we digress a little But tho' what it delivers be somewhat beside our professed Scope yet the Benefit I hope will make amends for the Deviation it being a kind of Apology for the Christian Religion or a short Vindication of it from the contemptuous Obloquy of Evil Men. The Inference is this How egregious is the Folly and Rashness of those who decry Religion as vain and unprofitable So degenerate are some and so far sunk below the Raised Dignity of their Reasonable Nature that they mock and cavil at true Religion as if it were an empty and fruitless thing and attended with no considerable Advantage * Job 21.15 What is the ALMIGHTY that we should serve Him and what Profit should we have if we should Pray unto Him was the Language of the Dissolute in Job's Days †Mal. 3.14 It is vain to serve GOD and what Profit is it that we have kept His Ordinances said some Impious and Blasphemous Jews in the Prophet Malachy's Time And Men of such vile and ungodly Principles seem to be sprung up in too great Plenty amongst us For how many are there that dispute or deny all Rewards of Righteousness And as for such as in Faith and Hope of the same addict themselves to Virtuous and Holy Living they slight and despise them and vilify and reproach them especially if they be a little stricter than ordinary and their Zeal flies above the Common Pitch Then they censure and condemn them for downright Ideots for People of no Sense of no Reason and of no Judgment that dote upon Shadows and feed upon Fancies and fill their Expectations with impossible things But let such know that themselves are mistaken and grievously misled and as for the Sons of Virtue and Goodness whom they are pleas'd thus to Scorn and Deride they are the wisest and happiest of all Mortals For as upon surest Grounds they look for infinite future Retribution so they are sensible of present Recompence The Psalmist speaks of this where he says in keeping GOD's Commandments there is great Reward Psal 19.11 Not there shall be Reward for keeping them hereafter in Heaven but there is Reward in keeping them here upon Earth And this Reward is ample as well as certain * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Emolument or Recompence And what the Sacred Writer thus positively asserts the faithful Christain feels true in himself He does not only hope for Remuneration to come but He actually finds it in his present Enjoyment And as it is great in many Respects so a great part of it lies in those excellent Comforts which descending from above do strangely delight Him And that this Reward must consist of these Comforts is clear from hence because otherwise no great Reward can here come to Men in keeping GOD's Commands Yea instead of great Reward or of any Reward their very keeping of His Precepts may expose them as it hath done Martyrs to the worst Sufferings and Deaths And for any to say that GOD makes Temporal or Worldly Blessings a great Reward to such as keep His Commandments would be perfect Non-sense For the greatest of those are not only really little in themselves but much less still in the Esteem of good Christians So that 't is necessary that the great Reward mention'd by the Psalmist should be made up of Joys or Comforts from Heaven And truly were the worst but well acquainted with it by being made throughly sensible of it they could never stick at owning it to be great And from the sense of its greatness they would immediately alter their opinion of Christianity and no longer blame its most zealous Professors for taking much pains as they now think they do in pursuing nothing Indeed so long as Men choose to rest in Sin and are unwilling Captives to domineering Lusts and the base and sinful Pleasures of the Body 't is impossible they should enjoy the Comforts of the SPIRIT I am confident rather let them say what they will and make what fair shew they can that they mostly lie as it were upon a painful Rack There hainous Guilt unless they be stupid or quite insensate will certainly be attended with secret Torment and will raise such fears and horrors within as they shall no way be able to suppress There may as well be Rest in the Sea when 't is tossed with Winds as true Peace to that Soul which perisheth in Sin For the Wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot Rest and to them there is no Peace saith GOD Isai 57.20 21. But let them abandon Vice and betake them to Virtuous and Religious Courses and they shall soon perceive an happy Change Then the mouth of Conscience shall quickly be stopped and her hideous Clamours shall all be quieted and the bloodly Scourge wherewith she chastiseth them shall be wound up and laid aside and inward Peace and Applause of Mind shall exceedingly refresh them Then they shall be visited with Joys from on high and the Light of GOD's Countenance shall shine into their Hearts and the Beams of His Favour shall dilate their Spirits and the Influence of Heaven shall sweetly replenish their expanded Souls In a word then the great JEHOVAH will love them and delight in them and lifting them up into Communion with Himself will ravish them with high and strong Consolations With such Consolations as can proceed from nothing but His propitious Presence and the favourable Illapses of that divine Paraclete who is the Comforter of GOD's Elect. Let none doubt of the Truth of this Let none question but there are such excellent Comforts as these If your own Experience hath not discover'd them yet do but perform your respective Duties in answer to the several Obligations upon you and that will lead you directly to them Then you shall soon find that extraordinary Sweetness is treasur'd up for the Righteous A Sweetness surpassing our corporal Delights and the fullest Gratifications of all lower Appetites And well it may as being indeed no other than Angelic Satisfactions which from the Face of GOD are shed down into the Hearts of pious Men. Some refined Heathens priz'd Tranquility of Mind at such a Rate that they accounted it no less than the chiefest good Thus Epicurus taught that Happiness consists in Pleasure Meaning that Pleasure which springs up and spreads through Virtuous Livers and is the pure Result of that Harmony and Agreement which there is betwixt Virtue and the rational part of them that practise it Tho' some mistaking him have thought he plac'd it in gross Delights and so have condemn'd Him for a notorious Sensualist and a Patron of vile and shameful Voluptuousness And as this was * Note IV. Epicurus's Opinion so it was the Judgment of many other great and noble Philosophers Now when there were some Ethnic Sages who thought so highly of inward Peace or mental Pleasure which moral Integrity brought along with it how unreasonable is it that
