of it and if they be imployed they are hurried and disturb'd and grieved and vexed they meet with many people that are false and treacherous with many businesses that are intricate and perplexed and thus their plodding Heads are stung with Cares and their Breasts with sorrow all groaning under the Curse and proving the punishment to be true That in the sweat of his Brows Man must eat his Bread Gen. 3. Eccles 2.23 All his days are sorrows and his travel grief yea his heart taketh not rest in the night This is also vanity All his drudgery and his toyl is to small purpose it is indeed vanity when a Man deprives himself of sleep the sweet repose of Nature and next to the Grace of God the greatest blessing in the World The Poor are almost every where shedding Tears of Impatience and Discontent for the straitness of their Circumstances they are mourning because they are like to want what would bear their Charges to the Grave and the Rich are troubled how to secure the Riches they enjoy and fear to lose them as many have done before for they cannot live long but they shall see many whom a few days and some unforeseen Accidents have brought from the greaest heights to the lowest poverty whom the Rising-Sun found rejoicing and whom he left for their sudden miseries plunged in Tears How many Foreheads do you see covered with a Cloud of grief for their Losses and their Disappointments Look into the Country-fields there you see toyling at the Plow and Sythe * Bp. Hall Vol. 1. p. 451. Look into the Waters there you see tugging at Oars and Cables Look into the City there you see a throng of Cares and hear sorrowful complaints of bad times and the decay of Trade Look into Studies and there you see paleness and infirmities and fixed Eyes Look unto the Court and there are defeated Hopes Envyings Underminings and tedious attendance all things are full of Labour and Labour is full of Sorrow and these two are inseparably joyned with the miserable Life of Man 3. In the next place consider the miseries of the Body of Man that make him to weep and mourn Persons of weak constitutions are liable to tedious and languishing pains that afflict them for many months together and those that are of a stronger temper to such that are so sharp and so violent that they dispatch them it may be in a week or two Man is seldom without pain and always near to sickness to sickness that will make him groan and sigh whether he will or not and some sickness which is all sorrow throughout such as Melancholly which is all sad and has not one bright or clear side all disconsolate and grievous stagnating the Blood changing the brisk and chearful motion of the Spirits and fixing the Mind unavoidably upon amazing and dreadful objects So is that of Job verified His flesh upon him shall have pain and his soul within him shall mourn Job 14. last The several Seasons of the year have their inconveniencies which annoy poor mortal men not only the Winter-quarter as one expresses it is full of storms and cold and darkness but the beauteous Spring hath Storms and sharp Frosts the fruitful teeming Summer is melted with heat and choaked with dust and the Autumn is full of sickness And how can the Eyes but shed innumerable Tears when they consider the doleful pains to which they themselves and all the other parts of the body are exposed How can the Man but groan to find himself present in such a Body from which he cannot for many painful years be dislodged and in which he has no delight or ease What grief is it to him to have no help or relief when his spirits are broken and his heart is overwhelmed To have many cutting afflictions upon him and the fear of more to come Eccles 8.6 7. To every purpose there is time and judgment and therefore the misery of man is great upon him For he knoweth not that which shall be for who can tell him when it shall be To be daily dying in anguish and vexation and not to be able to die To be surrounded with Troops of Diseases of Agues Fevers Consumptions Cholick Gout Stone and not to be able to keep any of these off nor to run away from them when they come 4. Add to all these natural sorrows such as are distributed by God in Judgment Such are the Tyrants that God suffers long to Flourish and to Triumph in the World that tread upon the necks of others to advance themselves and glut themselves with the Blood of the Innocent daring to do what is most unjust to gratify their Lawless Ambition and their Lustful desire of Empire and from them and their arbitrary designs flow innumerable injuries and wrongs and robberies and mischief Eccl. 4.1 Then the other Judgments Plagues and Famine spreading Contagions or Bloody Wars Plagues that at the same time seize and kill that Conquer whereever they come and send Thousands of miserable mortals to the Grave on a sudden that tear the Children from their Mothers Breasts that separate one part of the Family from another and make them afraid of each others Company or else send them together to the House prepared for all Living that turn flourishing Cities into solitudes and put a stop to all Commerce and Trade Or Famine that kills by as sure but by flower methods That makes them to know they are dying before they die That causes them to walk to and fro with pale and meagre and drooping looks and turns a fruitful Land into barrenness where the poor starving Children come begging to their Mothers for Bread and they have none to give but are forced to see them die before their Eyes as Lam. 4. Or War where many Children are deprived of their Fathers many Wives of their Husbands many that lived plentifully bereaved of all their dear and pleasant things War which fills every place with Blood and Violence with Noise and Clamour and Oppression and Woe That lays Countries waste and desolate and sacrifices multitudes of harmless people to its cruel rage and fury These are the terrible Voice of God which will cause us to weep and to be afraid 5. Consider Men as associated together in their several Relations and so their sorrows and their cause of weeping is increased The Courts of Princes have their occasions of grief and trouble they grieve tho their grief be more pompous and clad in a more solemn dress Those that that have a numerous and great Kindred and Alliance are oftner in Mourning than others for Death does oftner visit their greater Friends and Acquaintance Few Families there are without sorrow that House that now rejoyces is quickly turn'd into a House of mourning and where this day there is nothing but the sound of the Timbrel the Harp and the Viol it may be the next day there is the voice of Crying and Lamentation How many
were safe and well That sit down to eat and to drink and rise up to play and in the midst of those diversions Death seizes on their Bodies and when their Bodies dye their Souls dye and are past our help Oh! my Friends if you have any Life any Compassion put on the bowels of Christ and take up a lamentation for the dead Inf. IV. Why good Christians are so willing to depart from this World 'T is because the favour of God is their Life and when they are dead they live again because they cannot see God and live they are content to dye that they may enjoy the blessed sight They remember very well that they are strangers and pilgrims on earth that Affiction is as proper to this World as Heat in Summer and Storms and Snow in Winter they know how course soever their fare be how harsh soever the usage they meet withal that they are travelling to their dearest Countrey and every one of those Holy Pilgrims in the way to Sion is continually crying out as one says after this or the like manner As for thee Scituation of Paradise p. 95. O City of God how great and how transcendent is thy beauty Nothing but thee do I desire I think of nothing but thee I pant I thirst I long for thy felicity How do I long for thee thou sure reversion of never-fading pleasures O! Paradise thou art the recompence of my Travels and the sole aim of all my Hopes How fain would I leave these habitations of Clay to dwell in thy eternal and delightful Mansions What would I not give to enjoy the liberty of thy Citizens O! Jerusalem Jerusalem when shall I leave this ruinous and shaken House O that I had the Wings of a Dove for then would I fly away and be at rest O! when when shall I arrive there How long will it be ere I enter the Court of Heaven Oh! how have many on whom the face of God hath comfortably shined long'd to depart and to be with him They bear all disappointments and vexations in the hope of this and pain and sickness are welcome because they are as the wheels of their Chariots and drive them nearer to their home Such as these are like a Ship well fraighted that is ready to Sail and stays only till a favourable Wind present it self They dye not by surprise for these happy Travellers to Glory are always on the road that