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
falling down upon your Knees or prostrating more humbly use the following Confession A Confession of our own Sins O LORD the GOD of Heaven and Earth of Angels of Men and of all Creatures Thou art Great and High and Glorious and Holy and Just and Terrible Yet Thou art the GOD whom I have dishonoured Thou art the GOD whom I have displeased Thou art the GOD whom I have offended and sadly provoked Unworthy unworthy most unworthy I am to come before Thee and how shall I dare to lift up my guilty Heart and Hands unto Thee But Thy Will it is O LORD that the worst of Sinners should come unto Thy Self and as bad as I am Thou hast commanded even me to do it O reject me not therefore in this my act of Obedience but now that I am come unto Thy Throne of Grace receive me O GOD receive me graciously and pardon the Sins I shall confess unto Thee And most humbly I acknowledge that my Sins against Thee are exceeding grievous For they are numerous and hainous various and repeated odious and abominable Insomuch O LORD that not only Shame but Confusion might cover me not only Fear but Trembling might seize me because not only Judgments but Vengeance it self might immediately befall me and break out most dreadfully and eternally upon me For I have broken Thy Laws and slighted thy Promises and despised Thy Threatnings and abused Thy Favours * Think of those signal Blessings for which thou hast not made due Acknowledgments and suitable Returns I have been false to my Vows and inconstant to my Purposes and unfaithful to my Principles and filthy in my Practices †Think what Sensuality thou hast been guilty of Under These Severities I have been senseless under Thy Mercies I have been fruitless and instead of being led by Thy * Rom. 2 4. Goodness to Repentance I have turned thy very Grace into †Jude 4. Wantonness My Mind hath delighted in evil Thoughts my Mouth hath abounded with idle Words my Will hath inclined to ungodly Motions my Hands have been imployed in unrighteous Actions and my * Think how thou hast sinned scandalously Example hath been of pernicious Influence My fault it is that some are not so good as they might have been and that others are so bad who would have been better and so I have hindred †Think whom thou hast tempted or drawn to Sin or imboldened to go on in it Souls in their way to Heaven which I should have helped thither My Conscience checks me my Thoughts accuse me mine Iniquities testify against me my Heart condemns me and Thou O GOD who art greater than my Heart and knowest all things might'st justly pass a sad Sentence upon me a Sentence banishing me for ever from Thy Glorious Self and shutting me up in the dismal State and intolerable Torments of eternal Damnation This is my Case and these are my Sins and how can I endure them or my self for committing them O LORD I am ashamed O GOD I am astonished and I have reason to be so for O LORD my GOD I am undone everlastingly undone everlastingly undone by my own self unless Thou wilt pity unless Thou wilt pardon me LORD pity my Soul in thine infinite Mercy and pardon my Sins through the Merits of Thy SON my LORD JESUS CHRIST For I repent O merciful GOD from the bottom of my Heart I repent of them all Here pause a while and reflect seriously on thy Sins and their respective Aggravations at least upon some of the Principal of them And to bring on holy Tears and Mourning put up these or the like Ejaculations with all pious Earnestness A * Psal 50.17 contrite Heart give me O GOD such as Thou hast said Thou wilt not despise O break this †Here lay thine hand upon thine Heart flinty Rock in my Breast and as it hath been a Source of grievous Sins so make it a Fountain of godly Sorrow Help me LORD JESUS to sow in Tears that I may reap in Joy and so to mourn as that I may be comforted That ever I should sin against so good a GOD. That ever I should sin against so loving a Father That ever I should sin against so gracious a SAVIOUR That ever I should sin against so sweet a Comforter For this let Rivers of Tears run down mine Eyes Oh my Sins my Sins my many and my grievous Sins LORD what have I done O LORD what shall I do When thou hast done weeping pray Dearest REDEEMER accept the Sacrifice of a troubled Spirit and wash my Tears with Thy most precious and purifying Bloud Tho' Religious Mourning be usually accompani'd with a secret sweetness yet withal it spends the Spirits and so occasions Weariness If therefore you have mourned in such a measure as to be somewhat infeebled at present and to abate in the vigour or pious fervency of your Applications to Heaven then to refresh you a little by change of Exercise rise up here and read the 9th Chapter of Ezekiel There you shall find holy Mourning for others sins encouraged Or else read the 9th of Daniel to the 22th Verse where a famous Prophet invites to it by his great Example So by relaxing your Mind a while you will recruit your impaired Strength and be the better inabled to mourn afresh But if you feel your Zeal still upon the Wing and not too much weak'ned by expensive Grief then continue the Imployment which you were in and without stopping go on thus A Confession of the Nation 's Sins BEsides that I am the worst of Sinners O LORD and deserve the heaviest and severest Punishments that can be inflicted here or hereafter I dwell in the midst of a guilty Nation too many of which are too like my self a * Isai 1.4 sinful People and laden with iniquity For we have done †Dan 9 5. wickedly and rebelled grievously in departing from Thy holy Laws and in transgressing Thy most heavenly Precepts Like an infinitely wise and gracious GOD what hast Thou not done that in reason Thou could'st do to amend and reform us But under all the Methods of Thy kindest Providence to make us better are we not grown worse or do we not continue as bad as ever For who can think the Corruptions of our Hearts or what Tongue can speak the lewdness of our Manners and Conversations Thy Judgments have not moved us Thy Mercies have not melted us but under the one we have been loose and unthankful and under the other stubborn and inflexible and under them both not only unrighteous but incorrigible Peace we have abused to Pride and Security Plenty we have turned to Excess and Luxury and Health and Prosperity we have made to minister to Vanity of Mind and Licentiousness of Life Thou hast given us Thy divine and sacred Truth but we do ‖ 2 Thess 2.10 not receive that precious thing in the love of it Thou favourest
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
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
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
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
persist in such lofty Practices which stand upon the exalted Principles of Christianity there is no reaching them and running through them without considerable Pains and some Uneasiness And therefore we are taught by CHRIST Himself that His Religion is both a Yoke and a Burthen S. Mat. 11.30 But then as He perfectly understands the Height of His own Laws and the Frame of our Being so He hath throughly experimented the Difficulties of Obedience and the Infirmities of our Nature And so we need not doubt but He will graciously dispense his Comforts to us and that in such measures as shall be most suitable to the Tasks which Himself hath impos'd and as shall effectually assist us in the Performance of those Tasks For such is the Powerful Virtue of these Comforts that they wonderfully dispose us to the Worship of GOD and strengthen us in it Thus as sometimes when they come They fill us with Longings after His Service and make us even Restless till we are ingaged in it So at other Times when they visit us in our actual Waitings on His Glorious MAJESTY they so animate and inspirit us that we feel no Weariness at all in our Attendance And when in any Periods or Circumstances of our Life we chance to grow down or dead in Devotion and to droop and flag in our pious Exercises and to be in danger of turning Lukewarm in Religion no sooner are they darted into our Souls but they replenish us with fresh and lively Fervours And these again inspire us with such Active Force and vital Energy as enable us to fulfill our Several Duties not only with Content and chearful