The progressive experience of the heart, under the discipline of the Holy Ghost, from regenaration to maturity
iillH(i«iM|M*MMii|«^^ *a:^SS^SS5Sa$&-;^^*SS5>S!sS'S§=K :3SIVE M^PERrENCE 4 i ^: ■ ^=^r ■'-7 liilMpMPPMpiii^^ Mi^i^^^^^^^ L^j&:^.^^^^^'»S£S'S[^S;iei^.'^r£$^d!<^<f;;^«S^^ liook. n PKKSENTED BY r-^- THE ^rogrtssik (Jt:b^penen« of i\t Icart UNDER THE DISCIPLINE OF THE HOLY GHOST, FROM REGENERATION TO MATURITY. BY MRS. MARIA STEVENS. ■n'lTH A PREFACE BY BISHOP Wi\I. R. NICHOLSON The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth MORE AND MORE UNTO THE J'ERFECT DAY. — PrOV. IY, 18. PHILADELPHIA: JAMES HAMMOND, 1224 CHESTNUT STREET. 18 7 7. QSFT MfSS LETITIA THOMAS AUG- 3, 194Q James A. Moore, Printer, 1220, 12:'2 & 1224 JSunsom Street, Philadelphia. r o 'I CONTENTS PAOR The Heart's Corruption 9 The Heart under Conviction 24 The Dividing of the Heart 38 The Heart's Decision 50 The Heart's Conflicting Statue under a Sense of Im- POTENCY ;.............. 64 The Heart's Contrition 78 The Pouring Forth of the Heart before the Lord .. 95 The Surrender of the Heart in Devotion to the Lord.. 109 Longing of Heart for Conscious Union 125 The Sense of Union a New Spring of Obedience 139 The Exhibition of Peculiar Holiness 153 Keeping of the Heart by Vigilance 167 Keeping of the Heart by Covenant Protection 180 The Rest of the Heart in an All-sufficient Lord 184 The Heart's Charity 210 The Matured and Ripened Experience of the Heart.,. 224 PREFACE. The writer of the following pages was a member of the Church of England, and exercised her most faithful private ministry for Christ during all the years from 1804 to 1840. What Solomon said at the close of his description of the Divine ideal of a good wife, might, with but little exaggeration, have been applied to her in respect of her religious life and char- acter. " Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all." A deeply experienced Christian, and an intelligent and thorough student of the Bible, she was also a most active, painstaking, devoted, and even enthusiastic teacher of the Bible. Her labors, during all those years, as a teacher of numerous classes of both sexes, and her quiet, gen- tle, yet glowing and most womanly addresses at her various meetings, were signally owned of God, to the praise of the glory of His grace, in all the several kinds of gospel fruit-bearing. She is described as she appeared in her lecture room, at Knaresborough, as '' sitting down to play and sing the hymn which she gave out, and when done, sitting in an arm-chair, facing her audience, and in the gentlest and sweetest V VI PREFACE. voice seeming as if speaking to her friends with en- ergy." Her influence was deep and large. She fascinated her hearers. E^or was it only by the liv- ing voice she taught for Christ, hut hy the pen also ; being the author of no less than ten volumes, on as many different subjects. She was, indeed, experimentally versed in the deep things of God. Her theological views were those known as evangelical ; and very appreciatively evan- gelical she was. " The doctrines of grace" were as honey to her taste. And her ability to expound and defend her views from the Bible standpoint was both marked and effective. But not only so, she lived the truths which she professed. Her glorification of Jesus, as well in her experience as in her writings, is as delightful as, perhaps, anything to be found in all Christian biography. And she, being dead, yet speaketh. The reader is herewith presented with one of her many publications. Its very title is both attractive and suggestive to the enlightened and thoughtful Christian. " The Frogressiue Experience of (he Heart.''' What a rich domain of truth and experience. '' The Progressive Experience of the Hearty under the Discipline of the Holy Ghost^ from Regeneration to Maturity J'' It is the loftiest of themes. And she treats it with dis- tinguished ability. The book is remarkable for its discriminations in the things of God. There are PREFACE. Vll searching teachings on the subject of sin. And the presentation, in the latter part of it, of the fulhiess of Jesus as a Saviour, and of the believer's oneness with Him, is at once clear, beautiful, and rapturous. And, withal, there is such an atmosphere of holy obedience, as attempers the joy to a subduing fear of the Lord. In the midst of so many excellencies, however, there is one defect; perhaps I should call it merely an inadvertence. After tracing the sinner's experi- ence through conviction of sin to the point of con- version, the writer then omits to insist on, or even to mention, that immediately the believer is privi- leged to rejoice in the assurance of faith. It is espe- cially in this regard that Romaine's famous treatise on " The Life, Walk, and Triumph of Faith," is so excellent. Whoever, in a true sense of his condition as a sinner, accepts Christ as his