leads to the blessed place above Death is not frightful to them because they have often meditated what it is to dye and what is required for so vast a change There are indeed a great many formidable things in Death the separation of the Soul the many foregoing pains and an innumerable Army of Sorrows and Griefs that march before the King of Terrors all which by Faith these holy persons overcome they know that Christ hath taken from Death all its poysonous and hurtful qualities Their distance from God is the trouble of all good people and when he shews himself they rejoyce as when he hides himself they mourn And hence many a Religious Person when he came to dye has been heard to say I would not now for all the World be without an Interest in Christ I always found him to be a good Master and I still find him to be so he has taken away the sting of death and I am willing to go unto the House prepared for all living for my Lord hath been there before and has perfumed and sanctified the Grave Thou lookest O Grave with a dreadful aspect to Flesh and Blood but not so to Faith and I bid thee welcome as the way to Glory I commit my Body to thee to keep it safe till the Resurrection when my Soul that I now commit into the hands of my Saviour shall come and fetch it back again With the sense of this favour of God did the Martyrs so chearfully persevere and look upon their dying day as the day of their Coronation this Favour made them to scorn the threats and the frowns of Tyrants and all their rage and fury by this they went to the fiery furnace as to a bed of Roses because they knew God would be with them there In the hope of his acceptance old and young grave Matrons and tender Virgins have embraced the Stakes and kist the Flames and freely dyed and have rejoiced and look'd with an unmoved countenance on all the preparations of death whil'st those that were the spectators of their patience could not look upom them without flowing eyes To whom they have said Death would be frighful if we looked no further but it comforts us when we see the Crowns the Hallelujahs and the Glories that wait for us on the further side This will deliver us from an evil World from our corrupt hearts and from all those sins which we have long groaned under this will bring us to him whom all our days we have long'd to see Our Friends bewail us here but Angels are waiting for our Souls and will be glad to convey them to their Lord Christ and ours and conformably to this did those Forty Martyrs whom Basil and so many of the Fathers celebrate encourage one another when neither Promises nor Threats would prevail with them to forsake their God they were condemned to be exposed on Ice to be kill'd with Cold when they beheld the place casting away their Garments they ran to it with delight not as if they had been going to Death but to gather the spoils of Victory VVith our Garments said they we shall put off our old man our Sin and all the corruptions of our Nature VVhat great thing is it if the servant suffer that which his Lord endured before VVe were the cause that he was disrobed and afflicted the cold said these happy Souls is troublesome but Paradise is sweet This Ice afflicts us but the Rest there will delight us Let us endure this cold a litte while longer and the warmth of Abraham's Bosom will refresh us for ever VVe shall exchange this bitter and tempestuous Night for an Eternal Day Let us turn our backs upon the world and seeing we are once to dye Let us now Dye that we may Live And O Lord let us be acceptable to thee when we are offered to thee by this painful Death Thus they endured in the cold night rejoycing in the hope of Glory VVhat wonders of courage and of zeal have been produced by the sense of the Favour and the Love of God! Inf. 5. How inexcusable are they that refuse this Favour of God in which alone is Life Who would chuse to be a Beggar when he might be the King's Favourite Who would chuse to embrace a Dunghill when he might be treated with Plenty and all suitable accommodations Who would chuse to be Sick or Blind when he might receive his Sight And yet this is the sad case of Sinners God would be their friend and they
A DISCOURSE Concerning TROUBLE of MIND AND THE Disease of Melancholly In Three PARTS Written for the Use of such as are or have been Exercised by the same By TIMOTHY ROGERS M. A. who was long afflicted with both To which are Annexed Some LETTERS from several DIVINES relating to the same Subject LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst and Thomas Cockerill at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside and at the Three Legs in the Poultrey MDCXCI To the very much HONOURED and RESPECTED LADY The Lady MARY LANE MADAM YOUR LADYSHIP has a very just claim to this DEDICATION and under your Patronage this BOOK can with good assurance venture abroad You more than any other have enquired of me concerning the following Treatise and more frequently urged me to Print it You were pleased to Honour me during my long Affliction with your kind Visits and though I was greatly afflicted and in degrees beyond what are very common to Men yet you did not a little revive me by your Compassionate and Gentle words and by the Charitable hopes that you had of my deliverance though you have often heard me say That I should never be delivered I thought that I should never have any more ease in my pained Body nor ever any more hope or quiet in my troubled Soul But that God who is Omnipotent and who heard your Prayers and the Prayers of many others in my behalf hath wrought a double Salvation for me He who is the Lord of Nature has healed my Body and He who is the Father of Mercies and the God of all Grace has given rest to my weary Soul None have any Cause to presume when they consider what miseries I felt for a long time and how I was overwhelmed with the deepest sorrows for many doleful Months together neither have any cause to despair they cannot be more low more near to Death and Hell than I thought my self to be and yet I live and am not without some refreshing hope of God's acceptance and can say with the Prophet Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy And with him is plenteous redemption Your LADYSHIP has never indeed been afflicted with that Distemper and those Anxieties of Soul whereof I treat in the following Book and I heartily pray you never may For MELANCHOLLY is the worst of all Distempers and those sinking and guilty Fears which it brings along with it are inexpressibly dreadful But I know that you have been in manifold Afflictions and you have had several very great Losses You lost some years ago a Father who was indeed in all respects for his Holiness his Even-temper and his Publick and Charitable Spirit worthy to be loved and I am sure you greatly loved him as he you to the very last You lost a Mother whom all that knew her greatly valued for the skill and experience that she had in matters of Religion and especially for her admirable acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures and tho in the latter part of her Life she saw not the Light of this World yet her Soul was recreated with a Light Spiritual and Divine and the loss of her sight was abundantly recompenced to her by the clearer views which she had of God and of a Life to come And not to mention other Losses you have lost several Children in whom there was all the sweetness of youth all that good temper and those blooming appearances of hopefulness which could make such little Plants desirable but you have born even so great a Loss with a submissive and a Christian Patience as knowing that you have not so much cause to mourn for those that are gone as to rejoyce in those that are left and who are a very great Comfort to you and may they long be so As I have had for some time heretofore the Honour to sojourn in your Family I always observed in you that Meekness and Good Temper that Affability and Condescention to your Inferiors which made your Conversation very exemplary and made it easie and pleasant for any persons to be in your House If all the Ladies and Women in the World that are called Good were of a Temper so happy as your Ladyship 's What a quiet and peaceable World should we then have The mutual Love in which Sir THOMAS and You live renders indeed the Married state very excellent and Honourable I thought when I came to describe my inward Troubles I should have described them much more largely but I durst not review them too particularly lest the very thoughts of them should again in some measure overwhelm me And indeed Inward Terrors are things that may be sadly felt but they cannot be fully express'd To have the sense of Tormenting Racking Pain the immediate prospected of Death and together with this an apprehension of God's Displeasure and the fear of being cast out of his Glorious Presence for ever