their Duty perform'd never seriously question in themselves whither any other thing than there petition of words in such serious a manner as the strength of Education and others discourse concerning God's greatness had brought them to was either necessary or actually in their Prayers or ever examin'd after Prayer was over whether it had return or not How this way of living should train a Soul to the experience and knowledge of access to and enjoyments with God in Prayer I know not speaking as to God's common way of bestowing such comfortable priviledges purchased by Christ for us To instruct you therefore from the Experience of God with my self O prophane and meer professing Christians I would with much sincerity and love 〈◊〉 â—ur selves beg your steps in the following 〈◊〉 When you are designing any matter or endeavouring the interest of this or the other mean to bring forth your purposed end resolve to address the Lord by Prayer for his guidance of you to the use of right means and his blessing the means to bring about your design unless inconsistent with his Honour and your Interest And if you are hinder'd from solemn Address make use of your Thoughts and dart them up to him with the same Petitions Mind not only the words in your solemn Prayer and your thoughts in Ejaculation but consider the frame of your Mind in both whether serious or not if as serious as when speaking to this or the other help to carry on your design at your first enterance I suppose not your acquaintance with spirituality of frame and if your frame be thus serious mind the issue of your affair if it be according to your Desire and Prayer impute not your success altogether to your outward help of this mean and the other but let Heaven's Blessing accompanying your diligent use of means have room in your Thoughts if not as chief yet as necessary and therefore you will improve this passage thus observ'd with a resolution to address God more seriously than ever in your next undertaking and accordingly perform your serious Prayer to him for his Divine Assistance which meeting with a sensible return you will improve with a more fixedness in your resolution to Petition him in all your after-concerns and with giving of him now the place of principal Agent with your means which will lay a foundation not only for a resolution and performance of Prayer and that seriously to God in all Occurrences but make a fair step towards the founding a Faith of Reliance upon God yea an endeavour of pleasing God to interest your selves in his favour and a perusal of the Scriptures to know the Will of God and the way of doing it and going on in this way of Prayer and Observation with such suitable improvement you know not neither is it in the power of the greatest exercise of a rational Soul to foresee or imagin aforehand what great and mysterious things may be laid before you to observe to wit of a Christian's advancement from the first step of Seriousness to a Reliance upon God as the alone power to be trusted to with such means he allows of and has witnessed his pleasure in by working with them for the bringing about such Events as are sought from natural strength by others but by them in Petitioning the Agency of his Power I don't mean by repeating of Words by way of Form and Rule given you in your Education but thorough a sense of the great advantage of his favour and a sincere desire to obtain it a carrying out of your desire with thoughts and words suitable to the present height of your longings which lays you in the way of meeting with the breathings of Christ's Spirit to help your infirmities and to raise your frame to such a posture of heavenliness as you never knew before unless by the hearing of the ear and will soon unfold what a dark state you have been in that all the seriousness you had in Prayer was no other than the strength of education and that there is something else in the Christian Religion you have never yet been senble of more suitable to the feeling of the Soul than to the utterance of the greatest Orator on earth The Spirit of God has express'd in the Scriptures these Mysteries in a stile suited to our understanding but when the same Spirit bears them home to the sensible feeling of a Christian what addition is given to the Christian's understanding of them and true Faith in them I go not therefore about to express these experienced Mysteries in a better stile for your understanding but to put you in a way of obtaining their experience upon your Souls by the working of a Divine Spirit in the use of common means You lose your labour in endeavouring to understand them in their saving efficacy by your natural reason without the help of a Divine Spirit and his internal Revelation What can better unfold or express the breathings of Christ's Spirit upon a Soul in its holy frame and performance of any Religious Duty than its resemblance to the blowing of the wind upon our Bodies which though sensibly felt yet is mysterious as to the parts of the Heavens from whence it blows or the way of its blowing upon us In like manner though the Spirit of God breathing upon a Soul in praying to God comes often suddenly like a gale of wind refreshing the Soul's dead frame with a ravishing heavenly life and power thoughts desires and all the affections being then carri'd heavenward like a Ship towards its Harbour with sweet delight therein and an actual undervaluing of the richest treasures and pleasures on earth in the balance with this comfortable sweetness for the time enjoy'd the continuance whereof would afford the Soul a Heaven on earth yet the Spirit of God in the excellency of his Divine Nature and in his method of thus changing the frame of the Soul is incomprehensible by the reach of human reason and to the experienc'd Soul there is but a discovery of him in his blessed effects and operations and a sight of him through a Glass darkly till that blessed change pass upon them and they obtain a perfect meetness to see and to understand him as he is No wonder therefore the prophane or meer professing Christian attempting to comprehend God's Word as to the work of the Spirit of God in planting Grace or watering it with constant influences to keep it in exercise find themselves at a loss how to understand it and therefore never feeling its effects upon their Souls either look upon it as Chimaera and the Being of the Spirit of God or his blessed operations of converting and spiritualizing a Soul to be only Notions of a melancholy Brain How many are there at this day who mock at the Spirit of God and the Divinity of our Blessed Redeemer and ridicule expressions of fellowship with him as canting discourse for they never receiv'd the precious
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
you met with therein and the Strength you had to resist them and that in answer to your Ejaculatory Prayer 3. Reflect upon the Issue whether it was freedom from being overcome by its Temptations and that in return to ejaculated Thoughts for Divine Strength to preserve you before entrance in it or at the time you were engaged with it The Improvement of which Reflections must needs be A Resolution to enter no Society but when under the constraint of lawful Business or Recreation and even then with an eye to God in the use of Ejaculatory Prayer either aforehand or while in Conversation for Strength to resist Temptations that may either endanger occasions to sin or of losing a spiritual Frame Fourthly Reflect upon the Failures of the Day and what you have let pass unobserv'd what Failures in your Business and Conversation have appear'd If the eye of God has been as much regarded as the eye of the World If the opportunity of Secresy has not clouded your fear of God If you have kept your Tongues with a Christian Bridle from Lying in telling Stories to divert Companions or as Excuses for Faults From Self-commendation with an inward design to disparage others From censuring others especially Christians and picking out somewhat in their life to make a discourse of to disparage their Profession rather than endeavour their amendment by acquainting themselves therewith And whatever in your Reflection you find has been amiss herein let particular acknowledgment be made that with the Psalmist you may thereby escape the punishment of your particular Sins and vow not to repeat it and tho repeated by you forbear not your Resolutions and Endeavours against it your unwilling breaches reflected upon will bring you soon out of your selves to a Redeemer and to cry for his Spirit to apply strength to your Souls to resist In reflection upon the passages of Providence through the day and upon the strength conveyed by a Divine Spirit to your Souls evident not only by your spiritual Frame in the Duties of the day but in the Improvement of its Providences by eying God in bringing them about by regarding his Will in the use of Means and trusting to him for Events with a constant watch to ejaculatory Prayer against the Temptations of Company In reflection thereupon arises a fair and comfortable discovery of your being under three blessed Conducts of God's Word Providence and Spirit and is laid before you as your last Evening-duty e're your head lies down upon your Pillow a private Prayer blessing God for the discovery of his Love in his Word Providence and Spirit blessing him particularly for each particular step therein and begging his further grace to be upheld in those means wherein he is pleased to discover so much of himself in strength and comfort to the Soul above what is attainable by other helps or comforts in this life Give therefore your selves up to God for conduct thorough the night that if your eyes should never open more upon this earth your Redeemer may find you laid at his Footstool as the last performance of your life and may raise you up to that glorious dignity of being embraced into Abraham's bosom a blessed issue to such comfortable endeavours And however tedious this Directory may seem in its reading yet I dare witness to this truth that the person in the greatest hurries of outward Affairs has time enough for this easy work it being easily to be intermixt in the throng of Affairs and the more Affairs are laid in your way the greater opportunity you have to observe God's Providence and his Spirit and that built upon his blessed Word as a Mean of keeping up the sense of God's Love in your Souls and the sense of your love to him that so Communion with God may be your Life on earth which will make you live comfortably and dye triumphantly I can do no more but lay the way before you and the Lord himself give you strength to chuse it and to walk in it FINIS
