prayer to God for any thing that is not to be obtain'd or without Resignation to his Blessed Will and any mistake herein must slow from either of these two Reasons First From an ignorance when Christ's Spirit does intercede with us in Prayer A natural tender affectionate Constitution and an ardent desire after the thing pray'd for imposes a likeness thereof in some and continual thoughtfulness of Mind or a sweet Tone and way of Expression brings sometimes others to a likeness of this frame Whereas the observing Christian from care therein finds this Prayer come suddenly upon him and with full gale of Strength far above his own drawing himself forth with that filial Boldness and near Familiarity and approach to God and with that quiet of Mind concerning the matter as if its answer was already return'd The observ'd experience whereof helps the Soul to answer all such cautionary Objections and discovers to its experience That Resignation to God's Will goes along with the Heavenliness of Frame to make up the evidence of Christ's Spirit helping us to ask without either of which the evidence seems cloudy dull and uncertain Or Secondly Mistakes may come by misapplying the return of Prayer through too soon judging of the Prayers return'd or by applying Prayer to somewhat else than is the real return of the Prayer the effect whereof has been oft so evil that even many gracious Children of God have been led into Darkness kept from that sense of intimacy that really they had judging their Prayers unreturn'd or at least bringing them under great Thoughtfulness though their Faith was fix'd upon God's Word yet how to reconcile former experiences to this of a Divine Spirit 's intercedings for them and yet unreturn'd My great help against such mistakes has been an exact observation of my different Utterance as well as my different Frames in Prayer and to set down the very Word express'd therein If the Spirit of God give and help the Utterance of Ministers as well as Spiritualize their Mind in Preaching that being recommended by Paul as a fit Petition upon his account and experienced as Truth by the worthiest of his Ministers Why not to give and to help Utterance in Prayer as well as a Heavenly Frame therein Whatever others imagine or ridicule concerning familiarity of Stile in Spiritual Prayer I can truly say That when my Frame of Soul has been thus suddenly chang'd from Lifelesness to great Spirituality I have then been in a maze to experience an unusual freeness of expression wondring at the Words themselves express'd and the nearness to God that I have thought my Soul approached to And upon some patient waiting before judging the return of the Prayer and comparing the parts and circumstances of the event to the words I was enabled to utter and had afterwards set down I found so much correspondency as is between a Seal and its impression I know those far excelling my self in Grace and Experience with God losing the sight of the return from God by misapplying the return not to the Words utter'd in Prayer but to what they so mightily desired I remember an instance in my self concerning a Servant's parting from me and Petitioning Heaven for his conduct to the use of means for another I found comfortable Divine Strength in Prayer and in some hours after happening in the company of one who formerly had recommended a Servant in most things acceptable he inform'd me of another with a Character far exceeding the first to which Providence I immediately implying Prayer express'd it at its return but afterward found disappointment as to them and difficulty in finding any other seemingly evidence of Prayer without Divine Strength put up and unaccepted by God but soon after by some special passages of Providence this Servant begg'd leave to stay tho' they had confidently despis'd my place and given warning to provide another in their room which prov'd better than changing at that time tho' a good one had fallen in my way which was a return exactly suiting the Utterance in Prayer confirm'd by the comparison of the latter Event to the Utterance set down As this was a plain instance of too hasty a judging the return of Prayer taking one Providential passage for return begun only by it and carried on by other passages adjoyn'd thereto so I shall lay before you another instance of misapplying the return to the
it has been more acceptable to my Soul than an outward Blessing wherein special Love has not been so clearly discoverable The Method of God's advancing Reliance has been by sometimes delaying the answer of Prayer and with-holding its return longer than usual though there has been evidence of its acceptance in Heaven and that sometimes to the last extremity of a matter concern'd An eminent Instance whereof was concerning an Affair where acting or not acting in it carri'd along the danger of great disgrace and disadvantage and determining with my self not to act was by an irresistible passage of Providence constrain'd to move in the matter which at first seem'd to damp my hopes that my Prayer concerning it was accepted but the return exactly suited my frame and desires exprest in Prayer though its discovery was so long defer'd even till upon the very brink of acting and then providentially effected other ways a passage which at the time ravish'd me with astonishment An Instance instructive not to limit God to time or desire but to commend our case to God as our Father intirely to depend on himself for the Event in his own method and time with a diligent acting Duty on our part and then the blessing will be the sweeter and more remarkable yea with great honour to God by such an actual exercise of Reliance upon himself A Twelfth Experience of God's Method to establish my dependance upon him has been by laying in my way outward Vexations for the bringing of me in to a serious spiritual frame of Soul the experience whereof seems as it were naturally to prevent murmuring at Disquiets and to keep me often upon my knees with heavenliness of thought and in the exercise of trust to God who discovers in afflicting Providences great love in their effects of changing the Soul's posture and making them a mean of preserving dependance brought forth in the Soul A Thirteenth Experience of God's Method to continue and heighten dependance upon himself was By giving great raisedness of frame of Mind and high exercise thereof in Prayer as a Forerunner of some Disquiet that from this Experience Anxiety and Despondency under it might be prevented and I notwithstanding thereof kept on in Reliance upon God who in condescending Favour gave such sweet strengthning allowance as might hold out in the ensuing Providence and that against the rising of Sin within and the force of Temptations without And here I subjoin an Instance of the inefficacy of the latter when one day I in sweet communion with God in Prayer and at the time of Enjoyment under the actual sense of some Disquiet having observ'd in the Method of God that a sense of Disquiet and Fellowship with God at the same time have met together as a Forerunner of some Affliction that would happen so soon as I was off my knees to walk up and down in my Chamber as soon like Lightning Satan threw this Suggestion upon me That I had better be without these Enjoyments than have the Disquiets that follow them My Fellowship with God in Prayer was too strong at that time to receive any impression of that kind and blessed be his Name the Suggestion was so bare faced and clearly diabolical that I was immediately strengthened to repel it as a Trifle The Effects of which Experience were First A further establishment in the truth of that Scripture All things work together for good to them that love God Secondly A continued hope in his mercy which since that time has been greatly establish'd by the enjoyment of the Psalmist's words as certain truth The Lord delights in them that fear him and in them that hope in his mercy That methinks all my Arguments with God are bound up in this one of the greatness of his mercy in Christ the observation of special favour in all smiling and frowning passages of Providence the advancement of Reliance upon God in all things brought forth by God's Divine Spirit in the use of that mean of observation has further establish'd and fix'd my hope upon his mercy in Christ and that for other changes within and future happiness hereafter A Fourteenth experience of God's Method of training me into dependance upon himself was from the observation of God's way of freeing my Thoughts from concern under Disquiets and carrying my concern off from the thing disquieting to a search and desire after Enjoyment of God in Prayer put up for the disquiets which is the alone Gift of Christ's Spirit the Promise of Divine Scripture and my alone comfort under disquiet This is to me the evidence of my Petitions being accepted and the Token of special Guidance from Heaven throughout the disquiet In confirming the truth of which experience the Scripture is plain charging us to be careful for nothing but by supplication to make our request to God and when by the intercession of a Divine Spirit we are enabled to make our request the experiencing Christian can truly say that anxiety is taken off and full exercise of reliance upon God is in its room both for conduct to the Soul throughout the disquiet and for the removing of it in his own time and way if God's Method herein was more observ'd there would be less trust on outward helps and more reliance upon God in Prayer join'd with the due use of means and would by a blessing attending them be convincing to the men of this World who are led by sense and disbelieve the Prerogative-Power of God's Providence in all things A Fifteenth experience of God's Method of advancing my reliance has been by fixing my desire delight and longing after spirituality of frame with all and every one of the most comforting outward mercies of the present Life in the desires of the best of outward blessings I find an unexpressible fixedness of thought upon these two things One is That it may be convey'd by Providences arguing speciality of love another is that this conveyance may be a means of heightning reliance upon God and raising me to more sweet and intimate Communion with him And I hope I may with some humble awe say that my Eye is so much upon God's hand in bringing about and upon Communion with God in the enjoyment of all things on Earth that the more I see and enjoy of the outward pleasures of this Life the more they are undervalued by me and the more I am afraid of them by reason of the temptations attending them to the breaking off of Heavenliness of frame which is the true inward comfort of the Soul of an experiencing Christian This very Experience has made me sensible of the following things First That the best of them of which I have not wanted some taste afford not that solid abounding sweet satisfaction as I do really experience in Heavenliness of frame and therefore do exercise great pity towards them who know nothing of fellowship with God in the frame of their minds or in the performance of duties
Scripture accompanied with great power to repel risings of Corruption towards Revenge and perfectly to quiet my Mind with a Reliance upon God concerning the matter The first Experience whereof met me in the Streets where hearing of a false and unmerited Aspersion upon my self at whose hands I deserv'd better immediately a design of Revenge was rising and was carried further on by meditating upon it till coming home and entring my Chamber and taking the Bible in my hands that very Scripture was offered to my View and by the influence of Heaven made an assisting-instrument of quiet at the time and ever since a strong help to watch my self in the like case Its suitableness to my circumstances its effectual power restraining me from complying with Satan and inward Corruption and inclining and enabling me to obey God whose Will is declared in his Word was a testimony that a gracious Providence brought that Scripture to my sight Ninthly When Reproaches against me and malicious Designs had a probability of taking effect and have been turn'd into other Events against the Design Wish or Expectation of my Enemies then that Scripture of the 11th verse of the 41st Psalm By this I know thou favourest me because my enemies triumph not over me has been not only confirm'd but imprest upon me with much inward Comfort At one time the whole 15th Psalm was bore upon my Thoughts with that strength and continuance that I was continually desiring Conformity to it and measuring my Actions by its Rule till God gave into my Soul the Evidence of some measure of Conformity to it with other spiritual Comforts at that time A multitude of other Scriptures have been applied to my Soul at the times of needing Comfort and Instruction but they would enlarge my Discourse too much and might occasion a discovery of the Author and therefore I chuse rather to stop here having enumerated so many as afford a Testimony to the reality of Christ's Spirit applying to the Precepts and Promises of the Word and bearing home Scripture Truths as instructive to instruct and remember us of our Duty and encourage us to persevere in it till we arrive at Heaven Experiences of God's Spirit 's sensible withdrawings in Prayer from helping the Christian to ask what he will not return though in his design to Petition THe First Experience whereof was That though I had designed to have Pray'd for an event yet in the Prayer I have not directed a Petition for it and though I have intended in the performance of that Duty several times to Pray for it I have been restrain'd Secondly When one day I designed to renew my Requests to God for obtaining a matter in my morning's Supplication my desires were fervently excited but in the afternoon I was much restrain'd and in some hours afterwards my Soul was drawn forth earnestly to seek it and upon enquiry I found that the three different alterations in the matter that day and the different times of the alterations exactly suited the times of different Prayer To illustrate which I 'll give you one instance amongst many concerning a Friend whose Circumstances I put up to the Lord three several times in one day and suitable to my great enlargement for them in my Morning-Prayer were much better but suitable to my Afternoons constraint were for some hours in racking misery and suitable to my return in spirituality in Prayer for them there was a return of mercy in their relief the circumstance of time exactly suited one another that there was a refreshment from Pains and a return of them according as Prayer was intense and enlarg'd or restrain'd of which I made careful Observation Thirdly Another Experience of constraint from Prayer has been concerning a matter which all circumstances considered was very likely to succeed but not finding my Heart in a frame to pray for it I suspected the issue and accordingly