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
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
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
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
SPIRIT pronounces Him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same I do not say He is the same in Misery for the Passive part of His great Work for us was over long since His Blessed Self declared that †Joh. 19.30 finisht when He was giving up the Ghost And as for those His Sufferings they shall never be repeated For being sufficient for ever when they were once endured because of their Value they need not be reiterated But then we may consider that by His Intercession His Sufferings are perpetually represented to GOD in our behalf and by His Word the Benefits of them are annuntiated and by His SPIRIT the Efficacy of them is applied according to out Worthiness and Capacity of receiving them And so as much Virtue is derivable from His Passion to our Souls every Day and Hour we live as if to this Minute He were hanging and dying on the meritorious Cross And as the Power and Profit of JESUS's Sufferings are the same to us tho' the Pain of them be ceased as to Him so He Himself is the very same that ever He was The same in Patience the same in Pity the same in Kindness and GOD-like Benevolence to the Sons of Men. But then He having such a fixt Philanthropy and such flaming Love to the Souls of Men how shall He refuse or how can He forbear to impart his Comforts to Holy Mourners Especially when it will cost Him no more to do it than barely to permit them to spring out of Himself who is a most Blessed and inexhaustible Fountain of them Nor is it only easy to Him but matter of delight for in it He not only follows the Duct of His Nature but takes as great Pleasure in dispensing Comforts as we find Benefit in receiving them from Him Now the true and happy Case being this the LORD CHRIST having given His Word that Mourners shall be Comforted and it being His Office to see it done and the very Disposition or Bent of His Nature leading Him to do it and the Work ministring to His Satisfaction as well as to our Interest it must not only be unlikely but quite impossible for Him to withhold divine Comforts from Mourners Unless as hath been hinted there be great and wise Reasons known to Himself why He should do it Thirdly Holy Mourners are sure of Comforts from the Mission of the HOLY GHOST into the World That He came down upon Earth and that when He did so GOD sent Him from Heaven we all know But then in what Quality or Capacity under what Notion or Character upon what Business or to what End did He come from above That Himself hath taught us by the Pen of Saint John He came as a Comforter And so that Lofty Evangelist stiles Him * Joh. 14.16 26.15.26.16.7 more than once intimating that all divine Comforts are deriv'd from Him as indeed they are And therefore divine Joy the same thing with divine Comfort is expressly said to be a Fruit of the SPIRIT Gal. 5.22 And to be Joy in the HOLY GHOST Rom. 14.17 And to be Joy of the HOLY GHOST 1 Thess 1.6 And as these Joys and Comforts are Anticipations of those above and Praelibations or Foretasts of the Happiness to come they with other things there meant are said to be the Earnest of the SPIRIT 2 Cor. 1.22 and the First-fruits of the SPIRIT Rom. 8.23 And all because they are wrought in us or descend upon us by the Spirit 's secret tho' most sensible Operations Now this infinitely Glorious and Gracious SPIRIT being pleased to take such an humble Flight to come down into these inferior Regions so unsuitable to Him and unworthy of Him and the Design of His marvellous Condescention being not only to visit but to comfort Men can any imagine that He should either forget or neglect His Work Or if He comforts others is it likely that He should over-look Holy Mourners They rather of all People ought to be first and most regarded by Him For as they need Comforts more than others so that Necessity is occasion'd or brought upon them by Himself all pious Mourning being but * See Chap. I. a work of His. That considered He is tied to comfort all Holy Mourners by an indissoluble Band of His own making And let none surmise that He will ever offer to break loose from it For to hinder that there is in Him an Impediment both essential and invincible What it is we find in †V. 10. For there He is called the good SPIRIT And that being infallibly true it implies Him possess'd of an answerable Principle And this granted if He had not been sent to comfort Mourners they might have expected it from His meer Temper and in case He should omit to do it in Kindness they might almost challenge it of Him in Justice What good Man could bring Trouble to any and not support them under it And can the good Spirit cast down into Mourning and not comfort His dejected For Him to do that will be but pure Equity as it is for Him that makes Wounds to dress and heal them And so in plain Terms the HOLY GHOST can no more refuse comforting of Mourners than a Being of most Perfect and Infinite Goodness can be guilty of that which is a sort of Injustice as well as Unkindness Now must not Holy Mourners be certain of Comforts when they are thus strangely secured to them For every Person we see in the Blessed TRINITY and all of them at once are jointly and severally ingag'd to dispense Celestial Comforts to all such The FATHER upon Account of His Nature The SON upon Account of His Word and Office and the HOLY GHOST upon Account of His Designation and Mission to the Work And then besides the mentioned Obligations upon each of them they are every one spontaneously inclin'd to do it Yet what hath been twice already suggested must here again be once more remembred That Holy Mourners shall be comforted provided it be best for them and that there be no weighty Reasons why they should be barred and hindred from it For such may the Tempers or Conditions of some be that even divine Comforts may be dangerous to them And so Heaven may be forc'd to keep them short of those Comforts lest instead of advantaging they should greatly injure them For Christian Perfections how incomparable was St. Paul Yet * 2 Cor. 12.7 a Thorn in the Flesh a Messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him lest he should be exalted above Measure And if such a one as he could not be trusted with abundance of Revelations without so severe a Curb upon his towring Spirit we may easily apprehend that divine Comforts may often times be of perillous Consequence to ordinary Christians tho' holy Mourners And therefore by the way if it should prove thy Lot to Mourn at any time without Light and no Beam of Comfort should shine into thy Soul be not