this was a part of my Case And who can describe that Anguish and Tribulation which such apprehensions cause in a desolate and a mourning Soul I have in the following Treatise said as much as will I suppose be believed by those who have never been in such a woful state and if I had said more it might perhaps sink some poor souls who are already low enough and if I cannot help them which I design yet I will be sure as far as in me lies not to make them worse MADAM I Could say a great many excellent things of your LADYS â—â— and which in the opinion oâ— all that have the happiness to be acquainted with you would be no flattery but I know your Virtues are Illustrious and evident enough of themselves without my endeavouring to place them in a more open Light Excuse I entreat your the boldness of this DEDICATION in which to speak sincerely I have a great deal of selfishness for I question not but by the means of your Name this BOOK will be more publick and so be more serviceable to people under long and sore afflictions whereof this miserable World is very full I wish you a continuance of the Blessings of Heaven with those of this Earth which you have in great abundance And that the Candle of the Lord may constantly shine on your Tabernaâ—â—â— on Sir Thomas your Self and all your Children and I desire you to be assured That there is none that moâ— heartily prays for your present and Eternal welfare than London Sept. 8. 1691. Honoured MADAM Your Ladyship 's Most Obliged Servant TIMOTHY ROGERS THE PREFACE CONTAINING Several Advices to the Relations and Friends of Melancholly People THERE is a very great difference between such as are only under trouble of Conscience and such whose Bodies are greatly diseased at the same time A sense of Sin and great sorrow for it may in some persons not change at all their former state of health and the mercy of God may so speedily relieve them that they suffer no visible decays in their
of the World As also the Reason why good People are many times very willing to dye and of the inexcusableness and misery of those that are without God's Favour and whence it is that some grow in Grace more than others and are more earnest for a share in God's Love p. 207. CHAP. XIII Shewing that the Favour of God is diligently to be sought and what is to be done that we may obtain it p. 228. CHAP. IV. That we ought to take heed that we do not lose the Favour of God after we have once enjoyed it and what we are to do that we may not fall into a condition so miserable as this would be p. 241. CHAP. V. Of Assurance and of the false Grounds from which many are apt to conclude That they are God's Favourites when they are not so p. 263. CHAP. VI. Shewing by what means we may know whether we have God's favour or not And first by the Graces of his Spirit tho the acting of them is neither so strong nor so comfortable at one time as another And secondly by our hatred of sin and our being satisfied with all the Providences of God p. 275. CHAP. VII Of several other ways whereby a sense of God's favour may be preserved in our souls and how we may certainly know that we are in that happy state p. 294. CHAP. VIII Of the several Privileges that belong to those who have God's favour p. 309. The Contents of the Third Part. CHAP. I. OF the many miseries of this Mortal Life that are the usual occasions of sorrow to the sons of Men with respect both to their Bodies and their Souls p. 317. CHAP. II. Shewing that the Fall of Adam was the Cause of all our Miseries and in how excellent a condition the blessed Angels are and the folly of such as expect to meet with nothing in the World but what is easie and pleasant p. 331. CHAP. III. Of the Peculiar occasions of Weeping that good Christians have more than other Men. p. 338. CHAP. IV. Shewing what dreadful apprehensions a soul has that is under desertion and in several respects how very sad and doleful its Condition is from the Author 's own Experience p. 352. CHAP. V. Answering some Objections and of the further doleful state of a deserted soul and whence it is that God is pleased to suffer a very tempestuous and stormy night to come upon his Servants in this World p. 370. CHAP. VI. Shewing whence it is that Melancholly People love solitariness and whence it is that serious persons are not so light in their Conversations as others are with some Inferences deducible from the foregoing Doctrine as also some advices to those who have never been deserted and to such who are complaining that they are so p. 381. CHAP. VII Of the great joy that fills a soul when the sense of God's favour returns to it after having been long in darkness and that this is great in several respects as it was unexpected as it discovers God to be reconciled and gives the mourner an Interest in Christ by Faith through the Influence of the Holy Spirit It revives his Graces delivers him from the Insulting of the Devil and shews the soul irs right to the Promises p. 393. CHAP. VIII Of the further Properties of the Jâ—â—y that comes to a Soul after long desertion 'T is Irr sistible 't is usually Gradual it revives the Body and the Natural Spirits It fills the late Mourner with the hope of Glory and causes him to express his delight to others From all which we may justly admire the Wisdom of the Divine Providence p. 408. CHAP. IX Of the different ends that God hath in the Afflictions of the Good and the Wicked and what Reason we have to be reconciled to his Providence And that we must be satisfied that God carry us to Heaven in his oven Way and Method p. 421. CHAP. X. The Conclusion of the whole Treatise with Directions to such who have been formerly in the darkness of a sorrowful Night and now enjoy the Light of Day p. 427. A DISCOURSE Concerning TROUBLE of MIND AND THE DISEASE of MELANCHOLY PART I. PSAL. XXX 5. For his anger endureth but a moment in his favour is life weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning The INTRODUCTION THE Miseries under which the whole race of Men have now for a long time groaned and under which they still groan are owing to the Fall of Man The day on which our first Parents complied with the temptation of the Devil was a mournful day to them and in its effects no less sad to us It filled their once pure and quiet hearts with trouble and disorder and made them unable to think of their great Creator with delight It intercepted those chearful and comfortable beams of his Love which were more satisfying to them than all the glories of the lower Paradise For tho' it did after the Fall abound with all the same natural refreshments with the same Rivers Herbs Trees and Flowers yet it was to them no more a Paradise No Musick could delight their sense when they heard a terrible voice from God summoning them to answer for their Crime no objects could please their eyes when they saw the Clouds thickning over their heads and dreadful frowns in the face of their mighty-Judge All the Creatures could minister nothing to their ease or safety when the great Creator was against them From their Apostacy we may derive all our miseries both the pains and sicknesses that afflict our Bodies and the fears and terrors that overwhelm our Souls Our Bodies are liable to a Thousand calamities that may be both long and sharp but how long and how sharp soever they be they do not altogether give us such a sensible and such lively grief as we have when we are under distresses of Conscience and when we are under a sense of the Wrath of God that is due to us for Sin There are many persons who endeavour by all the Rules of Art to give relief and help against the mischiefs that attend our Bodies but which after all their Art will go into the Grave and there are as many that by the Duty of their Office and the Character they bear are obliged to imitate their Saviour To preach good tidings to the meek and to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound Isa 61.1 But they are many times at a loss to know what Remedies to apply to these inward and spiritual Diseases and always unable to make their applications successful unless God himself by his Almighty Power Create Peace and turn that Chaos and those Confusions under which a poor troubled Soul is buried into the joy and light of day It pleases the Wife God that may make us serve to what uses he thinks most convenient for the good of the Universe and the welfare