Alacrity but always with true and sometimes with great Delight and Pleasure And thus our LORD's Religion tho' it be a Yoke is made easy to us and tho' it be a Burthen is rendred Light as Himself proclaims it in the fore-quoted Place Nor do heavenly Comforts only inliven us in our dutiful Addresses to GOD but also infuse holy Confidence into us Such a Confidence as lifts us up into decent and modest Familiarity with His MAJESTY So that whereas they who are destitute of Comforts and dejected for want of them do commonly approach Him with troubled Minds and trembling Hearts and are so overset with the Sense of His Excellencies and their own Unworthiness that their Thoughts are disordered and their Duties dispirited We that enter GOD's Presence full of Peace and make our devout Aplications to Him do it at a far more happy Rate For as we are wholly free from all terrifying Dread so our filial Awe and reverential Fear are mixt and incouraged with ingenuous Boldness With so bashful and becoming a kind of Audacity as recommends us to Heaven and much facilitates our devotional Performances And their Ruggedness and Uneasiness being thus taken off or greatly abated the Labour of them in good measure vanisheth and Religion turns mostly into holy Recreation To come more home to our purpose Christian Duties as every one knows are either Private or Public and divine Comforts are ready to attend and animate us in both if we act them with Fidelity As to Private Duties let that Passage witness Psal 119.165 great Peace have they which love thy Law As many as love the Law of GOD which contains their Duties and love it so well as to mind and study it and make it their Guide or the Rule of their Practice They shall have Peace Not only all kind of outward Felicity which Peace does often signify in Scripture but inward Tranquility and Spiritual Joy of mind Nor shall they only have this Peace in some little Measure but in Plenty or Abundance for they shall have great Peace Peace so great that the World cannot give it S. Joh. 14.27 Peace so great that it passeth all understanding Phil. 4.7 Peace so great that nothing shall offend them that enjoy it as the Psalmist adds where we now cited Him There is * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no stumbling-block to them Nothing that can cause them to trip or fall or hinder them in their course of private Duties which Religion prescribes them tho' in it they meet with many Difficulties And then as to Public Duties that the like divine Comforts will attend us in them is evident from a clear and emphatical Testimony in Psal 36.8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the Fatness of thy House and thou shalt make them drink of the River of thy Pleasures Muit gives the true Character of this Verse †Singula verba sunt emphatica et vehementia The Words are every one forcible and vehemently affect They are so full of meaning that there is no finding it out no attempting a thorough explication of them And long before them S. Austin upon the place delivered himself thus ‖ Nescio quid magnum promittit It promiseth I know not what great thing * Non capimus we comprehend it not The vastness and pregnancy of its sense makes us shallow Creatures incapable of conceiving it I only observe it manifests thus much That not only Comforts but abundance of them shall be the Lot of such as frequent God's House and publicly wait upon Him in His Ordinances In this mortal State Two of the greatest Satisfactions as well as Supports of humane Life are eating and drinking And to the Gratifications arising from these Natural Actions the SPIRIT compares the Pleasures which we feel in public Duties But then because the Quality of the things which we eat and drink contributes mightily to the Pleasure of doing so therefore that the HOLY GHOST might the better set off the Lusciousness of those Delights wherewith GOD favours us when we are zealous in Ordinances He screws up the comparison by which He chose to express it to the highest Pitch For suppose a Man would Eat meerly for Pleasure and to the highest Degree of Pleasure that He could What then could he desire to Eat of better than Fat things Especially if they were set in great Plenty before Him and he might eat of them freely and to satiety And therefore the good SPIRIT gives us to understand that they who conscionably resort to GOD's House shall there feed upon Fatness and not only so but shall be satisfied likewise and abundantly satisfied therewith The Pleasures that is which they are sensible of in GOD's public Service shall be equivalent to those which the Hungry perceive in eating choicest Viands if not far surmount them And so if a man were disposed to Drink his fill and with greatest Delight where could He do it so well as out of a River A River of Wine Suppose or of Milk and Honey by which last sort the holy Book describes a plentiful and pleasant Land But then imagine there were a River running nothing but Pleasures and whose Streams consist wholly of Torrents of Sweetness would not full Draughts out of such a River that flows with the clearest Oblectations most
strangely satisfy us Yet just such is that River that River of Comforts which flows in GOD's House When our Souls drink of it it inebriates them as I may say with holy Joys and fills them with Pleasures and divine Delights like those at GOD's Right Hand for ever Which considered we need not by the way wonder at that strange Passion which raged in King David and transported Him with desire of joining in GOD's Worship when He was in Exile and under unhappy Exclusion from it * ver 2. My Soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the LORD my Heart and my Flesh cry out for the living GOD. And in another place †Psal 42.1 2. As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my Soul after Thee O GOD. My Soul thirsteth for GOD for the Living GOD when shall I come and appear before GOD And again ‖ Psal 63.1 2. O GOD my Soul thirsteth for Thee my Flesh longeth after Thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no water is to see Thy Power and Glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Now how came it to be thus with the King of Israel What occasion'd these extraordinary Affections and Emotions of his In all likelihood at present he was banisht And being unfortunately driven out of his Territories his Mind one would think might have been taken up with that sad calamity Or else the busy thoughts of recovering his Crown and Kingdom from which he was forced should have ingross'd it in a manner entirely to themselves Yet we plainly see that it stood quite another way even to GOD's Worship and the Place where it was publicly celebrated The loss of these was that which he lamented and the Reinjoyment of them was that which he desired For these he longed for these he thirsted and that so violently that his very Soul panted and even fainted for them But why so There must be some good Reason for so great Eagerness some mighty Cause of so marvellous an Effect And truly he more than insinuates what it was where he tells us as before was noted that his Soul thirsted to see GOD's Power and Glory as he had seen it in the Sanctuary There 's an Answer to the Query which may well satisfy us without seeking farther The excellent Prince as he was a constant frequenter of GOD's House so he was throughly acquainted with that River of Pleasures which flowed in it He had very often been very sensible of those truly Powerful and Glorious Comforts which there descend upon the Servants of GOD and this made him so passionately and impatiently desirous of joining with them in public Duties Now if such measures of divine Comforts as produced these Effects came down upon the Religious in their public Performances under the Law what Fulness of Comforts must rest upon those in their sacred Offices who are faithful Professors of the Gospel For as betwixt the Legal and Evangelical Dispensations there is as much difference as there is between Moses and CHRIST so between the respective Comforts of each there is as great Difference as there is betwixt the cloudiest and the clearest Day or betwixt the rising and the meridian Sun But then hence it will follow that Christians who exceed the Jews in comforts should excell them as to Duties and the Service