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
left without excuse for not improving that light and being obedient to it How much more inexcusable shall they be who have the light of Life shining upon them do not believe the Supernatural Truths revealed by it and will rather charge the Doctrines of the Gospel with Impossibility than acknowledge the narrowness of their understandings Converse with some real Christians in a way of Experience is greatly laid aside feasting discoursing the common affairs of the Nation the recommendation of Self-notions in Religion and the disparaging of others are put in the room of such Conference that the serious Christian putting in sentences of experimental Religion is immediately repulsed with the pleasing though lazy Excuse of Experiences being too nice and dangerous to be talk'd of which perhaps is found so when either triflingly observed or biassed with the vicious design of applause and mutual instruction and comfort out of the Soul's aim Printing therefore I have made choice of It s commonness and unsucccssfulness in the hands of the most Learned and most Holy of God's Children had greatly discourag'd me if God's special method of discovering Himself and his Word to my Soul and that in so short a while had not put me under a greater obligation than ordinary to witness for him when so many bear false witness against his Attributes and Revealed Will. And therein I design not to debate the Reality of Inward Religion being come blessed be his Name to full establishment and assurance thereof but to tell you That Christianity is somewhat else than an outward Profession more powerful in its dominion than the by-ends of Applause outward Interest or the strength of Education and never to be understood by corrupt Reason alone without the help of Divine Revelation and a Divine Spirit and to convince hereof I design not sensible demonstration but first of all to give you a Narrative of some Mysteries experienc'd I formerly was unacquainted with as Evidences of an inward change and of the life of Religion to be between God and the Soul my outward Conversation while under the power of Education having been in great measure as unblameable in appearance as now 2. To tell you the Means made effectual to enlighten my dark mind to understand the reality of Divine Spiritual Mysteries that so you walking in the same road may meet with the same knowledge of God and his Word as true and then you 'll bid adieu to all your spreading Errors and find them rather confirmation to Christianity than shaking to your Faith Resemblance being generally a Companion to Reality you 'll be chang'd from co-operating with Satan to the pleasing of him and your own inward Lust to the working together with God pleasing of him and the obtaining Salvation to your Souls Farewell Page 137. after Line 3. add what here follows A second Argument to persuade to the Duty of Observation is That it is introductory to greater matter of Observation 'T is known to all observing Christians That the more they have observed the greater things have been brought to their view and lesser Providences remark'd have led to greater the smallest step a Christian makes toward God it 's greatly encouraged by him and he will enable us to further Progress in his ways How evident is this from Christ's words to Nathanael Believest thou because I said I saw thee under the fig-tree thou shalt see greater things heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man By the observation of outward Providences you will see God in the Blessings he bestows Jacob when he met his Brother Esau Gen. 33.10 says with a Rapture of Affection I have seen thy face as tho I had seen the face of God This at first view looks almost like Blasphemy but in Esau's reconciled face to him he saw the Face Presence and Favour of God the principal Object was not so much Esau's reconciliation to him as the Favour and Hand of God in bringing it about this raised his Spirit to such an Exclamation Such a sight of God in the going forth of his Divine Providence necessarily supposes its Observation Is it therefore possible to observe means probable of bringing forth such designs but made unsuccessful The contrivances of the Wise brought to other ends than they purposed The evil Craftiness of others to their Dishonour and Ruin when design'd for their Honour and Preferment Yea means in appearance tending to hurt bringing forth great good Is it possible I say to observe these things and not to discover another Power above Human Policy to contrive or Human Strength to effectuate Even the Sovereign Power of an Infinite God who many times determines Events contrary to mens designs but still for the bringing forth his own THE Private Christian's Witness for CHRISTIANITY c. THE following Discourse I divide into Two Parts The First Contains an Historical Account of my self under no other Religion than that of Education with the outward Providences and inward Workings of a Divine Spirit changing me from thence to a sensible feeling of a more inward powerful Principle than that of Education opening a door of Knowledge of God of Divine Mysteries of my own State before and of my present State thus Inlightened The Second Contains an Application thereof to the Prophane and meer Professor or unto the real though lazy Christian First I begin with the Narrative and take this Account of my self under no other power of Christianity than the effect of Religious Education One Born within the Pale of the Church instructed in the knowledge of the True Principles of the Christian Religion and enabled to discourse of them with the Character of knowing the Things of God tho' but Notionally then Trained up with the continued Example of performing all the Duties of Hearing Reading and Praying with that powerful influence that publick or private Devotion were seldom neglected but not diligent and serious in the perusal of the Scriptures Besides all this under the advantage of Religious Conversation and Holy Practice was so powerfully impressing that in the course of my Life never one single act of the common Vices of Drinking Swearing or Uncleanness tainted my Conversation Yea the impression continued so strong as after my departure from under this strictness of instruction and example still the same exactness in Duties and Conversation remain'd tho' Youthful Temptations surrounded me God's restraining Grace was my preservative and my natural desire to be in Business was a means of preventing the impression of Temptations yet still I was in the dark as to the saving knowledge of True Christianity or the inward power of Grace sensibly acting in the Soul my natural disposition inclining me more to Observation than to much Talk in Conversation led me not only to observe the Discourse and Actions of others but even to remark the Events attending my Life with Reflections thereupon without any regard to it as Duty or productive of the
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
Christians yea Nations and Churches to great imminent Dangers before he pours out his Smiles on purpose to make us sensible of that regard of God we ought to have in his Providences round us of our Duty to cry unto him in Publick and Closet-Addresses And if these were the Effects of our Troubles at this day if we were brought to far greater Pinches of Extremity than we are or can be at I should not doubt but to behold the Returns of Providential Smiles upon our outward things and spiritual Influences upon our Souls with Riches and inward Peace amongst Christians yet in our Land It was but this Summer when God providentially by the great and continued Rains threatned Scarcity of Bread and in merciful Condescention suffer'd it to fall out when a Fast was appointed to be kept for Success to our KING that at the same time by the Rains visible before us we might join in Prayers to Goâ— for the one as well as the other otherwise we might perhaps have been brought nearer to an Extremity Before we had publickly â—ought God on that account an additional stâ—p 〈…〉 the other was in God's 〈…〉 Rains immediately as 〈…〉 very Evening of the 〈…〉 weather By 〈…〉 thus with us 〈…〉 see God in his Pâ—oviâ—â—â—â—â—◠〈…〉 in the use of 〈…〉 such 〈…〉 the following 〈…〉 for not going 〈…〉 we may know what that blessed Duty of Dependance upon God means and may taste of its blessed fruits both upon Souls and Bodies In this discovery of a Divine Hand in the out-going of Pâ—ovidences a fair reproof arises First To the Prophane who reject the impression of a Divine Providence and will not observe his ways of it lest they be brought to a Sense of the just Power above and be under terrour for despising his Laws that are not pleasing to the Carnal Appetites Secondly To the meer Professor and lazy Christian who would limit God in his Providence to matters of great moment and not extend it to all events tho' the Scripture as well as Christian Experience bears sufficient Testimony thereto The Scripture tells us Matthew 10.30 Luk. 12.7 That the very hairs of our heads are all numbred and that consequently his Divine Providence influenceth the most minute things by upholding and ordering the world If this be true as to a general Providence over the whole Earth How is it much more clear as to a special Providence respecting his own Children in their Pilgrimage and Warfare here below even then that as it 's said by our Saviour Luk 21.18 One hair of his Disciples heads should not perish Christian Experience confirms this Truth That in the most mean Events God's over-ruling Hand is greatly discover'd and Prayers put up for small matters are return'd with such full discovery of him in the bringing them about that the observation thereof afford greater inward Comfort in the enjoyment of the outward benefit were this more firmly rooted in the Hearts of professing Christians we should have less talk of Fortune and Chance and less Trust to Humane Endeavours distinct from a Divine Influence Secondly By the Observation of outward Providences you may not only discover God therein but even from thence be led to a Dependance upon and a Trust to him and that for matters of great moment and also for your smallest concern on Earth you will say with the Psalmist Thy right hand saved us and as in the 6th verse I will therefore not trust in bow and as in the 8th verse I will boast in God all the day long and praise his name for ever You wont with the Prophane confine the acknowledgment of God your Address to him and Reliance upon him to pinches of extremity when Evils seem nigh at hand forcing the Creature by the very light of Nature to cry out for help from God or to desire those they have formerly mockt at as Religious to supplicate Heaven to withhold the Evil or that God would have Mercy upon them in it You wont with the meer Professor express only your trust to God's over-ruling Providence in Words censuring those that deny it and yet live as without the sense of a God therein by doing Evil privately without considering his All-seeing Eye or endeavour to obtain things desired in the use of ill means without considering his over-ruling Power in the bringing forth of all Events You wont with the lazy Christian limit his governing-hand but clearly know the extension of his Power towards all things determining small Events in the lawful use of means as well as greater and that God's conduct of his Children in their small concerns as much honours his condescending Goodness as his regard of them in their most difficult concerns glorifies his Power and Godhead The exact Observers of his special Providence find as truly his Compassionate Care in answering their Requests for smaller things as in the greatest concerns of their Life Yea that when matteas of small moment has been manag'd in the use of means with Dependance and Resignation to him they have then had both a better Event than if the whole strength of humane Power and Policy had been trusted to or ill means made use of for its obtaining And that the honouring of God so faithfully in the diligent use of means and true Reliance upon him for the Event of a small concern has been encourag'd by God's laying a greater matter in their way and greatly Honouring them therein It is therefore your Duty to trust God in all circumstances afflicting or smiling in your Souls and in small as well as greater things that concern our Temporal State and give up the least concern of your life to his conduct address him for his Guidance in it and depend upon him for the Events This is to be recommended to all To the Prophane who mind not God in the goings forth of his Providence and to the meer Professor who acknowledge him in Word but in Action deny his over-ruling Power and even to the lazy Christian who minds not God in matters of small concern and gives not God the same Tribute of real Reliance for such things as for matters of weighty concern and this many times causes a slight and formal performance of our Duties to God which is a dishonouring of God as truly as the more visible Sins of those who are Strangers to the Covenant Thirdly By the observation of outward Providences and of God therein with a reliance upon him you are in the way of obtaining a discovery of the inward workings of Christ's Spirit in the Soul an enjoyment making you sensible of what formerly you could not give credit to though exactly describ'd in his Word and making you bless his Name that he ever put it in your thoughts to practise that excellent and greatly neglected Duty of observation that is the promise of Christ To him that hath shall be given The conscientious regard of external Providences will lead us to a discovery of greater
