intollerable burthen Rom. 7.24 O then remember that sweet Invitation of thy Saviour Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Matth. 11.28 Apply to thy soul the Soveraign Blood of Christ which cleanseth from all Sin 1 Joh. 1.7 which pacifieth the Conscience and purgeth it from dead works Heb. 9.14 which speaks better things than the Blood of Abel Heb. 12.24 Cast the burthen of thy sins thy guilt thy punishment on Christ on whom God made to meet the Iniquities of us all and by whose Stripes we are healed Isa 53.5 6. His soul was sad and sorrowful to the death that thy soul might rejoyce the Spirit of the Lord God was upon him and he was sent by God to bind up the broaken-hearted to give them that mourn in Sion Beauty for Ashes the oyle of Joy for Mourning and the garment of Praise for the spirit of heaviness Isa 61.1 2 3. Thirdly Doth the Lord hide his Face from thee so that thou beholdest not the light of His Countenance as formerly Think with thyself notwithstanding that God's Love is Unchangable and Everlasting He changeth not as Man doth Mal. 3.6 Though he seem to hide his Face and forsake thee for a small moment yet with Everlasting kindness will I embrace thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer Isa 54.7 8. He retaineth not his Anger for ever He will turn again He will have Compassion upon us Micah 7.18 19. If thou prayest to God in Faith He will be favourable to thee and thou shalt see his Face with joy Job 33.26 Who is among you that feareth the Lord that walketh in darkness and hath no light let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God Isa 50.10 Though the tender Mother go sometimes where the Child doth not see her yet still her Bowels are towards the Child God when he seems to with-draw from his people yet still his Love and Compassion are towards them Christ upon the Cross cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me that we might not be forsaken of God Fourthly Doest thou yet apprehend some tokens of God's wrath and displeasure which fills thy heart with fear and amazement Remember that Christ our Sponsor and Surety hath born the whole VVrath of God the whole Curse of the Law for all those that come to him and believe on him He hath Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Gal. 3.13 He it was that trode the Wine-press of the fierceness of the Wrath of God and there was none to help him Isa 63.5 6. Rev. 19.15 By this Jesus we are delivered from the wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 The Lord is merciful and gracious He will not always Chide neither will he keep his Anger for ever As a Father pittyeth his Children so the Lord pittyeth them that fear Him for he knoweth our frame He remembreth that we are but dust Psal 103.8 9 13 14. He will not contend for ever neither will He be always Wrath lest the Spirit should fail before him He will restore Comforts to him that Mourns and will Create the fruit of the lips Peace Peace Isaiah 57.16 19. Fifthly Doth Satanical Injections and violent Temptations to the most horrid Evils and Blasphemies haunt and hurry thee day and night Consider poor soul that they are thy Tryals not thy Sins if thou dost not yield thereunto but abhor and resist them thou art like the modest Virgin that 's forcibly Ravished by a wicked Man without her consent 'T is his Sin not hers though a great Affliction to her Oh flye to the Throne of Grace and Mercy for help and succor in this time of Need rest thy self on God's free promise and word of Grace He is Faithful and will not suffer you to be Tempted above that you are able but will with the Temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10.13 The Lord is Faithful who shall stablish you and keep you from Evil 2 Thes 3.3 The Lord shall preserve thee from all Evil He shall preserve thy soul Psal 121.7 Thou shalt be kept by the power of God through Faith to Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Let thy soul take Sanctuary in the free Promise of Grace Sixthly Doth the fear of Death and Eternity cause sad thoughts of heart in thee O learn to look at Death in the comfortable Glass of the Gospel of Christ and not in the dreadful glass of the Law Death to a Believer is swallowed up in Victory the Sting of this Serpent is taken away by Christ O Death saith he I will be thy Death O Grave I will be thy Victory Christ hath conquer'd Death perfum'd the Grave and opened a way for poor Sinners to Everlasting Glory The Sting of Death is Sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law But Thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.56 57. Forasmuch as the Children are Partakers of Flesh and Blood Christ Himself took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of Death were all their Life-time subject to Bondage Heb. 2.14 15. Here five or six special Helps and Directions when ye are troubled and perplexed with sad Thoughts and much Darkness