the ungodly and the sinner appear Prov. 24. 17 18. Rejoyce not when thine enemy falleth and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth lest the Lord see it and it displease him and he turn away his wrath from him Entertain not a secret pleasure in the downfall and distress of any Man whatsoever for these inhuman affections are so displeasing to God that they may provoke him to translate the Calamity from thy Enemy unto thee and thereby damp thy sinful joy with a double sorrow first to see him delivered from his trouble and then to find thy self involved in it See Patr. Paraph. in loc Do not triumph over any in affliction lest the Cup be taken out of their hand and put into yours Do not with the Friends of Job censure them for greater sinners than any in the World because of their sorer Tryals as if you were acquainted with the secrets of the Decrees of God and could pierce with your shallow Reason into the bottom of his unfathomable Judgments Those that are under an apprehension of the Divine displeasure know that it is for sin it is that which troubles and afflicts them more than any thing besides but you ought not to conclude that they are sinners beyond the rest of Men but rather wonder at the Goodness of God that he is gracious and more favourable to any when they all deserve to dye Do not by reproachful Language add affliction to those that are afflicted Zech. 1.15 I am very fore displeased with the heathen that are at ease for I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction It was the cruel insulting of wicked Men over her miseries of which the Church was sensible when she says Mic. 7.8 Rejoyce not against we O my enemy when I fall I shall arise when I set in darkness the Lord shall he a light unto me Inf. 6. How much happier is the condition of a good Man than of one that shall remain impenitent In his wickedness He is angry with the one for a moment but with the other he will be so for ever The Servants of God have never so much cause to mourn under the sense of the heinousness and aggravation of their Sins as they have cause to rejoyce in the riches and the freeness of his Grace They have never so much cause to be troubled at their own distress as to sing at the remembrance of his holiness They have cause to weep indeed because they have provok'd so good a God to wrath and to be glad that his anger is but for a moment They have cause to be concerned that they have made him to frown but cause to rejoyce that he will smile on them for ever The Righteous have a bitter Cup but as 't is here mingled with love so it prepares them for a sweeter tast of heavenly pleasure In the hand of the Lord there is a cup and the wine is red it is full of mixture and he poureth out of the same but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them Psal 75.8 God does correct his own here with measure but his punishments of the wicked will know no bounds wrath shall come upon them to the utmost and how low must they sink and what a load must they bear who have a God to punish them whose Being is Eternal and whose Power is Omnipotent On his own he frowns for a season and he does it to bring them to their Duty but on his obstinate unrelenting enemies he will frown for ever He will abhor them he will cast them out of his presence trample upon them in his fury and leave them to be the Brands of Hell and the Prey of Devils Now indeed we cannot with all the Terrors of the Lord which are terrible beyond expression perswade Men to repent tho' we tell them death and destruction is at hand tho' we shew them the threats of the Scripture the Examples of their evil predecessors that are gone to their own place they slumber on tho' we tell them of the danger and of a Pit that is opening its mouth to swallow them up tho we see wrath gathering and the Clouds ready to burst and bid them make haste to get a shelter before the Storm come tho we bid them flye for their Lives out of Sodom they still linger and delay But after death they cannot if they would he secure they will then have no pillows whereon to rest their heads no water to quench their thirst no friend to help them no God to hear their Cries they cannot then stop their ears at the roaring Wrath of God they cannot then stupifie their Consciences nor put the evil day far off Now they make a shift to stifle the checks of their own consciences they mock at the Threats of God and deride his Message but Sinners you shall sadly know what a dreadful and a terrible God you provoke to wrath all your Entertainments and Diversions all your Mirth and Laughter all your carnal Comforts and your jolly Company will be gone and be gone for ever And what will then remain nothing but Consternation Amazement and Woe nothing but Anguish and Tribulation Who shall speak comfortably to you who shall deliver when you are fallen into the hands of the Living God when you shall find that God that is a gracious Father to the Saints to be a severe Judge to you when he who is the Joy of their Hearts shall depart from you and he who refreshes them with the Smiles of his Face shall kill you with his Frowns What will you do when the full Wrath of God shall be poured on your guilty Souls Where will you turn when it shall scorch and burn you and set you all on Fire How will it overwhelm you when you find that all your hideous Cries all your Lamentations and your Groans are to no purpose When you are in the power of cruel Devils and meet with no pity from God none from his Angels or his Saints We think it long to be in pain for a month or two or for a year but how long will they think it to be who are to be in pain throughout all the durations of a sad Eternity We think it long when we sleep not in the night and wish for the light of day But Oil what a long night will that be and how uncomfortable that will have no morning that will not be succeeded with a a Beam of Day for ever Men do now think an hour or two in attendance upon God to be a great while they think Fast-days and Sabbaths to be long but if they come to that misery Oh how long and how tedious will they find Hell to be How insupportable it is and how unavoidable Hear therefore all you that live in sin hear and live oh do not throw your selves down that Precipice under which there is a Sea of Wrath and a
will not have him to be so he would save them and they will not be saved he would bless them and they chuse to be curs'd How many are there that prefer a Lust before a Saviour and Earth before Heaven and the applause of their vain sottish Companions before the approbation of the All-seeing Judge O blind Sinners Why will you lay hands upon your selves and do all you can to deprive your Souls of Life What a sad thing is it as one says to deny sustenance to thine own Life The breath of God is in thee what shall be done to him that starveth a Prince's child Symmond 's Sight and Faith p. 214. What have we of like worth to Spiritual Vigour Agility Courage and Peace of Soul And shall we who have a door of Life at once offer contempt to Divine goodness and violence to our own Life by not using what God hath put in our hands for our relief Is there so much allurement in destruction and so much Beauty in Eternal Flames that you cannot forbear going thither Why will you suffer your Souls to starve whilst you are contriving to gratify the Flesh Why will you still serve the Devil and your own Sins Are they so good Masters will they pay you so well in the latter end Are you content to have the pleasures of Sin for a season though you lose your share in Paradise Oh what bitter reflections on so bad a choice will this cause hereafter VVhen you shall lift up your Eyes in misery and see the Kingdom of Heaven afar off and say I was once offered that Kingdom and those Joys and I would not have them I was once fair for Salvation but I slighted I might have had the Favour of God and I would not have it O my cursed Sins How you have deceived me You promised me delight and you have brought me to bitterness and wo you promised me safety and you have made me to perish Oh that some Angel or some Saint might be sent to bring me some relief The word of God told me of that Glory his Ministers earnestly intreated me to prepare for it my Friends were always bidding me to leave my wicked course my Conscience checkt me for it and I broke through all these exhortations and these checks and so am come laden with guilt to Eternal Misery I was at my Games and Sports when I should have been upon my Knees I had indeed time and strength and health and many helps and advantages O that I had all my days watcht and strived and denyed my self then I should not have come to this place of Torment O that my Sun would rise again O that I might have another Tryal and more time But alas the Judge is my Enemy I have heard my Sentence and he will not change his purpose I am condemned I am lost for ever O Sinners As you would never fall into such a hopeless state now even now seek the face of God Have you not already spent time enough in Sin in walking in the imagination of your own heatts and the sight of your own eyes Have you not loved your sottish pleasures long enough O! come leave the tents of Wickedness come and Love your God for he is ready to receive you come to him and all your sins shall be forgiven O let not Mercy it self that speaks for your hearts