| Another foundation-error
of those who do not acknowledge the divinity of this work is, not taking
the Holy Scriptures as whole, and in itself a sufficient rule to judge of
such things by. They who have one certain consistent rule to judge by, are
like to come to some clear determination; but they who have a dozen different
rules, instead of justly and clearly determining, do but perplex and darken
themselves and others. They who would learn the true measure of any thing,
and will have many different measures to try it by, have a task that they
will not accomplish.--Those of whom I am speaking will indeed make some
use of Scripture, so far as they think it serves their turn, but do not
make use of it alone as a rule sufficient by itself, but make as much and
a great deal more use of other things, diverse and wide from it, by which
to judge of this work. For,
I. Some make philosophy, instead of the Holy Scriptures, their rule of
judging of this work; particularly the philosophical notions they entertain
of the nature of the soul, its faculties and affections.
Some are ready to say, "There is but little sober solid religion in
this work; it is little else but flash and noise. Religion now all runs
out into transports and high flights of the passions and affections."
In their philosophy, the affections of the soul are something diverse from
the will, and not appertaining to the noblest part of the soul. They are
ranked among the meanest principles that belong to men as partaking of animal
nature, and what he has in common with the brute creation, rather than any
thing whereby he is conformed to angels and pure spirits. And though they
acknowledge that a good use may be made of the affections in religion, yet
they suppose that the substantial part of religion does not consist in them,
but that they are something adventitious and accidental in Christianity.
But these gentlemen, I cannot but think, labour under great mistakes, both
in their philosophy and divinity. It is true, distinction must be made in
the affections or passions. There is a great deal of difference in high
and raised affections, which must be distinguished by the skill of the observer.
Some are much more solid than others. There are many exercises of the affections
that are very flashy, and little to be depended on; and oftentimes a great
deal appertains to them, or rather is the effect of them, that has its seat
in animal nature, and is very much owing to the constitution and frame of
the body; and that which sometimes more especially obtains the name of passion,
is nothing solid or substantial. But it is false philosophy to suppose this
to be the case with all exercises of affection in the soul, or with all
great and high affections; and false divinity to suppose that religious
affections do not appertain to the substance and essence of Christianity.
On the contrary, it seems to me that the very life and soul of all true
religion consists in them.
I humbly conceive that the affections of the soul are not properly distinguished
from the will, as though they were two faculties. All Acts of the affections
are in some sense acts of the will, and all the acts of the will are acts
of the affections. All Exercises of the will are, in some degree or other,
exercises of the soul's appetition or aversion; or which is the same thing,
of its love or hatred. The soul wills one thing rather than another, or
chooses one thing rather than another, no otherwise than as it loves one
thing more than another; but love and hatred are affections of the soul.
Therefore all acts of the will are truly acts of the affections; though
the exercises of the will do not obtain the name of passions, unless the
will either in its aversion or opposition, be exercised in a high degree,
or in a vigorous and lively manner.--All will allow that true virtue or
holiness has its seat chiefly in the heart, rather than in the head. It
therefore follows, from what has been said already, that it consists chiefly
in holy affections. The things of religion take place in men's hearts, no
further than they are affected with them. The informing of the understanding
is all vain, any farther than it affects the heart, or, which is the same
thing, has influence on the affections.
Those gentlemen, who make light of these raised affections in religion,
will doubtless allow that true religion and holiness, as it has its seat
in the heart, is capable of very high degrees, and high exercises in the
soul. For instance; they will probably allow, that the holiness of the heart
or will is capable of being raised to a hundred times as great a degree
of strength as it is in the most eminent saint on earth, or to be exerted
in a hundred times so vigorous exercises of the heart; and yet be true religion
or holiness still. Now therefore I would ask them, by what name they will
call these high and vigorous exercises of the will or heart? Are they not
high affections? What can they consist in, but in high acts of love; strong
and vigorous exercises of benevolence and complacence; high, exalting, and
admiring thoughts of God and his perfections; strong desires after God,
&c.?--And now, what are we come to but high and raised affections? Yea,
those very affections that before they objected against, as worthy of little
regard?
