I answer. 1. There is no manner of need to set the one in opposition to the other: Seeing we continually exhort all who attend on our preaching, to attend the offices of the church. And they do pay a more regular attendance there, than ever they did before. 2. Their attending the church did not, in fact answer those ends at all, ’till they attended this preaching also. 3. It is the preaching of remission of sins through Jesus Christ, which alone answers the true ends of devotion. And this will always be accompanied with the co-operation of the Holy Spirit; tho’ not always with sudden agonies, roarings, screamings, tremblings, or droppings down. Indeed if God is pleased at any time to permit any of these, I cannot hinder it. Neither can this hinder the work of his Spirit in the soul: which may be carried on either with or without them. But 4. I cannot apprehend it to be any reasonable proof, That “this is not the work of God,” that a convinced sinner should _fall into an extreme agony, both of body and soul_, (Journal 3. page 26.) That another should _roar for the disquietness of her heart_, (page 40.) that others should scream or _cry with a loud and bitter cry, “What must we do to be saved?”_ (page 50.) that others should _exceedingly tremble and quake_, (page 58.) And others, in a deep sense of the majesty of God, _should fall prostrate upon the ground_. (page 59.)
Indeed by picking out one single word from a sentence, and then putting together what you had gleaned in sixty or seventy pages, you have drawn a terrible groupe, for them who look no farther than those two lines in _the observations_. But the bare addition of half a line to each word, just as it stands in the place from which you quoted it, reconciles all both to scripture and reason, and the spectre-form vanishes away.
You have taken into your account, _ravings, and madnesses too_. As instances of the former, you refer to the case of _John Haydon_, page 44. and of _Thomas Maxfield_, page 50. I wish you would calmly consider, his reasoning on that head, who is not prejudiced in my favour. “What influence sudden and sharp awakenings may have upon the body, I pretend not to explain. But I make no question _Satan_, so far as he gets power may exert himself on such occasions, partly to hinder the good work in the persons who are thus touched with the sharp arrows of conviction, and partly to disparage the work of God, as if it tended to lead people to distraction.”
For instances of madness you refer to pages 88, 90, 91, 92, 93. The words in page 88. are these:
“I could not but be under some concern, with regard to one or two persons, who were tormented in an unaccountable manner, and _seemed_ to be indeed _lunatic_ as well as _sore vexed_――Soon after I was sent for to one of these, who was so strangely _torn of the devil_, that I almost wondered her relations did not say, much religion _hath made thee mad_. We prayed God to _bruise Satan_ under her feet. Immediately _we had the petition we asked of him_. She cried out vehemently ‘He is gone, he is gone,’ and was filled with the Spirit of _love, and of a sound mind_. I have seen her many times since, strong in the Lord. When I asked abruptly, ‘What do you desire now?’ She answered, ‘Heaven.’ I asked, ‘What is in your heart?’ She replied, ‘God.’ I asked, ‘But how is your heart when any thing provokes you?’ She said, ‘By the grace of God, I am not provoked at any thing. All the things of this world pass by me as shadows.’ Are these the words of one that is beside herself? Let any man of reason judge!”
Your next instance, page 90. stands thus:
“About noon I came to _Usk_, where I preached to a small company of poor people, on, _The Son of man is come, to save that which is lost_. One grey-headed man wept and trembled exceedingly: and another who was there (I have since heard) as well as two or three who were at the _Devauden, are gone quite distracted_; that is (my express words that immediately follow, specifying what it was which _some accounted distraction_) ‘They mourn and refuse to be comforted, until they have _redemption through his blood_.’”
If _you_ think the case mentioned, pages 92, 93. to be another instance of madness, I contend not. It was because I did not understand that uncommon case, that I prefaced it with this reflection, “The fact I nakedly relate, and leave every man to his own judgment upon it.” Only be pleased to observe, that this _madness_, if such it was, is no more chargeable upon _me_ than upon _you_. For the subject of it had no relation to, or commerce with _me_, nor had I ever seen her before that hour.