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
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
powerfully to pray for strength to resist the temptations of reproaching others either through the natural tendency thereto the common example of others or out of the tempting-design of self-applause in the disparagement of others and answerable hereto marvellous strength of Christ's Spirit was afforded me with special Providences discovering this spiritual strength accompanied with the bearing home upon my thoughts that of St. Matthew chap. 7. ver 12. All things whatsoever you would that men should do unto you do you even so with them That then I could not but observe my self against my own corrupted inclination and others example preserv'd from this too natural and common Vice even of lazy and professing Christians who by the actual remembrance of this very passage might be an excellent means to preserve them from the malignant infection of reproaching others Fifthly I experienc'd a wonderful strength to pray for a continued sense of God's All-seeing Eye as well in Conversation as in the performance of Religious Duties suitable to which not only awful thoughts of his Majesty approach'd in Duties preventing Distraction therein seiz'd me but even a powerful awe of God affected me in common and private Actions always considering any Circumstance in the Action as might destroy God's accepting thereof especially as to Acts of Charity wherein I have found such a watch over my self as I could not have been satisfied without strict enquiry Whether unwillingliness was not in the action Whether some desire of applause or only pity and natural tenderness were not the Motives of this charitable action and nothing then has been more pleasing than to find that a willingliness to obey God's Command on purpose to please him in the compassionate relief of others a chearfulness without the least intermixture of reluctancy a sincerity without the least desire of its being known were the ingredients of the Duty I desire to witness the difficulty of thus performing actions without great and actual influences of strength from above the reception whereof is often obtain'd by that blessed means of solemn or ejaculatory Prayer wherein the Spirit of Christ intercedes for his People The same Spirit of Prayer imprest upon me a sense of God's all-seeing Eye and that Scripture was continually in my Thoughts Of doing all things as unto the Lord the constant remembrance whereof I have found greatly advancing that Gospel-perfection of an unfeigned sincerity both in converse with God in Holy Duties and with one another in common Actions and Discourses Sixthly I can tell you that at another time I have been powerfully helpt to Petition for the exercise of love to God and answerable to this I have been helpt in Prayer and in worldly Business to draw forth kindlers of Love to God from all sensible circumstances of my self and others even from the poor in the Streets both as to their poverty and imperfections of Body blessing the Lord with sweet exercise of Love to him yea this Grace of Love to God has been excited from the observation of fulness and prosperity in some but with great emptiness of the inward comfort of the experiencing Christian's Soul for sensual pleasures divert their Thoughts from the observation and enjoyment of what is much more to be valued in their Nature and lasting in their Duration At this very time happening to be alone in a Coach remarking such kindlers of Love from circumstances of others appearing in the streets suddenly and strongly this suggestion forc'd it self upon my mind How was it That God did show such special favour to me beyond others yea to make me differ so much from my self in former times with amazing Thoughts of the change upon my Soul and immediately that Scripture over-awed me from corrupt rational arguing or from Satan's darkening or deviateing me from right Conceptions of God and his Ways I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion from whence happened such quiet of Mind as has by the blessing of God still'd my Thoughts perfectly as to that great point of Election which is the great effect of free unmerited Mercy and in the use of means brings the children of Mercy safely to salvation This warmly excited my Love to God having an evidence of my share in his Electing Mercy by the inseparable effects of it the work of Grace begun in me and preparing me for the Heavenly Glory A Seventh Experience was When altogether insensible of the growth of Faith and when the Lord by a marvellous method was to establish it in my Soul even then I observ'd for some considerable time that I was carried out in Prayer and Meditation with zealous Affection that the Lord would turn my Eye and trust from sensible things to a trust and reliance upon God himself as to all outward things and as to the inward advancement of Hâ—liness as a mean tending to future Salvation answerable to which God has discovered himself marvellously in the steps of outward Providential Dispensations and by the inward workings of his Spirit as means of founding and establishing this Grace of Reliance in my Soul which I hope shall be increasing in the use of means till Faith obtain its perfect end the Fruition of God in Glory And tho' I hope I may say in Humility that my Soul is raised above sensible things to look to things unseen and to set my Esteem and Reliance with comfort and satisfaction upon them independently upon worldly things yet I am asham'd for the small growth of Reliance in me and that greater improvement therein has not been the fruit of the infinitely wise and condescending method of God's goodness in training me to live by Faith in his Promises and Perfections Experience of God's Method in training me to the first sense of Reliance with its further establishment and growth and that exactly as they are set down in Record in my Diary THE first Experience leading me to observe God's following Method with me was that of carrying me forth in Prayer to petition establishment of Faith in my Soul which begun most remarkably after a Fit of Sickness and has continued to be upon my Mind in all my Suits greater or lesser since that and I hope will continue to the end of my Militant Warfare A second Experience leading me to Reliance upon God was by removing all dependance from these outward fabulous Passages reckoned as ominous of such and such certain Events which undoubtedly were at first the effect of ignorance of the true God amongst the Heathen World who notwithstanding the discoveries of God in his Nature and Providence by visible things the Effects of his Power yet natural things keep first in their view and had the preheminency of God in their minds and hearts And though we enjoy the discovery of God in his Word and Providence so plainly yet how do we retain the example in reducing those things to Natural Causes that are to be appli'd
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
Scripture accompanied with great power to repel risings of Corruption towards Revenge and perfectly to quiet my Mind with a Reliance upon God concerning the matter The first Experience whereof met me in the Streets where hearing of a false and unmerited Aspersion upon my self at whose hands I deserv'd better immediately a design of Revenge was rising and was carried further on by meditating upon it till coming home and entring my Chamber and taking the Bible in my hands that very Scripture was offered to my View and by the influence of Heaven made an assisting-instrument of quiet at the time and ever since a strong help to watch my self in the like case Its suitableness to my circumstances its effectual power restraining me from complying with Satan and inward Corruption and inclining and enabling me to obey God whose Will is declared in his Word was a testimony that a gracious Providence brought that Scripture to my sight Ninthly When Reproaches against me and malicious Designs had a probability of taking effect and have been turn'd into other Events against the Design Wish or Expectation of my Enemies then that Scripture of the 11th verse of the 41st Psalm By this I know thou favourest me because my enemies triumph not over me has been not only confirm'd but imprest upon me with much inward Comfort At one time the whole 15th Psalm was bore upon my Thoughts with that strength and continuance that I was continually desiring Conformity to it and measuring my Actions by its Rule till God gave into my Soul the Evidence of some measure of Conformity to it with other spiritual Comforts at that time A multitude of other Scriptures have been applied to my Soul at the times of needing Comfort and Instruction but they would enlarge my Discourse too much and might occasion a discovery of the Author and therefore I chuse rather to stop here having enumerated so many as afford a Testimony to the reality of Christ's Spirit applying to the Precepts and Promises of the Word and bearing home Scripture Truths as instructive to instruct and remember us of our Duty and encourage us to persevere in it till we arrive at Heaven Experiences of God's Spirit 's sensible withdrawings in Prayer from helping the Christian to ask what he will not return though in his design to Petition THe First Experience whereof was That though I had designed to have Pray'd for an event yet in the Prayer I have not directed a Petition for it and though I have intended in the performance of that Duty several times to Pray for it I have been restrain'd Secondly When one day I designed to renew my Requests to God for obtaining a matter in my morning's Supplication my desires were fervently excited but in the afternoon I was much restrain'd and in some hours afterwards my Soul was drawn forth earnestly to seek it and upon enquiry I found that the three different alterations in the matter that day and the different times of the alterations exactly suited the times of different Prayer To illustrate which I 'll give you one instance amongst many concerning a Friend whose Circumstances I put up to the Lord three several times in one day and suitable to my great enlargement for them in my Morning-Prayer were much better but suitable to my Afternoons constraint were for some hours in racking misery and suitable to my return in spirituality in Prayer for them there was a return of mercy in their relief the circumstance of time exactly suited one another that there was a refreshment from Pains and a return of them according as Prayer was intense and enlarg'd or restrain'd of which I made careful Observation Thirdly Another Experience of constraint from Prayer has been concerning a matter which all circumstances considered was very likely to succeed but not finding my Heart in a frame to pray for it I suspected the issue and accordingly it was not effected An instance thereof was concerning the dearest Relation I had on Earth who being Sick for 6 weeks I was restrained from Prayer with Reliance upon God for restoring Mercy and the issue was the Death of that Beloved Person for whose recovery thorough the course of their Illness I could never put up one serious Petition Two very late passages I can set down greatly establishing my self and marvellous in themselves One was concerning a Person of great Worth of whose Death I had information in all probability certain but being in the Street all alone I found my self enlarged to pray for their Soul's Salvation and that with marvellous Pleasure as if I had been assuredly certain of their future eternal Happiness and being afterwards in serious Prayer I found the same sweetness as I have enjoyed in Spiritual Breathings from above upon this I humbly said to one who was my Bosome-friend I was not of the opinion that the Person I pray'd for was dead and imparted my Reason hereof That the Lord by his Spirit had help'd me in sweet spirituality to supplicate for them Accordingly we had an account of the Person 's being better but the next morning following I found such a restraint from Praying for that Person that I then said to my Friend That the Person was Dead and that very account we had presently after The other passage was Concerning one to be Executed for whose Salvation I found my Affections very ardently drawn forth in Prayer to the Father of Mercies but in Prayer for his Life my Desires were dried up and my Tongue did as it were cleave to the Roof of my Mouth Three times I found this change in my self being always carried out with fervency and freedom to Pray for his Soul but restrain'd and discourag'd to Pray for his Life observing this difference in my self I told an intimate Friend That I had good hope of his eternal Salvation but no hope of his Pardon The issue was the Condemned Person was Reprieved for two days and was afterward Executed and at his Death his Behaviour was so humble and Christian that the Minister that attended him declared his great satisfaction that he died a Penitent Believer Many instances of the same kind I could set down but I shall only add the following instance I was going to see a Friend that was Sick and addrest my self to God in secret Prayer before I went but a kind of terrour seiz'd my Mind and Words stopt that I could not offer up one Petition in any seriousness or with any hopes of being heard for recovery And going to see the Person found that they had been dead some time before This was a discovery to me that the Holy Spirit does often withdraw his Assistance to Ask for that which he knows God will not bestow Experiences of God's Method of training me to the serious aweful and delightful hearing of Sermons FIrst by suiting Sermons upon a Sabbath unexpectedly to things my Thoughts have greatly ruminated on through the week and by bearing home instruction
will with Heat contend for their Opinions in things that are not clear nor of great moment as if they were Fundamental Doctrines There are some Christians that have not only the life of Grace planted in them but the liveliness of Grace they are working and watchful to prevent any impression and taint of Evil from the Contagion of the World wherewith they are encompast And they are watchful unto Good they are ready to exercise every Grace in its season and by a continual Derivation of strength from Christ they are preserved from sinful Errors and irregular Passions Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ has paid the price of our Redemption and that we may have an interest therein and enjoy the Priviledges thereof as evidence and earnest of Heaven God has appointed means whereby we may obtain this Blessed end means that are suitable in their use to rational and lapsed Creatures in their human capacity such as exclude boasting in ourselves and of Presumption Licentiousness and security in a carnal Conversation these means are prescrib'd in the Gospel as Prayer Meditation Hearing and the Participation of the Lord's Supper These are the Sphere of the Holy Spirit 's Activity in these we draw near to God and he draws near us By these means Christ with all his saving Benefits is applied to Souls By these they are revived from the Death of Sin and restored to the favour and Image of God They live in Communion with him and are confirmed thereby against the Temptations of the Evil Spirit who rules the World Those who neglect the holy and constant use of these means whether from the delusion of their Minds or the corruption of their Hearts will find that Darkness is their guide and the issue of their way will be fatal and destructive Let me therefore apply the foregoing Narrative thus There are some Professors that have knowledge in an eminent degree and are of a fair unblemisht Conversation by the advantage and impression of Education but are strangers to the inward power of Godliness as ignorant Heathens Let such duly consider the Case and neither despair for the Divine Spirit can quicken them nor delay the serious and diligent use of means which God has made effectual for the Conversion and Salvation of others Let them observe both the outward Providences of God and the inward Workings of his Spirit and apply themselves to God in the Ordinances both private and publick that they may receive renewing Grace of God and be preserved from destructive Evils If a Notional Knowledge of God's Word and an unblemish'd outward Conversation be no real Christianity no certain Testimony of Real and Saving Grace How utterly void of it are the Prophane To them I would give this Counsel Not to be averse from Serious and Real Religion upon the account of some Professors who have only a name to live but are dead or from a conceit that the Christian Religion is so extremely rigorous as to deprive us of all Natural Comforts or upon the account of different Opinions in the Christian World but to remove all Prejudices and to endeavour to understand the Gospel to believe the Doctrines to obey the Precepts of it and then they will find Christianity to be more than an outward Profession a serious Divine Principle regulating the Heart and Life and that it is to be obtained of God by every sincere Seeker of it and that it allows the temperate Use of Natural Comforts and only forbids the licentious Abuse of them whereby men become most unlike God and are like the beasts that perish And the lawful sober Enjoyments of Nature are consistent with the Joy of the Holy Ghost in the hearts of the Saints which is infinitely more satisfying and lasting than all the Pleasures of Sense for which so many lose Heaven and are condemned to Eternal Torments If Christianity and its Power may be really felt in the Soul and yet damp'd by the too long intermission of the Means of Grace and clouded by the admixture of too much of self producing a kind of Christians lazy in the obtaining the continued Power of Christ's Spirit in their Souls and so are in danger both of long intermissions of fellowship with God and breaking of fellowship one to another more dishonouring God than either the mere Professor or Prophane who never experienc'd the Reality and Comfort of True Christianity To such I would apply this Exhortation Not only to be in the Right Use of Means but in the more Continued Right Use than ever formerly for undoubtedly if the Means of Grace be the ways by which he walks and by which he communicates to Believers to the truth whereof all experiencing Christians will put their Seal then the oftner Christians walk in those ways the oftner and the more they receive both of Knowledge and Comfort from God which undoubtedly is the reason why some real Christians go beyond others in the knowledge of his ways and are in the more close walking according to the Rule of his Word with more inward Fellowship with God both in the Means of Grace and common Conversation That therefore the Word of God the doubting whereof being one great occasion of Error and Vice may be experienc'd as Truth and the means leading thereto given forth I shall previously lay down Two Propositions the first Instructive the other Cautionary The