All will allow that there is nothing but solid religion in heaven; but there,
holiness is raised to an exceeding great height, to strong, high, exalted
exercises of heart. Now, what other strong and high exercises, or of holiness
as it has its seat in their hearts, can we devise for them, but holy affections,
high degrees of actings of love to God, rejoicing in God, admiration of
God, &c.?--Therefore these things in the saints and angels in heaven
are not to be despised and cashiered by the name of great heats and transports
of the passions.--And it will doubtless be yet further allowed, that the
more eminent the saints are on earth, the stronger their grace, and the
higher its exercises are, the more they are like the saints in heaven, i.
E. (by what has been just now observed,) the more they have of high or raised
affections in religion.
Though there are false affections in religion, and in some respects raised
high; yet undoubtedly there are also true, holy, and solid affections; and
the higher these are raised, the better. And, when they are raised to an
exceeding great height, they are not to be suspected merely because of their
degree, but on the contrary to be esteemed. Charity, or divine love, is
in Scripture represented as the sum of all the religion of the heart; but
this is only a holy affection. And therefore, in proportion as this is firmly
fixed in the soul, and raised to a great height, the more eminent a person
is in holiness. Divine love or charity is represented as the sum of all
the religion of heaven, and that wherein mainly the religion of the church
in its more perfect state on earth shall consist, when knowledge, and tongues,
and prophesyings shall cease; and therefore the higher this holy affection
is raised in the church of God, or in a gracious soul, the more excellent
and perfect is the state of the church, or a particular soul.
If we take the Scriptures for our rule, then the greater and higher our
exercises of love to God, delight and complacency in him, desires and longings
after him, delight in his children, love to mankind, brokenness of heart,
abhorrence of sin, and self-abhorrence for it; the more we have of the peace
of God which passeth all understanding, and joy in the Holy Ghost, unspeakable
and full of glory; the higher our admiring thoughts of God, exulting and
glorying in him; so much the higher is Christ's religion, or that virtue
which he and his apostles taught, raised in the soul.
It is a stumbling to some, that religious affections should seem to be so
powerful, or that they should be so violent, (as they express it,) in some
persons. They are therefore ready to doubt whether it can be the Spirit
of God; or, whether this vehemence be not rather a sign of The operation
of an evil spirit. But why should such a doubt arise? What is represented
in Scripture as more powerful in its effects than the Spirit of God? which
is therefore called "the power of the Highest," Luke i. 35. and
its saving effect in the soul is called "the power of godliness."
So we read of the "demonstration of the Spirit and of power,"
1 Cor. ii. 4. And it is said to operate in the minds of men with the "exceeding
greatness of divine power," and "according to the working of God's
mighty power," Eph. i. 19. So we read of "the effectual working
of his power, " Eph. iii. 7. "the power that worketh in Christians,
" v. 20. the glorious power of God in the operations of the Spirit,
Col. i. 11. In 2 Tim. i. 7. the Spirit of God is called "the Spirit
of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."--So the Spirit is represented
by a mighty wind, and by fire, things most powerful in their operation.
II. Many are guilty of not taking the Holy Scriptures as a sufficient
and whole rule, whereby to judge of this work.
They judge by those things which the Scripture does not give as any signs
or marks whereby to judge one way or the other, viz. the effects that religious
exercises and affections of mind have upon the body. Scripture-rules respect
the state of the mind, moral conduct, and voluntary behaviour; and not the
physical state of the body. The design of the Scripture is to teach us divinity,
and not physic and anatomy. Ministers are made the watchmen of men's souls,
and not their bodies; and therefore the great rule which God has committed
into their hands, is to make them divines, and not physicians.--Christ knew
what instructions and rules his church would stand in need of, better than
we do; and, if he had seen it needful in order to the church's safety, he
doubtless would have given to ministers rules for judging of bodily effects.
He would have told them how the pulse should beat under such and such religious
exercises of mind; when men should look pale, and when they should shed
tears; when they should tremble, and whether or no they should ever be put
into convulsions. He probably would have put some book into their hands,
that should have tended to make them excellent anatomists and physicians.