Religion I do really acknowledge that from reading a Chapter with Mr. Pool's Annotations concerning a point I have had more clear knowledge and confirmation than by reading Controversial Books And I do believe it one of the most common failures of Youth under Religious Education not reading the Scriptures with Annotations which greatly fixes the Thoughts upon ones self and God's Divine Rule if conform unto it either in Heart or Life Be advised therefore to begin your knowledge of Spiritual Things right and not to end where you should have begun and to read but one Chapter with Annotations and Observation rather than many slightly remarking that part of Scripture your Thoughts at the time of reading mostly fix to and observe the method of Providence afterward appearing and perhaps you may discover its correspondency to the matter remarkt either as Instruction or Comfort Secondly I advise grown Professors who busie themselves with Controversies and with Books Eloquently written or of high Notions but still are without an affectionate vital knowledge of Divine Truths and in danger of being infected with this or the other new-sprung Error I say to such That I am afraid the advice given to younger Persons has not been follow'd by them I therefore earnestly exhort them to read the Scriptures with a design to be enlightned and sanctified by them and with the assistance of a sound Expositor that their imperfect and unsetled Conceptions of Divine Things may be rectified and strongly imprest within them and the power of them may be visible in their lives If you cannot enjoy full measure of time once a day do it by parts Many sit in their Shops waiting for their Customers and Reading of Books of no value or thinking upon what they can give no account of afterward that have great opportunity of using this method Many might detract from their great time spent in Dressings and Visitings and thereby might have more leisure for this profitable and â—ounding work I am hopeful if this method was once in use there might be an excellent foundation laid for your Knowledge of God the Lawgiver and of your own Loyalty and Duty to him in Heart and Life The delight the Soul would taste in Reading the Word would cause us to disrelish all other Books tho' never so pleasing to the carnal Fancy and Desires that govern the unrenewed part of Mankind I have often thought upon the fancy so delighted with variety and have pitied some such who would be taken with every new thing but did not Experimentally know the varieties of things in the Scriptures greatly alluring worth the reading and the contemplating and the varieties of impressions affecting the mind in reading the same Scripture at various times But I have observ'd the better the Duty is the more instruction and comfort abound therein inward corruption and Satan keeps the Soul the more backward from it And let any experiencing Christian reflect upon the days of their Ignorance and the Beginnings of their spiritual Knowledge they 'll find When Hearing and Prayer has been practised by them yet serious Reading was greatly neglected especially with an Expositor A Duty establishing and comforting a Christian is the Duty Satan loses most by to Read matter indifferent overcomes neither Satan nor Corruption but Scripture-Revelation discovers both in their natural Colours and a way to escape the Tyranny of either I remember the neglect of Reading the Scripture while only under the power of Religious Education kept me in darkness and security for not bringing the false hopes of the goodness of my spiritual State to the Touch I presum'd that I was in a safe condition but by serious Reading the Scripture I had a true discovery of God and my self and I delighted in the discovery and the blessed means of it That which before was so unpleasant to the corrupt Nature was sweeter than the Honey-Comb This is the usual Reward that is joyn'd with our Obedience to the Divine Command Of searching the Scriptures I am afraid the neglect of this Duty keeps not only prophane and meer professing Christians from a change to a state of real Christianity but even real Christians in a careless neglect of their Conversations The serious Reading a Chapter in the morning would so fix the matter upon the Christian's Thoughts that now and then he would be reflecting whether he has stept aside from Conformity to what he had Read in the morning and would make him watchful against Temptations that surrounded him lest he be surprised by them How sad is the carelesness even of real Christians with respect to the inward frame of their Souls and their outward Conversation which I do believe may in some measure proceed from the neglect or at least the unserious performance of this Duty and the not considering that God sees them in their Companies in their Families in their Closets and in their Hearts and their neglect of serious yielding themselves to the conduct of the Holy Spirit thorough the day I remember a passage I heard of a Minister who had neglected his serious morning-Prayer before his going forth upon that Sacred Work of Preaching and after Reading his Text was stopt that he could go on no further and another was forc'd to supply in his room and upon review found that his neglect of Praying for Divine Assistance and dependance upon it was the cause why he was so deserted If Christians were more concerned to have their morning Duties strictly perform'd their Conversations would be strict and spiritual thorough the day they would not disparage their Profession and dishonour God by so many blemishes in their Actions they would not so harden the prophane and meer titular Christians in their sinful state whereas Prayer joyn'd with the Reading the Word in the morning is a blessed means to maintain our Communion with God in all the business and lawful refreshments of the day If innocent Recreations by fixing our thoughts upon them or by reason of the length of time we are in them lessen our seriousness we should be less frequent and shorter in them let the Conversation be never so innocent and the Company never so dear they must not deprive us of communion with Heaven we must so use the world as we may enjoy God I think visiting of Friends a Duty as well as diversion but prolonged to a day or an afternoon meddling in others affairs censuring some and commending others perhaps without reason is grieving to a spiritual-minded Christian unless where he may either do or receive some spiritual good The serious exercise of our minds upon spiritual things and discourse of them preserves the sacred fire burning in our breasts Spiritual Conversation is as rare amongst Christians as it 's profitable it 's the beginning of Heaven and reduces friendship to the state of Paradise But we are so sadly declin'd that unless he is a person of eminent holiness and gravity that interposes divine discourse in Conversation
feeling in the Soul be believing The days have been when in all the outward parts of God's Worship I have made a specious show but from no other principle than that of Education being altogether ignorant of any inward Comfort in Duties and without longing after it imagining it to be more talkt of than really enjoy'd This cannot have been my case alone but I dare say the case of many professing Christians who have had Religious Education and therefore my method has been not only to show the evidences of a Change but the steps of God's way thereto and the few easie means made use of by my self and successfully blessed by the Divine Spirit And if this be not the fruit of my labour to bring you to the use of these means that you may lay your self in the way of receiving Divine Influences my Experience will make but small impression but if the Lord accompany your sincere endeavour in these few means believe me the internal sweetness of inward Religion of fellowship with God in Prayer of Reading the Scriptures with improvement of observing God's Dispensations with Reliance upon him for all things will so affect you that you will need no other motive to persevere in the use of means and you will abstain from all carnal Diversions that alienate the Heart from Communion with God The preserving a spiritual frame in the Soul every day keeps us watchful lest Temptations should break in and Corruptions break out This affords us a foretaste of Heaven and an assurance of it who can doubt of the Hell that is reveal'd in Scripture who feels the tormenting fire of guilt and extends his Fears to Eternity These are the beginnings of Sorrow Who can doubt of the Heaven reveal'd in the Gospel who has felt in his Soul a Joy unspeakable and glorious and differing from the Joy in Heaven only in the degree and the manner of Divine Fruition I do believe the Conceptions of prophane stupid Sinners concerning spiritual Comfort in the Soul and concerning inward Agonies for Sin are as doubtful as they are of the reality of Heaven and Hell in the future State Oh! Therefore let not Christians be discouraged by the Atheism the Infidelity and Wickedness of this Age but let them pray and labour to obtain a more full experimental sense of things reveal'd by the Word of God which will be a powerful preservative from the Errors and Vices of the infectious World and will make them admire Divine Grace that distinguishes them from others and will make them compassionate those who are careless of things that concern their precious and immortal Souls And to preserve a spiritual frame in its liveliness and vigour let those be our chosen and intimate Friends in whom the Image of God shines who partake of a Divine Nature that declares it self in spiritual Communion where we may be confirm'd and comforted in the serious practice of Godliness and prepared for the Joy that flows from the Divine presence above to the blessed Celestial Society Besides these three means of right Observation right Prayer and right Reading of the Scriptures there are other means of God's own appointment such as the Hearing of God's Word the Participation of the Lord's Supper and Communion with Saints but I have confin'd my self to these three upon the following Accounts First Because Observation was the means of my own sensible Conversion and the other two the special means of further growth in Grace Secondly By reason of the Christian's tendency to the right and continued performance of the other means when excited and allured by the Enjoyments that attend the right performance of those three Thirdly That my invitation to the prophane and meer professing Christian may meet the sooner with successful acceptance the apprehension of the difficulty and of the burthen of real Christianity as if it were inconsistent with natural pleasant enjoyments frights many from the acceptance of the Gospel and Obedience to it the falshood whereof I have endeavoured to shew in that spiritual Religion allows a modest temperate use of sensitive Pleasures and Religion when seriously practised sweetens those Duties which to Carnalists are so uneasie for when the Soul is cleans'd from sinful Affections and chang'd into the Divine likeness the suitableness between the Duties of Religion and the Soul causes the purest pleasure Since our Redeemer had reconciled God by his Meritorious Sufferings and Mediation and has obtain'd such precious privileges for all that will accept of him our present Pardon and future Glory Holiness and Happiness in perfection How can reasonable Creatures neglect the great Salvation so dearly bought and so freely offered to them in the use of so easie and few means Methinks we should hear convinc'd and alarm'd Sinners cry out What shall we do to be saved and apply themselves to the Redeemer to obtain spiritual and eternal Life by him The Pearl of Price is offered to all that sincerely accept of it To press the Duties of Christianity upon a prophane and meer professing Christian is as if Food was offered to a Dead Body to receive and digest as if the carrying of heavy Burthens were recommended in exchange with an easie quiet and pleasant course of life The prophane Creature is Dead in Sin though his Ear be open as the effect of natural Life yet his Soul is shut from the reception of spiritual Truths as the effect of a spiritual Death Now to shut up all I 'll give you my repeated Exhortation with some Reflections annexed to it respecting the foregoing Discourse Be exhorted therefore O prophane meer professor and careless Christian to walk in the use of the three means mention'd and take an estimate of your performance from the extensiveness of your observing the passages of Providence from the spirituality of your Prayer solemn or ejaculatory from the strictness of your conformity to God's Word the Rule of Obedience and you will obtain the first life of Grace and an experimental encrease of Holiness and Joy The world is blinded and secure from Lusts that darken the Mind and from tempting objects in the world that divert from the serious thoughts of the righteous God who is terrible against Rebellious Sinners Now the observing of visible Vengeance that often falls upon the wicked will strike men with the fear of God which is the first motive to fly to his Mercy Or men are blinded and secure upon the account of external profession and outward performance of Christian Duties and a notional Knowledge of the Gospel The remedy of this destructive delusion is the frequent and serious addressing to God by Prayer to obtain a living principle of Holiness that will be permanent and powerful in the Soul There are real Christians who by neglect of their Duty decline from God and disparage their Profession Let such be excited to a constant and serious use of those means whereby Grace is convey'd into our Souls If they will observe God in
