to get the Victory if Christ pray for us that our faith do not fail Luk. 22.31 VVhere can we go for shelter but unto God our Maker when this Lyon of the Forest does begin to roar how will he terrify and vex us till he that permits him for a while to trouble us be pleased to chain him up again 5. Gods Favour is Life even in Death it self He cures all the disorders of the Soul He weans it from the Body and makes the passage to another World sweet and easie He can take away the frightful ghastly aspect of Death and bestow upon it a pleasant and amiable look and hence it is that sick People are often heard to say Oh! If I had but the Favour and the Love of God I could he freely willing to dye even in this moment If I had but his Love I could bear all these pains and quietly submit though I have restless nights and weary days for then I should be sure of Eternal Rest It is our estrangedness from God that makes us live in bondage all our days and when our time to dye is come makes us so very loth to depart This sense of God's displeasure makes a Death-bed to be a Bed of sorrow and makes Death to be indeed the King of Terrors and who can but tremble when he finds himself leaving this World and knows not what will be his portion in the next That finds himself going to the Judgment-feat but knows not whether he shall be acquitted or condemned there how many times do the very thoughts of Death cut us in our Sickness to the very Soul because our spirits are clouded and our evidence for Salvation is departed even before we depart so that we stand trembling on the borders of Eternity and would fain stay on Earth though we cannot VVhat but the favour of God will help us When our heart and our flesh fails He will be the strength of our heart and our portion for ever Ps 73.26 VVhat but this will attend us through the shady Vale How can we part with our Friends if God be not our Friend How can we leave this Earthly Tabernacle if we have not an House not made with Hands How shall we look upon so vast a Change as that of Time into Eternity if we are not to change this Mortal for a better Life But one smile of the Face of God in that great and concluding-work will keep us that we shall not be afraid to dye one fore-taste of Heaven will make us with undaunted hearts to bid this sinful VVorld adieu we shall then like Moses undress our selves and dye we shall with the same chearfulness go down to the Grave which Jacob went with into Egypt because our Mediator and our elder Brother lives and has made good provision for us VVe shall not be amazed to lie down in the dust when once we have the hope of a blessed and a glorious Resurrection and the day of our death will be a comfortable day if our blessed Lord be then pleased to tell us that on the same day we shall be with him in Paradise CHAP. II. Of Heaven and Hell and of that spiritual death which hath seized the greatest part 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 who are without Gods favour And whence it is that some grow in Grace more than others and are more earnest for a share in the Love of God WHat a blessed and glorious place is Heaven Inf. 1. that is full of God's favour The City bad no need of the sun neither of the moon to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Rev. 21.23 Rev. 22.2 3 4 5. It is the Land of the Living and 't is no wonder that death shall never enter thither here indeed he is a God that hides himself he is hid under the veil of the Creatures and under abundance of mysterious Providences for tho' his Throne be established in Righteousness yet Clouds and Darkness are round about it Psal 97.7 Beams of his Glory do every where break forth through every Creature Providence Law and Ordinance of his yet much of his Glory that shines in the Creation is hid by a train of second Causes through which few look to the first his work in the World is carried on in a mystery his Interest lives but is deprest they who are devoted to him are supported indeed by his invisible hand but are in the mean time low for the most part and afflicted But in that Eternal state Mr. How of delighting in God p. 353. the Veil shall be rent and he will in a brighter manner shew himself his Glory will shine out with direct and pleasant Beams to all the beholding and admiring eyes he will there give forth the full and satisfying Communications of his Love that will chear and satisfy and refresh a vast multitude of grateful and adoring spirits Here the Souls of good Men are deprest by the misrepresentations of Satan and by the frequent jealousies and suspitions of their own guilty souls but there they shall see him as he is and which will encrease their joy see him to be their own God for ever No storms shall there molest their Peace nothing shall interrupt their Eternal Calm Not a vain tumultuous repining or uneasie thought shall assault their peaceful and quiet hearts for ever No more shall they cry out Is his Mercy clean gone Has he forgotten to be gracious for they shall be with him in his own presence Here his Family is composed of several distressed mourning Children and when some praise