of GOD as having more excellent Incouragements to the same And so in Truth they do The matchless Comforts which they there meet with do greatly indear GOD's House and Ordinances They make them forward to them and also pleased with and in them beyond all Measure and Expression When in outward communion with the great GOD they feel themselves affected with inward Consolations with deep Sensations of Divine Pleasure and ineffable Perceptions of ravishing Delights the high Satisfactions they find in His Ordinances do strangely captivate their very Souls and most sweetly enamour them on the same So sweetly and passionately that if all this World and a thousand better were profer'd to draw them from those Ordinances they would be no Temptation in the Least to them to relinquish and desert them They would refuse any thing they would reject every thing and that with holy Rage and scornful Indignation rather than choose to be barred from GOD's Ordinances * In Sancto magna est consolatio in Psal 36.8 where they perceive such an affluence of Comforts For as S. Austin says in the Sanctuary there is great Consolation And this I must add That the plenty of divine Comforts which they there meet with are not only happily felt by themselves but are sometimes plainly seen by others in lively Symptoms or Indications hard to be conceal'd Thus I have observ'd of zealous Christians that after their Converse with GOD in Duty particularly at His own Mysterious Table a more than ordinary lightsom pleasant Air hath appeared in their Faces Their hidden Joys have shined in their Countenances and that they abounded with inward Consolations was outwardly manifest in their sprightly Visages I could discern methoughts that they had received JESUS by the serious graceful Gayness of their Aspects and the Spirits have danc'd so chearfully in their Eyes as if their heavenly LORD taken into their Hearts had looked out at those sparkling Windows Now where such mighty Comforts as these fall in with holy Duties Private and Public they must strangely invigorate the Performers of them and bring in such Accessions of Heavenly Strength as will effectually conduce to their Settlement in Religion And they that are fixt in true Religion may well pass for blessed here on Earth So they were accounted and ever esteemed by the best of Men and so they must be according to the Word of the infallible GOD. For the HOLY GHOST speaking of such a one in the first Psalm describes him thus His delight is in the Law of the LORD and in His Law doth he meditate Day and Night He is so well grounded and confirmed in Religion that he is always studying the Law of Heaven in order to the conscionable Keeping of it That is his Temper but what 's His Condition No less than Blessed as the first Word of that Psalm informs us Nor is He there called Blessed only but * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessednesses As if He were Blessedness it self in the very abstract an Heap or aggregate Body of Beatitudes The least that can be meant is that he is Blessed in all respects or Capacities In his Soul in his Body in his Duties in his Estate c. But then remember we must that this Blessedness proceeds from Confirmation in Religion and that Confirmation flows from Spiritual Comforts and that those Comforts come in by Holy Mourning And so it is necessary as necessary for us to Mourn piously as it is for us to take the readiest Course to be thus Blessed that Exercise being a grand Instrument of this Beatitude CHAP. X. A Sixth Motive to Mourning in General
City of Rome Strange to think that such dangerous Allurements should dwell in so much Solitude But so long as the World is full of Devils and the Heart of Man is full of Corruptions no wonder that a Desart should he full of Temptations And as one sign that Temptations are strongest there the Scene of our SAVIOUR's First Temptation was a Wilderness Where the Tempter would never have set upon him but that he knew it would make for his own Advantage And in this Respect it conduceth much to it that all things there are quiet and still So that if the Tempter designs to move the senses he may make those external Pictures or Images by which he would prevail and set them to work upon the Mind the more lively and enticing as having nothing to disturb him in painting them out and setting them off in their best Figures and Colours And in case he intends a closer Attaque and slier Application that is to take the Mind by the help of the Fancy he hath then the better opportunity not only to form inward Illusions for his Purpose and to make them more fine and inviting to the Imagination by which he would fain debauch the Judgment but also to hold the Imagination by which he strives to corrupt the Understanding more close and fixt to the Delusions he represents For where there is Solitariness there is little to divert For these Reasons it was that Satan might chuse to show CHRIST the Kingdoms of the World also and the Glory of them in a * 'T is said that the Devil took our SAVIOUR up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into an exceeding high Mountain A Character which perhaps no Mountain in Judaea could truly answer And so it might be far from Palaestine and most probably in some Desart because there the Devil could best form and set home his tempting Representations Wilderness rather than in another Place And as he would have imposed upon Him by fictitious Appearances or specious Illusions so he seems to have attempted the same upon St. Jerome For when he was as much alone as he possibly could be in his farthest Recess from the World still he owns and declares that he was in the Companies of singing or dancing †Choreis intererat puellarum Ubi supra young Ladies And therefore to retire from the World to avoid Temptations may be but a vain or preposterous course For however by so doing we may shun some Temptations yet at the same time we may run into others perhaps full as bad not to say worse So long as we abide in this lower World no manner of Sequestration from it can secure or fence us against Temptations to Sin Let but one more instead of many attest the Truth which is here upon Proof I mean St. Austin whom I take to be as good and holy a Man as any that ever liv'd since his Time His Testimony lies in these Words * Quis pertinens ad Christum non variis tentationibus agitatur Quotidie agit cum illo Diabolus Angeli ejus ut pervertatur qualibet cupiditate qualibet suggestione aut promissione lucri vel terrore damni vel promissione vitae vel terrore mortis aut alicujus potentis inimicitiis vel alicujus potentis amicitiis Omnibus modis instat Diabolus quemadmodum dejiciat In Psal 62. Who that belongs to CHRIST is not vexed with various Temptations The Devil and his Angels do every day disquiet him that so by one Lust or other by one Suggestion or other he may be perverted or turned aside Either by the Promise of Gain or by the Fear of Loss by the Promise of Life or by the Dread of Death by the Enmity or by the Friendship of the Great and Mighty The Devil is urgent by all manner of means to foil the Christian or to cast him down So that from all hands we learn that with Solicitations to Evil we must be infested while we are upon Earth But then when Christians are beset with such Throngs and begirt with such Armies of pestilent Temptations when there are so many within them and so many without them and abundance of malignant and mighty Spirits to manage both and with the utmost Cunning and Dexterity to set them home upon them that they might be worsted by them and there is no way for them to shift or decline them must not these Christians be in a pitiable case For as to stand will be most difficult for them so to fall will be as dangerous Nor can they be secure that they shall not fall from any inherent Abilities of their own Alas they are but Flesh and Blood and were they to contest but their own perverse Nature and others that partake of it and are like themselves they would so have Task enough upon them But then besides this they are to * Eph. 6 12. wrestle against Principalities against Powers and against the potent Rulers of the Kingdom of Darkness And is it possible they should make their Part good with these who are so much their Superiors and their over-match But therefore