The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded

Secondly, It is the way whereby the Saints of old have refreshed and encouraged themselves under their greatest Despondencies. So doth the Psalmist in many places, as for Instance, Psal. 42.6. O my God, my Soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the Land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the Hill Mizar. David in the time of his Persecution by Saul, when he wandered up and down in Deserts, Wildernesses, and Solitudes, had under his Fears, Distresses, and Exercise, great, holy, Spiritual Communion with God, as many of his Psalms composed on such Occasions do testify. And the greater his distresses were, the more fervent were his Affections in all his Addresses unto God. And he was never in greater than when he escaped out of the Cave at Adullam, and went thence unto Mizpheh of Moab, to get shelter for his Parents, 1 Sam. 22.13. Then was he in the Land of the Hermonites, the Hill Hermon, being the boundary eastward of the Israelites Possession next to Moab, Deut. 3.8, 9. There no doubt David had a blessed Exercise of his Faith, and of all his Affections towards God, wherein his Soul found great Refreshment. Being now in great Distress and Disconsolation of Spirit, among other things under a Sense that God had forgotten him, vers. 9. He calls to mind the blessed Experience he had of Communion with God in the Land of the Hermonites, wherein he now found Support and Refreshment. So at other times, he called to remembrance the Days of old, and in them his Song in the Night, or the sweet Refreshment he had in Spiritual Converse with God in former times. I have known one in the depth of distress and darkness of Mind, who going through Temptation to destroy himself, was re••eved and delivered in the instant of Ruin, by a sudden Remembrance that at such a time, and in such a place, he ⟨p. 285⟩had prayed fervently with the engagement of all his Affections unto God.

Secondly, It is the way whereby the Saints of old have refreshed and encouraged themselves under their greatest Despondencies. So doth the Psalmist in many places, as for Instance,