EXPERIMENTS OF Spiritual Life & Health, And their PRESERVATIVES In which the _weakest_ Child of _God_ may get _Assurance_ of his Spirituall _Life_ and _Blessednesse_ And the _Strongest_ may finde proportionable _Discoveries_ of his _Christian Growth_, and the _means_ of it. By _Roger Williams_ of _Providence_ in _New-England_. [Illustration] London, Printed, in the Second Month, 1652. RE-PRINTED BY SIDNEY S. RIDER, PROVIDENCE. 1863. INTRODUCTION. As the existence of the following tract was, until quite recently, unknown,[A] a few words of introduction, exhibiting its character and the circumstances under which it was written, may not be inappropriate. [A] Professor Knowles, in his Memoir of Roger Williams, makes the following statement: Mr. Williams is said to have published, in London, in 1652, a work entitled "Experiments in Spiritual Life and Health, and their Preservatives." Of this book, no copy has come to our knowledge. The object of the work is, briefly to present to the christian the evidences of personal piety and guard these evidences from abuse and misapprehension. It is divided into three parts. The author first treats of the evidences of a piety, which, though real, is weak and imperfect; secondly, the evidences of a vigorous and maturer piety; and the third part contains directions for maintaining and increasing piety in the soul of the believer. It is written with clearness and discrimination, and much resembles the treatises of Baxter on the same subject. It is as well adapted to the condition of christians of the present day as to the condition of those for whom it was written, two hundred and ten years since. There cannot be found in it a word of sectarian bitterness; on the contrary, it everywhere breathes the spirit of catholic, christian charity.