Vital Godliness: A Treatise on
Experimental and Practical Piety
CHAPTER 1
General Remarks on Religious Experience
The test of real character is to be sought in each
man’s experience. He who has never exercised faith, repentance, love, humility,
hope, and joy, cannot be profited by his mere theories and speculations on these
subjects. All knowledge which is unfelt and inoperative, puffs up the mind and
hardens the heart. It is better to have the workings of gracious affections than
to be able to define them, or to speak ever so learnedly respecting them. The
great use of a large part of divine truth is rightly to affect our minds and
hearts, and so to control our practice. It is often doubted whether the present
age is remarkable for depth of religious feeling. In many cases ministers preach
a low experience.
The consequence is painful laxity in pious practice. Among
many professors there is a manifest disinclination to converse on vital subjects
in experimental and practical piety. This is a great evil. Although hypocrites
may babble on such topics, yet true Christians should not thereby be deterred
from telling what God has done for their souls, or from diligently seeking to
discover and commend the highest style of holy living. Perhaps on all branches
of these subjects there is less preaching than formerly. A minister of this
generation said that he had received many hundreds of printed sermons sent out
by his brethren, and that among them all he remembered but one on the subject of
experimental religion. Yet it is noticeable that when a preacher of ability and
sound discrimination discusses any branch of this subject, he is always highly
acceptable to the best class of Christians. The testimonies to the necessity of
experimental piety are exceedingly numerous. Almost every fit form of expression
is employed by inspired writers to teach us this great truth. Thus says David,
“O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in him,”
(Ps. 34: 8). “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will declare what he
has done for my soul,” (Ps. 66:16). So Elihu said, “bear with me a little, and I
will show you that I have yet to speak on God’s behalf,” (Job 36: 2).
Often in the Scriptures religious experience is expressed by
hungering and thirsting, by eating and drinking, (Isa. 55: 1; Matthew 5: 6; Song
5: 1 John 6: 53-58). Job, David, and Isaiah all inform us of the power of
religious experience in their own case, (Job 42:5, 6; Ps. 51; Isa. 6:5). Nor is
the testimony of uninspired men on this point less harmonious.
Richard Baxter says, “The way to have the
firmest belief of the Christian faith is to draw near and taste and try it, and
lay bare the heart to receive the impression of it; and then, by the sense of
its admirable effects, we shall know that which bare speculation could not
discover. Though there must be a belief on other grounds first, so much as to
let in the word into the soul, and to cause us to submit our hearts to its
operations; yet it is this experience that must strengthen it and confirm it. If
any man will do the will of Christ, he shall know that the. doctrine is of God,
(John 7: 17). The melody of music is better known by hearing it than by reports
of it, and the sweetness of food is known better by tasting than by hearsay,
though upon report we may be drawn to taste and try. So is there a spiritual
sense in us of the effects of the gospel on our own hearts, which will cause men
to love it and hold it fast against the cavils of deceivers or the temptations
of the great deceiver.”
John Owen says, “Experience is the food of
all grace, which it grows and thrives upon. Every taste that faith obtains of
divine love and grace, or how gracious the Lord is, adds to its measure and
stature. Two things therefore must briefly be declared:
1.That
the experience of the reality, excellency, power, and efficacy of the things
that are believed, is an effectual means of increasing faith and love.
2.That
it is the Holy Spirit which gives us this experience.”
John Newton says, “Experience is the Lord’s
school, and they who are taught by him usually learn by the mistakes they
make—that they have no wisdom; and by the slips and falls they meet with—that
they have no strength.”
Charles Buck says, “The report of the
blessings of the religion of Christ, or the intelligence that provision is made
for guilty man, can be of no avail without a real participation of them. We must
not perceive only, but we must feel; and feeling, of course we experience.”
Jonathan Edwards says, “A gracious experience
arises from operations and influences which are spiritual, from an inward
principle which is divine, a communication of God, a participation of the divine
nature: Christ living in the heart, the Holy Spirit dwelling there in union with
the faculties of the soul as an internal vital principle, exerting his own
proper nature in the exercise of those faculties. Now it is no wonder that that
which is divine is powerful and effectual, for it has omnipotence on its side.”