first is That all the Children of God in their Pilgrimage-state are under Three sorts of Conducts The first is that of God's Word the Foundation of our Faith and the Infallible Rule by which we are to judge of all Doctrines of all our Experiences and all the Passages of Providence The second is that of the Divine Spirit who according to the Promise of Christ instructs us in all Saving Truth by the Word and brings it to our remembrance to guide us safely to Heaven The third is that of Divine Providence sometimes enlightning what seemed dark in the Word of God and in the Actings of Christ's Spirit but founded upon his Word of Truth and agreeable to both though the dispensations of Providence are no Certificate of God's special love to men yet we are assured by the Scriptures that there is a peculiar tender Providence of God that regards his Children which is declarative of his special Love and by a serious observation of it their Duty and Comfort will be encouraged and improved Secondly Cautionary Not to limit the Spirit of God to any particular way or time of working in the Soul either in planting of Grace or its further growth Though by observation of outward Providences God was pleased to bring me to the first serious sense of my self and to a dependance upon God for Life and for Salvation and by marvellous steps of his outward dispensations joined with the inward Workings of his Spirit he has begun and increased a gracious Change in my Soul yet he has used various methods in the Conversion and Sanctification of
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
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
earth it attains not to know so much but upon strict observation in the continued use of Means more and more Mysteries would be imparted No wonder the Apostle's different Christians grown from others by a capacity of discerning good and evil and that by the habitual use of observation and experiencing God's ways with the Soul if therefore you find others express what you have not felt accuse not them but censure your own neglect especially if upon the review of your life you have not been acting with an exact observation and improvement of knowledge of God in his Word outward Providences and inward workings of his Spirit I think it not amiss to subjoin to this Reproof and Advice an Experience concerning my self and the very Saint thus reproached I once being importuned to assist in a particular matter a more than ordinary willingness to it seiz'd me in the undertaking whereof a successful Issue occur'd and great benefit to the person that importuned whose Poverty and Goodness I had no discovery of though greatly known to others but was under a surprizing force to refuse their grateful Acknowledgment And hapning about an hour after to unbosom my self to this Saint amongst other things I imparted this Passage with a wondring at the meaning of such a surprizing willingness to the action and unwillingness to accept of reward though Duty oblig'd me to it when no other Motives to the contrary appear'd To which he gravely answer'd You shall receive it as a reward of this action sixty-fold by God's imparting himself to your Soul this day but be not concern'd though a disquiet follow it before you sleep This then in my account run like Prophecy especially after its fulfilling our Discourse being about eleven in the forenoon About two in the afternoon in a Chamber all alone such enlargement of Soul such sudden ravishing and heavenly affections with an unexpressible delight seiz'd me with amazement in my self to observe the first part of his Assertion made out But about nine at night there came a Penny-post Letter to my hands from one whose Malice prompts them with false Accusations to asperse me and that express'd in such bitterness that it greatly did disquiet me and going immediately with it to him he with Modesty and Concern repli'd That the Devil had been at the penning thereof His foresight of these two such different Effects consequential to this action was neither by Prophecy nor Revelation but purely from his strict and constant observation of God's ways round himself in the like case and though then it seemed strange to me hardly being able to forbear from thinking of something prophetical in it yet since by observation I may say often or never falls out a voluntary lively Act of Charity without the least of self and much of God in it but great spirituality of frame has followed and after this one disquiet or other has fallen out yea often I may say always as yet at the time of this fellowship an apprehension of some succeeding disquiet is in my thoughts Those that have reproach'd his Writings would have been as ready to have reproach'd this Experience of him as Melancholy unless they had been strict observers of God's ways with themselves I do believe that every Christian had not met my passage with the same return and that none but those who by use are made discerning of good and evil had been capable of what I find he was Be humbled therefore lazy Christians and think of others better than your selves and not of your selves above what you are by aspersing each other You encourage those who know nothing of inward Religion to keep out from trying its Enjoyments and others to mock at Experimental Christianity Alas Is so much of the depth of God's Ways to be known by years Observation and this time made use of to rack Thoughts to explicate Events notionally altho' the Psalmist himself found it too painful for him to explicate the inequality of Providence without God's Word yet our Land abounds with such Deists who to destroy the Being or necessity of Revealed Religion or of a Holy Spirit as helps in the use of means exalt Reason alone and expunge all things incomprehensible by it as Fancy or Chimera as well as the Christian treated of expunge Injoyments obtain'd beyond others in a constant and close walking with God as Enthusiastical Some I am apt to believe affect this way of high Pretensions to Rationality when at the same time they are greatly distant from its Exercise either to obtain a Character of being Learn'd or a liking in Society by Rhetorical Conversation or to draw Followers after their Notions and they to appear as Primate thereof You that have rational Souls improve your Reason more for God's Service and your own Interest the more Rational the more capable of improvement with the blessed helps of God's Divine Word Providence and Spirit Place your Knowledge in Divine Things upon his Word as the foundation and learn to establish it by the observation of his Providence and Spirit confirming it to you and then I dare say there will need neither Rhetorick nor Division to keep up the Christian Religion in its Power amongst its Professors You are too weak to comprehend the Mysteries of the Gospel put forth never such acuteness of Judgment without the powerful Influences of Christ's Spirit opening the Eyes of your Understanding and fixing your Faith therein by your Experiencing its Truth in your Souls such clear knowledge and establishment appears as resists all the fanciful and erroneous Notions of others yea such unspotted Conversations as may engage others to your way and to be Members of Christ's Mystical Body here on Earth I have with great concern known some Christians weak in Learning but strong in the knowledge of Experimental Religion clearly understanding an Event of Providence yea rejoycing in an Event outwardly afflicting when a Learned Wit could neither comprehend the meaning of the one nor free himself from disquiet under the other How often may you hear some unacquainted with Experimental Religion but greatly knowing in Notional Divinity mightily applauding a Sermon itching their Ears with a Rhetorical style and Philosophical arguing And others mean in Learning and worldly Reputation but well acquainted with inward Religion esteeming this same Sermon an empty noise and the Preacher a feeder of his Flock with airy Notions that have neither solidity nor comfort in their relish and will lead them in no other Path than that of a meer Notional Knowledge as a Bate to be catch'd by the Errors of this Age. If Ministers and People were more close to the use of means whereby God's Truths might be Experimentally felt both would see far less need of adjoyning the high flight of Notions in Pulpits or in Conversation for its establishment in their Souls I think it in our day a more advantageous Sermon and a more necessary Book that leads Christians to the use of such
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