him their praises are disturb'd by the groans of others or their own sins but there they shall all be clothed with praise and none shall be sick or dye If we did but know that there were a place in the World where the people never dye the love that all have of Life would put them upon many inquiries how they might get thither This Countrey is Heaven thence death and fear and consternation is banished for ever and thither should we lift up our eyes thither should we direct our hearts in Heaven the favour of God shines with an unclouded brightness they that are Inhabitants of that holy place are employed in an honourable attendance on their mighty King they need not they desire not any of those enjoyments which are here below no more than favourites of their Prince desire a meaner station or a poor Cottage or some obscure and forlorn retreat And alas what are all our pleasures and our most splendid entertainments to that Bread and to those spiritual and intellectual Joys which Angels and glorified souls feed on The first hour the first day of joy there is better than an Age of joys here below if one day spent in his Courts in his Love and Praises here
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
more clearly to us the corruption and defilement of our nature In a calm the waters of the Sea appear to be clear enough but when the storm comes then it throws up the mire and dirt in prosperity and health we think we have very good hearts and considerable degrees of sanctification but when sin is set home upon us the spiritual Law of God begins to shew its purity Oh what multitudes of iniquities do then appear what unbelief what impatience what murmuring what unbecoming thoughts of God such hideous and strange thoughts as we never had before In health and strength and peace there are a thousand secular Affairs and Contrivances that take up our time and divert our minds and turn us to the view of things without but in the trouble of our Consciences our eyes are turned another way to behold with attention our own Souls and to see what lusts what impurities what venomous Creatures what Vipers have been entertained there and oh what a ghastly formidable sight is this to see such a numerous brood of Transgressions when we imagined that all had been very well with us it is even a wonder that God who saw so much evil in us should let us alone so long These spiritual Afflictions shew us what a sorry contemptible Creature man is what cause he has to be debased when he is most proud and what cause he has to be covered with shame and blushing when he is most fearless and undaunted when God does not blow upon our Garden instead of those Spices those Graces blowing forth that may be for his glory and for our comfort there is nothing but Weeds and Thistles nothing but Thorns and Briars that tear and wound us our Soul is then just like a dead Carkass full of putrefaction no sprightly motions towards Heaven no spiritual no warm desires like the cold Regions of the North which the Sun does only visit with his fainter and weaker beams and not like those Eastern Countries where his greater heat does produce Spices and fragrant Flowers 5. Another End that God hath in the continuance of Spiritual Troubles and Afflictions and the Sense of his Wrath long upon us is that from our own Experience Christ may be for ever very precious to us when we are at ease and think our selves whole we seldom think of him but our pain and our smart our guilt and our fears the sight of our present Danger and of approaching Wrath causes us to run to this Physician and to beg his help when we are sinking it will make us to stretch out our hands and say Master save us or else we perish Never did a poor Man with more earnestness beg an Alms than we shall beg his help never did a diseased Person after violent racking Pain more long for Rest and a Cure than we shall for Christ and having fallen among Lyons having been the flaves of fear and held in Captivity by the Temptations of Satan we shall most gladly shake of our Chains and embrace Liberty and Salvation when our Lord comes to set us free The fight of him to be our Saviour will make us run to meet him and to say Welcome thou only Friend of our Souls welcome thou dear Physician and Healer of our Souls Hosannah to the Son of David blessed is he that comes to us in the name of the Lord. Oh! how will our very hearts melt with love when we remember that as we have been distressed for our Sins against him so he was in greater Agonies for us We have had Gall and Wormwood but he tasted a more bitter Cup. The Anger of God has dried up our Spirits but he was scorched with a more flaming Wrath. He was under violent pain in the Garden and on the Cross ineffable was the sorrow that he felt being forsaken of his Father deserted by his Disciples affronted and reproached by his Enemies and under a Curse for us This Sun was under a doleful Eclipse this Living Lord was pleased to dye and in his Death was under the Frowns of an Angry God That Face was then hid from him that had always smiled before and his Soul felt that horror and that darkness which