upon your Spirits DIRECTION I. Call to Remembrance what hath formerly pass'd betwixt God and your Soul what Love-tokens ye have received from him though you be now under a Cloud As when the Title of your Land is questioned you search old Records and Evidences so ye should do in this Case Thus David when his Soul had before refused to be Comforted and his Spirit was in a manner overwhelmed yet now he would consider the Dayes of Old the Years of Antient Times and call to Remembrance his Songs in the Night c. Psal 77.2 3 5 6. And Job when the Wrath of God seemed to be kindled against him and God counted him as one of his Enemies and his Reines were consumed within him yet still saith he Job 19.11 27 28. The Root of the Matter is found in me He acknowledged that he had the Root of true Faith in him and knew that his Redeemer liveth Though the Exercise of his Faith was at present suspended as to the comfortable Effects of it yet he had an evidence of his good Estate from his former Experience As in the Winter-Season though the Plant seems to wither yet the root of it still remaines in the Earth and when the Spring comes and the Sun shines upon it with a powerful Influence it will appear DIRECTION II. Plead and expostulate Humbly with thy God when he seems to hide his Face from thee make use of Arguments in thy Prayers taken from the Infinitness of God's Mercy and the Greatness of thy Misery Thy Saviour in His great Soul-Agony and
Principles by the Engine of his Temptations Secondly These sad thoughts are Caused by a deep sense of sin and the desert of it this worketh terror dejection and despondency of spirit when God represents and sets before a Man the greatness of his sins Thus David himself sadly complains Mine Iniquities are gone over mine head as a heavy burthen they are too heavy for me Psal 38.4 Thirdly They are caused by spiritual desertion or God's hiding his Face from the Soul Thou did'st hide thy Face saith David and I was troubled Psal 30.7 And Sion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Isa 49.14 Wherefore hidest thou thy Face saith Job and holdest me for thine Enemy Wilt thou break a Leaf driven to and fro and wilt thou pursue the dry Stubble For thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the Iniquities of my Youth Job 13.24 25. Fourthly From the apprehension of Divine wrath and displeasure Though God be Reconciled to Believers in Christ yet they often apprehend God's Frowns rather than his Smiles his Chidings rather than his Kisses and these make sad impressions upon them Thus Job complains The Arrowes of the Almighty are within me the Poyson whereof drinketh up my Spirit the Terrors of God do sett themselves in array against me Job 6.4 and verse 8 9. He wanted words to express the greatness of his misery and sorrow wherewith his spirit was even over-whelmed Such sad apprehensions Heman also had Whilst I suffer thy terrors saith he I am distracted thy fierce wrath goeth over me thy terrors have cut me off Psal 88.15 16. Fifthly These sad thoughts and cogitations are sometimes caused by violent temptations and suggestions to the most horrid evils as to Self-murther final Despair Blasphemy cursed Atheisme the Soul is so terrified therewith that it is ready to chuse a sudden violent death rather than life Thou scarest me with Dreams saith Job cap. 7. v. 14 15. and terrifiest me through Visions so that my soul chuseth strangling and death rather than my life Such horrid Blasphemous suggestions and injections from Satan some poor Christians have sad experience of which fill their souls with terror and amazement and make them even weary of their lives Sixthly Sad Thoughts are caused by looking at Death in the Chastly Glass of the Law of God and not in the Comfortable Glass of the Gospel and so Death appears to be the King of Terrors and of all Terrible things the most Terrible Oh! What will become of me thinks the poor Trembling Soul when I dye How shall I be able to shoot that great and vast Gulph of Eternity and to endure the Bitterness and Terrors of Death I that cannot bear with Patience a little Pain of the Tooth-ake Stone Strangury How shall I look upon that Pale-Horse and his Rider whose Name is Death Rev 6.8 Saints themselves have many times sad Thoughts and Apprehensions touching Death when the Soul shall be stript naked of the Body and all worldly Comforts and brought into the Immediate Presence of God The Conscience here in this Life being not perfectly and wholly purged and pacifyed there remaines still some Defilement some Guilt which causeth some Doubts and Fears even in true Believers You have heard the Causes now let us come to the Remedies of these sad Thoughts First then If Melancholy be the Cause use the means which God has appointed for the Cure of it Three Things I commend to you 1. Ye should with Dependence on God the Supreme Cause and Being use the most proper Physick moderate Exercise good Diet. As for Bodily Distempers they are ordinarily cured by Corporal Medicines and not by Spiritual Means I say with Dependance on God for Success ye must use Physick for except the Lord build the House they Labour but in vain that build it Psal 127.1 And King Asa is blamed because in his Disease he sought not to the Lord but to the Physitians 2 Chron. 