THE Private Christian's WITNESS FOR Christianity In Opposition to the Notional and Erroneous Apprehensions OF THE Arminian Socinian and Deist of the AGE With the Easy and True Means leading the Prophane Meer Professor and Lazy Christian to the same Experience as Preservative against the Infection of each and against the ill Example of the Practical Blemishes in Lazy Christians Conversation LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultry 1697. THE PREFACE BY A Friend of the Author 's SINCE the Fall of Man by his Rebellious Sin he incurr'd the forfeiture of his Felicity that principally consisted in Communion with God The Divine Goodness is like a sealed Fountain all comforting Emanations are obstructed Divine Justice is a consuming Fire to all guilty and polluted Creatures The Son of God by his precious Merits and Intercession is a Mediator of Reconciliation and Communion All our Ascents to God in spiritual Duties and his Descents to us by communicating Graces and Comforts are through Christ He introduces our Persons into the Divine Presence he purifies our Services from their Defilements and Defects and presents them with acceptance to his Father Our Communion with God is managed by the Influences of the Holy Spirit into the Soul and the returns of the Soul to God by the Energy and Efficacy of the Spirit In all the parts of Divine Worship the Spirit composes the Mind with the Reverence of God's invisible and adorable Majesty He encourages our trust in his Mercy and raises our Affections from Earth to Heaven This is a difficult heighth which the carnal Nature cannot arrive to Prayer is a Duty of daily Revolution but cannot be performed in an acceptable manner without the Spirit 's Assistance The Holy Spirit is the Seal of God's Love to Believers that can never be cancell'd that distinguishes them from the unrenewed World and appropriates them to God He first works those Graces in the Soul wherein the Image of God consists and by illustrating them in the view of Conscience witnesses that they are God's Children He is therefore styled the Spirit of Adoption The Spirit ratifies the Truth of the Gospel to those who have felt his sanctifying and comsorting Operations There are some Doctrines in the Gospel of impossible discovery by the light of Reason and when reveal'd are incomprehensible Now there is such Evidence beyond all exception That the Gospel is a Divine Revelation that any Doctrine declared in it though sublime and supernatural and contrary to our carnal Prejudices and Passions justly requires our assent to it We must distinguish between the evidence of the Object and the evidence of the testimony An Object is evident by its own Light and the impression it makes immediately on the Mind Thus it discerns between Truth and Falshood between what is fair and what is fraudulent as the Eye sees the difference between the day and night The Evidence of the Testimony is when the proof of the Truth is resolved into the Veracity and Authority of God who is Infallible For he cannot be deceived nor deceive Now of the Gospel's Divine Original there are external Characters and Signs and internal Of the external Characters Miracles are the most conspicuous Of the internal the sanctifying and comforting Operations of the Spirit in the Souls of Men are most sensible and convincing For certainly humane Nature tho' assisted by Moral Counsels and Constancy could never produce such Divine Effects The Holiness and Comfort that the Spirit in Concomitancy with the Gospel works in sincere Christians produces a more clear and strong assurance of its Truth than the sight of Miracles For Holiness is an Attribute as truly Divine as Power and has a nearer Affinity with the Nature of God 't is his peculiar Glory The cleansing and changing the Heart of a Sinner the calming of the afflicted Conscience are a more eminent effect of Power than the turning of a Wilderness into a Paradise or the laying Storms and Tempests The sanctifying and comforting Virtue of the Spirit by the Word is a more inward and lasting proof than Miracles A Miracle like a sudden flash of Lightning astonishes Men at the present and causes them to consider what is proposed but when the surprize is over they may neglect their Duty But real Holiness in the heart and life like the Sun irradiates the Mind with a constant light He that believes has the witness within himself Inward Experimental Religion is perceived by the Sense of them that have it and cannot be so clearly demonstrated by Words Who can see a Taste From hence many ignorant and prophane Persons expose the Operations of the Spirit to ignominy and contempt as the dotages of Enthusiasts And Doctrinal Professors who owe their Religion to Tradition and Education and are meerly Titular Christians cannot understand and believe what the Saints really enjoy They are hardned in their Unbelief because many have father'd the bastards of their deluded fancies upon the Spirit But to shew the unreasonableness of this pretence consider It were strange that the low life of Sense has perceptive Faculties that living Creatures feel that they live and the spiritual Life more raised and excellent than the rational should not perceive it self Is it possible there should be such a Prodigy that the Soul should live the life of Holiness and Joy like a Plant without the knowledge of it Or Because many are deceived with a false Light and pleased with a Delusion does it follow that those who have vital Experience of Religion are deceived One may Dream that he is Awake but a Man that is Awake knows himself to be so The Delusion of one doth not weaken the assurance of another If it be enquir'd How shall we distinguish between the Genuine Operations of the Spirit and the Spurious and Counterfeit A clear answer may be given 1. By the light of the Spirit we may discover and know his Operations This is no vicious Circle I know I have a reasonable Soul by the light of Reason For the Understanding that discovers other objects in the direct act is the object of it self in the reflective act Thus I know that I have the Holy Spirit as a principle of Divine life acting in me by the light of the Spirit 2. It is the peculiar Character of the Spirit 's Operations they are all in Consent and Congruity with the Word of God for he is the Inditer of the Word and cannot contradict himself They make Men more Holy and Heavenly and as the Star directed the Wise-Men to Christ the light of the Spirit always directs us to him as the Fountain of Grace and Salvation And for the satisfaction of those who desire to know when the Blessings they receive are obtain'd by Prayer and are not the effects of God's general Providence I shall only desire them to consider whether their Prayers are by the Spirit 's Influence which is known by the frame of the Soul in
disappointing my diligent use of Means commonly leading to such Ends But discovering God's design yea infinite love in my own disappointments and my Meditations thereupon were thus Did the Lord strengthen me eminently after my Fit of Sickness and continually in most if not all my Addresses to Heaven since that time to ask for advance of this Reliance And has the Lord return'd this Petition by sensible Reliance upon himself never formerly acquainted with and that in a mysterious conduct of outward Providence shall I therefore bring forth this ill improvement of not working with God or of trusting God only in the enjoyments of smiling Favours when difficulties sensibly have tended to the increasing my dependance upon God or trust God only when other things are of no use or when Means producing such Events naturally or probably turn their course and prove ineffectual No that should be no less than height of Ingratitude and what my loving God has prevented by his Spirit 's accompanying his method of special outward Providence and therefore have great Reason to walk in a Road of Constant Dependance upon him crying out Oh the height and depth of the Love of God in first designing me such a mercy of Reliance in bringing it about and that in a method of outward Providence evidencing it sensibly to my self as well as really working it in the Soul by his Spirit going along with his outward Providences and in preserving this Reliance notwithstanding the Soul's unwillingness when Duty and Interest went hand in hand at the same time This very Experience is enough to answer all the ignorant Cavils of the Irreligious and the Doubtings of some Christians who with the Psalmist are perplext how to understand rightly the inequality of Divine Providence towards the prophane and the gracious Christian the first abounding in worldly Pleasure while the other appears under crossing afflicting Providences The private Christian's inward observ'd experience of God's method with himself affords knowledge of God and his Ways and strength to resist corrupt and Satanical Suggestions and peace and comfort even in the enjoyment of outward disappointments when their Friends are in concern on their very account or others in their circumstances ready to stagger as to God's favour to them and that by reason of these things which appear to the observing Christian the greatest tokens of Divine special Love For the better understanding of this I would have you consider First That a Christian renewed from original Corruption to Grace is received under a special conduct of God's Providence without as well as his Spirit within and that greatly different from the common Providence that attend the wicked of the Earth Psal 4.3 But know that the Lord has set apart him that is Godly for himself Exod. 11.7 The outward Providence of God was so special towards the Children of Israel That the very Dogs were not to Bark at them besides to be witness to three or four private Christians imparting God's special conduct remarkt round each one of themselves one would think that the Narrative of each argued so much of Speciality as if each had been the alone beloved Child of God about whom he had spent his special loving Care whereas those round whom is the alone conduct of common Providence they can reach no higher than the general power of a great and merciful God as Creator and Preserver of all Things but not as their God and Father or their Providences attending them as the Fruits of their peculiar Interest in him through Christ and as Heirs of his Kingdom enjoying the earnest thereof in the special outward Providences and inward workings of a Divine Spirit attending their life Great loss therefore that Christian incurs who tho' under the special conduct of outward Providence yet wants the sense thereof unless in remarkable instances of it and that for want of a general observation of all the steps of God's Ways with himself from his first Conversion to a full establishment in all the Graces of God's Spirit A Christian that has been observant of God's outward and inward conduct not only witnesses a speciality of Providence regarding God's own children but