because they can do it comfortably and without Danger It was a noble piece of courage which David put on and a gallant Resolution worthy of himself which he bravely took up Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death I will fear no evil But whence did it spring or what was the Basis upon which it stood Not his Puissance though he was a mighty Prince not his Magnanimity though he was an Heroe of a great Mind but Divine Comforts They were the blessed and generous Stock which bare this excellent and desirable Fruit. So the following words inform us for Thou art with me Thy Rod and thy Staff they shall comfort me Whence it is plain that GOD's Presence and his supporting Consolations were the Grounds of the good Man's confidence and courage And truly as many as are happy in those though they be in the valley of the Shadow of Death must needs be above all fear of dying For for such to dye is but to step out of one Heaven into another and can the fearfullest in the World be afraid to do that Whenever we draw near to the Gates of Death if GOD be but with us if the Rod of His Power does but protect us and the Staff of His Comforts does but sustain us we are as sure to be free from distracting Terrors as they that are destitute of those Encouragements and unworthy of them are sure to be full of them at such a Time if they be themselves and think what they are about to Suffer And let none surmise as some perhaps may be ready to do that divine Comforts those Cordials from Heaven may be too weak or languid things to support them under their Death-bed Terrors For be their Illness never so great and be their Miseries never so many and be their Pains and Agonies never so strong and never so wearisome Yea be their Condition as sad and deplorable as violent Sickness or approaching Death are able to make it and so their Fear as high as dying Circumstances can possibly raise it yet if GOD will but please to be merciful to them if He will but graciously condescend to visit them if He will but look down and smile upon them or as we read in the * Chap. 1. 2. 2. 6. Canticles fall upon their Necks and Kiss and Embrace them all their fears will leave them in a Moment And no wonder that the Comforts which issue from the Face and Favour of GOD should immediately chase away the Fears of Death when they would do no less by the Pains of Hell were they shed down upon the blackest Spirit that suffers the worst or extreamest of them But alas his ruful unfitness for them and incapacity of receiving them will for ever bar and hinder the Experiment Nor will holy Comforts only expell good Peoples Fears of Death and turn them into noble courage against it but they often improve their Courage into pious Desires of it This is discoverable from several Texts of Scripture So we find Rev. 22.17 that the SPIRIT and the Bride say Come The true Church of GOD being influenc'd by His SPIRIT for in the words there is an Hendiadis one thing express'd by two does beg CHRIST's Second Coming His coming to Judgment And they who desire that Advent of His must also implicitly desire to Dye because whenever it comes if they be alive it brings upon them a Change equivalent to Death And S. Peter tells the Christians of his time that they should not only be looking for but hasting unto the coming of the Day of GOD 2 Pet. 3.12 or rather †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hasting or speeding the coming of that Day But one chief way of accelerating or hastening it is by desiring it or praying for it So S. Paul speaking of others as well as of himself professes We are willing to be absent from the Body 2 Cor. 5.8 And how willing were they to it That He tells us at the 2d Verse For in this in this Body we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven While the best Souls dwell here their Habitation is mean no better than an * V. 1. earthly House And most fitly it is so denominated as rising from the Earth and as returning to the Earth and as remaining upon the Earth while it continues undissolved In which respect it is said by the Apostle to be not only a bare ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earthly house but * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an house upon the Earth And as Christians are willing to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 go far out of the Body their earthly house so they are so willing we see that they are desirous of it and so desirous of it that they groan and groan earnestly for it For when they groan earnestly to be cloathed upon with their House which is from Heaven as immortal Glory is here expressed they can do no less than groan as earnestly at the same time to go out of their Earthly House that is to dye Even in the Old Testament we have Intimations of such Desires as these in the eminently Religious All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my Change comes said the good Man Job 14.14 And he that expected the great Change * That Job speaks of his change from life to death and not from death to the resurrection as some think his very Expression shows For he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will wait or hope or expect which sounds but harshly if said of one in his grave And when or how long would he wait all the days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of my warfare But could he fight when he was dead And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the change he mentions according to the Targum cannot be a change from death because that renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the changes of my life the last of which all know is death And therefore Rabbi Levi expresses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my excision or my divorce that is from the body And Aben Esra speaks it out more plainly yet by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my death And so that must be the change which Job means of Death and expected everlasting Happiness by it as Job questionless did must needs wait for it with Desire as well as with Patience Whom have I in Heaven but Thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides Thee said Asaph Psal 73.25 And when he desired GOD so much he could not chuse but desire to dye that he might come to the full and most comfortable Enjoyment of Him Especially when he apprehended him to be the Strength of his failing Flesh and Heart and his Portion for ever as it appears he did in the following Verse Like as the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so longeth my Soul after Thee O GOD. My
