sad a thing is it that we should thus add to our own Afflictions and the heavier we judge the burden the more we lay on As if God had not done enough or would not sufficiently afflict us We may more comfortably bear that which God layeth on us then that which we immediately lay upon our selves Crosses are not great or small according to the bulk of the matter but according chiefly to the minde of the sufferer Or else how could holy men rejoyce in Tribulation and be exceeding glad that they are accounted worthy to suffer for Christ Reproaches wrongs losses are all without you unless you open them the door wilfully your self they cannot come in to the heart God hath not put the Joy or Grief of your Heart in any other mans power but in your own It is you therefore that do your selves the greatest mischief God afflicts your body or men wrong you in your state of name a small hurt if it go on further and therefore you will afflict your soul But a sadder thing yet is it to consider of that men fearing God should so highly value the things of the world They who in their Convenants with Christ are engaged to renounce the world the flesh and the devil They that have taken God in Christ for their Portion for their All and have resigned themselves and all that they have to Christs dispose whose very business in this world and their Christian life consisteth so much in resisting the devil mortifying the flesh and overcoming the world and it is Gods business in his inward works of Grace and his outward teachings and sharp afflictions and examples of others to convince them of the vanity and vexation of the world and throughly to wean them from it And yet that it should be so high in their estimation and sit so close to their hearts that they cannot bear the loss of it without such discontent disquiet and distraction of minde Yea though when all is gone they have their God left them they have their Christ still whom they took for their Treasure they have opportunities for their souls they have the sure promise of Glory yea and a promise that all things shall work together for their good yea and for that one thing that is taken from them they have yet a hundred outward Mercies remaining that yet even Believers should have so much unbelief and have their Faith to seek when they should use it and live by it and that God should seem so small in their eyes as not to satisfie or quit them unless they have the world with him and that the world should still seem so Amiable when God hath done so much to bring it into contempt Truly this and more shews that the work of Mortification is very imperfect in professors and that we bend not the force of our daily strivings and endeavours that way If Christians did bestow but as much time and pains in Mortifying the flesh and getting down the Interest of it in the soul that Christs Interest may be advanced as they do about Controversies external duties formalities tasks of devotion and self tormenting fears O what excellent Christians should we then be and how happily would most of our disquiet be removed Alas if we are so unfit to part with one outward comfort now upon the disposal of our fathers providence how should we forsake all for Christ or what shall we do at death when all must be parted with As ever therefore you would live in true Christian Peace set more by Christ and less by the world and all things in it and hold all that you possess so loosely that it may not be grievous to you when you must leave them So much for the Troubles that arise from your Body and outward state All the rest shall be directed for the Curing of those Troubles that arise immediatly from more Spiritual Causes DIRECTION III. 3. Be sure that you first lay sound apprehensions of Gods nature in your understanding and lay them deeply THis is the first Article of your Creed and the first part of Life Eternal to know God! His substance is quite past humane understanding therefore never make any attempt to reach the knowledge of it or to have any positive conceivings of it for they will be all but Idols or false conceptions but his Attributes are manifested to our understandings Well consider that even under the terrible Law when God proclaims to Moses his own Name and therein his Nature Exod. 34.6 7. the first and greatest part is The Lord God Mercifull and Gracious long suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin And he hath sworn that he hath no pleasure in the death of a sinner but rather that he return and live Think not therefore of Gods Mercifulness with diminishing extenuating thoughts nor limit it by the bounds of our frail understandings for the heavens are not so far above the earth as his thoughts and wayes are above ours Still remember that you must have no low thoughts of Gods Goodness but apprehend it as bearing proportion with his Power As it is blasphemy to limit his Power so it is to limit his Goodness The advantages that your soul will get by this right knowledge and estimation of Gods Goodness will be these 1. This will make God appear more Amiable in your eyes and then you will Love him more readily and abundantly And Love 1. Is effectually consolatory in the very working so much Love usually so much Comfort I mean this Love of Complacency for a Love of Desire there may be without comfort 2. It will breed perswasions of Gods Love to you again and so Comfort 3. It will be an unquestionable evidence of true