But he has not done it, because he did not see it to be needful.--He judged,
that if ministers thoroughly did their duty as watchmen and overseers of
the state and frame of men's souls, and of their voluntary conduct, according
to the rules he had given, his church would be well provided for as to its
safety in these matters. And therefore those ministers of Christ, and overseers
of souls, who are full of concern about the involuntary motions of the fluids
and solids of men's bodies, and who from thence are full of doubts and suspicions
of the cause--when nothing appears but that the state and frame of their
minds, and their voluntary behaviour, is good, and agreeable to God's word--go
out of the place that Christ has set them in, and leave their proper business,
as much as if they should undertake to tell who are under the influence
of the Spirit by their looks, or their gait. I cannot see which way we are
in danger, or how the devil is like to get any notable advantage against
us, if we do but thoroughly do our duty with respect to those two things,
viz. the state of persons' minds, and their moral conduct; seeing to it
that they be maintained in an agreeableness to the rules that Christ has
given us. If things are but kept right in these respects, our fears and
suspicions arising from extraordinary bodily effects seem wholly groundless.
The most specious thing alleged against these extraordinary effects on the
body, is, That the body is impaired, and that it is hard to think that God,
in the merciful influences of his Spirit on men, would their bodies, and
impair their health.
But if it were in multiplied instances (which I do not suppose it is) that
persons received a lasting wound to their health by extraordinary religious
impressions made upon their minds, yet it is too much for us to determine
that God shall never bring an outward calamity, in bestowing a vastly greater
spiritual and eternal good. Jacob in doing his duty in wrestling with God
for the blessing, and even at the same time that he received the blessing
from God, suffered a great outward calamity from his hand. God gave him
the blessing, but sent him away halting on his thigh, and he went lame all
his life after. And yet this is not mentioned as if it were any diminution
of the great mercy of God to him, when God blessed him, and he received
his name Israel, because as a prince he had power with God, and had prevailed.
But, say some, The operations of the Spirit of God are of a benign nature;
nothing is of a more kind influence on human nature than the merciful breathings
of God's own Spirit. But it has been generally supposed and allowed in the
church of God, till now, that there is such a thing as being sick of love
to Christ, or having the bodily strength weakened by strong and vigorous
exercises of love to him. And however kind to human nature the influences
of the Spirit of God are, yet nobody doubts but that divine and eternal
things, as they may be discovered, would overpower the nature of man in
its present weak state; and that therefore the body, in its weakness, is
not fitted for the views, and pleasures, and employments of heaven. Were
God to discover but a little of that which is seen by saints and angels
in heaven, our frail natures would sink under it. Let us rationally consider
what we profess to believe of the infinite greatness of divine wrath, divine
glory, the divine infinite love and grace in Jesus Christ, and the infinite
importance of eternal things; and then how reasonable it is to suppose,
that if God a little withdraw the veil, to let light into the soul--and
give a view of the great things of another world in their transcendent and
infinite greatness--that human nature, which is as the grass, a shaking
leaf, a weak withering flower, should totter under such a discovery! Such
a bubble is too weak to bear a weight so vast. Alas! what is man that he
should support himself under a view of the awful wrath or infinite glory
and love of JEHOVAH! No wonder therefore that it is said, "No man can
see me and live;" and, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God." That external glory and majesty of Christ which Daniel saw,
when "there remained no strength in him, and his comeliness was turned
in him into corruption," Dan. x. 6--8. and which the apostle John saw,
when he fell at his feet as dead; was but a shadow of that spiritual majesty
of Christ which will be manifested in the souls of the saints in another
world, and which is sometimes, in a degree, manifested to the soul in this
world. And if beholding the image of this glory did so overpower human nature,
is it unreasonable to suppose that a sight of the spiritual glory itself,
should have as powerful an effect? The prophet Habakkuk, speaking of the
awful manifestations God made of his majesty and wrath, at the Red sea,
and in the wilderness, and at mount Sinai, where he gave the law; and of
the merciful influence and strong impression God caused it to have upon
him, to the end that he might be saved from that wrath, and rest in the
day of trouble; says, Hab. iii. 16. "When I heard, my belly trembled,
my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered into my bones. I trembled
in myself that I might rest in the day of trouble." This is an effect
similar to what the discovery of the same majesty and wrath has had upon
many in these days; and to the same purposes, viz. to give them rest in
the day of trouble, and save them from that wrath. The psalmist also speaks
of such an effect as I have often seen on persons under religious affections
of late, Psal. cxix. 131.
God is pleased sometimes, in dealing forth spiritual blessings to his people,
in some respects to exceed the capacity of the vessel in its present scantiness;
so that he not only fills it, but makes their cup to run over; (Psal. xxiii.
