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
haste I am cut off from before thine eyes And we should with all imaginable care be fortified against it This grace of Patience is that for which we shall all of us have very much occasion during the manifold evils of this miserable World for this we shall have occasion as we are Men for as such we are born to trouble and much more shall we need it if we be true Christians for as such we must expect more trouble from the corruption of our Hearts from the World and from the Devil for if he sees us going to that Heaven from whence he is for ever excluded his rage will prompt him to give us a continual molestation in our way thither That we may therefore be prepared to resist his subtle and violent assaults and to bear those long and sore Tryals that may be our lot let us have before our eyes these things 1. If when God is angry with us we are impatient we shall provoke him to further wrath and cause double the him to blows of his Arm which are at the present heavy enough for us to bear If the first corrections bring us not to a malleable and a tender frame He will if he design our good be forced to send upon us many more our unruliness and impatience will add more pain and smart to the Rods that are upon us and put a greater edge upon our trouble and so that which at the first was but a single stroke will multiply to many more and by this we shall make the evil of our affliction which is design'd for our good to become our sin and so carry that inconvenience to our Souls which with a quiet and submissive frame would but hurt our Bodies We lose by this means all the comfortable blessings of a sanctified and a well-improved Cross and make that yoak to gall us which otherwise might lye with ease upon our necks 2. Let us remember that we are no way injured when we are under long afflictions and that whatever come of us God is always very just He will not lay upon man more than right Job 34.23 An earthly Parent in the warmth and heat of anger may in too severe a manner correct the follies of his Child but that God that knows our frame what is fit for him to do and what we are able to bear will proportion his corrections to the necessities of our ase and not suffer our troubles to stay a day longer than is needful to accomplish those excellent ends for which they were design'd He may in his anger pull us down and make us desolate but we know not what a comely structure he intends to build from these ruins it may be that the darkness that affrights us is to usher in an eternal and a glorious day His ways are far above our ways So much greatness wisdom and goodness as there is in him should produce in our hearts patience and resignation tho' we know not what a period he intends to put to his present dark and unsearcheable designs Tho' we are pained he is faithful still and tho' he do not gratify our curiosity nor suffer our blind eyes to pierce into the depths of his Counsels yet let us hold this for a certain truth That the Lord is righteous and just in all his ways He may say to us as Christ said to Peter What I do thou knowest not but thou shalt know hereafter Joh. 13.7 His Justice should silence our murmuring complaints and his faithfulness our discouragements and faintings He never afflicts us but with reason he never does it but with a design of our final good The Sword that wounds us brings a Balsom with it it opens a passage to let out our Corruptions and then it heals and closes up the wound again Isa 30.18 Therefore will the Lord wait that he may he gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of judgment Blessed are all they that wait for him 3. That we may bear his Anger with Patience let us consider what Mercies he has given us and how much worse we might be than now we are he frowns it may be upon us but that frown might have been our final sentence and that anger which now is kindled against us might have been Everlasting Burnings and tho he speak to us by terrible things yet he might have said Depart from me ye cursed The drops that fall upon us might have been a Deluge and a Storm of Wrath and the fiery Furnace whereinto we are thrown to consume our Dross might have been our Hell Why does a living man complain a sinful man that might have been deprived both of Hope and Life long ago Oh how does our Gracious God even in our sorest Trials deal much better with us than we have deserved We multiply our sorrows to a vast account but if we compared them with our sins their number would appear to be very small if we put our Crosses and our Iniquities into the same balance we should quickly see what a mighty difference there is between them It will be a considerable motive to Patience to consider what we have deserved We bewail the loss of the sense of the Love of God and alas we did not value it as we should have done We complain that he has forsaken us but who among us valued his Presence at the rate we might have valued it We say that he does not hear our Prayers that he is deaf to our Request and how often did we pray as if we prayed not how often did he seek to enter into our hearts and we gave him a repulse How often did he call and invite us to come to him and we did not obey his call Have we reason then to be impatient that he is a stranger to us when we remember how he would have dwelt with us but we shut him out Tho it was our ignorance that betrayed us to it and we knew not what we did We reckon up our nights of darkness how long they are and how dismal but we forget how he has given us many a bright and clear day many an hour of Peace and Joy for one of Grief and Trouble We have deserved to be miserable all the days of our Lives for every day we sin we have many healthful seasons as well as times of Sickness whereas he might have made our passage uneasie and troublesome in the deep waters from the womb unto the grave Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth Job 11.6 We suffer justly for our sins if God should enquire into the multitude the heinousness and all the aggravations of our sins we should have a greater multitude of Crosses Let us cease then to be impatient for he deals in great Tenderness and Mercy with us Our troubles have been it may be sharp and long but they might have been more stinging
