for this pious Exercise may be doubly considered Either as to the Quantity how much thereof is to be spent in it at once or as to the frequency of its Return when it must be resumed or how often repeated As for the Quantity of Time to be imployed in it at once it cannot well be less than one whole Day The Space I mean of an Artificial Day consisting of twelve Hours and continuing as with us it is usually reckon'd from Six a Clock in the Morning to Six in the Evening And truly we who expect that Labourers should work for such a Day and can run out whole Days in civil Solemnities of our own as we do our Birth-days our Wedding-days or the like how can we bestow less than a whole Day in holy Mourning when we intend to be Solemn in that Sacred Duty But then as to the Return of such a Day how often it must be reiterated it is not so easy for us to set For in this matter we have no certain Rule to go by No common Standard applicable to all whereby to take convenient Measures For here Respect must be had to the various Conditions or Circumstances of Persons Some in regard of their Secular Business or Bodily Constitution as having Less Imployment and more Health can better spend a Day in a Week in holy Mourning than others can do it in a Quarter of a Year Here therefore Wisdom and Piety must rule and People must govern themselves according to the different circumstances they are in and the Principles of their Prevailing Goodness and Discretion I can only say in this Case as the Apostle did in another every Man according as He purposeth in his Heart So let him do 2 Cor. 9.7 When we have wisely pondered all things relating to the weighty Affair let us resolve to mourn either seldomer or oftener as in our very Consciences we shall Judge to be best Only let us remember that what St. Paul says there in reference to Mercy is every whit as applicable to Mourning He that soweth plentifully shall reap plentifully and He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly For if they that sow in Tears shall reap in Joy then in proportion to our Seed must be our Crop and our * Yet as two Mites were once preferred before richer Offerings Luk. 21 so one day spent by some in holy Mourning may be â—quivalent 〈◊〉 many 〈◊〉 by others who have more time to spare And in such Case the Rewards are answerable Mournings upon Earth will help to rate the Measures of our Joy in Heaven A Thought which cannot but draw us powerfully to the Work provided that it dwells as long upon our Minds and sinks as deep into them as it ought Especially if we consider that the Joys in Heaven being eternal every extraordinary degree of them in us must be attended with an infinite because endless Sweetness beyond what other Saints shall feel who are inferiour to us but that one Degree in those triumphant Joys Yet that we may not leave the Time for this work wholly in suspence let us come to this moderate Determination concerning it Lest a Day in a Quarter of a Year should be too â—â—â—dom to mourn as the Religious may think for some Reasons and lest a Day in a Week should seem too often for other Reasons let us steer a middle Course betwixt them both and mourn one Day in every Month. And that all who are disposed to be frequent in the Exercise may ingage in it at once and their united Tears may be the more prevalent it will not be amiss to keep constantly to some certain Day in the Month. And because the holy Communion is generally celebrated on the first Sunday in every Month in the Principal Towns as well as Cities of this Kingdom the Friday still coming before such Sunday will be as proper a Day for this monthly Mourning as any I can think of For then something may be done on such Days in way of direct and special Preparation to that Mysterious Solemnity Tho' where Sickness at any time or urgent Business shall hinder any from doing their part on that Day of the Month as they sometimes may they may make choice of some other Day which in such a Case will be more convenient And as many devout and pious Souls as shall give up themselves to this Religious Practice the Blessing of the Good GOD rest upon them and His Grace and SPIRIT assist and prosper them in the holy Undertaking Sixthly In case we would mourn solemnly we must join a free Forgiveness with it Forgiveness I mean of all those that offend us be they never so bitter Enemies to us For that will help to open the Door of GOD's Mercy and let us into an happy possession of the Like great Blessing from Himself Were there no Sin there could be no Mourning because indeed there would be no Misery But our Mournings being caused by our Sins and our Miseries as oft as we mourn we should endeavour to get our Sins remitted that so our Miseries which are their Effects may either be sanctifi'd or removed Now one special means to procure GOD's Pardon for our selves is for us to pardon others Freely let us Pardon their Faults then that He may do the same by ours For this we have a Rule from Heaven and so very clear and full it is that I need but recite it Forgive and ye shall be forgiven Luk. 6.37 And must not free Forgiveness of our Brethrens Offences be a necessary Companion of holy Mourning when upon it our own Forgiveness depends and without that Forgiveness all our Mourning will signify little But then since it is so needful a Concomitant let us be sure to make it a constant one And remember one thing more that if God should ever be so gracious to us as competently to assure us of the remission of our Sins we must then be as willing freely to forgive our trespassing Brethren from the sense of that great Mercy received as ever we were to do it before from the hopes we had that we should at last obtain it For this we have a divine Rule too Forgiving one another even as CHRIST forgave you so do ye Col. 3.13 Lastly To compleat the Solemnity of this private Mourning we may take some fit Associates to us in it So we may inforce it happily by inlarging it and by making it more comprehensive shall make it more effectual GOD who did not spare Sodom for Lot one righteous Person would not have destroyed it could ten have been found in it Two holy Mourners may do more than one and Ten may prevail where Two cannot 'T will be Wisdom therefore to increase our Number that so we may be the better accepted Daniel was not only a Prophet but * Dan. 20.17 a Man greatly beloved of God So the Angel pronounced him And surely the sweetest Character it is that any mortal can bear and
SPIRIT pronounces Him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same I do not say He is the same in Misery for the Passive part of His great Work for us was over long since His Blessed Self declared that †Joh. 19.30 finisht when He was giving up the Ghost And as for those His Sufferings they shall never be repeated For being sufficient for ever when they were once endured because of their Value they need not be reiterated But then we may consider that by His Intercession His Sufferings are perpetually represented to GOD in our behalf and by His Word the Benefits of them are annuntiated and by His SPIRIT the Efficacy of them is applied according to out Worthiness and Capacity of receiving them And so as much Virtue is derivable from His Passion to our Souls every Day and Hour we live as if to this Minute He were hanging and dying on the meritorious Cross And as the Power and Profit of JESUS's Sufferings are the same to us tho' the Pain of them be ceased as to Him so He Himself is the very same that ever He was The same in Patience the same in Pity the same in Kindness and GOD-like Benevolence to the Sons of Men. But then He having such a fixt Philanthropy and such flaming Love to the Souls of Men how shall He refuse or how can He forbear to impart his Comforts to Holy Mourners Especially when it will cost Him no more to do it than barely to permit them to spring out of Himself who is a most Blessed and inexhaustible Fountain of them Nor is it only easy to Him but matter of delight for in it He not only follows the Duct of His Nature but takes as great Pleasure in dispensing Comforts as we find Benefit in receiving them from Him Now the true and happy Case being this the LORD CHRIST having given His Word that Mourners shall be Comforted and it being His Office to see it done and the very Disposition or Bent of His Nature leading Him to do it and the Work ministring to His Satisfaction as well as to our Interest it must not only be unlikely but quite impossible for Him to withhold divine Comforts from Mourners Unless as hath been hinted there be great and wise Reasons known to Himself why He should do it Thirdly Holy Mourners are sure of Comforts from the Mission of the HOLY GHOST into the World That He came down upon Earth and that when He did so GOD sent Him from Heaven we all know But then in what Quality or Capacity under what Notion or Character upon what Business or to what End did He come from above That Himself hath taught us by the Pen of Saint John He came as a Comforter And so that Lofty Evangelist stiles Him * Joh. 14.16 26.15.26.16.7 more than once intimating that all divine Comforts are deriv'd from Him as indeed they are And therefore divine Joy the same thing with divine Comfort is expressly said to be a Fruit of the SPIRIT Gal. 5.22 And to be Joy in the HOLY GHOST Rom. 14.17 And to be Joy of the HOLY GHOST 1 Thess 1.6 And as these Joys and Comforts are Anticipations of those above and Praelibations or Foretasts of the Happiness to come they with other things there meant are said to be the Earnest of the SPIRIT 2 Cor. 1.22 and the First-fruits of the SPIRIT Rom. 8.23 And all because they are wrought in us or descend upon us by the Spirit 's secret tho' most sensible Operations Now this infinitely Glorious and Gracious SPIRIT being pleased to take such an humble Flight to come down into these inferior Regions so unsuitable to Him and unworthy of Him and the Design of His marvellous Condescention being not only to visit but to comfort Men can any imagine that He should either forget or neglect His Work Or if He comforts others is it likely that He should over-look Holy Mourners They rather of all People ought to be first and most regarded by Him For as they need Comforts more than others so that Necessity is occasion'd or brought upon them by Himself all pious Mourning being but * See Chap. I. a work of His. That considered He is tied to comfort all Holy Mourners by an indissoluble Band of His own making And let none surmise that He will ever offer to break loose from it For to hinder that there is in Him an Impediment both essential and invincible What it is we find in †V. 10. For there He is called the good SPIRIT And that being infallibly true it implies Him possess'd of an answerable Principle And this granted if He had not been sent to comfort Mourners they might have expected it from His meer Temper and in case He should omit to do it in Kindness they might almost challenge it of Him in Justice What good Man could bring Trouble to any and not support them under it And can the good Spirit cast down into Mourning and not comfort His dejected For Him to do that will be but pure Equity as it is for Him that makes Wounds to dress and heal them And so in plain Terms the HOLY GHOST can no more refuse comforting of Mourners than a Being of most Perfect and Infinite Goodness can be guilty of that which is a sort of Injustice as well as Unkindness Now must not Holy Mourners be certain of Comforts when they are thus strangely secured to them For every Person we see in the Blessed TRINITY and all of them at once are jointly and severally ingag'd to dispense Celestial Comforts to all such The FATHER upon Account of His Nature The SON upon Account of His Word and Office and the HOLY GHOST upon Account of His Designation and Mission to the Work And then besides the mentioned Obligations upon each of them they are every one spontaneously inclin'd to do it Yet what hath been twice already suggested must here again be once more remembred That Holy Mourners shall be comforted provided it be best for them and that there be no weighty Reasons why they should be barred and hindred from it For such may the Tempers or Conditions of some be that even divine Comforts may be dangerous to them And so Heaven may be forc'd to keep them short of those Comforts lest instead of advantaging they should greatly injure them For Christian Perfections how incomparable was St. Paul Yet * 2 Cor. 12.7 a Thorn in the Flesh a Messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him lest he should be exalted above Measure And if such a one as he could not be trusted with abundance of Revelations without so severe a Curb upon his towring Spirit we may easily apprehend that divine Comforts may often times be of perillous Consequence to ordinary Christians tho' holy Mourners And therefore by the way if it should prove thy Lot to Mourn at any time without Light and no Beam of Comfort should shine into thy Soul be not
these Comforts being procurable by Holy Mourning what good Man who considers it well would not set Himself to Mourn that so he may be comforted and thus assured O Christian is not Assurance a most desirable is it not a most invaluable Blessing They that injoy it are too happy to have their Felicity describ'd tho' these may be some faint or imperfect Hints of it They are raised in their Minds they are generous in their Thoughts they are lofty in their Desires they are chearful in their Spirits they are even in their Tempers they are sweet in their Dispositions they are pleasing in their Converse they are innocent in their Carriage they are pure in their Intentions they are upright in their Proceedings And if we pass a little higher I mean from their civil to their religious Capacities and observe them there we shall find them as laudable in divine Accomplishments For how strong are they in Faith How joyful through Hope How full of Fear and Love to GOD and of Kindness and Charity to all Men How confident are they in Devotions How unconcern'd in Dangers How patient in Sufferings How invincible in Troubles How fearless and resigned as to Death How firm in Believing how chearful in Expecting how constant in Looking how earnest in Wishing how eager in Longing for the eternal Judgment In one word innumerable are the Benefits of this Assurance as well as inestimable Let me name but two more and insist a little upon them It makes Religion very easy to us and us to be very zealous in that First It makes Religion very easy to us The Stronger he that labours is the less irksom are his Works And the more we are strengthned * Eph 3.16 in the inner Man the less difficult will our Spiritual Exercises be Now Assurance corroborates us within It warms our Affections with an holy Vigour and an heavenly Sprightliness and so making us †Eph. 6.10 strong in the LORD and in the Power of his Might does greatly facilitate Religion to us It is not the weight of things that makes them hard to be born so we have but strength proportionable to bear them The Posts and Gates and Barrs of a City were nothing for a Sampson to take upon his Shoulders and to carry them away even to the Top of an Hill Assurance turns us into Spiritual Sampsons If we were Children before it makes us Men and if we were Men it makes us Giants It fills us with such noble Heat as raises our Strengths up to our Tasks and apportions our Abilities to our Imployments And then the weightiest Duties which lie upon our Hands become not only practicable but delightful and the serious and constant performance of them turns into the truest and most entertaining Pleasure of our whole Life And who would not purchase such a pleasure at the price of Mourning O the dull and weary Pace that many walk in the ways of Duty O the black and dismal Accusations wherewith they charge them O the grievous and bitter Complaints which they make against them CHRIST's easy Yoke galls their Necks and his light Burthen breaks their Backs and they are ready to cry out they know not how to endure them I cannot Believe I cannot Hope I cannot