he will patiently bear afflicting Dispensations that are designed to make him sensible of his neglect of God's dealings with him and of his neglect or careless performance of particular Duties and may change his nature from secure cold and lazy to spiritual heavenly and zealous and to make him more watchful and diligent in the resisting Temptations and mortifying Corruptions and in the exercise of every Grace that may preserve him from the power of the Tempter A Christian under the same special conduct of God's care but without the strict observation of it in all the steps of God's Providence has neither the knowledge nor the strength that the observing Christian has convey'd to his Soul as the true effects of so desirable a Duty but is ready to droop in his Spirit when afflicted not knowing God's design in particular tho' relying on that blessed Word That all things work together for good to them that love God yet missing God's particular design in the present want of his Soul the present Mercy thereby to be bestowed he becomes in danger of Satan's tempting him to Despondency of a Melancholly carriage in Religion and of passing his Pilgrimage State under Clouds Secondly That since God's own Children are under the special conduct of Providence then they alone must best judge of God's Wise procedure and witness for God that what the carnal World is apt to charge against God upon the account of the present Afflictions of his Children is from Ignorance For Afflictions are the certain Evidences of his Wisdom and Love as a Father and a Physician to purge them from Sin to make them more holy and heavenly on Earth and to make them more prepared to reign with him above Tho' those who are only led by sense see not Good in Afflictions yet sincere Believers who from constant observation and by the help of a Divine Spirit have improved Afflictions they are ready to comply with God's End so soon as it appears and earnestly pray for and rejoyce in the hope of a blessed Issue If Christians were serious in searching out their Sins before or in the time of Afflictions and how defective they are in the exercise of the Graces of the Spirit they would be assured not only from Divine Revelation but from their happy Experiences of God's Mercy in all that the peaceable Fruit of Righteousness will outweigh all their Sufferings and Sorrows A Fifth Method of God to advance Reliance upon himself was by immediate specialty of a Divine Hand in passages of Providence in laying matters of great success in my way and that in the following instances First By bringing them about without the operation of second causes commonly made use of having in many instances experienced such things laid in my way wherein I have hardly been
I don't much wonder at their prizing the comforts of this Earth counting all things else as nothing or imaginary never having experienced the reality of spiritual things and no wonder therefore they dip themselves as much as possible in these things that afford present sensual and vanishing comfort rather than by a serious application of themselves to God in the use of Divine Ordinances which while they are unregenerate can afford no solid ravishing comfort they being as I was while only under the power of Education Nicodemus-like amazed at the litteral meaning how Christians could talk with God and enjoy Communion with an invisible God it being impossible by the greatest reach of the most ingenious fancy to apprehend the state of the Soul with its ravishing sweetness when in fellowship with God and though I have made use of these words of Spirituality and Heavenliness of frame to explicate fellowship with God my design is not thereby to set it forth with words that may make it sensible to unexperiencing Souls these words being understood and felt only by real Believers it is enough that to you of the unregenerate rank I can seal and give testimony to the truth and reality thereof from my certain experience and can lay before you the means God was pleased to make use of to bring me to the sensible enjoyment thereof And if your longing desire to experience it prompt you not to the use of these means by which you may obtain it then in the Day of Judgment you cannot but expect your accusation to run thus Light came into the world but you chus'd rather to walk in darkness according to your carnal Conceits of Divine things and not in the use of Sacred means as others have done to attain a clear comfortable experimental knowledge thereof which you may easily do considering the great condescending encouragement God gives to the smallest sparks of sincere desires and serious endeavours he will by the Spirit of Grace assist you and reveal the secret of his love to your Souls and bring you into his Marvellous Light And as the case of the prophane and of these only under the power of Education fills me with pity so Lazy Christians are greatly to be threatned who know the reality of fellowship with Heaven but instead of keeping themselves in the comfortable and continual enjoyment thereof and thereby to witness its truth in Conversation with others by their involving themselves in the full stream of the pleasures of this Earth they hinder their delightful and constant enjoyment of God and give occasion to others to believe that ravishing comfort of fellowship with God is meerly a Notion and make their own Lives upon the assault of afflictions yea their Dyings too less comfortable and thereby disparage the Truth of the Gospel it may afford you an awful reflection O Lazy Christians who by your great outward enjoyments should be more excited to maintain Communion with God who is the fountain of felicity and to testify that his favour is better than Life and all the fruitions of it but you content your selves with hasty or drowsy performance of Religious Duties Morning and Evening without the Exercise of those Graces and Affections which are the Life of them And by a careless Conversation in the World the impression of Divine things are soon worn out and dye in the diversion of the Soul from God by the free fruition of Temporal things which are to be so temperately used that we may enjoy God When the World is the Idol of Mens Heads and Hearts it Dethrones God and deprives them of the Comforts of his Love and Presence Secondly My Fifteenth experience has made me sensible that the comfort of outward things is more in the expectation than in the possession whereas spiritual comfort is much sweeter in the enjoyment than it is for any Humane Creature possible to imagine unless experienc'd in the Soul My own apprehension and account of a spiritual frame is this That when I am in it my mind is clear free of Clouds or concern of any kind though in the midst of trouble unless it be lest I should not continue in a holy frame While under the alone power of Education I have often suggested to my self O that I were in such a Circumstance my state should be happy but when by the Providence of God I had arriv'd to that Circumstance I found no addition of comfort by it and to speak more plainly my great expectation was confuted by Experience for either I tasted no Happiness in what was so earnestly desir'd or the pleasure was imbitter'd to me by unexpected troubles mixed with it I now am well contented in a State without abounding or wanting relying intirely upon God for all things necessary for my wants Thirdly This Experience has made me sensible of this certain frame in my self That the more of outward comforts I enjoy the more I undervalue them and in the greater esteem I find fellowship with God and that the evidence of special love from God by the enjoyments is in my esteem far more valuable than the most precious or most desireable things that can be obtain'd in this life In the Enjoyments of the world I neither find present satisfaction nor the sweetness in the after-reflection that is in spiritual Enjoyments but what brings Honey has a Sting that vexes more than there is sweetness in it This serious Christians know by experience But Carnalists whose Consciences are Sear'd and whose Experience never reach further than outward Comforts nothing can Sting them but sensible things as Illness after Drinking Rottenness after Whoring and the like affecting their Body It is otherwise in spiritual Fellowship with God it relishes sweetly at the present and in the reflection upon it an evidence to the Soul of Union to Christ for altho' the degree of Joy does not continue yet the reality of Union abides and the new Breathings of Christ's Spirit in his Ordinances revives the Joy Friendship that rational and most comfortable Blessing in humane Society is not now so common on the Earth when Sin abounds the love of many waxeth cold and where it is it affords one of the most solid satisfactions on Earth but it is not compleat wanting much at the same time it is enjoyed neither is it durable but upon a trifle chang'd and former Friendship made fuel to kindle and keep burning everlasting Hatred and Malice A Sixteenth Experience of God's method to train me into Reliance upon himself has been by disappointing me of one favour greatly desired and expected on purpose to introduce a greater The Lord has often issued forth a marvellous Mercy out of the Bosom of a disappointing-Providence and could the effect of this Experience be otherwise than to trust God for all Events attending my life however bad they lookt at the present leaving them to his Will that so if a disappointment occur'd I might not immediately repine but by
things more marvellous in their nature more dignifying our Souls and more comfortably establishing our Faith in God's Word than a Series of outward Events The freeing of the Soul from the power of Original Corruption by the sweet dominion of Grace the degrees of spiritual growth in the use of means appointed by God for that blessed end will be of excellent advantage to encrease in the Soul light and joy and establishment An Observer of such things is enabled to see good where others discover nothing but evil and evil where others think all is good He is arrived to the eminent degrees of those Christians who in the 5th Chapter of the Hebrews and the 14th are said to be such who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil who by habitual observation of God's ways by his Spirit and Providence concerning them are enabled to see the design and end of Providence not mistaking the merciful Methods of God's dealings with them as the effects of Anger nor the trial of their Grace for a punishment for want of it and thereby dishonour God and sink under despondency they can rejoice in tribulation the blessed priviledge of those who are in a state of favour with God Rom. 5. and feel a power above themselves supporting them in all Troubles It is therefore to be lamented That such instructing and comforting things are laid in our way to observe and yet that so many with their Circumstances should pass without Record and Improvement Though Christians are assured that God's Gifts are without Repentance that they have the evidences of Grace in their Souls and are kept stedfast in that Grace God has freely bestow'd yet by their not observing God's Means working and the proportion'd advancement of Grace to such Means they are not so duly affected with the infinite Mercy of God nor so comfortably sensible of his gracious dealings with them nor so firmly establish'd in the hope that he will not cease his working in them till they are made mete for the inheritance of the Saints in light The observing-Christians have the priviledge of the Angels though in a lower degree to see the Face of God they have the enjoyment of Heaven by the assurance of it they live in the exercise of Divine Love Joy and Praise which is the Life of Heaven I would from hence reprove those Professors who by their neglect coldness and long intermissions from Holy Duties are justly deprived of the sweetness of communion with God and are apt to censure others who are more spiritual and heavenly in their Conversation as phantastick and enthusiastical an Instance whereof I had by an Aspersion of some Ministers upon the Writings of a Saint now triumphant in Heaven whose Life was employ'd in Study to understand God's Word and the actings of Christ's Spirit in the Soul by which Holy Care and the Divine Favour he obtain'd the precious Jewel of Assurance and for many Years was possest of it The Aspersion run against him as a thoughtful melancholy person of the latter he had very little but of the former much more I do believe than his Aspersers and what was becoming the weight of the matter his thoughts run mostly upon often bemoaning the trifling superficial thoughts of the Christians of our Times concerning Gospel-Mysteries Christianity experienc'd our passage hence and concerning another