the sad Revenges of divine Justice upon the Dissolute and Licentious as they are natural Effects of their being so And farther as the wisest of Men we see hath told us they that walk on in the ways of Wisdom that are regular and persevering in the several Duties and progressive in the noble Perfections of Religion shall not fail to meet with Pleasantness and Peace With such Peace and Pleasantness as come from GOD and fill the Soul with inexplicable Comforts And these Comforts as little as some think it may be good and great Instruments of Health unto us As where the Body is well and strong they help to confirm it in that State so where it happens to be weak and low they raise and mend its Constitution They put a spring of new Life as it were into the Soul which excites most pleasing Motions in the Body even such as serve to inliven and invigorate it For as raking Grief does not only fret and imbitter the Mind but withal casts a sad Damp upon the Body and deadens the liveliness of those inward Motions on which its Health depends and by which it is conserved so heavenly Comforts where they are often and liberally imparted do ordinarily produce the contrary Effects They quicken the Spirits where they move too slowly and help the Bloud to circulate more freely and nimbly where 't is subject to Stagnancy and by taking off the sharpness and sowreness of them they insensibly sweeten and rectify both By peculiar Motions which they put them into they alter the Figures of their disordered Particles and so better the Mass or Substance of them with more Ease and Efficacy than the best Physic can possibly do And the Bloud and Spirits being thus corrected and the Ferments of the Body made light and soft and smooth and unctuous the Wheels of Nature will by this means be freed from cumbersome Cloggs and Entanglements within and in case no Violence happens from without may run on a great way in a regular Course And thus not only Life is prolonged as Length of Days is in Wisdom's right Hand Prov. 3.16 but that Life is made more happy because the Person injoying it is made more healthful And therefore we are taught by an incomparable Writer that the Fear of the LORD which maketh Peace or produceth Comforts where it dwells does thereby make perfect health to flourish Ecclus. 1.18 Nor can it seem strange that holy Comforts should thus conduce to Health if we do but remember what wonderful Effects they have had upon Martyrs turning their dying Pangs into rapturous Pleasures as was * Chap. 11. But then the Martyrs Comforts are there said more than once to be extraordinary ones and so much above those we here speak of noted above And another Instance may abate the strangeness of the thing As 't is commonly said Witches are †Note VI. suckt by their Familiars And to this end as we may reasonably suppose that thereby they might taint and disorder their Bodies And when Distemper of Body proceeds from the influence of wicked Spirits well may Healthfulness be an Effect of the Comforts of the HOLY GHOST And divine Comforts being such Preservatives and Restoratives of Health upon this Account they must be Blessed Things Health being necessary to our present Happiness For as he that would be wise must first put off Folly and as he that would be virtuous must first throw off Vice so they that would be Happy must first be Healthful Else in spite of all Rules and Principles of Stoicism a sickly Body will disquiet the Soul and a pained Body will disturb the Mind and Trouble and Unquietness in the Soul and Mind will soon convince all Persons concern'd that if they would build up Felicity to themselves they must lay its Foundation in Ease and Indolence However * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Diog. Laer. in Anaxar pounce the Sack of Anaxarchus for Anaxarchus thou dost not strike were big words in that Abderite's Mouth when cruel Nicocreon was braying him in a Mortar and might express a stout and resolute Humour yet they were as far from rendring the Sufferer happy as the Thumpings he endured were from rendring him easy Nor do heavenly Comforts conduce more to mending the Habit of our Bodies than they do to bettering the Temper of our Minds For as Pleasures that are sensual and impure do sink and soften and emasculate the Spirit as they fill it with pensive Solicitude and fretful Anxiety to find that it is fallen below it self and inslav'd to things unworthy of its Dignity so where it is ravisht with the Comforts of Heaven and nobly transported with frequent Returns or Iterations of them it will rise by Degrees into a very delicate and desirable Frame So that if before we were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tart and waspish and peevish and passionate these in time will work a thorow and an excellent Change in us They will cool our Heat and quench our Fury and rebate the sharpness and fierceness of our Disposition and polish the Ruggedness and Unevenness of our Minds and take off the Bitterness and Sowreness of our Nature and so make us not only to be easy in our selves but obliging to others And to have our Passions thus curbed and tamed in us and all Harshness and Roughness thus taken out of us and to become moderate and well composed in our selves and meek and mild and pleasing unto all must needs be a great Improvement of our Temper And as this Improvement sweetens our Life which how it should do it the meanest Capacities can apprehend it must add considerably to our Blessedness upon Earth But then as we would live sweetly in this present World as we would have our Souls blessed with Health of Body and good Temper of Mind let us heartily take up Religious Mourning from which will result those holy Comforts that are productive of the same CHAP. XV. The Eleventh Motive to Mourning in General being the Eighth Branch of that Blessedness which springs up from the Comfort annexed to Mourning They supply us with noblest Delights in this Life when those that are less generous fail and forsake us Which they do by acquainting us farther with GOD and by inflaming us with Love to the LORD JESUS CHRIST IN our declining Years as our Strength decays so other natural Abilities and Perfections which depend upon it flag and decay with it Particularly our Faculties grow dull and our Appetites grow down our Pleasures wear off and by degrees wear out and the sinking Body so depresses the Soul that Men dye to most of their corporal Satisfactions even while they live But here the Force of holy Comforts again is blessedly felt this being a chief Juncture wherein they exert it For when in these our Declensions they dwell plentifully with us they are an inexhaustible Spring of rich and high Complacencies They do not only fill us with great Thoughts and