rational Comprehension than the other I don't therefore much wonder at the prophane or meer Professors who have no other sense of Divine Things than what is Notionally imparted and comprehended by them My greater admiration is That Christians indeed who feel the certainty of what others have but heard of Notionally and much more than can be exprest by any should not be more endeavouring the witnessing for God's Truth in Preaching Printing and Conversation and less for the setting forth of their own Parts or Notional Controversies not so material in our day where the Truth of God's Word is so much exposed and struck at A Third Motive to this Duty of Observation is That it is no hindrance to your worldly Business or lawful Pleasures but rather by fixing your Thoughts upon an adjutant to your ordinary means even a Divine Hand and Blessing you may conform to his Will and receive the reward of such a Duty The Experience of Christians discover that a laying aside anxiety of Mind and hurry of Body and a laying the matter before God with the diligent use of means occuring in their way obtains more business better success and greater Peace and Comfort both in the way of obtaining it and its after-enjoyment than when they ey'd nothing else besides natural Contrivances which when mightily made use of is apt to lead a Man beyond true sincere Uprightness and their diligent lawful Industry unless for some special end of cutting down a Corruption or for some differences of the temper of the Mind God's Method differs with the Soul but whatever difference be in his Method it will end in the same delight easie endeavour and discovery of Mystery I add nothing more to this Motive being it belongs also to the other means to be mentioned which tho' commonly talkt of yet not so Experimentally treated of nor Practised in such a manner as bring in Knowledge of God and themselves or afford that inward Comfort that might be attained thereby Let therefore your observation be general as to all the steps of God's Providences round your Bodies and Soul and you will see God in all and may be brought to rely upon him for all and have discovered such a Mysterious Work as the implanting and growing of Grace in your Souls yea you may be led to more than ordinary fellowship with the Godhead with the discovery of such steps as even other Christians have never been admitted to or have let slip in their reflection and improvement of and thereby be made more capable of witnessing for God than others and better judges of meetness for Heaven than otherwise you should have been and all this without hindering your lawful Business but rather with less anxiety of Mind and hurry of Body yea with greater success and more inward comfort without confining you from Pleasure unless it run to an extream either of being Sin it self or the occasion endangering you to Sin The Second mean you are desir'd to be in the use of to bring you into the knowledge of Experimental Religâ—on and thereby the certainty of God's Word and of his Ways with the Soul against Errors abroad and Darkness within is that of Prayer In this very Duty did I first understand the meaning of Fellowship and Communion with God of Divine Influences Spiritual Emanations spirituality and heavenliness of Frame which are words mockt at by the Prophane in our days and was unintelligible to my self while only under the instruction and power of Education and must be incomprehensible to all others under the meer profession of Christianity let their outward Behaviour be never so innocent and their Duties never so gravely perform'd to the obtaining a name on Earth While I was under the power of Education I seldom miss'd my set times of Prayer with as grave a gesture as now at this day and my concern us'd to be more for neglect of Prayer than for not performing it aright but after the Eying of God in all things by the mean of observation of outward Providences I began to think that if I would have God's favour acting and shining in any passage concerning me I ought to ask it and in asking by Prayer to do it with a real design and desire of obtaining it First of all I found a seriousness therein like unto the sincerity and unwanderings of one Man's speaking to another to obtain any favour but soon after I was carried beyond this with an awful Sense of the Majesty of God who behov'd to be of great Might to bring forth all Things and to act in all Things so visibly as I had observ'd and with such height of sincerity and heavenliness of Mind that my Thoughts darted upwards as with Wings the same time my Words were exprest and that with such pleasure of Mind as I had never observed before in Prayer all my delight formerly having been that I performed and not miss'd my times of Prayer but according to my usual time and way had the satisfaction of doing it and so from this went on as I have described in the Experiences concerning Prayer I know there are many prophane Creatures whose Education perhaps has not been Religious and so this Duty of Prayer has never been enforced upon them They live without the sight of God in his common Providences and therefore are the less mov'd to call upon him by Prayer for his favour in them unless in a pinch of extremity where by the very light of Nature and the power of their Conscience they are forced to lift up a Petition to him but perhaps without any apprehension of God at the time or concern of seeing their request brought forth in a discovery of him in passages of Providence bringing it about or in a way of return to that Petition their concern chiefly running upon the Deliverance whatever way it come But alas there are others amongst whom I was and for whom I am now under great concern and for whose sake I have so particularly exprest the steps of going off from formality in Prayer to its spiritual and right performance and from my Soul I wish have and shall beg of God that what I am to say concerning Prayer might influence their Minds with a sense of their State and a desire to be out of it in the right use of these few means They are such who have had Religious Education who profess the Christian Religion even in a stricter way than others who perform all outward acts of Worship with outward Gravity who are free from known Vice and still from no other Principle than either that of Parents instruction and example fear of offending them or of reproach from others but void of inward seriousness of Mind in the Service of God yea in hearing Ministers or Christians express in Duty or out of Duty Communion with God Divine Emanations and the like apprehend the Words without any inward sense of their meaning and as little desire after it or
mock at such words as too familiar and inconsistent with the greatness of that Majesty we approach unto in Prayer not knowing experimentally the Mercy of God as well as his Power the Wisdom of God in expressing his own Mysterious Truths by Words inferiour to the Mysteries but proportioned to our weaknesses as well as the condescending steps of God with a poor guilty Creature in first planting Grace in the Soul and I am confident not knowing experimentally what a heavenly frame in Prayer is for then when the Soul is in a ravishing spiritual posture words of this kind are forc'd to drop from their Mouths and there is more satisfaction in the Soul and greater acceptance with God from a familiar style to him influenc'd by his Divine Spirit than from a whole Prayer of another where distance appears either from the words fine style therein or length of Prayer but unspiritually perform'd Yea from this very principle of Education there are some who have an outward sincerity and from thence an inward satisfaction in their Profession with a resting in their knowledge and practice as all the Religion to be obtain'd with good hopes of their state for Heaven without ever doubting either their profession or security for Heaven There are others under the power of Education alone who tho' unspiritual in their Minds in Prayer yet upon any failure of their set times are really uneasie and dissatisfied especially the breach of their continued custom And as it is for these my concern is greatly put forth so it is with those that many times greatest difficulty is to reclaim It is well known how deeply are fixt the Impressions of Education and that nothing but a spiritual working of Christ's Spirit is able to blot them out or to impress them a-new upon which very account Childrens Education with true Notions of the Christian Religion can never enough pay their Obligation to such Instructors it being an excellent preparation for renewing the practical impressions of the same Notions upon their Hearts as well as upon their Brains In a word Religion is between God and the Soul and according to the heavenliness or un-heavenliness of the Temper and frame of the Soul so a thought word or action in Duties or out of Duties is either acceptable or unacceptable to God Before therefore you leave off the Errors of Education to a right notion and performance of Prayer you are first of all to be convinced of what is Erroneous and then of what is True and Right First Therefore a laying too great a weight upon a particular place for the performance of Prayer is an error of Education I know there are some so strictly addicted to Prayer in a Church that neither earliness nor lateness will obstruct their Custom herein as if it were a circumstance material in God's account It is not against Prayer in a Church that I set my self to oppose but the great stress some from Education are pleas'd to lay upon it I do believe that if others were as painful to bring their Minds into a serious posture as these are by retrenching their natural Rest in a morning retiring themselves from Diversion through a day or at an evening to have their Bodies in the Church at the times Prayer would be better known and much more pursued in its right performance than at this day For my own part if my Soul be right with God it is neither to House or Church I affix my self but the place I can be most private in either from the diverting sight of others or their discomposing noise and if I have opportunity of choice no place is more grateful to me than that in which I have had greatest enjoyments of God in Prayer Privacy I greatly value from an unwillingness to expose my self to the Censure of Shew and Applause or a Prayer acceptably performed to the mocking of some finding it impossible to restrain my self from more than ordinary flood of words and from a more than ordinary audible voice when the LORD is pleas'd to raise my affections above my ordinary frame The reason of chusing a place favour'd with God's presence to my Soul is that the memorial thereof may excite the greater endeavour after it and former Experiences may be one of my pleading Arguments for it This is abundantly suitable to the example of David who would often say Psal 42.6 That he remembred the hill Hermon-Missar and other places which were remarkable to him from the rich entertainment of God's presence in them from all which I drive only thither to make you know how little the consideration of Place Prayer is performed in avails in God's account or comforts the Christian's Soul