16.12 2. Converse frequently with wise compassionate experienced Christians such as have been exercised with Melancholy Distempers themselves and are not ignorant of Sathan's Methods otherwise ye speak to them and they to you in an unknown Tongue 3. Consider That though the Cure of Melancholy be a torture to the most Learned Physitians in the World yet God the Soveraign Physitian can easily rebuke it If He speak the word Be thou healed then thou shalt be sound and whole The Lord knows our frame how frail and weak we are what advantage Satan takes against us from these melancholy Distempers and how they disable and dis-spirit us for Religious Services and render our Lives burthensome and uncomfortable to us and therefore he will pitty us as an indulgent Father pittieth his Children And though the Distemper should not wholly be removed yet we may well hope that he will so abate it for his own Names sake that it shall not over-whelm us no nor hinder our Spiritual Good but be a means to humble us and keep us low in our own Eyes Secondly If your sad disconsolate Thoughts be caused by Spiritual Distempers as Unbelief carnal Reason Doubts and Fears something is to be done in the general and then more particularly 1. In general Endeavour in the Strength of God to comfort these sad Thoughts by applying Spiritual Consolations suâ—table to your Distemper so you find in the Text In the multitude of my Thoughts i. e. sad Thoughts within me Thy Comforts delight my soul Psal 94.9 Let not the Consolations of God â—â—em small to thee neither do thou indulge any secret Sin Job 15.11 2. You should often chide your selves keenly and rationally for these sad unbelieving thoughts Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my Countenance and my God Psal 42.5 11. This sadness and dejectedness in Saints is very unreasonable and of ill consequence for it drinks up their spirits disables and dispirits them for the Service of God and Men But I will speak more particularly to this matter First Does Satan work upon and by those Innate Principles of Darkness Unbelief carnal Reason which are in thy heart and nature and likewise on thy Bodily distempers especially Melancholy O then take to thee the whole Armour of God especially the Shield of Faith that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil and to quench all his fiery Darts Ephes 6.11 16. Pray earnestly that God would rebuke Satan and remember that Christ prays for you And the Lord said unto Satan The Lord Rebuke thee O Satan Is not this a Brand pluckt out of the fire Zach. 3.2 Greater is Christ that is in you and for you than Satan that is against you Secondly Do thy sins make thee sad and disconsolate Do they press thee down with a great weight and doest thou groan under the body of Sin as an
is a Duplication of the Subject of the Promise I will not leave I will not forsake And a Multiplication of Negatives no fewer than five Negatives by which God intimates That he will not yea he will not surely he will not forsake his Servants He will never wholly reject them nor utterly leave them If he leave them 't is but for a Season If he go from them 't is but as one that goes from home to return speedily again I will not saith Christ leave you Comfortless or as Orphans at Sixes and Sevens but I will come to you Joh. 14.18 He may sometimes frown but he will smile again If at any time his Compassions towards his People seem to be restrained yet they cannot be extinquished 2. Though God may vary in the Operations of his Love yet his Love in it self is still the same and shall be the same for-ever Jer. 31.3 Psal 89.30 44. Joh. 13.1 In the Summer there 's Light inherent in the Sun and Light fluent from the Sun That 's ever perfect and permanent but this may suffer Changes and be obscured as in the Night it happens The Root doth not alwayes give so much Sapp to the Branches as to make them Budd and Blossom yet she doth alwayes stick close to them and influence and maintain them A Father may have a dear Love to his Child and yet shew but little of it in his Carriage as David towards his Son Absolon and so it may be in this Case 3. When God hides his Face from his People he with-holds those Acts of Love only that are for their well-being not those that are for their being Though a true Christian may want that without which he cannot have Comfort yet he shall never want that without which he cannot live In this respect God never with-holds any good Thing from them that walk uprightly Psal 84.11 4. A Christian may miss much of the External Presence