state in its certainty and eternity The Aspersion also run against him for laying stress upon enlargement in Prayer and that concerning inward Religion his Discourses were unintelligible In answer to the first part of the Censure I can from my own blessed Experience declare That I have had the Promise verified to me of the Holy Spirit 's helping our Infirmities directing me in the things to be pray'd for and inflaming my desires in the Duty and strengthning my Faith in the power and love of God and the Returns of my Prayers have been most convincing and comforting evidence that God's Spirit was the Indicter of that Prayer of which God was the Fulfiller To the other part of the Censure I shall only say That the Communications of God to the Soul are more convincingly felt than exprest The peace of God passes all understanding and the comfortable sense of it cannot be fully set forth by human Language but the real enjoyment is far distant from Enthusiasm The sincere Christian knows that communion with God is a Heaven on earth though some who have only Notional Divinity think it 's meerly imagination without reality our communion with God and Christ in the use of Divine Ordinances is the best preservative from the Illusions of Satan and the distempered Mind Having given Reproof Let me advise all such who expose the high Attainments of Christianity experienc'd to reflect upon their by-past life if exactness of Observation of all past between God and their Souls either as means or the end lie by them upon Record in their Diaries and whether they have not rested upon the use of means as Duty without observing and recording the Enjoyments therein and their advancing-effects upon their Soul and have not rested upon Evidences without ever observing by what means and method of God they were first made sensible of them or had them further established Has there never a step of outward Providence round you past your Observation and search for God therein or as a return to Prayer for that blessed end of crushing a Corruption and exciting a Grace In short Has all the steps of God in training you to the Sense of Conversion and Graces after growth been remarkt by you If you can witness this I am confident you have attain'd to the Experience of such things as will keep you off from Censuring others and engage you to bear Seal to the Truth of what Christ bears sensibly on the Christian's Soul but if upon Reflection you have been out of this road my Compassion is greatly towards you even though you are Christians indeed and that because of the great Comfort withheld from you it being punishment enough to want the Comfort that strict Observers enjoy in this life And generally there lodges at the bottom of such Censurers either Ignorance of the same enjoyments from Heaven an unwillingness to have any in greater esteem than your selves or prejudices from their being of another Party Opinion or the like All which I would greatly advise to serious observation of themselves before their Censures be put forth against others for my own part I have often found from some instructing and establishing passages such amazing discovery of God and my self that I have thought nothing more could be added thereto but soon after I have had a further knowledge and establishment in the same thing and that by another passage caution enough to suppress disparagement of others but from their example to bestir thy self more than ever in the use of Means if a Soul therefore were to live Thousands of years on
finds to please and to obey him in all his preceptive Commands and that his Experience of Free-Grace no ways tend to a Licentious Life Whatever the Notional Knowledge of Free-Grace may do amongst those who know nothing of a real Faith and experience of God's Grace in their Soul and where unstrictness and unholiness of life appears in the greatest Zealot for Free Grace it savours of nothing more than its Notion in their Brain Again the Experiencing Christian finds that when he sets himself to be most diligent to perform Good Works and Religious Duties yet in the first he is often overtaken with faults and in the latter constant failures â—â—â—ur wandering Thoughts therein discomposure of Mind from some disquiet falling in before or some suggestion from Satan or corruption within rising up at the time which forces the Soul to lay by trust to Self-sufficiency and to have recourse to the Free-Grace of God in Christ that through his Divine Spirit supplies may be conveyed enabling of us to do Works though our own yet perform'd by Christ's supplies enabling of us and accepted from us thorough his Merits perfuming them that being our alone argument to obtain both for the sake of the multitude of his tender Mercies the opening and pouring forth of which we owe to our Blessed Redeemer who has remov'd the flaming Sword and given us access to the Throne of Free-Grace but still in the use of the blessed mean of Prayer And I think it more a Soul 's concern to try the Truth of access to the Throne of Grace by Prayer in our own endeavour and observation if return'd that being a mean of obtaining of Prayer in Christ's Strength than before the trial of Prayer to pursue first the Knowledge whether Justification be previously necessary before access to this Grace as is set down in the first verse of the fifth chapter of the Romans Alas While we are a striving which things go first we are in danger of missing all while we are debating about the Notions of Religion we suffer the Truths of God in their Experience to drop Oh that our Debates were more at home with our inward Corruption sighting it with the continued use of means capable by Christ's Strength meeting us in them to overcome it and to fructifie Grace in its room and less with our fellow Christians unless in point of strict and Holy Lives Christianity needs no other bulwark from us than the true plain meaning of Scripture-truth and putting Souls in the use of such Means as God conveys the experience in and where the power of Christianity is felt let him be Church of England or Dissenter under all its Subdivisions he becomes the Object of my love because of the Impression the Divine Spirit seems to have stamp'd upon him Of their being such we may easily have discovery in discourse one with another and that without any extraordinary gift of discerning However others think of this Gospel-priviledge there is such a difference between the Nature of Notional and Experienc'd Christianity between the way and words of a meer Notional Professor though never so outwardly strict and of an experiencing Christian that to my self I find not the least difficulty And it is greatly suitable to the forecited Text in the Hebrews where it is said That it is the priviledge of grown Christians to discern good and evil and these Christians are such who have grown thereto by use and experience And where I can discover nothing of this whatever Party he is of let his Notions and Zeal in spreading them fly never so high I am always afraid that the Motive of Self bears too much room in his witnessing for God and his Truth Let all therefore be reprov'd who set up Variance with those that bear Christ's Image upon their Hearts and Lives and only differ in their Notions and Conceptions about the Truths of God Let Holy Lives and Acquaintance in Conversation with their experiencing Christianity in their Souls be the Touchstone of trying and esteeming them By the denying familiarity with such upon such differences you pinch the great evidence of loving the Brethren and shew to the world that such an one is laid aside or introduc'd to your Favour from having a name of being one of such a Party and so give occasion of producing Proselites in profession to such a Party to obtain interest and encourage thereby others to ridicule Christianity because of such Professors blemishes through the want of Christianity's power in their Souls though these inward enjoyments into which observation of outward Providences lead as a mean are incomprehensible by the prophane and meer Professor while in that state yet they are outward passages greatly discovering God bringing forth good where all evil is ominous if observ'd by meer Professors It is experimentally known that a passage of Providence dark and afflicting in its first approach has many times had in its bosom a rich mercy There is a known passage of one who broke his Leg in his Journey to go a Ship-board a dark and afflicting Providence both by reason of his breaking his Leg and the disappointment of his Voyage but in its bosom was that great mercy of saving his life the Ship being lost in which he was to have gone It is not long ago since a Wind hindring our Fleet to go forth was afflicting but in it was that great mercy of the preventing of a French Invasion such passages the prophane and meer Professor cannot dive into and if each were but observant of such like they would be reckon'd by Millions round Nations and People and all with a discovery of God the Governor of all things and would help us against repining for disappointments and advance a reliance upon him in all things by committing them to a Divine Conduct by Prayer and diligently using means providentially laid in our ways Again Is it not known with experimental Christians that the Lord many times introduces a rich spiritual mercy by a dark Providence a spiritual instruction for their establishment by an afflicting Providence It has oft been their experience to be brought under an outward disquiet on purpose to free them from a cold lazy frame of mind and to introduce a sweet heavenly posture of Soul who therefore from continued observation of this experience will not forbear repining and exercise patience till the discovery of God's design therein appears yea work together with him for the same end by addressing the Lord for strength to stand firm in the exercise of reliance and love to him which greatly establishes the Soul in the exercise of these Graces and therein honours God and is even met many times with a visible reward suited to that particular Action tho' performed by his own Divine strength the observation whereof has oft brought that Scripture to my thoughts Psal 31. Great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought for them
that trust in thee before the sons of men either by hiding them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man or keeping them secretly from the strife of Tongues and what establishment hereto the personal experience of an observing Christian would give is more fit for filling up of sheets than a few lines Mark the 10th Chapter ver 29. None has left house c. for my sake but he shall even in this life receive an hundred fold and eternal life in the world to come Is it not the personal experience of Christians to be disappointed of the designed and desired issue of an endeavour to introduce the success of another and better the constant observation whereof must needs bring the Soul to a greater measure of patience under a disappointment to a sooner and better sight of the Providence than the other who though under his disappointment is strengthned to rely by Divine influence perhaps in return to Prayer petitioning strength to honour God therein yet he must needs be under more sinking Fears through the course of the passages of such disappointments the other Christian having these supporting helps the reflecting upon God's former ways of the same kind observ'd and upon record with the instructing and establishing effects such ways had then upon the Soul and the better event brought forth in a way of Providence than what was expected together with Prayer put up and strengthning supplies of grace received however dark this may seem to the Notional Christian yet this I hope will receive many Seals in its perusal by observing Christians Is it not the experience of Christians to be led into a pinch of extremity on purpose to see the more of God and the less of means in an event and to stir up the greater reliance upon God with means and the less upon means without his Divine Hand accompanying How often are lawful diligent using of means disappointed to Christians till they be brought to serious and often Prayer for Heaven's conduct and blessing thereto The observation whereof keeps the Soul safe between means and a Divine Hand affording each his due place without presumption towards God or Idolatry towards the other if therefore the Christian Observer is enabled to discover good and evil where others not so used thereto are uncapable even in these more common Experiences how far less capable are some Christians to discover more secret and adorable methods of God observ'd by others Either they were never experienced by them through the long intermissions of fellowship with God or at least never