Grace and so Comfort The Affections follow the Understandings conceptions If you think of God as one that is glad of all advantages against you and delighteth in his Creatures misery it is impossible you should Love him The Love of our selves is so deeply rooted in nature that we cannot lay it by nor Love any thing that is Absolutely and directly against us We conceive of the devil as an Absolute Enemy to God and man and one that seeks our destruction and therefore we cannot Love him And the great Cause why troubled souls do Love God no more is because they represent him to themselves in an ugly odious shape To think of God as one that seeks and delighteth in mans ruine is to make him as the devil and then what wonder if in stead of Loving him and Delighting in him you tremble at the thoughts of him and fly from him As I have observed Children when they have seen the devil painted on a wall in an ugly shape they have partly feared and partly hated it If you do so by God in your fancy it is not putting the Name of God on him when you have done that will reconcile your Affections
suffering or hazards must I cast my self upon it without a Call or must I be therefore without Comfort Answ No you shall not need to cast your self upon suffering nor yet to be without Comfort for want of it I know no man but may serve God at dearer rates to the flesh then most of us do without stepping out of the way of his duty Nay he must do it except he will avoyd his duty Never had the Church yet such times of prosperity but that faithful duty would hazard men and cause their trouble in the flesh Can you not nay ought you not to put your self to greater labour for mens souls If you should but go day after day among the poor ignorant people where you live and instruct them in the knowledge of God and bear with all their weakness and rudeness and continue thus with Patience this might cost you some labour and perhaps contempt from many of the unthankful and yet you should not do more then your duty if you have opportunity for it as most have or may have if they will If you should further hire them to learn Catechisms if you should extend your liberality to the utmost for relief of the poor this would cost you somewhat If you carry on every Just Cause with Resolution though never so many great friends would draw you to betray it this may cost you the loss of those friends If you will but deal plainly with the ungodly and against all sin as far as you have opportunity especially if it be the sins of Rulers and Gentlemen of name and power in the world it may cost you somewhat Nay though you were Embassadors of Christ whose office is to deal plainly and not to please men in evil upon pain of Christs displeasure you may perhaps turn your great friends to be your great enemies Go to such a Lord or such a Knight or such a Gentleman and tell him freely that God looketh for another manner of spending his time then in hunting and hawking and sporting and feasting and that this precious time must be dearly reckoned for Tell him that God looks he should be the most eminent in Holiness and in a Heavenly life and give an example thereof to all that are below him as God hath made him more eminent in worldly dignity and possessions Tell him that where much is given much is required and that a low profession and dull approbation of that which is good will serve no man much less such a man Tell him that his Riches must be expended to feed and cloath the poor and promote good uses and not meerly for himself and family or else he will make but a sad account and that he must freely engage his reputation estate and life and all for Christ and his Gospel when he cals him to it yea and forsake all for him if Christ put him to it or else he can be no Disciple of Christs and then what good will his Honours and Riches do him when his Soul shall be called for Try this course with Great men yea with Great men that seem religious and that no further then faithfulness and compassion to mens souls doth bind you and do it with all the wisdom you can that is not carnal and then tell me what it doth cost you Let those Ministers that are near them plainly and roundly tell both the Parliament-men and Commanders of the Army of their unquestionable transgressions and that according to their nature and wo to them if they do not and then let them tell me what it doth cost them Alas Sirs how great a number of Professors are base daubing self-seeking Hypocrites that cull out the safe the cheap the easy part of duty and leave all the rest And so ordinarily is this done that we have made us a new Christianity by it and the Religion of Christs own making the self-denying course prescribed by our Master is almost unknown and he that should practice it would be taken for a madman or some self-conceited Cynick or some saucy if not seditious fellow It is not therefore because Christ hath not prescribed us a more self-denying hazardous laborious way that men so commonly take up in the Cheapest Religion but it is through our false-heartedness to Christ and the strength of sensual carnal Interests in us which make us put false Interpretations on the plainest precepts of Christ which charge any unpleasing duty on us and Familistically turn them into Allegories or at least we will not yield to obey him And truly I think that our shifting off Christ in this unworthy manner and even altering that very frame and nature of