of God was soon accompanied with some sensible Changes never felt formerly but then so visible as forced me to commit them to a Diary some whereof were as follows First An Eye to God in all Things a Petitioning of Him for all Things with some beginnings of Resignation to his Will in all events It was not as before a trusting to nothing but what was sensible a distraction of Thoughts to find out this or the other instrument to bring about such an event but now I could hope in things unseen and instead of hurrying of Thoughts to find out means to bring about an event I began the pursuit of a design with serious address to Heaven for conduct to my self in the use of means and for a Blessing to the event according to his Pleasure enlargement in Prayer was not at this time understood only when an endeavour in the use of means and with address to God was made successful I could not but observe it with some excitings to love this God that had given me my Heart's Desire and that in answer to Prayer which brought me Secondly To some Trust to God Sense begun to be out of favour whereas formerly I could encourage my self in nothing but what was either in possession or in all probability certain now there were some sparklings of Trust to God and Love to Him I had been so obliged to by his Blessings Endeavours and answering of Prayers which would often raise that reflection in my Thoughts how gratefully and dutifully I ought to endeavour the pleasing of him whose Strength was my Assistance whose Ear was so open to my address which prov'd a sensible mean of bringing me Thirdly To a diligent search of the Scriptures therein to know his Will and by endeavouring conformity thereto to please him who had made himself to be observ'd thus loving whereas formerly with Historical delight only the Scriptures were made use of by me my Thoughts then run pleasantly after the Practical meaning as well as the Notional Knowledge of them at which time the 15th Psalm throughout greatly accompanied my Thoughts and enclin'd me for some considerable time to breathe forth continual Petitions for practical Conformity to it Fourthly Great exercise of Hatred to those Sins that usually did beset me While under the impression of Education and Religious Example and sober Society my outward life was free from single acts of common Vice yet upon the sense and feeling of an inward change a long roll of inward Corruptions I discover'd that the World and I were not judges of tho' then they offer'd themselves fully to my view Fifthly An inward seriousness of Thoughts as well as outward gravity in performance of Duties aiming then at pleasing God in the parts of his Worship Sixthly A serious free affection towards Holy Christians the least degree whereof I never had formerly any evidence their Conversation in Christianity having often prov'd confinement and burthensome unless where Relation and Friendship made it less tiresome The first sensible evidence whereof discover'd it self in my Carriage towards some who had falsly reproach'd me with an Aspersion base in its Nature and likely to be injurious to one against whom I had determin'd Prosecution but this inward change happening in the mean while both my malice and resolution of Revenge ceased at once with some uneasiness of mind till I had discoursed the thing with themselves and given them my own sense of its ill management they having been bound in conformity to God's Divine Word to have imparted the reproach first to my self by doing whereof its falshood would have been known and their spreading of a false reproach to the injury of others might have been prevented a caution to all Religious Professors giving too great heed to common Reproaches and too great way to their spreading them in Conversation My Malice and resolved Revenge were turn'd into affectionate Inclinations and good Actions after which instant a delight in Converse with Christians though mean in outward circumstances was more pleasing to me than all the hurrying joy of Companions abroad when at any time oblig'd to be witness thereto Seventhly A surprising compassion towards the Poor with continual Ejaculatory Praise that my Station was otherwise than theirs even when going along the Streets or Roads if objects of Charity presented themselves this frame of praising God was immediately upon me blessing him for my being in other Circumstances than theirs of want or bodily Imperfections with a watch over my self lest in my Charity desire of applause or any degree of unwillingness had appear'd Charity to be seen of men receives its reward when view'd by men unwillingness therein spoils it in its nature and takes off all expectation of a reward Eighthly A clearer sense of the Work of Redemption and of Christ the Redeemer Tho' I had the Notional Knowledge and Historical Faith of both yet in Prayer or Meditation my admiring Thoughts of free Grace and my words of Praise for its effects upon the Soul would continually center upon God the Father yea in Prayer there always would appear a constraint from giving any distinct Worship to Christ for his adorable love in the Work of Redemption and that for some time after the sensible evidence of this inward Charge which was an opportunity to Satan to argue against the Deity of Christ if God's restraining Power had not chain'd his Malice from trampling upon that tender Plant of Grace beginning to bud forth and tho' Satan was under constraint as to any Assault or Victory of this kind yet I found an uneasiness and dissatisfaction in my self for not being enabled to give Admiration and Prayers centering upon God the Son as well as upon God the Father which made me impart my concern of Mind to several Ministers of eminent Gifts but had Instruction from none save one who thus answer'd me out No wonder says he our Love and Admiration our Prayers and Praises run most towards God the Father these being as a natural Tribute which in nature we allow to God as Creator and Preserver of us Whereas a saving Eye to Christ as Redeemer or as God in Worship seems more the effect of the Blessed and Divine Spirit Which answer was accompanied at the time with some satisfaction of Mind but soon after this inward Change put forth such strong and numerous evidences with heart-service in the parts of Divine Worship as well as outward Gravity therein that self-sufficiency was laid aside and hope entirely dependent upon Christ's Satisfaction as the Fountain of all Gospel Priviledges was raised with a clear apprehension of Christ's Satisfaction and with a distinct Worship of him in Prayer from whence I was easily confirm'd that under the incapacity of Worshipping Christ as God I was not under the saving sensible power of Christianity but that now under this saving change of Soul producing among other things a clear view of Christ the foundation of our rich Privileges I could
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
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
that Duty The Spirit knows the Mind of God and is the Intelligencer of Heaven he directs us to the most favourable Seasons and by soft Whispers and warm Impulses brings us in God's Presence to pray for Mercies when God is ready to bestow them He does with sensible Enlargements open our Hearts in the Duty And as under the Law when Fire fell from Heaven upon the Sacrifice 't was a sign of God's Acceptance so when a sacred Fire kindles our Affections 't is a sign our Requests are accepted He mixes in our Prayers Reverence with filial Confidence Resignation to the Will and Wisdom of God with Reliance upon his Love and Power And when a Mercy is bestowed the Spirit converts our Prayers into Praises and by the Mercy confirms our Faith inflames our Love and endears Obedience to us Concerning the Person of whom the following Papers give an account I shall only say He is a Christian inwardly who has had a stated Intercourse with Heaven and has recorded the gracious Passages of Providence the rich Returns of Prayer to him 'T is true there is a continual succession of Mercies through all the minutes of our lives which we cannot observe and remember but as there is a different Glory in the lights of Heaven One Glory of the Sun another of the Moon and another of the Stars so some are eminent and illustrious above others and ought to be remembred and acknowledg'd with Solemnity Of these Mercies he has been deeply sensible and could not be silent but opens the Treasures of his Experiences and with David the great Pattern of Thankfulness calls upon those that Fear the Lord to Read what he has done for his Soul His end is to Glorifie his Blessed Benefactors and to invite others to partake of the same Mercy May his Example excite us with diligence and delight to maintain Communion with God on Earth the sweet and sure anticipation and earnest of our Communion with him in his Temple above where Light and Love and Joy shine in their perfection for ever To the Reader WHO amongst the adopted Sons of God can behold the abounding Vice of the Prophane the profession of Christianity made a Cloak for Sin and Error and the laziness of Christians lives in our day and not awaken our selves to hear God speaking in the same language to us as to the children of Israel Isa 43.10 You are my witnesses Is God's Divine Providence practically deni'd or retrench'd when so much thereof is in the constant view of the sons of men Is the Word of Truth deni'd by a Sectary of Deists when so much thereof is felt as real in the Souls of Christians Is the Godhead of Christ with the Being of a Divine Spirit so audaciously and prophanely deni'd when those who have experienced the priviledges of the satisfaction of the first by the powerful application of the latter witness the reality of both I am resolved therefore to make no other Apology for my Printing the following Discourse than that it is in obedience to the Apostle's charge to all Believers in the 10th verse of the 4th Chapter of the first Epistle of Peter As every man hath received the gift even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God What I have imparted I have receiv'd and in these gradual steps and in the use of these