Pray I cannot be Meek I cannot be Humble I cannot be Patient When the Devil tempts I know I should resist Him when the World flatters I know I should despise it when the Flesh entices I know I should deny it but I cannot alas I am not able to do it This is the comfortless language of Thousands and thus with Sorrow in their Hearts and with Tears in their Eyes they bewail the Hardness of their incumbent Duties But now would such as these but change the Scene a little which they act in and turn their pensive into pious Mourning the Torrent of their Grief would soon be stopped and the Fountain of their Lamentation dried up For the Difficulties in Religion would quickly disband and the things they complain of as toilsome and troublesome would be matter of Ease and Satisfaction to them And can we stick at Mourning or any other Performance to bring this about Think O Christians and consider well with your selves Will it not be an happy a most happy Case when our Duties shall be turned into high Divertisements and divine Recreation When it shall be our Meat and Drink to do the Will of our heavenly Father When our Minds shall always be inclin'd towards Heaven and our Hearts be sweetly affected with Religion When we shall freely yield up our selves to the Government of our LORD and chearfully follow the Conduct of His SPIRIT When abhorring all treacherous Delights of Sin we shall devote our selves to the Love and Service of GOD studying His Will and rejoycing to obey it Consider wisely I say and then speak if this will not be a most blessed Condition Yet be but persuaded to be Holy Mourners and ye shall be some of these Blessed Creatures Then ye shall heartily choose the ways of Righteousness and run on in them with little Pains and ascend to Heaven with a great deal of Ease For then ye shall be strong in Faith and lively in Hope and fervent in Love and fit to Pray and swift to Hear and ready to Practise and all the Parts of Evangelical Obedience shall be but matter of Complacence to you Let all that are good Remember this and by it be induc'd to what I urge Would we not be glad to have our Duties naturalized and made easy Would we not be glad to act GOD's Will with as much Readiness and Alacrity as ever we did Satan's or our own Would it not Rejoyce us and Rejoyce us exceedingly to see all those huge and mountainous Difficulties over which we thought we should never be able to climb quite levell'd and made plain before us and so plain as to be pleasant to us Yet by Religious Mourning may this be done For that makes way for holy Comforts and They will bring on heavenly Assurance the certain Cause of this desirable Effect Secondly The same Assurance which makes Religion easy to us will make US zealous in that They who labour for uncertain Wages want the chief Motive to Diligence and so may well be cold in their Work GOD therefore to banish all Chilness out of us in His Service hath set a most incomparable Recompence before us And as the sight of that Reward if beheld with fixt and unprejudiced Eyes is enough to cure Lukewarmness so Assurance of it is enough to inflame our Zeal in the ways of Godliness What can we believe that GOD is our Father that CHRIST is our REDEEMER and that the HOLY GHOST is our constant appointed COMFORTER Can we believe fiducially that we have GOD's Graces to sanctify us His Power to guard us His Laws to guide us and His Providence to take care of us Can we firmly believe that we are happily related to
measure of the stature of the fulness of CHRIST are St. Paul's Words Eph. 4.13 Which seem to insinuate that there is a decreed Pitch or Perfection for us to reach in this Life before we can dy and ascend to Blessedness And shall we not haste on then by holy Mourning with all possible speed to the heighth of Grace which must be accomplisht in us What would we not fain be in Heaven Do we not sigh and groan under the Load of our Mortality and would we not gladly be freed from the heavy Burthen and hard Bondage of it Are we not weary of our present Troubles and do we not complain of many uneasinesses and should not a call to endless Rest and perfect Joy be welcome to us Or had we rather continue here and abide still in this earthly State O senseless stupid and egregious Folly can we love our Prisons and embrace our Chains and hug our Fetters Can we court a longer Exile from our eternal Home and be content to be kept out of the coelestial Kingdom Is not God our loving Father there Is not CHRIST our tender Husband there Is not the HOLY GHOST our sweetest Comforter there And to go lower are not many of our good Friends and dear Relatives there And is not the greatest part of the true Church gone thither and now triumphing in the Presence of our LORD and can we once wish to stay behind Does not the Hireling long for his Pay The Servant for his Wages The Souldier for his Reward The Husbandman for his Harvest The Heir for his Inheritance And do not we long and pant and ardently desire to be in Heaven It will be seen here whether we do or no for then we shall mourn the oftener and the more earnestly that so we may get thither quickly To all good Christians the Gates of Heaven are set wide open and the faster we improve in Divine Grace the sooner possibly we shall enter What more forcible Reason can there be or Motive either to provoke to this Duty If we can outstand the Dint of this vain it will be to propound any more well therefore may it be the Last I offer Let good Christians think seriously with themselves what a vast difference there is between what we are now and what we hope to be hereafter What a sad case are we in here What variety of Infirmities encompass and incommode us We have stupid Minds and crooked Wills clouded Understandings and erroneous Judgments unfaithful Memories and extravagant Affections sensual Desires and unruly Appetites polluted Souls and filthy sickly mortal Bodies What a blessed Condition shall we be in above and what a fulness of Beatitude shall there surround us For besides a freedom from the aforesaid Complaints we shall have a clear and most comfortable Vision of GOD whom our Souls upon Earth so entirely loved The immediate Fruition of the eternal JESUS whose very Name was so ravishing to us The taking Society of Angels most spotless and illustrious that now do us good and we perceive it not The delightful Fellowship of departed Saints whom we prized so much and were so loth to forego Souls pure as the brightest Cherubim and Bodies at length more glittering and radiant than the Starrs or Sun And shall not the hope of such high Preferment make us forward to increase in Grace tho' it were by Mourning that so we may the sooner be invested with it Does not the sense of our many Miseries make us impatiently desirous of Heaven Are not our Sins many Are not our Doubts and Fears and Distractions many Do not these rend our Hearts and afflict our Spirits and sting and gnaw and wound our Consciences and make us oftentimes restless and joyless Can we serve and please GOD as the Souls of the just made perfect do Can we see Him and know Him and love Him and laud Him and derive Happiness from Him as they do Alas the best Services which we perform to Him and the Highest Felicities we receive from Him in these lower Regions are not worthy to be named in the same day with theirs The Duties we offer up to GOD are lame and imperfect mingled with Failings and many Weaknesses and scarce deserve the Name of Duties And answerable to our Duties to Him are our Comforts from Him so faint and low in comparison that they scarce deserve the Name of Comforts If now and then we can get a slight Taste of GOD's Goodness a short Glimpse of His Countenance a single Beam of His Favour darted into our Souls that 's all which ordinary Christians commonly attain to But O the quick and lively sense that the Saints in Glory have of GOD's Love O the close and sweet Embraces that they there feel in the Arms of His Mercy O the fresh Torrents of incessant Joys that always overflow and exceedingly affect them They continually bathe themselves in streams of delight that issue directly from the Great JEHOVAH and swim in such an Ocean of Divinest Pleasures as hath indeed neither Bounds nor Bottom Nor is the measure of their Happiness beyond its Duration for in respect of that it is really infinite being to last as long as GOD Himself Now are not these Excellent things worth the having Can there be any more valuable and so more eligible than they And consequently can we desire any thing so much as a speedy Passage into the Fruition of them Would we not gladly exchange corruption for Glory and a dying Life for blessed Immortality Had we not rather sit down before the Throne of GOD in Holiness and Triumph than abide here in a condition of Sin in a state of Sufferings and in a vale of Tears In short were it not better for us to be taken up into the Mansions on high to reap the Fruits and injoy the Rewards of our respective Labours than still to be imploy'd in any painful Exercises Why if in reality we think it better and accordingly desire it let us manifest the sincerity of our Desires by the Earnestness of our Endeavours to encrease our Graces by holy Mourning Happy are they who by any Piece of early Piety do so advance or augment their Graces as to obtain an early ascent to Heaven And to encourage a little farther yet as we shall go to Heaven perhaps the sooner for this so we shall have the more Glory there Every Vessel shall be full in that Sea but yet the biggest shall receive most That therefore we may be capable of the more Bliss in Heaven while we are on Earth let us enlarge our Graces by Religious Mourning CHAP. XXI Reasons why we must mourn for the Sins of others The Best have done it The neglect of it is blameable It prevails with Heaven It brings us Comforts It secures us from Judgments when others fall by them Both Nature and Religion bind us to it It may be we have been Sharers in the Sins of others HAving given in the Reasons why we
the 〈…〉 Love O that Thou wouldst satisfy it with the abundance of thy Goodness of thy sweet delicious and most ravishing Kindness I know Thou discernest and understandest every thing and if Thou seest any thing that hinders me from loving Thee above all I beseech Thee take it forthwith out of the way or make it for ever cease to be any manner of impediment of my Love to Thee Especially dispel O dispel and scatter those Clouds of Darkness and Mists of Ignorance which keep me from beholding thy great and wonderful and most amiable Perfections and give me a Sight of Thy Beauty and a Prospect of Thy Glories and such clear Apprehensions of Thy marvellous Excellencies that I may never conceive amiss of Thee But seeing Thy incomparable and surpassing Loveliness the Eyes of my Soul may so affect my Heart that my Heart may burn with holy Fervours towards Thee With such Fervours as may make me not only live in thy Love but ready to dye even with Torments for the same if Thou callest me to it And that I may ‖ Cant. 1.4 run after Thee with a LOVE * 8.6 stronger than Death with a LOVE kindled into so †ib. vehement a Flame as no ‖ v. 7. Waters of Affliction can quench or Flouds of Temptation or Persecution drown draw me I intreat Thee with the Cords of Thy Love Give me such a lively and powerful sense of * Tit. 3.4 the Kindness and Love of GOD our SAVIOUR which hath appeared towards men as may †2 Thes 3.5 direct my Heart into the Love of GOD and make me most entirely to love Thee ‖ 1 Joh. 4.19 because Thou hast first loved me and that so miraculously And help me so to * Jude 21. keep my self always in Thy Love that no †Rom. 8.39 Creature may be able to separate me from it Of all the Sections here I may safely say that this deserves to be oftenest used to be used even day and night For of all the Divine Graces there is none more sweet than divine Love None more excellent in it self or useful unto us as being most conducive to an Heavenly Life upon Earth VI. For Love to Neighbours LET Him enrich me with a large and noble Charity With such a Charity as is the ‖ Col. 3.14 Bond of Perfectness and will make me * Mat. 19.19 love my Neighbours as my self With such a Charity †1 Cor. 13.4 5 6 7. as is kind and long-suffering and neither envieth vaunteth nor is puffed up As thinketh no evil as seeketh not her own as is not easily provoked nor behaves it self unseemly As rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the Truth bearing all things believing all things hoping and enduring all things ‖ Rom. 13.10 Love I know is the fulfilling of the Law * Mat. 22.39 and the great and †1 Joh. 2.8 New Commandment which thou hast given us As it behoves me therefore let me keep it inviolate in all respects Let me never shut up the Eyes of my Observation or the Bowels of my Compassion or the Hands of my Bounty from those that are in need But let me chearfully ‖ Luk. 11.41 give Alms of all things that I have and be * 1 Tim. 6.18 19. ready to distribute and willing to communicate according to my Abilities laying up in store for my self a good foundation against the Time to come that I may lay hold on Eternal Life And as GOD laid down His Life for me so let me be content to do the same for others upon good accounts as †1 Joh. 3.16 I ought to do that so I may prove I am passed from ‖ ver 14. death to life because I love the Brethren * Rom. 12.9 without dissimulation Nor let my Charity extend only to †Psal 16.3 the Saints upon Earth to such as excell in virtue and are of the Houshold of ‖ Gal. 6.10 Faith but to all that partake of humane Nature and even to the worst with whom I converse Let it teach me gently to forbear and frankly to forgive * Col. 3 13 if I have quarrels against any even as GOD for CHRIST's sake hath †Eph. 4.32 forgiven me chusing rather to take ‖ 1 Pet. 2.20 all patiently than to * 1 Thes 5.15 render evil for evil to any man And let my Charity I pray Thee be more ample still and raise me up to so Christian a Temper as that I may not only be able to put up evil but forward and desirous to the utmost of my power to do good against evil and never to †Gâ—l 6.9 be weary of such well-doing till I ‖ Rom. 12.21 overcome evil with good If my * ver 12. Enemies hunger let me feed them if they thirst let me give them drink Let me love them †Mat. 5.44 that hate me and bless them that curse me and pray for them that despitefully use me and persecute me that so I may ‖ Luk. 6.35 be one of the Children of the HIGHEST who hath declared He is kind to the unthankful and the evil VII For Humility LET Him * 1 Pet. 5.5 clothe me with real and profound Humility Even with such an Humility as my REDEEMER practised That so the same †Phil. 2.5 8. mind that was in Him who humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross may be in me and I may never ‖ Rom. 12.3 think more highly of my self than I ought to think VIII For Patience LET Him beget in me a true Christian Patience Such a Patience as may make me submissive to GOD's Pleasure in all His Providences Such a Patience as may make me thankful and make me joyful in the worst Emergencies and Occurrencies of the World and in the wofullest Circumstances and contingencies of Life and in the Approaches and Agonies of Death it self That I thus * Luk. 21.19 possessing my Soul in Patience and †Jam. 1.5 Patience having its perfect work upon me I may be perfect and entire wanting nothing IX For Chastity LET Him beautifie me with an excellent and unspotted Chastity With such a Chastity as becomes the Servants and the Spouse of CHRIST With such a Chastity as may enable me to hate Uncleanness and to ‖ 1 Cor. 6.18 flee Fornication and to * 1 Thes 4.4 possess my vessel in Sanctification and honour as a †1 Pet. 2.11 Pilgrim and stranger abstaining from fleshly lusts which war against the Soul With such a Chastity as may make me * Mat. 5.8 pure in my Heart as well as in my Actions that so I may see GOD. See Him to my comfort while I live upon Earth and my Eternal Satisfaction and Bliss in Heaven X. For Meekness LET Him adorn me with Religious Meekness which in †1 Pet.
