of the World As also the Reason why good People are many times very willing to dye and of the inexcusableness and misery of those that are without God's Favour and whence it is that some grow in Grace more than others and are more earnest for a share in God's Love p. 207. CHAP. XIII Shewing that the Favour of God is diligently to be sought and what is to be done that we may obtain it p. 228. CHAP. IV. That we ought to take heed that we do not lose the Favour of God after we have once enjoyed it and what we are to do that we may not fall into a condition so miserable as this would be p. 241. CHAP. V. Of Assurance and of the false Grounds from which many are apt to conclude That they are God's Favourites when they are not so p. 263. CHAP. VI. Shewing by what means we may know whether we have God's favour or not And first by the Graces of his Spirit tho the acting of them is neither so strong nor so comfortable at one time as another And secondly by our hatred of sin and our being satisfied with all the Providences of God p. 275. CHAP. VII Of several other ways whereby a sense of God's favour may be preserved in our souls and how we may certainly know that we are in that happy state p. 294. CHAP. VIII Of the several Privileges that belong to those who have God's favour p. 309. The Contents of the Third Part. CHAP. I. OF the many miseries of this Mortal Life that are the usual occasions of sorrow to the sons of Men with respect both to their Bodies and their Souls p. 317. CHAP. II. Shewing that the Fall of Adam was the Cause of all our Miseries and in how excellent a condition the blessed Angels are and the folly of such as expect to meet with nothing in the World but what is easie and pleasant p. 331. CHAP. III. Of the Peculiar occasions of Weeping that good Christians have more than other Men. p. 338. CHAP. IV. Shewing what dreadful apprehensions a soul has that is under desertion and in several respects how very sad and doleful its Condition is from the Author 's own Experience p. 352. CHAP. V. Answering some Objections and of the further doleful state of a deserted soul and whence it is that God is pleased to suffer a very tempestuous and stormy night to come upon his Servants in this World p. 370. CHAP. VI. Shewing whence it is that Melancholly People love solitariness and whence it is that serious persons are not so light in their Conversations as others are with some Inferences deducible from the foregoing Doctrine as also some advices to those who have never been deserted and to such who are complaining that they are so p. 381. CHAP. VII Of the great joy that fills a soul when the sense of God's favour returns to it after having been long in darkness and that this is great in several respects as it was unexpected as it discovers God to be reconciled and gives the mourner an Interest in Christ by Faith through the Influence of the Holy Spirit It revives his Graces delivers him from the Insulting of the Devil and shews the soul irs right to the Promises p. 393. CHAP. VIII Of the further Properties of the Jâ—â—y that comes to a Soul after long desertion 'T is Irr sistible 't is usually Gradual it revives the Body and the Natural Spirits It fills the late Mourner with the hope of Glory and causes him to express his delight to others From all which we may justly admire the Wisdom of the Divine Providence p. 408. CHAP. IX Of the different ends that God hath in the Afflictions of the Good and the Wicked and what Reason we have to be reconciled to his Providence And that we must be satisfied that God carry us to Heaven in his oven Way and Method p. 421. CHAP. X. The Conclusion of the whole Treatise with Directions to such who have been formerly in the darkness of a sorrowful Night and now enjoy the Light of Day p. 427. A DISCOURSE Concerning TROUBLE of MIND AND THE DISEASE of MELANCHOLY PART I. PSAL. XXX 5. For his anger endureth but a moment in his favour is life weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning The INTRODUCTION THE Miseries under which the whole race of Men have now for a long time groaned and under which they still groan are owing to the Fall of Man The day on which our first Parents complied with the temptation of the Devil was a mournful day to them and in its effects no less sad to us It filled their once pure and quiet hearts with trouble and disorder and made them unable to think of their great Creator with delight It intercepted those chearful and comfortable beams of his Love which were more satisfying to them than all the glories of the lower Paradise For tho' it did after the Fall abound with all the same natural refreshments with the same Rivers Herbs Trees and Flowers yet it was to them no more a Paradise No Musick could delight their sense when they heard a terrible voice from God summoning them to answer for their Crime no objects could please their eyes when they saw the Clouds thickning over their heads and dreadful frowns in the face of their mighty-Judge All the Creatures could minister nothing to their ease or safety when the great Creator was against them From their Apostacy we may derive all our miseries both the pains and sicknesses that afflict our Bodies and the fears and terrors that overwhelm our Souls Our Bodies are liable to a Thousand calamities that may be both long and sharp but how long and how sharp soever they be they do not altogether give us such a sensible and such lively grief as we have when we are under distresses of Conscience and when we are under a sense of the Wrath of God that is due to us for Sin There are many persons who endeavour by all the Rules of Art to give relief and help against the mischiefs that attend our Bodies but which after all their Art will go into the Grave and there are as many that by the Duty of their Office and the Character they bear are obliged to imitate their Saviour To preach good tidings to the meek and to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound Isa 61.1 But they are many times at a loss to know what Remedies to apply to these inward and spiritual Diseases and always unable to make their applications successful unless God himself by his Almighty Power Create Peace and turn that Chaos and those Confusions under which a poor troubled Soul is buried into the joy and light of day It pleases the Wife God that may make us serve to what uses he thinks most convenient for the good of the Universe and the welfare
our sins have made the Spirit that only can teach us how to pray to retire but there are some Considerations that may support us even in so sad a case as this 1. Our Distress teaches us the Folly of our Sin and causes us to hate that which has cost us so very dear and it is well for us that we see the odiousness of it tho it be smart and pain that opens our eyes 'T is better to be wounded in order to a cure than to dye at ease and so to perish for evermore 2. The Spirit is not so withdrawn but that he will return upon our-earnest addresses for his Grace He hovers still about us and tho we did ill to shut him out before yet this blessed Guest does but wait for a favourable opportunity to do us good again He is not quite gone that sense which we have of Sin is his own work 3. Our indisposition to the Duty of Prayer is no sign that we are void of Life A bed-rid Person lives as well as one that is in his firm and pleasant Health a groan is a sign of Life as well as laughter and a merry Song It is very undesirable indeed to have such a feeble and decaying life but the way to make it more strong is to keep our Souls in exercise and the weak and creeping motion wherewith we stirred at first being continued will enable us to tread with a more steady foot and we shall get several Paces further in a very little while By praying tho it be in a very poor manner we shall learn to pray Tho we do but sigh after God yet even a sigh may a little ease us and by frequent use be turned into a loud and prevailing Cry God is still your Creator and he that hears the Ravens and the young Lions when they roar for meat will not be deaf to you 4. 'T is a more excellent state of Soul to pray to God and to persevere in it when you have no Comfort than when you have Sensible Consolation is a very desirable thing 'T is as the Dew of Heaven as Manna coming thence like Honey or the Honey-Comb very pleasant to the taste But a Dependance and Trust in God when he is a withdrawing-God is one of the most glorious Acts of Faith and if it be not treated with Feasts and splendid Entertainments here I can assure you nay God himself has assur'd you That it shall fare very well in the next world Sensible Consolation may be in the inferior nature as the Mystical People call it it may be occasioned by the Temper of the Body by the Harmony of the Passions or the agreeable Dispositions of the Natural Spirits but those other less pleasant acts are seated in the highest Region of the Soul in the Understanding and the Will and upon that account are more truly Spiritual and more abiding 5. Those poor troubled people that complain of their deadness and incapacity to manage the Duty of Prayer ought to consider what an influence their fears have had upon their bodies fear does naturally contract and dull the heart the motions of it are weak and languid despairing thoughts and apprehensions about our Everlasting State dry up our moisture and by cutting off our hopes make every thing that was pleasant to us to wither away and 't is a very hard matter for the Soul to retain its heat and warmth when its dear Companion the body does not assist it as it used to do when the Spirits with which it serves it self in so many several actions are stagnated into a feeble and almost undiscerned motion Some great Saints there have been who by a sort of Holy Anteperistasis have glowed in their hearts with a quicker Flame to God when all has been cold and storm round about them Some there have been who have never had more inward Health than when their outward man decayed and whose souls seem'd manifestly to thrive when their bodies were mouldring away but generally speaking the Neighbourhood or the nearness of a sickly body proves a great clog and hindrance to the mind and there is no question but God will make allowances for our weakness and the groaning after him by one under the power of a Disease may be as grateful to him as a long continued Prayer by one in Heath Pray therefore to God tho it be with heaviness tho it be mingled with many a bitter