intentions to ruin and destroy but God with a design in all his Corrections to purify and reform and to do us good in the latter end 2 Sam 24.13 14. God came to David and told him Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy Land Or wilt thou flee three Months before thine enemies while they pursue thee or that there be three days pestilence in thy land Now advise and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me And David said unto Gad I am in a great strait let us fall now into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great and let me not fall into the hand of man Inf. 4. What a good Master is God whose anger is but for a moment other Masters may be hasty and froward and hard to please but he is patient and slow to wrath he is never angry till we disobey his voice and by our Laziness in his work force him to it and even then his nature enclines him to moderate our stripes and he adds no more than what are necessary to promote our good he treats us not as slaves but exercises toward us a mild and a favourable Government He threatens a long while before he punishes the clouds gather blackness to give us notice of a coming Storm and the Thunder of his wrath as well as that of nature doth roar before it falls he threatens and advises and perswades and uses several affectionate expostulations with us before we feel the Rod and when in vindicating his own right he seems to be very Just he ceases not at the same time to be very Good we frequently provoke him and he is most ready to forgive he seeks not advantages against us nor waits for our halting it grieves him when we sin and he is only angry that we may repent he delights in peace and not in war in the manifestations of his Mercy and Love more than in the terrible discoveries of his wrath He whets his Sword before he strikes that in the preparations of his Judgments we may see what we may expect and seek to prevent them He summons us to surrender our selves before he begins to make us by sharper methods to be sensible of our follies and whilst his Rod is in his hand he stays to see if we will even then return and he is unwilling to punish even when he is forced to do it as a tender Judge does with sorrow and regret pronounce Sentence upon a Malefactor Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up O Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel Psal 78.38 Many a time he turned his anger away He recall'd or order'd his anger to return as one expresses it as if he were unresolved what to do he recalled it as a man does his Servant several times when he is sending him upon an unwelcome Message or as a tender-hearted Prince trembles when he is to sign a Writ for the death of a Rebel that had been before his Favourite he blots out his name again and flings away the Pen He singles out here and there some of his Servants when he might punish all for their sins he makes one smart to be a warning to the rest and according to the Doctrine of the Schoolmen He recompences good works far above their merit but he punishes Crimes far below their demerit He makes his Mercy to triumph over Judgment he punishes with regret and he retains a great deal of his wrath when he corrects but he keeps no measure when he rewards and the miseries of the miserable are not greater than the joy and happiness of the blessed Oh! who would not serve so gracious and so good a Master as God is and who is long before he is angry and who is soon appeased again Are the cruel commands of Satan the slavery of the World the defilement of Sin to be preferred to the gentle and the pure Commands of God How many Curse their folly in adhearing to these but none repent that they have been employed in his service His most Aged Servants find the greatest Honour and delight in having served him very long and would not quit their experienced and kind Master for all the World They know that his Corrections are short but his Love is Everlasting his wrath is for a moment but their Heaven will be for ever Inf. 5. The Enemies of the Church of God have no Reason to insult over such as are afflicted in it for tho God for their sins is angry yet his anger is but for a moment Thus they treated David Psal 41.1 All that hate me whisper against me an evil disease say they cleaveth to him and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more And Psal 42.3 My tears have been my meat day and night while they say continually unto me Where is thy God They thought him entirely forsaken and abandon'd for ever putting these Questions to him What is now become of thy God in whom thou wast wont to boast Where is he now whom thou didst once call thy refuge and thy hiding-place Where is his power and his goodness that he leaves thee to such a deep and violent affliction In allusion to that of Shimei 2 Sam. 16.6 7 8 Thus said Shimei when he cursed Come out thou bloody man and thou man of Belial The Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul in whose stead thou hast reigned and the Lord hath delivered the Kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy Son Behold thou art taken in thy mischiefs because thou art a bloody man This bold Man put a wicked interpretation on the Providence of God and because David met with so many troubles and such interruption in his Affairs ere the Kingdom was well setled in his hand he thought