will be in vain To this agrees the Doctrine of that Great Man the Son of Sirach He that washeth himself after the touching of a dead body if he touch it again what availeth his washing So it is with a Man that fasteth for his Sins and goeth again and doth the same Who will hear his Prayer or what doth his humbling profit him Ecclus. 34.25 26. One Request now concludes the Preface That they who use this Book and find Benefit by it would not only give Glory to GOD for it to whom alone it wholly belongs But also that they would Remember its unworthy Composer in their daily Prayers especially on the days of their Devout and Solemn Addresses to Heaven ☞ That the plain Reader might meet with no Difficulties to stop or hinder Him in the perusing this Treatise some few things not altogether so obvious and easy as the Rest are taken out of his way by being thrown back in the Quality of Notes to the End of the Book THE Holy Mourner c. CHAPTER I. The Usefulness of our Faculties and Passions What Religious Mourning is Two Sorts of it Publick and Private The two Kinds of Private Mourning with the respective Branches of them AS GOD hath given us a lofty Nature and endued that Nature with excellent Faculties So He designs those Faculties for worthy Ends. He intends them not only for Ornament but Use and by them means to make us better as well as higher than other Creatures Thus He gave us an Understanding that we might know Himself as well as other things A Will that we might chuse our Duty as well as other Advantages A Memory that we may treasure up Divine as well as other Truths that so within our selves we might not only have Matter to entertain our Thoughts profitably but also be competently furnish'd with some good Principles from whence to take the measures of our Practice And if we look more downward into the Frame of our Being we shall see that our Passions tho' much inferior to the mentioned Faculties were contrived by the all-wise GOD Who made them for our very Souls Improvement For when He put them into us it was that they might be instrumental to our heavenly and eternal as well as to our temporal and secular Interests Love for instance He planted in us to fix our Hearts immoveably on Himself and to carry them out in Desires towards Him with all the Force and Vigour and Vehemence which that Sweet and Powerful Principle has Fear to awe our Minds into Seriousness and so to balast them as to keep them steady that they being tossed with no Lightness or Folly we may be kept from all Loosness and Sin Hope to draw us to true Religion and not only to induce us to it but to encourage us in it while lively Expectation of its future Rewards carries us through all its present Difficulties enabling us with Laudable Patience and Zeal to perform both its active and passive Duties Joy to enliven and elevate our Spirits that so besides zealous Patience and Constancy we may persist in our Duties with Alacrity and Pleasure For where Joy intermingles with the Offices of Religion it abates or takes off the uneasiness of them and turns them into real and high Delight To mention no more even Grief it self as mean a Passion as men think it and as bitter and irksome as it seems to be is of singular use to the Sincere Christian and serves him in his best and noblest concerns with an happy Efficacy Tho' to instance in what Particulars it does it would be to anticipate the Matter of this Treatise in the Sequel of which they will Sufficiently appear At present therefore we note but this much That Grief is eminently serviceable to good Christians as it ministers to holy or religious Mourning and is an essential or constituent Part of the same This will be evident if we do but consider what religious Mourning is And that I think may not improperly be thus described It is a blessed Work of the HOLY GHOST whereby we grieve heartily upon some spiritual account It is a work of the HOLY GHOST Nor can it be otherwise For where a plentiful Effusion of HIM is promised we find holy Mourning in the true Church to be an immediate Fruit of it I will pour upon the house of David and upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem the SPIRIT says GOD Zech. 12.10 And then it follows in the next Verse in that Day there shall be a great Mourning To Mourn as Men is incident to all and indeed inevitable As Nature hath given us Power to do it So our Circumstances give us Occasion enough here in this State of Mortality and Misery But to Mourn as Christians is quite another thing Religious Sorrow grows at no time upon the Stock of mere Nature tho' never so well cultivated by Virtuous Education That no where flows with any laudable Stream but where the HOLY GHOST first opens the Springs He bloweth with His Wind and the Waters flow Psal 147.18 St. Jerom from a literal turns the Text to an Allegorical Sense and by the Wind understands the Spirit of GOD. But then the Waters which by His means flow are no other than those of pious Tears which cannot flow unless He causes them to do it And therefore by the Way we have no Reason to think that divine Comforts are either the Sole or the Chief Indication of the Good SPIRIT 's kind and propitious presence Godly Sorrow is as clear a Symptom and assure a Proof of the HOLY GHOST's resting upon us or residing in us as the most refreshing Joys can be And therefore as humble Acknowledgments should be made to GOD and as hearty Praises rendred to Him for the one as for the other The Cloudy Pillar was as evident a Token of GOD's Providential Care of the Jews and of His special Residence with them as the Pillar of Fire tho' all know it was not so bright a one And tho' the SPIRIT 's Consolations are a more lightsome Sign of His Descent upon us yet holy Mourning must be as plain a Mark of his gracious Presence as being as much an Effect of His favourable Influence And then It is a blessed Work of His. Blessed in the entire Capacity of it For as it is wrought in us by a blessed Cause the breathing of this Glorious SPIRIT we speak of and as it is of a blessed Nature being a lamenting of our Wandrings from and Actings against the Laws and Interests of Righteousness So it hath a most blessed Tendency For it tends directly to the purging our of Sin to the purifying of the Soul to the making us upright and holy upon Earth and happy in the Kingdom of Heaven for ever We farther describe it to be a Grieving heartily As there can be no Mourning where there is no Grieving so on the other side where the Mourning is holy the Grief will be hearty There are two
Uneasinesses and dost not express thy Sorrow the same Way and in suitable measures when Religion requires it and where there is more Cause and Reason for it thou maist well conclude there is a fault in thee and by all means let it be amended But if no worldly considerations can work upon thee so far as to make thee weep thou art the more excusable for not doing it upon Religious Accounts Only thou must be sure then to raise thy Grief to the highest pitch thou canst and to express it in other loudest Accents Thou must sigh that is and thou must mourn where thou hast cause to do it with all the holy Passion that thou art able This to thee must supply the Place of Tears and GOD be assured will accept it in their stead And therefore I exhort no good People here simply and absolutely to holy Weeping but to holy Mourning Tho' still I say that that kind of Mourning is to be accompani'd with holy Tears where-ever Persons are capable of shedding them The second Concomitant of solemn Mourning is Prayer Prayers and Tears were ever in high Esteem as well as in great use with Christians They have always been reputed the Church's Weapons and when she rightly encounters the worst Evils with them she commonly prevails against them by happy Conquests And without doubt to mourn upon our Knees with Hearts breathing out Heavenly Desires while our Eyes overflow with godly Tears must needs add much to the Solemnity of the Performance And pity it is but Prayer should be called in to joyn this Exercise when it will not only advance its Solemnity but promote its Success For the Christian that mourns solemnly must be supposed to do it either from the want of some Blessing which he would gladly obtain or from the sense of some Misery which he would fain get rid of or from the fear of some Evil which he is Solicitous to Prevent and in all these three Cases devout Prayer is singularly helpful If we want any Blessing it will help to procure it If we feel any Misery it will help to remove it If we fear any Evil that is like to happen it will help to avert it And when Prayer is so great an Assistant of Mourning and serves its Ends with a powerful Influence who that design to mourn for their Advantage which all holy Mourners certainly do would not call in Prayer to inforce the Duty Thirdly To make holy Mourning more throughly Solemn we must annex Fasting to it That will be a means both to raise it higher in Sorrow and Acceptance For by refusing to take our usual Nourishment we shall gain the more time to spend in the Duty and may attend it the Longer without interruption as being free from the disturbance of those innocent Avocations which our Repasts occasion And then our Stomachs being empty of Meat and Drink and the digestive Faculty unimployed this will be a farther help in the case For then the gross Fumes which after full Meals do commonly Rise cannot ascend or steam up into the Head And so the Brain will be less clouded and so the Spirits will be less clogged and so the Mind will be less dulled And the more sprightly and active the Mind is the more pure and piercing will the Thoughts be And the more refined and penetrative our Thoughts are the more deep will they strike into contemplated Subjects and the quicker Apprehensions will they give us of them And the Quicker Apprehensions we have of Mournful matters the lower we shall sink into a Mournful Temper and the deeper will our Hearts be cut and wounded with pious Relentings So that Discreet Abstinence from bodily Refections will be very Serviceable to awaken our Spiritual Grief which often lies dormant under the weight of moderate and ordinary Food and is not easy to be rowzed up Tho' the higher it grows in commendable degrees the more grateful still will it be to GOD and also the more beneficial to our selves Fourthly To render our Mourning more Solemn yet we must cause Alms-deeds to bear it Company I do not mean only that thou shouldst be kind to the Poor in a constant setled Course of Charity as all Christians are obliged to be in proportion to their Wants and their own Abilities but that thou shouldst on thy Mourning-Days give something Extraordinary to the relief of the Indigent Or if thou dost not dispense it then yet however devote it to that Use and give it out afterward as Occasion is offered Thus we shall help our holy Mourning considerably and make it more efficacious than otherwise it would be For that as all other Sacred Exercises must be carried on by the Strength of Divine Grace And that Grace shall descend in a more abundant Measure upon the Charitable Christian is fairly intimated 2 Cor. 9.8 Where to excite People to liberal Contributions towards supplying the pressing Exigencies of the Needy the Apostle tells them that GOD is able to make all Grace abound towards them Insinuating that our Charitable Benevolences to the necessitous shall be recompenced with abundance of all sorts of Grace And when the Graces of Heaven are conferred upon us Holy Mourning as well as other holy Offices by Virtue of that Power which they derive to our Souls shall be the more effectually performed by us Let somewhat therefore of more than ordinary Charity always wait upon this Sort of Mourning So the more of God's Grace and the more of GOD's Blessing will rest upon us in the Work and that shall not only be better in it self but the more Serviceable to those worthy Ends to which we direct it Fifthly In case we would mourn solemnly It will be necessary to have Set-times for doing it Every Action requires Time nor can it do otherwise in the Nature of the thing For if it be of any Continuance that Continuance includes some Moments in it and what can that successive Duration be but Time tho' never so short Yea if any Transaction be of so swift dispatch as to be instantaneous yet the least possible Instant must be the smallest Part of Time as the least possible Atom is the smallest Part of Matter Now as every Action requires Time naturally so every religious one must do the same But then withal the more Serious we would be in any such Action the more Time proportionably we must bestow upon it For so we may consider it the more throughly and thorough Consideration will ingage us in it the more zealously and when Zeal is up and upon the Wing it will carry us to the End of it the more chearfully and vigorously And therefore Religious Mourning being one of the most important Tasks of a Christian it behoves us to have Times stated or Set-times wherein to exercise it That will be one means to inable us to undertake it and go through with it with the more Consideration Zeal and Vigorousness Now the Time to be allotted