The late John
M’Dowell says, “If we are Christians, we shall delight to meet
with our fellow-Christians, and engage with them in conversation on experimental
piety. And true religion must either be very low or be entirely lacking in the
heart of that person who seldom speaks on the subject, or extends not his
conversation beyond the doctrines and forms of religion, or speaks in an
uninterested or heartless manner. The Scripture saints, as appears from their
history, engaged much in religious conversation.”
Yet it is to be regretted that but few modern books treat of
this subject. Doctrinal discussions, treatises on the history of the Bible, on
branches of Scripture morals, and on church government, are numerous. But rarely
do we find able men turning their attention to the work of God in the soul. It
was not always so. In the seventeenth century the ablest productions of the
greatest minds were on experimental religion. The exceeding popularity of a few
books, first published in our own age, shows that so far as there is piety, such
reading is in great demand. This will be more and more so as true religion shall
prevail. It is admitted that the subject of experimental religion is not free
from difficulties. But most of these are theoretical, rather than practical.
Yet those which grow out of the deceitfulness of sin and the
temptations of the great adversary, should be carefully studied by all people,
by godly teachers in particular, and the consolations of God sought out and
administered accordingly. It is also worthy of notice that the best treatises in
this department of religious literature are often narratives of the dealings of
God with particular people. Religious biography constitutes a very useful and
popular part of a well-chosen library. If the time shall come when the memoirs
of Halyburton and Brainerd shall be unwelcome to the great body of God’s people,
then indeed the glory will have departed. John Newton remarks that “it is to be
lamented that in this enlightened age, so signalized by the prevalence of the
spirit of investigation, religion should by many be thought the only subject
unworthy of a serious inquiry; and that while in every branch of science they
studiously endeavor to trace every fact to its proper and adequate cause, and
are cautious of admitting any theory which cannot stand the test of experiment,
they treat the use of the term experimental, when applied to religion,
with contempt.”
The tendency of this age is to become vague and superficial.
In giving an account of the work of God on one or many, there is a proneness to
deal in generals and avoid particulars. In some cases there may be reasons of
delicacy for saying little; nor is it necessary to present individuals by name
or description of person before the community. But how refreshing it would be to
meet with a recent narrative like that which Edwards has given of one who is now
understood to have been the person who afterwards became his wife. In their
narratives of revivals of religion, the old magazines often present quite a
contrast to many of our modern journals. This deficiency has sometimes been
noticed and a desire for a change expressed, but we seem to be getting further
and further from the old paths. Yet let us not be discouraged. Let us labor to
banish unreasonable prejudices against this subject as a proper topic of
familiar or religious conversation. This will be no easy task. So many ignorant
men have spoken things which they ought not, so many weak men have uttered
folly, and so many bad men have obtruded their erroneous views upon the
attention of others—that some have been quite disgusted with the whole matter.
Thus it has come to pass that even in the free church of
Not only in preaching, but in their private walks, pastors
might exert a happy influence on this subject. Let them converse freely and
fully with those seeking admission to the Lord’s table. In their pastoral visits
let not this subject be forgotten. Sometimes it may be well to leave particular
questions to be answered or talked over on a subsequent interview. It would also
be well if all that class of able works which have handled the different
branches of this subject were brought into general use in our churches. John
Newton has long been a favorite. His writings on experimental religion
contributed much to the revival of piety in the latter part of the eighteenth
and the early part of the nineteenth centuries. John, Owen on ‘Indwelling Sin’
is more profound than anything
But more than
anything else, we always need in the church a copious outpouring of God’s Spirit
on the hearts of his people, giving them a zest for spiritual things and
a great desire for a full assurance of understanding, of faith and of hope. Many
real Christians have made but low attainments, and are too little dissatisfied
with their present state. One who should speak and act with the zeal and ardor
of Paul, of Knox, of Welsh, of Whitefield, or of Henry Martyn—would by the
thoughtless world, be esteemed mad. But wisdom is justified of her children. The
truly regenerate and growing Christian will not be offended at sound views on
this subject. It may encourage us to study this subject, to remember that,
though in unessential particulars there is an endless diversity in the
experience of men—yet in all that necessarily belongs to vital piety, there is a
substantial agreement. Perhaps a more striking contrast could hardly be found
between two men, than between John Newton and Occum the Indian preacher. Yet
Newton says of the latter, that “in describing to me the state of his heart,
when he was a blind idolater, he gave me in general a striking picture of what
my own was in the early part of my own life; and his subsequent views of the
gospel corresponded with mine as face answers to face in a mirror.” John Owen
also says, “As sin works in one, so does it in another; as grace is effectual in
one, so is it in another; as he that prays longs for mercy and grace, so do they
that join with him. Of the same kind with his hatred of sin, his love to Christ,
his laboring after holiness and conformity to the will of God, are also those in
other believers. And hence it is that people ‘praying in the Spirit’ according
to their own experience, are oftentimes supposed by everyone in the congregation
rather to pray concerning their condition.”