sigh yet it will be a payment of that homage which you owe to God and you know not how soon you may meet with a gracious return You may kneel down in sorrow and he may lift you up with Joy and say Be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee And I know that would be very welcome and pleasant news to you the news of a Kingdom to be your own would not be half so refreshing Obj. 2. It is not for me to pray I am Sinner enough already God knows and would you have me aggravate my Guilt for I have wandring Thoughts and an unbelieving heart I am a wicked person and the prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord Prov. 28.9 And therefore to what purpose should I pray If any man indeed break with contempt the Laws of God and then think to make satisfaction by his Prayers and an outward or a pompous Devotion he offers an affront to the All-knowing God and his holy Eye cannot look upon an Action so criminal without the greatest disdain and scorn If a man will Swear and Curse and Damn himself with one breath and then desire God to bless him with the next this would be a ridiculous Pretence to Religion and such are like to find severe Punishment from that God whom they abuse with so shameless a Confidence and of whom they speak with so little Reverence If a man should desire of God to help him to rob to plunder or to wrong his Neighbours this were as far as he could to make the Holy One of Israel a partner in his Crimes If a man should kill another unjustly and glut himself with Revenge and then as some have exprest it say Grace over his bloody Banquet this were to commit a double Wickedness It was an abominable thing when so many harmless Protestants were so barbarously Butcher'd in France to sing Te Deum at Rome for the Massacring so many poor Creatures as if the God of Mercy had been Cruel as well as they as if the Rage that came from Hell had descended from the God of Love As if a man that lives at the Prince's Charge and is maintained at his Table should break the most Venerable Laws of his Kingdom and then thank the Prince for giving him a power to do that which he knows he detests and hates There is no question but it is the Duty of a wicked man to pray to God I suppose there is none thinks Simon Magus a very good man and yet he was exhorted
the Spices to flow forth he excites and quickens our Graces when they begin to languish and when we are lukewarm and cold he makes us to be lively and fervent in the performance of our holy Duties for as one says what the Soul is to the Body to move it to natural things to breathe to eat to walk and the like the same is the Spirit of God in our Souls to move us to spiritual actions as the fear of God love to him and trust in him and all the works of Righteousness Charity Humility Patience and Sobriety that are the motions of the new creature so that we may say of this Spirit that he is the Soul of our Souls and take away this Spirit and the Soul resembles a dead Body it has no zeal for God no compunction no tenderness When we are disconsolate one kind look from God makes us to be of good chear When our hearts are benumb'd and our Eyes are dry he melts them into tears with his Love When we are unfruitful he sends his Dew upon our branches that makes us to flourish in his Courts and to look fresh and green and when we are under Spiritual decays he causes us to thrive when we backslide he heals our backslidings he brings us through the great Mediator into a nearness to and acquaintance with himself For as far as we are distant from him so far are we removed from true and real Life When we wander he recals us he sends us fresh influences and establishes our goings when our motions are like those of a wounded body very faint and tottering 3. Eternal Life is in his favour Hence it is said That Eternal life is the gift of God Rom. 6.23 Psal 16.11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence it fulness of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore It is there that they are said to see God for the sight of his face is that which makes it to be such a glorious and delightful place His Wrath is that which kindles Hell the withholding of his Favour makes it to be such a dark and gloomy Dungeon and the clear manifestation of it does make all the Glories of the Coelestial Paradise And therefore Jacob when he had a Vision of God's Favour to him said This place is no other than the gate of Heaven Gen. 29.17 Frame not to your selves a gross and a material Happiness 't is all in the Love and Favour of God To see him fills all the Souls above with ineffable delight to be deprived of this blessed privilege fills all the Souls in misery with Mourning and Lamentation To his Saints God will be all in all his Communications will be entire and full there Lettres de Monsieur Claude p. 10. †As the Creatures are of divers orders every one receives its portion of Divine Favour different from that of others He communicates himself otherwise to the Heavens than to the Earth otherwise to an Angel than to a Man The Earth hath an Image of his firmness the Sun hath an image of his beauty the Heaven an image of his immensity and so in others but there is no Creature that has assembled in it self all the beams of the Communications of God It shall be otherwise in Paradise God shall be all things in the Saints and they shall be filled with his Favour And as he further says God is not so all in all in the Faithful here the troubles of our Conscience the weakness of our Faith the languors of our Devotion the shadows of our Knowledge our Sins our Miseries our Sickness and our Death are the fruits of the Fall and of the Malice of the Devil But in that Felicity there shall be nothing of US in us nothing of the Impression of the Devil All shall be of God our Shadows shall be swallowed up by his Light and our Weakness by his power It is a state of Glory and Glory is a mixture of all the Blessings of God in a degree Sovereignly perfect That Country that is above is indeed the Land of the Living they Live and shall never Dye But this Earth is a Region and a place of Death For beside that which is Natural the most part of men are dead in Sin and truly even those that are alive have but a weak and a fainting Life There it is that that the Saints shall be admirers of the Grace and Favour of God That after various difficulties and innumerable temptations and overwhelming fears did at last bring them to that happy Place For the poor trembling Saint that thought himself cast off and forsaken of God to find himself in his Arms in his Presence in his Heaven how great will his joy and praise be How will he ascribe all his life there to the meer Favour and Grace of God that shall set him at liberty when by his many Sins he had deserved to be bound in Eternal Chains That shall cause him to sing Hallelujahs when others weep and wail for ever How will he admire that Grace that has placed him in Heaven when so many others are in Hell And the more admire when he shall consider that this distinction of States was freely made That that Crown which will adorn his Head was freely given How will every look on God fill his Soul with a wondring Joy because he freely gave his Son How will every view of Christ encrease his wonder When he shall consider that he freely undertook the kind work of his Redemption that he freely shed his Blood and paid the debt which the Sinner himself could never pay and that he freely gave the Spirit and offered that Salvation upon easy terms without money and without price which cost him very dear All the Saints above will continually adore the Riches of his Grace that admitted them to Glory when they deserved to be shut out as well as others That they were deformed till he put his comeliness upon them That they were liable to Death till he justified them and polluted in their Natures till he renewed them and dying till he made them to live That they learned nothing but what he taught them had nothing but what he gave them did nothing but what he enabled them to do So that all must be wonderful in their Eyes from the beginning of God's design for their Salvation to the conclusion of it And when it is all finished they must with loud Praises sing Grace Grace By Grace ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God Eph. 2.8 First No common Mercy yields any Comfort without the Favour and Love of God His loving-kindness is better than life Psal 63.3 If a man have all that he can wish every thing that is splendid and delightful every thing that may please his Eye or gratify his Appetite if he have not this with the Love of God he is a Miserable man For this will mingle
or some particular thing that is most precious which Expression calls us to meditate on the infinite tenderness of God's Love to men For a man does not love any thing so much as that which is his own he looks upon other things in which he has no propriety with an indifferent and unconcerned eye even the stately Glories of a Palace do not affect him with so great a joy as the Little Conveniences of his own unobserved Cottage because it is his own And further a Seal often carries the Arms of him whose Seal it is or the Image of some great Person so the work of the Spirit is to engrave in our hearts Faith Hope and Love these are the Ensigns of the New Covenant and form in us the Image of God which consists in Righteousness and Peace and Holiness God does not set this mark but upon those that are indeed his Favourites that by the tenderness and softness of their hearts are prepared to receive Impressions * Claude sur Eph. 4.30 p. 20. But in this matter we are in a great measure passive as the Wax receives the same marks that the Seal stamps upon it these are saving-works of the Spirit which I have mentioned whereas a great many common Gifts are bestowed upon those whom God abhors many a man may have Light enough to shew others the way to Heaven and yet never walk therein himself and he that was a Star in the Firmament of the Church on Earth may sit in darkness 1 Cor. 13.1 2 Thongh I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charity I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing You must under this Head observe these two things 1. Not to expect to be alike strong in every Grace 2. Not to have at all times the same Comforts 1. You must not expect to be a like strong in every Grace We ought to strive to be compleat to have all the pieces of our Christian Armour