here again divine Comforts exert their Strength and show themselves to be things of Blessed Use For by their heavenly Power they do so corroborate tempted struggling Souls as to inable them to hold out in their Noble Agonies or Spiritual Conflicts So that as many as are under the Influence of them are out of the reach of the Devil's Shafts Whatever Arrows he levels at them or le ts fly against them are sure either never to hit them or not to hurt them For their Comforts within do so shield them from the Malice and Mischief of Hell as to render them invulnerable by its worst spite and violence A Christian tempted in the midst of Consolations stands like a Rock in the midst of the Sea He may be beaten on every side with boisterous Waves but the surly Billows that dash against him do only break themselves to pieces while he still remains steddy and immoveable They who write of Gemms and precious Stones tell us that many of them are of singular Virtue against the Plague and Poisons And for this * Ansel Boet. Hist Gem. lib. 2. cap. 43. the Sapphire †Cap. 53. the Emrald the ‖ Cap. 103. Jasper * Cap. 198. the Aetites or Eagle-stone are commended amongst others Yet we need not doubt but heavenly Comforts are more sovereign Antidotes and effectual Amulets against Satan's pestilent and poisonous Injections They so fortify the Souls where they dwell as to render them Temptation-proof Nor is it hard to conceive how they do it For all the hold that Temptations can lay upon those where they fasten is by the Enticement of some flattering Pleasures wherewith they offer to entertain and gratify them So that could but their Minds be set against those Pleasures or any way drawn off from lingring after them the Temptations would immediately be broken
how to reason very wisely argues to the purpose in this matter * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 M. Anton lib. 4. sect 47. That if we make any difference betwixt dying to morrow or dying next day betwixt dying to morrow or a thousand years hence this must proceed from an ungenerous or abject Mind For truly as many as are of a noble Temper and think worthily always ought as he says to * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. sect 48. look upon all humane things as but of a day's continuance and that it is but a †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meer Moment or indivisible Point of Time which we have to spend here And perhaps something of the same Passion is visible in Hezekiah's Carriage Who when he received the Sentence of Death from Isaiah's Mouth turned his Face towards the Wall and wept Esay 38.2 3. Which plainly shews that his Mind was cast down and consequently that he was afraid to die For Fear it self according to Theophrastus his Definition of it ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. Char. cap. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but a timorous Dejection of Mind And if in the Breasts of such excellent Persons where so much Piety and Goodness dwelt there could be room for the Fear of Death then where Graces and Virtues are lower and weaker there must be higher and stronger Fears of that nature But here again divine Comforts shew themselves to be most blessed things and that very eminently and conspicuously For where these Fears are full-grown as I may say and run up to the highest Pitch that they can reach to in pious Souls holy Comforts are able to expel them Such is their Force that they no sooner enter the religious Heart but they immediately quell all Fears of Death in it or in a great measure exterminate them out of it Nor are they only able to damp the Terrors of Death in us or effectually to abolish or drive them out of us but to turn those Terrors into real Triumphs and Transports of Mind accompani'd with high and heavenly Delights Let none take these for loud Words only or think that they are spoken meerly at random Many righteous Souls departing this Life as subject to Infirmities and Fears as we have sealed them up for certain Truths by very remarkable experimental Testimony For by seasonable Influxes of these mighty Comforts they have not only had their Fears suppress'd or chased from them but their Spirits so ravisht at their dying hour that they have been forc'd to give vent to their rapturous Pleasures and delightful Passions in strange and amazing Exclamations In such exalted and surprizing Strains as have not only sweetly affected but even astonisht all those about them O the Joys the Joys the Joys that I feel said * Mrs. Brettergh See her Life and Death annext to Mr. Leigh's Souls Solace one upon her Death-bed they be wonderful they be wonderful they be wonderful I am as full of comfort as my Heart can hold said †Mr. Bolton See his Life and Death prefixt to his Discourse of the four Last things another and feel nothing in my Soul but CHRIST with whom I heartily desire to be Now farewel World and welcome Heaven the Day-star from on high hath visited my Heart O speak it when I am gone and preach it at my Funeral GOD dealeth familiarly with Man I feel His Mercy I see His MAJESTY whether in the Body or out of the Body I cannot tell GOD He knoweth I see things inutterable O my dear Brethren Sisters and Friends it pitieth me to leave you behind c. So said a * Mr Holland See Mr. Leigh's Souls Sollace c. Third upon sight of a glorious Brightness suddenly appearing to him a little before he died He took it at first for some ordinary Light and asked if any Candles were set up Answer was made no it was the Sun-shine for it was about four a clock in a clear Summer's Evening Sun-shine said he nay it is my Saviours shine c. I know whom I have preached whom I have professed whom I have believed and now I see Heaven open and ready to receive me said a Mr. Hieron See the Relation of his Death before the 2d Vol. of his Works Fourth I shall die But O what unspeakable Glories do I see What Joys beyond Thought or Expression am I sensible of I am assured of GOD's Mercy through JESUS CHRIST Oh how I long to die and to be with my SAVIOUR said a †The Earl of Rochester See the Sermon at his Funeral by Mr. Robert Parsons Fifth And memorable it is of Severinus the Indian Saint that GOD in his last Sickness did so replenish him with holy Consolations that he earnestly besought him either to take him presently out of the World or to stay his divine Joys from descending so freely and exuberantly upon him Lest if he out-liv'd them he should be miserable through the want of them when they were withdrawn and the more miserable for having drunk so deep of their abounding Sweetness Now in the midst of such blessed Comforts what Fear even of Death it self can fasten upon us The Pleasures of them do so powerfully divert our Minds and delight our Souls that we can neither attend to any formidable Objects nor becapable of afflictive Impressions from them They give us such a lively and overcoming sense of GOD's Love to us of His Care of us of His Protection over us and of the strange Felicities He hath provided for us and is putting into our eternal Possession as quite bears down and perfectly swallows up all manner of Dread So that in these circumstances we are not only free from Fear but impossible it is that we should be touched with it while they continue Where Souls swim in such a Deluge of Comforts their Fears must be drowned in the Inundation It is a great Word which the Psalmist speaks and very significant as to our purpose * Psal 37.37 Keep innocency and take heed to the thing that is right or Mark the perfect Man and behold the upright the Original may be rendred either way for the End of that Man is Peace There 's the good Man's Felicity Whatever Troubles or Tumults Disquietments or Uneasinesses Tossings or Terrors he meets with in the Beginning or Progress of his Life yet before it comes to its final Period in all likelihood he is sure of Peace Of Prosperity that is for same time before he goes hence if best for him and of Comfort at the hour of his Departure Thus as David noted it was in his Days and so perhaps we may see it to be in ours if we take but due Care and Pains to observe it With the unrighteous Person it is quite otherwise He lives in frequent Feuds with himself and is seldom at quiet for Frays with his Conscience That checks and twitches and gripes him at every turn If he