observ'd reflected upon or improven by them to the end of further knowledge of God in the depth There is therefore not only in the sight and enjoyment of spiritual things a difference between Christians and meer Professors but even between Christian and Christian and that without either a Gift of Prophecy or an extraordinary Gift of Discerning but with such Gifts as are communicated to the Soul in the use of common means only with this difference that these means are more continually and in greater heavenliness perform'd and the enjoyments of God therein either for comfort or instruction more carefully remarkt in all its Circumstances and laid up in record for this very end of improvement the greater knowledge of Christianity and of God's more extraordinary steps therein Thou therefore O Christian that has necessary occasion of business and of lawful diversion greatly admixt with thy Religious Duties as a mean of hindering such fellowship with God as those do enjoy whose life does run in a stream of actual heavenly mindedness reproach not I say these other Christians with melancholy Fancy or Enthusiasm either of which bear their distinct marks from that knowledge of God obtain'd in the constant use of means and by Divine fellowship therein in continual and serious recesses of Soul with God but bemoan your Circumstances thus involv'd in the necessary occasions of the world when compar'd with some others and do more with the opportunities you have than ever yet you have done and that according to the means treated of and blessed by God to others In the hope therefore of passing from common Providences in your observation to special ones round your self yea to the steps and workings of Christ's Spirit in your Soul exactly correspondent to his Word affording you such knowledge thereof as expose the Contentions and Errors of the Earth to your Pity and keep you safe from the discouraging Blemishes and infectious Failures of Christians In hope I say of this let me press you to this great and experienced Duty of Observation and I am hopeful your expectations will not fail but a mysterious discovery of the reality of his Divine Word shall be unfolded such as could never have been forethought or foreseen by you It is not to be supposed that ever the most refin'd Wit on earth could have made up such a System of Mystery as is contained in the Scriptures and is experimentally felt in the Soul Is it supposable that the Wits of our Age who pretend their Reason as their Guide could foresee contrive or rightly comprehend the Work of Christ's Spirit in renewing the Soul Or is it supposable that the most rational man on earth unacquainted with experimental Christianity can imagine the work of Christ's Spirit in raising the Soul to a heavenly Frame and the state of the Soul at that time Is it imaginable that by the will and power of man such a Frame by which we are admitted to fellowship with the Godhead can be retained without a Divine Influence when though that this Divine Work is declar'd in the Scripture yet with their reason and light of God's Word without Divine Spiritual influences obtain'd by God's common means they are not able to comprehend it and therefore is left unknown to some of them and mockt at by others of them yea the Word of God made the occasion of Errors on earth the prevention of all which comes in by the right and continued use of these means God commonly affords the sensible experience of himself according to his Divine Records Some Christians excel one another in Faith of Reliance hereby that if there be no assurance going along yet their Hope is without shock and that in the use of Reflection upon former Experiences which in the 5th chap. of the Romans and the 5th and 6th ver is said to bring forth hope that maketh not ashamed and certainly found to do so in the Experiences of such Christians if their Seals were given forth to the World Let us imagine the judgment of any meer Professor under never so rational a Conviction of any one Scripture-truth yet without the power of Christ's Spirit bearing it home as Truth upon the Soul you will hardly see as the certain effect of this saving Faith therein either commenced or so sixt but that it may give way to a succeeding Error if it have a fairer appearance to his
and admiration of God and to a meetness for that Heaven wherein in all his Childrens Servants shall be spiritual and heavenly A Prayer spiritually perform'd seems to fly with wings by the gale of Christ's Spirit blowing upon the Soul making it sail towards God with such words and thoughts as appear more the fruit of a Divine Spirit than of great memory and judgment Let us but make observation of one man's Prayer at one time and another when the judgment 〈…〉 are left only at the helm how 〈◊〉 and faintly does his words drop though never â—o fine but when God breathes suddenly and freely upon the Soul his frame is visibly chang'd is more affecting to the hearer and is admitted to plead with God in greater familiarity with greater power and readier expression It is experimentally known how much more pleasing and affecting a spiritual Prayer is though perform'd by an illiterate hand than the Prayer perform'd by the most ingenious but unspiritual There needs no other way to converse with the experienced Christians but by bringing Experiences to their memories but for others unacquainted with experimental Christianity I hope the use of the means treated of will bring you to the same Experience and then your arguings upon Air will vanish and they 'll find the Christian Religion solid and true and filled with all solid comfort and establishment to your Souls Abandon therefore Circumstantial Niceties as evidential of your right-perform'd Prayer restrict your self to no place in performing the Duty or in debating concerning Prayer but where you find most privacy and greatest assistance towards a good frame of Soul confine your self not to morning or evening Prayer only but throughout the whole day upon any occurrency of affair or company you are call'd to distrust your self without begging God's conduct therein and if under constraint from Set-Prayer endeavour after a good frame of mind in ejaculating a Petition to God which will issue in as sweet and remarkable a return by which means the frame of your mind is kept in a continual seriousness to answer that Command of praying without ceasing as was said before and as a mean to repel forgetfulness of God And to hinder the danger of running to an extreme in lawful diversion which at this day is an occasion leading to much evil even amongst real Christians lengthen out your Prayer according to your Suits you find you stand in need of or are sensible of at the time and if you are heavenly you will lengthen it out with pleasure use form or extemporariness not because you have been so educated or because those of your Party do and plead for it but try both and then use what you find most serviceable towards a good frame of Soul These Errors being remov'd I come to give you my Experience of right perform'd Prayer not by Philosophical Definition or Distinctions there being sufficiency thereof by excellent hands already in Print but by Enlargement according to my method of experiencing the gradual steps of knowledge God was pleas'd to afford concerning Prayer in the performance and continuance of it In general therefore judge of your right performance in Prayer by the following marks which were the two I was first of all made sensible of tho' afterward others of which you shall hear in the repetition of the same two with the addition of others occur'd But I chose rather to keep them in the method of time as well as matter that they were experienced in not so much for grown Christians who have experienced the same with my self and therefore may be comfortably established thereby but for the sake of the illiterate and meer Professors though notionally learned that they and all unacquainted with Experience may be led step by step to the right knowledge and performance thereof First You may judge of your right performance of Prayer by the frame of your mind in it if spiritual and heavenly if your thoughts are carri'd upwards with sincerity and fervency the same time your words pass your lips the power of Instruction Custom or Applause having small room as Motives thereto but the obedience of God's Command the sense of your need of and insufficiency to bring about what you ask The sense of power in God and of his willingness to bestow if for your good moving you to address him after the experience whereof and strict continuance in the use of set and ejaculatory Prayer with observation of what occurs therein you will find more knowledge and enjoyment creep upon you than all the Divines on earth that ever I have met with has been able to express or impart Secondly You may judge of your right and acceptable performance by returns to your Prayers Such objections that a return may come to a Prayer and the Christian not know it to be the return or that a return may be so long deferr'd as when it comes in the Prayer that Petition'd it being out of the Christians Thoughts he is in danger of mistake by imagining the Prayers not being spiritually perform'd not accepted of God or return'd by him when the Prayer has been perform'd aright God pleased with it and yet answer'd Such Objections shall fully be answer'd in further discoursing concerning Prayer Only give me leave to say that when a return comes to a Prayer and the return not known to be such it is certain argument to me of laziness in that Christian and that a general and exact observation of the Enjoyments accompanying spiritual and continued Prayer has not been the practice of that Soul and that that Prayer has not at first been remarkt God's ways between the Praying and its return not exactly observ'd and reflected upon and consequently the return given iâ— not compar'd but unsuitably applied to notion and fancy the neglect of the observation of this God's common method extreamly hinders the knowledge of a Prayer right perform'd and really return'd and is the true and often â—â—â—â—sion of false and erroneous Thoughts both of God and our selves Again It has 〈◊〉 been my own Experience 〈◊〉 the return of a Prayer has been to 〈…〉 that at the time of the performance I have had an 〈◊〉 pâ—werful sense of God's acceptance thereof 〈◊〉 it was God's work and not my own from its sudden and powerful fixedness in my Soul neither the work of Satan or inward Corruption by reason of its effect in the Soul afterward abiding even full pleasedness and quiet of Mind concerning the Event tho' the return was deferred neither any repine but continued exercise of Resignation Love to and Reliance upon God which clearly discovers the power of a Divine Spirit these going along takes off the Thoughts of Prayers being unspiritual unacceptable or not to be return'd tho' the return be deferr'd There are many at this day under no other advancement in Christianity than its meer Profession who are constant to their Duty of Prayer but either reflect not or in reflecting upon