polish'd and fit for action and well fitted and put upon us but those parts where is the most danger of a Wound those parts where is the seat of Life we are principally to secure and guard So those Graces we are first of all to look after and to cherish which produce and keep the rest in vigour such as Faith and Repentance and Humility Tho' most certain it is that all Men even of those that are God's Favourites are not of the same stature nor the same strength nor have they as much skill in every Duty as it may be they have in one or two it is so ordered by the Holy Providence of God that all in Christ shall have Tribulations but very different many times from one another that so the different Grace that they are to exercise under their several Tryals may shine with a brighter Glory Thus of old Abraham was peculiarly eminent for his Faith Moses for his Meekness Job for his Patience All Believers by the Privileges with which they are invested are Stars but yet even here one Star differs from another Star in Glory As there are several gifts of the same Spirit that are all useful to the whole so the Graces that are wrought by him do according to his Soveraign pleasure produce several effects according to the subjects in which they are and many times are very much advanced or obstructed by a good or ill temper of the body Hence those that have a cholerick temper the fieriness of their natural spirits that upon every small occasion are apt to be enflamed does very much hinder that meekness and calmness which is one of the Graces of the holy Spirit and so others that are naturally tenacious and close and narrow-soul'd do many times smell too much even of these ill qualities when they are converted but it ought not to be so for if there be any particular sin to which we are more enclined by our constitution than to another we ought more industriously to set our selves against that sin 2. You must not expect a continuance of the same comforts at all times for the Spirit blows where he listeth and when he will Joh 3.8 Tho' the new Creature be formed in you by the Grace of God yet you cannot perceive its motions with so distinct a sense at one time as at another tho' by the intercession of Christ his Favourites are secured from a total and final Apostacy yet they may fall now and then and their Life seem to decline and a spiritual faintness come upon it and a very deep sorrow may cover and as it were bury your hopes and your joys but yet there is that vital Principle that shall not see corruption that seed of Grace that will now and then flourish with acceptable fruit Your Faith may in violent temptations be like the weak and undiscernable stirring of the soul when the body is in a Swoon the soul does seem for a while to be departed but after the spirits are refreshed it animates the whole body and exercises all the functions and offices of Life as it used to do When the Ship was most violently tost with a Tempest yet our Lord was there tho' the poor trembling Disciples thought he did not care whether they were lost or saved Thus Mary was drowned with Tears after his Resurrection and not finding him where she expected nor as soon she gave way to sorrow They have taken away the Lord says she Joh. 20.13 and I know not where they have laid him when the very person that she had then in view was the same dear Saviour and Friend that she long'd to see And when with great tenderness and familiarity he discovered himself and called her Mary then she full well knew that it was her Master and her poor drooping heart was filled with joy and transport She fell at his feet and kissed them God does not equally manifest his favour no not even to the same person who sometimes triumphs and sometimes is very desolate as the same vessel that is sometimes lifted up even as to Heaven it self by the rising and the swelling Waves is the next minute sinking to the bottom of the Sea and ready to be swallowed in the formidable depths tho' if we were duly prepared the face of our God would appear with as amiable an aspect at one time as at another for if any frowns be there our sins are the cause and because we are sinful 't is necessary for us now and then to weep as well as always to rejoice The Clouds and the Showers are as needful to the Earth as is the constant shine and the fairer weather Our Graces yield no delight to us till the Spirit actuate and enliven them till he blow upon the garden Cant. 4.16 the spices
order to Eternal Riches I am very well satisfied if I must be very low and contemptible and despised before I come to thee that lowness and that contempt shall be my real glory If during all the days of my Pilgrimage I must sow in Tears I will go on however for I know that I shall reap in joy If my corruptible Body must languish away in pain and my sinful Soul have its troubles too I will wait in hope and not repine or fret at thy Decree If I must be friendless here I will still prize thee as my best and Eternal Friend even when I am sorely opprest I will keep close to thee I will lay hold on thy Perfections on thy Covenant and on thy Promises and I will not let thee go till I be blessed This Favour of God causes a person to rejoice in him tho the Fig-tree do not blossom and when any dear Comfort any Relation is taken away by Death will make him say My God is better to me than Ten of these Comforts nay than many Thousands of them put together And tho he snatch from my Embraces what I most valued in this World yet he shall have my best affections my desire my love my delight as much as ever A Soul thus prepared to be quiet under the severest dispensations has Life in the Favour of God he has that Life that shall never expire but end in Eterâ—â—â— Life CHAP. VII Of several other ways whereby a sense of Gods favour may be preserved in our souls and how we may certainly know that we are in that Happy state V. IF you have this Favour of God you will desire the continuance of it above all other things and this will be both an evidence of your present sincerity and a means to convey to you a more pleasant sense of this favour In all outward actions as Prayer Hearing Giving to the Poor and the like there may be a very great resemblance between a true Christian and an Hypocrite but spiritual desires being the immediate off-spring of the soul are not liable to so many cheats and your desires after God will be very strong and earnest and produce powerful and sensible effects for they will be the fruit of a lively Faith and of an enlightned Understanding that sees the value of a God And this will render more strong the motions of your Souls for ignorance of him is the Mother of all feeble and languishing Desires Your breathings after him will be like Hunger and Thirst which are very uneasy to Nature and give us the most raging and eager Appetites and make us not well satisfied till they meet with their proper Gratifications Psal 42.1 2. As the heart 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 him Even as that poor Creature when 't is pursued with Hunters and greatly heated with its flight longs to be refresht with the cool Streams of Water so will you when harassed with the Temptations of the Devil and his malicious and most cruel Suggestions fly with haste to the Embraces and Arms of God longing and panting after him nay the warmth of your desires may be so great as that you will even as it were melt away in flaming Zeal Psalm 84.2 My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God And Psal 119.20 My soul breaketh for the longing it hath to thy commandments Hope deferred makes the heart sick Prov. 13.12 An eager desire of absent amiable Good raises an agreeable Sensation and somewhat of Disorder in the Natural Spirits they are heated and stirred up with more vigour through the vehemence with which they move tho this does very much abate their strength and occasion that which we call fainting Such is the Sympathy that the Soul hath with its dearest Body that when the Soul meets with an Object suitable it is filled with warm Affections and fills the Body either with sadder or more chearful Spirits as it finds reasons of Sadness or of Joy Tho these desires of holy Men after God do not always burn with an equal Flame for in Desertions in some very perplexing Difficulty or in great bodily Indisposition and Sickness they are damped and cannot usually be so quick so chearful and so sensible as at other times tho even then they may be very sincere and acceptable for in so gloomy a time one Groan that comes from an humble heart may go up to God in as grateful a manner as many long Prayers at another season And in your desires after his Favour you will have regard to these two things 1. You will remember what it was that once heightned your desires and endeavour by the same means to quicken them when they begin to languish You will often consider what perfection in God it was whether his Goodness his Mercy his Truth his unchangeable Faithfulness or the like or what promise in the Scripture or what Act of Providence towards you it was that warmed your hearts And apply your selves again to the same profitable methods you will often recollect what passages they were in Sermons that you heard or in the good Books that you read that gave you the first amiable Sense of God 2. You will carefully observe what it is that cools and damps your desires What Passion what worldly Pleasure what vain Company what foolish Hopes what tormenting Cares what enslaving Fears and avoid all these as much as in you lies You will avoid those Snares that intangled you those Tentations that have clipt your Wings and made you when you were soaring aloft to fall to this Earth again Whatever secret Sin it was that weakned your holy Breathing after God or what omission of Duty it was that estranged him from you and immediately begin to mortifie that Sin and to set upon that Duty tho when we have done all we can there will be a vast difference between what we are and what we ought to be between our longing and the most Glorious Object after which we are to long But do we find no more any pleasure in our old Lusts Do we find our Hearts dead to this deceitful World and to those Objects that once we called Amiable and to which we sacrificed our time our endeavours our morning and our evening Thoughts Do the things that heretofore we most admired now seem less elegible Does all that we called beautiful seem deformed when compared with God himself Can every one of us sincerely say to our most beloved Sins and to the enjoyments of this World I once indeed over-admired you but I will never do so again for ever I bid you all farwell never pretend to a share in my Affections for I have now found a better good I have long pursued you to no purpose now in finding God I have found a
