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'2SO
ORDINARY
WITNESS
OF
THE
SPIRIT.
[nisc.
xr.
need
of
divine
assistance in this work
of
self-
examina-
tion.
And
therefore it
is,
that
though
we
are commanded
to search
ourselves,
yet
we
have the examples
of
saints
in the scripture,
that
desire the
Spirit of God
to
search
them too.
With what
zeal
and fervency
Both
holy
David
intreat that God
would
search
him. See
Ps.
cxxxix.
3,
24. when
he
had been examining
his
own
heart
in
the
two
former
verses, he
concludes, Search
me,
O Lord,
and try me.
As
we
cannot
work grace
in
our
own
hearts,
so,
in an
hour
of darkness,
we
cannot
clearly dis-
cover
that
grace
that
is
there, to the
full
satisfaction
of
our
consciences, unless the
same
Spirit
that
wrought
it,
is
pleased
to
reveal
it
to
us by
his assisting influences:
It
is
by
observations and
assistances borrowed from
the
sun,
that
hour
-lines
are
drawn
on a
sun -dial,
and they
abide there
in
the dark
;
but
we
cannot
find
what
hour
of
the day it
is,
unless the sun shines
upon
those
hour!-
lines
:
So
grace
in
the heart
is
wrought
by
the Holy
Spi=
rit, and
it
abides
still even in the
darkest
night
of
tempta-
tion,
when
once the Spirit
of God
has
wrought it there,
it
shall never
be -quite
lost;
for the seed
of
God
remains.
But
the
soul
cannot
discern it
clearly,
so as to
take
com-
fort
from
it,
in an
hour of
darkness
;
unless the Spirit,
like the
sun,
dart
his
beams
of
light into the
soul,
and
discover
his
own work.
Therefore,
a
great writer
of
practical
divinity,
Mr.
R.
Allein,
expresses
it,
"
As
the
Spirit
seals
us, by
being the
mark
of
the
Lord
upon
us,
so he
witnesses,
by
being
the light
of
the
Lord
within
us,
whereby
we
come to discern
the mark
of
the Lord upon
us."
As
lIagar
in
the wilderness
did
net
see
the
foun-
tain
of
water,
though it
was
near
her,
till
"
God opened
her
eyes
;" Gen.
xxi.
19.
so
the springs
of
divine
life
and
holiness, which the Spirit
of God
has
raised within our
-souls
are
sometimes, as
it
were,
hidden
from
the
soul
itself
till the
Spirit
shew
it
to
the believer,
by
assisting
his
enquiring
faculties,
and
shedding
down a divine
light.
this leads
me to
The
second thing proposed
:
And
that
is,
to
shew
the
method
by which
the
Spirit generally
works in
this assist
-'
inr
testimony.
1.
He
Both
it
by
stirring
up the
soul to a most
diligent
search,
and
making it unwearied
in
this
toil
and
labour
of
self
-
examination.
I
call
it labour
and toil, for
by
3