them true and that He really is what our garish and misguided Fancies make Him And tho' 't is hard to give in an exact Account of all our vain Fictions and Misrepresentations of GOD yet this may go for a general Rule and in observing it we shall find that we are pretty constant We usually assimilate GOD unto our selves and our Ideas of Him correspond to our own Complexions or Tempers Thus he whose Breast is surcharg'd with boiling Malice and a swelling Spleen against his Neighbour thinks GOD is full of livid Envy Rancour and deadly Hatred to Men. And He whose Brain is heated and disturb'd with fiery Spirits and whose Mind is toss'd with unbecoming Rage and Phrantic Fury conceives GOD is little better than a Flame of Passion one that loves at times to sally forth in Flashes of devouring Vengeance and to consume His helpless undeserving Creatures And because all darker Minds indeed are ready to harbour crooked Thoughts of GOD concerning the Rigidness of His Disposition He endeavours in His Word to prevent their entertaining any hard and hideous Apprehensions of Him For there He teaches * Isai 27.4 Fury dwelleth not in Him That †ch 28.21 Judgment is His strange Work That He doth not ‖ Lam. 3.33 afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men. That His Name is * Exo. 34.6 Merciful and Gracious That His †ch 33.18 19. Glory is Goodness Not to say That His very ‖ 1 Joh. 4.8 Essence is Love And how incomparably Excellent must His Nature be of which these are the true and genuine Characters But when GOD by this fair Description of Himself fences against all black Thoughts of His MAJESTY for us then to fasten such Thoughts upon Him when He strives industriously to beat them off must not only be shameful Folly but hainous Sin as being dishonourable to Him as well as prejudicial and destructive to our selves Here therefore holy Comforts again are helpful to us I mean as they rectify our Mistakes of GOD and disabuse our Minds from harsh and horrid Imaginations of Him by inabling us to judge more rightly concerning Him For however too many that are clouded with Sins and so encompass'd with Fears and so kept in a dark and disconsolate condition may conceive very uncouth and frightful things of the Blessed GOD however they may think Him Touchy and Supercilious Ireful and Implacable and take Him for no better than a vowed Enemy to all Sinners Happiness and inexorable Author of their endless Ruine or at least for one indifferently affected with whatever befalls them and wholly unconcerned whether they live or dye eternally Yet where the Comforts of Heaven dwell down go such incongruous Thoughts of the DEITY and others more becoming and also more agreeable are advanced in their Room And well they may for sacred Comforts as we have said do better our Genius or improve our Temper They do not only help us as to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good Capacity of Nature rendring our Minds by well composing them and keeping them in order more fit to think and more acute in their Thoughts whereby they are inabled to more suitable and worthy Apprehensions of the ALMIGHTY but moreover they impregnate us with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good Disposition of Nature They put a great deal of Kindness and Lenity into us and making us mild and sweet and benign in our selves we shall according to the Rule just now laid down in course conclude that GOD is infinitely so For look what we are and such we presently conceive Him to be In case we doubt it the SPIRIT proves it Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self Psal 50.21 And if Evil Men because they are evil think GOD to be like them then by the same Reason the better we are the better Thoughts we shall have of Him So that from the Melioration or Improvement of our own Temper we naturally rise up into the more fit and genuine Conceptions of GOD. And the meet Idea or proper Character of His Nature being by this means the more fairly drawn or stamped upon our Minds from hence again will spring most Blessed Delights For they that so far as humane Measures reach attain to a right Notion of GOD's excellent Nature do plainly see Him with an intellectual Eye And they that see Him see a most exquisite and most infinite Beauty A Beauty consisting of such essential Glories and divinest Perfections that all other Beauties in compare with it are but Dirt and Darkness and the ugliest Deformity And as such a Beauty when beheld with an intent and fixed Eye must raise great Admiration in those that view it so that Admiration must cause as great Delights and those Delights a rare kind of Blessedness I cannot but cast in this as an Overplus that they who have the truest Notion of GOD's Nature and so the clearest Prospect of His bright and beauteous Excellencies are not more blessed than others in seeing Him only but in serving Him also For all that they do in Adoration of Him or in Obedience to Him He being the object of their highest Delights must commonly be pleasant as well as easy to them and matter of Felicity as well as of Duty Indeed as many as have gross and grisly Apprehensions of GOD can know no Religion but what is Mechanical They never pay any Service to Heaven with hearty Willingness nor act its Commands from a free ingenuous and noble Choice But when they move towards Duties they are forc'd to do it by slavish Fears and when they run through them 't is meerly because they dare not pretermit them Necessity and Constraint give Laws to their Devotion But they who conceive of GOD as they should worship Him as they ought They do not only perform His Service but they do it chearfully and faithfully so they will do it to the End of their Days For what they do of that nature proceeds from a Principle of divine Life and from the Power of a divine Love within And this brings me to the Second Means whereby holy Comforts furnish us with such high and noble Delights as will stick by us When all other forsake us and that is by inflaming us with Love to the LORD JESUS For where this Flame is throughly kindled it fills the Heart with such sacred Ardors as turn the Saints into lower Seraphim and while they are but Men make them like to Angels Like to Angels not only in their Purity and burning Zeal but also in their Pleasures and extatic Delights Where Souls are throughly enamoured on CHRIST that their Affections run high we need not doubt No Tongue can tell the heat and vigour of that holy Love which flames in the Hearts of good Men towards Him So superlative is it that to compare it with any natural or civil Love were to disparage it or detract from it The Love of a Wife to her Husband
