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
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
thing desired and not to the Utterance in the Prayer Spiritually perform'd and that by as eminent a Saint as ever liv'd on Earth tho' now gone off the stage of time without the sight of its return yet died in the Faith of my seeing its return but still his Thoughts was upon what he so mightily prest for in his own desire Providentially happening to design a matter of great concern and imparting the design with some passages of Providence exciting me first thereto to this Saint then on Earth he desired some time to think upon the matter ere he return'd his Advice which I found was on purpose to lay the whole affair before the Throne of Grace by repeated Addresses thereto After which he advis'd my undertaking the design from his sense of God's laying it in my way by special conduct of Providence and from his sense of his Petition accepted for Divine Assistance in it and marvellous Effects from it from which I engag'd in the endeavour but all attempts prov'd unsuccessful In the interim of which endeavour my Thoughts in Prayer never fixt to any one Petition concerning it besides Divine conduct in the use of means and Resignation to his Divine Will this endeavour between hopes from this Prayer accepted and discouragement from the unsuccessfulness of attempt continued for many months yet still easie and with amazing Resignation to God's Will till at last such a circumstance fell out as did unalterably obstruct the matter and the return that he applied his Prayer unto notwithstanding of which amongst his last words to me on Earth long after this disappointment he utter'd this Sentence with great exercise of Faith That I should meet with a full discovery of God's design therein and that in answer to his Prayer Prayer accepted and the intimation thereof given will never want its return clearly verified from comparing his Letters and Words to the Events that have attended my life since tho' the disappointment seemed an evidence of his Prayers lost yet really has led into such things as plainly appear his Prayer's return his mistake appearing to be fixing his Spirituality in Prayer with his other evidences of its acceptation to what he so much desir'd to wit the success of an outward endeavour whereas if his Utterance had been recorded reflected upon and compared with Events that even I begun to find from God in my self and did discover to him the mistake might have been prevented In one of his Letters he expresses himself thus It is becoming me with much humble sobriety to speak as to any impression on my Spirit with respect to your business though often I dare say I have had some special assurance from the Lord of his Gracious respect to you so as I could not question the evidence whereof was so full and clear and of so great testimony yet to you hereof in the way of Providence and am at the furthest of persuasion that such a breaking up of Light shall occur as shall be matter both of Joy and farther Establishment and if after such unusual and eminent Evidences he has given of his Respect and Favour to you beyond most in this day would it be strange or grievous if in so great a concern he should take a new trial of your Love and Resignation to him by giving it entirely up to his blessed disposal I know you have settled your Reliance on his Hand in ordering the present matter who has been your God and the God of your youth hitherto In another Letter his Words were You shall see the design of the Lord in this affair however dark it at present appear with that evidence as shall tend to a higher establishment of you in his Way and Truth and clear all former dark steps the greatest experiments of Trust has been most obtain'd in the greatest extremities of his Peoples case In another Letter his Words were Tho' it is not easie to write at such a distance yet I have confidence to say That one day rarely passes without some serious remembrance of you My last acquaintance with you has been amongst the most sweet remarks of my being in England especially as to the blessed way of God round you therein you have been a further strength to my Faith I know not how that matter is with you but I hope I may adventure to say That if ever I knew converse with Heaven here I have often had yea in some special way an answer of Peace and Assurance about the Lord 's Gracious Design of Grace for you and of his further testifying the same to your Soul I hope you are gaining new ground of a nearer acquaintance with the way of the Lord by which you will find that by the greatest tryals he takes of his followers here he then designs the greater tryal of himself and his Truth Now comparing the Words of this Saint express'd concerning the difficulty I was then under to my own experience of Divine Providence round me and to the Workings of Christ's Spirit in me since that time I cannot but confirm his Sense and Faith of Prayer accepted and witness its return to my self By the very words of his Letters the current of his Petitions and seeming Assurance run upon God's witnessing his special favour to me in the way of Providence and that such breaking up of Light should occur as might establish my Faith in God which blessed be his Name has been the real effect of God's disappointing my desire and endeavour after this outward thing yea has been a mean in God's hand to discover his special Love to my self in affording me a better Mercy in its room and establishing me thereby in a Trust to God as to all things else Besides since these outward attempts since those Letters receiv'd such marvellous occurrences of Providence I have enjoyed with such inward sensible workings of a Divine Spirit informing and comforting my Soul and making progress in that rich Grace of Faith and actual reliance upon God in all things both as to Soul and Body for conduct in the use of means and events following which makes out his Prayer accepted and that his assurance was firmly founded his failure being the misapplying the Prayer thus sweetly put up to a return of what he desired and not to the return exactly answering the Utterance of his Soul when Christ's Spirit breath'd upon his Petitions to God concerning the Lord's Gracious design and testimony thereof to my Soul I have had wonderful establishment no more amazing and assured to him in his actual strength to Petition it than to me in its enjoyment by way of his Prayers return'd It is conceivable by none but those who are strict observers of God's Ways How freely Words fly out of the Mouth of a Soul under a Heavenly ravishing in Prayer How familiarly they are express'd and with what quiet of Mind as to the return that if the Soul out of this frame would desire and do all that