be denyed Who will be so good a friend as God Who will abide with you when life it self is gone And now surely the heart of some sinner or another begins to relent some that is saying with himself Though I never prayed in secret before yet now I will begin to pray Though I lost abundance of my youth and my health I will strive to lose no more I have put off God and my Conscience with vain excuses and delays but I will not put them off again He shall have my thoughts my heart and my endeavours who gave me life and I will ever admire the riches of his Love if he will pardon such a Malefactor and condescend to such a Worm and entertain such a Prodigal as I have been Inf. 6. In what a woful Condition are those poor Sinners that are without this Favour of God! To how great a danger are they every day exposed And which is a part of their misery they know it not Spiritual Death has closed their eyes and they see not where they go What a sad object is a poor sinner that is yet a stranger to this God that is every hour liable to his Eternal Wrath that seeks the Friendship and the Favour of men and has no thoughts of his Creator no dread of his Displeasure no taste or relish of his Love Surely they must be fallen into a dead sleep whom all the Terrors of the Lord all the Threats of his Word and all the Calls of his Ministers will not awaken With what peace can you eat and drink or work or rest whilst so great a God is your Enemy Will his Wrath that makes the Devils in their Hellish Agonies to roar and tremble be tolerable to you When his Vengeance pursues you whither will you run for help When he frowns what will it avail you tho all the world should smile upon you When he casts you off who will shew you pity When he condemns you who will plead your Cause Do you not know that your Life is short that your Change is near that the Judge is at the door Do you not know that this World will leave you that you may quickly go into another And can you dwell with Eternal Burnings Can you venture to go to the Judgment-Seat before you have an Interest in Christ Are you fruitless and barren here and do you think to flourish in the Coelestial Paradise Do you remain dead here under all the means of Grace and do you hope to live for ever What pleasures are those that enchant you that you will not come and taste the Joys of God Who is that that will be a better Friend than he If you laugh at destruction it will not be the further off Oh let not the Devil be your Master nor the world your God Let not sin cheat and impose upon you with its false and counterfeit Delights Others are mourning in secret after the Lord and have you not as much cause to mourn as they Others are striving with earnest Prayers and Supplications and holy Endeavours to enter in at the strait gaâ—e and will it open of it self to you Or have you not also Souls to save as well as they Others Read and Hear and Pray and do all that they can for Salvation being afraid they should fall under the Power of Eternal Death and have you no cause of fear VVhence is it that when they are running so fast in the way of Heaven you run faster in the way of Hell VVhy do you with so great a care tend and regard your Bodies to preserve
snare they frequently minister to Pride and Vanity and Luxury and Excess to Sensualities and worldly Lusts and for that reason it is that our Saviour says A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven Matt. 19.23 Few meet with Heaven here and an Heaven hereafter Luke 16.19 20 21. The Rich man had all manner of Accommodations a stately Dwelling a throng of Admirers soft Garments and curious Entertainments composed of every thing that could be fetch'd from the Land the Sea or the Air and in the midst of all this Plenty had the Curse of an Uncharitable Spirit the poor Lazarus was cloathed with Rags whilst he ruffled in his Silks the poor man whilst he had his excesses and his plenty had not what was necessary to life He was a modest Beggar he asked but for the Crumbs that fell from his Table the sweepings of his House and yet he was denied And to all this want there was added an increase of miseries by his painful Sores and the poor man had no Friends to visit him no Physician to bind up his Wounds no Cordial to support his Spirits in this sorrowful posture lay the poor Lazarus and his Carkass was even putrefying before he came to dye the Dogs were cue only kind Creatures they lickt his Sores and asswaged the vehemence of the pâ—iâ— with their healing Tongues ' They as one expresses it were Humane ' though then Master was a Brute and yet this poor man was very happy when his pains made him at length to dye Angels were sent to convey his newly-delivered Soul away to carry him that was starved on Earth to the Feast of Glory where he will never be in distress or trouble any more The poor Man had a very weary Journey but most sweet refreshment when he comes to his Journeys-end He was exposed to the injuries of the VVeather and the sharpness of the Cold but in Abraham's Bosome he was inexpressibly comforted plenty enough had he in his Father's House though he could not obtain here with all his begging so much as one Crumb and the Rich-man a little after had his polluted and unready Soul torn away and was condemned to greater destruction for having been so cruel to this poor man This proud and scornful VVretch whom with his flaming eyes he saw at rest whilst he was in his Torment and who was become the beggar then and fain would have had one drop to cool his burning Tongue but it was denied and he that shewed no mercy found none v. 23 24. and his Hell was hotter to him for having lived so much at ease here on Earth and it increased his Flames to remember how many were hasting to the same place by his ill Example and who when they come thither would encrease his torment So that we may say to Rich men what a good old Minister said to a Lord after he had shewed him his stately House his Gardens his Fish-ponds and his other Conveniences for a pleasant and easie Life My Lord said he you had need make sure of Heaven for it will be bad going to Hell from such a place as this Many People think that because their Endeavours succeed well their Trades flourish and their VVealth increases that surely they are loved of God and that these things are the marks of his peculiar Favour You may live in pleasures and yet be dead while you live Your Bodies may want nothing and yet your unregarded Souls suffer under miserable decays you may be lifted up to Heaven with outward enjoyments and yet they may only expose you to a greater fall and a more amazing danger You are healthful it may be while others are sick but your health is not any other than a greater Talent which is given to you and of which you must render a very strict Account Your ways it may be are smooth but do they not lead you to ruine and the Grave There is nothing more formidable than spiritual Judgments and of all spiritual Judgments none so great as for God to let you alone to chuse your own way to take your own course and to follow the devices of your own hearts And it is a mark of his Anger kindled at a more than ordinary rate when he says Hos 4.14 I will not punish their sons and daughters any more Rest not therefore in this but seek for sanctifying Grace and the pardon of your sins with your whole heart 3. Do not think that because your Consciences are not under trouble that for that very reason you have God's Favour The Ease that many Sinners have is distempered and will fade way 't is like the Ease of an Apoplexy that benumbs the sense and weakens life 't is like the slumbers of the sick that are caused with Opiates and stupifying Potions As many times true Believers fear where there is no cause of fear so do Sinners hope where there is no cause of hope at all Many a Saint weeps that is going to Jerusalem because he sees not the blessed place that is before him and many a secure soul is asleep at the very door of Hell because he does not perceive the danger that is underneath if he did it would terrify him to see that the flood is coming and his House is only built on the Sand to see that the Sword is drawn and his Adversary is on the way and he has not prepared to meet him Some indeed have questioned whether be the greater Sin Presumption or Despair It is no question but they are both very bad they are both Rocks and if a man be Shipwrackt it is no great matter on what Rock he splits when he is cast away Though God will make allowances even for the despairing Expressions and Thoughts of his Servants in great and long desertions he was gracious to David though he despairingly said I shatl one day fall by the hand of Saul And to Zion tho she said the Lord hath forgotten me My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord Lam. 3.18 But yet it is a sin that we ought to resist and strive against and no less against Presumption which flays its thousands every day Oh how many are there there are too many that eat and drink and are merry and yet know not whether God be their Friend or their Enemy Psal 55.19 They feel no changes and therefore they fear him not But if speedy and serious and hearty Repentance prevent not they will shortly feel a change that will spoil and blast all their hopes they 'l feel a change that will at the same time conclude their Life and send them to Judgment and lodge their Souls in misery and where will their hopes then be My Friends the way of Life is strait there are abundance of mistakes about it there are abundance of windings and turnings of labyrinths and dangers by the means of which you may be hindred in your Pilgrimage if you do not take great care
