Some select cases resolved. Specially, tending to the right ordering of the heart, that…

Here also fell in two Questions. [1] Quest. Whether, when a Christian feels a Want of the Light of Life and Faith of the Spirit; he should only humble himself for the Want of them, and do nothing in way of Meditation and stirring up his Heart to see and do, or stir up that Ability he had to see and live and do? For I saw this, that when a Man finds a Loss of God, either he is wholly in the Dark and cannot see him; or else Satan and his own natural Abilities will be working and casting in Light, that so a Man might be contented with that and seek no farther for the Spirit of Light, nor feel ⟨p. 71⟩such a Need of it: Satan and Nature by their Work will prevent the Lord's.

Answ. To this I saw (1) that the Scripture bids me meditate and use all Means for the Spirit, and therefore not to confine my self to that one Means only, of being humbled for the Want of the Spirit: (2) That the Rule here is; We must use all Means, but trust to the Spirit to give a Blessing by them, depend only, and wait only for the Light of God in the Use of Means.

2. Quest. Whether it was a Duty, or an Error, to pray and look for the Fullness of the Spirit in me, without coming by Faith out of my self, and so finding and feeling the Fullness of the Spirit out of me in Christ? And whether I might not be mistaken, and think I was empty of the Spirit, because I did not feel it in me, when haply of the Time when I am most empty, I might be most full, by Faith in Christ? And whether the Fullness of the Spirit in the Apostles was not chiefly a Power of the Spirit, giving them a Subsistence out of themselves in Christ, in whom their Life and Joy was; seeing that Paul oft complains of his Sin and Insufficiency and Inability to think or speak?