benefits which the Son of God purchas'd and the Spirit applies to the Souls of unfeigned Believers Is it possible that one in a violent hot Countrey unacquainted with the blowing of Wind Is it possible that one that never tasted Honey Is it possible I say that the first and latter from the description either of the blowing of the Wind or of the nature of Honey in the most perspicuous words can so well understand or so firmly believe the blowing and refreshing effects of the Wind or the nature and the sweetness of the Honey as those who have enjoy'd of the first and tasted of the latter This is a true resemblance of their condition who are void of the real inward knowledge of Religion and their slighting and disbelief of the spiritual efficacy of the Ordinances cannot weaken the Faith of Believers who have experienced the reality thereof upon their Souls but give them greater establishment and afford them matter of repeated exercise of love to him who past by some and calls others and advances them to a further reliance upon him in the due use of means for the obtaining a richer abundance of the communications of the Holy Spirit When the Errors of the prophane and meerly professing Christians endanger the staggering of any real and true Christian it is often my fear least that Christian has been too careless of his Duties and has not improved the pure motions and assistance of the Spirit within and the advantage of the external means of Grace for else he would be above the impression of the objections of carnal persons against his own feeling Is it possible that force of the most powerful Argument of the greatest Rationalist covered with the finest dress of words against the sweetness of Honey can shake the Faith of any one that has tasted thereof perhaps he cannot discover the Sophistry of the Allegation but he knows it's false like the poor Woman when oppos'd by the enemies of Truth her Faith was firm in her Saviour and she answered all Arguments with these words I cannot dispute for Christ but I can die for him A sincere Christian can say I cannot perhaps demonstrate with rational arguing the Being of the Spirit of God and his effects of renewing the Soul conforming it to Christ's Image and spiritualizing its frame in Duties but I am well assured of it against all the Infidels on earth Let what I have said move thee O prophane and meer professing Christian to the use of observation and right performance of Prayer as helps by which you may experience the reality of inward Christian Religion yea let it move you O lazy Christian who know not so much of God in the Soul and of inward Religion as is attainable by you be more serious and constant in converse with God in the use of his means that you may enjoy what others have been acquainted with The wise and serious observer of Gods dealings with his Soul who frequently reflects upon them will better understand the harmonious agreement between the revelation of God in the Scripture the workings of the Holy Spirit and the divine disposals of things in this low life than another sincere Christian who does not acquaint himself so intimately with God by a constant application of himself to him in all the ways wherein he draws near to us It is the hand of the diligent in the use of means that makes rich so is it the mind of the diligent Christian in the use of means that is fill'd with knowledge God's private Councils are not to be div'd into but what is suitable to his Word is to be sought after and may be found out It 's the trial of his Word that brings Experience and Experience brings hope and it is the not trying the Truths of God that makes so many doubtings and shakings in a Christian's Faith and so much of unsetled hope of their inheritance above I return from the lazy Christian again to the meer Professor and Prophane and beg you 'd be entreated to join the easy and advantageous Duty of Prayer to all your endeavours not contenting your selves with the cold forms of words but mixing holy affections which are the life of Prayer and observing the gracious return of Prayer when perform'd by the assistance of the Spirit of Grace This is a Priviledge provided for you and to be obtain'd by you in the use and continued use of right means the reason you miss the Divine Bounty is because you don't present your self in God's way If a Beggar expects the Alms of a Prince he will endeavour to be in the same street he passes thorough and as near him as ever is possible he will neither go to a contrary street nor to the opposite side of the same street neither will he plead his Poverty alone but express all his Wants one after another as so many Motives to move charitable Compassion All Beggars keep not to the same form of words but open their Cries differently according to the different Sore Lameness Blindness or the like wherewithal they are afflicted sensibly with Prayer is God's way wherein a poor Creature may draw near to him without hindrance of this or the other diversion between his Soul and his King and when a Christian is once sensible of his Wants and of the All-sufficiency and Condescention that is in God it is not