the sad Revenges of divine Justice upon the Dissolute and Licentious as they are natural Effects of their being so And farther as the wisest of Men we see hath told us they that walk on in the ways of Wisdom that are regular and persevering in the several Duties and progressive in the noble Perfections of Religion shall not fail to meet with Pleasantness and Peace With such Peace and Pleasantness as come from GOD and fill the Soul with inexplicable Comforts And these Comforts as little as some think it may be good and great Instruments of Health unto us As where the Body is well and strong they help to confirm it in that State so where it happens to be weak and low they raise and mend its Constitution They put a spring of new Life as it were into the Soul which excites most pleasing Motions in the Body even such as serve to inliven and invigorate it For as raking Grief does not only fret and imbitter the Mind but withal casts a sad Damp upon the Body and deadens the liveliness of those inward Motions on which its Health depends and by which it is conserved so heavenly Comforts where they are often and liberally imparted do ordinarily produce the contrary Effects They quicken the Spirits where they move too slowly and help the Bloud to circulate more freely and nimbly where 't is subject to Stagnancy and by taking off the sharpness and sowreness of them they insensibly sweeten and rectify both By peculiar Motions which they put them into they alter the Figures of their disordered Particles and so better the Mass or Substance of them with more Ease and Efficacy than the best Physic can possibly do And the Bloud and Spirits being thus corrected and the Ferments of the Body made light and soft and smooth and unctuous the Wheels of Nature will by this means be freed from cumbersome Cloggs and Entanglements within and in case no Violence happens from without may run on a great way in a regular Course And thus not only Life is prolonged as Length of Days is in Wisdom's right Hand Prov. 3.16 but that Life is made more happy because the Person injoying it is made more healthful And therefore we are taught by an incomparable Writer that the Fear of the LORD which maketh Peace or produceth Comforts where it dwells does thereby make perfect health to flourish Ecclus. 1.18 Nor can it seem strange that holy Comforts should thus conduce to Health if we do but remember what wonderful Effects they have had upon Martyrs turning their dying Pangs into rapturous Pleasures as was * Chap. 11. But then the Martyrs Comforts are there said more than once to be extraordinary ones and so much above those we here speak of noted above And another Instance may abate the strangeness of the thing As 't is commonly said Witches are †Note VI. suckt by their Familiars And to this end as we may reasonably suppose that thereby they might taint and disorder their Bodies And when Distemper of Body proceeds from the influence of wicked Spirits well may Healthfulness be an Effect of the Comforts of the HOLY GHOST And divine Comforts being such Preservatives and Restoratives of Health upon this Account they must be Blessed Things Health being necessary to our present Happiness For as he that would be wise must first put off Folly and as he that would be virtuous must first throw off Vice so they that would be Happy must first be Healthful Else in spite of all Rules and Principles of Stoicism a sickly Body will disquiet the Soul and a pained Body will disturb the Mind and Trouble and Unquietness in the Soul and Mind will soon convince all Persons concern'd that if they would build up Felicity to themselves they must lay its Foundation in Ease and Indolence However * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Diog. Laer. in Anaxar pounce the Sack of Anaxarchus for Anaxarchus thou dost not strike were big words in that Abderite's Mouth when cruel Nicocreon was braying him in a Mortar and might express a stout and resolute Humour yet they were as far from rendring the Sufferer happy as the Thumpings he endured were from rendring him easy Nor do heavenly Comforts conduce more to mending the Habit of our Bodies than they do to bettering the Temper of our Minds For as Pleasures that are sensual and impure do sink and soften and emasculate the Spirit as they fill it with pensive Solicitude and fretful Anxiety to find that it is fallen below it self and inslav'd to things unworthy of its Dignity so where it is ravisht with the Comforts of Heaven and nobly transported with frequent Returns or Iterations of them it will rise by Degrees into a very delicate and desirable Frame So that if before we were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tart and waspish and peevish and passionate these in time will work a thorow and an excellent Change in us They will cool our Heat and quench our Fury and rebate the sharpness and fierceness of our Disposition and polish the Ruggedness and Unevenness of our Minds and take off the Bitterness and Sowreness of our Nature and so make us not only to be easy in our selves but obliging to others And to have our Passions thus curbed and tamed in us and all Harshness and Roughness thus taken out of us and to become moderate and well composed in our selves and meek and mild and pleasing unto all must needs be a great Improvement of our Temper And as this Improvement sweetens our Life which how it should do it the meanest Capacities can apprehend it must add considerably to our Blessedness upon Earth But then as we would live sweetly in this present World as we would have our Souls blessed with Health of Body and good Temper of Mind let us heartily take up Religious Mourning from which will result those holy Comforts that are productive of the same CHAP. XV. The Eleventh Motive to Mourning in General being the Eighth Branch of that Blessedness which springs up from the Comfort annexed to Mourning They supply us with noblest Delights in this Life when those that are less generous fail and forsake us Which they do by acquainting us farther with GOD and by inflaming us with Love to the LORD JESUS CHRIST IN our declining Years as our Strength decays so other natural Abilities and Perfections which depend upon it flag and decay with it Particularly our Faculties grow dull and our Appetites grow down our Pleasures wear off and by degrees wear out and the sinking Body so depresses the Soul that Men dye to most of their corporal Satisfactions even while they live But here the Force of holy Comforts again is blessedly felt this being a chief Juncture wherein they exert it For when in these our Declensions they dwell plentifully with us they are an inexhaustible Spring of rich and high Complacencies They do not only fill us with great Thoughts and