Plenty they fill her with such solid Pleasure and Sweetness as never can result from external Injoyments The choicest of that sort of Contentments in comparison to these are but slight and superficial but frothy and insipid things For the same Reason that holy Sorrows are the heartiest as hath been * Chap. I. noted holy Comforts will and must be the sweetest upon Earth even because as they are seated in the Soul so they are raised by the profound and mighty Workings of the SPIRIT of GOD. And where He is active in a Soul on purpose to comfort it what an Heaven of Sweetness must He produce in it It was the Sweetness of these Comforts that made St. Austin cry out in a kind of rapturous Surprise or in a Pang of Admiration when he felt Himself happily incircled with them †Nescio in quam dulcedinem me duces Domine O LORD I know not into what sweetness Thou wilt lead me It was the Sweetness of these Comforts that made St. Jerom profess with a Solemn Appeal to ALMIGHTY GOD that he thought he convers'd with Quires of Angels * Testor DEUM post Hebdomadarum Jejunia visus sum mihi inter ipsa agmina Angelorum versari I take GOD to witness that after my keeping the Lenten Fast I seemed to be conversant with Throngs of Angels It was the Sweetness of these Comforts that hath so fortifi'd and animated some pious Christians that in confidence of their Pardon and Salvation they have Scorn'd and Triumph'd over the Devil and His Angels and in their Languishing Sickness and under near and sensible Approaches of Death have even mockt and derided the Powers of Darkness and challenged and dared them to do their Worst It was the Sweetness of these Comforts that hath privileg'd some with a desirable Euthanasy or easy Death And not only with an easy but most blessed and hapyy one Exalting their Souls to such Excess of Rapture as their frail Bodies were unable to endure they have broken in pieces as it were just as we see Glasses crack and fly through the Strength of Spirits contained in them Farther yet such is the Sweetness of these Comforts that 't is really inutterable And therefore St. Peter says of the Saints of his time that they rejoyced †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.8 with Joy unspeakable All the Rhetoric in the World and all the Orators who use that Rhetoric cannot fully express the delicious Sweetness which holy Comforts derive to good Men. Don't think therefore that I am here going about to explain the native Sweetness of these Comforts or that I am attempting to give in an exact Account of it For when Heaven tells us it is unspeakable that must needs be a Task impossible As we noted even now insufferable is the torment of a wounded Spirit And one Reason may be because the Wounds are made in it by the force of Spirits Either by GOD Himself touching them with the finger of his heavy wrath which no poor Creature is able to endure * Psal 76.7 Who may stand in thy Sight when thou art angry or else by Devils the Ministers of His Severity For whenever GOD gives up sinners to them by withdrawing the care of their Guardian Angels to whose watchful Tutelage or Custody they were committed or by removing any other Defence of His Providence whereby they were protected they immediately assault them with dreadful Violence and in the Heat of their Malice lay on such furious Strokes upon them as poor Mortals are not able to stand under As in time of temptation they tickle Mens minds with Thoughts of Pleasure which wind and draw them to evil Inclinations not easy to be resisted and which indanger their falling into Deadly sin So in time of Desertion they Strike mens Consciences with such dismal Terrors as that being unable to sustain the terrible concussions they sink into horror and raging despair And if the wrath of GOD or of His revengefull Ministers can make such direful Impressions on our Spirits as wound them with Pains beyond all manner of Patience well may His comforts infused by His SPIRIT affect us with Pleasures which for Sweetness shall exceed all measure of Apprehension For such Comforts wrought in us by such a Comforter must needs enter deep enter very deep into our Souls They will pierce to the very Root of their Being and to the center of their Life and flow in upon them with most exquisite Sweetness With such a Sweetness that as it can come from none but GOD so it will draw us most powerfully after Him And were it not for the Luggage of these earthly Bodies which weigh us down it would not fail when it is strong upon us to snatch us hence and carry us up into the glorious Place above O Blessed Creatures they that are favoured with the injoyment of such sweet Comforts Yet that solemn Mourners are sensible of them I dare confidently appeal to themselves to say When ye have withdrawn from the World betaking you to your Chambers or entring into your Closets hath not your FATHER who seeth in secret visited you there Hath He not visited you with sweet Consolations in the midst of your closest mournful Privacies Yea hath He not so visited you as to fill your Hearts with consolatory Sweetness And so hath He filled you many times as that you have been overflowed with it So overflowed as that you have Sunk in it as it were or have been swallowed up by it And then forgetting the World and forgetting your selves like to Angels in their heavenly Extasies ye have perceived nothing but divine Delights And tho' these be Heighths to which all Mourners do not ascend and to which the same holy Mourners cannot at all times attain yet I doubt not but their own Experience being witness their Mournings do commonly lift them up to very raised Comforts Even to such Comforts as are attended with Sublime and inlivening Sweetness tho' some degrees below the highest of all For let me ask when thou hast spent a Day in religious Mourning how hast Thou found thy self after it at night Hast thou not felt a grave Lightsomness in thy Spirit and a serious Gladness in thy Mind and a most pleasant Joy lie glowing at thine Heart And was not the Gratification arising from thence such for Sweetness as no Worldly things did ever afford thee When thou hast spent several Days or it may be some Weeks in the worthiest civil Imployments or Recreations hast thou met with any thing in them so grateful as this or hast thou perceived any such satisfaction after them or can any like it be derived from them But then when the Comforts which here rest upon Mourners are so incomparably Sweet must they not contribute to their being Blessed in this present state In way of Corollary I add but this When the Christian that is constant to his Mourning-days and accustom'd on those
days to hear from Heaven in sweet Illapses of the Holy Comforter chances to miss of his usual Consolations this becomes matter of Trouble to Him That Day goes off but heavily and leaves Uneasiness upon His Spirit as Comforts on the contrary fill it with Pleasantness And so visible are the Indications of the injoyment of Comforts on the one side and of the disappointment of them on the other that were I to converse with such a Man in the close or Evening of such a Day I durst almost undertake from observing his Countenance and his Carriage to tell in some measure what success he hath had Tho when on such a Day he meets with no Comforts the worst effect of it is but this He desires the more that the Like Day may return and also reckons the more upon its coming As hoping that amends shall be made him in the next for his afflictive Want of sweet Solace in the Last The Second beatifying Property of Holy Mourners Comforts is that they are Glorious So we learn from St. Peter who describing that Spiritual Joy or Comfort which comes down upon Christians here in the Body pronounceth it not only to be unspeakable but full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.8 And by so big a Word some very great thing must certainly be meant The least it can import is assuredly thus much That the Joy or Comfort wherein Christians are happy here below is of a most exalted and refined Nature As it is sweet without all mixture of Bitterness so it is noble without any alloy of Baseness It is no way mean nor sordid in the least not at all like Bodily Pleasure which is apt to corrupt and sink the Mind and so tends to Degeneracy and consequently to Dishonour but is most defecate pure and sublime And as it is generous and lofty in it self so it contains a Sublimating Force in it and a Power sufficient to inable us And therefore where-ever it enters and dwells it fails not to raise and brighten the Soul It beautifies and dignifies our Spirits at once and adds more Lustre to them as well as more Life And so indeed it may properly be stil'd Joy full of Glory as being very near a-kin to that glorious Joy in the immortal State That this World hath its Joys such as they are cannot be denied And tho' considering their extreme Shallowness and Emptiness we are ready to think too highly of them and to bestow too fair Epithets upon them yet I do not know that the choicest of them all were ever called glorious Joys Nor is there any Reason for it But that 's the high Title of the Christians Joy even of His Joy here upon Earth and given to it by the HOLY GHOST Himself And He being infallible in what He speaks in the denomination there can be nothing of Strain beyond real Truth In the 45th Psalm the King's Daughter or the Church is proclaimed all glorious within So that how defective soever True Christians may be as to outward Imbellishments yet they shine with inward Splendors and Excellencies Graces and Comforts Their Graces are so bright that they glitter like the dazling Glory above and therefore are called by that Name We are changed from Glory to Glory 2 Cor. 3.18 meaning from Grace upon Earth to Glory in Heaven And then their Comforts must be glorious as well as their Graces else St. Peter would never have express'd them by the Character of * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 glorified Joy And truly in their Graces and Comforts both Saints are so very glorious here and so near to the Glories which shall be hereafter that nothing but those Glories can exceed these Arise shine for thy Light is come said †Chap. 60.1 Isaiah and his Prophecy pointed at the Christian Church Now by what Light can unfeigned Christians shine but by that of Grace and divine Comfort Deprive them of this Light and what dark things are they But so long as that Light rests upon them or remains in them they must be shining and glorious Creatures I do not say that they must glitter before Men for it is not an external but an inward Lustre that adorns them * Psal 45.13 Glorious within says the Psalmist And so their Glory cannot be conspicuous to the World any otherwise than as it beams forth in good Works And Therefore GOD's People were of old called His hidden or His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secret ones Psal 83.3 Because their rare Qualifications and refulgent Perfections were ever concealed from common observation and the World's knowledge Yet at the same time they are glorious still and particularly in their comforts The GOD of Truth by His Servant Peter hath expressly said so and therefore for certain so it must be But then where such Joys or Comforts dwell as GOD Himself declares are glorious the Souls through which they are diffused cannot but be blessed in them even while they are on this side Heaven And that Holy Mourners shall have their share in these glorious Comforts we need not question in the Least For where the Apostle averrs that Christians rejoiced with Joy full of Glory it is spoken of those ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 choice Persons who at that time were * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mourning or in heaviness 1 Pet. 1.6 The third beatifying Property of Holy Mourners Comforts is that they are strong So they are denomiated Heb. 6.18 strong Consolations And such they were signified to be long since Neh. 8.10 For there the Joy of the LORD is said to be His People's Strength And here lies the great Difference betwixt Comforts spiritual and divine and those which arise from outward Accommodations and bodily Satisfactions For the latter at best are but faint and weak and languid things whereas the former are most lively and powerful So lively as to revive our Hearts and so powerful as to strengthen our Hands to the more ready and laudable performance of our Duties But in what instances they will thus inliven and enable us need not here be shewn because in some of the Chapters ensuing it will sufficiently appear The fourth beatifying Property of Holy Mourners Comforts is that they are Secure So well secured to faithful Christians that they are like to abide for ever with them And therefore they are called everlasting Consolations 2 Thess 2.16 And let none that are sincerely and throughly Religious doubt at all of their sharing in them they being a most free Gift of as free a Love as is there hinted to the Thessalonic Church Our LORD JESUS CHRIST Himself and GOD even our Father hath loved us and given us everlasting Consolation So that let us but maintain our Christian Sincerity and we need not fear being dispossess'd of our Spiritual Comforts However they may rise and fall and go and return and intermit at times and alter in measures as they often do and always did yet they shall not be
totally they shall not be finally cut off or quenched If the same GOD who gives them pleases to continue them nothing can be able to deprive us of them So much is intimated by our dearest LORD St. John 14.27 Peace I leave with you my Peace I give unto you not as the World giveth give I unto you Betwixt the Peace which CHRIST gives and the Peace which the World gives there is vast Difference As much as there is betwixt that which is substantial and heavenly and that which is Secular and void of Solidity And as great difference there is betwixt their Ways of giving it When the World gives Peace it does it formally in way of Empty heartless Wish when CHRIST gives it He does it effectually in way of actual cordial Dispensation And how unsettled and Transient soever the World's Peace may be CHRIST's is always most durable and permanent When once He gives it to us He never finally retracts or takes it from us again till we force him to it He would fain have us keep it and keep it for ever And in case we do not the whole Fault is our own because we wilfully forfeit it or choose to forgo it Let but us be careful to preserve it and none but GOD can take it from us And how unlikely is it that He should bereave us of it when it was a kind and pretious Legacy we see left us by our dying REDEEMER Nor would He ever have bequeath'd it to us if He had not known it was His FATHER's Will it should rest upon us And when this Peace or Comfort is our SAVIOUR's Donative and when it is the FATHER's Pleasure that what the SON bestowed on us should abide with us who can pretend to Power enough to take it away Does it not come down from Heaven and who then can reach so high as to stop its descent Does it not spring up in our very Souls and who then can reach so deep as to pluck it thence In short as none but GOD in Heaven can give us it so none upon Earth can take it from us Our kind LORD hath not only intimated but openly and aloud declar'd as much and none amongst us should be so incredulous as not to take His Word in the Case Your Heart shall Rejoyce and your Joy no man taketh from you S. Joh. 16.22 So that Christians Joys are Cordial things they reach their Hearts and not only so but they take up their Residence there and none shall ever ravish them thence unless themselves be first willing to let them go Even those cruel Hands which could take away their Estates their Liberties their Friends and their very Limbs could not take their Joys or Comforts from them So far from that that by taking away those they did but secure if not increase these For it is said that they took Joyfully the spoiling of their Goods Heb. 10.34 When they were Mercilessly stript of other good things yet their Comforts being left they could rejoice in them yea rejoice in the sad losses which they Suffered by virtue of those Comforts they still retained And when Comforts stick by them in such tragical Circumstances this sufficiently proves that they are Secure And then that these strong and secure Comforts belong most properly to Holy Mourners is easily made out For in that very place where the LORD JESUS tells His Proselytes that their Joy shall not be taken from them He tells them withal that they shall be sorrowful but their Sorrow shall be turned into Joy S. Joh. 16.20 Whence it appears that this Strong Comfort this Secure or durable Comfort is partly to spring out of Holy Sorrow and so Pious Mourners have the clearest and most indefesible Title to it Thus we have run through the four Chief Properties of Spiritual Comforts which contain the first Branch of Blessedness that those Comforts afford to Holy Mourners They are divinely Sweet so Sweet as to be inexplicable They are divinely Glorious so Glorious as to be incomparable And at the same time they are Strong so Strong as to be very serviceable to us And withal they are Secure so Secure as that none in this World can take them from us Whence it will follow that as many as partake of these Admirable Comforts must be Blessed Creatures And so Holy Mourners must be Blessed upon Earth because their Mourning as we have prov'd gives them a Right to these Beatifying Comforts and