it was not effected An instance thereof was concerning the dearest Relation I had on Earth who being Sick for 6 weeks I was restrained from Prayer with Reliance upon God for restoring Mercy and the issue was the Death of that Beloved Person for whose recovery thorough the course of their Illness I could never put up one serious Petition Two very late passages I can set down greatly establishing my self and marvellous in themselves One was concerning a Person of great Worth of whose Death I had information in all probability certain but being in the Street all alone I found my self enlarged to pray for their Soul's Salvation and that with marvellous Pleasure as if I had been assuredly certain of their future eternal Happiness and being afterwards in serious Prayer I found the same sweetness as I have enjoyed in Spiritual Breathings from above upon this I humbly said to one who was my Bosome-friend I was not of the opinion that the Person I pray'd for was dead and imparted my Reason hereof That the Lord by his Spirit had help'd me in sweet spirituality to supplicate for them Accordingly we had an account of the Person 's being better but the next morning following I found such a restraint from Praying for that Person that I then said to my Friend That the Person was Dead and that very account we had presently after The other passage was Concerning one to be Executed for whose Salvation I found my Affections very ardently drawn forth in Prayer to the Father of Mercies but in Prayer for his Life my Desires were dried up and my Tongue did as it were cleave to the Roof of my Mouth Three times I found this change in my self being always carried out with fervency and freedom to Pray for his Soul but restrain'd and discourag'd to Pray for his Life observing this difference in my self I told an intimate Friend That I had good hope of his eternal Salvation but no hope of his Pardon The issue was the Condemned Person was Reprieved for two days and was afterward Executed and at his Death his Behaviour was so humble and Christian that the Minister that attended him declared his great satisfaction that he died a Penitent Believer Many instances of the same kind I could set down but I shall only add the following instance I was going to see a Friend that was Sick and addrest my self to God in secret Prayer before I went but a kind of terrour seiz'd my Mind and Words stopt that I could not offer up one Petition in any seriousness or with any hopes of being heard for recovery And going to see the Person found that they had been dead some time before This was a discovery to me that the Holy Spirit does often withdraw his Assistance to Ask for that which he knows God will not bestow Experiences of God's Method of training me to the serious aweful and delightful hearing of Sermons FIrst by suiting Sermons upon a Sabbath unexpectedly to things my Thoughts have greatly ruminated on through the week and by bearing home instruction
will with Heat contend for their Opinions in things that are not clear nor of great moment as if they were Fundamental Doctrines There are some Christians that have not only the life of Grace planted in them but the liveliness of Grace they are working and watchful to prevent any impression and taint of Evil from the Contagion of the World wherewith they are encompast And they are watchful unto Good they are ready to exercise every Grace in its season and by a continual Derivation of strength from Christ they are preserved from sinful Errors and irregular Passions Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ has paid the price of our Redemption and that we may have an interest therein and enjoy the Priviledges thereof as evidence and earnest of Heaven God has appointed means whereby we may obtain this Blessed end means that are suitable in their use to rational and lapsed Creatures in their human capacity such as exclude boasting in ourselves and of Presumption Licentiousness and security in a carnal Conversation these means are prescrib'd in the Gospel as Prayer Meditation Hearing and the Participation of the Lord's Supper These are the Sphere of the Holy Spirit 's Activity in these we draw near to God and he draws near us By these means Christ with all his saving Benefits is applied to Souls By these they are revived from the Death of Sin and restored to the favour and Image of God They live in Communion with him and are confirmed thereby against the Temptations of the Evil Spirit who rules the World Those who neglect the holy and constant use of these means whether from the delusion of their Minds or the corruption of their Hearts will find that Darkness is their guide and the issue of their way will be fatal and destructive Let me therefore apply the foregoing Narrative thus There are some Professors that have knowledge in an eminent degree and are of a fair unblemisht Conversation by the advantage and impression of Education but are strangers to the inward power of Godliness as ignorant Heathens Let such duly consider the Case and neither despair for the Divine Spirit can quicken them nor delay the serious and diligent use of means which God has made effectual for the Conversion and Salvation of others Let them observe both the outward Providences of God and the inward Workings of his Spirit and apply themselves to God in the Ordinances both private and publick that they may receive renewing Grace of God and be preserved from destructive Evils If a Notional Knowledge of God's Word and an unblemish'd outward Conversation be no real Christianity no certain Testimony of Real and Saving Grace How utterly void of it are the Prophane To them I would give this Counsel Not to be averse from Serious and Real Religion upon the account of some Professors who have only a name to live but are dead or from a conceit that the Christian Religion is so extremely rigorous as to deprive us of all Natural Comforts or upon the account of different Opinions in the Christian World but to remove all Prejudices and to endeavour to understand the Gospel to believe the Doctrines to obey the Precepts of it and then they will find Christianity to be more than an outward Profession a serious Divine Principle regulating the Heart and Life and that it is to be obtained of God by every sincere Seeker of it and that it allows the temperate Use of Natural Comforts and only forbids the licentious Abuse of them whereby men become most unlike God and are like the beasts that perish And the lawful sober Enjoyments of Nature are consistent with the Joy of the Holy Ghost in the hearts of the Saints which is infinitely more satisfying and lasting than all the Pleasures of Sense for which so many lose Heaven and are condemned to Eternal Torments If Christianity and its Power may be really felt in the Soul and yet damp'd by the too long intermission of the Means of Grace and clouded by the admixture of too much of self producing a kind of Christians lazy in the obtaining the continued Power of Christ's Spirit in their Souls and so are in danger both of long intermissions of fellowship with God and breaking of fellowship one to another more dishonouring God than either the mere Professor or Prophane who never experienc'd the Reality and Comfort of True Christianity To such I would apply this Exhortation Not only to be in the Right Use of Means but in the more Continued Right Use than ever formerly for undoubtedly if the Means of Grace be the ways by which he walks and by which he communicates to Believers to the truth whereof all experiencing Christians will put their Seal then the oftner Christians walk in those ways the oftner and the more they receive both of Knowledge and Comfort from God which undoubtedly is the reason why some real Christians go beyond others in the knowledge of his ways and are in the more close walking according to the Rule of his Word with more inward Fellowship with God both in the Means of Grace and common Conversation That therefore the Word of God the doubting whereof being one great occasion of Error and Vice may be experienc'd as Truth and the means leading thereto given forth I shall previously lay down Two Propositions the first Instructive the other Cautionary The first is That all the Children of God in their Pilgrimage-state are under Three sorts of Conducts The first is that of God's Word the Foundation of our Faith and the Infallible Rule by which we are to judge of all Doctrines of all our Experiences and all the Passages of Providence The second is that of the Divine Spirit who according to the Promise of Christ instructs us in all Saving Truth by the Word and brings it to our remembrance to guide us safely to Heaven The third is that of Divine Providence sometimes enlightning what seemed dark in the Word of God and in the Actings of Christ's Spirit but founded upon his Word of Truth and agreeable to both though the dispensations of Providence are no Certificate of God's special love to men yet we are assured by the Scriptures that there is a peculiar tender Providence of God that regards his Children which is declarative of his special Love and by a serious observation of it their Duty and Comfort will be encouraged and improved Secondly Cautionary Not to limit the Spirit of God to any particular way or time of working in the Soul either in planting of Grace or its further growth Though by observation of outward Providences God was pleased to bring me to the first serious sense of my self and to a dependance upon God for Life and for Salvation and by marvellous steps of his outward dispensations joined with the inward Workings of his Spirit he has begun and increased a gracious Change in my Soul yet he has used various methods in the Conversion and Sanctification of
God and Man in one Person when such a view of him will force their remembrance of denying him in their Minds and Hearts the Adoration due to him as God equal with the Father tho' he humbled himself that we might be exalted and might in Heaven see his Glory and be transform'd into his Glorious Likeness It will be righteous that those who vilified the Redeemer should not reign with him and since they deny that he washt away the guilt of their Sins with his Blood it 's righteous that their guilt should remain on them for ever He that feels the power of Christ strengthening him will notwithstanding the subtil Cavils of others glorifie him as the incarnate Son of God who purchas'd Grace and Glory for him by his Humiliation and confers it in his Exaltation As for Deists who deny all Reveal'd Religion their Error is brought for the support of Socinianism for in the Scripture there is so full a proof of the Eternal Deity of the Son of God and of the Holy Spirit which is a Doctrine supernatural and incomprehensible by our narrow minds that they will rather return to Heathenism than receive the Gospel Besides the purity and perfection of the Gospel in its Commands they will not obey and therefore will only follow the dim light of Nature that discovers not many Sins which they love nor some Duties from which they are averse You therefore under this Character Let me invite you to the trial of God's Word and if you find in your Experience any one thing that was incomprehensible to natural Reason but sensibly felt in your Souls it will lead you to the desire and endeavour of Experiencing more If in Prayer you come to understand a strength above your own even that of a Divine Spirit according to Scripture Revelation thereof you 'll desire to comprehend many other Christian Priviledges and Changes of the Soul by Grace of which you never formerly had any true Idea If once you come in the use of means to believe and trust things unseen which to a faithless Creature is a Mysterious Doctrine but of Scripture Revelation and certainly experienc'd as Truth by Holy Souls To what purpose O Deist should I trouble my self to argue the case of there being a spiritual heavenly frame in Prayer of there being a trust to a thing unseen more strong and durable than a trust to an object before the Eyes the one being supported by the Divine Truth and Power the other by a weak mutable Creature All the Argumentation and Oratory on Earth cannot make a sincere Christian doubt of the Truth of the Gospel which he has felt to be the power of God to save him from Sin and Hell A superficial assent to the Doctrine of the Gospel may be easily chang'd but when the Truth of it is fixt in the Soul by deep Experience a Christian is as stable as the Center against the strongest storms of opposition You may as well suppose a rational Soul to be without thinking as when it 's convinc'd by over-powering light and an inward real sense of the Truth of Religion Reveal'd from Heaven he should be apt to change his Faith and like a Drunken Man reel from one Opinion to another I therefore earnestly recommend the endeavour after an Experimental Sense of the Truth of the Gospel in the use of all Ordinances as the best preservative from Unbelief But now I come to the third and last mean of bringing Creatures into the certainty of God's Word and inward Religion and that is a right reading of the Scriptures not a superficial reading of them in Obedience to Parents or out of Custom a Chapter morning and evening without ever one thought reflective upon what is read but such a reading as may lay you in the way of the influence of a Divine Spirit who communicates light unto us in this Duty as well as in that of spiritual Observation and Prayer we must fix it in our thoughts as the Rule of our Life and particularly observe what may be directive in those Duties that belong to us and may serve for Comfort in disquieting Afflictions to which we may be expos'd Mr. Pool's Annotations are useful in our Reading This method was marvellously blessed to me in the practice of it with Observation and Prayer I soon saw the worth of God's Word the benefit of using it in this manner and my Soul was ardently and constantly desirous of Divine Grace to conform me entirely to the Precepts and Examples of Holiness set down in it The method I us'd at first was To Read a Chapter of the Old Testament a Psalm and a Chapter of the New with Pool's Annotations upon each and this sincere endeavour after the Knowledge of God in his Precepts was soon accompanied with the inward workings of a Divine Spirit influencing me with a desire after and in some measure Conformity thereto Psal 119. How shall a young man cleanse his ways It is by taking heed thereto according to God's Word Those that read not his Word or read it in a customary way obtain no knowledge thereof or at least what is only notional to discourse of How can a Christian cleanse his Heart and Ways or be in the means of obtaining Christ's Spirit helping forward this work but by comparing considerately his Ways and Thoughts to God's Divine Truths as he goes on in the reading of them and nothing more fixes the Thoughts to this than a reading with Annotations and many times in comparing Scripture to Annotation a comparison of ones self to Scripture either for instruction or comfort occurs reading with Thoughtfulness is a mean God many times blesses with sweet success that way Reading with reflecting the light of the Word upon the Soul warms it meets the Affections and makes them receptive of heavenly impressions The meer Professor Religious only from Education I greatly compassionate for this neglect it being for the serious a probable mean of affording establishment in their right notional Knowledge wherewith they have been imprest thorough the instruction of Education and applicative Reading the Scriptures is the means with the Spirit 's blessing of establishing us on that Divine Foundation of Faith and Obedience This Advice of Reading the Scriptures with Pool's Annotations is not to be limited to those only in younger years but necessarily to be extended to Persons of more mature Age. First I advise the younger That they would not rest satisfied to answer their Parents Instruction or in the customary method of reading so many Chapters a day and that at their usual times but to consider what degrees of knowledge of the Word and Conformity to it they are advanc'd to by it that by right Conceptions of God and his Holy Will they be preserv'd from youthful Lusts from the Erroneous Opinions and vicious and contagious Examples of others Let the first Principles of Religion in this way be deeply set in them before they read Controversies in