the Communication of His blessed Body and Blood by consecrated Elements to worthy Partakers of His holy Table Which tho' they be great and infallible Truths are dark and enigmatical and full of divine and venerable Abstruseness There are REVELATIONS wonderful for Sublimity and Nobleness As those of the Creation of the World of the Fall of the Angels of the Sin and Redemption of Man of the Immortality of the Soul of the Resurrection of the Body and of the general and eternal Judgment There are PROMISES wonderful for Truth and Preciousness As of GOD's hearing our Prayers His pitying our Infirmities His assisting us in Duties His accepting our Performances His pardoning our Miscarriages His purifying our Souls His speaking peace to our Consciences His supplying us with Blessings His adorning us with Virtues and Graces in this Life and His crowning us with everlasting and glorious Recompences in the next These amongst others are wonderful Things which are contained in the sacred Books And when we rightly apprehend them and ruminate upon them or upon any of them they will not fail to lift up our Religious Minds into refreshing Joys especially if the Light of the divine Countenance be display'd upon us at the same Time Then both the Heavenly Instruments of Comfort being at once set a Work they cannot but produce it at a mighty Rate The Fourth Mark of true Comforts is they are productive of pious Effects That they should have no Effects being powerful things would be very strange and that they should have any but good ones must be as impossible considering how excellent they are in themselves and from whence they come Their Nature and Origin proclaim them Operative and all the effects which they work in us are absolutely pious or tending to Godliness Amongst many we are sure to find these that follow Hatred of Sin and Love to Righteousness Gentleness of Spirit and Tenderness of Conscience Fear to offend GOD and Forwardness to please Him Purity of Mind and Integrity of Life Disgust of earthly things and Desire of Heavenly ones Weariness of the World and Willingness to go out of it Wherever therefore Comforts have such Effects and Symptoms they have Evidence on their side to prove that they are right But where they find men bad in case they continue so or if instead of growing better they become worse under them we may cease all Enquiry concerning their truth because there 's enough to evince they are false And as one Specific inseparable Effect of genuine Comforts I might here mention their peculiar sweetness For tho' all Comforts carry sweetness with them where they go yet the Sweetness of the true may as well be distinguisht from that of the false as the Light of the Sun from the Light of a Torch The one is exceedingly finer than the other and also as superior to it in Strength And therefore David does not only own that the Light of GOD's Countenance put Gladness in his Heart Psal 4.7 which signifies it was no flashy frothy sort of Comfort as dwelling in the Heart but he farther declares that it put more Gladness in His Heart than the Increase of Corn and Wine could do That is it produced in him an higher kind of Joy than the greatest abundance of the usefullest Blessings of this Life could possibly infuse Which does more than intimate that a particular and extraordinary Sweetness is contain'd in the true spiritual Comforts And where-ever this Sweetness comes in its Strength it claps a seal upon the Conscience as I may say warranting it to be right and by its fulness and force bears down the Soul into a fiducial belief that the Comforts which imprint it come down from Heaven But having made Sweetness the first beatifying Property of true Comforts to say more concerning it here would be superfluous Only this would be noted that when the Religious are importunate in seeking and supplicating for the Light of GOD's Countenance as we may observe they are in Scripture they have greatest Reason to be so and I heartily wish that all Men were so for it is not only an Instrument but the chiefest Instrument of raising divine Comforts in the Soul The Last Mark of true Comforts is their coming upon us when we are in a good state in a state of Regeneracy or Righteousness The truth is * Mat. 15.26 27. they are the Childrens Bread and therefore shall not be given to Dogs or impious Livers They indeed eat of the Crumbs that fall from their Masters Table They share largely in temporal Blessings and in the common Use or external Injoyment of many Spiritual ones But as for true Comforts they belong not to them nor shall they partake of them They may have Comforts that are like the true but the real Consolations of the SPIRIT fall not to their Lot For as an excellent Man said †Fiat justitia habebis pacem August divine Peace is an Appendix of Righteousness But they that travel in the Rode of Sin are out of the way of true Comfort Hence we may judge of the Quality of our Comforts and be able to determine whether they are such as they ought to be How is it with our Souls that 's the Question to be askt here Are we in a righteous or regenerate condition Have we mortifi'd our Lusts and subdu'd our Corruptions Have we repented of our Sins and fully renounc'd them and finally relinquisht them Do we honour and love GOD and are we resolv'd to do so with our whole Hearts and through our whole Lives And to come home to the point is our Love to GOD express'd in obeying Him and is our Obedience faithful and undissembled Then we may conclude that our Comforts are true But instead of loving GOD if we disregard Him instead of serving Him if we disobey Him and do it constantly or do it frequently in any known instance in all likelihood our Comforts must be false By this last Mark the truth of our Comforts may as well be tri'd as by any of the rest Tho' our safest way will not be to trust to one singly except the last lest we should be deceived King Herod as we observed heard John the Baptist gladly and the People compared to the stony Ground receiv'd the Seed of the Word with Joy And so according to the first Mark Both when their Comforts came upon them were well imployed And according to the second Mark their Comforts flow'd from divine Objects But for all that they were still but counterfeit The best and only way to be assured they are genuine is to find all these Marks upon them at once And by those Four which are here laid down it will be easy to discern True Comforts from False We are next to consider whence these false Comforts spring And they issue from several Fountains First From Nature Secondly From the Evil Spirit Thirdly From Enthusiasm Fourthly From wrong Notions in Divinity Fifthly From Texts