is great and so is the Love of a Mother to her Child and so is the Love of a Man to his faithful Friend But all are short of true Love to JESUS And that they must be so we are well assured by the Word from Heaven For that informs us that as it is the first and great Command and so our prime and chief Duty to love the LORD so it tells us at what Rate we must do it even with all our Heart and with all our Soul and with all our Mind Mat. 22.37 Our Love to Him must be raised to an higher Pitch than what it stands in to any thing else And there 's Reason for it For in that its Elevation or Superiority in that its Pre-eminence above or Prevalence over all other Affections lies the very Sincerity or Essence of it So that to love CHRIST no better than other Things or Persons is indeed not to Love Him at all not at all duly and so not at all acceptably And the same Word tells us that Love to CHRIST is such for Ardency as many Waters cannot quench nor Flouds drown Cant. 8.7 And again it tells us of true Lovers of Him that they are sick of Love to Him Cant. 2.5 A plain case that Love to CHRIST is a Passion so strong and that the Fits of it in some are so violent and high that they affect them with a kind of Sickness The Expression came from the HOLY GHOST and believe it there is nothing Hyperbolical in it No Rhetorical Strain or Figurative Scheme of Speech Nothing Catachrestical or Improper What it affirms is literally true without Flourish There are thousands of eminent Christians in the Church whose Affections to JESUS are so vigorous whose Desires of Him are so vehement whose Longings after Him are so earnest that they bring perfect Qualms over their Hearts and make them quite sick of Love to His MAJESTY And where a pure Mind is carri'd out in so powerful a Love to an Object that is infinitely perfect and glorious let Reason judge how inconceivably delightful its Actings must be O LOVE * O Amor quid te Appellam nescio dulcem an asperum suavem an injucundum Ita enim utroque plenus es ut utrumque esse videaris Salvian Epist 1. said a good Man of old I know not what to call thee good or evil delicious or troublesome sweet or unpleasant For so full of both thou art that thou seemest to be both And most true is this of our kindest Love to one another It is at best but a Miscellaneous thing A Compound made up of two Ingredients some satisfaction and much uneasiness But Love to CHRIST is of quite another Nature He that feels that divine Passion finds nothing in it but divine Pleasure His Mind is full of Peace his Soul dwells at Ease and his Spirit is wrapt up in most heavenly Delights Delights so blissful that there are none like them but those above in the eternal World Divine Love is the sweetest Power that humane Souls are capable of and the most perfect GOD is the sole Object of that Power And therefore whenever it is imploy'd in receiving the influxes of His special Favour and in sending up streams of reciprocal Affection to His MAJESTY O LORD what Delights must here be produc'd No less for certain than such as are beatifying beyond Expression And that indeed is the truest Character of them they are inexpressible When we call them so we really say more what they are and give in a juster Description of them than if leaving that out we should discourse never so long and largely concerning them And let any judge that are able to do it if those Comforts that raise this Love which causes these Delights do not render Men truly Blessed For when Time hath sunk them never so low and Old age hath worn them even quite out and both together have put them past relishing all other Pleasures they 'll fill the Religious with such a Love as will replenish them with such Delights as will affect them with unspeakable Sweetness But then Holy Mourning being one chief Door at which these blessed Comforts enter and come in upon us as many as would be Blessed in these Delights which they occasion and which survive all other must look upon it as a thing most eligible and for their own benefit must conscionably use it and keep close to it CHAP. XVI There are false Comforts as well as true How to distinguish the one from the other Whence false Comforts spring A Great deal and very great things have been said of holy Comforts which are Fruits or Effects of Religious Mourning Yet no more than is proper and applicable to them as being indeed most true concerning them For such is their excellent Worth and Usefulness that they do not only answer the Character given them but would easily fill up one far more large and comprehensive And yet as incomparable as these Comforts are there is a kind of mimical or mock-comforts like them And tho' they be false they are Images or Counterfeits of the true and to them that sit under the Influence of them which is Evil and Malignant may prove to be of pernicious consequence That there are False Comforts we need not question for we have loud Hints of them in the holy Books let us note but two King Herod heard John Baptist gladly S. Mar. 6.20 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pleasantly sweetly delightfully And whence came this sweet and delightful Pleasure As for the Baptist he was an austere Man and the Doctrines he taught were undoubtedly strict and severe like himself And so for certain there could be nothing in them which by reason of Agreeableness might take the Humour or tickle the Fancy of that unrighteous Prince The matter of His Preachin◠might be such rather and so delivered 〈◊〉 to be fitter on the other side to incense and provoke him In all likelihood therefore some spark of Comfort whencesoever it came was struck at this time into his Breast Tho' it might be as far from true Comfort as King Herod was from being a good Man The Stony Ground also received the Word with Gladness S. Mar. 4.16 Yet by that Ground as our great Master who delievered the Parable expounds it are meant those that proved unsettled or unsteady such as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had no Root of Virtue in themselves As had no Fixedness or Stability no living lasting growing Principle of real Goodness but were as He there says of them †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 temporary in Religion or wavering and inconstant Professors of it For as He declares in the 17th verse When Affliction or Persecution ariseth for the Words sake immediately they are offended They were ready upon the first Occasion given by any sad or troublesome Emergencies to manifest their fickleness and unsincerity Now when such a Character of any sort of Men comes