must call to mind that as this Blessedness also is the Offspring of Comforts so are they of Mourning And therefore as we would be blest in such Comforts as shall free us from extravagant Fears when we dye or as shall turn our Fears into Desires of Death we must live holy Mourners 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 THat holy Comforts are blessedly useful and beneficial to our Souls what hath been said on the foregoing Heads does sufficiently prove But then they have a benign and blessed Influence on our Bodies too Nor is it at all strange that those Comforts which are no other than the sweetness of Heaven in our Spirits should sweetly affect the bodily Part of our Beings For while the Spirit and the Flesh continue in this state of vital Union as what is agreeable to the Flesh or Body is frequently pleasing to the Soul or Spirit so on the contrary what is highly delightful to the Spirit will often be recreative to the corporeal fleshly Part of us A most excellent Man who knew this in himself hath transmitted his happy Experience to us in the infallible Book * Psal 84.2 My heart and my Flesh says he rejoice in the Living GOD. Where by the Heart cannot be meant that musculous piece of Flesh in the middle Region of the Body properly so called for then the Expression would have been tautological and might as well have run thus My Flesh and my Flesh rejoyce in the living GOD. But by it we are to understand the Mind or the Soul which is the Source of Understanding and of all Sense and the Spring of all Thoughts Desires and Actions But then this informs us that when Joy or Comfort descends upon the Soul it snatches the Body into Sympathy with it For here it is said of the Heart and the Flesh at once * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have rejoyced or they have broken out into †To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usurpatur etiam de dolore sed praecipuè de gaudio cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ☊ conjunctum ut hic significat ovationem c. Pol. Synop. Jubilations or Ovations in which excessive Joys do commonly shew and naturally spend themselves Not that divine Joy affects the Body no farther than just the visible Gesture or the audible Voice in which it sometimes runs out or discharges it self for the Body hath its share as well in the sweet Passion as in those Expressions of it As it is said of the Soul and Body both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Septuagint well renders the Hebrew they have exulted tho' the Soul in strictness cannot leap for joy but must leave that chiefly for the Body to do so the Body cannot strictly rejoyce neither but must leave that principally to the Soul Yet as when the Body leaps for joy the Soul must have a Perception of that Exultancy so when the Soul rejoyces for Comfort the Body hath some sense shall I say or shares in the effects of that heavenly Gladness The holy Psalmist cries out Psal 63.1 My Soul thirsteth for Thee ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Flesh longeth for Thee Whence it is plain that when the good Soul is carri'd with passionate and thirsting Desires after GOD her very Flesh at the same time pines and languishes through their Eagerness and Ardency as if that were capable of divine Longings too So when the Soul is ravisht with transporting Joys the fleshly Body it wears rejoyceth with her according to its measures It is affected I mean with the Blessed Passion Which rising at first from a spiritual Motion begun in the Soul does yet terminate in the Body which is the Instrument of Passions and by causing grateful Motions there which return upon the Soul in way of Sensation she is thereby pleased with reflected Delights Now when holy Comforts that descend upon the Soul do thus influence the Body its partaking of them may be a means to keep it in a regular state and to sweeten Life by preserving of Health The Scripture seems to insinuate as much Psal 118.15 The voice of Joy and * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omnimodam salutem significat tam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Health is in the dwellings of the Righteous Where by Joy a great †Interiora gaudia August Man understands the inward Joys of righteous Livers And as they have cause to lift up their Voice in praising GOD for those Joys so many times they have cause to do it likewise for that Health which is the Fruit or Product of them For the HOLY GHOST may not only signify here that the Righteous have more Joy and Health than others to praise GOD for but also that their Health may be derived from their Joy And in the Third of the Proverbs Solomon suggests something like this For there he tells us that Wisdom or true Religion ‖ Ver. 18. is a tree of Life to them that lay hold upon her That is it is like * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tree of Lives which GOD planted in the midst of Paradise And that we know was to keep Man from Sickness as well as from Death and so not only to prolong his Life but to preserve his Health And as we find in the same Chapter also to fear the LORD and depart from evil which is Wisdom or Religion in other Terms * Ver. 8. shall be Health to the Navel and Marrow to the Bones A good Evidence that where-ever true Religion dwells in Men in the due Course or just Order of things it will have Health for its Inmate Unless GOD for great Reasons best known to Himself shall please to order it otherwise But then we must enquire whence is this Or how comes it to be thus Why should Religion in the Soul conduce to Healthfulness in the Body The making out this is the Scope of that Point which we are upon and Solomon hath done it to our hand I mean where he declares that the ways of Wisdom are ways of Pleasantness and that all her paths are Peace Prov. 3.17 That virtuous Livers by being virtuous have great Advantages of Health on their side beyond others who are loose and vitious in the World cannot be denied For their Piety and Purity their Self-denial and Sobriety their meek or dispassionate Temper and the Like besides that they entitle them to the Blessing of Heaven do effectually secure them from those Disorders of Mind and Distempers of Body which the contrary Evils naturally breed in them or bring upon them And then they as certainly prevent those dreadful Visitations which as often come down judicially from above and are
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
Strength of Ease and Peace of Plenty and Prosperity from the largest Supplies of secular Provisions and the fullest Possession of personal Accomplishments and so from the highest and compleatest Happiness that is here attainable we may ground upon it that they are but spurious For Worldly Comforts they must needs be that are bred and nourisht by Worldly Accommodations And therefore if our Comforts result from such only if they spring and flourish in us because we can say These are our Children and these are our Friends these are our Houses and these are our Lands these are our Riches and these our Honours or the like 't is apparent enough that they are of low Extraction and but little Worth if they rise no higher Tho' I cannot but add that even these outward inferior Objects may sometimes open a way to true Comforts I mean as they point at Objects that are divine and lead and lift up our Minds unto them Thus the Charms of Eloquence Beauty or melodious Harmony Curious Sights delicious Tastes fragrant Perfumes or any high Pleasures that strike the Soul through the Organs of Sense may carry up our Thoughts to the glorious Felicities of the everlasting State And when they are seriously fixt on those divine Things they 'll easily fill us with divine Comforts But then these Comforts flow from those divine and heavenly Objects and not from any of the exterior sensible ones which only prompted us to the Contemplation of the other The Third Mark of true Comforts is they are raised by Instruments most Coelestial Indeed the only primary or principal Efficient cause of them is GOD Himself And therefore as many as would have them must apply themselves for them solely to Him So we learn Psal 119.82 When wilt THOU comfort me And Psal 86.4 rejoice the Soul of Thy Servant for unto Thee O LORD do I lift up my