that Duty The Spirit knows the Mind of God and is the Intelligencer of Heaven he directs us to the most favourable Seasons and by soft Whispers and warm Impulses brings us in God's Presence to pray for Mercies when God is ready to bestow them He does with sensible Enlargements open our Hearts in the Duty And as under the Law when Fire fell from Heaven upon the Sacrifice 't was a sign of God's Acceptance so when a sacred Fire kindles our Affections 't is a sign our Requests are accepted He mixes in our Prayers Reverence with filial Confidence Resignation to the Will and Wisdom of God with Reliance upon his Love and Power And when a Mercy is bestowed the Spirit converts our Prayers into Praises and by the Mercy confirms our Faith inflames our Love and endears Obedience to us Concerning the Person of whom the following Papers give an account I shall only say He is a Christian inwardly who has had a stated Intercourse with Heaven and has recorded the gracious Passages of Providence the rich Returns of Prayer to him 'T is true there is a continual succession of Mercies through all the minutes of our lives which we cannot observe and remember but as there is a different Glory in the lights of Heaven One Glory of the Sun another of the Moon and another of the Stars so some are eminent and illustrious above others and ought to be remembred and acknowledg'd with Solemnity Of these Mercies he has been deeply sensible and could not be silent but opens the Treasures of his Experiences and with David the great Pattern of Thankfulness calls upon those that Fear the Lord to Read what he has done for his Soul His end is to Glorifie his Blessed Benefactors and to invite others to partake of the same Mercy May his Example excite us with diligence and delight to maintain Communion with God on Earth the sweet and sure anticipation and earnest of our Communion with him in his Temple above where Light and Love and Joy shine in their perfection for ever To the Reader WHO amongst the adopted Sons of God can behold the abounding Vice of the Prophane the profession of Christianity made a Cloak for Sin and Error and the laziness of Christians lives in our day and not awaken our selves to hear God speaking in the same language to us as to the children of Israel Isa 43.10 You are my witnesses Is God's Divine Providence practically deni'd or retrench'd when so much thereof is in the constant view of the sons of men Is the Word of Truth deni'd by a Sectary of Deists when so much thereof is felt as real in the Souls of Christians Is the Godhead of Christ with the Being of a Divine Spirit so audaciously and prophanely deni'd when those who have experienced the priviledges of the satisfaction of the first by the powerful application of the latter witness the reality of both I am resolved therefore to make no other Apology for my Printing the following Discourse than that it is in obedience to the Apostle's charge to all Believers in the 10th verse of the 4th Chapter of the first Epistle of Peter As every man hath received the gift even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God What I have imparted I have receiv'd and in these gradual steps and in the use of these means treated of in the first and latter part of the Discourse and therefore in the imparting of what God has done for my Soul and by what means I hope I stand his witness this day on the earth and approve my self a faithful Steward in ministring the same things to others and that in the way wherein they were received There seems to be a Confederacy between Satan and the men of this Age to discredit the Oracles of God but his Word is a firm foundation of Faith and sincere Christians clearly see the Characters of its Divinity and feel the sanctifying comforting efficacy of it and many have seal'd its truth with their blood Others in their dying hours when men speak with most feeling and least affectation have declared their unshaken belief of it and others in converse with those they most dearly love and therefore would not deceive Each Christian therefore is under obligation to glorify God according to their measure of experience concerning God and his Divine Truths All are not in the office of the Ministry and there seems in our day but small opportunity in conversation to witness for Christianity Converse with the Prophane is of so dangerous consequence that discourse of such things occasion God and his Truth to be mock'd yea to my certain knowledge blasphemed Converse with some under the character of greater Sobriety draws forth such open confidence in Error as to tell us God's Word the Rule of our Faith is to be laid aside and Debates in Christianity are to be left off at the first Chapter of Genesis they giving no credit to its Truths than so far as their natural Reason can comprehend whereas the Soul was corrupted in all its faculties by the Fall Although in the structure of the world and its preservation with the various turns of Providence there are clear discoveries of the Divine Maker yet how little advance did the wise Philosopher make to that perfection of Soul which was in man before the Fall or to that that is obtain'd under the influencing light of the Scripture and the Divine Spirit or shall be in man plac'd in a state of glory And though God has added to us his blessed Scripture in conjunction with the works of Creation and Providence to exercise our thoughts upon for the perfecting of our knowledge yet to what little advancement do many attain in the understanding of God and Divine Mysteries Therefore our compassionate Father in Christ sensible of our weakness in the real and firm understanding of Divine Things has given forth another help to our dark Soule in conjunction with the former even his Divine Spirit teaching us all truth and helping us to a rest and reliance upon his Word working in us a sense and feeling of those great and marvellous mysteries for preparing our Souls towards the more full and glorious perception of them The Revelation in the Old Testament was like the morning-light mixt with the shades of the night the Revelation in the New Testament is clear day but the Revelation of God and Christ in Heaven is like the Sun at noon in its full lustre If this therefore has been God's gradual method to restore men and we enjoy so bright a discovery of mercy to save us those who refuse to accept it cannot escape the condemnation due as the recompence of it the dwelling in darkness with the children of darkness and disobedience for ever Rom. 2. If those who have had no other help in the understanding of the invisible things of God besides the beholding of created things are
his Children's food Mercies in answer to Prayer The Lord knew her strength and adapted his way of tryal thereto which issued in Honour to him and evidence to her self of the greatness of her Faith When Christ saw Peter's Faith as a Rock to build his Church upon he then tells him of the Sufferings to attend him and all that would follow after Christ his Faith being gradually brought up to such a strength enabled him to bear this report which perhaps in the beginning might have discouraged him to follow Christ or his Rules when therefore we are as Moses we may be kept six days on the Mount before the answer of Prayer comes Gen. c. 24. Let us therefore admire God's Wisdom and Love in first planting or further carrying on Grace in the Soul Let us be instructed not to limit God to any one way in converting or further perfecting a gracious Soul but let us keep in the use of all God's means with the observation of his various ways of Providence and Spirit established upon his Divine Word and experience in our Souls that so we may be confirm'd in the depth the length and height of the Love of God not only by a Faith wrought and kept in the Soul but by an evident sense thereof experimentally felt not yielding to that lazy excuse of the danger of fathoming him tho' we cannot find God out to Perfection yet we may comprehend much more of his ways than we do to keep us in continual admiration and praise of his Love making our life the nearer to resemble the work of Saints above not suffering his Ways to lie still in the depth without Record thereof or Reflection thereupon a method which might greatly prevent the many Fears that many gracious Souls meet with in their way and by which they dishonour God before the Wicked that by knowing their own Wants and God's Method of supplying them might be remedi'd A Sixth Experience of the Spirit of God's breathing upon the Soul in Prayer and of its correspondency to the certain return thereof was That according to my Morning's frame in giving up my self so has my frame continued thorough the day but most remarkably thus on a Sabbath-Day wherein I have found that my frame in hearing a Sermon has greatly answer'd to the frame of my Morning 's private Address to Heaven with that exactness that I could never observe or set it upon record without great amazement Herein mistake me not as if I passed my day without any other Address resting upon the comfortable experience of good frame in my Morning's Prayer but upon all occurrences throughout the day my supplication has been repeated my method being never to attempt any Service Civil or Spiritual without Address to God for conduct therein and when opportunity of set Prayer is deny'd the same Spirituality in Ejaculation and that correspondent to return is experienc'd confirming the truth of God's acceptance of the Spirit 's helping the Soul to groans not to be utter'd when the Soul in Meditation is under such a Heavenly Thoughtfulness to God as is impossible for it to utter I could set down numerous instances of God's acceptance of Prayer put up before entring into Company with freedom from Quarrel or Disquiet and when Disquiet of any kind has accompanied me I have found it at such a time when my Soul has been out of frame or my Addresses to God before my entring the Society has been neglected Who would not therefore advise me to rest upon God and to Petition him for all things and to have all things conveyed to me with a sight of his special Providence in it and as a return to Prayer for it that when my passage through this Wilderness is at end I may not enter unto an unknown God who has been a Father by his special conduct of Providence a Husbandman by the workings of his Divine Spirit my alone Friend to whom I have put up all my Requests and from whom I have receiv'd all the supplies of wants and that in a way of Communion with him neither to an unknown work but that of which I have had some foretaste in the use of Observation Prayer solemn and ejaculatory and Meditation admiring of God manifested and praising his Name for the experienc'd discovery of himself A Seventh Experience of Christ's Spirit exciting to Prayer and interceding with us in Prayer with the certain correspondency thereof by a return of that Prayer thus perform'd to God has been by putting words in my Mouth as well as Spirituality in the frame of my Mind and that suddenly unpremeditated yea sometimes contrary to matter and words design'd To clear this Experience I will give you amongst many instances the following one concerning a Friend's Distraction in a Fever for whom my design was to Petition God for his recovery but was carried out in Prayer and that powerfully too altogether for the return of their Reason without ever being able to ask one Petition for the abatement and removal of their Fever upon inquiry I found their Distraction gone off but the Fever remaining the same the return of their Reason exactly answering the time of the Supplication for it Another instance of this Experience was Concerning another Friend for whose Hâ—alth I had design'd to Petition God but found my Words in my Address to God strongly diverted from Petition to Praise blessing his Name for what he had done and that without any foreknowledge of amendment or probable reason to expect it but what I had from this powerful sudden and undesign'd utterance in Prayer Another instance of the same kind I very lately had concerning a Friend's beloved and only Child for whom I found in my self great and amazing freedom of Utterance and that by way of Praise tho' my design was to Petition God concerning it having all humane probability to expect its Death After the Experience of this Utterance in Prayer I was kept in the dark till at least ten days and then had the account of its recovery yea of its great amendment answerable to the time of the Utterance of Praising being strictly curious in the observation of the circumstance of time that none of these marvellous Experiences might afford the least doubting in their enjoyment but obtain a clear reception thereof and produce the greater establishment therein in the Soul Another instance of the Seventh Experience was Concerning some with whom I have had to do in matters of concern but at a distance from me and without any other opportunity of hearing the proceedings or success of endeavours than by Letter I have found that tho' I have design'd before the coming in of the Post to supplicate for a good account yet have not been able to say any thing at all concerning the matter answerable to which no Letter has come or other Petitions and Words concerning the matter has been Spiritually darted up to Heaven than was design'd correspondent to which the