his returns of such Prayers were greatly defer'd And as a condescending help to prevent desponding anxiety quiet of mind concerning the return to be defer'd always accompanied my supplication and the Lord left me not to the Dominion of corrupt nature or of Satan's suggestion Or if either had assaulted me the Divine strength raising me to an actual resignation to his Will at the time fortified me against them Again An Observing Christian sees so much of the depth of Wisdom in God's ways concerning them that it must be strange if he presum'd to confine God to one method when the variousness yea the contrariness of methods to bring about the same end is one great evidence of the Excellency of his Wisdom An observing Believer knows that God tries the strength of Christians various ways in order to their Establishment Not because he is ignorant of the exact measure of their growth in Christianity but from love to them that by their faithful continuance in Prayer deferr'd as to its return the Graces of the Spirit may be excited and exercised both to the honour of God and their inward Comfort For what can be more reviving than to find corruptions weaken'd and grace strengthened which is the sweet issue of many grievous afflictions that are not removed upon our renewed Petitions till we are purified by them Hereafter may some say Since spirituality in Prayer is the Spirit of God's gift and it unexpectedly comes we may lay by Prayer with our own Endeavours and wait as the Quakers say till the Spirit move and then to Pray To this I say Spirituality in Prayer is the alone Gift of Christ's Spirit and it comes when he pleases but by sincere Prayer we obtain this blessed Gift It is not the usual way of God to bestow it in more excellent degrees without our sincere asking it in the humble sense of our need of it The Quakers acknowledge as from converse with some of them I have heard they have an innate Spirit by which they are acted and according to its inward striving so they move in Duties I know in us all there is that innate Principle of Corruption which reigning makes our faculties of Soul and members of Body move as it listeth to evil but a principle of Grace that inspires us with new life in our Duties comes from Heaven and is obtain'd in the use of his Ordinances This does not in the least obscure the Glory of God's Free-Grace for his Spirit excites us to Duties and supplies us with strength to perform them but it directs us to seek God in the ways appointed that we may find him That therefore Christians may rightly judge of this heavenly frame and intercession of the Divine Spirit preparing them to ask from God what he is to return Errors herein proceeding either from mistaking the work of Christ's Spirit helping them to ask or from applying the return to what they ought not I shall give the following marks accompanying such a Prayer and that observ'd from my own personal Experience First A heighth of spiritual Thoughts and Affections throughout in Prayer or in one particular Petition thereof far beyond common seriousness which tho' by words it be almost inexplicable so as to make the unexperiencing Christian comprehend it yet it is easily perceiv'd by the experiencing Christian In this rais'd frame of the Soul either in solemn or ejaculatory Prayer there is such heavenliness of Thought as if the Soul were already in Heaven's Enjoyment And for the comfort of young Observers I must acknowledge that my spirituality of frame in Prayer the real preparation of Christ's Spirit to ask and certainly evidential of God's return was at first observ'd to be much less in degree tho' the same in nature than now it is one degree of experimental Knowledge preparing for farther degrees This brings to my Thoughts the gradual rise of Christians meetness for Heaven by Christ's Spirit in his common way of working by the use of means of which observing Christians are sweetly sensible Secondly Another mark of Christ's Spirit 's intercession in Prayer as token of God's acceptance thereof and his return thereto is when with an Address so spiritually perform'd goes along a comfortable quiet of mind concerning the Event tho' the praying-Believer be encompast with Afflictions A calm composure of mind in our trust upon the gracious Will and Wisdom of God to dispose of all things concerning us is our Duty but 't is the Gift and Work of the Holy Spirit who is stiled the Comforter We must observe in the Word of God what he Commands us to do he promises to enable us to do He Commands us That Sin should not reign in our mortal bodies and he has Promised That Sin shall not have dominion over us In like manner God Commands us To be careful for nothing but by supplication to lay our requests before God And certainly freedom from anxiety and disquiet and a full possession of the Soul in Patience concerning any thing in commending our Affairs to God by Prayer is the product of the Divine Spirit and not from the natural temper and stayedness of the Mind And where the Christian actually experiences it in Prayer he may safely conclude himself influenc'd by a Divine Spirit not only in raising his frame to ask but leaving it at God's footstool as to the Event and that as presaging of God's returning favour and introductive of his blessing The Promise of God is the foundation of this Trust Psal 37.5 Commit thy way unto the Lord and he shall bring it to pass The habit of Resignation may be in the Soul but 't is drawn forth into exercise by the renewed influences of the Spirit Thirdly You may judge of the intercession of Christ's Spirit in your Souls in addressing God by Prayer by the passages of Providence that bring about the return of this Prayer In the Observation whereof the speciality of a Divine Hand in the Providences bringing the return about is as discoverable as immediateness of a Divine Spirit influencing the Soul to ask with calm and resign'd submission as to the Event The observing Christians do often see these two joyned together and each illustrating one another where others do not or hardly are at the pains to observe the one or the other And what the Psalmist in the first ver of the 116th Psal in the fifth ver of the 118th Psalm and in the 121st Psalm finds that Prayers return observ'd and the passages of Providence discovering or bringing it about is powerful in bringing his Soul to the actual exercise of love to Reliance upon Admiration and Praise of God I love the Lord because he has heard my supplication I called to the Lord and he heard me therefore shall I see my desire and he is now my strength and my song I will praise thee for thou hast heard me and art become my salvation The unobserving Christian therefore of Prayer's return and of
the method bringing it about loses thereby the actual excitement of the excellent Graces and so miss of much comfort and light that others enjoy Fourthly You may judge of the intercession of Christ's Spirit in your Prayer by the never-failing correspondency between a Prayer perform'd as is exprest and a return thereto This is according to God's own Word and the Experience of diligent true observing Christians And if it were not so I doubt not but amongst thousands of Experiences training me to the knowledge thereof and establishment therein I should have met with one contradicting it I know I have met with many passages upon my advancement in the knowledge of God's ways that at first view seem'd greatly opposing of this and if a strict observation had been intermitted the shaking of my Faith or mistake therein had been the consequence but keeping strict to observation of Providences present and reflection upon past ones with patient waiting the full sight of the return to Prayer appear'd with that improvement of being more serious and considerate in the observation and comparing God's ways of Providence and inward workings of his Spirit according to his revealed Will. I would subjoin to these few marks of Prayer with the intercession of Christ's Spirit some things you are to beware of as occasions of mistaking this Prayer and deluding you with a false resemblance of it and something I would advise your observation of that may be a means to lead you into the performance of Prayer aright and thereby an opportunity of obtaining Christ's Spiritual influences therein I begin with the latter First Be advised to enter upon private Prayer without any discomposure of Spirit from the things Temporal that pleasantly affect us The thoughts of them will be ready to rush themselves upon your remembrance I could easily set down the many Prayers I have had spoil'd by such things rushing upon my thoughts at the time but circumstances will not permit Secondly Without any vexation upon your Spirit unless you use Prayer in such a circumstance as a help to quiet your mind and to suppress the further rise of corrupt motions for which end I dare recommend private Prayer as a healing means Thirdly Have your thoughts as free of worldly Persons and Things as possibly you can otherways passing immediately from Conversation with the world you will be apt to cast a lingring look back upon the world and to have thoughts stealing into you which will hinder the Spirit 's assistance to pray in the manner before charecteriz'd Fourthly Do not cursorily perform the Duty of Prayer to satisfie your mind that you have discharg'd the Duty and till night you are not to return to it but consider that Prayer is not only a Duty but a heavenly Priviledge wherein we may with a filial freedom address our selves to the Lord Almighty as our Father who from the infinite treasures of his love will supply all our wants and satisfie all our regular desires Therefore let us be liberal in the time for that Duty By continuance in Prayer our Hearts are more fully possest with God and by wrestling with him we get a holy heat of Affection tho' in our entrance into the Duty we were but coldly affected These are some of the hindrances which a Christian is to watch against and there are many other which the observing Christian will discover and endeavour to prevent Concerning the other to wit the occasions of mistaking the natural workings of the Affections for the Spirit 's work in Prayer I shall first in general say That the not considering the state of the Soul first designing to Pray in Praying and after Prayer leads into many mistakes According to the inward and habitual frame of the Soul such is the exercise of the Affections in that Duty and usually such are the influences of the Holy Spirit Secondly The judging that common seriousness in Christian Duties is all the spirituality that is necessary or attainable may be an occasion of mistake For this will make them content without seeking for supernatural influences and without the perception of them Close walking with God in the often use of Prayer is the best help to train this Soul in the further knowledge of the Breathings of Christ's Spirit Thirdly A more than ordinary seriousness from the ardent desire of obtaining the thing petition'd for may impose upon some with its resemblance to spirituality as also a Christian's indifferency in obtaining a thing pray'd for may impose a resemblance to the Souls of straitning in Prayer thorough Christ's withdrawings Fourthly The rational hope of obtaining our Petitions or the rational improbability of obtaining may sometimes impose a resemblance of spirituality and constraint in Prayer An Experience whereof I have had concerning Friends dangerously Ill who in my thoughts and in the judgment of their Physitians have been Dying from which seeming certainty of their Dying I have had an unwillingness as being altogether needless to pray for them I remember of a Child who was dangerously Ill without sensible pulse cold as clay and in the opinion of all Dying or Dead which rational conjecture so imprest me as to restrain me from Prayer concerning it But next morning in my Closet Prayers not designing a Petition for the Child supposing it then assuredly Dead a sudden seriousness and spirituality seized me carrying me forth in Prayer for this Child which at first astonish'd my Thoughts till sending to know if alive I heard of its life and great amendment To the praise of the infinite condescention of God I shall mention two directions as preventive of Error and Mistakes in the observation of Prayer and the enjoyments accompanying it and that as an encouragement to weak Christians to use these means without fear or doubting of God's wise and loving conduct of them to preserve them from Error unless God's permission thereof be for the Christian's good taking that way to establish Grace stronger in the Soul First His impressing me at the time with the true state of the matter that never to my remembrance was I under false resemblances of spirituality or constraint in Prayer but at the time I had some discovery of it Secondly Such dangers never occur'd to my Experience till God had establish'd my right knowledge both of spirituality and constraint in Prayer and that by Experiences in abundance a part of which is laid down in the Historical part of this Discourse I say this as a witness for God's Condescension and Wisdom in training the sincere diligent Christian groaning after the true knowledge of God's ways in the right use of means yet I say it not to encourage laziness either in the beginning or more grown Christian but excite them to more serious and strict observation of their Souls that they may not be deceived I find it more common with private Christians than formerly to observe enlargement in Prayer and constraint therein as forerunners of their injoying or not