Christian Religion by turning that into a flesh-pleasing Religion which is more against the flesh then all the Religions else in the world and dealing so reservedly superficially and unfaithfully in all his work is a great cause why Christ doth now appear no more openly for men and pour out no larger a measure of his Spirit in Gifts and Consolations When men appeared ordinarily in the most open manner for Christ in greatest dangers and sufferings then Christ appeared more openly and eminently for them yet is none more for meekness humility and love and against unmerciful or dividing zeal then Christ 2. And as you see that a cheap Religiousness doth not to discover sincerity so secondly it is not accompanied with that special blessing of God As God hath engaged himself in his Word that they shall not lose their Reward that give but a cup of water in his name so he hath more fully engaged himself to those that are most deeply engaged for him even that they that forsake all for him shall have manifold recompence in this life and in the world to come eternal life Let the experience of all the world of Christians be produced and all will attest the same truth That it is Gods usual course to give men larger Comforts in dearer duties then in cheap Nay seldom doth he give large Comforts in cheap duties and seldom doth he deny them in dearer sobeit they are not made dear by our own sin and foolish indiscretion but by his command and our faithfulness in obeying him Who knows not that the Consolation of Martyrs is usually above other mens who hath read of their sufferings and strange sustentations Christian do but try this by thy own experiences and tell me when thou hast most resolutely followed Christ in a good Cause when thou hast stood against the faces of the greatest for God when thou hast cast thy life thy family and estate upon Christ and run thy self into the most apparent hazards for his sake hast not thou come off with more inward peace and comfort then the cheaper part of thy Religion hath afforded thee When thou hast stood to the Truth and Gospel and hast done Good through the greatest opposition and lost thy greatest and dearest friends because thou wouldst not forsake Christ and his
harden their hearts or stiffen their necks and you will finde that the most usual meaning of the Holy Ghost is this They were an intractable disobedient obstinate people or as the Greek word in the New Testament signifieth which we often translate Vnbelieving they were an Vnperswadable people no saying would serve them They set light by Gods Commands Promises and severest Threatnings and Judgements themselves nothing would move them to forsake their sins and obey the voyce of God You shall finde that hardness of heart is seldom put for want of tears or a melting weeping disposition and never at all for the want of such tears where the will is tractable and obedient I pray you examine your self then according to this Rule God offereth his Love in Christ and Christ with all his benefits to you Are you willing to Accept them He commandeth you to worship him and use his ordinances and Love his people and others and to forsake your known Iniquities so far that they may not have dominion over you Are you Willing to this He commandeth you to take him for your God and Christ for your Redeemer and stick to him for better and worse and never forsake him Are you willing to do this If you have a stiff Rebellious heart and will not Accept of Christ and Grace and will rather let go Christ then the world and will not be perswaded from your known iniquities but are loth to leave them and love not to be reformed and will not set upon those duties as you are able which God requireth and you are fully convinced of then are you Hard-hearted in the Scripture sense But if you are glad to have Christ with all your heart upon the terms that he is offered to you in the Gospel and you do walk-daily in the way of duty as you can and are willing to Pray and willing to hear and wait on God in his Ordinances and willing to have all Gods Graces formed within you and willing to let go your profitablest and sweetest sins and it is your daily desires O that I could seek God and do his will more faithfully zealously and pleasingly then I do O that I were rid of this body of sin these carnal corrupt and worldly inclinations and that I were as holy as the best of Gods Saints on earth And if when it comes to practise whether you should obey or no though some unwillingness to duty and willingness to sin be in you you are offended at it and the greater bent of your Will is for God and it is but the lesser which is towards sin and therefore the world and flesh do not lead you captive and you live not wilfully in avoidable sins nor at all in gross sin I say if it be thus with you then you have the Blessing of a soft heart a heart of flesh a new heart for it is a Willing obedient tractable heart opposed to obstinacy in sin which Scripture calleth a soft heart And then for the Passionate part which consisteth in lively feelings of sin misery mercy c. and in weeping for sin I shall say but this 1. Many an unsanctified person hath very much of it which yet are desperately Hard-hearted sinners It dependeth far more on the temper of the body then of the Grace in the soul Women usually can weep easily and yet not all and children and old men Some complexions encline to it and others not Many can weep at a