that God was against him but he lived to sit with prosperity on the Throne for many years together and Shimei had leisure enough wherein to repent of his foolish and extravagant reproaches of so good a King Thus the Barbarians thought that Paul had been a Murderer because a Viper fixed upon his hand and that vengeance had pursued him for some great offence till he shook it off and taught them to see how ill-grounded their opinion was and that the God they thought his Enemy did assist him to work Miracles When you see any greatly afflicted and groaning under a sense of the wrath of God you ought rather to tremble than to rejoyce to weep than to laugh to consider how holy and how just God is seeing he will not spare even his own for all his Elect shall at one time or other taste the bitterness of sin You that were never serious have reason to humble your selves and to think what may you expect when his Children are Corrected after so severe a manner If his own Family suffer such afflictions what has he then in store for his open Enemies If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall
sacrifices of joy I will sing yea I will sing praises unto the Lord. Did we ever hope to see the Light of God again Did we ever hope to think of Heaven as our own portion and of Christ as our own Saviour Did we ever hope that we should be thus at ease and thus joyful as we now are God is our helper God is our refuge and our strong hold and blessed be the name of the Lord. 5. Let us call upon our Brethren and our Friends to help us to praise the Lord Psal 145.2 3 8 9 14. as to my self I make these requests Bless the Lord O house of Aaron and Levi Bless him ye Ministers of the Gospel that prayed for me in my trouble and have had your prayers granted Bless the Lord O House of Israel and all ye people every-where that sympathized and also kindly remembred me in my desolate condition Bless him ye Old men that you have got so far towards the haven without being thrown into the waves and so much endangered by the Rocks as I have been Bless him that you have not met with such violent tentations and great sorrows as I have met withal though I set out long after you Bless the Lord ye Young men that you have not been weakned in the way with sore affliction and with the terrors of the Lord which I long groaned under Bless him every one both small and great against whom he does not proceed in such smart and severe Providences and in such long and sharp Afflictions Bless him that you see before your eyes and to help your faith a person lately brought from the borders of the Grave and Hell one for whom you were concerned and for whom you prayed and one that still needs and beg your prayers that he may never come to such a sad and doleful night again It is a common Custom to congratulate our Friends recovery from sickness or when they return from some Foreign Land but nothing does more deserve our common thanks than when a Person is come from under the sense of God's displeasure to a sense of his favour and love again Thus it was with Job ch 42.11 Then came there to him all his brethren and all his sisters and all they that had been of his acquaintance before and did eat bread with him in his house and they bemoaned him and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him And with a design of exciting others to praise God with him is that Psal 66.16 Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my soul Or as the Father of the Prodigal to his obedient Son that repined at the kind usage that he gave to him that was less dutiful upon his returning home Luke 15.32 It was meet that we should make merry and be glad for this thy brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found It is the design of God that the great and eminent Deliverances which he gives to some of his Servants should be taken notice of by all the rest that as they usually bring along with them a common Benefit so he should have a common return of praise Ps 66.8 O bless our God ye people and make the voice of his praise to be heard which holdeth our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved And the joining with others that have been in great distress and are escaped is to answer the Obligation we are under to that Precept To rejoice with them that do rejoice And an encouragement to those who are yet in trouble Ps 130.7 Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him there is plenteous redemption And to those that yet are at ease we may say as Paul to Foelix that we wish they were such as we in some respects that is excepting our bonds our anguish and tribulation that they also had such experiences of the goodness and the mercy of God 6. Let us always wait and hope for that eternal Felicity which will at length dawn upon all his people in the great morning of the Resurrection and at their entrance into Heaven there will be joy indeed There is no night there 't is a place that is continually blest with a bright and shining day It is true as one says that as in nature the nights are not equal those of the Winter are much longer than those of the Summer but how long soever they be they are always followed with the light of day so whatsoever diversity there is among the Afflictions of the faithful to one they are much longer than to another yet they shall have an end as Jacob wrastled all night but in the morning got the victory I confess that Sinners in this World have their pleasures but so beset with thorns so attended with fears and pains so short and so vanishing that they deserve not the name But in Heaven the Sun that rises in the morning of our new Glory will never set again those pleasures are not like those of Sin for a season but for evermore There our now imperfect Joy will be compleat and full It will be satisfying and eternal too We shall