Sacrifice for sins, and his Eighteousness, is really saved from all con- demnation, and is made the x'ighteousness of God in Him. And this being so, the deliverance should be acknowledged and appropriated. It is due to the reality of Christ's work. Either He is a Saviour or He is not; either He has positively delivered the believer, or He has not; but if He has delivered him, surely He should be acknowledged in the deliver- ance actually wrought. And such clear, distinct appropriation on the part of the believer is funda- Vlll PREFACE. mental also to any strength of holy obedience. The writer's omission to bring out this point in bold- est relief is, indeed, a blemish. She supplies the defect in the latter part of the book, with regard to the believer in his more matured experience ; but it is as regards the very outset of the believer that the privilege of the assurance of faith is specially needed to be taught. If, then, the reader will bear in mind this omission, and supply it for himself, there are few books which he will find more useful " for in- struction in righteousness, that the man of Grod may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works." To such as relish Divine things, the reading of this book will be '' as a word fitly spoken," and '^ like apples of 2:old in baskets* of silver." Wm. R. E'icholson. Philadelphia, March, 1877. * Proverbs xxv, 11. Margin. tJl : \k.i PROGRESSIVE EXPERIENCE: OR THE HEART OF MAN UNDER GRACIOUS DISCIPLINE. THE HEART'S CORRUPTIOK " ' The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked : who can know it?" — Jeremiah xvii, 9. Observation and experience will convince us that there is no subject on which man is so generally ignorant as that of the true character and state of the human heart. There is, however, none with which it is of more consequence to be acquainted: the question how we may in any degree attain to such knowledge, therefore, becomes highly import- ant. Certain it is, that no power short of the Almighty Spirit can prove an effectual teacher in this pursuit, and to Him we must look for true illu- mination of mind. Yet as He is pleased in many instances to work through the instrumentality of those persons who are already under divine opera- tion, it affords encouragement to the charity and zeal of faith thus to work; and souls truly imbued with 1 9 10 PROGRESSIVE EXPERIENCE. heavenly affections will not fail to seek the powerful presence of the Spirit in this effort of love. It is a blessed endeavor when they who are constituted by the Lord "the light of the world" labor to shed forth the supernatural rays that emanate from the divine life; and yet more blessed when, by the attendant grace of the Holy Grhost, sinners are thus assisted in discovering their own condition, or saints cheered by stronger discernment of their regenerate state. It may be that the Lord will acknowledge the feeble attempt presented through these pages; His blessing is implored by the writer; may He answer the appeal by speaking in this form to the inquiring solicitude of any precious souls desiring to ascertain the point to which their steps, as spiritual pilgrims, have been conducted ! As a preliminary in the course of subjects proposed for our consideration, it will be necessary, in the first place, to ascertain in what sense the Scriptures make use of the phrase " The heart of man.''' By comparing several passages which present this expression, we shall discover that the Holy Spirit's evident design is to describe the source of man's desires, feelings, passions, sentiments, or actions. Thus it is said in Matt, xii, 34, '' Out of the abundance of the hearty the mouth speaketh:" so in Prov. iv, 23, that out of the heart are the issues of life : and again in Prov. xix, 21, '' There are many devices in a man's THE heart's corruption. 11 heart." In these and similar passages, the sense is quite clear; man being considered as giving forth, from this internal spring, the demonstration of his character and principles. In its original, the spring was pure and uncorrupt. The gracious Creator beheld His own work with complacent delight, pro- nouncing the testimony that it was ''very good.'' Consequently, desires, feelings, passions, sentiments, actions, must have been holy, and every issue from the heart in accordance with the nature of holy affec- tions. Alas ! this pure original is lost to man ; and, according to the word of God, we behold the awful reverse. 