Passion-Sermon or any moving duty and yet will not be perswaded to obedience these are hard-hearted sinners for all their tears 2. Many a tender godly person cannot weep for sin partly through the temper of their minds which are more judicious and solid and less passionate but mostly from the temper of their bodies which dispose them not that way 3. Deepest sorrows seldom cause tears but deep thoughts of heart as greatest joys seldom cause laughter but inward pleasure I 'le tell you how you shall know whose heart is truly sorrowful for sin and tender He that would be at the greatest cost or pains to be rid of sin or that he had not sinned You cannot weep for sin but you would give all that you have to be rid of sin you could wish when you dishonoured God by sin that you had spent that time in suffering rather and if it were to do again on the same terms and inducements you would not do it Nay you would live a beggar condtendedly so you might fully please God and never sin against him and are content to pinch your flesh and deny your worldly interest for the time to come rather then wilfully disobey This is a truly tender heart On the other side another can weep to think of his sin and yet if you should ask him what wouldst thou give or what wouldst thou suffer so thou hadst not sinned or that thou mightest sin no more Alas very little For the next time that he is put to it he will rather venture on the sin then venture on a little loss or danger or disgrace in the world or deny his craving flesh its pleasures This is a hard-hearted sinner The more you would part with to be rid of sin or the greater cost you would be at for that end the more Repentance have you and true tenderness of heart Alas if men should go to Heaven according to their weeping what abundance of children and women would be there for one man I 'le speak truly my own Case This doubt lay heavy many a year on my own soul when yet I would have given all that I had to be rid of sin but I could not weep a tear for it Nor could I weep for the death of my dearest friends when yet I would have bought their lives had it been Gods will at a dearer rate then many that could weep for them ten times as much And now since my nature is decayed and my body languisheth in consuming weakness and my head more moistned and my veins filled with flegmatick watry blood now I can weep and yet I find never the more tender-heartedness in my self then before And yet to this day so much remains of my old disposition that I could wring all the money out of my purse easier then one tear out of my eyes to save a friend or rescue them from evil when I see divers that can weep for a dead friend that would have been at no great cost to save their lives 5. Besides as Dr. Sibs saith There is oft sorrow for sin in us when it doth not appear It wanteth but some quickening word to set it afoot It is the nature of Grief to break out into tears most when sorrow hath some vent either when we use some expostulating aggravating terms with our selves or when we are opening our hearts and case to a friend then sorrow will often shew it self that did not before 6. Yet do I not deny but that our want of Tears and
the party is right or wrong in the Discovery of these Wants I now meddle not Whether they Judge rightly or wrongly the Directions may be Usefull to them And though I purposely meddle not with the unhumbled that feel not the want of Christ and Mercy yet most that falls may be usefull to all that profess the Christian faith For I shall study so to avoid the extreames in my doctrinall Directions as may conduce to your escaping the desperate extremes of Vngrounded Comforts and Causless Terrours in your own spirit Of my Directions the first shall be only Generall and the rest more particular And in all of them I must intreat you 1. To observe the Order and Method as well as the Matter and that you would practise them in the same order as I place them 2. And to remember that it is not only Comfortable words but it is Directions for your own practice which here I prescribe you And therefore that it is not the bare Reading of them that will Cure you but if you mean to have the benefit of them you must bestow more time in Practising them then I have done in Penning them yea you must make it the work of your life And let not that startle you or seem tedious to you for it will be no more grievous a work to a well tempered soul then eating or drinking or sleep or recreation is to a healthfull Body and then it is to an honest woman to Love and Delight in her Husband and her Children which is no grievous task DIRECTION I. 1. Get as clear a discovery as you can of the true Cause of your Doubts and Troubles for if you should mistake in the Cause it would much frustrate the most excellent means for the Cure THe very same Doubts and Complaints may come from severall Causes in severall Persons and therefore admit not of the same way of Cure sometime the Cause begins in the body and thence proceedeth to the minde sometime it begins in the minde and thence distempereth the body sometime in the minde it is most or first from worldly crosses and thence proceedeth to spirituall things And of spirituall matters sometimes it begins upon scruples or differences in Religion or points of Doctrine sometimes and most commonly from the â—ense of our own Infirmities sometimes it is only from ordinary Infirmities sometimes from some extraordinary