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
Desires but also with such lofty Joys and Delights as of all things else make the best Entertainment for incarnate Spirits as being indeed not only the choicest that consist with Mortality but such as will be fresh and flourishing in us when all besides shall fade and wither In case it be enquired by what means these Comforts furnish us with such noble and divine Delights it may be answered by These two By bringing us Acquainted with ALMIGHTY GOD. And By inflaming us with Love to the LORD JESUS First By bringing us into better Acquaintance with the ALMIGHTY By leading us that is into the clearest and most familiar Knowledge of the Certainty of His Existence and of the Excellency of His Nature which in this State we can attain to As to the Perswasion of the Certainty of His Existence it roots no where so deep and grows no where so strong as where 't is well watered by divine Consolations There is no such forcible Demonstration as they of the Being of a GOD. What solid Reasoning does but prove in this case the Man under Comforts even feels in Himself The HOLY GHOST speaks of Mens feeling after GOD and finding Him out so Act. 17.27 But none do that so well and satisfactorily as they upon whom divine Comforts rest Scarce any thing almost be it never so tangible or never so palpable can be more obvious to their Touch or Handling than GOD is to their spiritual or inward Perception Their Sentiments of Him are so quick and lively that they convince them more throughly and convince them more powerfully that He is than the brightest Speculative Evidence can do when it strikes their Minds with clearest discoveries Philosophy can make it out that the Wind blows and that the Light shines and that Meat and Drink which are taken for Nourishment do refresh and strengthen but they who feel these Effects are more assured of them than they that only hear them talkt of and attend to the Loudest argumentative Proofs of them So Reason and Discourse may prove there is a GOD but they whom He honours with the enjoyment of His Comforts know that He is upon surer Grounds I mean the ravishing Influences which He casts upon them and the Impressions which they make on their pure Minds The delightful Converse they have with Him and the reviving Joys they perceive from Him seal up this Truth with a sensible Testimony and evince His Existence beyond all Argumentation the best Topics can afford As impossible it is for them that sit under the Gleams of Consolation to question GOD's Being as it is for them to doubt of the Being of the Sun who feel the Heat and see the Brightness of his cherishing Beams And this home Perswasion of the Existence of a GOD is the main Pillar which supports the Delights of all good Men. Were it not for that which under-props them they would forthwith sink and fall flat to the Ground And well they might For take GOD out of the World and how sorry a thing would it immediately prove and how despicable and lamentable would Living in it be to all Men at once For then according to Atheists nonsensical Hypothesis as all things were made by blind Chance so they must be govern'd by giddy Fortune And being under so weak and wild a Conduct must necessarily run on through dismal Irregularities into dreadful Confusion Nor would it be worse with Nature than with Morality For then there being nothing to give check to licentious Principles or to controll the Inclinations and Practices of the Dissolute their Power and Will would be their Rule and Law and their Pleasures and Interests would be their ultimate End and rampant Vice and predominant Malice through Pride and Lust and Tyranny and Revenge would drive on outragiously to the Top of Rapine and all Excess And thus the whole Earth would be turn'd in a Trice to the most horrid Wilderness and Men into the worst wild Beasts that inhabit it How strange is it therefore that any should ever so dote upon Atheism as to court and be fond of that cursed Opinion An Opinion so monstrously unreasonable in it self and attended with such evil and pernicious Consequents that they ought to reject it with highest Detestation in their own Defence But as there is a GOD who in spite of all base Enemies to His Being will maintain the Beauty and Order of the Universe and will keep up true Virtue and Goodness among Men to the End of this World so they that live in the sense of His Comforts must live in the sense of His Existence too And that deep and lively sense of His Being which holy Consolations imprint upon them will replenish them with such dear and gratifying Delights that they would not part with it upon any Terms And as they would not upon any account part with their sense of GOD's Existence so much less with His Being it self They would not for a thousand thousand Worlds that the true GOD were not or that He were any other than what He is Their sense of His Being makes them sensible also of many Benefits and mighty Advantages which accrue to them from it As that when they Complain they have a GOD to hear them When they Pray they have a GOD to answer them When they are Afflicted they have a GOD to support them and also to sanctify their Sufferings to them When they do their Duties they have a GOD to assist them When their Duties are done they have a GOD to reward them While they live they have a GOD to bless them When they dye they have a GOD to take care of them After they are dead they have a GOD to crown them And when the sweet sense of of all this and of a great deal more is strong upon them it cannot but produce excessive Delights Delights as noble in their Nature as they are exquisite in their Sweetness As there is no worse Terror and no greater Torment to the guilty Souls of the Irreligious than the stinging Conviction of the Existence of a GOD so the Pleasures that the vivid Sense of His Being yields to the Penitent or truly Righteous under Consolations are as unspeakable But because they are so let us say no more of them Yet we are to note that as divine Comforts bring us to a quick sense of the Certainty of GOD's Being and thereby raise us to noble Delights so they make us happy in the same Delights by leading us into a right Notion of the Excellency of His Nature The Mind of Man is a most busy Thing And as it is active about other Objects so it will be about GOD Himself And when our Thoughts imploy themselves about Him if they feign improper Ideas of Him and exhibit Him to us in never so false Images or erroneous Conceptions yet they springing up in our Minds and so most throughly and strongly possessing them we are apt to suspect or believe