feel the love of God in so sweet and transporting a manner that we shall never doubt whether he loves us or not We shall always behold our Father's face he will look on us with delight and we shall look on him with praise and joy This world because of its lowness is subject to Inundations and Miseries and innumerable Vicissitudes of Pain and Grief but that high and glorious World is the place of Triumph and of Victory then we shall see our Sin that made us weep to be it self totally defeated then we shall see that Devil that tempted us to be trod under our feet and never to be able to tempt us any more Let us often remember that saying of our Lord John 16.21 22. A woman when she is in travel hath sorrow because her hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of the Child she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world And ye now therefore have sorrow but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy shall no man take from you Oh! what a glorious morning will that be that shall have no cloud to obscure its light and never be followed with a sad or gloomy night As our sufferings here did abound our Consolations then will much more abound We shall forget all our Labour and all our trouble when we see to what a glorious Kingdom we are born tho it was by pangs and torment our joy ' will be like the joy of Harvest of an Harvest that will requite us well for all our care and toil Our hopes here are like the first streaks of light in the Sky that shew the coming of the day but our possession of blessedness will be as the Sun in the fulness of his Glory That delight will indeed be the Sabbath of our thoughts and the sweet and perpetual calmness of our minds that will never be in horror and anguish any more Precious and admirable are those Tears that end so well and which prepare us for so good a state who would not chuse thus to weep that he may rejoyce for ever Lift up your eyes to the Jerusalem above the City of the Living God ye Mourners and Prisoners of hope for it is the City of Peace Rev. 21.3 4. Behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his People and God himself shall be with them and be their God and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away THE END
Edinburgh was Twenty years in terrors of Conscience and yet delivered afterwards You may also direct them to the Lives of Mrs. Brettergh Mrs. Drake Mr. Peacock and Mrs. Wight where they will see a very chearful day returning after a black and stormy night and that the Issue from their Afflictions was more glorious than their Conflict was troublesom They went forth weeping they sowed in Tears but they reaped an Harvest of wonderful Joys afterwards You have in the Book of Martyrs written by Mr. Fox an instance of Mr. Glover who was worn and consumed with inward trouble for the space of Five years that he neither had any comfort in his Meat nor any quietness of Sleep nor any pleasure of Life he was so perplexed as if he had been in the deepest Pit of Hell yet at last this good Servant of God after so sharp temptations and the strong buffetings of Satan was freed from all his trouble and was thereby framed to great Mortification and was like one already placed in Heaven and led a Life altogether Celestial abhorring in his mind all prophane things and you have a remarkable instance of mighty joy in Mr. Holland a Minister who having the day before he died meditated upon the 8th of the Romans he cried on a sudden Stay your Reading What brightness is it that I see They told him it was the Sun-shine Nay saith he my Saviour's shine Now farewell World and welcome Heaven the day-star from an high hath visited my heart O speak it when I am gone and let it be Preached at my Funeral God dealeth familiarly with Man I feel his Mercy I see his Majesty whether in the Body or out of the Body God he knoweth but I see things unutterable And in the Morning following he shut up his blessed Life with these blessed words O! what an happy change shall I make from Night to Day from Darkness to Light from Death to Life from Sorrow to Solace from a factious World to an Heavenly Being O! my dear Friends it pitieth me to leave you behind yet remember what I now feel I hope you shall find ere you dye That God doth and will deal familiarly with Men. And now thou fiery Chariot that came down to fetch up Eliah carry me to my happy hold and all the blessed Angels who attended the soul of Lazarus to bring it up to Heaven bear me O bear me into the bosome of my best Beloved Amen Amen Come Lord Jesus come quickly And so he fell asleep See this and several other instances in Mr. Robert Bolton's Instructions for afflicted Consciences p. 87. and 235 c. Eleventhly The next kindness you are to shew to your Melancholly Friends is heartily to pray for them Let your eyes weep for them in secret and there let your souls melt in fervent holy Prayers they are not able in a composed or a lively manner to recommend their own Case to God you may use many arguments in your Prayers their forlorn state and the greatness of their miseries may be a very powerful motive to your Supplications You know that none but God himself can help them For as Mr. Greenham says If our assistance were as an Host of Armed Soldiers if our Friends were the Princes and Governors of the Earth if our Possessions were as large as between the East and the West if our Meat were as Mannah from Heaven if our Apparel were as costly as the Ephod of Aaron if every day were as glorious as the day of Christ's Resurrection yet if our Minds are appalled with the Judgments of God all these things would not yield us any help or consolation * See Mr. Greenham's Comfort for an Afflicted Conscience p. â—27 And you must wrestle with him on their behalf you may plead with him That his Power and Goodness will be more