of Scripture mistaken and misapplied First False Comforts are sometimes Effects of Nature Where the Spirits are good and the Bloud is sweet and the Ferments of the Body regular and even besides Health and Indolency we there find a constant readiness in Men or a standing Disposition to Lightsomness and Jollity So that if they of this Constitution who dwell as it were upon the Brinks of Joy be at any time carri'd by Just occasions but a little farther they forthwith step into the pleasing Passion it self And how they should come to be advanced to it and also raised to an high Pitch in it even by a natural complexional Efficiency is easy to apprehend Melancholy in conjunction with a sanguine Temper is able to do it For by mingling its brisk acrimonious Flatulency with a sweetish heavyish kind of Bloud it strikes upon the Nerves with such grateful Touches as cause delightful Titillations in the Body and so affect the Soul with much joy and pleasure Nor need we wonder that such joyous Comforts or Delights should result from meer nature or our bodily Temper if we do but consider how other things are very productive of the like Effects Wine for instance hath a power in it to chear our Spirits or as it is expressed in holy Stile * Psal 104.15 to make glad the Heart of Man Insomuch that Josephus says of it †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antiq. li. 11. cap. 4. it even transports and regenerates Souls It puts a kind of new life into them by mending or raising the Temper of their Bodies and rendring them more healthful and vegete I speak of the moderate and sober use of it it being most baneful both to Soul and Body wherever it is taken in excess So Mela informs us that the Thracians who had no Wine suppli'd the want of it at their Feasts by a certain Seed And of such a Quality was that Seed that the Smoak of it caused Intoxication and Mirth Which things considered how Melancholy should cause high Joys within us will not be difficult to conceive For it is but allowing hypocondriacal Humors to have Affinity with Wine or its Vapours to have cognation with the Fumes of the Thracian Seed and the work is done And that Nature which out-does the most exquisite Chymists should refine Melancholy to such a Degree and sublimate or exalt it to such an Height as to make it so capable of the forementioned Operations as to fill us with joyous and triumphant Delights cannot be surprizing to the intelligent For they know very well that where Melancholy is predominant and duly heated and invigorated by a sanguine Temper or Constitution very strong Joys and even rapturous Delights will result from it So * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle expressly affirms that it produces Extasies and Joys of Mind and that too as he adds †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Probl. sect 30. with singing And when Men may so overflow with Joys as that their Joys shall rise up into Raptures and their Raptures run out and spend themselves in singing must not the Gratifications they feel within be exceeding high Yet these are Fruits that may grow upon the bare stock of Nature and so may have nothing at all of the Good SPIRIT in them or of His true Consolations Secondly Inward Comforts False ones I mean may be Effects of a worse Cause than this they may be derived from Satan himself As GOD sheds abroad true Joys and heavenly Consolations into the Hearts of His Servants to encourage and strengthen them in the Works of Religion so the Devil who loves to ape the ALMIGHTY where he can does sometimes cast false Joys and delusive Comforts into the Hearts of his Vassals to animate and imbolden them in the Ways of unrighteousness For should they always walk on in Dulness and Darkness this might so startle them as to make them seriously bethink themselves It might so alarm and terrify them as at some time or other to fright them out of their vitious into virtuous Courses Now and then therefore he tantalizes them with some feeble Glimmerings of false Light and Comfort He darts some glaring Joys into their Souls to make them well opinion'd of themselves And perswading them by this means that their Condition is good tho' it be quite otherwise he so prevails with them to persist in Sin till at length they fall into irrecoverable Ruine Nor is it hard to conceive how the Evil Spirit should kindle this Fire of false Joys in our Breasts and warm us as it were with Comforts which flash from Hell For since an agreeable mixture of Melancholy with our Bloud can raise us as we have heard to an Elevation of rapturous Delights the Devil who hath power to actuate the Humors and Vapours in our Bodies especially if we be his Servants by his dexterous agitation of those Vapours and Humors inforcing them beyond their natural strength he may easily transport us with ravishing Satisfactions And thus the strange Delights which some Men feel and which they reckon to be divine Influences from above and blessed Productions of the HOLY GHOST are but natural Effects or Satanical Injections and so rather hellish Infusions than Inspirations from Heaven Thirdly False Comforts may proceed from Enthusiasm For where that prevails Imagination is strong Insomuch that the Mind which should always be under the government of free Reason is wholly sway'd by this lower Faculty And where Fancy rules it easily over-powers and bears down the Soul into a firm Belief of the Truth of what she vigorously apprehends be her Apprehensions never so enormous and extravagant Hence it hath come to pass that one Fanciful Enthusiast has conceited himself to be a Prophet or an Angel another has thought himself to be the true Messiah or the great Judge of the World another has boasted himself to be GOD the FATHER or the HOLY GHOST Now when the Strength of Fancy or Force of Imagination thus carries away the Mind into a credulous Assent to such wretched Mis-conceits these or the like Conceits naturally lift up Souls which fully believe them to be great Truths into very high Joys and Ravishments of Spirit Yet be they never so lofty or never so luscious they are but a corrupt and dangerous sort of Fruit as having nothing but Enthusiasm for their chiefest Root Fourthly False Comforts may arise from wrong Notions which Men have in Divinity Thus some too opinionative are mightily for absolute or irrespective Predestination Others for Justification by Faith alone Others for being justifi'd by CHRIST's Righteousness imputed And others again are as stiff Assertors and as strenuous Maintainers of that absurd Perswasion that GOD sees no Sin in His own Children Now they that firmly believe and fiercely contend for these and such Fancies conclude they are highly beneficial to them in their greatest Interests and so they are strangely affected with them and influenced by them and feel them