12 PROGRESSIVE EXPERIENCE. Matthew xv, 19. ''The heart" being "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Jer. xvii, 9. This is an awful testimony of the native corrup- tion of man, rendered still more affecting, and alarm- ing to the reflective mind, by the further revelations from God, by which he has particularized some of its spiritual maladies, and exposed the hidden evil. To this revelation we are bound to giv.e our decided attention. Infinite mercy has afforded us the sight, and invited us by this means to consider well the misery to which we are reduced, and the absolute necessity of finding an almighty helper, if ever we would attain to that spiritual soundness and final blessedness belonging properly to man as created by and for God. There \^ 2i, hardness andinsensibilit}/, belonging to man's sinful heart, which is the constant subject of reproach and rebuke. He has no fear of God before his eyes. Psalm xxxvi, 1 : he has no dread of trans- gression in his soul ; the divine glory, the holy law, the final judgment, are alike contemned and disre- garded; and as a creature deliberately and volunta- rily given up to impenitency, he refuses to hearken, pulls away the shoulder, stops the ear, and makes his heart harder than an adamantine stone, lest the words of the Lord should be heard or felt. Such lamentable evils are described thus in the sacred THE heart's corruption. 13 Scriptures, and not by any exaggeration of the evil. Alas ! the visible course pursued by sinners affords an incontrovertible evidence of the fact. The stony heart is manifestly thus insensible and obstinate; and we behold the transgressor unalarmed by the terrors of the Almighty, untouched by the "divine compassions of the Lord, unconscious of the disgrace and ruin awaiting him, and unmindful of the pro- clamation of gospel mercy. Thus man coolly deter- mines to prosecute his own way, regardless of reve- lation, and disdaining reproof. By another affecting figure God has been pleased to proclaim to man his fearful loss of conformity to the divine nature, and his likeness to the fallen spirits. He is described as full of darkness. The ray of glory which illumined his soul when innocent is now withdrawn, and spiritual light is extinguished. He loves to have it so, and is ever engaged in excluding every beam that would obtrude. He loves darkness rather than light, because his, deeds are evil; delighting in the service of Satan, he seeks to shroud himself beneath his mantle ; and would fain forever shut out the troublesome light, which makes manifest what he would not behold. Thus, whether it shines through the Word, or provi- dence, or Christian profession, or seeks to gain an entrance through the conscience, it is alike hated and resisted. John iii, 19. But this is not all; man 1* 14 PROGRESSIVE EXPERIENCE. is not only described as full of darkness, but as darkness! The whole of his existence is, in a spiritual sense, under this dominion: he lives under the power of infatuated counsels and destructive pas- sions, the nature and end of which he does not comprehend; as it is written, "The way of the wicked is as darkness, they know not at what they stumble," Prov. iv, 19 : " because that darkness hath filled their hearts," and their nature is entirely assimi- lated with that of Satan. Romans i, 21; Col. i, 13. But there is another foul accompaniment of this spiritual ruin. "The heart is deceitful above all things;" and whether we look to its development in the things which relate to God, to man, or to himself, we see its willful hypocrisy and deep delu- sion. It is a traitor, confederate with Satan, and intent upon securing present ease in present plea- sure. Innumerable are its resources whereby to lull or to persuade the soul into false peace. Sometimes by arguments which seek to justify evil; sometimes by vain pretenses which would bribe the conscience to admit of temporary compliance with sin; and sometimes by a daring attempt to rest upon divine mercy, notwithstanding the indulgence of sin. Thus we hear and feel in ourselves, as sinners, reasonings which are subtle, imposing, and plausible, forged out of the heart's corruption, and greedily adopted as an excuse for rebellion. How many are daily THE heart's corruption. 15 engaged in uttering insincere expressions of good wishes, good intentions, future purposes, which mean nothing more than an excuse from immediate com- pliance with a known duty ! — and how many, under the power of this delusion, are ready to exclaim, " ' I shall have peace though I add drunkenness to thirst,' Deut. xxix, 19 : ' God is merciful,' and I shall not be cast away." Here a deceitful heart is treacherously working to the destruction of the soul. The miserable individual hath, as the Scriptures express it, "a deceitful heart;" it turneth him aside, so that he cannot say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?" Isaiah xliv, 20. His professed approaches to God are of the same character. He will probably occasionally enter His courts, or raise his voice in the language of prayer or praise, but his are '^ flattering lips," his is "a double heart," "a double mind;" his are '' bodily exercises, which profit nothing;" and his bended knee, voluntary tear, and proffered vows, are all but the appearance