regularly will put them into Possession of them But then what a Motive what a powerful Motive to Holy Mourning must this be Can we aim at more than being blessed upon Earth Can we desire more Blessedness than divine Comforts will bring us Are not they Delights which come from GOD Are not they Joys which descend from Heaven And so must they not fill us with blessed Pleasures And this alone granted that divine Comforts flush holy Mourners with blessed Pleasures which truly in Reason cannot be denied how powerfully I say must it draw us to mourn For Pleasures of all things are most alluring to Mankind nor can they be otherwise considering our Nature For I plainly averr and were there place for it here I could easily prove that Man was a Creature made very much for Pleasures The Goodness of His Creator the Dignity of His Being the State wherein he was at first put and the End to which He was design'd at last all shew as much And tho' now by means of His Folly and Sin his Nature be corrupted and his Circumstances altered and Himself exposed to innumerable Miseries yet this does not argue but that he might originally be created for Pleasures as those Angels were who are now in Chains and destin'd to Torments And truly if Men were not made for Pleasures whence come those violent Inclinations to them and those vehement and furious Desires after them which are so raging and unruly in their Breasts And when it is really thus with them when Pleasures were a great End of their Creation and they must necessarily enjoy them because they insatiably desire them is it not fit that they should choose the best Will it not be wise in them to single out those Pleasures which will make them blessed Yet if they would do that they must be sure to make choice of divine Comforts And to procure them they cannot do better than to fall to Holy Mourning which certainly leads them to the Fruition of them So we have done with the first Branch of Blessedness springing up to Holy Mourners from the Root of their Comforts From the Root of their present Spiritual Comforts as they contain the aforesaid Properties CHAP. VIII An apologetic Inference from the Doctrine in the foregoing Chapter clearing Christianity from the Aspersion of Unprofitableness With Advice to careless and circumspect Christians THE Matter of this Chapter relates to the Substance of the former and runs upon an Inference drawn from the Same In it I confess
Healths and their Lives and their dearest Souls are often times made the Price to purchase them O most sad consideration this those very Pleasures which they violently love and eagerly desire and painfully pursue and excessively pay for are not only false but destructive Ones to them and the Reverse of those which should make them Happy However they may please them they most miserably cheat them and instead of contributing to their Benefit tend to their Ruine and unless they grow wiser will terminate in it In reference to these Men therefore I cannot but resume I cannot but inforce the Caution I have taken up Be not Enemies O be not Enemies to your own Happiness If for enjoying Pleasures you be in good earnest and your vehement Desires of them cannot be controll'd make choice of the best and take up with none but the most beatifying And that ye may lay sure hold of these be truly Religious Study the Will and obey the Laws of our LORD JESUS CHRIST Be most humble and obsequious Subjects of his heavenly Kingdom Let His Throne be erected and establisht in your Hearts and make your very Souls submit to the Scepter of His holy Government Then besides that natural Peace and Delight which attend your Being and your Doing good you shall in time be sensible of a great Reward And that Reward shall be great Comforts And from those Comforts shall flow great Pleasures Even such Pleasures as you want and much better Pleasures than ye now seek as being the best sort which Heaven here gives or Mortals can receive Do but believe do but so far believe a faithful Informant as to make a due Trial and ye shall certainly find that thus it will be The other Word behind is to be spoken to strict and circumspect Christians Let such continue in their Zeal and Watchfulness and labour to improve them If they persist not in their zealous Vigilance their great Reward will soon vanish into none at all For tho' the fear of the LORD giveth Joy and Gladness and is a Crown of rejoicing Ecclus 1.11 12 Yet if any that wear this inestimable Crown should give up Religion and cease to fear GOD it would certainly and immediately fall from their Heads When their Zeal flaggs their Comforts must fail and the quenching of the one will extinguish the other And how will they be able to bear that As the Sweetness of their Comforts is really ineffable So the Loss of the same especially if so unhappily occasion'd must be intolerable A total Deprivation of such incomparable Satisfactions by their own Lukewarmness pull'd down upon themselves must needs reduce them to Saddest Trouble I tremble almost to think how they 'll indure it They must surely want something of Extraordinary Mercy even to keep them in their Wits And then they must improve also in Zeal and Watchfulness as well as persist in them So their great Reward will be made greater still and they shall add to the Degrees of their delightful Consolations For tho' in regard these Comforts are free Issues of the ALMIGHTY's Goodness He might dispense them as arbitrarily as Himself pleaseth giving them when and to whom and in what measures He thinks fit yet look what Rule He foretold He will go by in distributing the great and final Rewards and the same 't is like He 'll observe in bestowing these lesser and intermediate ones He 'll apportion them that is to mens Works respectively They shall have most of them that do best and they that by active and passive Duties or else by both bring greatest Honour to His MAJESTY shall probably have the largest share of them at His hands In case we be dispos'd therefore to * Rev. 3.11 hold that fast which we have and to let no man take our Crown the Crown of our Comforts which is preferable to the richest Diadem upon Earth and if we would not only keep these Comforts but augment them that so our †Ecclus 24.31 Brook may become a River and our River may become a Sea we plainly see the way that we must go in But 't is high time for us to stop this our Excursion and from that to return to the Argument we were prosecuting CHAP. IX A Fifth Motive to Mourning in General being the Second Branch of that Blessedness which springs from the Comforts that attend it they confirm us in Religion by sweetning it to us at the beginning and by incouraging us in the Duties of it ever after EVer since unhappy Man fell and his Nature was debased by Original Corruption his Mind hath stood bent as it were in a stiff and continual Tendency to Evil and his Will hath been violently carri'd that way by the Strong Biass of crooked Inclinations and Proclivities So that now if at any time we become Religious we must be drawn to it by a divine Power and if for any time we continue so we must be confirmed by the same And this Confirmation is a blessed Fruit of Spiritual Comforts And happy is it for us that they are effective of it Else when we are entred on the Ways of GOD and have devoted our selves to Him in the Laudable Beginnings of an holy Life we should quickly repent of our worthy Undertaking it would prove so irksom and uneasy to us Or if here and there one by the Force of Reason and strong Actings of Faith could hold on in the Works of Obedience for a while without having them sweetned with these Consolations yet they are not many that would be able to do it Especially if we consider that when first we give up our selves to Religion besides the busy Corruptions of our Nature we meet with many other troublesome Oppositions which greatly discourage us So that should not some Honey be mingled with our Gall some high Consolations be mixt with those Difficulties which meet us in our first Advances to GOD's Service or Engagements in it we should soon grow weary of the Sacred Imployment and willing to resign it or retreat from it It pleases GOD therefore at or sometime after our Conversion to Himself usually to afford us good measures of His Comforts to wedd us to and to settle us in the happy Way which we have chosen The Laws of our Religion run high and the Doctrines it teaches and the Rules and Precepts which it lays before us are strangely excellent But then being of a divine and lofty Pitch they must be hard as well as useful So that had Christianity nothing but its own intrinsic Worth to induce Men to embrace it and adhere unto it without the Assistance of an extraordinary Grace such as perhaps is given but to few its Duties would be too much for all those that make up the main Body of Believers And consequently were there not high Comforts in it as well as spiritual Excellency to recommend it it would not gain many Proselytes to it self How many sorever might offer at it
flourishes in the World Guilt within dulls his Happiness and makes it insipid yea imbitters the same and makes it unsavoury And in case he declines or falls under Misfortunes the same Guilt aggravates and inrages his Miseries It adds extreamly to the weight of his Calamities and sets so terrible an Edge upon them as makes them to cut more deeply and direfully And as the Guilt which Impious Men have contracted tortures them thus wofully while they live so it racks them a thousand ten thousand times worse when they come to die if they be not senseless of their sad condition Then quick Apprehensions of the Justice of GOD and of their own unworthiness break in upon them And being once entred they startle their Minds and they awaken their Souls that before perhaps slept securely in sin and dreamt of nothing but Ease and Pleasure And the same Apprehensions that rowze them out of their wretched Security help them to form right Notions of Death They tell them plainly and they tell them truly what it must be to their unprepared Spirits Namely a Messenger of Wrath and an Instrument of Vengeance and a sad Consignation to endless Torments A terrible Breach which the divine Anger makes upon them whereat Condemnation and their Ruine enter When GOD summons them from hence out of the Body they can think no other than that 't is to send them directly to Hell and to confine them for ever to the Regions of Darkness and the Prisons of Sorrow and the cursed Habitations of rebellious Sinners And when once they are convinc'd that their Passage hence is a Descent to everlasting Plagues and Miseries how must they fear and what Horrors will seize them when they feel it approaching As the * De Serres Historian relates concerning Lewis the Eleventh of France when he drew on a pace to his Dissolution he strictly charged all about him that they should not so much as mention that cruel Word Death to him And no wonder that from the aforesaid conviction such excessive Fear should arise to such as die impenitent For when Men perceive that they are sinking down into the bottomless Depths of eternal Sufferings how can they chuse but be lamentably overwhelmed with raging Horrors Nor does the amazing Prospect of this dismal Calamity overset Men with Fears only at their last Hour but hurries them on to other Expressions of their Astonishing Troubles For when they feel they must die and that Death will convey them to interminable Punishments then poor Souls they sigh and lament Then they ring their Hands and they tear their Hair and they curse the Day that ever they were born to be so unhappy Then they sigh when they are awake and they start in their sleep and are continually frighted with such inward Terrors that they would gladly run away even from themselves if so be they did know but how and whither Then they call for Ease but they cannot have it they seek for Rest but they cannot find it and therefore bursting out into doleful Tears in the heighth of bitter but fruitless Passion to those about them they make either this or the like heavy complaint Now we are undone O wretched Creatures we are lost for ever We might have been saved if we would and we verily thought we should have been so but alas we find that we were greatly deceived For our Hopes are now gone and our Confidence is quite sunk we are leaving the World and GOD hath left us and who can relieve whom He rejects Once we were offered Peace and Love and might have had them both upon easy Terms But those blessed Tenders are now over and the Hand that kindly reach'd them towards us is armed with Rage and stretcht out with fierce Indignation against us Oh the precious Hours that we imbezilled the sweet Opportunities that we neglected the gracious Invitations that we refused the holy Motions that we resisted the heavenly Glories that we despised Foolish rash and senseless Creatures that we were to do it O that we might but repeat our Lives that we might injoy these Mercies but once again But here 's the thing that breaks our Hearts we know that this shall never be Our Time is spent and Grace is past the LORD is just and we must perish Such are the Wailings of hopless Sinners and in such mournful Strains as these they sometimes relate their Death-bed Miseries And let none blame them as if they were too querulous at such a time they have cause enough for the Complaints they make Yea when in bitterest Words and loudest Out-cries they express their Grief they rate the Accents of it too low their Sorrow is bigger than their Lamentation Grant O GOD of Mercies we beseech thee that we may never fall under the one and never have occasion to take up the other Of all the sad Spectacles in the whole World I think none more lamentable than to see a wicked Man upon his Death-Bed To see how the nearer he draws to dying the more afraid still he is to do it because he is unfit With what terrible Anguish must this Fear of his needs sting his Soul and how intolerable must that Anguish be because it is incurable Yea the truth is in reference to the ungodly Death is armed with a double sting before it comes it strikes them with the Sting of woful Horror when past with that of cursed Misery Death to them is but an Inlet into Hell that Kingdom of Misery where Sorrow reigns without Measure or End And as they that are in this miserable state cannot but languish in grievous Tortures so they that feel themselves hasting to it cannot but lie under as grievous Fears But now when the righteous go from hence they do it in far more easy circumstances because they do it in a better condition They profess themselves strangers here upon Earth and they seek a City that hath Foundations in Heaven And as they have wisely laid up their Treasure there so their Hearts are with it already which makes them very willing to follow When their Turns come they never repine or quarrel at their Destiny nor lament the case of their dislodging Souls but lie down contentedly at the Feet of Providence and are really pleas'd that they have leave to be gone And one good Help to make them so is the Sweetness of their Passage Their uprightness according to the Royal Psalmist brings them Peace at the last And that Peace keeps all those Thorns out of their Death-bed Pillows or else plucks them thence which prick and gall ungodly Wretches and make their Heads to lie uneasy And when that is done instead of these Thorns it wreaths Olive Branches about their Temples fills them with Tranquillity and holy Quietness And then though Death comes never so suddenly and though when it comes it strikes never so furiously its fiercest Blow cannot make them unhappy They can bear it composedly and without Fear