with the respective Branches of them Page 1. CHAP. II. Public Mourning when to be used By whom to be appointed The Practice of it ancient It s great Success noted in the Ninevites which encourages us to it when injoined p. 9. CHAP. III. Of Private Mourning as it relates to others and to our selves p. 15. CHAP. IV. What Solemn Mourning in private is It s principal Concomitants these seven Tears Prayer Fasting Alms-deeds Set-times free Forgiveness and select Associates p. 21. CHAP. V. Two Motives to holy Mourning in general It is a Christian Duty and a Duty most acceptable unto GOD. Its Acceptableness manifested in four Particulars p. 34. CHAP. VI. A Third Motive to holy Mourning in General It intitles us to divine Comforts in this Life As appears from the Nature of GOD from the Word the Office and the Disposition of CHRIST and from the Mission of the HOLY GHOST p. 47. CHAP. VII A Fourth Motive to Mourning in General the present divine Comforts which attend it yield Blessedness Four beatifying Properties of them they are Sweet Glorious Strong and Secure Which contain the first Branch of holy Mourners Beatitude p. 60. 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 p. 76. 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 encouraging us in the Duties of it ever after p. 92. CHAP. X. A Sixth Motive to Mourning in General being the Third Branch of that Blessedness which rises from the Comforts annexed to Mourning They are a Seal of our Assurance Which Assurance makes Religion very easy to us and us zealous in that Which again strengthens Assurance p. 107. CHAP. XI A Seventh Motive to Mourning in General being the Fourth Branch of that Blessedness which rises from the Comforts annexed to Mourning They support us in Afflictions Which are incident to all tho' mostly to the Righteous Good Christians need not fear Afflictions tho' others are unhappy under them p. 122. CHAP. XII The Eighth Motive to Mourning in General being the Fifth Branch of that Blessedness which rises from the Comforts annexed to Mourning They fortify us against Temptations How divine Comforts do that p. 135. CHAP. XIII The Ninth Motive to Mourning in General being the Sixth Branch of that Blessedness which springs from the Comforts annexed to Holy Mourning They animate us against the Fear of Death and instead of dreading make us Desire it p. 145. CHAP. XIV The Tenth Motive to Mourning in General being the Seventh Branch of that Blessedness which springs from the Comforts annexed to Mourning They sweeten our Life by conducing to our Health and by bettering the Temper of our Minds as well as the Habit of our Bodies p. 164. CHAP. XV. The Eleventh Motive to Mourning in General being the Eighth Branch of that Blessedness which springs up from the Comforts annexed to Mourning They supply us with noblest Delights in this Life when those that are less generous fail and forsake us Which they do by acquainting us farther with GOD and by inflaming us with Love to the LORD JESUS CHRIST p. 172. CHAP. XVI There are false Comforts as well as true How to distingush the one from the other Whence false Comforts spring p. 185. 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 p. 206. CHAP. XVIII The Thirteenth Motive to Mourning in General It hath been constantly practis'd in the Church of GOD and is highly conducive to Its Happiness p. 216. CHAP. XIX Objections against Holy Mourning answered as that 't is beneath us Makes us Melancholy Disparages Religion Wastes our Time And hinders Business p. 225. CHAP. XX. Of more Particular Mourning Reasons why we must mourn for our own Sins The Gospel requires it The Nature of Sin calls for it and so do the Sufferings of our SAVIOUR We are taught it by Example It helps to Repentance and destroys Impieties It strengthens our Graces and may hasten our Translation to the endless Glory p. 235. 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 p. 253. CHAP. XXII The First Aggravation of our own and others Sins considered as the first Suasive to Mourning for the same We have sinned against the greatest Light As against the Light of Conscience Of the SPIRIT Of the Word Of Experience Of Ordinances Of Examples Of Admonitions And of humane Laws p. 273. CHAP. XXIII The Second Aggravation of our own and others Sins considered as the second Suasive to Mourning for the same We have sinned against the greatest Love As against the Love of GOD and against the Love of our best Friends p. 269. CHAP. XXIV The Third Aggravation of our own and others Sins considered as the Third Suasive to Mourning for the same We have sinned in a most shameful manner p. 278. A Form of Devotion p. 283. A preparatory Prayer p. 284. A Confession of our own Sins p. 285. A Confession of the Nation 's Sins p. 289. A Supplication respecting our own and this Nation 's Sins p. 294. A general Intercession p. 296. A Prayer for the Holy SPIRIT of GOD and the Principal of His heavenly Graces p. 300. Ejaculations for Mourning-Days p. 319. Notes p. 321. FINIS ERRATA PAg 9. lin 15. read the. p. 46. l. 4. before high insert so p. 68. l. 28. r. innoble p. 78. l. 35. r. persisteth p. 95. l. 11. r. Lyra. p. 98. l. 36. r. Energy p. 100. l. 28. r. Muis. p. 109. l. 23. r. would p. 125. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 132. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 146. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 152 l. 20. r. wring p. 158. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 165. marg before conjunctum r. ad p. 176. l. 20. del of p. 190 l. 30. after for r. then p. 207. l. 4. r. fairly p. 219. l. 16. after Exaltation for of r. to p. 226. l. 34. after crying insert and. p. 238. l. 9. r. abstemiousness The reason why Chap and Devotions are here mention'd is that the paging of the Errata may the better be understood it having happen'd that the Figures on the Tops of the Pages in part of the Book were wrong set Chap. 24th p. 278. l. 14. after we r. well Devotions p. 286. l. 25. for these r. thy p. 309. l 15. after delight insert is p. 313. l. 12. after Heart insert to p. 322. l. 35. r. of our