of religion, assumed for the purpose of covering the heart's abomination, but by no means intended to procure deliverance through the covenant provision of salvation. The expressions found in God's Word strikingly describe the state of such. " They are deceitful upon the weights ;" " they are dissemblers with God;" they are ''a deceitful bow;" they pretend to wing an arrow to the true object, but they willfully miss the mark. This 16 PROGRESSIVE EXPERIENCE. deceitful movement of the heart will frequently pro- duce a very awful degree of hypocrisy in the con- cerns of the soul, and also in profession before fellow men. Many there are w^ho, although quite indifferent to the result of God's scrutiny, are solicitous to escape the censure of man. They desire to obtain a degree of respectability in life, and would have a certain measure of approbation from the religious. Hence, there are in the world, and in the professing church, thousands who are deceived and deceiving : the heart of man being altogether thus evil and treacherous. We cannot be surprised that a region thus corrupt should produce evil correspondent to the strongest terms adopted in the Scriptures. We cease to won- der that man is described as ''desperately wicked^^ that is, desperately lawless, breaking the yoke which divine precept purposes, and rushing into manifest revolt from God. Nor can we withhold our assent to the propriety with which the apostate is stigma- tized as such by the Lord, since it is evident that idols occupy the seat where God should reign, and that these require and receive from man incessant homage ; he gives it with alacrity as a willing votary, and his heart is fully set in him to do evil. Ecc. ix, 3. This is that interior region of man so little known by himself, yet so awfully exposed to the scrutiny of God. This is that evil thing, the heart, of which he is so prone to boast as good, in which he so confi- THE heart's corruption. 17 dently trusts as true, and which, even when he is forced by passing fears to search, he examines so superficially, so deceitfully, and allows to be healed so falsely. 0 let us not be of those who confide in such a known traitor, but rather pause, and meditate upon the divine revelation, comparing it with our own experience. Evidences will then arise before our convicted consciences, which will tend to silence the spirit of self-approbation, and we shall, through the humiliation of an enlightened mind, be better prepared patiently to follow the Healing Guide, who, by powerful operations in the soul, leads out the redeemed to liberty. If we admit the fact that the Lord alone has a sovereign right to the possession of our heart, its apostasy and falsehood will be undeniable. From infancy we have preferred every childish vanity before the Lord, giving individual confirmation to the divine Word, which declares that "foolishness is bound in the heart of a child." Prov. xxii, 15. Our maturer years have been attended with more matured expression of this native departure from the Most High. As it is unquestionably true "where our treasure is, there will be our heart also," so is it undoubted that our treasures have been amidst crea- tures, earthly pleasures, objects of sense, and that these have had our heart. We, therefore, come under condemnation; as soon as we were born, we w^ent 18 PROGRESSIVE EXPERIENCE. astray, and have wandered every one into his own way. Matt, vi, 21; Ps. Iviii, 3; Isa. liii, 6. That our own heart has proved itself to be hard and insensible is speedily discoverable. Surely we must be sensible that our life has been one of wicked indifference to every consideration which ought to affect an im- mortal and rational creature. The terrible law of God, with all its destroying denunciations, has been but as an empty, unmeaning sound in our ears; not all the thunders of Sinai have roused us from our lethargy; not all the examples of judgment which the Almighty Judge has brought before our eyes have excited one personal alarm; awaiting scenes have had no terror to us; we have lived at ease amidst gathering storms and a lowering sky. The gentle Gospel, with all its sublimity, and glory, and grace, has been equally disregarded. We have evinced our native obduracy by a practical contempt of the blessed revelation; we have neglected the ordinances where its messages are delivered to sinful men; or, when in the ordinances, have retained the insensibility of a cold and obdurate heart. These are unquestionable demonstrations of our participa- tion in the general apostasy of man. ITeither can we be permitted to plead that we differ from others, though on some occasions the Word has been attended with convicting power. Many may, by the force of the blow which it inflicts, be made transiently to THE heart's corruption. 