even to the ground by mournful Prayers let us labour to defeat them Night and Day let us crave of her Supreme ALMIGHTY Head to secure Her from Dangers and to deliver Her from Troubles to build up Her Walls and to repair her Breaches to strengthen her Friends and to beat down her Enemies To settle Truth and Peace in Her to add more Purity and Holiness to Her and to continue them both for ever with Her In a word together with our Prayers let us often pour out our Tears unto Him beseeching Him with all possible Importunity to be Her everlasting Patron and Protector To settle Her upon the Basis of his infinite Power and to rest her upon the Support of his never-failing Providence to watch over Her with the Eyes of his tender care and to incircle Her with the Arms of his gracious Custody to lay Her in the Bosom of His Paternal love and to Crown Her with the Blessings of His favourable kindness That so whatever Her past Hardships have been for the future she may not only be safe and easy but flourishing and happy And whatever in this way we do for the Church we may conclude Her extremely worthy of it For the true Christian Church is a Community of the best People in the World A Fraternity of virtuous and religious Persons A Society of innocent and holy Livers that believe and act the noblest things An Association or Body of such as are excellent in themselves approved of GOD dearly bought and beloved of CHRIST competently cleansed and sanctifi'd by the SPIRIT and nearly related and united to us On whom as we cannot but place much of our Delight here on Earth so with them we shall enjoy an eternally sweet and inconceivably delectable Conversation in Heaven And how despicable soever they may now seem and however vilifi'd and abused they may be yet over a while the LORD JESUS will dignify them with such high Perfections and vest them with such bright and radiant Splendors as will render them incomparably glorious and admirable even in the Eyes of all beholders He signifies no less where He openly declares that at His Second event He shall come to be glorifi'd in his Saints and to be admir'd in all them that believe 2 Thess 1.10 Upon these Considerations to name no more what good Christians would not willingly do any thing much more humbly Pray and Mourn to advance and hasten the Church's Happiness And let none refuse or reject the Exercise upon pretence that Her Happiness cannot be hastened because the Time when it commences is immutably decreed For if the Beginning of that happy state which the Christian Church is to enter upon be inalterably prefixt to a certain Period of time Isai 60.22 and so determined by prophetick bounds or limitation as not to be accelerated in any measure yet by Prayers and Tears She may notwithstanding be made very prosperous before-hand and this signal Prosperity may be previous and introductive to that Her Felicity CHAP. XIX Objections against Holy Mourning answered as that 't is beneath us Makes us Melancholy Disparages Religion Wastes our Time And hinders Business HAving done with the Motives which invite to Holy Mourning in General and may they effectually induce us to it 't will be proper in the next place to see what Objections may be brought against it and to remove them fairly out of the way The First may be this Mourning is a thing very much beneath us Below our Nature and our Dignity Man is no less than a marvellous Compound of different Principles And tho' his Body be as mean and faeculent as the Earth he treads on being originally made out of it and so symbolical and homogeneous with it yet his Soul is a divine and noble Essence immaterial and spiritual equal to Angels and like unto GOD. And in this respect he is highly advanc'd in the Classis or Scale of living Creatures and indu'd and adorn'd with such Faculties and Perfections as are suitable to a Being of his Rank or Station in the animate World Nor was his Original Dignity short of his Frame or Nature For when GOD created Him his Favour bestow'd the high Privilege upon him to make him Prince or Head of this sublunary World Gen. 1.28 And for Him that is of so high a Nature and also bears so high a Character Mourning must needs be too low an Exercise When his Person is so extraordinary as to excell even all the visible Creation and his Power so eminent as at first to hold the Reins of this World in his hand for him to sit whimpering with Tears in his Eyes will ill become so exalted a Creature and the Empire delegated to him from above To this I answer First Grief is one of our natural Passions And whatever is a piece of Man's Nature must not be counted either unworthy of him or disgraceful to him That would be a rude and impious reflection upon the All-wise and Glorious GOD who made Him Secondly Tho' Man in this inferior World was and in some measure still is a kind of Sovereign yet he is one of the ALMIGHTY's Subjects And so whatever Commands GOD lays upon him he is bound indispensably to obey them And holy Mourning being one of his Precepts in point of Duty he must submit to that And as that which is his Duty will be so far from debasing him that 't will conduce to his Honour as well as to his Interest so holy Mourning as being a Duty which GOD injoins must improve his Nature and imbellish his Worth and while it advances both can disparage neither For this we have a Proof that puts the thing past all doubt JESUS our LORD was once an holy Mourner upon Earth He wept for Lazarus St. Joh. 11.35 And in the days of His Flesh He offered up Prayers and Supplications with strong crying Tears Heb. 5.7 But did this at all sink or degrade our Nature which He graciously assumed So far from that that at this very time and for many Ages past it sits at GOD's Right hand in Glory and is there exalted far above all Principality and Power and Might and Dominion and every Name that is named not only in this World but also in the next Eph. 1.21 So far is Mourning from disparaging our Nature that GOD did not count it disparaged His. For when our LORD wept even He was concern'd in shedding those Tears as being hypostatically joined to our Flesh Secondly It may be objected against holy Mourning that it makes us Melancholy or is a piece of that unhappy and uneasy Temper And so indeed it will not only be of no use but of dangerous consequence For Melancholy is said and not improperly to be the Devil's * Balneum Diaboll Bath A complexion wherein our great Adversary delights as being troublesom to us and advantageous to him in carrying on his Malicious Designs against us And when religious Mourning leads to Melancholy or