powerfully to pray for strength to resist the temptations of reproaching others either through the natural tendency thereto the common example of others or out of the tempting-design of self-applause in the disparagement of others and answerable hereto marvellous strength of Christ's Spirit was afforded me with special Providences discovering this spiritual strength accompanied with the bearing home upon my thoughts that of St. Matthew chap. 7. ver 12. All things whatsoever you would that men should do unto you do you even so with them That then I could not but observe my self against my own corrupted inclination and others example preserv'd from this too natural and common Vice even of lazy and professing Christians who by the actual remembrance of this very passage might be an excellent means to preserve them from the malignant infection of reproaching others Fifthly I experienc'd a wonderful strength to pray for a continued sense of God's All-seeing Eye as well in Conversation as in the performance of Religious Duties suitable to which not only awful thoughts of his Majesty approach'd in Duties preventing Distraction therein seiz'd me but even a powerful awe of God affected me in common and private Actions always considering any Circumstance in the Action as might destroy God's accepting thereof especially as to Acts of Charity wherein I have found such a watch over my self as I could not have been satisfied without strict enquiry Whether unwillingliness was not in the action Whether some desire of applause or only pity and natural tenderness were not the Motives of this charitable action and nothing then has been more pleasing than to find that a willingliness to obey God's Command on purpose to please him in the compassionate relief of others a chearfulness without the least intermixture of reluctancy a sincerity without the least desire of its being known were the ingredients of the Duty I desire to witness the difficulty of thus performing actions without great and actual influences of strength from above the reception whereof is often obtain'd by that blessed means of solemn or ejaculatory Prayer wherein the Spirit of Christ intercedes for his People The same Spirit of Prayer imprest upon me a sense of God's all-seeing Eye and that Scripture was continually in my Thoughts Of doing all things as unto the Lord the constant remembrance whereof I have found greatly advancing that Gospel-perfection of an unfeigned sincerity both in converse with God in Holy Duties and with one another in common Actions and Discourses Sixthly I can tell you that at another time I have been powerfully helpt to Petition for the exercise of love to God and answerable to this I have been helpt in Prayer and in worldly Business to draw forth kindlers of Love to God from all sensible circumstances of my self and others even from the poor in the Streets both as to their poverty and imperfections of Body blessing the Lord with sweet exercise of Love to him yea this Grace of Love to God has been excited from the observation of fulness and prosperity in some but with great emptiness of the inward comfort of the experiencing Christian's Soul for sensual pleasures divert their Thoughts from the observation and enjoyment of what is much more to be valued in their Nature and lasting in their Duration At this very time happening to be alone in a Coach remarking such kindlers of Love from circumstances of others appearing in the streets suddenly and strongly this suggestion forc'd it self upon my mind How was it That God did show such special favour to me beyond others yea to make me differ so much from my self in former times with amazing Thoughts of the change upon my Soul and immediately that Scripture over-awed me from corrupt rational arguing or from Satan's darkening or deviateing me from right Conceptions of God and his Ways I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion from whence happened such quiet of Mind as has by the blessing of God still'd my Thoughts perfectly as to that great point of Election which is the great effect of free unmerited Mercy and in the use of means brings the children of Mercy safely to salvation This warmly excited my Love to God having an evidence of my share in his Electing Mercy by the inseparable effects of it the work of Grace begun in me and preparing me for the Heavenly Glory A Seventh Experience was When altogether insensible of the growth of Faith and when the Lord by a marvellous method was to establish it in my Soul even then I observ'd for some considerable time that I was carried out in Prayer and Meditation with zealous Affection that the Lord would turn my Eye and trust from sensible things to a trust and reliance upon God himself as to all outward things and as to the inward advancement of Hâ—liness as a mean tending to future Salvation answerable to which God has discovered himself marvellously in the steps of outward Providential Dispensations and by the inward workings of his Spirit as means of founding and establishing this Grace of Reliance in my Soul which I hope shall be increasing in the use of means till Faith obtain its perfect end the Fruition of God in Glory And tho' I hope I may say in Humility that my Soul is raised above sensible things to look to things unseen and to set my Esteem and Reliance with comfort and satisfaction upon them independently upon worldly things yet I am asham'd for the small growth of Reliance in me and that greater improvement therein has not been the fruit of the infinitely wise and condescending method of God's goodness in training me to live by Faith in his Promises and Perfections Experience of God's Method in training me to the first sense of Reliance with its further establishment and growth and that exactly as they are set down in Record in my Diary THE first Experience leading me to observe God's following Method with me was that of carrying me forth in Prayer to petition establishment of Faith in my Soul which begun most remarkably after a Fit of Sickness and has continued to be upon my Mind in all my Suits greater or lesser since that and I hope will continue to the end of my Militant Warfare A second Experience leading me to Reliance upon God was by removing all dependance from these outward fabulous Passages reckoned as ominous of such and such certain Events which undoubtedly were at first the effect of ignorance of the true God amongst the Heathen World who notwithstanding the discoveries of God in his Nature and Providence by visible things the Effects of his Power yet natural things keep first in their view and had the preheminency of God in their minds and hearts And though we enjoy the discovery of God in his Word and Providence so plainly yet how do we retain the example in reducing those things to Natural Causes that are to be appli'd
Patience through former Experience and Prayer wait without disquiet till the Divine Providence has sweetly ordered that disappointment to be for my greater good I could instance in this Experience a matter of greatest worldly concern where disappointment has fallen out contrary to desire and probable expectation from whence has issued a Providence at first appearance not so desireable or pleasing but a Mercy far beyond what I now know the other would have been and has some comfortable circumstances in it not so common in such a matter One instance greatly advancing Reliance upon God and confirming what has been formerly laid down of a certain correspondency between Christ's Spirit helping the Soul to Ask in Prayer and the Lord 's returning it was that my frame in Prayer was my great support while under no other view than that of a disappointment Who would not in the Enjoyment of such eminent Experiences leave all things to Heaven's conduct and by entire dependance thereupon with continued Prayer to be interested therein spend a whole life through this Earth and that with greater success to outward Affairs less anxiety of Mind concerning them or toil of Body to obtain them and much more sweetness than when brought about and no other Agent seen therein but outward endeavour of our selves strength of Friends or the like upon whom our Trust was wholly fixed Seventeenthly To advance an entire general dependance upon God he has marvellously discovered immediateness of his Hand in matters of very small moment and that both as a return to Prayer concerning them and as a token of special favour in them and tho' they have been such things as are reputed small yet they have been accompanied with as immediateness of Providence as clear a discovery of Divine Love as in weighty concerns designing thereby to bring me into a Dependance upon him for all things the meanest not being excluded from the compass of his Providence Many instances of this Experience I could bring forth in respect of my going from one place to another of Servants coming to and going from me yea reaching even to irrational Creatures that I have made use of I have had Experience that according to my strength in Petitioning Divine Favour concerning them and according to the time of neglecting or beginning and continuing this seriousness so successfulness or unsuccessfulness has occurr'd At this very time of God's training me into a Dependance upon himself a powerful bearing home of Scriptures upon my Soul of Promise for instruction conduct and comfort has been a remarkable mean in God's Hand and marvellously blessed with that great end of removing Diffidence and setling Reliance upon himself The First whereof by way of Promise was that of the 6th Chapter of Matthew vers 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Of this Promise till now I could never feel the powerful Efficacy and apply it to my self for comfort At my first entrance upon Business in the world this Scripture suddenly seized my Thoughts without any previous Meditation thereupon or Reading it with remark in the Scriptures but with such constancy of impression that in diversions in real Business at home and abroad this Scripture would still rush upon my Thoughts Its suddenness and constancy of impression its suitableness to my circumstances at that time going to engage in the affairs of the world where Temptations to omit or intermit the seeking Grace in my Soul might abound and its correspondency to Experiences that afterward occurred in my concerns on Earth as means of sounding Grace in my Soul made me hope it was bore upon me by a Divine Power A further confirmation and certainty whereof I have had not only from its continuance even till this day in my Thoughts with the powerful influence of making me seek God first in all my concerns and to trust in him as the God that hears Prayers but also from the marvellous method of God in my life enabling me to use endeavours and giving his success to them chiefly when I am most diligent to advance his Kingdom of Grace in my Soul never could I say that I was diligent and spiritual in the means of Reading Prayer and the like for the advancement of Grace in my Soul but even then all outward Comforts flow'd in upon me with great sweetness in their Enjoyments and then Divine Providence has afforded me opportunities and success in my Temporal Affairs yea I never observ'd my self at any time disquieted or under the probable or real danger of the withdrawings of these Comforts but I always found my self out of the road of spirituality of frame and of the diligent use of means of Grace To the enjoyment of this Experience I am still held and do hope while I live shall be able to apply it as a special Gift from God's Divine and Merciful Hand Yea with the Psalmist in the 19th Psalm and 49th v. I have often found it a prevailing argument in Prayer That the Lord would remember the word to his servant upon which he had caus'd him to hope it was indeed his own work suddenly to bring and fix it upon my Thoughts at a time when I was altogether ignorant of such a thing as a spiritual Power accompanying any Scripture-Truth and a beginning only to be sensible of a special conduct of Providence round me but now it appears more plainly his work by its confirmation from the outward Providences and inward workings of Christ's Spirit in my Soul since till which confirmation I did not experimentally understand it and blessed be his Name I am at quiet that he will continue my hope therein till the Kingdom of Grace has had its Perfection here and I passed into his everlasting Kingdom of Glory where Promises shall be no more of use but there shall be the perfect Fruition of our rich Priviledges both of Grace and Glory A Second Scripture bore home upon my Soul with instruction and as a mean of advancing Reliance upon God more than upon means was That Scripture in Daniel wherein it is said That by the blessing of God the pulse nourished him that he looked fairer and fatter than these Children fed with King's meat One evening in Reading this passage of God's Word I found my Mind deeply imprest with Meditations upon it in an extraordinary manner tho' many a time I had read the same Scripture and with great seriousness but without such depth of Thought This made me hope at the time that it was the work of Christ's Spirit it proving afterwards a rule of action and a means of advancing greater Reliance upon a Divine Blessing to food than ever formerly I had observ'd in my self The Thoughts seizing me at the time were First The great weight to be laid upon a Divine Blessing for the nourishment of our Bodies as well as upon the food Eat Secondly The great seriousness that is necessary in