19 tremble ; many may, by the melting strains of the Gospel, be touched, by a passing sympathy, with which it addresses itself to human feeling, who nevertheless are not removed from transgression, nor won to Christ. But the Lord has various methods by which to draw near to the heart: these He has no doubt in measure used toward us : dispensations of a correcting kind, such as sickness, grief, suffering, have been sent upon us. Mercies also, of abundant kinds, have been dispensed. We have been raised from sickness, we have been delivered from grief, we have been restored to peace. 20 PROGRESSIVE EXPERIENCE. Saints have been called from a course of obedience and devotion, ripe for their inheritance, and mani- festly triumphing over death and hell. Yet these events have not had in them interest sufficient to awaken any corresponding affection within us: we have been satisfied with some unmeaning exclama- tion of wonder or admiration, and have dismissed the consideration as no longer of any moment to us. Are not these conclusive marks of our heart's cor- ruption? Let us, after these reflections, compare ourselves with what is further to be gathered from the Scripture testimony in Hosea vii, 11 ; Prov. xvii, 16; Ecc. viii, 11; Is. Ivii, 1. By the light which possibly may thus obtain ad- mittance into our minds, let us endeavor to under- stand the darkness which has prevailed. What mani- fest infatuation has attended our past steps, when we walked in a way of our own devising, and chose to trust in and obey the dictates of passion ! How awful our blindness when following bewildering guides, and surrendering ourselves to the rule of the world and Satan ! surely we now perceive that we rushed upon a thousand deaths, and madly trifled with the accursed thing. Surely we now feel that we trea- sured up to ourselves also a thousand griefs, and pierced ourselves through with many sorrows; and all "because that darkness had blinded our eyes;" "the wa}^ of peace we had not known;" and our THE heart's corruption. 21 "foolish heart was darkened." Prov. xxviii, 26; Eph. iv, 18; Ps. xcv, 10. Let us perceive and be humbled for the manifest deceitfulness of our heart: in innumerable instances it has fulfilled the Scripture witness, having acted the part of a betrayer to our souls ; and we can now probably detect its past treachery. The recollection of its delusive reasonings, its subterfuges and hypoc- risy, should fill us with prostration of soul before Grod, and awaken the expression of wonder, and admiration of His long forbearance. If duly impressed by this evidence of our own cor- ruption, we shall be better prepared for entering into the subjects which lie before us, and for appreciating the several operations of grace through which they who are recovered from this state of degradation are led by the Spirit. In the meantime we should seek for a due sense of the evil we have discovered. It is not enough that we should be convinced of the disease^ we must also feel the tormeM which con- sciousness of disease produces upon an awakened conscience, and know likewise that to disease and torment there is added a certain result of eternal woe to all who die in this native condition. It is from the Holy Ghost alone that influences of this description are experienced; our supplication should in consequence be directed to the mercy seat for the descent of this divine witness. We should ask Him 2 22 PROGRESSIVE EXPERIENCE. to produce within us the practical result of self- knowledge, beseeching Him to quicken us to the spiritual affections of watchfulness, faith, and hope, and that what we know not He would vouchsafe to reveal. It is a hopeful pledge of further mercies, when we are made sensible that "the heart of the wicked is little worth," Prov. x, 20, and that our own heart is worthy nothing but condemnation. Under this persuasion, we shall be prepared to "abhor ourselves in dust and ashes," and to "place no confidence in the flesh." The imposing appear- ances, which have hitherto deceived us, must be detected and exposed, so as to produce this self- distrust. We are destitute of all goodness, might, or power; we must know this to be our destitution, and should accept the conviction as a pledge of mercy. There are many precious considerations afforded us in the Gospel, which may encourage and support us, whilst venturing thus to explore and expose the inward man. Without these, a sinner may be expected to shrink from the overwhelming dis- covery ; but furnished with the blessed testimony that issues from a covenant God, the work may be prose- cuted without producing despair. The salvation that is in Jesus provides for the recovery, the soften- ing, the illuminating, the purifying of the heart, and to this blessed remedy we are continually exhorted to direct the eye of faith. A true sense of danger, THE heart's corruption. 