or some particular thing that is most precious which Expression calls us to meditate on the infinite tenderness of God's Love to men For a man does not love any thing so much as that which is his own he looks upon other things in which he has no propriety with an indifferent and unconcerned eye even the stately Glories of a Palace do not affect him with so great a joy as the Little Conveniences of his own unobserved Cottage because it is his own And further a Seal often carries the Arms of him whose Seal it is or the Image of some great Person so the work of the Spirit is to engrave in our hearts Faith Hope and Love these are the Ensigns of the New Covenant and form in us the Image of God which consists in Righteousness and Peace and Holiness God does not set this mark but upon those that are indeed his Favourites that by the tenderness and softness of their hearts are prepared to receive Impressions * Claude sur Eph. 4.30 p. 20. But in this matter we are in a great measure passive as the Wax receives the same marks that the Seal stamps upon it these are saving-works of the Spirit which I have mentioned whereas a great many common Gifts are bestowed upon those whom God abhors many a man may have Light enough to shew others the way to Heaven and yet never walk therein himself and he that was a Star in the Firmament of the Church on Earth may sit in darkness 1 Cor. 13.1 2 Thongh I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charity I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing You must under this Head observe these two things 1. Not to expect to be alike strong in every Grace 2. Not to have at all times the same Comforts 1. You must not expect to be a like strong in every Grace We ought to strive to be compleat to have all the pieces of our Christian Armour polish'd and fit for action and well fitted and put upon us but those parts where is the most danger of a Wound those parts where is the seat of Life we are principally to secure and guard So those Graces we are first of all to look after and to cherish which produce and keep the rest in vigour such as Faith and Repentance and Humility Tho' most certain it is that all Men even of those that are God's Favourites are not of the same stature nor the same strength nor have they as much skill in every Duty as it may be they have in one or two it is so ordered by the Holy Providence of God that all in Christ shall have Tribulations but very different many times from one another that so the different Grace that they are to exercise under their several Tryals may shine with a brighter Glory Thus of old Abraham was peculiarly eminent for his Faith Moses for his Meekness Job for his Patience All Believers by the Privileges with which they are invested are Stars but yet even here one Star differs from another Star in Glory As there are several gifts of the same Spirit that are all useful to the whole so the Graces that are wrought by him do according to his Soveraign pleasure produce several effects according to the subjects in which they are and many times are very much advanced or obstructed by a good or ill temper of the body Hence those that have a cholerick temper the fieriness of their natural spirits that upon every small occasion are apt to be enflamed does very much hinder that meekness and calmness which is one of the Graces of the holy Spirit and so others that are naturally tenacious and close and narrow-soul'd do many times smell too much even of these ill qualities when they are converted but it ought not to be so for if there be any particular sin to which we are more enclined by our constitution than to another we ought more industriously to set our selves against that sin 2. You must not expect a continuance of the same comforts at all times for the Spirit blows where he listeth and when he will Joh 3.8 Tho' the new Creature be formed in you by the Grace of God yet you cannot perceive its motions with so distinct a sense at one time as at another tho' by the intercession of Christ his Favourites are secured from a total and final Apostacy yet they may fall now and then and their Life seem to decline and a spiritual faintness come upon it and a very deep sorrow may cover and as it were bury your hopes and your joys but yet there is that vital Principle that shall not see corruption that seed of Grace that will now and then flourish with acceptable fruit Your Faith may in violent temptations be like the weak and undiscernable stirring of the soul when the body is in a Swoon the soul does seem for a while to be departed but after the spirits are refreshed it animates the whole body and exercises all the functions and offices of Life as it used to do When the Ship was most violently tost with a Tempest yet our Lord was there tho' the poor trembling Disciples thought he did not care whether they were lost or saved Thus Mary was drowned with Tears after his Resurrection and not finding him where she expected nor as soon she gave way to sorrow They have taken away the Lord says she Joh. 20.13 and I know not where they have laid him when the very person that she had then in view was the same dear Saviour and Friend that she long'd to see And when with great tenderness and familiarity he discovered himself and called her Mary then she full well knew that it was her Master and her poor drooping heart was filled with joy and transport She fell at his feet and kissed them God does not equally manifest his favour no not even to the same person who sometimes triumphs and sometimes is very desolate as the same vessel that is sometimes lifted up even as to Heaven it self by the rising and the swelling Waves is the next minute sinking to the bottom of the Sea and ready to be swallowed in the formidable depths tho' if we were duly prepared the face of our God would appear with as amiable an aspect at one time as at another for if any frowns be there our sins are the cause and because we are sinful 't is necessary for us now and then to weep as well as always to rejoice The Clouds and the Showers are as needful to the Earth as is the constant shine and the fairer weather Our Graces yield no delight to us till the Spirit actuate and enliven them till he blow upon the garden Cant. 4.16 the spices
close with Death keep your mind full of these pleasant Ideas endeavour to get a greatness of soul that may not cease aspiring after these glorious Privileges and look with contempt upon all other Grandeur and Magnificence Having seen how honourable it is to be favoured by the Lord of Hosts Let us all resolve that we will never admire this vain World any more for we have now discerned a better World The End of the Second Part. A DISCOURSE Concerning TROUBLE of MIND AND THE DISEASE of MELANCHOLY PART III. PSAL. XXX 5. Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning CHAP. I. Of the many miseries of this mortal Life that are the usual occasions of sorrow to the Sons of Men with respect both to their bodies and souls 1. THE Life of Man is full of sorrow which yet is not so to be understood as that it is in every part full of darkness and calamity We have indeed stormy days but then we have fair weather too we have not only the sharpness of the Winter that pierces us with its Cold and Frosts and Snow but we have the mild and the favourable Summer afterwards that causes all the whole frame of Nature to rejoice and brings to us many grateful pleasant things that gives us occasion to praise the Wisdom of our Maker that has made a World so beautiful wherein we are to dwell That has provided for us all innumerable Comforts not only such as are absolutely necessary to maintain our Life but such as may give us delight and recreate our sense We can no way turn our Eyes but they behold wonders of his goodness his Sun his Moon in his Stars whose influences are for our benefit as well as for his Glory give us daily cause to say with David Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou visitest him He does not willingly grieve the Children of Men he does not make us always to weep but affords us frequent occasions of rejoicing whereas all our time might be as one Rainy day from the rising of our Sun to its going down but his Providence does permit us however to be laden with many Miseries before we come to another World And let us take a view of them for it will be useful to subdue our Pride to keep us from Vain-glory to make us to remember that we are not at Home that here is not our Rest and that we ought earnestly to desire a better State 1. Let us consider Man in his first arrival in the World or in his Infant-state And there we discern this same Creature that in his after years makes so great a noise and bustle in the VVorld to be a poor helpless thing that is no way able to cherish the newly begun Life nor to keep the Candle that is lighted from expiring the same minute wherein it began to shine Man comes crying into the VVorld an action very suitable to him at the entrance into a VVorld whose pleasures are floating and transcient but whose griefs are very sure Other Creatures are endued with instincts and inclinations for their own preservation and know in some measure as soon as they begin to live how to maintain their own Life but Man of all others is most destitute and helpless in this respect he is so tender and so frail that the least cold or dangers do more easily affect him Tho God has put that great love into Parents that they do as well as they can support and comfort and help their Children and with his blessing and their own great care and labour they make a shift to rear these little Plants But then there are abundance of diseases that begin to set upon the new-born Creatures Convulsions and other pains which greatly torment and vex them but which they are not able to express and which we do not know But we are sure they begin betimes to weep and to be sorrowful and their pains and sorrows make their Parents also to be afflicted and to weep with them when they see their miseries indeed but cannot help them This soft and tender Age is easily troubled and disquieted every little thing troubles and molests them so that the first hour of the night in which we travel when we begin to live is an hour of sorrow 2. When we are got over the weakness of our Infant-state and begin to have more strength and Reason dawns a little and yields us a little light to guide our selves That Light is mingled with darkness our small skill hath abundance of imprudence and we run into a thousand dangers that we do not see and those dangers make us to weep and to be sorrowful our careless youth is full of miseries and the blooming Rose has many Thorns about it When our Reason begins to display it self with our increasing-years then the several tasks that are set us the several things we are obliged to learn in order to a good and well-improved Education bring forth grief and pain our unwillingness to Labour and the Corrections that we meet with if we do it not do both afflict us our Ignorance is our misery and the difficulties that are planted about the Tree of Knowledg do fright and vex us Many of our early days are spent in digging for this hidden treasure and which we cannot find but with a vast toil and sweating for it and which when we have found does not satisfy It 's true indeed our first youth has to sweeten it many pleasures many recreations and diversions and we are then void of the many Cares of Life that afterwards do pierce our hearts but even then we are so confident and so foolish so apt to trust our own understandings and so backward to receive the advice of others who are more experienced that we do often wound our selves and sow those seeds of sorrow that yield us an uncomfortable Harvest many years afterwards And when in our freer time we come to reflect upon what we have done that reflection makes us weep to think that we have done so little for God or for our own Souls and that we lost so great a part of our Age in Trifles and Vanities For we can then say by sad experience Childhood and youth are vanity Eccles 11.10 The Joys that we then were pleased with are past and gone but the Wounds that we then received do many times smart and bleed afresh 3. When we have got the yoak of out Masters and Instructors off our necks and begin to manage and guide our selves and our Actions then we have many sorrows still And that 1. With reference to the Common Affairs of Life 2. With respect to knowledg and understanding 1. With reference to the Common Affairs of Life They are usually very many they bring along with them a huge Train of Cares of grave anxieties and sollicitude if Men have no imployment or business they grieve for the want
cannot remedy and which to behold is very sad and by knowing a great deal is liable to abundance of contradiction and opposition from the more peevish and self-willed and ignorant part of mankind that are vex'd because he will not think and say as they do and they are very prone to censure and condemn the things they do not understand for it is most easie so to do whereas to pierce into the Reasons of things requires a mighty labour and a succession of deliberate and serious thoughts to which the nature of Man is averse And lazily and hastily to judge requires no trouble and were it not that it is a man's duty to know and that his soul if it have any thing of greatness and amplitude in its faculties cannot be satisfied without it it were a much safer and quiet course to be ignorant Study and painful enquiries after knowledg do oftentimes exhaust and break our spirits and prejudice our health and brings upon us those Diseases to which the careless and thinking seldom are obnoxious Eccles 1.13 14 15. I have seen all the works that are done under the Sun and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit that which is crooked cannot be made straight and that which is wanting cannot be numbred CHAP. II. Shewing that the fall of Adam was the cause of all our miseries and in how excellent a condition the blessed Angels are and the folly of such as expect to meet with nothing in the world but what is easie and pleasant Inf. 1. SEeing the life of man is a state of weeping what sin there must needs be in the fall of Adam that has provoked God so much as to send so many miseries upon his own Creatures Had mot he fallen we had always rejoyced and never mourned we had always sung the praises of God with delight and never have hang'd our harps upon the willows We should have always lived upon the food of Angels pure and Coelestial joys and not have had that bread of sorrows which we now have to feed upon We may justly cry out O Adam what was it that you did when you rafted the forbidden fruit Why did you ruin your self and us your helpless posterity in one day and by one Act you turned the pleasant world into a place of wo and made your self and us of free men to become prisoners of this Earth It was a sad day indeed that opened a Sluce to that vast Inundation of miseries that have from that time overwhelmed the lower world thence came storms and tempests wars and desolations and all the burdens under which we groan and which we cannot escape 'T is to this Spring that we may trace all our troubles Oh how happily how pleasantly might we have lived had we not Apostatiz'd And now we can only say Wo unto us for we have sinned and when any Plagues molest us can only say this is the fruit of our own choice this is the product of our own Iniquity Tho thanks be to God through the blood of Jesus Christ we have a way to escape at length from all those Plagues and Sins Inf. 2. Seeing this life is full of weeping how much more happy are the blessed Angels than we At the view of the Harmony and order of the Worlds Creation those Sons of the morning sang together it pleased them to see their Creator's glory so appear and they still continue to sing and praise him not a sad look has from that time to this clouded their faces not a troubled thought has possest their minds those holy Spirits are always joyful serene and undistutb'd they are not linkt to such bodies as we are and consequently not liable to so many thousand miseries A soul in flesh is forced to sympathize with its neighbour and companion the body and is altered or changed as to its joys and griefs according to the several objects that are suitable or disagreeable to that and yet our imbodied condition gives us some privileges of which the Angels being Spirits are not capable for by this means we can glorifie God by sufffering for him and by our patience in our several trials convert many to the faith of Christ which their Spiritual nature gives them no opportunity to do As long as we are united to the body so long must we expect to be afflicted and when this union is happily dissolved then does the time of our freedom and our pleasure come In the Resurrection we shall be as the Angels of God we shall not be