Form or fine words but fervent serious pouring out the desires that moves the compassionate Father in Christ A Closet-Prayer is oftentimes the opportunity of receiving great mercies from God and is many times the setling of a disquieted mind and the change of a carnal earthly frame to a spiritual heavenly one It allays our Sorrows and gives peace under sharp Afflictions This Duty spiritually and constantly perform'd will make you happy by Experience and to resolve with the Psalmist It 's good for me to draw near to God But to discourse more particularly concerning Prayer spiritually perform'd be pleas'd to remember the many Experiences in the forepart of this Discourse concerning spirituality in Prayer as evidential of its right performance yea God's acceptance thereof and of God's returning what was askt therein I hope with an humble rejoicing I may say that since ever I begun to experience a real heavenly frame in Prayer when my Soul therein has been carri'd forth to God with high spirituality concerning any one particular Event with full quiet of mind and sensible exercise of resignation at the time concerning it a return to that Address has never as yet failed me and that when my desire has been in exercise towards any one thing that God would not bestow I found my self by the strictest observation under a constraint from this spiritual frame yea sometimes from words to utter any Petition or when words have been utter'd it has been in the same manner as when I was altogether unacquainted with inward Religion These and other Experiences are built upon no
knowledge of Divine Things but purely as the effect of natural Curiosity inducing me both to observe and to record them with great pleasure in reviewing them and finding the more I observ'd the greater and more numerous things were presented to me I became stricter in observing things of great and smaller moment While I continued in this practice a Dispensation of Providence occurr'd that induced me not to trust in my self or second Causes but by a siducial assent to the Being of a God in his full governing Power as to Persons and Things with a full desire of being interested in the favour of this Great and Omnipotent God to live in an entire dependance upon Him The Providence was as follows Being call'd to attempt a matter of great concern that many far excelling me in Age rational Judgment and natural Activity had endeavour'd though unsuccessfully to bring about I brought the Business and that in a very few days to all seeming probability of success but being obliged by a Providential Occasion to be absent and to appear where those that had try'd their endeavour to no effect did usually reside I found the progress I had already made with the prospect of perfecting the matter had so increased the esteem of my self that disparaging of those was the Game I then exercised my self withal but returning to the place where the Business was to be performed matters were altogether chang'd for the worst and upon enquiry of the time this change happen'd my custom of Observation having brought me to some more than ordinary curiosity in it I found it exactly answering the time my Lust of Pride put forth its Tyranny in my Conversation and stepping from the Floor to my Bed that very night this Suggestion suddenly and strongly darted into my Mind That by my ill return to God's Kindness affording such hopes of success in detracting from Him the Praise that was entirely due for such an eminent Providence and in not retaining an humble Sense of my own Unworthiness and Insufficiency I had provoked the Lord thus to turn the course of the Affair immediately convincing me who it was that had made me to differ from others of more promising Abilities than I and impressing my Mind with great seriousness of Thought and force to Prayer begging Pardon from Him and His further assistance in the matter with a full resolution of looking to God extolling Him and debasing my self in the success My Prayer was immediately return'd evident by the great alteration that immediately happened as a sweet Condescention of God to train a poor Creature to the Knowledge of Himself and to delight in Him but in a weeks time more being call'd to the same place as before I found the same Self-applause return This was a full conviction to me of the great need of continued supplies of Heaven after the greatest confirmations of God's Love to preserve us from forgetting his Mercies or repeating failures and correspondent to this the same unsuccessful turn happened in the affair which was so powerfully bore home upon my Soul that I could not but see God with favour in one hand and punishment in another marvellous Mercy in bringing me to the sense of my failure and the repetition of my Address to Heaven Punishment in withholding his assistance the just merit of my forgetfulness and of my repeated failure Upon Address to God by serious and sincere Prayer with unfeign'd Confession the Business turn'd again with a favourable aspect of success suitable to the Psalmist I confessed my Sin and thou forgavest the Iniquity or Punishment of my Sin And at last by his Divine Assistance attain'd a final and perfect success though between my first undertaking and this final Issue there was four turns of Providence exactly answering my Soul's posture From hence I date my first sence of inward serious thoughtfulness of passages of Divine Providence of minding God in all undertakings with an entire dependance upon him for conduct to the right use of means and for a Divine Blessing to make them successful of the certainty of access to him for this very end with a distrust of self-sufficiency all which met as it were in a moment in my Soul by the Spirit of God's bearing home this passage upon me But from the Observation of God's further method of outward Providence and inward Workings of his Spirit I have found that these were but little glimmerings of light an Eye beginning to be open'd