5.) and pours out a blessing, sometimes, in such manner and measure that
there is not room enough to receive it. (Mal. iii. 10.) He gives them riches
more than they can carry away; as he did to Jehoshaphat and his people in
a time of great favour, by the word of his prophet Jahaziel in answer to
earnest prayer, when the people blessed the Lord in the valley of Berachah,
2 Chron. xx. 25,26. It has been with the disciples of Christ, for a long
season, a time of great emptiness on spiritual accounts. They have gone
hungry, and having been toiling in vain, during a dark night with the church
of God; as it was with the disciples of old, when they had toiled all night
for something to eat, and caught nothing, Luke v. 5. And John xxi. 3. But
now, the morning being come, Jesus appears to his disciples, and takes a
compassionate notice of their wants, and says to them, Children, have ye
any meat? And gives some of them such abundance of food, that they are not
able to draw their net; yea, so that their vessel is overloaded, and begins
to sink; as it was with the disciples of old, Luke v. 6,7. and John xxi.
6.
We cannot determine that God never shall give any person so much of a discovery
of himself, not only as to weaken their bodies, but to take away their lives.
It is supposed by very learned and judicious divines, that Moses's life
was taken away after this manner; and this has also been supposed to be
the case with some other saints. Yea, I do not see any solid sure grounds
any have to determine, that God shall never make strong impressions on the
mind by his Spirit, that shall be an occasion of so impairing the frame
of the body, that persons shall be deprived of the use of reason. As I said
before, it is too much for us to determine, that God will not bring an outward
calamity in bestowing spiritual and eternal blessings; so it is too much
for us to determine how great an outward calamity he will bring. If God
gives a great increase of discoveries of himself, and of love to him, the
benefit is infinitely greater than the calamity, thought the life should
presently after be taken away; yea, though the soul should lie for years
in a deep sleep, and then be taken to heaven: or, which is much the same
thing, if it be deprived of the use of its faculties, and be as inactive
and unserviceable, as if it lay in a deep sleep for some years, and then
should pass into glory. We cannot determine how great a calamity distraction
is, considered with all its consequences; and all that might have been consequent
if the distraction had not happened; nor indeed whether, thus considered,
it be any calamity at all, or whether it be not a mercy, by preventing some
great sin, &c. It is a great fault in us to limit a sovereign all-wise
God, whose judgements are a great deep, and his ways past finding out, where
he has not limited himself, and in things concerning which he has not told
us what his way shall be. It is remarkable, considering in what multitudes
of instances, and to how great a degree, the frame of the body has been
overpowered of late, that persons' lives have, notwithstanding, been preserved.
The instances of those who have been deprived of reason, have been very
few, and those, perhaps all of them, persons under the peculiar disadvantage
of a weak, vaporous habit of body. A merciful and careful divine hand is
very manifest in it, that the ship, though in so many instances it has begun
to sink, yet has been upheld, and has not totally sunk. The instances of
such as have been deprived of reason are so few, that certainly they are
not enough to cause alarm, as though this work was like to be of baneful
influence; unless we are disposed to gather up all that we can to darken
it, and set it forth in frightful colours.
There is one particular kind of exercise by which many have been overpowered,
that has been especially stumbling to some: and that is, their deep distress
for the souls of others. I am sorry that any put us to the trouble of defending
such a thing as this. It seems like mere trifling in so plain a case, to
enter into a particular debate, in order to determine whether there be any
thing in the greatness and importance of the case that will bear a proportion
to the greatness of the concern manifested. Men may be allowed, from no
higher a principle than common humanity, to be very deeply concerned, and
greatly exercised in mind, at seeing others in great danger of, or being
burnt up in a house on fire. And it will be allowed to be equally reasonable,
if they saw them in danger of a calamity ten times greater, to be still
much more concerned; and so much more still, if the calamity was still vastly
greater. Why then should it be thought unreasonable, and looked on with
a suspicious eye, as if it must come from some bad cause, when persons are
extremely concerned at seeing others in a very great danger of suffering
the fierceness and wrath of almighty God to all eternity? Besides, it will
doubtless be allowed that those who have great degrees of the Spirit of
God, which is a Spirit of love, may well be supposed to have vastly more
love and compassion to their fellow-creatures, than those who are influenced
only by common humanity. Why should it be thought strange that those who
are full of the Spirit of Christ should be proportionably, in their love
to souls, like to Christ? He had so strong a love and concern for them,
as to be willing to drink the dregs of the cup of God's fury; and, at the
same time that he offered up his blood for souls, he offered up also, as
their high priest, strong crying and tears, with an extreme agony, wherein
the soul of Christ was as it were in travail for the souls of the elect;
and therefore, in saving them, he is said to see of the travail of his soul.