Soul But when Comforts are derived from GOD to His Servants it must always be done by the Intervention and Use of some heavenly things as instrumental thereunto I mention but Two of them The Light of GOD's Countenance And the Contents of His Word That Holy Comforts are raised by the Light of GOD's Countenance is evident For they are said to be the Joy of his Countenance Psal 21.6 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou hast gladded him with the Joy of Thy Countenance And in the Fourth Psalm the Light of GOD's Countenance is said to put Gladness in the Heart Tho' what that coelestial Light is is much better felt than it can be express'd I think it no other than a faint or obscure Glimpse of that ravishing Glory of the Face of GOD the clear sight of the full Brightness of which shall make the Beatific Vision in Heaven And then that the Contents of the Word are Instrumental to raising holy Comforts in us is as manifest For as we read Psal 19.8 the Statutes of the LORD rejoyce the Heart They excite such Consolations in us as fill us with deep and solid Joys And therefore at the 10th Verse the HOLY GHOST sets them forth by a remarkable Character and lofty Commendation More to be desired are they than Gold yea than much fine Gold sweeter also than Honey and the Honey-comb He does not only preferr the Contents of GOD's Word before much Gold but before the most refined Gold that can be He does not only preferr them before Honey but before the purest Honey that is even before that which of its own accord drops from the Comb. And so by two emphatical Comparisons and a very significant Gradation in each He extolls them * Conjunguntur haec vehementiae ergo Ainswor vehemently for the most sweet and precious things in the World For what can be more sweet than purest Honey and what more precious than finest Gold Yet the Contents of the Scripture according to this Account of the HOLY GHOST are more sweet than the one and more precious than the other and more desirable than both And lest any should think this Comparison short because Gemms are more precious than finest Gold the Septuagint instead of comparing GOD's Statutes to that says they are to be desired †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above precious Stones and the Syriac and Arabic do the same And well they may in regard of those transporting invaluable Joys which they let into our Hearts Look therefore and see whence your Comforts come when they visit you When you are sensible of them how are they produced Are they a Light that shines into your Hearts from above or a Fire in your Breasts kindled by a Beam from the Face of GOD If they be so they must be holy Things as being wrought in us by so heavenly an Instrument Nor will it be hard to discern whether they be thus effected For supposing that we are really good and that we cannot find that they are raised wholly in us by worldly Considerations they must of necessity proceed from GOD from the Light of His Countenance darted into our Souls And when that is instrumental to the Production of them tho' we cannot plainly make it out to others that it is so yet we may feel it powerfully in our selves by quick and lively tho' inexplicable Perceptions For then we shall be sensible of such Light and Love divine of such Exaltations of Mind and Inlargements of Spirit of such holy Thoughts and generous Desires and Angelic Delights as will witness by evictive and ineffable Testimony within us that they come directly from the Rays of GOD's Favour Or if you do not perceive that they flow from the Light of GOD's Countenance singly then consult your Experience again and see if the Instruments raising them in conjunction with that Light be not some Passages of the sacred Word For tho' that Light alone be sufficient to raise Consolations in us and to raise them even to any Degree as being the Power of GOD to which all things are possible yet nothing else without the help of that can cause them to rise to a rapturous heigth Consider therefore I say do the Contents of GOD's Word in complication with the favourable Influence of His Countenance replenish you with Comforts We are told very plainly by an infallible Writer that GOD's Testimonies are Wonderful Psal 119.129 and that in His Law there are wondrous things v. 18th And so indeed there are and enough of divers sorts to affect Men with wondrous Consolations if duly attended to For there are DOCTRINES wonderful for Purity and Perfection Such as teach us to deny our selves and to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts To be holy as GOD is holy and merciful as He is merciful and perfect as He is perfect To do good unto all to do good against evil and to overcome evil with good There are MYSTERIES wonderful for Profoundness and Intricacy As that of the Glorious TRINITY of the Incarnation of the WORD of CHRIST's Union with His Church of
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
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
the Title Private Devotions And most fitly may we peruse and consi or them well on our Mourning Days Heads of Self-examination contained in that excellent Book the whole Duty of Man Where we shall find Sin so fully though compendiously represented in the sundry Kinds and Branches of it as will very much help us to understand the great variety of our Sins Thirdly Our Sins have been frequent and repeated As we have committed many Sins so we have acted them many times As if some had been born for nothing but to Sin they have indeed done little else And they that have been more moderately vicious or the most strict and virtuous livers of all have run into so many reiterations of Sin that they are without Number Witness the Psalmist's solemn Interrogatory * Psal 19.12 Who can understand his errors That is how frequently he hath repeated or renewed them And therefore in our other Translation it runs thus Who can tell how oft he offendeth According to which to count up our Sins will puzzle the best Arithmeticians amongst us Who can reckon up their evil thoughts And yet the Sins of the Tongue can no more be numbred than those of the Mind And therefore truly to summ up all our Sins must needs be impossible Even as impossible as to compute the Drops of Water that are in the Sea or the Grains of Sand that lie spread upon the biggest Desart of the Earth A most sad Thought if seriously entertain'd by pious Men. Lastly We have sinned boldly and impudently Many of us want common Modesty as well as Christian Integrity and therefore we * Isa 3.9 declare our sins as Sodom and hide them not Some amongst us have not only been foolish and brutish before GOD but also before men and in the sight of the Sun They have wallowed publickly in their leudness and have owned their Prophaness and have been so far from sneaking into corners to cover their Baseness that they have practis'd it abroad in the open Streets And when they have done instead of being abashed at their monstrous sin they have rather been proud of it and have gloried in that which was their greatest shame And to this very day how usual is it every where for naughty Men to glory thus shamefully To boast of their strength in Drinking to vaunt of their malice in Revenging to make sport with Atheistical Talking to divert themselves and others like them with nauseous Stories of their Swearing lying defrauding debauching and the like And so besides affronting and dishonouring GOD by breaking his Righteous and Holy Laws they mock and laugh at the violation of them As if they meant to put Shamefacedness quite out of countenance and to scorn and deride and hector all Bashfulness out of the World This may be thought very plain and I own it to be so but then withal it is very true and that makes it as sad O that I had no occasion to speak thus And though all of us have not the same Degrees of Impudence to answer for yet sinning too impudently or audaciously may well be charged on us because as hath been said we have sinned highly and sinned variously and sinned frequently A most lamentable consideration if throughly weighed Enough to melt any Heart that is not as hard as the nether Milstone Now what remains but that in the Name of GOD I beseech all those who read this Book designed to promote Religious Mourning that they would duly