after a sound and secure sleep God having marvellously enlightn'd my Eyes since and made me to see what before I knew only in the notion enabling me to discourse thereof but what now I hope I may say I have felt and am well assured of even the truth of an inward change upon the Soul putting it self forth with such power as to hinder Thought Words and Actions to run in the same course from the same principle or towards the same end as before but to tread according to a Rule not of self but of God's Will I could subjoin many circumstances of this Providence here related that might marvellously affect the Reader yea other Providences concerning the Lord's first exciting designs as well as his method in bringing them successfully about were it not that I am unwilling to be known to the World and that for these Reasons First That Mockers at and Unbelievers of these great things experimental Religion has made known to my Soul may not prejudice themselves by imagining show self-commendation and applause at the bottom of this design the faithful aim thereof being to bring men off their reliance upon notional Religion and their trusting to their rational conclusions as fittest means to inform them of Christianity or to their own strength as sufficient help to the right performance of Gospel Duties and to lead them to the vital part of Christianity experiences therein not to be maintain'd by notional knowledge or quarrelling Debates but by a serious and strict use of means God commonly imparts the experience of himself and his Word by The Lord has given forth great Truths to be tryed and experienced in the Christian Soul but we are not at the pains either to observe them or by mutual converse to confirm one another in the truth of them A Second Reason is Lest it prove Temptation to my self exciting a corrupt Principle within to puffing up whereas great Humility is the companion of such Experiences when first felt in the Soul and ought to be preserv'd in imparting them to others lest we our selves be exalted above measure or ingage others to think of us above what we are Again this change wrought in my Soul is the Lord 's own doing let it therefore in its declaration glorifie him by Confirming some and Instructing others without any knowledge of my self therein but with full discovery of the actings of a Divine Spirit This Seriousness brought forth by the means of so remarkable an outward Providence in the Hand
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-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
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
become effectual and if you slight a weaker Preacher under whose Instruction you are by the Designation of Providence and chuse to go to one more learned and pleasing you have not so good a Warrant to expect a Blessing partly because of your neglecting the appointed means for your spiritual Profit partly lest you be in danger to limit God to afford his Blessing to the Preaching of one and not of another whereas his working is as glorious if not more with a weak instrument than by a strong and it is the plain serious Sermon that I have many times found most pleasing to my self however other sorts have ravished my Senses at the time The Method I used that my hearing the Word Preach'd might be profitable was and is to examine my self whether I could assent to the Truth of what I heard from my own Experience as well as the Minister's Assertion by which I was established and comforted when my private Experience was consonant to the Doctrine of a publick Preacher But when this was wanting if the Doctrine was proved from Scripture my Petitions to Heaven have been spiritually carried forth That the Truth might be sealed to my Soul by feeling its Efficacy and I have in a short time found my Desires answered by the operations of Divine Providence and of the Holy Spirit in me The right hearing of the Word consists not in a grave outward gesture or giving ear to a Sermon either upon the Fundamental Principles of Christianity to be believ'd or the practical Duties to be perform'd but you must compare your Faith and Life with the Doctrine of the Gospel and that seriously without the intermixture of wandring Thoughts and with fervent Prayer for a Divine Blessing sometimes God is pleased to give Grace more richly by a weak than by a more able instrument This reproves many who content themselves with attendance upon the Ministry of the Word and with an outward grave behaviour in Hearing but never seek after an inward frame of Heart suitable to the Word so that a serious frame of Soul as well as a grave gesture of Body a reflecting upon and comparing it with your own Experience as well as a reflecting upon and comparing it to your own Notions I recommend to all that would hear God's Word Preach'd with profit thereby Experiences of God's Method in training me to the Knowledge of right participating the Lord's Supper PRevious to which let me premise my Opinion thereof and Practice then while only under the Notional Knowledge of Christianity and the Power of Education and that in the following Parts First That by the strength of Education I believ'd the Sacrament an extraordinary Ordinance solemnly to be gone about and extraordinarily to be prepared for wonderful Communion with God being there to be enjoy'd of which I never then had felt any Experience tho' I had once partaken of it with all seriousness by the instruction and example of others and my own Thoughts of the solemnity of that Ordinance but without any other seriousness than what is wrought by a Minister's affecting Discourse and delivery of an affecting Subject but spiritual Communion with Christ without which Sacrament Communion is unprofitable and the discovery of God's love to the Soul which Holy Ministers have spoke of as more valuable than all the World all this was Mystery to me and not desired but now blessed be his Name has been Reveal'd and Experimented in