As such a spirit of love and concern for souls was the spirit of Christ,
so it is that of the church. Therefore the church, in desiring and seeking
that Christ might be brought forth in the souls of men, is represented,
Rev. xii. as a "woman crying, travailing in birth, and pained to be
delivered." The spirit of those who have been in distress for the souls
of others, so far as I can discern, seems not to be different from that
of the apostle, who travailed for souls, and was ready to wish himself accursed
from Christ, for others; and that of the psalmist, Psal. cxix. 53. "Horror
hath taken hold upon me, because of the wicked that forsake thy law."
and ver. 136. "Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep
not thy law." And that of the prophet Jeremiah, Jer. iv. 19 "My
bowels! my bowels! I am pained at my very heart! my heart maketh a noise
in me! I cannot hold my peace! Because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound
of the trumpet, the alarm of war!" And so chap. ix. 1. and xiii 17.
xiv. 17. and Isa. xvii. 4. We read of Mordecai, when he saw his people in
danger of being destroyed with a temporal destruction, Esth. iv. 1. that
"he rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out
in the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and bitter cry." And
why then should persons be thought to be distracted, when they cannot forbear
crying out, at the consideration of the misery of those who are going to
eternal destruction.
III. Another thing that some make their rule to judge of this work by,
instead of the Holy Scriptures, is history, or former observation. Herein
they err two ways:
First, If there be any thing extraordinary in the circumstances of this
work, which was not observed in former times, theirs is a rule to reject
this work which God has not given them, and they limit God, where he has
not limited himself. And this is especially unreasonable in this case: for
whosoever has well weighed the wonderful and mysterious methods of divine
wisdom in carrying on the work of redemption, from the first promise of
the seed of woman to this time--may easily observe that it has all along
been God's manner to open new scenes, and to bring forth to view things
new and wonderful--such as eye had not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered
into the heart of man or angels--to the astonishment of heaven and earth,
not only in the revelations he makes of his mind and will, but also in the
works of his hands. As the old creation was carried on through six days,
and appeared all complete, settled in a state of rest, on the seventh; so
the new creation, which is immensely the greatest and most glorious work,
is carried on in a gradual progress, from the fall of man, to the consummation
of all things. And as in the progress of the old creation, there were still
new things accomplished; new wonders every day in the sight of the angels,
the spectators of that work--while those morning-stars sang together, new
scenes were opened, till the whole was finished--so it is in the progress
of the new creation. So that that promise, Isa. lxiv. 4. "For since
the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear,
neither hath the eye seen, O God, besides thee, what he hath prepared for
him that waiteth for him." Though it had a glorious fulfilment in the
days of Christ and his apostles, as the words are applied, 1 Cor. ii. 9.
yet it always remains to be fulfilled, in things that are yet behind, till
the new creation is finished, at Christ's delivering up the kingdom to the
Father. And we live in those latter days, wherein we may be especially warranted
to expect that things will be accomplished, concerning which it will be
said, Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things?
Besides, those things in this work, which have been chiefly complained of
as new, are not so new as has been generally imagined. Though they have
been much more frequently lately, in proportion to the uncommon degree,
extent, and swiftness, and other extraordinary circumstances, of the work,
yet they are not new in their kind; but are of the same nature as have been
found, and well approved of, in the church of God before, from time to time.--We
have a remarkable instance in Mr. Bolton, that noted minister of the church
of England, who after being awakened by the preaching of the famous Mr.