consider these Suasives to it and add any else which they shall think or find to be proper and useful So I doubt not but what I aim at in this plain Treatise will with Heaven's Blessing be happily accomplisht I mean our Souls shall weep in secret and our Hearts shall mourn within us for our own and others Sins especially those of this Nation A Form of Devotion Proper for the pious Christian when he spends a Day in private Mourning for his own and the Nation 's Sins WHEN the Day you have set is come rise no later than you use to do but if you use to rise late then somewhat sooner When you are dress'd retire into your Closet or be as private as well you can But if any thing of necessary Business or Civility forces in upon you be not too shie of admitting them But when you are fain to ingage in either and with the company that brings the same converse as freely as you are wont and conceal the serious Imployment you are about Only make all the prudent innocent Excuses that you may to withdraw as soon as is convenient and to return to your better Exercise But if inavoidable Diversions take you off it too much then break off the Performance you have begun that Day and deferr it to another but be sure that you lose not a Day in the Course you have resolved on or appointed to your self A preparatory Prayer As soon as your ordinary Morning-Devotions are ended use the following Prayer preparative to the Solemnity of the Day I Am taught in thy Word that the * Prov. 16.1 Preparations of the Heart in Man are from Thee O LORD Before Thee therefore I prostrate my self earnestly beseeching Thee to prepare my Heart to seek Thee this Day with Fasting Praying and holy Mourning Without Thee I know that I can do nothing and that 't is Thou who must work in me both to will and to do whatever is good Cause Thy divinest SPIRIT O GOD to descend upon me and by His blessed Inspirations so to inliven and assist my Soul as that I may offer up an acceptable Service unto Thee Let Him give me a due Sight of my own Vileness and Unworthiness and affect me with a deep Sense of thy Glories and Perfections that so I may approach Thy Presence with such Reverence and Humility with such Faith and Modesty and with such Zeal and Fervency as becomes most sinful Dust and Ashes addressing to the Infinite and Adorable MAJESTY of Heaven and Earth And then †Psal 5.1 2. give ear to my Words O LORD and hearken I beseech Thee to the Voice of my Cry my King and my GOD even for JESUS CHRIST His sake Amen Before you rise off your Knees humbly offer unto GOD what Money you think fit to be laid by at present and afterward to be given to the Poor as occasion serves Remembring that as Fasting is one of the Wings of Prayer to carry it up to Heaven with more force and speed so Alms-deeds are the other But when you make your Oblation say thus Accept it O GOD in thy Beloved SON and vouchsafe me thy special Assistance this day in the weighty Duty I am undertaking Then rising up read one or two or more of the * Which are the 6th 32th 38th 51th 102th 130th 143th Penitential Psalms meditating so upon what you read as that it may help to work you into a Mourning frame And when you break off
us with constant and most powerful Preaching of Thy Word but we do not hear it so as to obey it Thou indulgest to us a blessed Liberty and frequent Opportunities of calling upon Thee by Public Prayer but we do not join it so as to honour Thee and advantage our selves by it Instead of keeping holy * Isai 58.13 Thy Day we break and pollute it Instead of Reverencing Thy †Levit. 19.30 Sanctuary we neglect or prophane it Instead of ‖ Mat. 6.9 Hallowing Thy Name we abuse and blaspheme it Instead of Duly frequenting Thy Table we turn our Backs upon it or come unworthily to it Instead of rightly attending on any of Thine Ordinances we either so slight them as to absent from them or if we resort to them we are so lukewarm in them that we profit little or nothing under them Instead of * 1 Thess 5.13 Esteeming Thy Ministers very highly for their Works-sake we despise them too much and vilify them too often upon that account These are great and provoking Sins O LORD and who besides Thy patient Self could ever have born so long with us in them But yet I have more and more hainous Sins to confess unto Thee which multitudes amongst us most Blessed GOD commit against Thee For many are guilty of horrid Atheism They do not only say in †Psal 14.1 their Hearts there is no GOD but profess and contend for it and maintain it in their Discourse Notwithstanding they are Baptiz'd into the Faith of Thy SON they doubt of thy Being and dispute against it O Heavenly Father Many are guilty of abominable Idolatry The Glory which is due to Thee alone they superstitiously give unto a meer Creature against the plainest sense and clearest Reason adoring even the Bread which themselves do eat Many are guilty of damnable Heresie and some allow not of Thy DIVINITY O Eternal and most Glorious JESUS But though Thou hast laid down Thy Life as a ‖ Mat. 20.28 Ransom for our Souls they wretchedly deny * 2 Pet. 2.1 the LORD that bought them Many are guilty of hideous Perjury They make light not only of common Swearing but of the Solemn Oaths of GOD upon them They count them such sorry and trifling Obligations as impiously to neglect the necessary Duties to which they are bound by those Sacred Ties And O LORD how lamentable must our case be when in this one miscarriage alone there is malignity enough to make †Jer. 23.10 a Land to mourn Many are guilty of most filthy Pollutions Thou feedest them to the full and they assemble themselves by Troops in the ‖ Jer. 5.7 Harlots Houses Instead of * Gal. 5.24 crucifying the Flesh they †Ephes 4.19 work uncleanness with greediness and Adultery and ‖ 5.3 Fornication which should not once be named amongst Christians are matters of their common and continual Practice How shalt thou * Jer. 5.7 pardon us for this O LORD and what direful effects of thine Anger may we justly expect when for †Eph 5.6 these things sake the wrath of GOD cometh upon the children of Disobedience Many are guilty of high Injustice They oppress the Widow and wrong the Fatherless and instead of living righteously in the World they steal and they kill and addict themselves to Fraud and all manner of violence Many are guilty of Faction in the State Instead of being ‖ Rom. 13.1 subject to the higher Powers which are ordained of GOD and of * 1 Pet. 2.13 submitting themselves to every Ordinance of Man for the LORD's sake they are so †2 Pet. 2.10 presumptuous as to confront Government ‖ Jude 8. despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities Many are guilty of Schism in the Church Instead * Eph. 4 3. of keeping the Unity of the SPIRIT in the bond of peace of being of one †Act. 4.32 heart and of one Soul of ‖ Rom. 15.6 glorifying GOD with one mind and with one mouth they have sowed Dissentions and have caused Divisions they have invaded the Ministry and seduced thy People drawing them away into divers Sects by dangerous Separations Many are Guilty of Gluttony and Drunkenness Instead of eating and drinking to thy * 1 Cor. 10.31 Glory O GOD they do it continually to their own great shame and to thy dishonour And notwithstanding the many and great Obligations upon them to Sobriety they abuse themselves and the good Creatures Thou vouchsafest them to most brutish Intemperance and Excess And which mightily aggravates all our sins so deadly in themselves they have been acted directly against Knowledg and Conscience We can plead no Ignorance O LORD in excuse of our Enormities For Thy word from Heaven hath taught us plainly and told us aloud that we †2 Cor. 5.10 must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ That ‖ Rom. 6.23 the wages of Sin is Death That there shall be * Rom. 2.9 tribulation and anguish upon every Soul of Man that doth evil That except we †Luk. 13.3 repent we shall all perish That the Wicked shall go into ‖ Mat. 25.46 everlasting Punishment But all this and whatever else should have hindred us from sin through our own perverseness hath but heightned our Guilt Nor have we sinned only against strongest Convictions but with greatest Boldness We have boasted of our Lewdness we have bragged of our Baseness and have been ready to defend if not to applaud it Our