within whatever customary performance or outward applause afford Privacy is recommended from Christ's own example who would retire to the Fields on that very account yea part then from his own Disciples and constant Companions And truly the more serious a Soul is the more willing to be from all and to center all his thoughts upon his dear God If therefore any labour under this failure of Education let me advise against it unless on the account of better performance of Prayer and because I hope there are some who on this very account give strict example thereof let me advise all from censuring such an Action the doing of it for a greater meetness for fellowship with God in Prayer makes it a Circumstance congruous to a well-perform'd Duty but the Circumstance of pleading for it in Conversation and fixing it upon others from a liking of the way argues it rather an Error of Education than a Circumstance experienc'd in themselves helping forward their seriousness with God for though to some it may have this advantage yet to my self it could not have the seeing of any before or with me in any performance of private Prayer proving many times visible hindrances Secondly A laying too great weight upon punctual keeping of set-times to pray is an Error of Education There are many in no other state of Christianity than that of its meer Profession and outward Acts of Worship who with marvellous strictness perform the set-times of Morning and Evening-Prayer purely from the Rule of Education but still at a loss what communion and fellowship with God in Prayer means I accuse not their praying at set-times but Professors confidence therein as evidence of their religious state or their Prayers right performance David's set-times of Prayer are instanced in his Book of Psalms and I hope there is not any experiencing Christian on earth at this day who slights their appointed seasons of private Prayer to supplicate the Lord's conduct from morning till night and from evening to morning yea by observation of continued Mercies through the day are kept in a posture of Soul fitted to ejaculate Praise and by observation of continual Wants fitted to ejaculate Supplication throughout the whole course of the day and so kept in obedience to that Divine
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
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
best preparation for preaching and that according to his frame in Prayer in the Lord's-day morning such was the frame of his heart in preaching I have my self found that according to the holy exercise of my affections in my Closet-Prayer such has been my enjoyment of God in publick Ordinances and especially in receiving the Sacrament The Professors of serious Religion but especially Ministers are more in the view of the world and more obvious to Censure therefore they should be very regular in their Conversations and watchful to prevent reproach upon Religion If a Divine Spirit once meet you in the use of these three means you will find that whereas you have formerly enjoyed the good things of this world without thankful thoughts of the bestower of them and of his rich mercy distinguishing you from others in a lower condition and without serious consideration that they are Talents committed to your trust to be improved for his honour and for which a strict account must be given you will by the observation of God's general and special Providence acknowledge him to be the Fountain of all your blessings and depend upon his condescending care of you in the use of due means and employ his benefits for his glory a sweet effect of observation You that pray'd because by Parents you were instructed commanded and had their example to move you to it will find that now you pray in obedience to God's Command as the blessed mean of acquaintance and fellowship with him and that if you express your self with never so free and learned utterance you are uneasy unless the frame of your minds has been serious and your affections heavenly and spiritual and you have some hope that he is pleased with your performance and has evidenced his acceptance There are not only many who are not at the pains to use means to come to such a comfortable knowledge but who will hardly observe whether ever they enjoyed the return of such a Prayer unless the return has come in soon after or in such a remarkable way that they could not but see it was a return to that Prayer by reason of which negligence God is sometimes pleased to defer a desired return but at last in compassion to his Children gives a remarkable Answer that deeply affects them and is for their great advantage You that read the Scriptures because your Parents led you into the road of a Chapter morning or evening or for the historical part thereof or to be knowing in the Notion of it for Conversation now find that your use of it is a mean for the right knowledge of God the comprehension of his Divine Truths and as a Directory to your life and as a help to your evidences in comparing your life to it and as a preservative from infectious Errors You that heard Sermons and appear'd serious all the while for fear of Reproach or to obtain a good Name without any thoughtfulness of the matter discours'd unless to pass a judgment of the ingeniousness or dulness of the Preacher and to entertain Company with Reflections upon the matter or manner of his Preaching find now such an inward change that every Sermon is transmitted to your hearts thorough your ear producing a Reflection upon it and a comparing it with your own experience I think nothing can be more pleasing than in hearing a Minister or in reading a Chapter to be able to seal the truth of either from our experience Instead of examining the words of a Sermon as to the Rhetorick you now mind the matter it self not so much if learnedly manag'd as to consider whether you have experienced its Truths which will he a comfortable evidence to the Soul or if you have not felt its efficacy it will excite earnest Prayer to God that he would make the instruction powerful in you O how reproving is this of the Prophane who slight the constant attending to the preaching of the Word it being unknown to them when and how God may work by it upon their hearts the neglect of a Sermon may be the loss of an eternal Blessing You that before converst about Religion in the Letter and Notion speak now your own experience You that aim'd at Reputation for your knowledge in Divine Things now design Honour to God and the Confirmation of the reality of revealed Religion You that aimed at worldly Interest now you aim at the enlarging of Christ's Kingdom where greatest Sâ—ncâ—rity reigns Self applause is least valued and greatest privacy sought for unless where God may be publickly honour'd The great and solemn judgment at the last day will pass sentence of Condemnation upon many whose character on earth was not disputed and were reputed holy and will acquit those whose fellowship on earth was with God and yet traduced as Hypocrites You that before ript open the Faults of others either from a corrupt Principle of reproaching inherent in the very nature of some more than others or from a desire of raising your Reputation by the depressing others you 'll compassionately bear with the infirmities of others knowing your own frailty You who before affected only such Professors as were of your own Opinion will now extend your Charity to all who believe the great Truths of the Gospel and live accordingly Can the World imagine otherwise but that those who press hard after strictness of Conversation by avoiding all liberty that may be an occasion to Sin have not the same natural corrupted Inclinations and Principles as others but they are cleansed and changed by power from above A rational Principle produces a rational Action A sensitive Principle produces a sensitive Action A corrupted Principle produces a corrupted Action A gracious Principle produces a gracious Action according therefore to the dominion of the inward Principle so the outward Action is or at least the Inclination towards it The Soul formerly under a Principle of Sin was enclin'd to sin and upon the occurrence of any Object to set this a moving the Soul was acted but now under the dominion of a Principle of Grace upon the occurrence of any good Object the gracious Inclination is active and with greater pleasure than under the power of the carnal Principle Prophane persons and strangers to the life of God are utterly mistaken to think that the Actions of the spiritual life are not mixt with the sweetest and most satisfying delight The outward Acts of Religion if they are not produced from a Principle of Life are without relish and toilsom to the carnal Nature but â—lowing from an inward and real Principle they are productive of the most solid and purest pleasure in the present exercise and in the joyful reflection and are the beginnings of heavenly fruition I have thought that to represent this with the greatest illustration is of no force without a method proposed to bring it to men's Experience that Proverb reigning amongst prophane and meer Professors That seeing is believing let therefore
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