Perkins, minister of Christ in the university of Cambridge, was the subject
of such terrors as threw him to the ground, and caused him to roar with
anguish. The pangs of the new birth in him were such, that he lay pale and
without sense, like one dead; as we have an account in the fulfilment of
the Scripture, the 5th edition, p. 103, 104. We have an account in the same
page of another, whose comforts under the sun-shine of God's presence were
so great, that he could not forbear crying out in a transport, and expressing
in exclamations the great sense he had of forgiving mercy and his assurance
of God's love. And we have a remarkable instance, in the life of Mr. George
Trosse, written by himself, (who, of a notoriously vicious profligate liver,
became an eminent saint and minister of the gospel,) of terrors occasioned
by awakenings of conscience, so overpowering the body, as to deprive him,
for some time, of the use of reason.
Yea, such extraordinary external effects of inward impressions have not
been found merely in here and there a single person, but there have been
times wherein many have been thus affected, in some particular parts of
the church of God; and such effects have appeared in congregations, in many
at once. So it was in the year 1625, in the west of Scotland, on a time
of great outpouring of the Spirit of God. It was then a frequent thing for
many to be so extraordinarily seized with terror in hearing the word, by
the Spirit of God convincing them of sin, that they fell down, and were
carried out of the church, and they afterwards proved most solid and lively
Christians; as the author of the Fulfilling of the Scripture informs us,
p. 185. The same author in the preceding page, informs of many in France
that were so wonderfully affected with the preaching of the gospel, in the
time of those famous divines Farel and Viret, that for a time they could
not follow their secular business: and, p. 186. of many in Ireland, in a
time of great outpouring of the Spirit there, in the year 1628, that were
so filled with divine comforts, and a sense of God, that they made but little
use of either meat, drink, or sleep; and professed that they did not feel
the need thereof. The same author gives a similar account of Mrs. Katharine
Brettergh, of Lancashire, in England, (p. 391, 392.) After great distress,
which very much affected her body, God did so break in upon her mind with
light and discoveries of himself, that she was forced to burst out, crying,
"O the joys, the joys, the joys that I feel in my soul! O they be wonderful,
they be wonderful! The place where I now am is sweet and pleasant! How comfortable
is the sweetness I feel, that delights my soul! The taste is precious; do
you not feel it? Oh so sweet as it is!" And at other times, "O
my sweet Saviour, shall I be one with thee, as thou art one with the Father?
And dost thou so love me that am but dust, to make me partaker of glory
with Christ? O how wonderful is thy love! And O that my tongue and heart
were able to sound forth they praises as I ought!" At another time
she burst forth thus; "Yea, Lord, I feel thy mercy, and I am assured
of thy love! And so certain am I thereof, as thou art that God of truth;
even so certainly do I know myself to be thine, O Lord my God; and this
my soul knoweth right well!" Which last words she again doubled. To
a grave minister, one Mr. Harrison, then with her, she said, "My soul
hath been compassed with the terrors of death, the sorrows of hell were
upon me, and a wilderness of woe was in me; but blessed, blessed, blessed
be the Lord my God! he hath brought me to a place of rest, even to the sweet
running waters of life. The way I now go in is a sweet and easy way, strewed
with flowers; he hath brought me into a place more sweet than the garden
of Eden, O the joy, the joy, the delights and joy that I feel! O how wonderful!"
Great outcries under awakenings were more frequently heard of in former
times in the country than they have been of late, as some aged persons now
living do testify: particularly I think fit here to insert a testimony of
my honoured father, of what he remembers formerly to have heard.--"I
well remember that one Mr. Alexander Allen, a Scots gentleman of good credit,
that dwelt formerly in this town, showed me a letter that came from Scotland,
that gave an account of a sermon preached in the city of Edinburgh (as I
remember) in the time of the sitting of the general assembly of divines
in that kingdom, that so affected the people, that there was a great and
loud cry made throughout the assembly. I have also been credibly informed,
and how often I cannot now say, that it was a common thing, when the famous
Mr. John Rogers of Dedham, in England, was preaching, for some of his hearers
to cry out; and, by what I have heard, I conclude that it was usual for
many that heard that very awakening and rousing preacher of God's word,
to make a great cry in the congregation.
TIMOTHY EDWARDS."
Windsor, May 5, 1742.