Christianity should be condemn'd as vain and empty when plenty of Spiritual Consolations attend it Especially if we consider how much the Sweetness of the Heathen Tranquility must be inferior to that of the Christian Comforts I wish therefore and I pray that all supine and careless Livers would bethink themselves and amend their ways That they would all relinquish their Follies and Impieties and devote themselves to the Love and Obedience of CHRIST That would introduce them into His Favour and then nothing should be thought too dear for them Then they should find that He would embrace them in His Arms and lay them in His Bosom and caress and entertain them with frequent Intercourses and astonishing Kindness That he would feast them with reiterated Foretasts of Heaven till He translates them hence and takes them up thither Where after delicious Prelibations here they shall drink their fill of Divine Delights being swallowed up of eternal Pleasures and an immense Abyss of compleat Felicity Thus shall it be with all those that are adopted into our LORD JESUS's Family and give up themselves to serve Him with zealous Sincerity But if any will rather be Drudges to Sin and Vassals to Satan and spend their Time in Vanity and Licentiousness be it known to such that they do but forsake their own Happiness They do not only lose a Crown and lose a Kingdom in the everlasting State but forfeit far greater Felicities in this than any that those short delusive Satisfactions which they foolishly dote on to their Souls Destruction can possibly bring in unto them In case the Loose and Vicious Object that they have little Reason to believe this that Religion hath such Happiness entailed upon it and that such present remunerative Comforts as these are annext to Christianity for they know nothing of them and never enjoyed them it may be answered No wonder that they should be Strangers to Comforts when they take no meet course to be acquainted with them The work of Righteousness shall be Peace Isai 32.17 And therefore they that post on in the ways of sin must needs be destitute of divine Comforts as running most directly and unhappily from them But then their missing them does only shew they are unworthy of them but argues not at all that there are no such things for the Being of which we have so very good Evidence For as when our LORD JESUS left this World and His disciples in it He promised to give them another Comforter So we very well know that He fulfilled His Promise And as a signal effect of its blessed Accomplishment we find all the Churches walking in the Comfort of the HOLY GHOST Act. 9.31 And that Comfort was so far from being a peculiar Benefit or Blessing appropriate to those first Churches that it is a common and standing Privilege generally settled upon the faithful Members of the Christian Community This may be gathered from what occurs Rom. 14.17 The Kingdom of GOD is Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy GHOST So that as many as are true Subjects to the Kingdom of the Messiah which as it is an Image or Counterpart of that Archetypal Kingdom above is called the Kingdom of GOD shall as certainly have Joy resting upon them as they must necessarily have Righteousness dwelling in them The one is not more essential to their Religion than the other at times is an inseparable Reward of the same And therefore to say that true Religion is without Reward is as much as to say that the Word of GOD is void of Truth or that the HOLY GHOST is guilty of Falshood For when he declares that Holy Joy shall be to the Religious as we may be sure He will impart it so as sure we may be that when he ministers it to any He does it to reward their past Diligence as well as to encourage their Perseverance for the future And as many as share largely in this Joy or Comfort and in the heavenly Delights which result from them must not only take them for a Reward of GOD's sending but with the Psalmist must call them what all that feel them will ever count them a great Reward And they have Reason to do so For I cannot but say it as knowing it to be true and O that the whole World might hear and believe it The Sons of divine and holy Consolation are far the happiest of all upon Earth They are the only men of Pleasures here The truest Epicures that ever lived And they must needs be so For besides that they have Senses like other People I speak this to let the Men of the World know that true Christians in Pleasures of Sense have the advantage of them and so can enjoy even all kind of Pleasures as well as they and besides that they double these Pleasures to themselves while they take only the Top or Flower of them by tasting them in none but lawful Instances and besides that they whet and quicken their Appetites while by restraining and well governing them they keep them fresh and keen and always upon the Wing which makes them to relish ordinary Pleasures with a more lively Gust and finer Delicacy they are sensible also of this high sort of Pleasures which we are upon Even of those Pleasures which are caused by these Comforts that descend from GOD. And they most assuredly must be peerless For being more noble and pure they must be more congruous and suitable and so more gratifying and delectable than any other And no marvel they should when they come down from Heaven and are a part of it when they tend to Heaven and help us up to it and when they place us in Heaven almost even while we are out of it And to speak the truth there is no sincere Christian in the World but must be sensible of somewhat of this Reward because in a lower degree it is mingled with his Religion and included in its very Duties Thus what Ease what Peace what Pleasure is contained in Humility and Meekness in Chastity and Contentedness and in the like divine Virtues over what attends the contrary Vices or the Practists of them And if we look to the Love of the true GOD which is at once both our chief religious Perfection and Performance O how sweet and ravishing is it When at any time He is pleas'd to shed it down upon us what an Heaven springs up from its refreshing Gleams And when our Love kindled by His ascends to Him in reciprocal Flames what sprightly Joys are mingled with its Fervours The pure Actings of our Love to GOD excite and cause such vital Pleasures that the Fire can never be more full of Heat than they are of strong and transporting Delights We know O LORD and we believe none like them and therefore we desire even none besides them or none at least in comparison of them But how can Christianity be rewardless then when by its innate Sweetness it is