cannot remedy and which to behold is very sad and by knowing a great deal is liable to abundance of contradiction and opposition from the more peevish and self-willed and ignorant part of mankind that are vex'd because he will not think and say as they do and they are very prone to censure and condemn the things they do not understand for it is most easie so to do whereas to pierce into the Reasons of things requires a mighty labour and a succession of deliberate and serious thoughts to which the nature of Man is averse And lazily and hastily to judge requires no trouble and were it not that it is a man's duty to know and that his soul if it have any thing of greatness and amplitude in its faculties cannot be satisfied without it it were a much safer and quiet course to be ignorant Study and painful enquiries after knowledg do oftentimes exhaust and break our spirits and prejudice our health and brings upon us those Diseases to which the careless and thinking seldom are obnoxious Eccles 1.13 14 15. I have seen all the works that are done under the Sun and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit that which is crooked cannot be made straight and that which is wanting cannot be numbred CHAP. II. Shewing that the fall of Adam was the cause of all our miseries and in how excellent a condition the blessed Angels are and the folly of such as expect to meet with nothing in the world but what is easie and pleasant Inf. 1. SEeing the life of man is a state of weeping what sin there must needs be in the fall of Adam that has provoked God so much as to send so many miseries upon his own Creatures Had mot he fallen we had always rejoyced and never mourned we had always sung the praises of God with delight and never have hang'd our harps upon the willows We should have always lived upon the food of Angels pure and Coelestial joys and not have had that bread of sorrows which we now have to feed upon We may justly cry out O Adam what was it that you did when you rafted the forbidden fruit Why did you ruin your self and us your helpless posterity in one day and by one Act you turned the pleasant world into a place of wo and made your self and us of free men to become prisoners of this Earth It was a sad day indeed that opened a Sluce to that vast Inundation of miseries that have from that time overwhelmed the lower world thence came storms and tempests wars and desolations and all the burdens under which we groan and which we cannot escape 'T is to this Spring that we may trace all our troubles Oh how happily how pleasantly might we have lived had we not Apostatiz'd And now we can only say Wo unto us for we have sinned and when any Plagues molest us can only say this is the fruit of our own choice this is the product of our own Iniquity Tho thanks be to God through the blood of Jesus Christ we have a way to escape at length from all those Plagues and Sins Inf. 2. Seeing this life is full of weeping how much more happy are the blessed Angels than we At the view of the Harmony and order of the Worlds Creation those Sons of the morning sang together it pleased them to see their Creator's glory so appear and they still continue to sing and praise him not a sad look has from that time to this clouded their faces not a troubled thought has possest their minds those holy Spirits are always joyful serene and undistutb'd they are not linkt to such bodies as we are and consequently not liable to so many thousand miseries A soul in flesh is forced to sympathize with its neighbour and companion the body and is altered or changed as to its joys and griefs according to the several objects that are suitable or disagreeable to that and yet our imbodied condition gives us some privileges of which the Angels being Spirits are not capable for by this means we can glorifie God by sufffering for him and by our patience in our several trials convert many to the faith of Christ which their Spiritual nature gives them no opportunity to do As long as we are united to the body so long must we expect to be afflicted and when this union is happily dissolved then does the time of our freedom and our pleasure come In the Resurrection we shall be as the Angels of God we shall not be busied in those perplexing and intricate affairs that now molest us We shall be like to them in vigor and activity and joy We shall have bodies indeed even then but such as will be spiritualized such as will not be capable of mourning and lamentation nor by their heaviness their pains and indispositions be any more an hindrance to the nimbler operations of our Souls and it should comfort us to think that one day we shall have such excellent Companions so knowing and so kind and loving as Angels are and that then we shall rejoice as well as they and with our common praise give our Great Creator an Eternal Hymn of Thanks Inf. 3. They have a wrong notion of the life of man that expect to find nothing in it but what is pleasant And who because now their mountain stands strong say with David That they shall never be moved Psal 30.6 7. How clearly soever their Sun now shines yet sooner or later storms and darkness will overtake them The day is coming that will cast a vail upon all their smiling glory and turn their laughter into mourning and lamentation For man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards Job 5.7 This world is as an Hospital or Lazaretto full of various miseries and calamities and therefore those that promise nothing to themselves but diversion and mirth and soft and easie pleasures labour under manifold mistakes which arise from these two Causes 1. VVant of Experience and Consideration Hence it is that young people and such as have lived but a little while are mightily taken with the sweetness and delight of life whereas those that have tried it some years longer find several crosses and disappointments and vexations in it and tho the morning of their day was clear yet they see many thick Clouds gather as the shadows of the Evening are drawing on It is nothing else but gross ignorance that occasions the loud and mad Triumphs of so great a part of the world for if they did but a little survey the condition of their suffering-neighbours and the weakness of their own bodies the uncertainty of their hopes and the vanity of their desires they would sit down and bewail their miseries and they would find their biggest joys to be confin'd with grief Or 2. It arises from this That they resolve not to disturb their present ease and pleasure with any mâ—urnful meditations They 'l shut their ears
enough Enter into thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee When it can reflect and think of him as its own portion then the sorrows and darkness of the Night are gone for it has God that is all light and with him is no darkness at all and to see the light and to possess it is the same thing There is as one observes a reflected and a direct Light I see Palaces and Mountains and Towns and Fields and Trees with a reflected Light and hence it is that I see them without possessing them but I see the light of the Sun and of the Stars by direct rays and in seeing them I possess for to rejoice in the light of the Sun and to possess it is the same thing We now see God indeed by a reflected light which comes to us from the Creatures and hence it is that all those that see him do not possess him but in Heaven God will be seen without Vails and Reflexions His light will be a direct light which will fill us throughout it was a comfort to the Patriarchs and holy men of old to have the hope of Christ's appearance they saw his day afar off and they rejoyced but how much more is it to that soul that has actually seen him come and not only spreading his beams to remove the general darkness of the world but shining with a peculiar light and heat into its self It is peculiarity that endears the most of things to us our own Friends our own Relations our own Joys are the most pleasant It is not from Christ's being singly considered as a Mediator that we derive this comfort but from the reflexion that we are able to make of our happiness in him it is that which creates the sweetest motions in our hearts Before this propriety there may be a calmness of spirit and lesser degrees of Complacency expressing themselves in love and hope and desire but 't is the actual possession of a good as our own that is the Parent of a real joy the Christian may find some comfort in beholding the Incarnation the Sufferings and the Promise of his second Coming but when the soul can say He died and rose again for me this touches it with a very lively satisfaction and makes it say as in Hab. 3.17 CHAP. VIII Of the further Properties of the Joy that comes to a Soul after long desertion 'T is Irresistible tho usually Gradual it revives the body and the natural spirits It fills the late mourner with the hope of Glory and causes him to express his delight to others From all which we may justly admire the Wisdom of the Divine Providence 7. THis Joy is Irresistible As all the darkness of the Night cannot hinder the approach of the welcome day so neither can all our doubts nor our fears nor all the horrors of the Night hinder the beams of God's favour when he is pleased to shine upon us Job 34.29 When he giveth quietness who then can make trouble Notwithstanding all the directions and the helps that our Ministers or our friends give us in our trouble we refuse to be comforted but when he speaks the word we must obey He creates the fruit of the lips peace peace and we can no more resist his Almighty power than the first Chaos could withstand his Command when in the Language of a God he spoke and said Let there be Light Our escape from our Spiritual troubles bears some proportion with the Resurrection of our Lord from the Dead as that was owing not to a power ordinary or created so neither is ours but to a power that is Coelestial and Divine It was not as * Claude Traite de Jesus Christ Liv. v. 12. one observes the effect of the Power of God in the ways of nature such as is the Rising of the Sun the Return of Seasons the Fruitfulness of the Earth but the effect