earth it attains not to know so much but upon strict observation in the continued use of Means more and more Mysteries would be imparted No wonder the Apostle's different Christians grown from others by a capacity of discerning good and evil and that by the habitual use of observation and experiencing God's ways with the Soul if therefore you find others express what you have not felt accuse not them but censure your own neglect especially if upon the review of your life you have not been acting with an exact observation and improvement of knowledge of God in his Word outward Providences and inward workings of his Spirit I think it not amiss to subjoin to this Reproof and Advice an Experience concerning my self and the very Saint thus reproached I once being importuned to assist in a particular matter a more than ordinary willingness to it seiz'd me in the undertaking whereof a successful Issue occur'd and great benefit to the person that importuned whose Poverty and Goodness I had no discovery of though greatly known to others but was under a surprizing force to refuse their grateful Acknowledgment And hapning about an hour after to unbosom my self to this Saint amongst other things I imparted this Passage with a wondring at the meaning of such a surprizing willingness to the action and unwillingness to accept of reward though Duty oblig'd me to it when no other Motives to the contrary appear'd To which he gravely answer'd You shall receive it as a reward of this action sixty-fold by God's imparting himself to your Soul this day but be not concern'd though a disquiet follow it before you sleep This then in my account run like Prophecy especially after its fulfilling our Discourse being about eleven in the forenoon About two in the afternoon in a Chamber all alone such enlargement of Soul such sudden ravishing and heavenly affections with an unexpressible delight seiz'd me with amazement in my self to observe the first part of his Assertion made out But about nine at night there came a Penny-post Letter to my hands from one whose Malice prompts them with false Accusations to asperse me and that express'd in such bitterness that it greatly did disquiet me and going immediately with it to him he with Modesty and Concern repli'd That the Devil had been at the penning thereof His foresight of these two such different Effects consequential to this action was neither by Prophecy nor Revelation but purely from his strict and constant observation of God's ways round himself in the like case and though then it seemed strange to me hardly being able to forbear from thinking of something prophetical in it yet since by observation I may say often or never falls out a voluntary lively Act of Charity without the least of self and much of God in it but great spirituality of frame has followed and after this one disquiet or other has fallen out yea often I may say always as yet at the time of this fellowship an apprehension of some succeeding disquiet is in my thoughts Those that have reproach'd his Writings would have been as ready to have reproach'd this Experience of him as Melancholy unless they had been strict observers of God's ways with themselves I do believe that every Christian had not met my passage with the same return and that none but those who by use are made discerning of good and evil had been capable of what I find he was Be humbled therefore lazy Christians and think of others better than your selves and not of your selves above what you are by aspersing each other You encourage those who know nothing of inward Religion to keep out from trying its Enjoyments and others to mock at Experimental Christianity Alas Is so much of the depth of God's Ways to be known by years Observation and this time made use of to rack Thoughts to explicate Events notionally altho' the Psalmist himself found it too painful for him to explicate the inequality of Providence without God's Word yet our Land abounds with such Deists who to destroy the Being or necessity of Revealed Religion or of a Holy Spirit as helps in the use of means exalt Reason alone and expunge all things incomprehensible by it as Fancy or Chimera as well as the Christian treated of expunge Injoyments obtain'd beyond others in a constant and close walking with God as Enthusiastical Some I am apt to believe affect this way of high Pretensions to Rationality when at the same time they are greatly distant from its Exercise either to obtain a Character of being Learn'd or a liking in Society by Rhetorical Conversation or to draw Followers after their Notions and they to appear as Primate thereof You that have rational Souls improve your Reason more for God's Service and your own Interest the more Rational the more capable of improvement with the blessed helps of God's Divine Word Providence and Spirit Place your Knowledge in Divine Things upon his Word as the foundation and learn to establish it by the observation of his Providence and Spirit confirming it to you and then I dare say there will need neither Rhetorick nor Division to keep up the Christian Religion in its Power amongst its Professors You are too weak to comprehend the Mysteries of the Gospel put forth never such acuteness of Judgment without the powerful Influences of Christ's Spirit opening the Eyes of your Understanding and fixing your Faith therein by your Experiencing its Truth in your Souls such clear knowledge and establishment appears as resists all the fanciful and erroneous Notions of others yea such unspotted Conversations as may engage others to your way and to be Members of Christ's Mystical Body here on Earth I have with great concern known some Christians weak in Learning but strong in the knowledge of Experimental Religion clearly understanding an Event of Providence yea rejoycing in an Event outwardly afflicting when a Learned Wit could neither comprehend the meaning of the one nor free himself from disquiet under the other How often may you hear some unacquainted with Experimental Religion but greatly knowing in Notional Divinity mightily applauding a Sermon itching their Ears with a Rhetorical style and Philosophical arguing And others mean in Learning and worldly Reputation but well acquainted with inward Religion esteeming this same Sermon an empty noise and the Preacher a feeder of his Flock with airy Notions that have neither solidity nor comfort in their relish and will lead them in no other Path than that of a meer Notional Knowledge as a Bate to be catch'd by the Errors of this Age. If Ministers and People were more close to the use of means whereby God's Truths might be Experimentally felt both would see far less need of adjoyning the high flight of Notions in Pulpits or in Conversation for its establishment in their Souls I think it in our day a more advantageous Sermon and a more necessary Book that leads Christians to the use of such
means by which much of God's Spirit may be communicated to their Souls and thereby God's Word experienc'd as certain and their Reliance upon it as the foundation of their Faith evidently to themselves and others brought forth Such I say seem more necessary than the Sermon or Book inlarging upon a Divine Truth with such fine Oratorical and Philosophical Style as may itch the Ear of the Christian with establishment of its own Notions in Religious Theory and of the illiterate with an opinion of the Preacher or Writer's great and learned Gifts indangering both through obtain'd applause not only of Pride but of keeping Reason out of its due place and if this has not brought forth many unneccessary Heats at this day I am greatly mistaken Reason is that noble Principle distinguishing us from all other inferiour Creatures and tho' Corrupted yet capable of being restor'd to greater Perfection and Stability than when Man was Created at first perfect but capable of falling God has made provision of suitable helps to advance and to bring forth this Perfection but the Pride of Corrupted Man is such that as at first it prompted him to affect an Equality with God so now it prompts him to the vain imagination of himself as sufficient without Divine helps to regain his perfect State and obtain by his own knowledge the understanding of all necessary Divine Truths and by his own strength the performance of all necessary Duties And if this has not brought forth the undervaluing of Reveal'd Religion by the Deists the undervaluing of Christ by the Socinians and the undervaluing of a Divine Spirit exposing him as no help neither his Spiritual Influences as strength to work out our Salvation by I am as much mistaken Experimental Religion cuts off all these difficulties For the more a Christian observes of himself in his experienced failures the less room and lower station self-strength obtains in his Affections the more he finds of Christ's Spirit unexpectedly and powerfully bearing home Scripture-Truths to his personal experience formerly unacquainted with tho' often Notionally heard of the lower esteem Reason must have as by its self incapable rightly to understand Gospel Mysteries And tho' in our day we have some so openly confident as in Print to tell us That nothing is Mysterious in the Gospel against God's own Word the Seals of Martyrdom and against the Experience of all the Saints of the Earth endeavouring thereby to act Factorship for Satan by whose pleasing suggestion of Mans Reason and Strength in himself to be relied on without any other help to believe or to do what is necessary for the obtaining Heaven hereafter and a secure undisturb'd quiet of Mind here I must believe that that Creature has never yet been under any other discovery of Gospel-Truth than what was the effect of notional Knowledge and that continuing in the same State he can hardly expect to be a Member of that Triumphant Society whose Eternity will be taken up in the Admiration and the Praise of that Mysterious method of Redeeming Man from a state of Corruption and Misery to a state of Perfection and Glory above the prospect whereof we only now enjoy darkly through a Glass and yet the views thereof that upon this Earth we sometimes experimentally have are known by all Experiencing Christians both to be Mysterious far above Nature's foresight or enjoyment through it self and rendring the Creature unexpressible astonishment in its approach upon the Soul though the Protestant Nations abound with such Errors yet they neither derogate from God and his Word or afford darkness to Christian Professors who have experienc'd the reality of both upon their Souls but expose themselves to them as Christians certainly ignorant of God and his Word whatever fine Notional Flourishes in Print or Discourse they express and also draw forth Christians pity towards them and help Believers to advance their praising God who has made them in the use of means to differ from others Experimental Religion makes us become as little Children and esteem our selves so low as to lay all our depraved Faculties at God's Footstool and using them not alone by way of Reliance but with the help of God's Divine Spirit in the use of means We have for many years enjoyed so much of the Gospel but alas in Notion only that I have stood in a maze to hear the Discourse of some illiterate People concerning the Notions of Christianity and to see their Zeal debating their Preachers Notions with that hear as if they had been throwing Fire-Balls one to another till Fire has been kindled amongst Assemblies of Professors when at the same time experimental Religion has never been called in as a help to unloose their difficulties At the time of hearing some such differences my own Experience in Christianity has made me discover that either their Debates could be resolv'd in various Words or that if means made use of by God as helps to the People or Preachers Soul for their experiencing of Divine Mysteries had been more prest upon the People with that enlargement which their own Experience might have afforded no such Debates would have risen and People and Preachers should be better known in our day and whether God's Honour the establishment of his Truth self-applause or outward Interest were at the foundation of such hot Zeal When once in the use of means a Christian finds the evidences of Sanctification he shall then make the current of his Zeal run towards further evidence of its reality and further growth in it advising others not to debate whether Justification or Sanctification precede whether certain Conditions must precede qualifying to be united to Christ or union to Christ before any thing of Holiness in our nature appear but to walk in the use of God's means and in them to obtain the application of Christ and all his Priviledges by the help of his blessed Spirit and so both Conditions themselves and a renew'd State by your Union to Christ may sensibly appear at the same time By the observation of the means thus blessed and the steps of advancement in this newness of Nature is brought forth not only establishment to themselves but a capacity of instructing and comfirming others upon surer ground than that of stretch of Wit and Notional Theory Our Debates concerning Free-Grace and Works carry along with them too much of Self and too little of Divine Experience and I 'm sure too much of fiery Constitution the experienc'd Christian finds enough in himself to keep both in their just Bounds according to Scripture Rule and imagines the Debates unneccessary and bringing forth of no other Fruit than that of Faction Dishonouring God and exposing Christianity as uncertain to those that are ignorant thereof The Experiencing Christian finds that the more of the Free-Grace of God in Christ appear in his Experience the more love to God is kindled in his Soul the more of true Sanctified Love the greater desire he
that trust in thee before the sons of men either by hiding them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man or keeping them secretly from the strife of Tongues and what establishment hereto the personal experience of an observing Christian would give is more fit for filling up of sheets than a few lines Mark the 10th Chapter ver 29. None has left house c. for my sake but he shall even in this life receive an hundred fold and eternal life in the world to come Is it not the personal experience of Christians to be disappointed of the designed and desired issue of an endeavour to introduce the success of another and better the constant observation whereof must needs bring the Soul to a greater measure of patience under a disappointment to a sooner and better sight of the Providence than the other who though under his disappointment is strengthned to rely by Divine influence perhaps in return to Prayer petitioning strength to honour God therein yet he must needs be under more sinking Fears through the course of the passages of such disappointments the other Christian having these supporting helps the reflecting upon God's former ways of the same kind observ'd and upon record with the instructing and establishing effects such ways had then upon the Soul and the better event brought forth in a way of Providence than what was expected together with Prayer put up and strengthning supplies of grace received however dark this may seem to the Notional Christian yet this I hope will receive many Seals in its perusal by observing Christians Is it not the experience of Christians to be led into a pinch of extremity on purpose to see the more of God and the less of means in an event and to stir up the greater reliance upon God with means and the less upon means without his Divine Hand accompanying How often are lawful diligent using of means disappointed to Christians till they be brought to serious and often Prayer for Heaven's conduct and blessing thereto The observation whereof keeps the Soul safe between means and a Divine Hand affording each his due place without presumption towards God or Idolatry towards the other if therefore the Christian Observer is enabled to discover good and evil where others not so used thereto are uncapable even in these more common Experiences how far less capable are some Christians to discover more secret and adorable methods of God observ'd by others Either they were never experienced by them through the long intermissions of fellowship with God or at least never observ'd reflected upon or improven by them to the end of further knowledge of God in the