it had never felt before So that tho there was no Separation between the divine and humane Nature yet he suffered Pains equal to those which we had deserv'd fo suffer in Hell for ever God so suspended the Efficacies of his Grace that it displayed in that hour none of its force and virtue on him He had no Comfort from Heaven none from his Angels none from his Friends even in that sorrowful hour when he needed comfort most Like a Lyon that is hurt in the Forest so he roared and cryed out tho there was no despair in him and when he was forsaken yet there was trust and hope in those words My God My God Have we been abandoned of God He was much more so and was deserted for a while that we might not be so for ever Oh! how frequently should we remember such a Saviour How delightful should we think and speak of him who thought nothing too much for us We have by feeling of the Wrath of God drank in some measure of the Cup whereof he drank We justly for our Sins He out of Love and Kindness that he might make an Atonement and a Propitiation and if what we have felt was so terrible how much more dreadful was that which he endured If the smaller drops that have put our Souls into a flame have filled us with anguish what torment did he undergo that was plunged as into a Sea of Wrath Surely such a Friend such a Physician as he has been to us must be ever valued We cannot pray but in his Name we cannot be justified but with his Righteousness we can hope for nothing but by his Merits and his Intercession we cannot Live we cannot dye without him Let this be the constant Language of our Souls None but Christ none but Christ Cant. 3.1 2 3 4. 6. That we may put an high Value on the Scripture that we may search and look into it with more earnestness and frequency to see if there be any Promises in it that are reviving any place in it that may afford hope and comfor to Souls so miserable and so guilty For when our Consciences are awakened and pierced with the sense of Wrath from God if his Word would speak peace to us we could have ease but the terrible threatnings thereof are the things that wound us deep and that put us to the greater smart and we then know and fully believe beyond all doubt that this is the word by which we are to be tried in the great and solemn day 7. Another end of God in continuing Afflictions and a long remaining sense of his Wrath upon us is That we may be everlasting admirers of the freeness of his Grace when we are delivered Oh! with what wonder should we behold his
the Rod that hath made us smart for ever drive away that folly which was once bound up in our hearts Doleful Experience and Anguish and Tribulation has told us what a dreadful thing it is to sin By the Judgments that we have groaned under let us learn righteousness VVe are come off the Rack with broken Bones and with many Wounds which our good Physician has been pleased to set and heal again Let us not rebel against his Laws lest we be put to the Rack again 'T is not indeed the Corruptions that are within us that will bring us to it unless we cherish and approve them when they entice us to what is Evil. Tho they war if it be against the allowance of our mind they will not interrupt our Peace with God Let us not be secure tho the Devil have left us it may be only for a season and he may return again with greater fury Let us during the comfortable quiet that we now enjoy be preparing our selves to resist and oppose all his Assaults for the time to come Let us tho we triumph through the Grace of God remember that our Enemies are not yet fully overthrown they are not ashamed of one defeat but will rally their dispersed Forces and come again What did we think of Sin when it had caused the Son of Righteousness to be covered with Clouds that we could not see him nor feel his vital quickning Beams for many days What did we think of it when it had set us on fire round about and brought us to the very Gates of Hell when it sunk and overwhelmed and terrified us every moment Let us never henceforth begin to parley with an Enemy that has used us after such a barbarous and cruel manner VI. After we are delivered from the dreadful Apprehensions of the Wrath of God it is our duty to be publickly thankful Psal 66.16 Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will tell what he hath done for my soul 'T is for the glory of our Healer to tell the miserable Wounds that once pained us and to speak of that kind hand that saved us when we were brought very low 'T is for the glory of our Pilot to tell of the Rocks and of the Sands the many Dangers and threatning Calamities that he by his wise Conduct made us to escape and to see us on the safe Shore may cause others that are yet afflicted and tost with Tempests to look to him for help for he is able and ready to save them as well as us We must like Soldiers when a tedious War is over relate our Combats our Fears our Dangers with delight and make known our Experiences to doubting troubled Christians and to those that have not yet been under such long and severe Tryals as we have been VII The fears that we have had of God and of his