Immoralities and Irreligion have fac'd the Sun and instead of concealing them we have gloried in them And as thus we have offended the upright and virtuous so the vitious we have encourag'd to do like our selves Nor are our Sins few O LORD that have been thus hainous For they are greatly multiplied as well as scandalous and are not more notorious than innumerable * Jer. 5.9 Shall not GOD visit for these things shall not His Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Here rest again and by reflecting and ruminating on the Nation 's Sins raise your Sorrow for them as high as you can And to help to increase it use these Petitions LORD make mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears to weep for the Transgressions of this sinful Nation Let mine †Lam. 1.16 20. Eye run down with Water O GOD and let my Bowels be troubled because this People have so grievously rebelled We have ‖ Ps 106.6 sinned with our Fathers we have committed iniquity we have done wickedly for this let mine * Lam. 2.11 19. Eyes flow with Tears and let me pour out my heart like Water before the face of Thee O LORD I have contributed too much to the Sins of this Land which call for Vengeance inable me Good GOD to help to drown that hideous Cry with holy Mourning If Sorrow swells to such a rate as to debilitate or dispirit you then once more
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
as being nearer to the common Sentient and so to the Soul her self Now let us but suppose and the Supposition is very easy that the Blessed SPIRIT can so influence the Soul and so possess her with ravishing Delights which we call Comforts as wholly to take her up and divert her from attending to what the Body suffers and this must be one mighty Alleviation of pain if not a perfect Exclusion or Cure of it For what better Anodyne can there be than an absolute inanimadversion or non-reflection upon Evil than a compleat alienation or entire abstraction of the Mind from what should trouble it And then let us but suppose also as well we may that the same good SPIRIT can imprint such delicate Motions upon the curious Fibres of all the Nerves in the Brain as shall produce strong divine Joys and Pleasures and that these fine Motions may be so brisk and vigorous as to continue in spite of all contrary Impressions tho' never so forcible made by any Violence on other parts of the Filaments of those Nerves and the great Work we speak of is intelligibly done upon the holy Sufferers For thus we may readily and fairly apprehend how all sense of Pain should be drowned in them and how their Souls might swim in deep Consolations when their Bodies were sinking under the Executioner's hands Not that we suppose tho that the SPIRIT 's influence upon Martyrs was ever so strong and vigorous as to leave no room or occasion for their Faith Love Patience and the like divine Graces to act in for their better Support and Comfort NOTE VI. Pag. 169. AND the Chief Reasons of it are Two First Because the evil Spirit with whom they are in Covenant may be delighted with the Steams of humane Blood And for a like reason they haunt Church-yards more than other Places and appear most frequently where the Dead are interred So Origen tells Celsus pretty often how the Daemons were gratifi'd with the Steams of those bloody Sacrifices which were offered to them and how they were greedily desirous of them Which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lickorishness of Carnal Devils And that they are strangely desirous of the Blood of Mankind and delighted with it is evident from the Complaints which the Devil us'd to make amongst his Devotoes in America For oftentimes when he appeared to them he would tell them he was thirsty meaning for Peoples Blood And then his Priests would urge their Kings to offer up store of Captives to their Gods lest poor things they should die for want of refreshment And as when they had no Captives they would go out on purpose to fight and take some so when they had plenty they would offer them most freely killing them as Victims sometimes by hundreds in a Day To which we may add those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mactations of Men wherein Multitudes of old were sadly sacrific'd to heathen Deities And if the reekings of dead or dying Sacrifices were so grateful to them without all question the Nidours or Fumes exhaled from the Veins of People alive must be far more pleasing For being of an hotter and finer nature they may well yield them a brisker and more relishing Flavour Secondly Evil Spirits suck of those Wretches whom they draw into hellish Compacts with them that they may have opportunity of corrupting them by transfusing a pernicious Venom into them Of tincturing their Bodies with so vile a Malignity as will help to numm and stupify their Souls in their moral Capacity As shall fill them with Darkness and Blindness and Dulness and Deadness to all that is good and at the same time dispose them to every evil thing to which they shall think fit to excite and instigate them As to Anger Envy Malice Revenge the basest Obscenities and most barbarous Cruelties And when wicked Fiends by their noxious Breathings into People do so poyson their Souls as to pervert their Bodies no wonder that the HOLY GHOST who still countermines the Wicked One in all his Workings should by His Inspirations I mean His consolatory ones not only most heavenly affect our Souls but withal derive an healthful Temper to our Bodies And let me add by these Consolations our Bodies may be so raised and improved as in some measure perhaps to advance towards the Adamical Crasis or Original Constitution They may approach as near as readily they can do to that excellent Temper which the Protoplasts at first were happy in Whereby it may sometimes happen tho' but seldom that they may not only attain to perfect Health which otherwise they might not have acquired but possibly may rise a step higher and gain such a balsamic Quality to themselves as may inable them to preserve Health in others and also such an healing Virtue as may inable them to restore Health to those about them that are commonly or continually with them I mean by salutary Perspirations or sanative Effluvia's which stream plentifully from them For as the Bodies of Men in high Distempers are so full of morbific Virulence or Malignity in themselves as to breathe out such store of contagious Emissions as will infect others with the like Diseases so they that are arrived at this excellent Temper and delicate Complexion of Body which sends forth these salutiferous and medicinal Exhalations may secretly and unperceivably derive Health as well as preserve it to those Persons with whom they frequently or constantly converse NOTE VII Pag. 292. COncerning this Mark there are several Opinions Some think 't was a Letter out of the Name Jehovah stampt upon his Forehead Others that it was a fierce and furious and truculent Aspect arising from the Checks and Gripes of his clamorous and tormenting Conscience And truly a wounded and accusing Conscience does often change the very Looks of people blasting the pleasant Air of their Faces where the Guilt is much inferior to Cain's Others think it was a constant trembling of all his Members especially of his Head join'd with a lamentable dejection of Countenance and so the Fathers conceive it to be And that Expression Gen. 4.12 insinuates as much a Fugitive and Vagabond shalt thou be The Hebrew words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify moved and agitated to which the Greek ones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answer tossed and discomposed Intimating that he was subject to strange kind of Motions and Agitations in his Body the judicial Effects of GOD's Malediction upon him for his Fratricide And the appearance of these tremulous Motions about him did import or rather indicate so much terror and trouble in himself and imprint so much Awe and Dread upon others that they durst not do by him as he did by his poor Brother lest by contracting the same Guilt they should incurr the same dismal Punishment FINIS THE CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE Usefulness of our Faculties and Passions What Religious Mourning is Two Sorts of it Public and Private The two Kinds of Private Mourning