depth There is therefore not only in the sight and enjoyment of spiritual things a difference between Christians and meer Professors but even between Christian and Christian and that without either a Gift of Prophecy or an extraordinary Gift of Discerning but with such Gifts as are communicated to the Soul in the use of common means only with this difference that these means are more continually and in greater heavenliness perform'd and the enjoyments of God therein either for comfort or instruction more carefully remarkt in all its Circumstances and laid up in record for this very end of improvement the greater knowledge of Christianity and of God's more extraordinary steps therein Thou therefore O Christian that has necessary occasion of business and of lawful diversion greatly admixt with thy Religious Duties as a mean of hindering such fellowship with God as those do enjoy whose life does run in a stream of actual heavenly mindedness reproach not I say these other Christians with melancholy Fancy or Enthusiasm either of which bear their distinct marks from that knowledge of God obtain'd in the constant use of means and by Divine fellowship therein in continual and serious recesses of Soul with God but bemoan your Circumstances thus involv'd in the necessary occasions of the world when compar'd with some others and do more with the opportunities you have than ever yet you have done and that according to the means treated of and blessed by God to others In the hope therefore of passing from common Providences in your observation to special ones round your self yea to the steps and workings of Christ's Spirit in your Soul exactly correspondent to his Word affording you such knowledge thereof as expose the Contentions and Errors of the Earth to your Pity and keep you safe from the discouraging Blemishes and infectious Failures of Christians In hope I say of this let me press you to this great and experienced Duty of Observation and I am hopeful your expectations will not fail but a mysterious discovery of the reality of his Divine Word shall be unfolded such as could never have been forethought or foreseen by you It is not to be supposed that ever the most refin'd Wit on earth could have made up such a System of Mystery as is contained in the Scriptures and is experimentally felt in the Soul Is it supposable that the Wits of our Age who pretend their Reason as their Guide could foresee contrive or rightly comprehend the Work of Christ's Spirit in renewing the Soul Or is it supposable that the most rational man on earth unacquainted with experimental Christianity can imagine the work of Christ's Spirit in raising the Soul to a heavenly Frame and the state of the Soul at that time Is it imaginable that by the will and power of man such a Frame by which we are admitted to fellowship with the Godhead can be retained without a Divine Influence when though that this Divine Work is declar'd in the Scripture yet with their reason and light of God's Word without Divine Spiritual influences obtain'd by God's common means they are not able to comprehend it and therefore is left unknown to some of them and mockt at by others of them yea the Word of God made the occasion of Errors on earth the prevention of all which comes in by the right and continued use of these means God commonly affords the sensible experience of himself according to his Divine Records Some Christians excel one another in Faith of Reliance hereby that if there be no assurance going along yet their Hope is without shock and that in the use of Reflection upon former Experiences which in the 5th chap. of the Romans and the 5th and 6th ver is said to bring forth hope that maketh not ashamed and certainly found to do so in the Experiences of such Christians if their Seals were given forth to the World Let us imagine the judgment of any meer Professor under never so rational a Conviction of any one Scripture-truth yet without the power of Christ's Spirit bearing it home as Truth upon the Soul you will hardly see as the certain effect of this saving Faith therein either commenced or so sixt but that it may give way to a succeeding Error if it have a fairer appearance to his
mock at such words as too familiar and inconsistent with the greatness of that Majesty we approach unto in Prayer not knowing experimentally the Mercy of God as well as his Power the Wisdom of God in expressing his own Mysterious Truths by Words inferiour to the Mysteries but proportioned to our weaknesses as well as the condescending steps of God with a poor guilty Creature in first planting Grace in the Soul and I am confident not knowing experimentally what a heavenly frame in Prayer is for then when the Soul is in a ravishing spiritual posture words of this kind are forc'd to drop from their Mouths and there is more satisfaction in the Soul and greater acceptance with God from a familiar style to him influenc'd by his Divine Spirit than from a whole Prayer of another where distance appears either from the words fine style therein or length of Prayer but unspiritually perform'd Yea from this very principle of Education there are some who have an outward sincerity and from thence an inward satisfaction in their Profession with a resting in their knowledge and practice as all the Religion to be obtain'd with good hopes of their state for Heaven without ever doubting either their profession or security for Heaven There are others under the power of Education alone who tho' unspiritual in their Minds in Prayer yet upon any failure of their set times are really uneasie and dissatisfied especially the breach of their continued custom And as it is for these my concern is greatly put forth so it is with those that many times greatest difficulty is to reclaim It is well known how deeply are fixt the Impressions of Education and that nothing but a spiritual working of Christ's Spirit is able to blot them out or to impress them a-new upon which very account Childrens Education with true Notions of the Christian Religion can never enough pay their Obligation to such Instructors it being an excellent preparation for renewing the practical impressions of the same Notions upon their Hearts as well as upon their Brains In a word Religion is between God and the Soul and according to the heavenliness or un-heavenliness of the Temper and frame of the Soul so a thought word or action in Duties or out of Duties is either acceptable or unacceptable to God Before therefore you leave off the Errors of Education to a right notion and performance of Prayer you are first of all to be convinced of what is Erroneous and then of what is True and Right First Therefore a laying too great a weight upon a particular place for the performance of Prayer is an error of Education I know there are some so strictly addicted to Prayer in a Church that neither earliness nor lateness will obstruct their Custom herein as if it were a circumstance material in God's account It is not against Prayer in a Church that I set my self to oppose but the great stress some from Education are pleas'd to lay upon it I do believe that if others were as painful to bring their Minds into a serious posture as these are by retrenching their natural Rest in a morning retiring themselves from Diversion through a day or at an evening to have their Bodies in the Church at the times Prayer would be better known and much more pursued in its right performance than at this day For my own part if my Soul be right with God it is neither to House or Church I affix my self but the place I can be most private in either from the diverting sight of others or their discomposing noise and if I have opportunity of choice no place is more grateful to me than that in which I have had greatest enjoyments of God in Prayer Privacy I greatly value from an unwillingness to expose my self to the Censure of Shew and Applause or a Prayer acceptably performed to the mocking of some finding it impossible to restrain my self from more than ordinary flood of words and from a more than ordinary audible voice when the LORD is pleas'd to raise my affections above my ordinary frame The reason of chusing a place favour'd with God's presence to my Soul is that the memorial thereof may excite the greater endeavour after it and former Experiences may be one of my pleading Arguments for it This is abundantly suitable to the example of David who would often say Psal 42.6 That he remembred the hill Hermon-Missar and other places which were remarkable to him from the rich entertainment of God's presence in them from all which I drive only thither to make you know how little the consideration of Place Prayer is performed in avails in God's account or comforts the Christian's Soul within whatever customary performance or outward applause afford Privacy is recommended from Christ's own example who would retire to the Fields on that very account yea part then from his own Disciples and constant Companions And truly the more serious a Soul is the more willing to be from all and to center all his thoughts upon his dear God If therefore any labour under this failure of Education let me advise against it unless on the account of better performance of Prayer and because I hope there are some who on this very account give strict example thereof let me advise all from censuring such an Action the doing of it for a greater meetness for fellowship with God in Prayer makes it a Circumstance congruous to a well-perform'd Duty but the Circumstance of pleading for it in Conversation and fixing it upon others from a liking of the way argues it rather an Error of Education than a Circumstance experienc'd in themselves helping forward their seriousness with God for though to some it may have this advantage yet to my self it could not have the seeing of any before or with me in any performance of private Prayer proving many times visible hindrances Secondly A laying too great weight upon punctual keeping of set-times to pray is an Error of Education There are many in no other state of Christianity than that of its meer Profession and outward Acts of Worship who with marvellous strictness perform the set-times of Morning and Evening-Prayer purely from the Rule of Education but still at a loss what communion and fellowship with God in Prayer means I accuse not their praying at set-times but Professors confidence therein as evidence of their religious state or their Prayers right performance David's set-times of Prayer are instanced in his Book of Psalms and I hope there is not any experiencing Christian on earth at this day who slights their appointed seasons of private Prayer to supplicate the Lord's conduct from morning till night and from evening to morning yea by observation of continued Mercies through the day are kept in a posture of Soul fitted to ejaculate Praise and by observation of continual Wants fitted to ejaculate Supplication throughout the whole course of the day and so kept in obedience to that Divine
slenderer a foundation than God's own Word in Psal 10.17 according to the expression of the Psalmist Thou wilt prepare their heart to wit the hearts of the humble and of God's own Children and thou wilt cause thine ear to hear Is there any thing more plain or more fully experienc'd by observing Christians than that when God enclines his Ear to hear a Petition from a Child of his own that he prepares his heart aforehand to ask it He prepares the heart to ask by the influence of his Divine Spirit one part of whose work is said to be to help our infirmities and that infirmity of our not knowing what or how to ask by making intercession with us in Prayer for what God is to return as well as exciting us to ask what we should not have otherways done though really standing in need thereof As the spirit of a man knows the things of a man so the Spirit of God knows the mind of God and is it to be imagin'd that this Spirit knowing the mind of God concerning what he will return will raise a Christian's Soul to a heavenliness of frame and thereby prepare his heart to ask of God for an Event when he knows God will not return it A spiritual heavenly frame is not the fruit of Self-power otherwise a Christian would be capable of getting and retaining it when and as long as he pleas'd which from its sweetness in enjoyment would be desir'd for ever but it is the certain operation of the Divine Spirit influencing a Christian's Soul commonly in the use of means and extraordinarily without means for the end of letting the Soul experience the sweetness of nearness of fellowship with and access to God in Prayer as a foretaste and earnest of more intimate and lasting communion with him in Heaven and for the end of helping him to pray in such a manner as may be acceptable to God and return'd by him It is as yea more insupposable that the Spirit of God would help the Soul to plead with God for a thing contrary to his secret Will not a Secret to him as to help him to ask any thing contrary to his revealed Word and Will where his assistance is given to ask it is assuredly for the obtaining of what he knows God will bestow however the return be deferred and and Christians lose its sight by the intermission of observing of passages between the addressing God and God's giving in a return thereto Preparation to ask of God in Prayer obtain'd through the sensible comforting Influences of his Divine Spirit and preparations to petition the Lord obtain'd without any other sensible help than outward endeavour in the use of means are easily distinguished in their present sense and after-effects the one is sensibly the intercession of a Divine Spirit with the blessed effect of inward delight resignation of mind and return to the Prayer the other has nothing else apparent besides the Creature 's own strength without that inward comfort or return following it but the latter is often the means of obtaining the first I have often found and to be sure other observing Christians the same that when I have design'd and desir'd to lay a Petition before God in as serious a manner as possibly I could my preparatory means has been to bring my Mind in composure and my Body in gravity of gesture to read a Scripture again and again to fix my Thoughts with seriousness and to meditate upon the All-seeing Eye of God to whom I was to address on purpose to over-awe me from levity of mind in my Prayer But when I have been actually ingag'd in the Prayer thus prepared for the desir'd and design'd petition has never been mention'd either my Thoughts have been carry'd upon somewhat else undesign'd which I have with earnest affections and submission prayed for and has sensibly had it afterward return'd or if the desir'd and design'd petition has been exprest it has been in such a manner tho' sincere and unfeign'd yet sensibly a Prayer perform'd with Self preparation and greatly wanting heavenly supplies to enliven and spiritualize it and as spiritual and