all his ways more strictly and pray more frequently and fervently and read and hear the Word with more application they will feel the power of Godliness reviving in their Souls and will shew forth the beauty of Holiness in their Conversation which will be convincing of others that Religion is a Divine disposition productive of fruits suitable to it A holy habit of Soul may be preserv'd in the business and diversions of the world by our constant converse with Heaven every day You have two excellent motives to this Exhortation First Because it may be done without any hindrance to your business and lawful diversions How easie is it in the morning before you enter into worldly Affairs to read a Chapter with Pool's Annotations and to give your selves and all your concerns by Prayer to the conduct of a Divine Hand to direct and succeed your lawful Endeavours How easie is it thorough the day while in the midst and course of your lawful business to direct an ejaculatory desire Lord Let my endeavour be according to Duty on my part and accompanied with a discovery of Mercy in the Event and according to the many endeavours you are active in throughout a day so many Ejaculatory Petitions in a serious frame to be repeated which you 'll observe to issue in great inward Knowledge and perhaps great success to business as an occasion of turning your many and various Ejaculatory Petitions to one solemn Duty of Praise in the evening How easy is it in an evening in your Shops or Closets to record that in such an endeavour you were kept serious with God in your thoughts and you were blest accordingly The remembrance whereof will make you ready in all your Affairs to pray for the Divine Blessing and depend upon God in doing your Duty and thankful for his succeeding your endeavours The second is That this constant looking to God in Prayer ejaculatory or solemn with the use of means will enable us to perform the works of our ordinary Callings with less trouble to our Mind and toil to our Bodies This will cure the anxiety of our Minds concerning the Event and consequently make us more moderate and orderly in the use of means It is the anxious desire of obtaining an Event the great fear of losing it that sets peoples minds on the rack to contrive means and their Bodies on the hurry to use these means and how often does unsuccessfulness accompany both Whereas by Observation of God the Governor of all things access to him for his favour in any thing is discovered to the Soul and that the dutiful use of means is successful by his favour when the eager pursuit of a desir'd thing has been ineffectual This has been verified to all by many Experiences and therefore shall add this Advice as the sum of all To use means with the same diligence as if by them alone without a Divine Hand Events were to be obtain'd To eye God with a reliance upon him for Events as much as if they were to be brought forth by him without the use of means By which Rule I would reprove the Censures against God's Children who from their dutiful diligence in business without the intermixture of pleasure in fear of losing providential opportunities in it are reputed Covetous And advise others to judge themselves by their inward aims if conform to God's Will and whatever be the Censure of Men they thereby prevent the condemning sentence of Christ the Redeemer and Judge It is neither the Character or Censure of any that ought to bound our Endeavours but the being in Duty or out of Duty and the regarding of the Lord in all our ways Reflections that must naturally follow the perusal of what is written First THAT the Author having felt such Experience of an inward change upon his Soul without any other hand of his own therein than the use of the means above recited Ought I not to believe there is a Knowledge above human Judgment and a power above natural Strength for otherwise he had continued in the same ignorance of God then appearing sufficient knowledge wherein he was involv'd for many years tho' enjoying the outward dispensation of the Gospel Secondly That it was but suitable to Christian Affection in him to endeavour that others may tread in the same steps with the same success especially finding some Ministers in their Sermons to run from plainness and experience to Rhetorick and Notion and finding the care of Christians more to run out upon arguing the Notions of Religion than the confirming Divine Truths and the establishing the Minds of others by the Seals of their own Experience If experimental Religion was more Taught in Sermons and Discourst of amongst Christians the performance of Holy Duties wherein it 's obtain'd would not be thought a meer fancy and the light and beauty of Grace would more shine in the Church of Christ A Third Meditation ensuing upon the second may be Whether you have not some longings after the same establishing Experiences If you have these longings may be kindled by the consideration of their being attainable I was once so carnal as only to look to things seen and thought the Reliance upon an unseen Superiour power to be a vain imagination but God in his excellent Mercy has convinc'd me beyond all doubt of his governing Providence that disposes of Events for the good of those who wait upon him and the same goodness will be extended to all that sincerely seek his face for ever We must regard the Word as our Rule the Spirit as our Guide to direct us by that Rule and the Dispensations of Providence correspondent to that Rule and we shall be preserv'd from the Atheistical neglect of God and from the fancies and phrensies of those who pretend to Inspiration from above and from doing those things which are directly and scandalously contrary to the reveal'd Will of God O that Christians would earnestly pray for the Holy Spirit that by his directing-light they may understand the Scriptures and by his warm impressing them on their Hearts they may feel their cleansing and comforting power but truly Christians in our day are not much concerned to mind and try the work of God in their own Souls nor seek after knowledge of him by his Operations in others The Observations of our selves and the Communion of Saints are rare Duties We live at a distance from our selves and in converse with others the subject of our discourse is the present World or Notional Religion which occasions Dissention and Faction whereas the mutual communicating of Christians to one another what God has done for their Souls and how variously according to their wants their desires their sorrows and fears he has attempered his Dispensations would be an excellent means to raise their admiration of his condescending and compassionate Goodness and of his Wisdom and establish their joyful trust in him Fourthly If you have any longing and find it
begin your Morning Duties with reading a Psalm or a Chapter by Pool's Annotations observe the Words and Sentences thereof that impress your minds most with serious advertency to them observe the thoughts that thence arise at the time if tending to explain what formerly you were ignorant of if tending to establish you in what formerly you had the knowledge of if tending to make you resolve you 'll conform to it or if tending to comfort you as having walk'd conform to it and thereby discovering your self in the reading such a Portion of Scripture Thirdly Enter upon private Prayer with a serious Acknowledgment of God's Favour in conducting you through the Night and with a sincere Supplication to him for his conduct thro' the Day by his special Providence and Spirit that from the evidence of both thorough the Day you may discover his special Favour to your souls as a comfortable evening Cordial and that by his supplies of Grace throughout the day you may be enabled to bring forth the blessed Improvement of both by the exercise of Trust in and Love to the Godhead for life and salvation Observe your frame of soul throughout this Prayer observe if it continue in the same degree of seriousness throughout the whole or vary according to the various Petitions put up Observe and record the different Frames and different Petitions Fourthly Go forth thus prepared to your lawful Business and Conversation In your Business through the day observe First The Passages of Providence that seem to bring Undertakings to your hand Secondly Observe your own Endeavour in the use of Means And Thirdly The Event of each Undertaking In your Conversation through the day observe 1. The Occasions of your Entrance into it whether Idleness Lust within Necessity or Recreation 2. The Frame of your Mind while in it whether on your watch against the evils thereof And 3. The Issue of it whether freedom from or commission of Sins But now in the evening of the day Reflection according to the Observation and Record of the day is the Duty preceding your last Closet Prayer and to be recommended to your practice Perform it in the following Parts First Reflect upon the frame of your Souls that you observ'd in the morning whether by the Duties of Reading and Prayer it was not brought to a seriousness if observ'd to be unserious or to a greater seriousness than the degree of seriousness at first observ'd yea perhaps to great Heavenliness The improvement whereof must needs be that it is good to draw near to God in the Duties he has prescrib'd and a fix'd resolution to walk therein and perhaps daily continuance may bring in daily additions of the Enjoyments of Grace and preserve the Christian in daily heavenliness of Soul as Bulwark against all the Temptations of the day with Honour to God and great inward Peace Secondly Reflect upon the passages of Providence round you through the day and First of all compare them to the parts of the Scripture you read in the morning and to the Thoughts that then most imprest your Minds to see whether or not these passages of Divine Providence afford you some discovery of the reality of that part of the Scripture thus observ'd establishing your Faith in it The improvement whereof must needs be a resolution to go on in the same Duty of reading the Scripture in the morning before the entring upon the business of the day and perhaps there will arise to your sensible Experience greater knowledge of God's Word than ever yet has been observ'd by you in the enjoyment of outward Instruction yea such establishment to its truth and reality as could not be brought forth by the strongest arguings of the most Learn'd and into which the strongest Dart of Erroneous Sophistry can never pierce enabling your Soul not only to see the Reality but even Harmony of God's Word to his Providence