my Soul by the means of Grace Secondly When I felt an inward change in my Soul and I had clearer knowledge of the Nature and End of that Ordinance my intention and manner of performance was Spiritual and the Benefits concomitant and consequent with that Ordinance were enjoy'd It 's true that Prayer was the first Duty wherein I felt a serious hearty delight and understood fellowship with God but gradually I advanc'd to the Experience of the same delight and heavenliness of frame in other Duties and amongst the rest in that Duty of the Sacrament but without that high flight of Joy as sometimes I have had in Prayer but I still imagin'd that though I had not attain'd its experience so much in that Duty yet it was to be enjoy'd therein and that God would please in due time to give me the Sense thereof Thirdly That no sooner I had the Sense of this inward change but as soon my judgment was clear as to the repetition of this Duty of the Sacrament for before neither the Reading of the Institution nor Ministers preaching thereupon were so powerful as to induce me to its often performance which frequency I once imagin'd Sinful or at least the occasion of leading to a careless Sinful performance thereof Satan like an Angel of light disturb'd my tender Conscience with this Argument against frequent Communion That I was not to partake of the Lord's Table without a Week's solemn Preparation but I was more instructed concerning my Duty by my own Call afterward for once being in great Affliction both inward and outward I resolved to go to the Lord's Supper imagining it a season in which I could best be serious and thereby better prepar'd than when the pressure of the Affliction was over And if there were any such thing to be experienc'd as the great Comforts the Saints declar'd I might then probably feel them and accordingly did partake with greater Gravity and inward Thoughtfulness than otherwise I should have been able to do but I did not feel those raised Affections nor that inward Fellowship with God or ravishing Joy that I did expect which disappointment greatly concern'd me Satan forcing home upon me this suggestion of its being an Evidence how unprepar'd I was and what an unacceptable Sacrifice I offered to God which made me consult a spiritual Friend whose Sincerity and Judgment I had in very high value His Answer was The Spirit of God is not to be limited God's ways of imparting himself is not confin'd to the time of Partaking this Ordinance but you may judge of your right Performance by your frame before and after as well as in the Duty This greatly reviv'd me and was a mean of quieting me and of keeping me in the frequent Participation of the Ordinance the Truth of his Words I have found by many Experiences Fourthly I have sometimes found great heavenliness of frame before the Partaking of the Ordinance and sometimes after it even when in the time of the Duty I have been coldly affected and without sensible Comfort Upon hearing my complaint my Friend reply'd Though God in training you to the knowledge of himself and his ways has dealt with you as a darling Child with wonderful smiling providences think it not strange if having obtain'd his end of working Faith of Reliance he change his Method and tries the Grace he has wrought in your Soul Fifthly In the mean time this Blessed Saint being at a distance from me I often pray'd O that I had fellowship with God
rational Comprehension than the other I don't therefore much wonder at the prophane or meer Professors who have no other sense of Divine Things than what is Notionally imparted and comprehended by them My greater admiration is That Christians indeed who feel the certainty of what others have but heard of Notionally and much more than can be exprest by any should not be more endeavouring the witnessing for God's Truth in Preaching Printing and Conversation and less for the setting forth of their own Parts or Notional Controversies not so material in our day where the Truth of God's Word is so much exposed and struck at A Third Motive to this Duty of Observation is That it is no hindrance to your worldly Business or lawful Pleasures but rather by fixing your Thoughts upon an adjutant to your ordinary means even a Divine Hand and Blessing you may conform to his Will and receive the reward of such a Duty The Experience of Christians discover that a laying aside anxiety of Mind and hurry of Body and a laying the matter before God with the diligent use of means occuring in their way obtains more business better success and greater Peace and Comfort both in the way of obtaining it and its after-enjoyment than when they ey'd nothing else besides natural Contrivances which when mightily made use of is apt to lead a Man beyond true sincere Uprightness and their diligent lawful Industry unless for some special end of cutting down a Corruption or for some differences of the temper of the Mind God's Method differs with the Soul but whatever difference be in his Method it will end in the same delight easie endeavour and discovery of Mystery I add nothing more to this Motive being it belongs also to the other means to be mentioned which tho' commonly talkt of yet not so Experimentally treated of nor Practised in such a manner as bring in Knowledge of God and themselves or afford that inward Comfort that might be attained thereby Let therefore your observation be general as to all the steps of God's Providences round your Bodies and Soul and you will see God in all and may be brought to rely upon him for all and have discovered such a Mysterious Work as the implanting and growing of Grace in your Souls yea you may be led to more than ordinary fellowship with the Godhead with the discovery of such steps as even other Christians have never been admitted to or have let slip in their reflection and improvement of and thereby be made more capable of witnessing for God than others and better judges of meetness for Heaven than otherwise