Wrath must teach us not inordinately to fear any of those Evils that are of a lower nature Others that have been all their days in ease and quiet that have had no trouble of Conscience or none for a long while together may be afraid of temporal Evils and inconveniences but to us who have for a long time been afraid of God himself how flight a thing should the Wrath of Man appear When we have been under his Displeasure that can kill the Soul whit little cause have we to fear them that can only kill the Body Others may be afraid of a small distress of a little ill weather but it does not become us to fear who have been in so many several Storms for many months together when we have been afraid of Hell there is nothing upon Earth that looks with an aspect so formidable And if God have delivered us from the greatest Dangers we ought to believe that he will save us from the lesser Troubles of our Life Our Experience of so many terrible things should fortify our minds against all future Afflictions that are not of the same kind I shall close this part of the Verse with these two Advices 1. If the Servants of God are obnoxious to such sad apprehensions of his Wrath Then you have great cause to admire the Peace that is in the World Many an one among his People is crying The Lord hath forsaken me His Wrath lieth hard upon me and if all his People if all whose Sins deserve his Wrath should be all so sensible of it and complaining and crying out in the like manner oh what a doleful Cry would that be like the Cry that was in Sodom when it rained Fire and Brimstone like the Cry that was in Egypt when they found all their First-born slain Oh what a change would appear in the World if God should let out the sense of his displeasure upon all that have deserved it this World would be like Hell it self all Commerce and Business would immediately fail for what heart would men have to trade to buy or sell if they did not know but the very next moment they might be in Hell It is one of the mighty Acts of Providence that maintains so great a Calmness in a very sining-World For if he were not infinitely patient if he should open the eyes of all men to see his unspeakable Majesty Holiness Glory and their Offences and their Deserts and their nearness to Destruction and then suffer them as he justly might to be tortured with their guilty Thoughts to be tempted and overcome and to sink into despair oh what Lyons and Tygers would men be ◠they would tear themselves and one another All the Stilness of this Earth would be turned into Rage all its Joys would be turned into gloomy Sorrows and all its Laughters into Weeping and Wailing and gnashing of Teeth and all the Inhabitants thereof would be in Anguish and curse their God and King The most are for the present under insensibility they do not see whither they are a going nor feel the horrors that they are capable of they are treasuring up wrath and it is his goodness that it does not immediately fall upon their heads in burning drops there is but a thin Partition between this World that has in it so many several pleasant Objects and that World of flaming Torture where all is dismal and uncomfortable and if the Curtain were drawn aside and men could look into that fiery Furnace and the Wicked did apprehend that they were going thither oh what consternation what amazement what paleness would be seen on every Forehead that is now most proud and listed up 〈◊〉 2. Pray to God that you may not fall into such Diseases whereof Satan is apt to make very great advantage and also pray that Satan may not be suffered to bring such sickness upon you as will indispose you for the Service of your Maker It is of long and severe Afflictions that the Devil makes great use and they do in their own nature lead to impatience and murmuring and hard
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
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
it shall be light in a season when it was not to be expected In all his works of Nature and of Grace he makes things that having a seeming contrariety to what he designs to further his design Thus some observe the Earth hangs upon nothing in the midst of the fluid Air though it be the most heavy of all the Elements he renders it fruitful for the Production of all necessary things though it be of it self cold and dry and so the Sea which by its scituation is above the Earth and does seem to threaten it with new deluges yet is kept in its own Channels for after it has been raised even to the Clouds in threatning Waves its fury dies again into a Calm and observes the bounds that God has set it Thus our Lord Jesus also works By being Tempted he Conquer'd the Tempter and by Dying he subdued Death and so at the sending of the Spirit first the House shook and trembled and then it was filled with the Glory of the Lord First deep Sorrows and then as mighty Joys First John Rev. 14.2 heard a voice as the voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder and then the voice of harpers harping with their harps and that sang a new song before the throne A due consideration of the Providences of God