heavenly strength preparing to ask was with-held so was the return Yea besides the experience of correspondency of heavenliness of frame in Prayer the true comforting preparation of Christ's Spirit to that Prayer's return I hope I may sincerely witness that in the enjoyment of such a heavenly frame in Prayer words of Praise concerning the thing I design'd to petition for without the least fore-knowledge of the mercy obtain'd has been given in Who observes not these things at the time and lays them not up in their Diary till the Explicatory passage appear such lose the comfort of such enjoyments the Knowledge of God's deep ways and their Capacity of witnessing for him as others Some real sincere Christians may here perhaps advise and wisely too to have a care lest by God's changing this method observ'd as certain the ill consequence of darkness and Faith's staggering occur not leading to misdoubt both former experiences and the new methods of experience God gives in To which I say that any mistake concerning the Spirit of Christ interceding for any one thing in Prayer and the return thereof as certain is not because that ever it otherways has been or shall fall out God's word being true and the certain Foundation of this experience but by reason of some failure on the Christian's part thorough laziness in observation Again This Objection is evidence to me that thou O Christian art not in the way of Observation otherwise thou wouldest have known from experience God's infinite condescention to be such as to suit his Dispensations according to the State of the Soul in its Conversion and in its progress in Christianity To a new Convert the experiences of God are so marvellous and plain either in their Nature or by God's continuing to repeat them till the Christian understands them plainly If he apprehend not one he may others if he cannot see somewhat of a Divine Power in a common serious frame brought forth by the Soul 's own strength and sincere endeavour yet he may in a rais'd ravishing heavenly delightful frame coming suddenly and that again and again with returns to the latter and not to the first that the one may be the more distinguisht from the other and the ardently sought after The Leper weak in Faith had his Prayer immediately return'd but the Woman in Canaan great in Faith had the return of her petition deferred with the intermixture of many trying passages Thus by Observation of God's ways with my self I have found that my Prayers sincerely perform'd when first sensible of an inward change were immediately return'd that I had not time to lose sight of God and his condescending love in them But so soon as the Faith of the certainty of access to God in Prayer was established in me and Faith of reliance upon him was stronger then
his returns of such Prayers were greatly defer'd And as a condescending help to prevent desponding anxiety quiet of mind concerning the return to be defer'd always accompanied my supplication and the Lord left me not to the Dominion of corrupt nature or of Satan's suggestion Or if either had assaulted me the Divine strength raising me to an actual resignation to his Will at the time fortified me against them Again An Observing Christian sees so much of the depth of Wisdom in God's ways concerning them that it must be strange if he presum'd to confine God to one method when the variousness yea the contrariness of methods to bring about the same end is one great evidence of the Excellency of his Wisdom An observing Believer knows that God tries the strength of Christians various ways in order to their Establishment Not because he is ignorant of the exact measure of their growth in Christianity but from love to them that by their faithful continuance in Prayer deferr'd as to its return the Graces of the Spirit may be excited and exercised both to the honour of God and their inward Comfort For what can be more reviving than to find corruptions weaken'd and grace strengthened which is the sweet issue of many grievous afflictions that are not removed upon our renewed Petitions till we are purified by them Hereafter may some say Since spirituality in Prayer is the Spirit of God's gift and it unexpectedly comes we may lay by Prayer with our own Endeavours and wait as the Quakers say till the Spirit move and then to Pray To this I say Spirituality in Prayer is the alone Gift of Christ's Spirit and it comes when he pleases but by sincere Prayer we obtain this blessed Gift It is not the usual way of God to bestow it in more excellent degrees without our sincere asking it in the humble sense of our need of it The Quakers acknowledge as from converse with some of them I have heard they have an innate Spirit by which they are acted and according to its inward striving so they move in Duties I know in us all there is that innate Principle of Corruption which reigning makes our faculties of Soul and members of Body move as it listeth to evil but a principle of Grace that inspires us with new life in our Duties comes from Heaven and is obtain'd in the use of his Ordinances This does not in the least obscure the Glory of God's Free-Grace for his Spirit excites us to Duties and supplies us with strength to perform them but it directs us to seek God in the ways appointed that we may find him That therefore Christians may rightly judge of this heavenly frame and intercession of the Divine Spirit preparing them to ask from God what he is to return Errors herein proceeding either from mistaking the work of Christ's Spirit helping them to ask or from applying the return to what they ought not I shall give the following marks accompanying such a Prayer and that observ'd from my own personal Experience First A heighth of spiritual Thoughts and Affections throughout in Prayer or in one particular Petition thereof far beyond common seriousness which tho' by words it be almost inexplicable so as to make the unexperiencing Christian comprehend it yet it is easily perceiv'd by the experiencing Christian In this rais'd frame of the Soul either in solemn or ejaculatory Prayer there is such heavenliness of Thought as if the Soul were already in Heaven's Enjoyment And for the comfort of young Observers I must acknowledge that my spirituality of frame in Prayer the real preparation of Christ's Spirit to ask and certainly evidential of God's return was at first observ'd to be much less in degree tho' the same in nature than now it is one degree of experimental Knowledge preparing for farther degrees This brings to my Thoughts the gradual rise of Christians meetness for Heaven by Christ's Spirit in his common way of working by the use of means of which observing Christians are sweetly sensible Secondly Another mark of Christ's Spirit 's intercession in Prayer as token of God's acceptance thereof and his return thereto is when with an Address so spiritually perform'd goes along a comfortable quiet of mind concerning the Event tho' the praying-Believer be encompast with Afflictions A calm composure of mind in our trust upon the gracious Will and Wisdom of God to dispose of all things concerning us is our Duty but 't is the Gift and Work of the Holy Spirit who is stiled the Comforter We must observe in the Word of God what he Commands us to do he promises to enable us to do He Commands us That Sin should not reign in our mortal bodies and he has Promised That Sin shall not have dominion over us In like manner God Commands us To be careful for nothing but by supplication to lay our requests before God And certainly freedom from anxiety and disquiet and a full possession of the Soul in Patience concerning any thing in commending our Affairs to God by Prayer is the product of the Divine Spirit and not from the natural temper and stayedness of the Mind And where the Christian actually experiences it in Prayer he may safely conclude himself influenc'd by a Divine Spirit not only in raising his frame to ask but leaving it at God's footstool as to the Event and that as presaging of God's returning favour and introductive of his blessing The Promise of God is the foundation of this Trust Psal 37.5 Commit thy way unto the Lord and he shall bring it to pass The habit of Resignation may be in the Soul but 't is drawn forth into exercise by the renewed influences of the Spirit Thirdly You may judge of the intercession of Christ's Spirit in your Souls in addressing God by Prayer by the passages of Providence that bring about the return of this Prayer In the Observation whereof the speciality of a Divine Hand in the Providences bringing the return about is as discoverable as immediateness of a Divine Spirit influencing the Soul to ask with calm and resign'd submission as to the Event The observing Christians do often see these two joyned together and each illustrating one another where others do not or hardly are at the pains to observe the one or the other And what the Psalmist in the first ver of the 116th Psal in the fifth ver of the 118th Psalm and in the 121st Psalm finds that Prayers return observ'd and the passages of Providence discovering or bringing it about is powerful in bringing his Soul to the actual exercise of love to Reliance upon Admiration and Praise of God I love the Lord because he has heard my supplication I called to the Lord and he heard me therefore shall I see my desire and he is now my strength and my song I will praise thee for thou hast heard me and art become my salvation The unobserving Christian therefore of Prayer's return and of
then to be sure a real Christian seriously performing a Prayer with a natural affecting way of expression may make a near resemblance to a heavenly Frame like unto that sensible preparation given in by a Divine Spirit to ask what God is to return Now to judge either of these Prayers seemingly put up in spirituality as really spiritual and to expect from thence the health and life of your Friend upon that sure foundation of God's Word telling us that he prepares the Christian to ask when he is to encline his ear and yet the person does not recover may greatly tend to make them mistake when they judge it from the ignorance of their minds and the delusion of Satan a failure in God's truth rather than a failure in themselves in judging that Prayer spiritual and presaging a gracious return which really bore no evidence of either But if you observe the Prayer of a Minister or other Christian in publick put up spiritually and judge it as God's Token given you for good You that are concern'd and really acquainted with experimental Christianity do not only find a sense and impression at the time of this Prayer as its being God's evidence of good but retiring your selves to your private Prayer you 'll find the same Frame upon your own Soul as evidence both of God's returning it and of the other's performing it spiritually and that your judgement therefore was right when a return is in God's design though his Spirit be one yet he influences many at the same time to ask the same thing of God Thus there are more Witnesses to his mercy and its greatness appears the more and he is the more honoured thereby Both Cautions I 'll endeavour to explain by a late Instance of my own Experience amongst many I could produce which for Brevity I must omit that thereby you may know how many times a Christian is help'd by a Divine Spirit to ask of God for a Friend's Recovery and yet unless continued thorough the whole Illness the Recovery has not issu'd thereby you may also know the right judging of another's spiritual frame in prayer The Instance is concerning a Friend of my own for whom the Lord was in a solemn manner addrest to by some Ministers who set apart some time for this very purpose they seemingly were wonderfully carri'd out in Prayer answerable to which there was a present Relief appear'd but went off soon after and continued not Throughout the course of their Illness I found in my self in Prayer a perfect driness as to the frame of my mind and words in Prayer for them which made me continually express my self with fear of their death excepting one Prayer in an evening in my Closet which upon discourse with other Friends I found to be the very exact time of others being united to pray and the time of there being some hopes of which joint and solemn Prayer I knew nothing at the time of my own observation which I had set down in my Diary till afterward in discourse with Friends and I had set it down with special Remark but excepting that one Prayer I found them lost in all my other Petitions and proclaim'd my fears when their Physicians had great hopes and their symptoms had some abatement with the wondring of Friends what could be my reason moving me to think this If any should ask me after what has been said concerning Spirituality in Prayer and its answerableness to return Whether Returns from God are only to such Petitions breath'd upon sensibly by Christ's Spirit and raising them to greater heavenliness of thought and word than commonly or if extended to Prayers perform'd with no other sensible seriousness than the sincere endeavour of a Christian's self Before the Answer I shall first lay down the difference between strengthning and comforting Influences of Christ's Spirit David had his withdrawings of comfortable Influences to such a degree and to such a time as made him cry out Psal 77.7 Is his mercy clean gone will he be favourable no more And in ver 8. Does his promise fail for evermore And yet at the same time though insensible then thereof he was under the strengthning Divine Influences of Christ's Spirit for when David comes to himself after he had said I have cleans'd my heart in vain and returning thence to the enjoyment of comforting Influences he says in ver 22 23. Though I was so foolish and carried my self as a beast before thee nevertheless thou hast holden me up by my right hand From whence I draw a Caution to dejected Christians Not to think that tho' God withdraw his comforting breathings formerly experienced and that for holy ends of Reproof for not better entertaining them formerly enjoy'd or of excitation to prize them more when they return and to keep closer and stricter and more continually to the use of means to obtain and to retain them that therefore they have lost the grace they had once the sensible evidence of by Christ's comforting Influences and so give Satan opportunity of following this thought with his suggestion of Apostacy and danger of damnation and the being no advantage in the further use of means whereas the continuance therein is evidence of spiritual supporting power and of God's holding them up from falling however unsensible they are of his comforting Influences Secondly There is a difference between spiritual Influences strengthning the Soul to the continued use of sincere Prayer and between spiritual Influences making the other comfortably sensible and carrying the Soul out thereby with more fervency and joy than at other times Thirdly That shorter Intermissions of Duties and sincere endeavours therein contribute greatly to the drawing down of continued comfortable Influences and that the more close we walk with God in the use of means the more clear comfortable delightful enjoyments occur I answer therefore first That a Return is certain to that Prayer that is directed by the Holy Spirit to God for obtaining a blessing for us and an evidence of this direction is by the heavenly frame of mind and more than ordinary freedom of utterance in the Duty Secondly That often God returns a Prayer perform'd with spiritual Influences though they are without that delightful evidence at the time of Prayer the Spirit of God exciting and strengthning the Soul to ask carries him to nothing but what is suitable to God's Word and with Resignation in the Christian's self whether this heavenliness of frame be sensible at the time of Prayer or not and therefore if God's Spirit be helping the Soul really tho' insensibly to the Christian or really and sensibly too a return certainly follows that Prayer but with this difference that under heavenliness of frame he enjoys the Comfort of the return aforehand and under strengthning influences he is not so certain of the spirituality of its performance or its acceptance with God till the return make it manifest Thirdly That such a comfortable sense of