at times to be very pleasing and gratifying things For when they seriously think they are so dear to GOD as by His meer good Pleasure to be from all Eternity pre-ordained to Life while thousands by Nature as worthy as themselves were sadly pass'd by and excluded for ever from the happy State O how soft and sweet and delicious are these Thoughts Especially when they go on to consider farther that the same GOD if they believe in his SON will reckon them just upon account of his Righteousness transferr'd to them and tho' their Sins be great for the sake of that Righteousness will graciously connive at them or overlook them This makes them swell with tumid Joys and triumph in the sense of inward Pleasures and ready to cry out O happy happy Creatures we that drink so deep of GOD's Love and Favour Yet all this while there is no more genuine Comfort in their Joys than there is of Truth in their erroneous Notions Fifthly False Comforts may have their rise from Texts of Scripture mistaken and misappli'd As a Specimen of these I mention but three Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain Mercy Mat. 5.7 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 1 Joh. 1.9 Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the LORD shall be saved Rom. 10.13 Now too many heedless and unwary Christians greedily catching at these excellent Paragraphs of the sacred Word and running away with them in a strained sense and forc'd application of the same to themselves do confidently argue and inferr from them that they are sure to be blessed in Mercy and Pardon and eternal Salvation For they give Alms and make frequent Confessions of their Sins to GOD and put up constant or customary Prayers to His MAJESEY And being fairly intitled to such precious Blessings as they imagine and directed by Scripture most justly to claim and challenge them for their own they rejoice excessively in the Right they have to them But alas all this time they do but mis-interpret and vainly mis-apply the holy Texts and so whatever Comforts they extort from them they cannot possibly be of the true Kind nor yet of any good use or consequence Tho' this Chapter be not over close or direct to our main Purpose yet collaterally it may be very useful as it relates to present divine Comforts CHAP. XVII The Twelfth Motive to Mourning in General it intitles us to the Joys of the future Life The Excellency of those Joys manifested by comparing them with present Comforts and shewing how they exceed them in four Properties ALL that hath been hitherto said of Comforts relates to those in this present state And tho' they be very considerable both in their kind and measures yet they are the least of them which holy Mourners may expect For if they lift up the Eyes of their pure Minds and look beyond this lower World they shall see there are other divine Comforts in reserve for them and they many more and much better than they here meet with I mean the joys of the future Life And therefore when our LORD pronounc'd Mourners blessed in that they shall be comforted He might mean that the chief part of their Blessedness should be the Joys * Loco luctus istius laetiria perfundetur gaudio aeterno gaudebunt Episcop in Mat. 5.4 of the World to come And this the sacred Writer seems to point at Psal 126.5 They that sow in Tears shall reap in Joy Which words tho' in their primary sense they respect that Grief which seiz'd the Jews when they were carri'd away into the Babylonish Captivity and the Joy which filled them when they returned happily out of the same yet they may well be extended farther and allegorically accommodated to Mourners Tears as they shall be recompenc'd with Heavens Joys And so the Words which were once a Prediction respecting the Jews are now as plain a Prophecy as to Christians They farely foretel that as surely as the people who went weeping to Babylon rejoic'd when they came back again to Jerusalem so certainly shall they who mourn religiously upon Earth rejoice in Heaven So true is St. Basil's saying * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Tear is the seed of everlasting Joy And O happy Creatures who sow plenty of such Seed as will spring up and fructify to so blessed an Harvest The Prophet describing true Repentance expresseth it thus Jer. 4.3 Break up your fallow ground Which however it may seem a rustical Phrase yet the SPIRIT very often speaking of Mens virtuous actions by the metaphorical term of sowing it wants not a kind of Grace and Elegancy And as many as in pursuance of that Direction break up the fallow ground of their Hearts which grant O LORD we may all do and amongst other good seed sow store of pious mournful Tears they are sure of the richest Crop they can desire For when they reap it it shall be all Joys and the Joys of Heaven which shall be as great as GOD can give and as glorifi'd Saints in their respective Capacities can receive And that future Joys must be great and excellent we may justly inferr and certainly conclude from the admirable Qualities of present spiritual Comforts For tho' they be really such as we have heard yet the Joys above must needs excell them For to rejoice there will be part of the Saints Work as well their Reward and their blessed Imployment as well as their Felicity Assure thy self Christian that the liveliest loftiest Comforts here are but meer Shadows to those Joys in the higher Regions They are but as a Spark to that glorious Flame and as a little Drop to that vast Ocean He that compares the Comforts of this Life to the Joys of the next hangs out a Candle to vie Light with the Sun and weighs an Atome against a Mountain Tho' our present Comforts be most rare and precious things our future Joys will much exceed them We may view the great Difference betwixt them in Four Properties First Our future Joys will be immediate They shall not be infus'd by the Ministery of Angels nor yet excited by the Meditation of Duties or Intervention of Ordinances but shall descend directly from GOD Himself from His propitious and most quickning Influence The Sight of His Face and the Sense of His Love and deep Apprehensions of His divine Favour without the Help of any other means will cause them to rise and swell within us And therefore they are said to be our Master's Joy and the Joy of our LORD Mat. 25.21 23. Even because they flow chiefly from an open and immediate fruition of GOD and a sweet and intimate communion with Him It is not thus with our present Comforts They are not to be had but with Sweat and Pains with much labour and religious Industry We are fain to fast and to pray to weep and to mourn to read and to meditate and by all
even to the ground by mournful Prayers let us labour to defeat them Night and Day let us crave of her Supreme ALMIGHTY Head to secure Her from Dangers and to deliver Her from Troubles to build up Her Walls and to repair her Breaches to strengthen her Friends and to beat down her Enemies To settle Truth and Peace in Her to add more Purity and Holiness to Her and to continue them both for ever with Her In a word together with our Prayers let us often pour out our Tears unto Him beseeching Him with all possible Importunity to be Her everlasting Patron and Protector To settle Her upon the Basis of his infinite Power and to rest her upon the Support of his never-failing Providence to watch over Her with the Eyes of his tender care and to incircle Her with the Arms of his gracious Custody to lay Her in the Bosom of His Paternal love and to Crown Her with the Blessings of His favourable kindness That so whatever Her past Hardships have been for the future she may not only be safe and easy but flourishing and happy And whatever in this way we do for the Church we may conclude Her extremely worthy of it For the true Christian Church is a Community of the best People in the World A Fraternity of virtuous and religious Persons A Society of innocent and holy Livers that believe and act the noblest things An Association or Body of such as are excellent in themselves approved of GOD dearly bought and beloved of CHRIST competently cleansed and sanctifi'd by the SPIRIT and nearly related and united to us On whom as we cannot but place much of our Delight here on Earth so with them we shall enjoy an eternally sweet and inconceivably delectable Conversation in Heaven And how despicable soever they may now seem and however vilifi'd and abused they may be yet over a while the LORD JESUS will dignify them with such high Perfections and vest them with such bright and radiant Splendors as will render them incomparably glorious and admirable even in the Eyes of all beholders He signifies no less where He openly declares that at His Second event He shall come to be glorifi'd in his Saints and to be admir'd in all them that believe 2 Thess 1.10 Upon these Considerations to name no more what good Christians would not willingly do any thing much more humbly Pray and Mourn to advance and hasten the Church's Happiness And let none refuse or reject the Exercise upon pretence that Her Happiness cannot be hastened because the Time when it commences is immutably decreed For if the Beginning of that happy state which the Christian Church is to enter upon be inalterably prefixt to a certain Period of time Isai 60.22 and so determined by prophetick bounds or limitation as not to be accelerated in any measure yet by Prayers and Tears She may notwithstanding be made very prosperous before-hand and this signal Prosperity may be previous and introductive to that Her Felicity CHAP. XIX Objections against Holy Mourning answered as that 't is beneath us Makes us Melancholy Disparages Religion Wastes our Time And hinders Business HAving done with the Motives which invite to Holy Mourning in General and may they effectually induce us to it 't will be proper in the next place to see what Objections may be brought against it and to remove them fairly out of the way The First may be this Mourning is a thing very much beneath us Below our Nature and our Dignity Man is no less than a marvellous Compound of different Principles And tho' his Body be as mean and faeculent as the Earth he treads on being originally made out of it and so symbolical and homogeneous with it yet his Soul is a divine and noble Essence immaterial and spiritual equal to Angels and like unto GOD. And in this respect he is highly advanc'd in the Classis or Scale of living Creatures and indu'd and adorn'd with such Faculties and Perfections as are suitable to a Being of his Rank or Station in the animate World Nor was his Original Dignity short of his Frame or Nature For when GOD created Him his Favour bestow'd the high Privilege upon him to make him Prince or Head of this sublunary World Gen. 1.28 And for Him that is of so high a Nature and also bears so high a Character Mourning must needs be too low an Exercise When his Person is so extraordinary as to excell even all the visible Creation and his Power so eminent as at first to hold the Reins of this World in his hand for him to sit whimpering with Tears in his Eyes will ill become so exalted a Creature and the Empire delegated to him from above To this I answer First Grief is one of our natural Passions And whatever is a piece of Man's Nature must not be counted either unworthy of him or disgraceful to him That would be a rude and impious reflection upon the All-wise and Glorious GOD who made Him Secondly Tho' Man in this inferior World was and in some measure still is a kind of Sovereign yet he is one of the ALMIGHTY's Subjects And so whatever Commands GOD lays upon him he is bound indispensably to obey them And holy Mourning being one of his Precepts in point of Duty he must submit to that And as that which is his Duty will be so far from debasing him that 't will conduce to his Honour as well as to his Interest so holy Mourning as being a Duty which GOD injoins must improve his Nature and imbellish his Worth and while it advances both can disparage neither For this we have a Proof that puts the thing past all doubt JESUS our LORD was once an holy Mourner upon Earth He wept for Lazarus St. Joh. 11.35 And in the days of His Flesh He offered up Prayers and Supplications with strong crying Tears Heb. 5.7 But did this at all sink or degrade our Nature which He graciously assumed So far from that that at this very time and for many Ages past it sits at GOD's Right hand in Glory and is there exalted far above all Principality and Power and Might and Dominion and every Name that is named not only in this World but also in the next Eph. 1.21 So far is Mourning from disparaging our Nature that GOD did not count it disparaged His. For when our LORD wept even He was concern'd in shedding those Tears as being hypostatically joined to our Flesh Secondly It may be objected against holy Mourning that it makes us Melancholy or is a piece of that unhappy and uneasy Temper And so indeed it will not only be of no use but of dangerous consequence For Melancholy is said and not improperly to be the Devil's * Balneum Diaboll Bath A complexion wherein our great Adversary delights as being troublesom to us and advantageous to him in carrying on his Malicious Designs against us And when religious Mourning leads to Melancholy or