of a power altogether Infinite and Supernatural it is not according to the usual Laws of Nature or the course of Ordinary Providence 8. This Joy is usually Gradual and not all at once I say usually for sometimes persons in great distress and agonies of soul have been suddenly relieved in their darkest Night and in the deepest Dungeon a great Light has shined upon them so that those that have one hour cried out they were damned and lost have the next triumphed in the hope of glory and from the fear of Hell have come to a glorious view of Heaven to their own exceeding comfort and the comfort of all that heard them But tho God may do what he pleases this is not his ordinary way as the Night comes and the Sun goes down by degrees so does the morning come and the Sun arise by the same degrees as it rarely happens that any fall into great distress of Conscience on a sudden some lesser afflictions make way for greater strokes so seldom are any comforted immediately but their comfort comes like the break of day there are some faint streaks of light some little supports and quiet hopes before the Sun arise And God in this accommodates himself to the weakness of our nature for a sudden passage from a great Affliction to a great Joy is a thing which our tender nature is hardly capable to bear and usually the Consciences of those that have been very long terrified and afflicted begin to be calm as the humours of the body that have been disordered return to their Ancient course for so long as the Spirits and the Blood are disordered so long the Soul will unavoidably be in some unpleasant agitation 9. This joy has a pleasant influence on the Body and revives that with the reviving mind they fall sick and droop and they recover and rejoyce together When God is our God it causes health in our Countenances as well as pleasure in our Hearts and though I know that abundance of poor people that have been long amazed with the fear of God's Wrath have very feeble sickly Bodies to the day of death yet this calmness and peace of mind does greatly mitigate their pains and pour Honey and Sweetness into the most bitter Cup For what is it that makes affliction in trouble of mind to be so intollerable but that the afflicted person looks upon it as the beginning of sorrows as a few drops before a more dreadful storm and as the introduction to hell and woe But when the sting of guilt is removed and sin is pardoned the yoak sits very easie on their shoulders that used to gall them before Prov. 15.13 A merry bea rt maketh a chearful countenance Joy as well as grief cannot be dissembled if it be real and very strong Joy in the Heart is like the Rain at the Root of the Grass it will after being moistned to the bottom appear much more green and flourishing Prov. 17.22 A merry heart doth good like a medicine Even that chearfulness which arises
Constitution but are so happy as to have a sound Mind and Body both at once 'T is not with relation to such that I write this Preface but for such as are under a deep and a rooted Melancholly And to the Friends of such I think it is very necessary to give the following Advices First Look upon your distressed Friends as under one of the worst Distempers to which this Miserable Life is obnoxious Melancholly seizes on the Brain and Spirits and incapacitates them for Thought or Action it confounds and disturbs all their thoughts and unavoidably fills them with anguish and vexation of which there is no resemblance in any other Distemper unless it be that of a Raging Fever I take it for granted and I verily believe I say nothing but what is true When this ugly Humour is deeply fixed and hath spread its Malignant Influence over every part 't is as vain a thing to strive against it as to strive against a Fever or a Plurisie the Gout or the Stone which are very grievous to Nature but which a man by resolution and the force of briskness and courage cannot help One would be glad to be rid of such oppressing things but all our striving will not make them go away And of all the Inconveniences of Melancholly The want of sleep which it usually brings along with it is one of the worst It is very reviving to a man that is in pain all the day to think that he shall sleep at night but when he has no prospect nor hope of that for several nights together oh what confusion does then seize upon him he is then like one upon a rack whose anguish will not suffer him to rest by this means the Faculties of the Soul are weakned and all its Operations disturbed and clouded and the poor Body languishes and pines away at the same time And this Disease is more formidable than any other because it commonly last very long It is a long time before it come to its height and usually as long ere it decline again and all this long season of its continuance is full of fear and torment of horror and amazement It is in every respect sad and overwhelming it is a state of darkness that has no discernable beams of Light 'T is as a Land of darkness on which no Sun at all seems to shine It does generally indeed first begin at the Body and then conveys its venom to the Mind and if any thing could be found that might keep the Blood and Spirits in their due temper and motion this would obstruct its further progress and in a great measure keep the Soul clear I pretend not to tell you what Medicines are proper to remove it and I know of none I leave you to advise with such as are learned in the Profession of Physick and especially to have recourse to such Doâ—tors as have themselves felt it for it is impossible fully to understand the nature of it any other way than by Experience and that Person is highly to be valued whose endeavours God will bless to the removal of this obstinate and violent Disease And as old Mr. Greenham says * In his Comfort for Afflicted Consciences p. 137. There is a great deal of wisdom requisite to consider both the state of the Body and of the Soul If a man saith he that is troubled in Conscience come to a Minister it may be he will look all to the Soul and nothing to the Body if he come to a Physician he considereth the Body and neglecteth the Soul for my part I would never have the Physician 's Counsel despised nor the Labour of the Minister negected because the Soul and Body dwelling together it is convenient that as the Soul should be cured by the Word by Prayer by Fasting or by Comforting so the Body must be brought into some temperature by Physick and Diet by harmless Diversions and such like ways providing always that it be so done in the fear of God as not to think by these ordinary means quite to smother or evade our Troubles but to use them as preparatives whereby our Souls may be made more capable of the spiritual Methods that are to follow afterwards Secondly Look upon those that are under this woful Disease of Melancholly with great pity and compassion And pity them the more by considering that you your selves are in the body and liable to the very same trouble for how brisk how sanguine and how chearful soever you be yet you may meet with those heavy Crosses those long and painful and sharp Afflictions which may sink your spirits Many that are far from being naturally inclined to Melancholly have been accidentally overwhelmed with it by the loss of Children by some sudden and unlooked for disappointment that ruines all their former Projects and Designs O let every groan that you hear from persons so afflicted deeply affect your hearts and never look upon them but with a compassionate and a concerned eye never look upon them but make this use to your selves Man at his best Estate is altogether vanity Let it wean you from the world when you see that by such a Disease as this a man is quickly taken off of all his business and unfit to manage his Affairs or to pursue his former most delightful work Melancholly is a complication of violent and sore Distresses t is full of miseries 't is it self a fierce Affliction and bring to our Thoughts and to our bodies one Evil fast upon another Any other Distemper may trouble us but this does astonish and amaze O look upon your Friends in this case with great tenderness for they alas are wounded both in Soul and Body and in all the world there are none for the time in so doleful a state as they They are usually walking as in the midst of Fire and Brimstone and most frequently under the very pangs of death and the pains of Hell in great bodily danger and in no less spiritual Calamity Their Burthen is very often heavier than their groaning their sighs are deep their hearts are sunk their minds are in a slame and they are fallen very low They are thinking on what is sad and frightful and they cannot banish those Idea's that are so terrible If you saw a person wounded and torn and mangled on the High-Way the sight of so deplorable an Object would fill you with compassion the sight of your Friends under this Disease which I am now speaking of ought much more to move you for it is every moment tearing them to pieces every moment it preys upon their Vitals and they are continually dying and yet cannot dye When you visit a Melancholly person make this Reflection This Friend of mine awhile ago rejoyced in the love of God as I do he met with me in Holy Assemblies and sung the Praises of the Most High with as pleasant a countenance with as chearful an heart as I and now he