23 so far from generating distrust, or a hypocritical attempt to conceal its extent, will produce an ingen- uous effort to expose the whole, with a penitential confession, and a fervent appeal to Him before whose scrutinizing presence we do in fact always appear. Let this be the frame of mind we earnestly covet, and let a teachable acceptance of the word of con- viction and reproof prevail in our soul, and be pre- sented before God. 24 PEOGRESSIVE EXPERIENCE. THE HEART UNDER CONYICTIOI^. " And when he is come, he will reprove {or convince) the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment : of sin, because they believe not on me ; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the princs of this world is judged."— John xvi, 8-11. We were led by our last investigation of the heart of man to the affecting sight of that debased condi- tion to which the sinner is fallen as an apostate from God, and as exhibiting his wretched alienation in the midst of spiritual insensibility, darkness, and insin- cerity. We are engaged in an inquiry, however, which will conduct us into further discoveries of the corruption of man's heart. For, although our great object is to examine the methods by which Jehovah receives His creature to holy adherence to Himself, we have much to interest us in the variety of expe- dients upon which the infatuated sinner enters, in order to evade the divine operation. And we have also to show how far even they who never experience the effectual call which decides their affections on the acceptance of the cross, may be influenced by certain accompaniments which belong to the media- torial government that is at present dispensed to the THE HEART UNDER CONVICTION. 25 world. On the present occasion we will consider the. state of conviction. By conviction we are to understand something much more comprehensive than what is generally intended by this term. Usually men adopt it in religious subjects to express a sense of sin and per- sonal demerit. But we shall perceive, upon reflection, that this is not sufficiently explicit, neither suffi- ciently enlarged in its intentions, to answer the end of a suitable interpretation, since it is evident that there may be strong conviction in the mind of a sinner, without any attendant sense of individual ruin. Conviction is frequently operative in the judgment, when it passes no further, and never reaches the heart. It is, however, a necessary experience as put in opposition to that state of spiritual darkness which, as we have shown, pervades, blinds, and prejudices lost apostate man: and thus far it is valuable. It consists of such a measure of light in the un- derstanding as convinces the soul that whatever is revealed in the Scriptures is truth. The unillumined mind is infidel in this respect. It is usually entirely indifferent to the sacred Record, not receiving it with any interest, not attaching any importance to its contents, not admitting it as a standard of judgment; as it is written of the sinner, " his ways are always grievous: thy judgments are far above out of 2* 26 PKOGRESSIVE EXPERIENCE. Ms sight ^^^ Ps. x, 5. If the divine testimony is brought near and proposed, it contradicts and blasphemes: it will not believe the report, and despises it, and, as is affirmed of sinners of old, speaks " evil of the right way," Is. liii, 1; Acts xix, 8, 9. Light poured in upon the judgment will remove this obstacle ; and men under this influence, listening to the revelation of God's law, are convinced of its excellency, and of its divine sanction, at the same time that they admit the propriety and equity of this rule of judgment. This was an eiFect of the Gospel produced among the Ephesians through the preaching of Apollos, and of whom it is said, "he mightily convinced the Jews, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ," Acts xviii, 28. And for this effect the apostle shows that the laborer should be solicitous, " holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers," Titus i, 9. An advan- tage is hereby obtained for the further reception of truth, and proposal of the cross; and this is an ad- vantage which frequently accompanies the dispensa- tion of the Gospel to a particular congregation and people favored with the ministration of the pure word; they are satisfied that what their ministers propose to them is according to truth, and that they are urged upon points that must be considered im- portant, as corresponding with a revelation which THE HEART UNDER CONVICTION. 