consists of it which is injurious to us there 's so little cause why we should Mourn that we have reason to neglect it and industriously decline it and to do all we can to defend our selves from it I answer This Charge of Melancholy upon holy Mourning runs too high and seems to come from the unexperienc'd Divine Love is the usual source from whence that flows and therefore it is light and soft and pleasant and does not too much fret nor grate the Spirit with anxious and corroding Trouble Rejoyce evermore is S. Paul's Direction to the Thessalonians which plainly shows that Christians may in some measure rejoyce even when they mourn Otherwise the Duties would be inconsistent and Heaven must require such Performances as are incompatible The Prophet also tells us of GOD's reviving the hearts of the Contrite Isa 57.15 Which is farther Assurance that the tears let fall in holy Mourning GOD shall turn into Spiritual Cordials When our Hearts are wounded with Sacred compunction He 'l certainly chear us under the same by mingling Divine Consolations with it And where ever those Consolations dwell there can be no room for any settled Melancholy Dejection We have heard likewise from the Mouth of the HOLY GHOST that they who sow in Tears shall reap in Joy And tho they receive not their whole Crop on Earth yet their blessed Harvest begins here and pleasant are the First Fruits which they gather even those they gather as I may say in a rainy-day For believe it there 's * Dulciores sunt lachrymae plorantium quam gaudia Theatrorum Aug. more sweetness in or after a few Tears spent in Holy Mourning than in all the empty frothy mirth which this World affords Tho' in that Exercise we be disguised as it were with seeming sadness yet under the vizard of that Grief which we wear upon our Faces some degree of Joy may lie hid in our hearts For real Joy is no such Enemy to nor does it stand at such a Distance from Religious Sorrow as some imagine †Res severa est verum gaudium True Joy is a grave and serious and severe thing and often spreads briskly through our Souls when they are in a Mourning frame And there 's Reason for it For as godly Sorrow contracts and lessens our Opinion of this World and eclipses the Beauties and Glories of it wrapping them up in Darkness and a Cloud so at the same time it sets a Lustre on divine Excellencies and quickens and dilates our Apprehensions of them and renders them very estimable with us Yea it draws aside the Curtain betwixt GOD and us and opens a Window towards Heaven for us letting in the Light of his Countenance upon us and the refreshing Gleams of His ravishing Love under the bright displays and lively sense of which we cannot but rejoice even when holy Tears trickle down our Cheeks In a word our solemn Mournings and our sacred Comforts are seldom far or long asunder But in case they be not actually Blended or in competent measures happily complicated or twin'd together then at little intervals or distances they will not fail by alternate Vicissitudes to succeed each other Whoever therefore make a lasting uneasy Grief an Ingredient into sacred Mourning or think it compounded of harsh vexatious raking Melancholy do but calumniate and reproach it and declare themselves Perfect strangers to it For did they but throughly understand the Duty by being practically acquainted with it they could never pass such a Censure upon it Thirdly It may be objected against holy Mourning that it disparages Religion Of such a Constitution is true Christianity and so circumstantiated that wherever it is heartily receiv'd and practis'd it will commonly be productive of divine Tranquility and a solemn Chearfulness For 1st It restrains from all wilful Sins And so it saves us from those troubles both of Mind and Body which naturally and judicially pursue such Impieties 2ly It fits us to be GOD's Habitations and consecrates us into Temples for the HOLY GHOST And where GOD and His SPIRIT are pleased to reside what chearfulness may not their Presence produce 3ly Two chief Perfections of the Christian Religion are Patience and Contentedness And they that are furnisht with those excellent Graces are not only fortifi'd against Perplexity but fairly disposed to an Heavenly Lightsomness 4ly Two special Fruits of the Blessed SPIRIT which usually grow where Religion thrives are Peace and Joy Gal. 5.22 And what Souls can be sad where they flourish 5ly As the HOLY JESUS by a principal Apostle hath given it in charge to all His true Proselytes ever to rejoice in Him and to ingeminate the Precept to inforce the Duty rejoice in the LORD alway and again I say rejoice So one great End why the holiest Order of Men in His Church was at first set up and ever since continu'd was that they might be helpers of His Peoples Joy 2 Cor. 1.24 So that put these several things together and impossible it is but Christianity must minister to Peace and Joy or rather in part be made up of the same But then if it be thus how very inagreeable and disparaging to it must Mourning be And therefore why do you press it at such a rate For so earnestly do you urge it and so vehemently do you labour to perswade us to it as if you would have us all turn Heraclitus's and spend our Days in pensive Sadness As if we were forthwith to betake us to mopish Cells to cloister up our selves in Darkness and Solitariness and to keep the Muffler of Grief continually on our Faces Or in one Word as if none could be happy but they whose cheeks are furrowed with their Tears and whose handcherchiefs are never from their dripping Eyes If this be a necessary Christian Duty 't is a very comfortless one and will little credit it or encourage any to undertake it Nay to speak the plain Truth it seems to cross it and to be directly opposite to the very Temper or Genius of it I answer The Objection is perverse and captious There is a season for every thing as the great Master of Wisdom observed Eccles. 3.1 And amongst the rest there 's a time to weep and a time to mourn and that 's my meaning and all that I contend for Now and then we should weep and mourn but not set our selves to do nothing else To do that incessantly is the Damned's Fate and would ill become the Children of GOD. Yet to Mourn at times will make us Blessed as most of what hath been here advanc'd may serve to prove But then that which helps to make us Blessed as it can never blemish our Persons in the least so neither can it give any disrepute to that noble Religion whereof it is a Branch Some are ready to think and venture to affirm there shall be godly sorrow in Heaven * See Mr. Manton's Exposition on James 4th v. 9th Because there
us and to win and bring us home unto Himself A Thought which should work kindly with us methinks and make us the more forward to weep for our Offences as well as the more free or liberal in our Tears And the rather should we be thus that so the Eye which is a great Occasion of Sin might bear its part in proportionable Mourning Remember says the Son of Sirach that a wicked Eye is an evil thing and what is created more wicked than an Eye therefore it weepeth upon every occasion Ecclus. 31.13 And if the Eye be so evil and so prone to weeping nothing can be more just than that it should weep for Sin that so that Guilt may run out at its Tears which ran in at its Glances Secondly We must mourn for our own Sins because the Nature of Sin calls for it and also the Sufferings of our SAVIOUR Sin if we look to its Definition which shows its Nature is * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illegality in the Abstract or a transgression of the divine Law So an inspired Pen describes it 1 S. Joh. 3.4 Now if Sin be a transgression of the Law it must necessarily be an opposition to GOD's Will the written Law being nothing else but His revealed Mind And what can be more vile than that Evil the very Essence of which is a direct repugnancy to GOD and so an absolute Contrariety to the most pure perfect and eternal GOOD Where rational Creatures as we are have chosen and delighted in a thing so extreamly so infinitely base surely we cannot but think we have reason to mourn for so egregious Folly and that it calls for Mourning to the highest Pitch If we lose an Estate or lose a Child lose a Friend or lose a Limb we grieve excessively and sink deep in Sadness and Lamentation But how then should we overflow with Sorrow for Sin as being unspeakably worse than the worst of Evils which be they never so many and never so bad are all but the issues or products of that And then the same Sin which is so evil in it self occasion'd most dreadful Sufferings to our SAVIOUR Should I go about to describe them in their Heighth and Bitterness Time would fail me and Words too And therefore our Hearts methinks should send forth flouds of mournful Tears at our weeping Eyes when we think they were indured for our Sins That there should be such a Mourning amongst all good Christians for their SAVIOUR's Passion was foretold long since by a famous Prophet Zech. 12.10 11. And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplication and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for Him as one that mourneth for His only Son and shall be in bitterness for Him as he that is in Bitterness for his first-born In that day there shall be a great Mourning The SPIRIT of Grace was to be poured out upon the Christian Church and when and wherever that blessed Effusion should be graciously made by this Prediction there must be liberal Mourning for JESUS's Sufferings caused by our Sins As therefore we have * Quem continuè irritarunt quasi telis rebellionis suae pupugerunt Calv. in loc continually provoked our SAVIOUR and pierced Him with the darts of our rebellious Practices so let us mourn and that greatly and bitterly for the same And so we shall certainly do unless our Hearts be drier than a Pumice and harder than Adamant Thirdly We must Mourn for our own Sins because in Scripture we are exampled to it We are very apt to be led by Example and a strong and mighty force it is that we feel from the influence and power of it And that it is of a potent Efficacy is clear from hence that Heaven it self often referrs us to Example as desirous to work upon us by it Look unto Abraham your Father and unto Sarah that bare you Isai 51.2 Yea this is one Reason why GOD sent His SON in the likeness of our Flesh that He might be a Pattern or President of Righteousness to us and His exemplary Obedience might encourage ours Tho' this was far from being the chief and farther from being the sole End of His Incarnation as some contend And as besides that of His SON GOD in the holy Book has recommended several other great Examples to excite our religious Imitation so He strictly requires us to live well our selves that thereby we might become exemplary unto others Let your light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven Mat. 5.16 And there being such notable Strength in Example to draw us over to compliance with or conformity to it self to bring Men to mourn piously for their Sins 't will be proper to remember those that have done so And here of many Examples in the sacred Volume let me note but a few For this King David was eminently remarkable as his own Words witness I am weary of my groaning all the night make I my bed to swim Psal 6.6 So unintermitting was His Grief that his Groans were incessant and when in his Bed he should have rested in Sleep he was swimming in Tears Nor was it thus with him for a few minutes at a time once in a great while but his violent Sorrows lasted long and returned often He spent himself in them and was wearied with them * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the night or every night for several together Insomuch that he complained v. 7th Mine Eye is consumed because of grief A sad Symptom of excessive Mourning when his Eyes were wasted with continual Weeping and his Sight was sunk into sensible Decay through the great plenty of Tears which he shed Nor did this Sorrow flow from the pains of Sickness or insults of Enemies only but from the guilt of his Sins chiefly So the Quality of this Psalm gives us to understand For it is not only a penitential one but the first of them that are called by that name And when in it he deplored the other Miseries 't was only so far as they were caused and deserved by his hainous Sins Nor did he mourn thus sadly by Night only but also by Day I go mourning all the day long Psal 38.6 And this was upon Account of his Sins again Mine iniquities are gone over mine Head as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me 'T was the weight of their guilt that so sadly depressed him So apprehensive was he of that so amazed at it and confounded with it that it almost overwhelm'd and quite overset him At least it put him into deep Mourning or made him * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 go in black even all the day long And O that we could do as this good King did in mourning for our Sins †Psal 6.6 Water our Couch with our Tears by day
Name changed into Israel in token of his signal Prevalence with the ALMIGHTY this Powerful Remarkable Prevalence of His was owing in good measure to pious Mourning Nor can we be out in this our Assertion forasmuch as it plainly stands thus imputed by a venerable Prophet By his strength he had power with GOD yea he had power over the Angel and prevailed Hos 12.3 4. And why did he so It follows he wept and made supplication to Him So that His mighty Prevalence and Success in great part was due unto his Tears But then to come home to our purpose I must add that as religious Tears when shed for our selves prevail with Heaven so they will prevail for others likewise when poured out to GOD upon their account The following Instance will make this good beyond exception Israel had provoked the LORD to Anger and Moses was afraid as well he might that He would destroy them Hereupon he fell down before the LORD Deut. 9.18 That is he mourned as well as prayed for the People for Prostration was a Posture in use for both And because he mourned and wept Rabbi Solomon called that forty days wherein then he fell down says mine * Quadragena tristabilis Lyr. in loc Author the forty Mournful days And what the Effect of his Mournful intercession was appears v. 19. where we find that the LORD hearkened unto him at that time And when the Mournful Importunity of one good Man could quench the Fury of an inraged GOD and save a wicked People from utter destruction must it not carry a wonderful Prevalence with it For when he was minded to ruine the Rebellious Hebrews and to blot out the Name or Memory of them from under Heaven as well as the Generation then living He was pleas'd to cry out to Moses †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 14. Let me alone or be gone from me Implying there was such force or power of restraint in Moses's humble mournful Intreaty that unless it was silenc'd or removed GOD could not inflict those just Severities which he intended and they deserved But then who that are truly and throughly good can think they have not great Reason to mourn for the Sins of others when thereby they may avert the Judgments of GOD which are due unto them Yea tho' those Sins be most hainous of all even National Sins and the Judgments like to be proportionably heavy But here we must remember that tho' the holy Mournings of all good people are very powerful and prevailing with Heaven yet the Mournings of one sort of Men always were and ever will be of greatest prevalence namely those in the ministerial Office And therefore when terrible Judgments were coming upon the Jews the Prophet expresly charged the Priests the Ministers of the LORD not only to pray but also to weep in prevention of them Joel 2.17 And then adds immediately as the happy consequence or effect of the same Then will the LORD be jealous for His land and pity his People So when Christians at any time are visited with Sickness they are required to call for the Elders of the Church to pray over them Jam. 5.14 And so prevalent shall their Prayers be especially when mingled with holy Tears that if it be best the LORD shall raise them up again by restoring them to health as the Apostle declares in the next Verse Nor need we wonder that the Clergies Prayers should be most prevailing to prevent or remove any manner of National or Personal Judgments For if we rightly consider as they are or should be Men of the most zeal so they pray with the greatest Authority as being appointed and commission'd thereunto by virtue of the Function to which they are ordained And by the way they being thus doubly qualifi'd to pray with most prevalence they should as they have reason do it with all Diligence Pray even night and day to GOD for all his People tho' for some perhaps much more than others as particular Respects and Obligations bind them Only when they or any other set apart a day wherein to pray for their Souls or to pray for their Bodies for the remission of such Sins as they have committed or for the Removal of such Severities as GOD hath inflicted or for the Suspension of such Judgments as He