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
ruin to both But now that which intollerably aggravates our Guilt is that we have sinned against this Wondrous Love All its Flames have not consum'd our Dross all its heat hath not melted us into Obedience to that gracious GOD who loved us so exceedingly Nay we have wretchedly made this Love of His an occasion of sinning against His MAJESTY and have done amiss with more freedom and frequency because His Love abounded towards us Our Surety was able to pay our Debts and therefore we cared not how far we ran on in the Score We valu'd not stabbing our precious Souls because we had a Sovereign Medicine at hand to heal the Wounds We have made CHRIST's Death a Patent for Licentiousness and have been the more ready to offend GOD because he gave his SON to die for our Offences The biggest Aggravation of Baseness that can be It lifts up our Guilt above that of Devils the worst of which never rebelled against Redeeming Love nor committed one sin against a crucify'd LORD who laid down his Life for their Salvation A most sad consideration and did we but keep our Minds close to it and dwell upon it in serious and compos'd Reflections methinks we should need no better suasive to Mourning for our own and the Nation 's Sins Yet here we may advance a little farther some of us at least and fitly think that we have sinned against the Love of our best Friends Our truest Friends are most concern'd for our greatest Interests They look chiefly at the Dispositions and habits of our Minds and are anxious and solicitous for the welfare of our Souls With a watchful eye and a yearning heart they mark and observe us in our Spiritual relations and capacities how we carry our selves towards GOD how we are affected with Religion how we are furnisht with Christian Perfections how well prepared we are to die and how well provided to live for ever And if they find us defective in these Accomplishments it becomes an occasion of sadness to them and sinks them down into Grief and Misery A famous instance and pattern of this was the rarely virtuous and renowned Monica Mother of St. Augustine When he was young and vain and loose in his Manners this pious Matron laid his Extravagancies deeply to heart and night and day lamented his wild and exorbitant life And this may be the case of our Real Friends and at such a rate they may be afflicted for some of us They may pine at our Wickedness and pray for our Repentance and sigh and sorrow to behold our stubborness and strange Perverseness While we with delight and brutish complacence dishonour GOD and destroy our selves they may be almost overwhelm'd with sadness at the sight of our Prophaness and the sense of our Debauchery Let us think upon this and learn to mourn for our own Sins that have been so offensive to our choicest Friends They could no way shew truer never shew greater kindness to us But then the singular Cordial Affection on their side grievously aggravates the sins on ours and that aggravation should still raise our sorrow and encrease holy Mourning If thou that readest this knowest it thy case if thou knowest that thy sins afflict thy best Friends I have this Caveat to leave with thee Take heed of abusing their affectionate Tenderness There 's too much ill Principle in thy Proceedings already do not superadd ill nature to it If sin hath eat out all sense of Religion yet surely thou hast somewhat of humanity left something of common civility in thee especially to kindest Friends and Relatives Cease to sin then in respect to them who manifest such pious compassion to thee lest thou shortnest their Lives and sendest them sorrowing to their Graves O it is a rich and invaluable mercy to dissolute Persons that they have such Friends as these I speak of Friends that can weep over their provoking miscarriages and with plenty of powerful Tears and Prayers intercede to the Merciful GOD for them But let none of these sinners be so unkind and ingrateful and unhappy too as by obstinate persistence in a course of unrighteousness to break the hearts of these incomparable Friends and so deprive themselves of an inestimable Blessing CHAP. XXIV The Third Aggravation of our own and others Sins considered as the Third suasive to mourning for the same We have sinned in a most shameful manner NOW follows the last Aggravation of our sinfulness which as it is very heinous should be as affecting to us We have sinned in a most shameful manner Light could not controll nor could Love restrain us we sinned under and against them both But which adds to our Guilt and renders it much more grievous still we have sinned withal most hideously or shamefully This will appear if we will consider these Four things 1. The nature and malignity of our Sins 2. The multiplicity or variety of them 3. The repetition or frequency of them 4. Our boldness or impudence in Sinning First Our Sins are of an high Nature or Malignity As if Sins of a lower Quality or lesser Rate would not throw us fast or far enough out of GOD's Favour or sink us down deep enough into His Displeasure we have been forward to those of a worser sort and of a larger size Sinful Thoughts and sinful Words would not content us we have broken out into sinful Actions and in actual sins we have exceeded For sins of incogitancy or inadvertency would not serve us we have run into sins of Deliberation Sins of omission or neglect would not satisfie us we have plunged into sins of commission Sins of infirmity or weakness could not bound us we have rushed into sins of Presumption And all these high Acts of sin have not been of the least kinds of Sins neither For if we look narrowly into our Transgressions perhaps we shall find them of a fouler nature of a blacker stain and of a deeper Die than we are aware Yea think what sins are most odious to GOD and flagitious in themselves and these I fear will appear to have been ours in too great measure if we throughly examine our Spiritual state Secondly Our Sins are multiform and various They are not all of one sort but of several kinds According to the Character of the Impious Psal 69.27 we have fallen from one wickedness to another or have added iniquity to iniquity To Sins against GOD we added Sins against our Neighbours and to Sins against them Sins against our selves if we distinguish them according to the Object And if diversified according to other circumstances as Time and Place and Providence c. we have sinned in our Youth and in our riper years secretly and openly by our selves and with others Against Mercies and against Judgments c. But lest in diversifying sin I should here run out into too large a Series of Particulars instead of going farther I refer the Reader to those brief * See them under
