CHAPTER W. 177 ordinary influences from the Spirit' of prayer in our day, yet we ought not to deny them utterly.; for God bath no where bound himself not to bestow them : the chief ends, for which immedi- ate inspirations were given, are long; ceased among us where the gospel is se well established: yet there have not been wanting instances in every age of some extraordinary testimonies of the Sprit of God to the truth of the gospel, both for conviction of unbelievers, and for the instruction, encouragement, and conso- lation of his own people. In the conversion of a sinner, the Spirit'.s work is usually gradual, and begun and carried on by providences, serinons, occasional thoughts and moral arguments, from time to time, till at last the man is become a new creature, and resolves heartily to give up himself to Christ according to.the encouragements of the gospel.' Yet there are now and then some surprizing and sudden conversions wrought by the over- powering influences of the holy Spirit; something like the conversion of St. Paul. In the consolation of saints, the Spirit generally assists their own minds in comparing their hearts with the rule of the word, and makes it "appear they are the children of God, by finding the characters of adoption in themselves; this is his ordinary way of witnessing;' but there are instancrtn when the Spirit of God bath in a more immediate manner spoken consolation, and constrained the poor trembling believer to receive it : and this bath been evidenced tobe divine, by the humility and advancing holiness that bath followed upon it. So it is in prayer: The ordinary assistances of the Spirit, given in our day to ministers, or private christians, in their ut-, most extent, imply no more than what I have described in the foregoing chapter : but there are instances wherein the Spirit of God harp carried a devout person in worship far beyond his own natural and acquired powers in the exercise of the gift Of prayer, and raised him to an uncommon and exalted degree of the exer- cise of praying graces, very near to those divine impulses which the primitive christians enjoyed. if a minister in a public assembly has been enabled to make his addresses to God with such a flow of divine eloquence, and varead the cases of the whole assembly before the Lord in such expressive language, that almost every one present bath been ready to confess, surely he knew all my heart ; if they have all felt something of a divine power attending his words, drawing their hearts near to the throne, and giving them a taste of hea- ven ; if' sinners have been converted in numbers, and saints have been made triumphant in grace, and received blessed advances toward glory : I would not be afraid to say, surely God is in this place present with the extraordinary power and influence of his Vat, v M
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