hath plainly threatned let them endeavour to inforce their Prayers with mournful Tears which adds to the Strength and Efficacy of them Fourthly We must mourn for the Sins of others because such Mourning especially brings us Comfort And this it may do two Ways Either as it benefits those Persons whom we bewail which when it comes to our knowledge must needs afford us most noble satisfaction or else as it inclines the gracious GOD to dispense His holy Consolations to us as a liberal recompence for our Christian Pity in laying our Brethrens Miscarriages to Heart As many as mourn for other mens Sins must certainly be comforted one of these ways if not both Else the divine Promise must fail Isai 57.18 I will restore Comforts to him and to his Mourners Not only to reclaimed Sinners themselves that have well considered their crooked ways and wisely corrected and amended them but also to those Mourners for them that have lamented their Immoralities and great Offences And have we not reason to mourn for others Sins when thereby we shall draw down the Joys of Heaven upon our selves Fifthly We must mourn for the Sins of others because such Mourning secures us from Judgments when others fall by them Public and National Sins call for great and general Calamities and it is but Just with GOD to send them And when they come by His appointment they are exactly what the Prophet of old termed them Isai 28.15 an over-flowing scourge A scourge that breaks in with most terrible Violence and passes through a Country with such spreading Fierceness and irresistible Fury as is able to drown and dismally to sweep away all before it Now should GOD provoked to it by our Sins in His great Displeasure send down any sad Epidemical Evil upon this Nation as the Sword Famine Pestilence or the Like and should it dreadfully overflow the Land from one end of it to the other cutting off many if not most and threatning and indangering all would it not then be a signal Favour and singular Privilege or Felicity for some few to be providentially distinguisht from the rest and by a special Protection secured from the Dint of this judicial severity Yet thus it is sometimes yea thus we may hope it always shall be where there are Mourners for the Peoples sins and that those very Mourners shall be the Persons so Preserved For this hope there seems to be somewhat of good ground in the ninth Chapter of Ezekiel The Inhabitants of Jerusalem had committed many and most horrid Abominations and thereby had mightily offended GOD and incensed His MAJESTY To such a Pitch that he was now resolv'd
Light of Passive Examples Nothing being so fatal to us as Sin it hath ever been the Design of our gracious GOD to keep us from it by all the methods of Wisdom and Goodness applicable that way and conducive to that End And to this purpose He hath set Passive as well as Active Examples before us That so others sufferings might be a Warning to us and we might learn to be wise by their Woes while the Sight of their Miseries issuing from their Sins might preserve us innocent But we Wretches would not be so restrained But have broken the Barrs of these strong Impediments and torn those Bands of aw in pieces and have sinned daringly in contempt and scorn if not in despight of the great Discouragements Thus as many amongst us as have been guilty of Murder have sinned against the Light of Cain's Example who suffered hideously for that Sin For besides the * Gen. 4.12 Curse pronounced on the Earth upon his shedding his Brother Abel's Bloud which brought a father Barrenness into it than that which befell it for Adam's transgression he was driven from GOD's †v. 14. Face or excommunicated He was driven from ‖ ib. the Face of the Earth or from his native Country by being banished He was kept under sad consternations of Mind afflicted with such black Apprehensions of Dying and affrighted with such woful horrors of Death that he verily thought every one that saw him would certainly * ib. kill him But that he might live miserably to the terror of men and to keep them from venturing upon the like Wickedness GOD set a †Note VII dreadful Mark upon him that none might ‖ v. 15. dare to dispatch him That so he might live in terrorem to fright others from so great a Sin by the punishment which he suffered As many as have been guilty of Adultery have sinned against the Light of David's Example who suffered grievously for that Sin Inwardly in his Spirit and outwardly in Judgments which fell heavy upon him His inward Sufferings show themselves in sorrowful complaints which he makes aloud in the Penitential Psalms There he stands as it were in a white sheet and does open Penance for his gross Miscarriages giving the World clearly to understand what he felt in his Mind for the Enormities of his Life In the 6th Psalm he complains of vexed Bones and a troubled Soul of weary Groans and a washed Bed of a watred Couch and a worn-out Beauty In the two and thirtieth Psalm of Bones consumed by his assiduous Roaring Of the hand of GOD that was heavy upon him heavy upon him day and night so heavy that it quite drank up his natural moisture and made it like to the Drought in summer The Anguish of his Soul inflamed his Bloud and the Feverishness of his Bloud parch'd up his Body In the thirty eighth Psalm he makes piteous Lamentations and seeks to ease himself in very piercing and pathetic Out-cries He exclaims that the Arrows of the LORD stuck fast in him and that his Hand pressed him sore That there was no Health in his Flesh because of GOD's Displeasure nor Rest in his Bones by reason of his Sins That his Foolishness had brought stinking Diseases upon him and that the grievous pain and noisomness of them did so afflict him that he went about mourning all the Day long That he was smitten with Feebleness and roared for Disquietness That his Heart panted and His Strength failed and the Sight of his Eyes was gone from Him And surely he must undergo direful things that could be attended with such dismal Symptoms And besides these woful Miseries within he lay under the Scourge of external Judgments which was terribly sharp and cutting to him GOD threatned to raise up evil against him out of his own house and what He thus menaced in the Event He made good For His Daughter Tamar was wickedly ravisht by his Son Amnon and His Concubines abused and that shamefully and publicly by his Son Absolom And these were lamentable tho' proper Punishments of his scandalous defilement of Bathsheba as the Death of Amnon and the Rebellion and untimely End of Absolom were of his murdering her Husband Uriah As many as have been guilty of Fornication have sinned against the Light of Zimri's and Cosbi's Example who were both destroyed in committing it And against the Light of Sampson's Example who by means of his lewd Paramour first lost his Innocence then his Strength then his Liberty then his Eyes and at last his Life As many as have been guilty of rebelling against lawful Magistracy or of usurping and invading the holy Ministery have sinned against the Light of Korah's Dathan's and Abiram's Example who together with their schismatical and seditious Accomplices for those very Crimes were either swallowed up * Numb 16.31 c. alive of the gaping Earth or consumed by devouring Fire from Heaven As many as have been guilty of Drunkenness have sinned against the Light of Noah's and Lot's Example The first of which †Gen. 19.21 22. by Intemperance was expos'd to great shame and the second drawn into an abominable ‖ Gen. 19.36 sin As many as have been guilty of Lying have sinned against the Light of Anania's and Sapphira's Example who telling Lies * Act. 5.4 c. were immediately struck dead with them in their Mouths As many as have been guilty of communicating unworthily have sinned against the Light of the Corinthian's Example †1 Cor. 11.30 Many of whom were weak and sickly and many slept or died for their rash Prophanation or irreverent Usage of that sacred Ordinance Now when Providence hath dealt thus severely with Sinners with Sinners of all Sorts and hath kindly recorded these its Dispensations to keep them alive in our Memories and exhibit them unto us for us then instead of fearing their Punishments to follow their Impieties must be a tremendous Aggravation of our sinfulness When GOD hath hang'd up some Transgressours in Chains as it were to make us dread those immoral Doings which brought them to such deplorable Ends if we will not be reformed but go on and live and dye in such Sins this will be such an inhancement of our Guilt as I can only recommend to your sober Thoughts and desire you well and throughly to consider for indeed I cannot duly express it Seventhly We have sinned against the Light of Admonitions The private Admonitions of such as either out of just Authority over us or else out of Christian Compassion to us have occasionally bestowed their pious and wholsom Counsel upon us It was an excellent Rule laid down by Moses and ought to be practis'd by CHRIST's best Disciples Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer sin upon him Levit. 19.17 Now if none have done this good Office towards us if none have been so much our Friends as plainly to reprove us for our sinful Exorbitancies yet
3.4 the sight of GOD is of great price With such a Meekness as may make me never to be angry at any thing but sin and never to be reveng'd on any one but my self But may cause me ‖ Eph. 4.31 to put away all wrath as knowing * Jam. 1.10 that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of GOD. With such a meekness as may keep me from strife and †Eph. 4.31 clamour and evil speaking and make me ‖ 1 Pet. 3.8 courteous and * 2 Tim. 2.24 gentle unto all men That being thus truly meek in spirit I may be †Ps 37.11 refreshed in the multitude of peace and be happy in Thy Heavenly conduct and instruction who hast said ‖ Psal 25.8 The meek Thou wilt guide in Judgment and such as be gentle them Thou wilt learn Thy ways XI For Fear LET Him plant in me a Reverend Fear of thy Name * Psal 99.3 which is Great Wonderful and Holy Such a Fear as is †Psal 111.10 the beginning of Wisdom and will make me ‖ Prov. 16.6 depart from evil Such a Fear as will not only make me * Psal 4.4 stand in aw and not sin against Thee but moreover will put me upon †Eccles 12.13 keeping thy Commandments That I ‖ Act. 10.33 fearing GOD and working righteousness may be accepted of Him who hath owned * Ps 47.11 His delight in them that fear Him XII For Trust LET Him strengthen me with confidence and sure Trust in GOD. With such a Trust as Thou expectest from me and requirest of me Even such as may engage Thee to keep me from falling into evils or else to support me under them or rescue me out of them With such a Trust as in all wants and necessities in all streights and difficulties in all dangers and distresses may encourage me to seek Thee and commit my self to Thee and fiducially to rest and depend upon Thee Considering Thou hast assured us that †Psal 34.22 whoso putteth His Trust in Thee shall not be destitute but ‖ Isa 26.3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is staid on Thee because he trusteth in Thee XIII For Temperance and Contentedness LET Him make me throughly contented * 1 Cor. 9.25 and Temperate in all things So temperate and contented as not to take too much thought for this momentany Life †Mat. 6.25 what I shall eat or what I shall drink but to ‖ Joh. 6.27 labour for that meat which endureth unto Everlasting Life which the Son of Man shall give me and to seek first * Mat. 6.33 the Kingdom of GOD which is †Rom. 14.17 not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and Joy in the HOLY GHOST So Temperate and contented as not anxiously and solicitously to ‖ Mat. 6.25 care for the Body what it shall put on but to * Rom. 13.14 put on the LORD JESUS CHRIST or the Practice of His pure Religion wherewith whosoever is not clothed is naked in Thy Sight So Temperate and Contented as never to find fault with my own Circumstances in the World nor to envy or repine at other Mens but to be humble and thankful and highly pleas'd in all states and conditions as believing them the issues of thy Gracious Providence which is able to make all things work together for my Good XIV For Justice and Uprightness LET Him inable me to be perfectly Just and upright in all my Dealings So Just and upright as to be like to Thee my GOD who art †Psal 145.17 righteous in all Thy Ways and holy in all Thy Works So Just and Upright as ‖ 1 Thes 4.6 not to go beyond or defraud my Brother in any matter because the LORD is the Avenger of all such and * Col. 3.25 he that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong that he hath done a meet Punishment from Thee with whom there is no respect of Persons So Just and Upright as †Mat. 7.12 to do unto all men whatsoever I would they should do unto me as knowing my self strictly oblig'd thereunto not only by the Law and the Prophets but also by the Doctrine of CHRIST Himself So Just and Upright in every thing and to every one as not to be afraid to die at last and to ‖ Rom. 14.10 stand before that Judgment-Seat where * 2 Cor. 5.10 we must all appear that we may receive the things done in the Body according to that we have done whether good or bad XV. For a right Use of Ordinances LET Him be present with me and His Grace assist me O GOD in all thine Heavenly Ordinances that I may never exercise my self in any of them but to Thy Honour and my own improvement When I read thy Word let me do it discerningly so as I may †Luk. 24. â—5 understand the Scriptures and they may ‖ Psal 119.130 give Light and Understanding to me When I hear let me do it attentively so as my * Isa 55.3 Soul may Live When I Fast let me do it Religiously not to make a noise or †Mat. 6.16 to be seen of Men but to ‖ Isa 58.5 afflict my Soul and to humble my self before GOD and to heighten my Affections and Duties to Him When I pray let me do it devoutly so * Act. 2.21 calling upon the Name of the LORD as that I may be saved When I partake of the Sacrament of the LORD's Supper let me do it worthily so duly commemorating His Blessed Death as that the holy Performance may raise me the higher in Spiritual and the nearer to eternal life In all those Services and Divine Imployments which Thou hast called me to or put upon me let me use such faithful care and Diligence as Thou expectest from me and wilt crown with Acceptance and a Glorious Recompence XVI For Comfort in Death LET Him vouchsafe me His sweet and reviving Influence at my last hour to support and comfort me in my Departure hence Let Him fill my Soul with such generous courage as may make me not to fear Death With such Heavenly Consolations as may make me pleas'd with it With such hearty Love to Thee O GOD as may make me long †2 Cor. 5.2 and groan earnestly for it as a Translation or Passage to thy Eternal Kingdom Let Him possess my mind with such Thoughts and Hopes and Desires of thy Presence to which Death leads me that I may reckon it a Privilege or special Blessing as opening me a way to immortal Happiness And at what time or in what place or manner soever Thou shalt send it let me willingly and chearfully submit unto it rendring thanks to God who hath given me the * 1 Cor. 15.57 victory over it and great Benefits by it XVII For Thankfulness LET Him raise up my Heart the highest pitch of true