Nor is there any way of preserving men from falling into
error respecting the true nature of religion, but by bringing them to feel its
power. “The head may be strengthened—until the heart is starved.” Indeed,
infidelity itself will be sure to gain a footing in a community where vital
godliness is not experienced. John Owen truly says, “The owning of the Scripture
to be the word of God bespeaks a divine majesty, authority, and power to be
present in it and with it. Therefore, after men who have for a long time so
professed, do find that they never had any real experience of such a divine
presence in it by any effects upon their own minds, they grow insensibly
regardless of it, or to allow it a very common place in their thoughts. When
they have worn off the impressions that were on their minds from tradition,
education, and custom, they do for the future rather not oppose it than in any
way believe it. And when once a reverence unto the word of God on account of its
authority is lost, an assent unto it on account of its truth will not long
abide. And all such people, under a concurrence of temptations and outward
“occasions, will either reject it or prefer other guides before it.”
There is not a doctrine of revelation the power of which
ought not to be felt in the human soul. If God is revealed to us in a trinity of
persons, as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—it is that we may love and
serve and worship him just as he is revealed. If Jesus Christ made a vicarious
atonement—that great doctrine is revealed to us that we may rest the whole
weight of our salvation upon it. If men are totally depraved—that truth ought to
be known and felt, that the whole salvation of the gospel may be sought and
secured. Nothing therefore can be more unphilosophical than to charge that
experimental religion and wild enthusiasm are synonymous terms.
If men dead in sin are ever to be restored to spiritual life,
they must be the subjects of a mighty work of grace; they must be taught of God;
they must be born from above; they must be called out of darkness into God’s
marvelous light; they must be renewed in the inner man. The advantages of
experience are felt in all the affairs of life. The truths we know by experience
are worth more to a wise man than all he can learn from the demonstrative
sciences or the reasonings of others. In all the departments of life, he who has
experience has qualifications denied to the mere theorist or scholar. Religious
experience puts us on our guard against the snares of the world, the flesh, and
the devil. It teaches us sincerity, self-distrust, and humility. It causes us to
abound in all prudence. It gives us a delightful confirmation in the truth. It
fits us for doing good to an extent far beyond what we could ever attain by
instruction in the letter of God’s word.
All the friends of true religion ought carefully to guard
against the abuses of religious experience. They should be very careful to avoid
all vain boasting, a sin into which men easily fall. They should learn wisely to
discriminate between the genuine and the spurious, between effects produced by
divine truth on the one hand and by nervous temperament on the other. They
should be especially careful not to rely on any past attainments which do not
produce present good fruit. Any
exercise of the mind which leads us to dullness in devotion, to carelessness
about holy living, to lack of zeal for the salvation of men, is not gracious.
It may be well here to state that there is nothing gained by
substituting, as some seem disposed to do, different terms for that of
experience. There is no word better explained in pious literature than the word
experience, and such a change of terms is likely to induce confusion.
The early exercises of a soul turning to God have unusual
interest, because they are connected with the setting up of Christ’s kingdom in
the heart. The mind of man has a peculiar delight in contemplating the origin of
things, and in seeing them rise to vigor. This is so in the growth of grain,
plants, and trees, in the beginning of revolutions, in the founding of empires,
and in the early struggles of mind to rise to worth and greatness. But the early
history of pious impressions has vast interest—from the fact that it is the soul
that is then saved and restored to communion with God. Cecil says, “The history
of a man’s life, is to himself the most interesting history in the world, next
to that of the Scriptures.” The reason is that it is a detailed account of what
he has learned in the school of experience.