means treated of in the first and latter part of the Discourse and therefore in the imparting of what God has done for my Soul and by what means I hope I stand his witness this day on the earth and approve my self a faithful Steward in ministring the same things to others and that in the way wherein they were received There seems to be a Confederacy between Satan and the men of this Age to discredit the Oracles of God but his Word is a firm foundation of Faith and sincere Christians clearly see the Characters of its Divinity and feel the sanctifying comforting efficacy of it and many have seal'd its truth with their blood Others in their dying hours when men speak with most feeling and least affectation have declared their unshaken belief of it and others in converse with those they most dearly love and therefore would not deceive Each Christian therefore is under obligation to glorify God according to their measure of experience concerning God and his Divine Truths All are not in the office of the Ministry and there seems in our day but small opportunity in conversation to witness for Christianity Converse with the Prophane is of so dangerous consequence that discourse of such things occasion God and his Truth to be mock'd yea to my certain knowledge blasphemed Converse with some under the character of greater Sobriety draws forth such open confidence in Error as to tell us God's Word the Rule of our Faith is to be laid aside and Debates in Christianity are to be left off at the first Chapter of Genesis they giving no credit to its Truths than so far as their natural Reason can comprehend whereas the Soul was corrupted in all its faculties by the Fall Although in the structure of the world and its preservation with the various turns of Providence there are clear discoveries of the Divine Maker yet how little advance did the wise Philosopher make to that perfection of Soul which was in man before the Fall or to that that is obtain'd under the influencing light of the Scripture and the Divine Spirit or shall be in man plac'd in a state of glory And though God has added to us his blessed Scripture in conjunction with the works of Creation and Providence to exercise our thoughts upon for the perfecting of our knowledge yet to what little advancement do many attain in the understanding of God and Divine Mysteries Therefore our compassionate Father in Christ sensible of our weakness in the real and firm understanding of Divine Things has given forth another help to our dark Soule in conjunction with the former even his Divine Spirit teaching us all truth and helping us to a rest and reliance upon his Word working in us a sense and feeling of those great and marvellous mysteries for preparing our Souls towards the more full and glorious perception of them The Revelation in the Old Testament was like the morning-light mixt with the shades of the night the Revelation in the New Testament is clear day but the Revelation of God and Christ in Heaven is like the Sun at noon in its full lustre If this therefore has been God's gradual method to restore men and we enjoy so bright a discovery of mercy to save us those who refuse to accept it cannot escape the condemnation due as the recompence of it the dwelling in darkness with the children of darkness and disobedience for ever Rom. 2. If those who have had no other help in the understanding of the invisible things of God besides the beholding of created things are
his Children's food Mercies in answer to Prayer The Lord knew her strength and adapted his way of tryal thereto which issued in Honour to him and evidence to her self of the greatness of her Faith When Christ saw Peter's Faith as a Rock to build his Church upon he then tells him of the Sufferings to attend him and all that would follow after Christ his Faith being gradually brought up to such a strength enabled him to bear this report which perhaps in the beginning might have discouraged him to follow Christ or his Rules when therefore we are as Moses we may be kept six days on the Mount before the answer of Prayer comes Gen. c. 24. Let us therefore admire God's Wisdom and Love in first planting or further carrying on Grace in the Soul Let us be instructed not to limit God to any one way in converting or further perfecting a gracious Soul but let us keep in the use of all God's means with the observation of his various ways of Providence and Spirit established upon his Divine Word and experience in our Souls that so we may be confirm'd in the depth the length and height of the Love of God not only by a Faith wrought and kept in the Soul but by an evident sense thereof experimentally felt not yielding to that lazy excuse of the danger of fathoming him tho' we cannot find God out to Perfection yet we may comprehend much more of his ways than we do to keep us in continual admiration and praise of his Love making our life the nearer to resemble the work of Saints above not suffering his Ways to lie still in the depth without Record thereof or Reflection thereupon a method which might greatly prevent the many Fears