credit to Jonah and to be so happily influenc'd by his threatning Preachments is still a Question But for resolving it let us try if we cannot find something material hinted by the HOLY GHOST 2 King 14. For there perhaps we may find a Key of His making which will help to unlock this Difficulty In the latter part of that Chapter we read that Jeroboam the King of Israel recovered Damascus and Hamath and that he restored the Coast of Israel from the entring of Hamath unto the Sea of the Plain according to the word of the LORD GOD of Israel which he spake by the hand of His Servant Jonah the Son of Amittai Now as Damascus was an ancient City built before Abraham's time for his Steward was called Eliezer of Damascus and as it was a most pleasant City so delightful that Mahomet never durst enter into it lest it should tempt him to neglect his Designs so it was a great and most powerful City as being no less than the Metropolis of Syria And such a City as this the Head of a Country and the Royal Seat of a mighty Kingdom being taken by the King of Israel from the King of Syria the King of Nineveh the Confines of whose Empire were not remote from it could not but take special notice of And Jeroboam being animated to the War which was thus successful by the word of the Prophet Jonah who clearly foretold what the Issue would be we need not question but the King of Nineveh understood this too there being nothing more usual than for Kings and States where their Dominions are contiguous or no farther distant to pry into the Intrigues and affairs of each other But then he understanding that there was a Prophet in Palestine who unerringly foretold contingent Events and particularly the Fate of that flourishing City which fell out according to his Prediction when he heard that this very Prophet was come to Nineveh on purpose to denounce Destruction against it which according to his Threatning was to happen suddenly too unless the Inhabitants of it repented he might very well be concern'd as he was and set himself and his People to mourn as he did And the more readily might this be done yet in case Jonah went to Nineveh with any Merchant Caravan Trading into the East from Tyrus then the greatest Empory in that part of the World For Tyrians living upon that Sea where Jonah was thrown over-board and so miraculously preserved and knowing it to be true if any of them reported and affirmed it at Nineveh this might help to beget a more firm belief still of his dreadful Threatning NOTE III. Pag. 44. BEyond the Bounds of this Material World there is a strangely vast and infinite Place if we may so call it An Extension as illimited as GOD Himself and also as eternal as He else it could not be what He proclaims it His Habitation And very properly does He call it Eternity For neither Days nor Months nor Years nor Ages nor any thing of time was ever in it and yet it always did and shall exist And in this immense Capacity or Extension naturally boundless both in measure and Duration and holy too as being made so by Him that fills it the HIGH and LOFTY ONE does dwell There 's the Seat and everlasting Residence of His sublime and most exalted MAJESTY and by his Essence which is Ubiquitary He throughly possesses and every where replenishes that so Stately and expanded Mansion And where does He dwell besides O amazing Condescension in Him and Honour unto us as Himself declares He dwells with the Humble and contrite Spirit So that next to the highest Place He takes up His special Abode in the lowest mind In that Mind most which sinks lowest in holy Mourning NOTE IV. Pag. 80. BUT that he was far from being so appears by one Expression of his in his Laert. li. 10. Epistle to Pythocles Where he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tho a wise man be tortured yet he is blessed And from another clause in his Ib. Epistle to Menaeceus Where he declares most worthily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Drinkings and continual Banquets carnal injoyments and the sumptuous Provisions of a well furnisht Table are not the things that make a sweet life but sober Reasoning And by and by he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The greatest good is Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore Wisdom is more precious than Philosophy because out of it all Virtues spring Which teach that we cannot live pleasantly without living prudently and well and that we cannot live uprightly without living pleasantly For Virtues are connatural to a pleasant life and from these a pleasant life is inseparable And then from another Passage in the same Epistle where he says Virtutes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be desired for pleasure and not for themselves as Physick is desired for health And says withal that Virtue is the only thing which cannot be separated from pleasure From all which it is evident that when Epicurus founded Happiness in Pleasure he meant that Pleasure which is the fruit of Virtue NOTE V. Pag. 130. WE are not to imagine that Heaven did any thing to restrain or hinder the outragious violences done to those Martyrs Their Eyes were really bor'd out their Legs cut off their Bones broken their Flesh beaten bruised mangled burned c. Not are we to conceive that when these Violences were done to their Bodies the Law or Order of communicating them to their Souls in way of Sensation was interrupted or dissolved For when their Bodies suffered in any capacity by Incisions Contusions Rackings Searings Scourgings Scaldings or the like these must make grievous Impressions on the Nerves and agitating them by furious Tensions or Vellications must transmit the Motions to the common Sensorium and so excite most dolorous Pains in their Souls For the Nerves which are thee great Instrument of Sense derive their Original from the Brain and by innumerable Sprigs or Ramifications being spread and propagated through the Body they terminate in the exterior parts of it So that nothing of violence can be done outwardly to the Body but at the same time it lights upon the Fibres of some of those Nerves whose Extremities are lodged in its Superficies I mean in the Cutis or Skin thereof And if these at any time be fiercely moved tho' at the Ends of them most distant from the Head yet the same motion at the same time is felt at their other Ends which are in the Brain And the Seat of the Soul or the proper place of her special vital Residence being some where there She cannot but be vehemently affected thereby But then we must consider that these Nerves may receive Impressions as well at the Roots of them within the Brain as in any parts of any Branches of them any where dispersed in the Body Yea there is reason why they should be most receptive of impressions there