illustrious if he save those whom none but he himself can save and that his Grace will be more remarkable if he please to create Peace for those troubled Souls in which none but he can make a Calm and you know not but that his Light on your request may begin to shine on those who have bewailed his absence with many dreadful groans And tho your eyes be even weary with looking upwards yet continue still to wait and pray for it shall not be in vain Thus you will do them a great kindness and perform your own Duty tho perhaps they may be ready to say to you as Mr. Peacock to his Friends Take not the Name of God in vain by praying for a Reprobate And as Mr. Dod said to him when he said he could not pray Tho saith he most sicknesses hinder Prayer and therefore the Apostle James says If any Man be sick let him send for the Elders c. Yet if God stir up your Friends to pray for you he will stir up himself to hear their Prayers And do you consider that nothing but Prayer can do them good It is an obstinate disease that nothing else will overcome for it is a very slight Melancholly and which is not deeply rooted that can be drowned in Wine or chased away with sociable divertisements Some indeed tell us When they find themselves troubled their way is to bid their thoughts Battel and to oppose Thoughts against Thoughts and with the dint of Reason to subdue this peevish Humour But such must give me leave to say That they are not under the disease of Melancholly for that will neither hear Faith nor Reason till God himself by his Almighty Power work Salvation for us XII Not only pray for them but get other serious Christians to pray for them also When many good people join their requests together the cry is more acceptable and prevalent When those in the Acts joined to remember Peter in his Chains he was after that very soon delivered and in the very time of their Prayers All believers have through Jesus Christ a great interest in Heaven and the Father is willing to grant what they beg in the Name of his dear Son I my self have been greatly helped by the prayers of others and I heartily thank all those that kept any particular days wherein more solemnly to remember my distressed condition blessed be God that has not cast off their prayer nor turned away his mercy from me Every day gives us several experiences of many that have been rescued from their diseases their temptations and their fears by the Prayers of others And I might also add you have very great cause to pray for your selves that God may give you strength to bear so heavy a Cross as you are afflicted with in the afflictions of your friends Their doleful complaints their repeated groans and their long and sore trials are enough to sink you too if God do not give you wonderful support You have need to beg strong faith and great patience that you may not be unhinged with their passionate or hasty speeches XIII Put your poor
the last day but he will come to you in the Spirit and judge for your Soul against your Enemies to deliver you from all even Sin which is such a burthen to you As also from Satan the great Troubler of your peace who does either accuse you falsly or aggravates all your Infirmities and Miscarriages though such as he has tempted you to above all reason I shall be glad to have some account from you how it is with your Soul .......... I shall endeavour what lies in me as enabled by the Spirit of Christ to be a helper to your faith and joy ............ I shall add no more at this time but only to let you know That I have you and others in your condition daily in my prayers so I commend you to the mercy of God in our dear Redeemer I am Your very affectionate Friend and Brother in Christ GEORGE PORTER Febr. 21. 1688 9. LETTER II. Written to a Relation of the Author 's by one that had been under Melancholly Mrs. Rogers IF you dare believe one that hath been in your Case which I confess is very sad and much to be pitied you have very much of a Bodily distemper and tho by reason of your Clouds you cannot hope for relief either by spiritual or natural means yet know that nothing is too hard for God to do use both and look up to God as well as you can for a Blessing The Lord's arm is not shortned that he cannot save nor his ear heavy that he cannot hear And tho your Sins and sad Apprehensions keep you in sadness that you cannot see the Lord Jesus nor call him yours yet he sees you bemoaning your Misery and Disability to love and serve him I know you would give all the World were it at your disposal for a glimpse of this favour Do not side with your Enemy so far as to believe that you would not accept of the Lord Jesus to be your King as willingly as to be your Saviour If you can get so much ground of your self then judge you are not alone in this for those that have been in deep Melancholly have not only had hard thoughts of themselves but hard and sinful thoughts of God as if he delighted in the death of a Sinner although he hath sworn the contrary In that dismal condition they could not see the loveliness of Christ nor hardly discern desires after him unless only to be saved from Hell they could plead against themselves That their Day of Grace was past and that they had sinned the unpardonable sin and that for several years Much more I could say but I know it is to no purpose none can speak to the heart but God alone only I beg of you to cherish that hope you have which the Devil would have you disown but had you none you would not ask any to pray for you I knew one that was in so despairing a Condition that did not that nor believed it more possible to be saved than the Devil At length was persuaded to use a Steel Course and Drink the Waters and other means which by God's Blessing did good and as the bodily distemper wore off more clearness came into the Mind and hope returned