Sickness and Recovery I trust that God that hath given you as it were a resurrection from the dead hath designed you for more than ordinary work in your Generation Your Deliverance and Salvation has been extraordinary and t is more than probable that so must your After-work be God who gives to his Servants the Talents of Gifts or Graces will find imployment for them answerable unto the same I long to see something you hint in your Epistle before your Book about your spiritual Conflict under your bodily Affliction It will be I hope of use to all tender afflicted Consciences I have blessed the Lord on your behalf for his signal favour shown you in your wonderful recovery And shall pray to God for you That he will please to continue your life health and opportunities to you that you may be eminently useful in your Ministerial Capacity for his Name Your dear Parents would have rejoyced if they had been alive to have heard and seen the fruits of your Labours Dear Sir though I am a little straitned for time at present yet my heart is inlarged towards you wishing you all health and happiness in this World and in the next Eternal Felicity I am Dear Sir Your unfeigned Well-wisher and Servant GEO. NICHOLSON From Hudleskeugh in Cumberland Apr. 17. 1691. LETTER VI. Dear Sir IT was your signal happiness to be deeply writ upon the hearts of many of God's praying Servants when in your own apprehension you seemed as if you had been cast out of God's heart And I heard some when you were at your lowest ebb express their saith and hope That God was but preparing you by those afflictive Methods for more eminent Service And now it cannot but greatly rejoice me to see such blooming appearances of the Issue answering both their Prayers and Hopes Ministers of all Persons had need to set up upon a good stock of Experience spiritual and useful Experience And no School more proper to improve us in that kind than the School of Affliction which made Luther sometimes say That Affliction Temptation and Prayer were the three Things that made a Minister And hence it is that God in his wise and holy Providence many times puts his Servants to School under the preparatory Pedagogy of Affliction whom he designs for more than ordinary usefulness When we enter upon the service of Souls we know not what Cases may occur to require our wise and tender management And a Scribe cannot be better instructed for the Kingdom of God than when he has felt in himself what he meets with in others When we have been brought to the mouth of the Pit our selves and there have been conscious to the thoughts and fears and workings of our own hearts we can better tell how to minister proper applications to others in the like condition When we have our selves been toss'd upon the tumultuous waves of temptation and one deep has call'd to another to put the greatest discouragement upon our condition we are the better furnish'd to speak a word in season to others under the like circumstances Every Storm weathered furnishes the Pilot with more dextrous skill not only to work his own Vessel in succeeding Tempests but to be singularly helpful to others when they fall into the like depths and Straits Our Blessed Lord himself learned experience by the things which he suffered And if he must be put to School to lead him into a practical experience of what he was to pity and help in others How much more is it requisite in such poor unskilful Creatures as we A Wise and Holy God has been hewing you upon the dark Mountains and I hope it has been to make you a more expert and polite Pillar in his Sanctuary And the more workmanship he has bestowed upon you the more eminent Station probably he designs for you God works his greatest works many times in the dark and forms his most curious Pieces in the gloomy shades of Adversity so that neither our selves nor others can tell what he is a-doing till he hath accomplish'd his Work He throws us into the Furnace Lead or Iron and for a long time no body can tell what he will make of us Sometimes he looks as if he would consume and make an utter end of us And yet at last he brings us forth as Gold We go into the Fire light and foolish and frothy and when he has melted and tried us what time he sees meet he brings us forth serious holy and gracious Souls When we thought we should have lost Life and Soul and All we have lost nothing but our dross and feculency to make us more refined for Temple-service When you seriously reflect upon your by-past days of trouble whatever thoughts you had then yet I hope now you can say through grace that God has made you no loser but a blessed gainer by that gloomy dispensation And what wisdom and grace and experience you have obtained I pray God you may be helped humbly to imploy in his Holy Sanctuary We should labour to diffuse a more shining and burning Light when God has been trimming us from our dross and filth and has set us up again in his Temple-Candlestick God has been dressing and trimming you a long time and after a long and dismal time of complicated afflicton he has restored you to your station in the Assemblies of his People Now the good Lord make both your gifts and graces so much the more resplendent not only for your own sake but also that you may minister the more light and warmth to others in their way to glory You promise a Second Volume of Discourses giving account of the spiritual part of your Affliction which I shall be very glad to see as soon as your leisure will permit you to make it publick In the mean time I commend you to God and to the riches of his Grace in hopes that what God has done for you is but a pledge of what he designs to do by you To which I shall only add my earnest Prayers and tell you That it is in all sincerity SIR Your affectionate Fellow-labourer in the Work of the Gospel THO. WHITAKER Leeds Nov. 25. 1690. LETTER VII SIR I Do now at last return you my hearty thanks for your Book ........................ I should not have been thus far behind in expressing my gratitude but that I have been hindred by weakness ........................ It was a Book to me both seasonable and suitable I pray God it may be as well improv'd as 't is generally liked by Christians If I were to give an account of my Visitation it would in very many things correspond with yours I have been for some years past under an Hypochondraical evil habit of body which has had many grievous Symptons attending it viz. Vertigo's Convulsions Paralytick Effects with a Fever thought to be Hectical and with it I have had an universal languor and decay of Spirits together with
according to his own promise it will shew us by a delightful manifestation the period and conclusion of God's Design and cause us not to judg of his works by the first rough and less amiable draught Faith will shew us That Anger and Love may very well consist together and that the ruder blows that make us groan and sigh may be to polish and to fit us for his Heavenly Temple This will hold us up when our sense is puzzled and our feet are like to slide it sets before our eyes not only the first corrections that are painful to the flesh but the end of the Lord and that he is Jam. 5.11 very pitiful and of tender mercy It shews us the Justice and Equity of God's proceedings that there is nothing in them but what is highly reasonable and necessary even when they seem to be severe That they are needful to keep us from wandring and to prevent our sleeping the sleep of Death And that those heavy Crosses that tire and weary our Spirits may be sent to promote our Eternal Rest And that the deepness of our Groans here may cause us hereafter to sing louder Hallelujahs 3. Faith will greatly help us as it both discovers and fortifies us against the Power of Satan and his Wiles tho these designs of his are invisible and so very little known and yet the more dangerous for being so In those doleful Troubles that I my self have experienced in all those terrible Reflections and overwhelming Fears I was not sensible of any Agency of Evil Spirits but that all my Thoughts and my Fears were the product of my own mind though I am now apt to believe That some of those strange Thoughts that I now and then had of God and those sudden Terrors that pierced my Soul must have had in them something of the Cruelty and Malice of Satan they were so very terrible I do verily believe That people do very much wrong both the Devil and melancholly people in calling the unavoidable effects of their disease the temptations of Satan and the Language of that disease a compliance with them They do both ascribe to the Devil a greater power than he hath and vex the diseased person more than they need to do For tho' I do not question but that Evil Spirit through the permission of God is the Cause of many painful sicknesses that come upon our Bodies yet there are also many such that are the result of a disordered motion of the natural Spirits and in which he hath nothing at all to do But as 't is the Common Custom of Cruel and Barbarous persons to set upon the weak and to trample on those that are already thrown down so 't is very frequent for the Devil to take occasion from our bodily indispositions to attack and molest our Spirits which are bereaved even of that force which they used to have when the House in which they dwelt was at ease and free from those disabilities that they are always under at such seasons For 't is then night with us and in the night those Beasts of prey do range abroad which kept their dens during the brightness of the day but however it be whatsoever agency there is of Evil Spirits in our troubles either upon our understandings our passions or our imaginations this Grace of Faith will unveil their designs and baffle all their Stratagems Ephes 6.16 Above all take the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of Satan And that this is so very necessary appears by Luke 22.31 32. Satan hath desired to winnow you as wheat but I have prayed that thy faith fail not There is nothing against which that Engineer of Hell levels his Batteries with a greater fury there is nothing can lay us open to greater danger than either downright unbelief or the weakness of our Faith And Faith not exercised is like Weapons of War lying by us they rust and are no way serviceable For whilest this remains in exercise we persevere in our Watch and the God whom it shews us looking on comes to our assistance in every time of need as also does that Redeemer who has Conquered the Devil by his Death and Resurrection and at whose glorious name those Evil Spirits tremble and are afraid IV. Faith will greatly help us under the apprehensions of God's displeasure as it leads us to the consideration of Christ as Crucified See Dr. Owen on Psal 130. p. 279. It is easie indeed to learn the notion of Faith but a thing of more difficulty to experience the efficacy and the power of it For a Man to have a sight of that within him which would condemn him and for which he is troubled and at the same time to have a discovery of that without which will justify him and to rejoyce therein is that which he is not led unto but by Faith in the mystery of the Gospel If we pore upon our own Qualifications Duties Evidences and the like we shall by a continued circulation of uneasie thoughts but increase our own trouble the imperfection and the faultiness of all that we have done or are able to do will fill our minds with perplexity and distress the Holiness and the Spirituality of the Law of God will kill our most forward hopes Our best way therefore is not to fit still where we are bewailing our miseries and the sadness of our Case but to arise and to run to the City of Refuge that is before us when we are wounded with the sense of Sin with our weeping eyes and with our grieved hearts to look up to Christ of whom the Brazen Serpent was a Type When the burthen of our iniquities finks us down and makes us groan we must go to him in whom the weary and the heavy-laden find rest To that Gospel which as it reveals and manifests abundance of Sin in us does at the same time manifest Righteousness in Christ while the one terrifies us with the fear of Hell the other will refresh us with the hope of Heaven The Blood of Jesus does extinguish the Wrath of God and as it does make us safe it does also make us holy for it cleanses from all iniquity This is the shelter and the healing of a Soul that is in danger and diseased How many Souls have cast their Anchor in the dark when all comfort has fail'd them for many days and have obtained support and relief by saying That if they perish'd they would perish at the feet of Christ And he that is the Lamb of God so full of meekness and of pity is too gracious to let any perish there As a Priest he died for his Enemies He is a meek King tho' he be upon a Throne of Majesty and a place of Joy and Glory yet he will admit mourners into his presence He is a King of poor and afflicted persons and a Prince of Peace and as he hath Beams of Majesty