that many gracious Souls meet with in their way and by which they dishonour God before the Wicked that by knowing their own Wants and God's Method of supplying them might be remedi'd A Sixth Experience of the Spirit of God's breathing upon the Soul in Prayer and of its correspondency to the certain return thereof was That according to my Morning's frame in giving up my self so has my frame continued thorough the day but most remarkably thus on a Sabbath-Day wherein I have found that my frame in hearing a Sermon has greatly answer'd to the frame of my Morning 's private Address to Heaven with that exactness that I could never observe or set it upon record without great amazement Herein mistake me not as if I passed my day without any other Address resting upon the comfortable experience of good frame in my Morning's Prayer but upon all occurrences throughout the day my supplication has been repeated my method being never to attempt any Service Civil or Spiritual without Address to God for conduct therein and when opportunity of set Prayer is deny'd the same Spirituality in Ejaculation and that correspondent to return is experienc'd confirming the truth of God's acceptance of the Spirit 's helping the Soul to groans not to be utter'd when the Soul in Meditation is under such a Heavenly Thoughtfulness to God as is impossible for it to utter I could set down numerous instances of God's acceptance of Prayer put up before entring into Company with freedom from Quarrel or Disquiet and when Disquiet of any kind has accompanied me I have found it at such a time when my Soul has been out of frame or my Addresses to God before my entring the Society has been neglected Who would not therefore advise me to rest upon God and to Petition him for all things and to have all things conveyed to me with a sight of his special Providence in it and as a return to Prayer for it that when my passage through this Wilderness is at end I may not enter unto an unknown God who has been a Father by his special conduct of Providence a Husbandman by the workings of his Divine Spirit my alone Friend to whom I have put up all my Requests and from whom I have receiv'd all the supplies of wants and that in a way of Communion with him neither to an unknown work but that of which I have had some foretaste in the use of Observation Prayer solemn and ejaculatory and Meditation admiring of God manifested and praising his Name for the experienc'd discovery of himself A Seventh Experience of Christ's Spirit exciting to Prayer and interceding with us in Prayer with the certain correspondency thereof by a return of that Prayer thus perform'd to God has been by putting words in my Mouth as well as Spirituality in the frame of my Mind and that suddenly unpremeditated yea sometimes contrary to matter and words design'd To clear this Experience I will give you amongst many instances the following one concerning a Friend's Distraction in a Fever for whom my design was to Petition God for his recovery but was carried out in Prayer and that powerfully too altogether for the return of their Reason without ever being able to ask one Petition for the abatement and removal of their Fever upon inquiry I found their Distraction gone off but the Fever remaining the same the return of their Reason exactly answering the time of the Supplication for it Another instance of this Experience was Concerning another Friend for whose Hâ—alth I had design'd to Petition God but found my Words in my Address to God strongly diverted from Petition to Praise blessing his Name for what he had done and that without any foreknowledge of amendment or probable reason to expect it but what I had from this powerful sudden and undesign'd utterance in Prayer Another instance of the same kind I very lately had concerning a Friend's beloved and only Child for whom I found in my self great and amazing freedom of Utterance and that by way of Praise tho' my design was to Petition God concerning it having all humane probability to expect its Death After the Experience of this Utterance in Prayer I was kept in the dark till at least ten days and then had the account of its recovery yea of its great amendment answerable to the time of the Utterance of Praising being strictly curious in the observation of the circumstance of time that none of these marvellous Experiences might afford the least doubting in their enjoyment but obtain a clear reception thereof and produce the greater establishment therein in the Soul Another instance of the Seventh Experience was Concerning some with whom I have had to do in matters of concern but at a distance from me and without any other opportunity of hearing the proceedings or success of endeavours than by Letter I have found that tho' I have design'd before the coming in of the Post to supplicate for a good account yet have not been able to say any thing at all concerning the matter answerable to which no Letter has come or other Petitions and Words concerning the matter has been Spiritually darted up to Heaven than was design'd correspondent to which the