Mr. Flavel gives a remarkable instance of a man whom he knew, that was wonderfully
overcome with divine comforts; which it is supposed he knew, as the apostle
Paul knew the man that was caught up to the third heaven. He relates, that
"As the person was travelling alone, with his thoughts closely fixed
on the great and astonishing things of another world, his thoughts began
to swell higher and higher, like the water in Ezekiel's vision, till at
last they became an overflowing flood. Such was the intenseness of his mind,
such the ravishing tastes of heavenly joys, and such his full assurance
of his interest therein, that he utterly lost all sight and sense of this
world, and the concernments thereof; and for some hours knew not where he
was, nor what he was about; but, having lost a great quantity of blood at
the nose, he found himself so faint, that it brought him a little more to
himself. And after he had washed himself at a spring, and drank of the water
for his refreshment, he continued to the end of his journey, which was thirty
miles; and all this while was scarce sensible: and says, he had several
trances of considerable continuance. The same blessed frame was preserved
all that night, and, in a lower degree, great part of the next day; the
night passed without one wink of sleep; and yet he declares he never had
a sweeter night's rest in all his life. Still, adds the story, the joy of
the Lord overflowed him, and he seemed to be an inhabitant of another world.
And he used for many years after to call that day one of the days of heaven;
and professed that he understood more of the life of heaven by it, than
by all the books he ever read, or discourses he ever entertained about it."
There have been instances before now, of persons crying out in transports
of divine joy in New England. We have an instance in Capt. Clap's memoirs,
(published by the Rev. Mr. Prince,) not of a silly woman or child, but a
man of solid understanding, that, in a high transport of spiritual joy,
was made to cry out aloud on his bed. His words, p. 9. are, "God's
Holy Spirit did witness (I do believe) together with my spirit, that I was
a child of God; and did fill my heart and soul with such full assurance
that Christ was mine, that it did so transport me, as to make me cry out
upon my bed, with a loud voice, He is come, he is come!"
There has, before now, been both crying out and falling, even in this town,
under awakenings of conscience, and in the pangs of the new birth; and also
in once of the neighbouring towns, more than seven years ago, a great number
together cried out and fell down under conviction; and in most of whom there
was an abiding good issue. And the Rev. Mr. Williams of Deerfield gave me
an account of an aged man in that town, many years before that, who being
awakened by his preaching cried out aloud in the congregation. There have
been many instances, before now, of persons in this town fainting with joyful
discoveries made to their souls, and once several together. And there have
been several instances here of persons waxing cold and benumbed, with their
hands clinched, yea, and their bodies in convulsions, being overpowered
with a strong sense of the astonishingly great and excellent things of God
and the eternal world.
Secondly, Another way that some err in making history and former observation
their rule instead of the Holy Scripture, is in comparing some external,
accidental circumstances of this work, with what has appeared sometimes
in enthusiasts. They find an agreement in some such things, and so they
reject the whole work, or at least the substance of it, concluding it to
be enthusiasm. Great use has been made to this purpose of many things that
are found amongst the Quakers; however totally and essentially different
in its nature this work is, and the principles upon which it is built, from
the whole religion of the Quakers. To the same purpose, some external appearances
that were found amongst the French prophets, and other enthusiasts in former
times, have been of late trumped up with great assurance and triumph.
IV. I would propose it to be considered, whether or no some, instead
of making the Scriptures their only rule to judge of this work, do not make
their own experience the rule, and reject such and such things as are now
professed and experienced, because they themselves never felt them.
Are there not many, who, chiefly on this ground, have entertained and vented
suspicions, if not peremptory condemnations, of those extreme terrors, and
those great, sudden, and extraordinary discoveries of the glorious perfections
of God, and of the beauty and love of Christ? Have they not condemned such
vehement affections, such high transports of love and joy, such pity and
distress for the souls of others, and exercises of mind that have such great
effects, merely, or chiefly, because they knew nothing about them by experience?
Persons are very ready to be suspicious of what they have not felt themselves.
It is to be feared that many good men have been guilty of this error; which
however does not make it the less unreasonable. And perhaps there are some
who upon this ground do not only reject these extraordinary things, but
all such conviction of sin, discoveries of the glory of God, excellency
of Christ, and inward conviction of the truth of the gospel, by the immediate
influence of the Spirit of God, now supposed to be necessary to salvation.--These
persons who thus make their own experiences their rule of judgement, instead
of bowing to the wisdom of God, and yielding to his word as an infallible
rule, are guilty of casting a great reflection upon the understanding of
the Most High. |