you should have been and all this without hindering your lawful Business but rather with less anxiety of Mind and hurry of Body yea with greater success and more inward comfort without confining you from Pleasure unless it run to an extream either of being Sin it self or the occasion endangering you to Sin The Second mean you are desir'd to be in the use of to bring you into the knowledge of Experimental Religâ—on and thereby the certainty of God's Word and of his Ways with the Soul against Errors abroad and Darkness within is that of Prayer In this very Duty did I first understand the meaning of Fellowship and Communion with God of Divine Influences Spiritual Emanations spirituality and heavenliness of Frame which are words mockt at by the Prophane in our days and was unintelligible to my self while only under the instruction and power of Education and must be incomprehensible to all others under the meer profession of Christianity let their outward Behaviour be never so innocent and their Duties never so gravely perform'd to the obtaining a name on Earth While I was under the power of Education I seldom miss'd my set times of Prayer with as grave a gesture as now at this day and my concern us'd to be more for neglect of Prayer than for not performing it aright but after the Eying of God in all things by the mean of observation of outward Providences I began to think that if I would have God's favour acting and shining in any passage concerning me I ought to ask it and in asking by Prayer to do it with a real design and desire of obtaining it First of all I found a seriousness therein like unto the sincerity and unwanderings of one Man's speaking to another to obtain any favour but soon after I was carried beyond this with an awful Sense of the Majesty of God who behov'd to be of great Might to bring forth all Things and to act in all Things so visibly as I had observ'd and with such height of sincerity and heavenliness of Mind that my Thoughts darted upwards as with Wings the same time my Words were exprest and that with such pleasure of Mind as I had never observed before in Prayer all my delight formerly having been that I performed and not miss'd my times of Prayer but according to my usual time and way had the satisfaction of doing it and so from this went on as I have described in the Experiences concerning Prayer I know there are many prophane Creatures whose Education perhaps has not been Religious and so this Duty of Prayer has never been enforced upon them They live without the sight of God in his common Providences and therefore are the less mov'd to call upon him by Prayer for his favour in them unless in a pinch of extremity where by the very light of Nature and the power of their Conscience they are forced to lift up a Petition to him but perhaps without any apprehension of God at the time or concern of seeing their request brought forth in a discovery of him in passages of Providence bringing it about or in a way of return to that Petition their concern chiefly running upon the Deliverance whatever way it come But alas there are others amongst whom I was and for whom I am now under great concern and for whose sake I have so particularly exprest the steps of going off from formality in Prayer to its spiritual and right performance and from my Soul I wish have and shall beg of God that what I am to say concerning Prayer might influence their Minds with a sense of their State and a desire to be out of it in the right use of these few means They are such who have had Religious Education who profess the Christian Religion even in a stricter way than others who perform all outward acts of Worship with outward Gravity who are free from known Vice and still from no other Principle than either that of Parents instruction and example fear of offending them or of reproach from others but void of inward seriousness of Mind in the Service of God yea in hearing Ministers or Christians express in Duty or out of Duty Communion with God Divine Emanations and the like apprehend the Words without any inward sense of their meaning and as little desire after it or
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
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
best preparation for preaching and that according to his frame in Prayer in the Lord's-day morning such was the frame of his heart in preaching I have my self found that according to the holy exercise of my affections in my Closet-Prayer such has been my enjoyment of God in publick Ordinances and especially in receiving the Sacrament The Professors of serious Religion but especially Ministers are more in the view of the world and more obvious to Censure therefore they should be very regular in their Conversations and watchful to prevent reproach upon Religion If a Divine Spirit once meet you in the use of these three means you will find that whereas you have formerly enjoyed the good things of this world without thankful thoughts of the bestower of them and of his rich mercy distinguishing you from others in a lower condition and without serious consideration that they are Talents committed to your trust to be improved for his honour and for which a strict account must be given you will by the observation of God's general and special Providence acknowledge him to be the Fountain of all your blessings and depend upon his condescending care of you in the use of due means and employ his benefits for his glory a sweet effect of observation You that pray'd because by Parents you were instructed commanded and had their example to move you to it will find that now you pray in obedience to God's Command as the blessed mean of acquaintance and fellowship with him and that if you express your self with never so free and learned utterance you are uneasy unless the frame of your minds has been serious and your affections heavenly and spiritual and you have some hope that he is pleased with your performance and has