of God and yet enjoy inward Communion with him He may want the Comforting Presence of God in respect of Soul-ravishing Joyes and Inlargements and yet at the same time partake of the powerful gracious Influence of the Spirit of God for his Sustentation and Support This doth never utterly forsake him And this is oft-times most in Power when it is least in out-ward shew and Appearance and Saints have most of God when they see him least whose gracious Power may and doth operate effectually where there is but little Sense and Feeling of it Mettals that lye deep under Ground and see not the Heavens yet partake of their Powerful Influence When God cover'd Moyses his Face in the Cleft of the Rock Exod. 33.22 then did he pass by and gave Moyses to see his Glory So the Clouds and Vailes which now cover the Eyes of many Pensive disconsolate Christians are often Forerunners of the Clearest Light and most Soul-ravishing Sight of God How-ever poor Soul be content to remain for a while in this World without these Soul-ravishing Joyes and Tasts of Heaven if God will have it so Doubtless there 's a great Difference betwixt the Condition of Saints in the Church Militant and the Church Tryumphant Heaven at last will make amends for All and that glorious Communion with God which is Reserved for the Saints in the Church Tryumphant will Countervail all the Sad and Sorrowful Thoughts Pressures and Temptations which now they are expos'd unto in their Militant Estate and Condition FINIS The CONTENTS of this small Tract touching Sad Disconsolate Thoughts Text. Psal 94.19 Opened and Explained Observation Saints should Watch against Sad Melancholy Unbelieving Thoughts I. Such Sad Disconsolate Thoughts are here described II. The Causes of them are set down First Bodily distempers especially Melancholy do partly cause them Secondly There are spiritual Causes of these Sad Thoughts As 1. Those remaining Principles of Carnal Reason and Unbelief that are in the Saints 2. They are Caused by a deep sense of Sin and the desert of it 3. By Spiritual Desertion or Gods hiding His Face from the Soul 4. From the Sad apprehension of Divine wrath and displeasure 5. From the Violent Temptations and Injections of Satan the Prince of Darkness 6. By looking at Death in the Terrible Glass of the violated Law of God The CVRE of these Sad Thoughts I. IF Melancholy be the Cause then use the means which God has appointed for the Cure of it As 1. Use Physick moderate Exercise good Diet. 2. Let your Converse be with Wise Compassionate Christians that have had experience of this sad Distemper and of Remedies against it 3. Consider though the cure of Melancholy be a torture to Physitians yet God can easily Rebuke it II. If your Sad Thoughts be caused by Spiritual Distempers Then 1. In General endeavour to Comfort these Sad Thoughts by applying spiritual Remedies 2. Often chide your selves for these Sad Unbelieving Thoughts More particularly First Does Satan that Spirit of Darkness work upon thy Melancholy distemper Unbelief Carnal Reason Then take to thee the Shield of Faith that thou mayest quench his fiery Darts Secondly If thy Sins make thee Sad and press thee down go to Christ who freely Invites the Soul that 's burthened and heavy laden Thirdly If at present thou doest not behold the Face of God with joy yet consider His Love is Unchangable and whom He Loves once He loves for ever Fourthly If thou hast Sad Apprehensions of Divine Wrath and Displeasure remember that Christ thy Surety has borne the Wrath of God for Sinners Fifthly If thou art Tempted by Satanical Injections to Blasphemy c. and doest abhor and resist the Temptation Consider it is thy Tryal not thy Sin Sixthly If the fear of Death cause Sad Thoughts learn to look at Death in the comfortable Glass of the Gospel of Christ Some further Directions for a poor Soul that 's perplexed with Sad and dark Thoughts I. Direction Call to Remembrance and improve former evidences of God's Love and Kindness to you II. Plead and expostulate humbly with God when He seems to hide His Face from thee This Direction is drawn out and inlarged in five particulars III. Improve the Soul sorrows and sufferings of Christ who bore the wrath of God in His Soul that thy soul might rejoyce in God IV. Renew thy Faith and Repentance in good earnest as if hitherto thou had'st never done it to purpose V. Trust in the Name of God Jehovah for Comfort and Salvation There 's enough in this Name to support thee under all thy sad pressures VI. Furnish thy self with fit matter out of the Holy Scriptures for Heavenly Thoughts and Meditations This was the practise of the Prophet David Of Job who esteemed the Word of God more than his necessary Food Of Nepotianus whom Hierom speaks of Of Augustin and his dear Friend Alipius Of Mr. Bilney Martyr Of Bishop Latimer Martyr Of Alice Benden Martyr Of Mrs. Katherine Brettergh Of Mr. John Holland an Eminent Saint and Preacher