the Sacrament in vain for had I been a true Believer this would never have befallen me This is a very false way of arguing for if you had been never so sincere that sincerity would not have kept away diseases nor this in particular for in Melancholly we think and we speak according to our present apprehensions and our fears and these are greatly caused by the disorder of our Imaginations which is owing to the confusion and the hurry of our thoughts and that confusion is the product of a great and unusual stagnation or fixing of the Spirits when the blood is corrupted and the body indisposed and this most frequently occasioned by the want of rest or sleep And 't is commonly said by others that know not what Melancholly is Why do you think and pore so much Divert your selves think of something else But it is no more possible for people where this disease comes with violence to divert their thoughts than 't is possible for a Man to be wakeful in an Apoplexy and calm in a raging Fever no more than a Man that has a broken Arm or Leg can walk and act as he used to do before And indeed * Mr. Baxter's 32. Dir. p. 6. rational and spiritual methods will not suffice for the cure of this for you may as well expect that a good Sermon or comfortable words should cure the Falling-sickness or Palsie or a broken Head only because this disease works on the spirits and phantasie on which words of advice do also work therefore such Words and Scripture and Reason may somewhat resist it or may palliate or allay some of the effects at present but as soon as time hath worn off the force and effects of these Reasons the distemper presently returns and 't is as natural for a Melancholly person to fear and to meditate terror as 't is for a sick Man to groan or for one in health to breathe 't is certain that tenacious obstinate distempers such as this of Melancholly will not be relieved by meer words or sentences they cannot indeed cast out their troubled thoughts they cannot turn away their minds they can think of nothing but what they do think of no more than a Man in the Tooth-ach can forbear to think of his pain and not so to think is to be cured which they would be glad to be And tho' others urge us to rule our thoughts it gives us no relief but only adds to our misery to be frequently urged to that which we cannot do But my advice to such is That in the use of such things as they find to yield a natural refreshment to their spirits they would look up to God who can make the Winds and Storms to cease and make that unquiet agitation that is in the Blood and Humours to be still again and when he shall be pleased to give you the rest of night and the clearness and activity of your natural spirits then your troublesome and uneasie thoughts by the help they will then receive by reading or advice will wear away I speak nothing but what I my self have experienced to be true for this Disease does magnify our sorrows What I aim at is this That when any are in deep Melancholly so far as they have any Reason left they should not encrease their own terror by thinking that all their former Prayers and endeavours have been to no purpose because they do not then perceive what effect they have had God is certainly more gracious than to reckon the una voidable attendants of a disease that none can cure but himself to be a sin Men are not to be judged by what strange actions or expressions they are guilty of in a violent sickness and among all that are so I think this to be most violent CHAP. XII Of the several ends that God hath in suffering his Servants to be under long Afflictions and spiritual distress and anguish XV. COnsider what ends God may have in letting the apprehensions of his wrath continue for a season and here I know I enter upon a thing whereof we cannot have a certain and a comprehensive knowledg for the Judgments of God and great and long and severe Tryals are too deep for us easily to fathom or to tell particularly what is God's design in this or that The Arcana's of his Government are not obvious to every one that desires to pry into them and there are abundance of very dark and mysterious Providences in this World the Reasons of which we shall never know till the great day Who can tell the very Cause why God suffers one Religious Man to suffer affliction for several years and another that is perhaps no better than he scarcely knows what affliction means One shall be crossed and disappointed in all that he goes about and meet with losses in his Estate and in his Family and be damaged in his Health when another prospers and is well and dies by an easie death in what a smooth path do some good people go into Heaven when others are torn with thorns and bryars and go mourning and weeping all the way Who dare presume to say why this is so and no otherwise A great modesty becomes our inquiries when we endeavour to pierce into the Designs of the Great God whose Throne is established in righteousness but surrounded with clouds and darkness It is the glory of God to conceal a thing Prov. 25.2 his Infinite Majesty will not be accountable to us for what he does there is a thick veil upon the Reasons of his Judgments and Decrees that he may procure a greater veneration from his Creatures Psal 77.19 Thy way is in the sea and thy path in the great waters and thy footsteps are not known Therefore when we say that God does this or that for such or such a reason we must do it with great humility and only so far as the Scripture is our guide and from that we may learn that God suffers his people to be under the apprehensions of his wrath and under long afflictions for such ends as these 1. It is certainly good for the Universe for God does nothing in vain and when any part suffers 't is for the good of the whole tho perhaps we cannot discern how it is so till his hand has finished his own entire design 2. That others may be convinced by their very Senses what a dreadful God he is and how terrible a thing it is to sin When the Lyon roars who will not fear Amos 3.8 When men see those that were once pleasant as themselves shedding tears and crying out in the bitterness of their souls that they are undone and miserable their sad looks and their doleful expressions bear witness to the Being and to the Severity and Justice of God He sometimes in the extraordinary joys which his love produces in the hearts of his people shews Heaven upon Earth and sometimes in the fears and amazements and terrors of
of it and if they be imployed they are hurried and disturb'd and grieved and vexed they meet with many people that are false and treacherous with many businesses that are intricate and perplexed and thus their plodding Heads are stung with Cares and their Breasts with sorrow all groaning under the Curse and proving the punishment to be true That in the sweat of his Brows Man must eat his Bread Gen. 3. Eccles 2.23 All his days are sorrows and his travel grief yea his heart taketh not rest in the night This is also vanity All his drudgery and his toyl is to small purpose it is indeed vanity when a Man deprives himself of sleep the sweet repose of Nature and next to the Grace of God the greatest blessing in the World The Poor are almost every where shedding Tears of Impatience and Discontent for the straitness of their Circumstances they are mourning because they are like to want what would bear their Charges to the Grave and the Rich are troubled how to secure the Riches they enjoy and fear to lose them as many have done before for they cannot live long but they shall see many whom a few days and some unforeseen Accidents have brought from the greaest heights to the lowest poverty whom the Rising-Sun found rejoicing and whom he left for their sudden miseries plunged in Tears How many Foreheads do you see covered with a Cloud of grief for their Losses and their Disappointments Look into the Country-fields there you see toyling at the Plow and Sythe * Bp. Hall Vol. 1. p. 451. Look into the Waters there you see tugging at Oars and Cables Look into the City there you see a throng of Cares and hear sorrowful complaints of bad times and the decay of Trade Look into Studies and there you see paleness and infirmities and fixed Eyes Look unto the Court and there are defeated Hopes Envyings Underminings and tedious attendance all things are full of Labour and Labour is full of Sorrow and these two are inseparably joyned with the miserable Life of Man 3. In the next place consider the miseries of the Body of Man that make him to weep and mourn Persons of weak constitutions are liable to tedious and languishing pains that afflict them for many months together and those that are of a stronger temper to such that are so sharp and so violent that they dispatch them it may be in a week or two Man is seldom without pain and always near to sickness to sickness that will make him groan and sigh whether he will or not and some sickness which is all sorrow throughout such as Melancholly which is all sad and has not one bright or clear side all disconsolate and grievous stagnating the Blood