decayes of inward Grace sometime from the neglects of some weighty duty and sometimes from the deep wounds of some heynous secret or scandalous sin And sometimes it is meerly from the fresh discovery of that which before we never did discern And sometimes from the violent assault of extraordinary Temptations which of these is your own Case you must be carefull to finde out and to apply the means for Cure accordingly Even of true Christians the same means will not fit all The difference of Natures as well as of actuall Cases must be considered One hath need of that tender handling which would undo another and he again hath need of that rowsing which another cannot bear And therefore understand that when I have given you all the Directions that I can I must in the end hereof advise you to take the Counsel of a skilfull Minister in applying and making use of them For it is in this as in the Case of Physick When we have written the best Books of Receipts or for Methodicall Cures yet we must advise people to take heed how they use them without the advice of a learned and faithfull Physitian For Medicines must not be only fitted to Diseases but to Bodies That Medicine will kill one man which will cure another of the same distemper such difference there may be in their age strength complexion and other things So is it much in our present Case And therefore as when all the Physick Books in the world are written and all Receipts known yet will there be still a Necessity of Physitians so when all Discoveries and Directions are made in Divinity there will still be a Necessity of a constant standing Ministry And as ignorant Women and Emprikes do kill oft times more then they Cure though they have the best Receipts for want of Judgment and experience to use them aright so do ignorant Teachers and Guides by mens souls though they can say the same words as a Judicious Pastor and repeat the same Texts of Scripture Not that I mean that such can do no good Yes much no doubt if they will humbly compassionately and faithfully improve their Talents within the verge of their own Calling which if they go beyond ordinarily a remarkable Judgment followeth their best labours both to the Churches and particular souls that make use of them And therefore because if my conjectural prognisticks fail not as I daily pray they may we are like to be more tried and plagued this way then ever were any of our fore-fathers since Adams dayes till now and seeing this is the hour of our Temptation wherein God is purposely separating the chaff and discovering to the world the dangers of injudicious misguided Zeal I shall therefore both first and last advise you as ever you would have a setled Peace of Conscience keep out of the hand of vagrant and seducing Mountebanks under what Names or Titles or pretences soever they may assault you Especially suspect all that bestow as much pains to win you to their party as to win you to Christ DIRECTION II. 2. Make as full a Discovery as you can how much of the trouble of your minde doth arise from your Melancholy and bodily distempers and how much from discontenting afflictions in your worldly Estate or Friends or Name And according to your Discovery make use of the Remedy I Put these two Causes of trouble here together in the beginning because I will presently dismiss them and apply the rest of these Directions only to those Troubles that are raised from sins and wants in Grace 1. For Melancholy I have by long experience found it to have so great and common a hand in the fears and troubles of minde that I meet not with one of many that live in great Troubles and fears for any long time together but Melancholy is the main seat of them Though they feel nothing in their body but all in their Minde I would have such persons make use of some able godly Phisitian and he will help them to discern how much of their Trouble comes from Melancholy Where this is the Cause usually the party is Fearfull of almost every thing a word or a sudden thought will disquiet them Sometime they are sad and scarce know why all Comforts are of no continuance with them but as soon as you have done comforting them they be never so well satisfied yet the trouble returns in a few dayes or hours as soon as the dark and troubled spirits return to their former force They are still addicted to musing and solitariness and thoughts will
no great Likelyhood or hopes yet that they are sincere If you do as I think many Christians easily may that yet receive not a proportionable comfort remember that this is no small Mercy but matter of great consolation But suppose the worst that you see no Grace in your self yet you cannot be sure you have none For it may be there and you not see it Yea suppose the worst that you were sure that you had no true Grace at all yet remember that you have still abundant cause of Comfort in Gods General Grace Do you think you must needs Despair or give up all Hope and Comfort or conclude your self irrecoverably lost because you are Graceless why be it known to you there is that ground of Consolation in general Grace that may make the hearts of the very wicked to leap for joy Do I need to prove that to you You know that the Gospel is called Glad tidings of salvation and the Preachers of it are to tell those to whom they preach it Behold we bring you tidings of great Joy and glad tidings to all People And you know before the Gospel comes to men they are