and Spirit Secondly Compare the Providences of the Day to your Morning-Duty of Closet-Prayer to the Petitions therein put up and to the frame of Soul you were then under that you may discover what Passages of Providence seem to be afforded you in return to Prayer and what Frame your Soul was in and what was your Utterance in that Prayer or part thereof that was return'd The improvement whereof must needs be a discovery of the Certainty of Access to God by Prayer and a Desire to be always in that Frame wherein you was when you pray'd that Prayer that is so visibly return'd It will help you to see a difference between one kind of Prayer and another between a Prayer with our own Spirit and with the Spirit of Christ between a Prayer with the Spirit of Christ enabling to ask sincerely and a Prayer with the Spirit of Christ giving the Soul the comfortable sense of it as such and discovering the Reality of a Divine Strength above our selves both bringing the Providences of the day to us and bringing forth the improvement thereof in us by a gradual advancement of relyance upon and love to the free Grace of God in Christ by whose satisfaction this once-seal'd Fountain is open'd and by whose Spirit its Waters of Spiritual Life continually flow upon us and in the use of Duties apply'd to us Thirdly Reflect upon your own way of managing Business and Conversation with others that so you may not only discover a special Providence round you but the actings of a Divine Spirit within you and that by comparing First Your Frame of Soul to the Passages of Providence laying Undertakings in your way through the day reflecting whether God was observed in bringing them about as a discovery of Divine Strength in you carrying your observation beyond the enjoyment even to God himself Secondly By comparing your Frame of Soul to your method of using Means and managing Endeavours thus providentially laid in your way not only whether God was regarded therein laying Providences in your way or helping you to observe him but whether your concern run out chiefly upon doing Duty neither designing ill ends nor endeavouring to bring about any purpose in the use of ill means but regarding Duty to him in all Thirdly Compare your Frame of Soul to the Events of such Undertakings thus providentially laid in your way and thus faithfully managed by you if they are according to expectation or better than expectation Reflect whether exercise of the Grace of Love and Faith were not and ought not to be brought forth by such a Discovery and a fix'd resolution to keep on in the same lawful use of means with a trust to Divine Supply for Events as full evidence of the working of Christ's Spirit in your Soul and of your being under his Spiritual Conduct In Conversation with others 1. Reflect upon your Entrance to it whether its occasions were Necessity and innocent Recreation with a previous Address for Divine Conduct in it 2. Reflect upon your Carriage in it thus prepared the Temptations
means by which much of God's Spirit may be communicated to their Souls and thereby God's Word experienc'd as certain and their Reliance upon it as the foundation of their Faith evidently to themselves and others brought forth Such I say seem more necessary than the Sermon or Book inlarging upon a Divine Truth with such fine Oratorical and Philosophical Style as may itch the Ear of the Christian with establishment of its own Notions in Religious Theory and of the illiterate with an opinion of the Preacher or Writer's great and learned Gifts indangering both through obtain'd applause not only of Pride but of keeping Reason out of its due place and if this has not brought forth many unneccessary Heats at this day I am greatly mistaken Reason is that noble Principle distinguishing us from all other inferiour Creatures and tho' Corrupted yet capable of being restor'd to greater Perfection and Stability than when Man was Created at first perfect but capable of falling God has made provision of suitable helps to advance and to bring forth this Perfection but the Pride of Corrupted Man is such that as at first it prompted him to affect an Equality with God so now it prompts him to the vain imagination of himself as sufficient without Divine helps to regain his perfect State and obtain by his own knowledge the understanding of all necessary Divine Truths and by his own strength the performance of all necessary Duties And if this has not brought forth the undervaluing of Reveal'd Religion by the Deists the undervaluing of Christ by the Socinians and the undervaluing of a Divine Spirit exposing him as no help neither his Spiritual Influences as strength to work out our Salvation by I am as much mistaken Experimental Religion cuts off all these difficulties For the more a Christian observes of himself in his experienced failures the less room and lower station self-strength obtains in his Affections the more he finds of Christ's Spirit unexpectedly and powerfully bearing home Scripture-Truths to his personal experience formerly unacquainted with tho' often Notionally heard of the lower esteem Reason must have as by its self incapable rightly to understand Gospel Mysteries And tho' in our day we have some so openly confident as in Print to tell us That nothing is Mysterious in the Gospel against God's own Word the Seals of Martyrdom and against the Experience of all the Saints of the Earth endeavouring thereby to act Factorship for Satan by whose pleasing suggestion of Mans Reason and Strength in himself to be relied on without any other help to believe or to do what is necessary for the obtaining Heaven hereafter and a secure undisturb'd quiet of Mind here I must believe that that Creature has never yet been under any other discovery of Gospel-Truth than what was the effect of notional Knowledge and that continuing in the same State he can hardly expect to be a Member of that Triumphant Society whose Eternity will be taken up in the Admiration and the Praise of that Mysterious method of Redeeming Man from a state of Corruption and Misery to a state of Perfection and Glory above the prospect whereof we only now enjoy darkly through a Glass and yet the views thereof that upon this Earth we sometimes experimentally have are known by all Experiencing Christians both to be Mysterious far above Nature's foresight or enjoyment through it self and rendring the Creature unexpressible astonishment in its approach upon the Soul though the Protestant Nations abound with such Errors yet they neither derogate from God and his Word or afford darkness to Christian Professors who have experienc'd the reality of both upon their Souls but expose themselves to them as Christians certainly ignorant of God and his Word whatever fine Notional Flourishes in Print or Discourse they express and also draw forth Christians pity towards them and help Believers to advance their praising God who has made them in the use of means to differ from others Experimental Religion makes us become as little Children and esteem our selves so low as to lay all our depraved Faculties at God's Footstool and using them not alone by way of Reliance but with the help of God's Divine Spirit in the use of means We have for many years enjoyed so much of the Gospel but alas in Notion only that I have stood in a maze to hear the Discourse of some illiterate People concerning the Notions of Christianity and to see their Zeal debating their Preachers Notions with that hear as if they had been throwing Fire-Balls one to another till Fire has been kindled amongst Assemblies of Professors when at the same time experimental Religion has never been called in as a help to unloose their difficulties At the time of hearing some such differences my own Experience in Christianity has made me discover that either their Debates could be resolv'd in various Words or that if means made use of by God as helps to the People or Preachers Soul for their experiencing of Divine Mysteries had been more prest upon the People with that enlargement which their own Experience might have afforded no such Debates would have risen and People and Preachers should be better known in our day and whether God's Honour the establishment of his Truth self-applause or outward Interest were at the foundation of such hot Zeal When once in the use of means a Christian finds the evidences of Sanctification he shall then make the current of his Zeal run towards further evidence of its reality and further growth in it advising others not to debate whether Justification or Sanctification precede whether certain Conditions must precede qualifying to be united to Christ or union to Christ before any thing of Holiness in our nature appear but to walk in the use of God's means and in them to obtain the application of Christ and all his Priviledges by the help of his blessed Spirit and so both Conditions themselves and a renew'd State by your Union to Christ may sensibly appear at the same time By the observation of the means thus blessed and the steps of advancement in this newness of Nature is brought forth not only establishment to themselves but a capacity of instructing and comfirming others upon surer ground than that of stretch of Wit and Notional Theory Our Debates concerning Free-Grace and Works carry along with them too much of Self and too little of Divine Experience and I 'm sure too much of fiery Constitution the experienc'd Christian finds enough in himself to keep both in their just Bounds according to Scripture Rule and imagines the Debates unneccessary and bringing forth of no other Fruit than that of Faction Dishonouring God and exposing Christianity as uncertain to those that are ignorant thereof The Experiencing Christian finds that the more of the Free-Grace of God in Christ appear in his Experience the more love to God is kindled in his Soul the more of true Sanctified Love the greater desire he