pleasest both them and me from the Strokes thereof by thy Special Providence †Psal 57.1 hiding us under thy Wings O LORD until the Calamities be over-past But if as we deserve Thou justly involvest us in the Common Miseries O mingle our Sufferings with a sense of thy Love and make them all Instruments of our Benefit and Blessedness And whatever shall happen to our Estates or Bodies LORD let our Souls be precious in thy sight and ‖ Mal. 3.17 remember them in the day when Thou makest up thy Jewels And that for His sake who redeem'd them even Thy CHRIST and our JESUS who hath given us assurance that * Joh. 16.24 whatever we ask in His Name we shall receive In His Name therefore and in His Words I humbly conclude my unworthy Supplications Our Father c. As short as this Mourning-Office may seem to be yet if it be recited deliberately and with calling to mind and sadly confessing our particular Offences compriz'd in those general Heads which come most home to our personal Extravagancies we shall find it will take up more time to rehearse it than we are aware But should it with the Intervals of Reading require all the Forenoon yet to fill up the whole Day from the time we rise till Six at night we shall want a farther supply for Devotion As meet provision therefore to carry on the pious Exercise thus far contitinu'd I shall here add another Form of Prayer And lest it should be too much to use it all at once I have divided it into several Collects or Sections that so you may the less abruptly break off where you please and as often as you think fit and then begin again where you left off A PRAYER For the Holy SPIRIT of GOD and the Principal of His Heavenly Graces O Most Merciful GOD and Father I the unworthiest of all thy Children prostrate in thy Fear and sacred Presence from my Heart do magnify Thee for the innumerable Blessings I have received from Thee And most humbly I intreat Thee to bestow such other good things upon me as I still need and can no where obtain but at thy bounteous Hands I. For the HOLY GHOST ABove all vouchsafe me thy HOLY SPIRIT which thou hast freely promised to them that * Luk. 11.13 ask Him And let Him be helpful to me in those several Offices which He came down from Heaven to execute in the Church even in comforting conducting and santifying of my Soul Make Him a Comforting SPIRIT to me That freeing my Mind from afflictive Horrors and disconsolate Heaviness I may †Phil. 4 4. rejoyce in the LORD evermore and live in that divinest Peace of GOD ‖ 4.7 which passeth all understanding Make Him a Conducting SPIRIT to me That dispelling the Darkness and Blindness of my Mind by illuminating me with bright and saving Knowledge He may help to lead me into a competent understanding of all necessary Truths Make Him a Sanctifying SPIRIT to me That Cleansing me from all moral Corruptions and Impurities I may become holy as * 1 Pet. 1.16 Thou art Holy by His infusing precious Graces into my Heart II. For Hatred to Sin LET Him fill me with Hatred and Detestation of Sin With such an Hatred as may not only turn me from it but set me against it and make me a deadly and irreconcilable Enemy to it To which End let Him open mine Eyes to see the malignant Nature of it How it is a Transgression of Thy Law a Contradiction of Thy Mind and an Opposition to Thy Will and so the worst and basest thing in the World as being contrary to Thee the Chiefest Good Let Him convince me also of its direful Effects How besides many Temporal and Spiritual Miseries it subjects me to woful Eternal Calamities which I can neither avoid nor yet abide And let the Consideration of its abominable Vileness and destructive Consequents help to beget in me speedy Repentance where I have committed it and also strongest Antipathies to it and constant and vehement Aversations from it in all presumptuous Instances whatever III. For Faith LET Him indue me with unfeigned Evangelical Faith With such a Faith as may inable me to †Heb. 11.6 believe that GOD is and that He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him and so to believe it as to become my self a most diligent and unwearied Seeker of Him With such a Faith as is a ‖ Gal. 5.2 fruit of the SPIRIT as will shew it self * Jam. 2.18 by my Works as will †1 Joh. 5.4 overcome the World and so throughly ‖ Rom. 5.1 justify me that I may have peace with GOD. Even peace with Him * Eph. 4.13 till we all come in the Unity of the Faith to the sweet and endless injoyment of Him who is the sole †Heb. 12.2 Author and Finisher of it IV. For Hope LET Him work in me a most firm and lively Hope Such an Hope as may not ‖ Rom. 5.5 make me ashamed by suffering me either to presume or despair But may be an * 1 Thess 5 8. Helmet to me in my Spiritual Warfare and an †Heb. 6.19 Anchor of my Soul while I am tossed in the Waves of this tempestuous World And having this Hope in me let me ‖ 1 Joh. 3.3 purify my self even as He is pure who is at once both the Object and End of my Hope the LORD JESUS CHRIST V. For Love to GOD. LET Him inflame my Heart with Love to Thy MAJESTY O my GOD. With such an holy ardent and passionate Love as becomes a Creature to his Sovereign LORD and Maker and a Dutiful Child to his indulgent heavenly Father I acknowledge my self unworthy of so high a Favour But Thy only SON died to purchase this inestimable Grace amongst others for all that need and seek it of Thee None O LORD want it more than I and with humblest Earnestness I seek and crave it O deny me not this one Request whatever else Thou with-holdest from me I am willing to be I am willing to do I am willing to bear or to suffer any thing with Thy help so I may but love Thee Turn me all into Love and indear me greatly to Thy self and I wish no more I neither want nor ask nor care for any thing in this World like that It is not Health nor Wisdom nor Riches nor Honour nor Life it self nor any thing in it or belonging to it that I so importunately beg but the Love of Thy Self O dearest GOD the Love of Thy Self is the Blessing I desire LORD give me but that and I have enough Thou hast said that Thou * Psal 107.9 satisfiest the longing Soul and fillest the hungry Soul with goodness †Ps 71.4 Thou O LORD art the thing that I long for and my Soul Thou seest hungers after Thâ—… O that Thou wouldst fill it with