miserable If then it be glad tidings and tidings of great joy to all the unconverted where it comes why should it not be so to you and where is your great joy If you be Graceless is it nothing to know that God is exceeding merciful slow to anger ready to forgive pardoning iniquity transgression and sin loving mankinde Is it nothing to know that the Lord hath brought Infinite Mercy and Goodness down into humane flesh and hath taken on him the most blessed office of Reconciling and is become the Lamb of God Is it nothing to you that all your sins have a sufficient Sacrifice paid for them so that you are certain not to perish for want of a Ransom Is it nothing to you that God hath made such an universal Grant of Pardon and Salvation to all that will Believe and that you are not on the terms of the meer Law of Works to be judged for not obeying in perfection Suppose you are never so certainly Graceless is it not a Ground of unspeakable Comfort that you may be certain that nothing can condemn you but a flat refusal or unwillingness to have Christ and his Salvation This is a certain truth which may comfort a man as yet unsanctified that sin meerly as sin shall not Condemn him nor any thing in the World but the final obstinate Refusal of the Remedy which thereby leaveth all other sin unpardoned Now I would ask you this Question in your greatest fears that you are out of Christ Are you Willing to have Christ to pardon sanctifie guide and save you or not If you are then you are a true Believer and did not know it If you are not if you will but wait on Gods Word in Hearing and Reading and Consider frequently and seriously of the necessity and excellency of Christ and Glory and the evil of sin the vanity of the world and wil but beg earnestly of God to make you Willing you shall finde that God hath not appointed you this means in vain that this way will be more profitable then all your complainings See therefore when you are at the very lowest that you forsake not the Comforts of General Grace And indeed those that deny any General Grace or Redemption Do leave poor Christians in a very lamentable Condition For alas Assurance of Special Grace yea or a high probability is not so common a thing as meer Disputers against Doubting have imagined And when a poor Christian is beaten from his Assurance which few have he hath nothing but Probabilities and when he hath no confident probable perswasion of special Grace where is he then and what hath he left to support his soul I will not so far now meddle with that Controversie as to open further how this opinion tends to leave most Christians in desperation for all the pretences it hath found and I had done more but that General Redemption or Satisfaction is commonly taught in the maintaining of the General Sufficiency of it though men understand not how they contradict themselves But perhaps you will say This is cold comfort for I may as well argue thus Christ will damn sinners I am a sinner therefore he will damn me as to argue thus Christ will save sinners I am a Sinner therefore he will save me I answer There is no shew of soundness in either of these Arguments It is not a certainty that Christ will save you that can be gathered from General Grace alone that must be had from assurance of of special Grace superadded to the General But a conditional certainty you may have from General Grace onely and thus you may soundly and infallibly argue God hath made a Grant to every sinful man of Pardon and salvation through Christs Sacrifice if they will but Repent and Believe in Christ but I am a sinful man therefore God hath made this Grant of Pardon and Salvation to me DIRECTION XXXI If God do bless you with an able faithful prudent judicious Pastor take him for your Guide under Christ in the way to Salvation and open to him your Case and desire his advice in all your extraordinary pressing necessities where you have found the advice of other godly friends to be insufficient And this not once or twice only but as often as such pressing necessities shall return Or if your own Pastor be more defective for such a work make use of some other Minister of Christ who is more meet HEre I have these several things to open to you 1. That it is your Duty to seek this Direction from the Guides of the Church 2. When and in what cases you should do this 3. To what end and how far 4. What Ministers they be that you should choose thereto 5. In what manner you must open your Case that you may receive satisfaction 1. The first hath two parts 1. That you must open your Case 2. And that to your Pastor 1. The Devil hath great advantage while you keep his Counsel Two are better then one for if one of them fall he hath another to help him It is dangerous Resisting such an enemy alone An uniting of forces oft procureth victory God giveth others knowledge prudence and other gifts for our good that so every member of the body may have need of another and each be useful to the other An Independency of Christian upon Christian is most unchristian much more of people on their Guides It ceaseth to be a Member which is separated from the body and to make no use of the body or fellow members is next to separation from them Sometime bashfulness is the cause sometimes self-confidence a far worse cause but whatever is the cause of Christians smothering their Doubts the effects are oft sad The disease is oft gone so far that the Cure is very difficult