busied in those perplexing and intricate affairs that now molest us We shall be like to them in vigor and activity and joy We shall have bodies indeed even then but such as will be spiritualized such as will not be capable of mourning and lamentation nor by their heaviness their pains and indispositions be any more an hindrance to the nimbler operations of our Souls and it should comfort us to think that one day we shall have such excellent Companions so knowing and so kind and loving as Angels are and that then we shall rejoice as well as they and with our common praise give our Great Creator an Eternal Hymn of Thanks Inf. 3. They have a wrong notion of the life of man that expect to find nothing in it but what is pleasant And who because now their mountain stands strong say with David That they shall never be moved Psal 30.6 7. How clearly soever their Sun now shines yet sooner or later storms and darkness will overtake them The day is coming that will cast a vail upon all their smiling glory and turn their laughter into mourning and lamentation For man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards Job 5.7 This world is as an Hospital or Lazaretto full of various miseries and calamities and therefore those that promise nothing to themselves but diversion and mirth and soft and easie pleasures labour under manifold mistakes which arise from these two Causes 1. VVant of Experience and Consideration Hence it is that young people and such as have lived but a little while are mightily taken with the sweetness and delight of life whereas those that have tried it some years longer find several crosses and disappointments and vexations in it and tho the morning of their day was clear yet they see many thick Clouds gather as the shadows of the Evening are drawing on It is nothing else but gross ignorance that occasions the loud and mad Triumphs of so great a part of the world for if they did but a little survey the condition of their suffering-neighbours and the weakness of their own bodies the uncertainty of their hopes and the vanity of their desires they would sit down and bewail their miseries and they would find their biggest joys to be confin'd with grief Or 2. It arises from this That they resolve not to disturb their present ease and pleasure with any mâ—urnful meditations They 'l shut their ears
such barbarities as they have done where neither the Gray hairs of the most aged and venerable neither the Tears of Widows nor the Sighs of Prisoners could ever yet prevail for the least mitigation They have exceeded the worst of former Ages in the cruelty of their torments any other eyes would weep but theirs to see what they inflict on their fellow-creatures any other hearts would soften at the groans and the crys of so many miserable people but nothing can make an Impression upon them their Dungeons Gallies and Racks and Gibbets are the only things they can think of wherewith to vex such as are better than themselves such as have been guilty of no crime unless it were an excess of Loyalty to a King who is an enemy to mankind as well as their enemy By whose allowance the vilest of men are permitted to do all those villanous and wicked things which raise a just horror in all that have any zeal to the glory of God To see such seeding their cruel eyes with woful spectacles of the distressed and sorrowful whom they have made to be such The most pathetick melting expressions have not been able to draw the least pity from the breasts of these inhumane Monsters Will men never be ashamed of their Antichristian barbarity Pastoral Letter 2d will they never know that it is the Beast in the Revelations who makes himself drunk with the blood of Saints devours their flesh makes war upon them and overcomes them and is therefore called Beast Lion Bear Leopard for he must have renounced Reason and Humanity and be tranformed into a Savage Beast that behaves himself towards Christians as the Church of Rome behaves it self towards us Those French Persecutors are so bad that they cannot be reproached we cannot if we would bespatter or throw dirt upon them they are already so defiled 't is impossible to create in the minds of others any Idea of them that shall be base enough and it is our shame the stain of our Country and a dishonour to the Name of an English man that in our Country in ours that is naturally inclined to pity and compassion to the miserable there should be found any that wish well to a Tyrant so tyrannical and to a people so nourished and so fed with blood as his Soldiers and Creatures are 't is our judgment that we are so blinded and so much stupified and thrown into so deep a sleep that we do not perceive our own blindness But I should be very sorry if I spoke to any such I hope and I believe that there are none here so much under the Curse of God a Curse the more terrible as it is contrary to all that love of God our Neighbour and our Country that we ought to have and if we are any way curst 't is because we have had no more compassion for our Brethren that have suffered such grievous things that we have wept no more at the sight of their sorrows but that we have still too many among us of the Complexion of those in Amos 6.6 Men are generally unaffected with the miseries of others they are like the Priest and the Levite that left the poor wounded person without any help they fix not their eyes or their minds on sad objects for they find them to be very disagreeable V. Another occasion of weeping to good Christians is both from the Duties of Religion and the more than ordinary Providences and Dispensation of God that call them to it There are several things which though in the consequence they are very pleasant yet are in themselves very sorrowful as that which I have already mentioned the bitterness of repentance the trouble for the afflictions of others and also the Duties of self-denyal and mortification of crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof of dying daily and of keeping our hearts weaned from an inordinate affection to the Enjoyments and Comforts of the World All good Christians are to be in heaviness for a season and to sow in tears And to these may be added the Calls we have to more publick and solemn Humiliations by the necessity of our own Affairs the Judgments of God and the Pride and Rage and Success of his and our Enemies and this is the Duty to which we are now called and let us take care that our days of Fasting and Prayers may be mingled with the Tears of a true Repentance and Contrition that so God who has been for us hitherto may not be against us and that we may not smart under Spiritual Judgments which of all others are most formidable and severe according to that in Isa 22.12 13. Thus good Christians have many just subjects of weeping they weep to see themselves as in Exile and at a distance from their beloved Countrey They weep to sind themselves compassed about with many infirmities and unbecoming passions that cause them to be engaged in continual War They weep that they are exposed to so many furious assaults of the Devil and that they have so little strength wherewith to resist him They weep when they consider that their Good and Gracious God is so much dishonoured and forgot in his own World Inf. 1. What need all good Christians have of Faith and Patience of Faith to conclude that God does all very well in Holiness and Wisdom tho he suffer the World and the Church to groan under so many miseries and tribulations and of patience to submit to what he appoints for our Lot and not in the least to repine or murmur at it Without Faith we shall be apt to be stumbled at these seeming disorders and the inequal distributions of his Providence and without Patience we shall be apt to struggle under the necessary Cross to be tired and to say It is in vain wait upon the Lord. Inf. 2. Good Christians have great Reason quietly to leave the World and to dye when God shall be pleased to call them It is a World of misery of sorrows and vexation We should not be fond of our Chains nor delight in Tears nor embrace our Griefs but remember we shall leave all these troublesome things behind us when we come to lye down in the quiet Graved For there the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest Job 3.17 We do not sure esteem this strange Land to be better than our Father's House we do not think that the Vale of Tears is better than the Joys of Heaven to that Heaven then let us often lift up our weeping eyes with the hope of that let us comfort our sad and mournful hearts thither let us hasten there let us long to be into that Haven let us steer our distressed and weary Souls Let us breathe after that Paradise that shall not be molested with the Poysonous venom of the Serpent and where no Thorns or Bryars grow Let us not be fond of a perpetual Storm nor be so foolish as to