27 they no longer dispute or wholly disregard. This is conviction in the judgment. A further degree of this operation is experienced when there is also an excitement in the conscience, producing a conviction that, Scripture being truth, there awaits the creature in a future world certain results of his present course, which Grod will cer- tainly accomplish. Persons of this description are persuaded that the denunciations of the Lord against transgressors are no unmeaning words, and that as God is true, so surely His enemies will perish. They know, as the Scripture expresses it, that the judgment of Grod is against sinners, and that they which commit such things are worthy of death, Rom. i, 32. They anticipate the execution of the sentence when they contemplate men in the highway of rebellion, and will frequently exclaim against their career, and talk of the overhanging vengeance which threatens the impenitent. They are equally persuaded that the divine promises shall be fulfilled, and that, so far from the life of a saint being chargeable, as they once thought, with folly and wild enthusiasm, it is honor- able, and shall be recompensed. They know that " God is, and that he is a rewarder of them that dili- gently seek him, " Heb. xi, 6; and they frequently contemplate the course of the devoted with admira- tion; they understand somewhat of its high peculi- arities, and will say, " These are the happiest people !" 28 PROGRESSIVE EXPERIENCE. They are also fully convinced tliere is not the enjoy- ment in the service of sin which they once madly hoped and expected: they have seen its issue in others, and that God 's word is established in their example; " destruction and misery are in their ways : and the way of peace have they not known :" Rom. iii, 16, 17. They look on the thousands who are ruined by crime, in character, in body, and in soul: and not only do they contemplate these results in other seekers of forbidden joys, but their own experience has confirmed what they contemplate; they have found "vanity and vexation of spirit," internal misery, loss of peace, and perhaps of character; they have lived to reap the disgraceful consequences of sin, and are covered with a cloud. They are per- suaded also, when comparing the present state of believers with that of the transgressor, that the saint possesses the real good; and the conscience is under the full power of conviction, so far as this experience extends: according to the apostle's words, we trust also we are made manifest to your consciences, 2 Cor. V, 11. A still further degree of this conviction passes through the sinner when these influences are at- tended with certain excitements in the heart, and the judgment and conscience forcibly address the affections. This is the case when reflection awakens misgivings and heart-sickening fears; the sound THE HEART UNDER CONVICTION. 29 of holy reasoning upon soberness, temperance, and judgment to come, creating alarms, and causing the soul, Felix-like, to tremble. Acts xxiv, 25. This is frequently the case in all ages. Thus men, under the preaching of the word, will sometimes be pricked in the heart, that is, be convicted by strong emotions, which give witness to the force and truth of the con- demning testimony. Acts ii. 37. Or, when they see the judgments of God abroad in the earth, or hear of the impending woes that are likely to fall upon the guilty world, they are filled with conscious terror, and dread the nearer approach of vengeance. Or, when their mortal tabernacle sickens, and they feel the undeniable evidence of their own uncertain con- tinuance here, they are depressed, anxious, harassed in the consciousness of unpreparedness for eternity. And when the visitation of death does really come, they meet it in awful dismay : the reluctant soul is torn from its habitation, and leaves it in the midst of an agonizing sense of the curse. It is possible, however, that conviction of heart may exist in a form more apparently hopeful : as when, for instance, the softer sounds of Gospel fullness of mercy and peace bid the afifections move to purposes of love: the affecting details of salvation in the blood and merit of Jesus touching the heart, and recommending the merciful Author of the blessing. At these times God is seen with glimmerings of light upon His 30 PROGRESSIVE EXPERIENCE. blessed name and nature, and He is confessed to be worthy the devotion of the whole heart. These are influences not unfrequently produced by the force of emphatic speaking, or human eloquence : and whilst the strain is heard, every feeling seems held in a sweet captivity. Subjects already approved in the judgment and conscience now seem to win upon the consent of the affections, and innumerable resolu- tions flutter round the heart, and the cross begins to have some appearance of attraction. These are con- victions in the affections, and answer to what we read of many of old. Thus the man in the Gospel seemed willing to profess, saying, " Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest," Luke ix, 57. And Agrippa could exclaim, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian, Acts xxvi, 28. Thus we perceive how conviction may operate, separately, either upon judgment, or conscience, or feeling, or in the whole: and yet, as will appear evident upon further examination, be frequently distinct from conversion. It becomes, however, a very important duty, that we endeavor to satisfy ourselves as to the origin of such excitements. Undoubtedly they proceed from the Holy Ghost. Since fallen man's judgment is darkness, his con- science hard and unfeeling, and his affections apos- tate, and cold, and dead, from such a source there can be no knowledge, no conviction, no passing THE HEART UNDER CONVICTION. 