evidenced his acceptance There are not only many who are not at the pains to use means to come to such a comfortable knowledge but who will hardly observe whether ever they enjoyed the return of such a Prayer unless the return has come in soon after or in such a remarkable way that they could not but see it was a return to that Prayer by reason of which negligence God is sometimes pleased to defer a desired return but at last in compassion to his Children gives a remarkable Answer that deeply affects them and is for their great advantage You that read the Scriptures because your Parents led you into the road of a Chapter morning or evening or for the historical part thereof or to be knowing in the Notion of it for Conversation now find that your use of it is a mean for the right knowledge of God the comprehension of his Divine Truths and as a Directory to your life and as a help to your evidences in comparing your life to it and as a preservative from infectious Errors You that heard Sermons and appear'd serious all the while for fear of Reproach or to obtain a good Name without any thoughtfulness of the matter discours'd unless to pass a judgment of the ingeniousness or dulness of the Preacher and to entertain Company with Reflections upon the matter or manner of his Preaching find now such an inward change that every Sermon is transmitted to your hearts thorough your ear producing a Reflection upon it and a comparing it with your own experience I think nothing can be more pleasing than in hearing a Minister or in reading a Chapter to be able to seal the truth of either from our experience Instead of examining the words of a Sermon as to the Rhetorick you now mind the matter it self not so much if learnedly manag'd as to consider whether you have experienced its Truths which will he a comfortable evidence to the Soul or if you have not felt its efficacy it will excite earnest Prayer to God that he would make the instruction powerful in you O how reproving is this of the Prophane who slight the constant attending to the preaching of the Word it being unknown to them when and how God may work by it upon their hearts the neglect of a Sermon may be the loss of an eternal Blessing You that before converst about Religion in the Letter and Notion speak now your own experience You that aim'd at Reputation for your knowledge in Divine Things now design Honour to God and the Confirmation of the reality of revealed Religion You that aimed at worldly Interest now you aim at the enlarging of Christ's Kingdom where greatest Sâ—ncâ—rity reigns Self applause is least valued and greatest privacy sought for unless where God may be publickly honour'd The great and solemn judgment at the last day will pass sentence of Condemnation upon many whose character on earth was not disputed and were reputed holy and will acquit those whose fellowship on earth was with God and yet traduced as Hypocrites You that before ript open the Faults of others either from a corrupt Principle of reproaching inherent in the very nature of some more than others or from a desire of raising your Reputation by the depressing others you 'll compassionately bear with the infirmities of others knowing your own frailty You who before affected only such Professors as were of your own Opinion will now extend your Charity to all who believe the great Truths of the Gospel and live accordingly Can the World imagine otherwise but that those who press hard after strictness of Conversation by avoiding all liberty that may be an occasion to Sin have not the same natural corrupted Inclinations and Principles as others but they are cleansed and changed by power from above A rational Principle produces a rational Action A sensitive Principle produces a sensitive Action A corrupted Principle produces a corrupted Action A gracious Principle produces a gracious Action according therefore to the dominion of the inward Principle so the outward Action is or at least the Inclination towards it The Soul formerly under a Principle of Sin was enclin'd to sin and upon the occurrence of any Object to set this a moving the Soul was acted but now under the dominion of a Principle of Grace upon the occurrence of any good Object the gracious Inclination is active and with greater pleasure than under the power of the carnal Principle Prophane persons and strangers to the life of God are utterly mistaken to think that the Actions of the spiritual life are not mixt with the sweetest and most satisfying delight The outward Acts of Religion if they are not produced from a Principle of Life are without relish and toilsom to the carnal Nature but â—lowing from an inward and real Principle they are productive of the most solid and purest pleasure in the present exercise and in the joyful reflection and are the beginnings of heavenly fruition I have thought that to represent this with the greatest illustration is of no force without a method proposed to bring it to men's Experience that Proverb reigning amongst prophane and meer Professors That seeing is believing let therefore
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