will keep us from the absurd Opinion of the Heathens That the Deity envied the felicity of Men and that he who was most prosperous was near to a sudden overthrow And even the Learned Men among them were so apprehensive of it that they durst not acknowledg their own tho but ordinary welfare without an excuse See instances of this in Dr. Casaubon's Original Cause of Temporal Evils Upon this account Augustus in whose days the Saviour of the World was born once in the year turned Beggar and received Alms of such of the Common people as would give him He mistrusted his own felicity and dreaded that so frightful in those days Invidiam Numinis The Heathens had but parcels of the Scripture and those too by Tradition much adulterated no wonder if they made a contrary use of it and by sad experience finding the effects of Adam's Fall and God's Curse and not well informed of all particulars the Devil also being busie with them as he was with Eve to promote a misapprehension of God as if he were envious * See Dr. Casaubon p. 27. whereas upon due consideration what in the Judgment of blind and corrupt nature seemed envy and malignity will appear Mercy being used by God as a profitable Medicine or Antidote against the greatest and most dangerous infection of the Soul for crosses and afflictions in this World are not effects of envy in the supreme dispenser of all things but Arguments of his Goodness and Providence All things shall work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8.28 Sickness and Health Poverty and Riches Anguish and Fear and Horror shall contribute to their Salvation and in the most fiery Furnaces and the most painful Troubles they shall find the refreshments of his Grace His Providences work together they are in Concert and are not to be taken apart like Composition of divers Ingredients for there are some that if taken alone might kill the patient but when they are joyned with others which by their contrary qualities temper their excess they do marvellous things being counterpoized †Fragmens de Morus p. 62. God many times lets our darkness stay long that we may know what a pleasant thing it is to see the light 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 carries us to Heaven in his own Way and Method Inf. 2. THis shews us the different ends that God has in the afflictions of the Good and of the Wicked To the one they are Medicinal to the other Penal to the one in Love to the other in Wrath to the one the shadows of an Eternal night and to the other the forerunners of the morning Often his people are thrown down by their Fears by Satan and the World but as often may they say Rejoyce not against me O my enemy c. They may be dejected but they may say with David O my soul hope still on God c. Afflictions as one says are common to the good and bad as the entrance into the bottom of the Sea was to the Israelites and to the Egyptians but the Israelites conducted by a Cloud and a Pillar of Fire were inlightned and assured and passed in safety and came out praising God but to the Egyptians this Cloud that separated them was full of darkness and they were drowned in the Waves whilest the others stood upon the dry Land so God comforts his people by the light of his Word and the support of hope from his holy Promises whereas the wicked are finally swallowed up of sadness and despair The Righteous fall and they rise again but the feet of the Wicked stumble on the dark Mountains and never rise again Tho indeed as the same person observes * Fautheur Sermons first part p. 132. Even as the Chaldeans formerly measured their natural day differently from the Israelites they put the day first and the night after but the Israelites on the contrary according to the order that was observed in the Creation for in the beginning darkness was upon the face of the deep and of every one of the six days it is said The evening and the morning made the first day So the times of the World and of the Church are differently disposed for the World begins hers by the day of temporal prosperity and finishes it by a night of darkness and anguish that is Eternal but the Church on the contrary begins hers by the night of Adversity which she suffers for a while and ends them by a day of Consolation which she shall have for ever The Prophet in this Psalm begins with the Anger of God but ends with his Favour as of old when they entred into the Tabernacle they did at first see unpleasant things as the Knives of the Sacrificers the Blood of Victims the Fire that burn'd upon the Altar which consumed the Offerings but when they passed a little further there was the Holy Place the Candlestick of Gold the Shew-bread bread and the Altar of Gold on which they offered Perfumes and in fine there was the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy-Seat and the Cherubims which was called the Face of God * Mussard Sermons sur divers Texes p. 30. Inf. 3. This may then reconcile you to his Providence The night of trouble makes you not to see the Beauty of the Church but tho she is black she is comely still he that makes his Sun to shine upon the unthankful and the