31 excitement toward God. And we should recollect, when investigating these subjects, a very important part of revelation, which respects the kingdom of Christ. We are taught by the Scriptures, that all influences, or manifestations from God to man, are lost by the fall ; in token of which he was sent forth from Eden into his degraded condition as an outcast and alien. We are taught that divine manifesta- tions or influences are only restored in virtue of Christ's undertaking, which places the world under a present mediatorial reign, the covenant of grace having provided this interposition between the alien and immediate ruin, and brought sinners under the general advantage of a dispensation of forbear- ance. That in consequence of this dispensation, the Holy Ghost inhabits the earth as a witness, coming forth to testify of the covenant, and to fulfill His office to man. And thus it is that He is frequently a witness to man in the way we have described, and as it is de- clared by our Lord, " When He is come He will con- vince the world ;^' men in general, men yet in their state of nature. These shall receive the convicting evidence which shall justify and exalt Jehovah, John xvi, 8-11. In all instances, therefore, such as we have here contemplated, we are to consider the conviction as produced by the Holy Ghost. These convictions, however, are evidently not always of a saving character. We have abundant 32 PROGRESSIVE EXPERIENCE. examples in the Scripture, of persons under these operations, who were destitute of true faith. Thus, for instance, Balaam could exclaim, "I have sinned:" and yet more, could add, "Now, there- fore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again," JSTumb. xxii, 34. Saul is heard to confess, " I have sinned," and, under dread of disgrace, could im- portune Samuel, saying, " Yet honor me now before the people," 1 Sam. xv, 30. Pharaoh was sensible of having committed dangerous provocation, and acknowledged, I have sinned this time, entreat the Lord for me, Exod. ix, 27. Judas was full of anguish at his horrible crime, and in self-condemna- tion exclaimed, "I have betrayed the innocent blood," Matt, xxvii, 4. And the Jews, on a certain occasion, recorded in John viii, 9, went out from the presence of Jesus one by one, being convicted in their consciences. But in all these instances, it is manifest, there was only conviction. We are also quite assured that many who are under the sentence of accom- plished wrath are convicted. Devils believe and trem- ble, and confess, "• Thou art the Christ." Men given up to a state of reprobacy believe, and carry within them the ripened spirit of apostasy, either in deliber- ate despair, or daring controversy with their Judge ; having the horror of conviction in a fearful looking for of judgment to come, and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversary. And all who are finally THE HEART UNDER CONVICTION. 33 judged will carry with them this abiding increase of their torment : they shall be convicted. For He shall come " to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him," Jude 15. From these considerations, it becomes evident that there are what we may style common and special operations of the Holy Ghost, as He is a Witness; so that we cannot decide upon the state of a soul merely by conviction. This stage of experi- ence may be entered by sinners who never embrace salvation, and therefore should not satisfy us either for ourselves or others ; for although it is requisite as preparatory for the reception of further revelation, it is not in itself a decided evidence of a regenerate state. This is strikingly set forth in Heb. vi, wherein we have a history of very extensive operations known by persons who never were sanctified, and who con- sequently had not passed from death to life. We may be enlightened, we may taste or make experi- ment of the heavenly gift, or Gospel, or good word of God, or the powers of the world to come; we may partake of the Holy Ghost as a witness, or as the author of gifts; yet with all this we may yet be as the earth, still bringing forth briars and thorns, and eventually falling away even from our convictions or 3 34 PROGRESSIVE EXPERIENCE. profession; seeing that even during the period in which we possessed this dispensation of the Spirit we were unchanged in character, nigh unto cursing, and tending to the end of all unregenerate souls: see Heb. vi, 4-8. 