changing the brisk and chearful motion of the Spirits and fixing the Mind unavoidably upon amazing and dreadful objects So is that of Job verified His flesh upon him shall have pain and his soul within him shall mourn Job 14. last The several Seasons of the year have their inconveniencies which annoy poor mortal men not only the Winter-quarter as one expresses it is full of storms and cold and darkness but the beauteous Spring hath Storms and sharp Frosts the fruitful teeming Summer is melted with heat and choaked with dust and the Autumn is full of sickness And how can the Eyes but shed innumerable Tears when they consider the doleful pains to which they themselves and all the other parts of the body are exposed How can the Man but groan to find himself present in such a Body from which he cannot for many painful years be dislodged and in which he has no delight or ease What grief is it to him to have no help or relief when his spirits are broken and his heart is overwhelmed To have many cutting afflictions upon him and the fear of more to come Eccles 8.6 7. To every purpose there is time and judgment and therefore the misery of man is great upon him For he knoweth not that which shall be for who can tell him when it shall be To be daily dying in anguish and vexation and not to be able to die To be surrounded with Troops of Diseases of Agues Fevers Consumptions Cholick Gout Stone and not to be able to keep any of these off nor to run away from them when they come 4. Add to all these natural sorrows such as are distributed by God in Judgment Such are the Tyrants that God suffers long to Flourish and to Triumph in the World that tread upon the necks of others to advance themselves and glut themselves with the Blood of the Innocent daring to do what is most unjust to gratify their Lawless Ambition and their Lustful desire of Empire and from them and their arbitrary designs flow innumerable injuries and wrongs and robberies and mischief Eccl. 4.1 Then the other Judgments Plagues and Famine spreading Contagions or Bloody Wars Plagues that at the same time seize and kill that Conquer whereever they come and send Thousands of miserable mortals to the Grave on a sudden that tear the Children from their Mothers Breasts that separate one part of the Family from another and make them afraid of each others Company or else send them together to the House prepared for all Living that turn flourishing Cities into solitudes and put a stop to all Commerce and Trade Or Famine that kills by as sure but by flower methods That makes them to know they are dying before they die That causes them to walk to and fro with pale and meagre and drooping looks and turns a fruitful Land into barrenness where the poor starving Children come begging to their Mothers for Bread and they have none to give but are forced to see them die before their Eyes as Lam. 4. Or War where many Children are deprived of their Fathers many Wives of their Husbands many that lived plentifully bereaved of all their dear and pleasant things War which fills every place with Blood and Violence with Noise and Clamour and Oppression and Woe That lays Countries waste and desolate and sacrifices multitudes of harmless people to its cruel rage and fury These are the terrible Voice of God which will cause us to weep and to be afraid 5. Consider Men as associated together in their several Relations and so their sorrows and their cause of weeping is increased The Courts of Princes have their occasions of grief and trouble they grieve tho their grief be more pompous and clad in a more solemn dress Those that that have a numerous and great Kindred and Alliance are oftner in Mourning than others for Death does oftner visit their greater Friends and Acquaintance Few Families there are without sorrow that House that now rejoyces is quickly turn'd into a House of mourning and where this day there is nothing but the sound of the Timbrel the Harp and the Viol it may be the next day there is the voice of Crying and Lamentation How many
how great an height have I fallen How fair was I once for Heaven and for Salvation and now am like to come short of it I was once flourishing in the Courts of the Lord and now all my Fruit is blasted and withered away his dew laid all night upon my branches but now I am like the Mountains of Gilboa no Rain falls upon me Had I never heard of Heaven I could not have been so miserable as I now am Had I never known God the loss of him had not been so terrible as now it is like to be Job 29.2 3. Oh! that I were as in months past as in the days when God preserved me When his Candle shined upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkness These are some of the sorrows that deserted Souls often meet withal and indeed but a small part of what they feel in this dark and stormy night Before I proceed any further I will answer two Objections for I foresee that against what I have said some may object CHAP. V. Answering some Objections and of the further doleful state of a deserted Soul and whence it is that God is pleased to suffer a very Tempestuous and Stormy Night to come upon his Servants in this World Obj. 1. YOV make a great deal of noise and pother about desertions and God's forsaking of the soul and it is nothing in the world but Fancy or Imagination and the whimsies and the fumes of Melancholly Answ It is no new thing for us to hear such Language from Atheistical and Prophane People from men that are covered with ignorance and sloth With ignorance because they know not the ways of God and his dispensations and sloth because they will not search into the Methods of his Government To grant them for once that it is Imagination it is not the less tormenting because it is so for a Man that strongly imagines himself to be miscrable is truly miserable if a man think himself unhappy he is so whilest that thought remains But then they would do well could they but once obtain of themselves leave to consider a little they would find reason to suspect their own foolish Objections Who was a Man as appears by what we read of him more distressed with the sense of God's Anger than David yet he was of a Musical and a pleasant Temper of a Ruddy and a Sanguine Constitution Do they think that such a great Prince as Job was was led meerly by humour and by fancy when he complains so much of the Arrows of the Almighty Or that Heman Asaph and many others were men of no clear understandings It is their ignorant Pride that makes them to talk so boldly of the Judgments of God which they do not understand but if ever their Consciences be awakened with a sense of guilt they 'll find in what I have now discoursed something more terrible than Fancy or Imagination Obj. 2. You take a way to discourage men from all Religion If it be such a mournful business it is better to let it alone and to rejoyce and to be merry and to take our ease and our pleasure Go by your selves to Heaven if you will we 'll joyn our selves to more chearful Companions we see those that are gay and brisk that know no sorrow while they live and that dye in peace and to their Assembly we will unite our selves In Answer to this I desire such to consider That it is not our Religion that is the Cause of our sorrows but our wandrings and our deviation from it If we were always obedient we should have an Eternal day our heavenly Father chastises us because we are undutiful and he does not delight to grieve the Children of Men and even in these necessary Corrections he carries on a profitable design for our future and final good 'T is true this is nothing but anguish of Conscience that draws up a process against it self that presents it self as before the Tribunal of God without hope of pardon or escape and the weight of Mountains would not be a load so heavy as this it is a night wherein we are kept waking with our danger whether we will or not Wicked men tho they have as great a burden yet are not sensible they feel not the bitterness of sin they are like fishes bred in the Sea that tast not the saltness of the water they are like swine that find something agreeable to their meaner appetites even in that which is most nauseous to other Creatures When they sin they feel not the weight of it for it is their nature to do amiss their iniquities are like waters that are not heavy in their own Element as Intellectual joy is most refin'd pure and durable so is the trouble of the mind of all others most troublesome Job 6.2 3. Oh that my grief were throughly weighed and my calamity laid in the balance together for now it would be heavier than the sand of the Sea therefore my words are swallowed up 2. 'T is attended usually with great pain of body too and so a man is wounded and distrest in every part There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger says David The arrows of the Almighty are within me the poyson whereof drinketh up my spirit Job 6.4 Sorrow of heart contracts the natural spirits makes all their motions slow and feeble and the poor afflicted body does usually decline and wast away and therefore saith Heman My soul is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the grave In this inward distress we find our strength decay and melt even as wax before the fire for sorrow that is an ingrateful languor of the soul * Natural History of the Passions p. 152. darkneth the spirits obscures the judgment blinds the memory as to all pleasant things and beclouds the lucid part of the mind causes the lamp of life to burn weakly In this troubled condition the person cannot be without a countenance that is pale and wan and dejected like one that is seized with strong fear and consternation all his motions are sluggish and no sprightliness nor activity remains Prov. 17.22 A merry heart doth good like a Medicine but a broken spirit drieth the bones Hence come those frequent complaints in Scripture My moisture is turned into the drought of Summer I am like a bottle in the smoke wy soul cleaveth unto the dust my face is foul with weeping and on my eye-lids is the shadow of death Job 16.16 Job 30.17 18 19. My bones are pierced in me in the night season and my sinews take no rest by the great force of my disease is my garments changed He hath cast me into the mire and I am become like dust and ashes Many times indeed the trouble of the soul does begin from the weakness and indisposition of the body Long affliction without any prospect of remedy does in process of time begin to distress the soul