begin your Morning Duties with reading a Psalm or a Chapter by Pool's Annotations observe the Words and Sentences thereof that impress your minds most with serious advertency to them observe the thoughts that thence arise at the time if tending to explain what formerly you were ignorant of if tending to establish you in what formerly you had the knowledge of if tending to make you resolve you 'll conform to it or if tending to comfort you as having walk'd conform to it and thereby discovering your self in the reading such a Portion of Scripture Thirdly Enter upon private Prayer with a serious Acknowledgment of God's Favour in conducting you through the Night and with a sincere Supplication to him for his conduct thro' the Day by his special Providence and Spirit that from the evidence of both thorough the Day you may discover his special Favour to your souls as a comfortable evening Cordial and that by his supplies of Grace throughout the day you may be enabled to bring forth the blessed Improvement of both by the exercise of Trust in and Love to the Godhead for life and salvation Observe your frame of soul throughout this Prayer observe if it continue in the same degree of seriousness throughout the whole or vary according to the various Petitions put up Observe and record the different Frames and different Petitions Fourthly Go forth thus prepared to your lawful Business and Conversation In your Business through the day observe First The Passages of Providence that seem to bring Undertakings to your hand Secondly Observe your own Endeavour in the use of Means And Thirdly The Event of each Undertaking In your Conversation through the day observe 1. The Occasions of your Entrance into it whether Idleness Lust within Necessity or Recreation 2. The Frame of your Mind while in it whether on your watch against the evils thereof And 3. The Issue of it whether freedom from or commission of Sins But now in the evening of the day Reflection according to the Observation and Record of the day is the Duty preceding your last Closet Prayer and to be recommended to your practice Perform it in the following Parts First Reflect upon the frame of your Souls that you observ'd in the morning whether by the Duties of Reading and Prayer it was not brought to a seriousness if observ'd to be unserious or to a greater seriousness than the degree of seriousness at first observ'd yea perhaps to great Heavenliness The improvement whereof must needs be that it is good to draw near to God in the Duties he has prescrib'd and a fix'd resolution to walk therein and perhaps daily continuance may bring in daily additions of the Enjoyments of Grace and preserve the Christian in daily heavenliness of Soul as Bulwark against all the Temptations of the day with Honour to God and great inward Peace Secondly Reflect upon the passages of Providence round you through the day and First of all compare them to the parts of the Scripture you read in the morning and to the Thoughts that then most imprest your Minds to see whether or not these passages of Divine Providence afford you some discovery of the reality of that part of the Scripture thus observ'd establishing your Faith in it The improvement whereof must needs be a resolution to go on in the same Duty of reading the Scripture in the morning before the entring upon the business of the day and perhaps there will arise to your sensible Experience greater knowledge of God's Word than ever yet has been observ'd by you in the enjoyment of outward Instruction yea such establishment to its truth and reality as could not be brought forth by the strongest arguings of the most Learn'd and into which the strongest Dart of Erroneous Sophistry can never pierce enabling your Soul not only to see the Reality but even Harmony of God's Word to his Providence and Spirit Secondly Compare the Providences of the Day to your Morning-Duty of Closet-Prayer to the Petitions therein put up and to the frame of Soul you were then under that you may discover what Passages of Providence seem to be afforded you in return to Prayer and what Frame your Soul was in and what was your Utterance in that Prayer or part thereof that was return'd The improvement whereof must needs be a discovery of the Certainty of Access to God by Prayer and a Desire to be always in that Frame wherein you was when you pray'd that Prayer that is so visibly return'd It will help you to see a difference between one kind of Prayer and another between a Prayer with our own Spirit and with the Spirit of Christ between a Prayer with the Spirit of Christ enabling to ask sincerely and a Prayer with the Spirit of Christ giving the Soul the comfortable sense of it as such and discovering the Reality of a Divine Strength above our selves both bringing the Providences of the day to us and bringing forth the improvement thereof in us by a gradual advancement of relyance upon and love to the free Grace of God in Christ by whose satisfaction this once-seal'd Fountain is open'd and by whose Spirit its Waters of Spiritual Life continually flow upon us and in the use of Duties apply'd to us Thirdly Reflect upon your own way of managing Business and Conversation with others that so you may not only discover a special Providence round you but the actings of a Divine Spirit within you and that by comparing First Your Frame of Soul to the Passages of Providence laying Undertakings in your way through the day reflecting whether God was observed in bringing them about as a discovery of Divine Strength in you carrying your observation beyond the enjoyment even to God himself Secondly By comparing your Frame of Soul to your method of using Means and managing Endeavours thus providentially laid in your way not only whether God was regarded therein laying Providences in your way or helping you to observe him but whether your concern run out chiefly upon doing Duty neither designing ill ends nor endeavouring to bring about any purpose in the use of ill means but regarding Duty to him in all Thirdly Compare your Frame of Soul to the Events of such Undertakings thus providentially laid in your way and thus faithfully managed by you if they are according to expectation or better than expectation Reflect whether exercise of the Grace of Love and Faith were not and ought not to be brought forth by such a Discovery and a fix'd resolution to keep on in the same lawful use of means with a trust to Divine Supply for Events as full evidence of the working of Christ's Spirit in your Soul and of your being under his Spiritual Conduct In Conversation with others 1. Reflect upon your Entrance to it whether its occasions were Necessity and innocent Recreation with a previous Address for Divine Conduct in it 2. Reflect upon your Carriage in it thus prepared the Temptations