injoying what is Petition'd from God but in Conversation I find their observation as too narrow and confined looking upon that that may be a Christian's common Food in the close continuance in the means of Grace as an extraordinary Feast and minding it mostly concerning the recovery or the dying of Friends and not extending it to all things hoping the life or fearing the death of one from a Minister's pouring forth his Soul or from a private Christian's fervent address to God or the constraint of both It makes me remember how extraordinarily amazing and delightful such Experiences were when at first observ'd by me in the more tender days of my Knowledge in Experimental Christianity and makes me greatly afraid that however notional Knowledge abound amongst Ministers and People that have liv'd so many years under Gospel Instruction yet Heart-Service to God in the performance of Duties or at least strict continuance therein especially this delightful Duty of private Prayer is not so common and so the Enjoyments that follow are less and seldomer experienc'd But to this real and comfortable Experience of Enlargement in Prayer concerning the recovery of Friends that is more observ'd by Christians let me give you two cautionary Instructions from my own Experience therein and of which some observing Christians are not at the pains to remark concerning this Enlargement in Prayer First of all Not peremptorily to hope the recovery of a Friend from once observing your selves or others carried out in a heavenly manner in Prayer concerning them and tho' answerable to this once observ'd spirituality appear some real amendment at the time yet often without the continuance of Prayer thus spiritual their amendment falls off and suitable to their omission of further Praying thus their Friend Dies unless God act in a stream of more than ordinarily condescention to weak Christians I know not but the Reliance upon the Evidence of one Prayer spiritually put up for a Person 's Recovery may occasion carelesness in the Duty afterward and so hinder the obtaining the blessing that was thought to be coming to us I remember a Holy Christian who was in great Thoughtfulness concerning the Recovery of his Wife for whom he had so near access to God in Prayer that he had great hopes of her life but she dying gave him some more concern of Thought that he should hope on so good ground and yet be mistaken whereas his near access to God in Prayer was but once experienc'd his Eye was upon the frame of his Soul in Prayer and not upon the Words utter'd while under this Divine Influence His omission of continuing thus to Pray hindered him from clearer discovery of God's Ways His missing the observation of his Words rendered him incapable of applying the return to what God helped him to Ask to wit God's love to her Soul greatly manifested in her passage hence At this very time I can instance in a Child for whom I found great spirituality in Prayer but without the least appearance of amendment for a fourth night's time which seem'd to oppose all former Experience and might have occasion'd great mistake if I had not recorded my words as well as frame in Prayer spiritually perform'd which were centered in one Petition without the least deviating from it throughout the whole fourth night That the Lord would spare his life and that his life might be precious in his sight without the least inter-mixture of desire or word in Prayer for Health or Recovery When a Prayer spiritually put up is remarkt as such and corresponded with a return of amendment but followed with after-laziness and forbearance of the same diligence no wonder the return stopt and a contrary effect to what was desir'd or imminent appear If therefore your heavenly frame in petitioning Health or the like be once observ'd and continued in I never knew such petitions return to fail but if this frame be obtain'd but once and afterward it go off you 'll undoubtedly find amendment answerable to the time of having strength spiritually to petition it but such a frame going off either thorough the intermission of your own endeavour after or God's with-holding it nothing else but disappointment to your expectation and desire and justly to your dependance upon once experiencing the frame falls out It is laziness in the right performance of means and not continuing therein that keeps off the many experiences of inward Religion or occasions the mistakes that abounds concerning the great things of inward Religion however some satisfie themselves with the ill usage of that Proposition God's ways are in the depth It is from multitudes of instances experienc'd that if the Soul be carried forth in Prayer for any Friend ill that suitable thereto there is many times visible hopes but if this frame is not continu'd in the Friend does decline and die I know that once feeling this hopeful frame has made some Christians lazy and secure and not by serious Address afterward lay themselves in God's way to obtain the continuance of this frame and so their Health and Life has gone To conclude thence That return is not always suited to spirituality of frame is mistake and erroneous and evidence of your lazy unexactness in observation of God with the Soul Right observation hereof would discover condescending Mercy in God on purpose to keep the Christian continually holding on that Duty of Prayer till the final determination issu'd which meets commonly with great reward tho' the continuance and spirituality of Prayer continued in be his own work in the Soul A second Cautionary Instruction is Not to be peremptory in judging the spirituality of another man's Frame or an Event answerable thereto but to be strict and diligent in judging your own Frame and Events consequential to it I would advise great carefulness in judging another man's spirituality in Prayer as presaging of certain return answerable to the spirituality supposed in his Frame 1. First Because of the difficulty of judging another man's heart in Prayer It requires exactness of Observation to raise a Christian to the capacity of knowing his own Frame when spiritual or to raise him to an establishment in the reality of Correspondency between his Prayer's spirituality and its certain return but how can we be sure of another man's heavenliness I have known many under no other knowledge of Christianity than what is Notional acquainted with no other power in performing Duties than that of Education and Self-strength and yet pray with that sense distinctness and outwardly appearing heavenliness that the Hearers have been affected with a good hope of the person and a delightful thought of their spiritual seriousness in Prayer yea the strength of natural parts in the exercise of Prayer may heat the affections and may persuade a person and others that he prays in the Holy Ghost If therefore you may hear a Prayer from a meer Professor so near resembling a Christian's Prayer influenced by Christ's Spirit
be debated first but rather let your arguings succeed to your experience unless they be such Mysteries as are meerly to be credited according to Divine Revelation and uncapable of man's comprehension in this life and then in God's method of working and watering Grace you 'll obtain a full discovery of Self-insufficiency the need of a Redeemer to look to and depend upon God's revealed Word in conjunction with his Divine Spirit as your chief helps hereto An Arminian to plead his own power is like the prophane and meer Professor mocking and doubting of fellowship with God in Prayer It is the Arminian's want of Grace or at least the want of the observation of steps that has led to their Grace and its growth that keeps them still exalting of Self and it 's the others never experiencing communion with God in Prayer that make them ridicule it Put Self to the tryal Arminian whether you can in your strength work Grace try it and do not delay till a dying hour And if you find you can't then bring to the tryal another strength even that of a Divine Spirit in the use of means recorded in this applicatory part and then you 'll follow Christ's Command and become as a little Child obedient in the use of God's means to help forward the right knowledge of him and your selves and shall be enabled to get out of Self-confidence into a reliance upon a more Divine Foundation even Christ's Spirit the Gift given to the Christians in the world upon Christ's leaving the Earth and his Ascension to Heaven By Prayer and Observation therewith you will soon discover Socinianisms Falshood as it has sprung from Arminianism by so much exalting Self so the discovery of the vanity of the latter soon lays open in Christian experience the delusion of the former Let a Christian but observe the difficulty of laying aside Self-trust even after God's most establishing Experiences dethroning it and the proneness of his mind to admix Self in Duties rightly perform'd The difficulty of putting on Self-denial and of being cloath'd with that glorious Grace of Faith yea the means made use of by God to uncloath us of the one and to adorn us with the other The Observation I say of all these in a Christian will soon convince us of our insufficiency and encline us to exalt Christ as the Object of the Soul's trust and adoration for the destroying of that branch of Socinianism even the denial of the Godhead of our blessed Redeemer Besides Scripture plainness the attributing to Christ all the uncommunicable perfections of the Deity is proof against them Will all the Socinians Sophistry on earth make me disbelieve his Godhead when I have experienc'd that in the worship and adoration of Christ the Grace of God that has converted me from Sin to Holiness is then in exercise GOD is a jealous GOD and will not part with that Prerogative of Adoration no more to meer man than to vain Images and yet Who are the sanctified ones in Christ who are the Persons Paul judg'd meet to write unto in his first v. of his first ch of his first Epistle to the Corinthians even such who call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord not nominally so but such a Lord as is made the object of Adoration in the Gospel Churches none else being fit Members to make up a Christian Church and all denying Christ's Godhead and this Adoration due to his Name exclude themselves from being fit matter for a Gospel Church My Adoration of Christ as God I observe most solemn and with an intire trust in him when I am in a heavenly frame of Soul in private Prayer being then certain that the exercise of Adoration to Christ is the true effect of God's Divine Spirit influencing my Soul Often in meditation in participating the Lord's Supper the admiration and adoration of Christ as God blessed for ever has been kept up with great warmth and spirituality in the Soul To the Socinians I would put this Question If ever in a private Prayer to God in participation of the Lord's Supper or upon a sick and in appearance dying Bed they experienced a heavenly ravishing frame of Soul and if they have what exercise of thought in either of these three Circumstances concerning Christ and themselves then seiz'd them I dare answer That if really influenced with a heavenly frame Arminius with honour to Self and Socinus with his disparagement of Christ were low as the dust in their Opinion then How unsuitable are those who deny Christ this Tribute on earth to reign with him in Heaven when the Mystery of the Trinity the Mystery of Redemption by God the Son and the Mystery of Conversion by God the Spirit shall be perfectly unfolded when the admiration and adoration of God for his infinitely wise and condescending Mercy in delivering man must be in frequent exercise This is the most excellent beneficial and comfortable object of a Christian's Faith Contemplation and Affection We can only see it here through a Glass darkly in the full sight is the perfection and felicity of the Saints in Glory But the serious thoughts of redeeming love in our present state fills the Soul with a Joy unspeakable and glorious God constituted man at first with all the necessary faculties of Body and Mind and with their beautiful Ornaments that man by considering the excellent Goodness of his Maker might Glorifie him and not meerly please himself in his own Perfections and the fruition of Paradise In like manner a gracious Soul is renewed to Christ's Image in Conversion not that the doing of it may be proclaim'd as his own work and Glory thereby derogated from the Godhead of Christ and his Blessed Spirit Man is made meet for Heaven by Grace growing in his Soul on Earth And does he pass that perfecting change at the day of Judgment and is he admitted to these glorious Visions in Heaven for the admiration of himself No He will know that as the Creation of Man was the product of the Counsel and Power of the Deity as it 's declared in these words Let us make man so the Conversion of man from the power of Sin to Holiness is the sole effect of the free Mercy and Power of God and for the honour of his Grace Pride first discover'd it self in our fatal fall and has continued to show it self in arrogating to our selves what is entirely due to God but the perfected Spirits of Just men know how unworthy and unprepared they were to see God in his full Glory They continually pay the humble Homage of Praise to him that sits upon the Throne whose Spirit sanctified them and to the Lamb by whose Sacrifice and Satisfaction Heaven was opened to them Can a meer man receive the Hallelujahs above and rob the Father of the Praise of the Triumphant Saints in Heaven With what faces will those who deny the Deity of Christ look upon a Redeemer glorified as
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