be debated first but rather let your arguings succeed to your experience unless they be such Mysteries as are meerly to be credited according to Divine Revelation and uncapable of man's comprehension in this life and then in God's method of working and watering Grace you 'll obtain a full discovery of Self-insufficiency the need of a Redeemer to look to and depend upon God's revealed Word in conjunction with his Divine Spirit as your chief helps hereto An Arminian to plead his own power is like the prophane and meer Professor mocking and doubting of fellowship with God in Prayer It is the Arminian's want of Grace or at least the want of the observation of steps that has led to their Grace and its growth that keeps them still exalting of Self and it 's the others never experiencing communion with God in Prayer that make them ridicule it Put Self to the tryal Arminian whether you can in your strength work Grace try it and do not delay till a dying hour And if you find you can't then bring to the tryal another strength even that of a Divine Spirit in the use of means recorded in this applicatory part and then you 'll follow Christ's Command and become as a little Child obedient in the use of God's means to help forward the right knowledge of him and your selves and shall be enabled to get out of Self-confidence into a reliance upon a more Divine Foundation even Christ's Spirit the Gift given to the Christians in the world upon Christ's leaving the Earth and his Ascension to Heaven By Prayer and Observation therewith you will soon discover Socinianisms Falshood as it has sprung from Arminianism by so much exalting Self so the discovery of the vanity of the latter soon lays open in Christian experience the delusion of the former Let a Christian but observe the difficulty of laying aside Self-trust even after God's most establishing Experiences dethroning it and the proneness of his mind to admix Self in Duties rightly perform'd The difficulty of putting on Self-denial and of being cloath'd with that glorious Grace of Faith yea the means made use of by God to uncloath us of the one and to adorn us with the other The Observation I say of all these in a Christian will soon convince us of our insufficiency and encline us to exalt Christ as the Object of the Soul's trust and adoration for the destroying of that branch of Socinianism even the denial of the Godhead of our blessed Redeemer Besides Scripture plainness the attributing to Christ all the uncommunicable perfections of the Deity is proof against them Will all the Socinians Sophistry on earth make me disbelieve his Godhead when I have experienc'd that in the worship and adoration of Christ the Grace of God that has converted me from Sin to Holiness is then in exercise GOD is a jealous GOD and will not part with that Prerogative of Adoration no more to meer man than to vain Images and yet Who are the sanctified ones in Christ who are the Persons Paul judg'd meet to write unto in his first v. of his first ch of his first Epistle to the Corinthians even such who call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord not nominally so but such a Lord as is made the object of Adoration in the Gospel Churches none else being fit Members to make up a Christian Church and all denying Christ's Godhead and this Adoration due to his Name exclude themselves from being fit matter for a Gospel Church My Adoration of Christ as God I observe most solemn and with an intire trust in him when I am in a heavenly frame of Soul in private Prayer being then certain that the exercise of Adoration to Christ is the true effect of God's Divine Spirit influencing my Soul Often in meditation in participating the Lord's Supper the admiration and adoration of Christ as God blessed for ever has been kept up with great warmth and spirituality in the Soul To the Socinians I would put this Question If ever in a private Prayer to God in participation of the Lord's Supper or upon a sick and in appearance dying Bed they experienced a heavenly ravishing frame of Soul and if they have what exercise of thought in either of these three Circumstances concerning Christ and themselves then seiz'd them I dare answer That if really influenced with a heavenly frame Arminius with honour to Self and Socinus with his disparagement of Christ were low as the dust in their Opinion then How unsuitable are those who deny Christ this Tribute on earth to reign with him in Heaven when the Mystery of the Trinity the Mystery of Redemption by God the Son and the Mystery of Conversion by God the Spirit shall be perfectly unfolded when the admiration and adoration of God for his infinitely wise and condescending Mercy in delivering man must be in frequent exercise This is the most excellent beneficial and comfortable object of a Christian's Faith Contemplation and Affection We can only see it here through a Glass darkly in the full sight is the perfection and felicity of the Saints in Glory But the serious thoughts of redeeming love in our present state fills the Soul with a Joy unspeakable and glorious God constituted man at first with all the necessary faculties of Body and Mind and with their beautiful Ornaments that man by considering the excellent Goodness of his Maker might Glorifie him and not meerly please himself in his own Perfections and the fruition of Paradise In like manner a gracious Soul is renewed to Christ's Image in Conversion not that the doing of it may be proclaim'd as his own work and Glory thereby derogated from the Godhead of Christ and his Blessed Spirit Man is made meet for Heaven by Grace growing in his Soul on Earth And does he pass that perfecting change at the day of Judgment and is he admitted to these glorious Visions in Heaven for the admiration of himself No He will know that as the Creation of Man was the product of the Counsel and Power of the Deity as it 's declared in these words Let us make man so the Conversion of man from the power of Sin to Holiness is the sole effect of the free Mercy and Power of God and for the honour of his Grace Pride first discover'd it self in our fatal fall and has continued to show it self in arrogating to our selves what is entirely due to God but the perfected Spirits of Just men know how unworthy and unprepared they were to see God in his full Glory They continually pay the humble Homage of Praise to him that sits upon the Throne whose Spirit sanctified them and to the Lamb by whose Sacrifice and Satisfaction Heaven was opened to them Can a meer man receive the Hallelujahs above and rob the Father of the Praise of the Triumphant Saints in Heaven With what faces will those who deny the Deity of Christ look upon a Redeemer glorified as
others which whether External or Internal if observed and remembred would seal to Souls the Truth of Christianity in opposition to all its Opposers There is a clear discovery of the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness in the different means that God is pleased to use for the saving of Souls all which are to be considered with Reverence and to be complied with by Obedience the end of all being our Holiness as preparatory to Eternal Happiness The first Duty or Means I would have you apply your selves to is that of observation of outward Providences this having been so effectual in me I earnestly recommend it to the serious practice of all concern'd for their salvation but that you may know in what method rightly to observe I will give its Characters in the parts I have found so advantageous to my self First You must observe all sorts of outward Providences great and more remarkable lesser and not so palpable Secondly You must observe all Circumstances that attend such Providences and set them upon Record on purpose to reflect and compare one with the other many confirming Providences have lost their favour and establishing effect as much by missing some Circumstances thereof as by forgetting of the whole By this neglect some have had misapprehensions of God and false conceits of themselves The Circumstance of time wherein that Nobleman's Son was recovered John 4.52 exactly answering the hour when Christ said unto him Thy Son liveth was the convincing-proof that the Cure was performed by Christ and consequently of the truth of his being sent from God In like manner the observation of the return of my Prayers with Success answerable to the fervency of my desires and Unsuccessfulness of Prayer when I have been cold and not duly affected in that Duty has confirmed my belief That it was from the Excitation of Christ's Spirit that enabled me to pray and from his excellent Goodness the return of my Prayer Thirdly You must observe outward Providences with improvement The Lord's design in laying passages of Providence before you is not only to view them but to see Him in them and thereby to understand his Being with the glorious Attributes of his Wisdom Power and loving-kindness to Man and that with the suitable Improvement of Eying him in all things seeking to him for guidance in Means and happy Events of all things Observation unimproved serve not God's Honour on Earth and will serve your selves no other way than by heaping up Aggravations to your Accusation before the great Judge's Tribunal for neglecting to improve his precious Talents by Reliance upon him and Glorifying his Love To excite your Observation under these three Characters I 'll lay before you the following Motives First God's own encouragement to it Psal 109.43 Whoso is wise and will observe these things they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. If in God's account Observation be Wisdom and accompanied with the blessed discovery of his loving-kindness can you blame my Friendship in pressing you to make use thereof to obtain a Wisdom to discover and baffle the falshood and errours of the Foolish though Wise in their own Eyes and to enjoy a sense of God's Divine Favour The Psalmist is giving an account of some remarkable outward Providences attending Nations Churches and particular Persons and then concludes That who is so wise to observe such things shall learn the knowledge of God and his loving kindness to their Souls If Christians of our Age had but been exact in the observation of National Church-Providences our Wisdom had more shin'd in the times of the Gospel Scriptural Fulfillings had been more clear and Errours respecting such things had less abounded than they do in our days What a little proportion of Care does the publick Men of our Age bear in recording the marvellous steps of Providences concerning the Nations and Churches of the Earth to that Care of God's publick Officers under the Old and New Testamâ—â—â— Our Civil Records abound from one year to another with all Testimonies that advance the Honour of Princes and People but where is the Record of a Divine Hand in the wonderful Works of Providence respecting Churches Nations and particular Christians for the vindicating of his Honour and the discovery of our infinite Obligations to him that his Authority may be born up on Earth and those discountenanced who refuse the Lord to reign over them What more clouds the discovery of God than the unmindfulness of Divine Providences In the room whereof the conduct of Chance the agency of natural Wit and Policy has taken place in our Observation Admiration and Dependance and God has been neglected in his Dispensations and trusting with a boasting in our selves for the bringing about Events encouraged If publick Providences concerning our Nations and Church since our late Revolution had been with all their Circumstances strictly remarkt and set upon Record there are none of us but who could own God's agency in them and make the words of the Psalmist ours They get not the land in possession by their own swords neither did their own arm save but thy right hand and thine arm and the light of thy countenance going along with them I hope tho' Marvellous and National Providences have not had place in any of our Publick Records for fixing the Faith of a Deity and his Divine Providence yet the Private Records of Particular Christians are fill'd therewith I say again His God been so visible in the outgoings of his Providence since and at the late Revolution and are we still attributing the Events that have fallen out for us to National Strength of Policy Treasure and Courage How often has God turned the most Politick Methods of the Wise to lay bare and open its Insufficiency And how has the Instruments of War adorned with Courage been swept off That from Nations so abounding therewith How few appear at this day How near is our Treasure to be exhausted by vast Expence of War and by Scarcity of Current Money Has this no Language Or has its Voice never entred the Ears and Hearts of the People of the Nations It is the black Sign to me the little Sight of God in his Providence though he has been so Visible and the little Improvement thereof by dependance upon him in the use of Means Though our Means were fewer and of less strength it should not afford me so dismal a Prospect of things to come as the disregard of God in all our Enjoyments the little dependance we shew upon God by our solemn and serious Addresses to him and by our Endeavours to please him in walking conform to his Will Did ever Error and Vice abound more in our Reformed Nations Were Christians ever more lazy than in our days spending their time in the full Excess of Riot of all those things that God in condescending Love has bestowed upon us and thereby distinguishing us from other Nations How many times does God bring private