which before seemed to be quite dead and tho the Party still hath Clouds ........... and Satan is apt to put in that all is naught still through God's Mercy the poor creature can reply I am changeable in my frame God is unchangeable in his Covenants Tho I cannot find the sensible joy nor love nor delight that I would yet blessed be God that he inables me to wait on him in the use of the means by which he hath promised to renew my strength and tho I want that sweet sensible Communion with God which is the Life of Heaven Is it not a Mercy that I can hope in his Mercy Have I deserved such high favours that I must be always full of Joy This is what I would but if the Lord will keep me a poor Beggar 't is infinite Mercy that I am not in Hell and that the desire of my heart is after him I chuse to love him I cast my self on him I neither expect nor desire any other Saviour if I perish it shall be in serving him as well as I can and let him do his will There is forgiveness with him that he should be feared This poor Creature often thinks of that Scripture when Christ spoke to Thomas Thou seest and believest blessed are they that do not see yet believe You say this is no Comfort to you it is not your Case true but you know not how soon it may be This Party that I speak of was in your Case and I verily believe in worse therefore pray cast not off your confidence the Lord I verily hope will shew you Mercy But you must wait be not impatient Is not Redemption from Hell and hope of Heaven-worth waiting for .... The Lord shine in upon your Soul and let you see that whatever he doth is in love and faithfulness Pray for me that I may not forget how it hath been with nor be insensible of your Condition or others in your case ................ I am in some small manner sensible of your trouble I wish I were abundantly more so for then I should hope to be hereafter a partaker with you in your Joys July 24. 89. LETTER III. To a Relation of the Author 's MY very kind and dear Friend whom I much respect and love in the Lord even as I have Cause having found you to be one who I am persuaded Love the Lord Jesus in sincerity which you have fully manifested by your longings after him and your great inward sorrow when you could not enjoy him as you would And now he is returned unto you your soul is at rest rejoycing in him as the Lord your Righteousness Peace and Life in whom you have all your soul needs and desires And the Lord manifest himself to you more and more and fill you with abundance of Peace and Joy in Believing which I doubt not you desire for this end That his Joy being your Strength and your Heart enlarged by it you may be able to run the ways of his Commandments and to serve him not only in sincerity but with all gladness in all love and thankfulness for all his loving-kindness and all the great things he has done for your soul in bringing it out of that horrible pit of darkness and the shadow of death wherein you saw neither Sun nor Moon nor Stars but were afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted without all light comfort and joy tho the Father of Lights and the God of all Consolation were with you when you perceived him not and could discover no tokens of his Gracious Presence as neither could I in the like gloomy Condition But I now find as you also do blessed be the Father of Mercies That he was ready at hand to
give forth Light and Joy when his own set time came which tho we did not wait for in a due manner by Faith Patience and Humility yet he passed by all our unbelief impatience and peevishness and visited our sinful Souls in his tender Mercy notwithstanding all whereby we had provoked him to turn his short withdrawing from us into an everlasting departure from us and have left us wholly to the unbelief and frowardness of our own evil hearts Wherefore let us magnify his Name together and let his high praises be in our hearts and mouths as long as we live and unto all Eternity for he is most worthy to be praised And blessed be his Name for ever and ever Amen And let us walk circumspectly and humbly with him all our days that we grieve not his good Spirit any more and provoke him to withdraw from us and to take his blessed influences and comforts from us as he has done He is the life of our souls and the joy of our hearts without him we are but a sink of all filth and a hell of sorrow and confusion ............ I hope you will give me the contentment to let me see you as oft as you can I shall be glad to be a means to help forward your Faith and Joy unto a more full settlement of Spirit and more abundant rejoycing in the Lord Jesus Thus with my constant Prayers for you I commend you to the Grace of God in Christ and Rest London Febr. 8. 1689. Your most Affectionate Friend and Brother in the Lord GEORGE PORTER LETTER IV. To a Relation of the Authors Mrs. Rogers I Have read your doleful Letter wherein you express your distress of mind under which you lately labour'd 't was indeed a very sad misapprehension of God and of your own condition but yet this is no more than what hath befaln many a dear Servant of God who have managed the same Objection against themselves and have labour'd under the same afrightments This you counterballance with the comfortable account you give of God's great Mercy to you in commanding down these waves and storms I rejoice with you in this and pray that God would please to confirm and settle you in the sense of his Love And that you may go forward in your present peaceable Estate I would advise you to take a due care of your Body and to reduce it into order I know well you are naturally melancholly and you may be assured the Devil took no small advantage from thence to raise up your distressing fears and if you take not heed to take away this advantage he may except God wonderfully prevent raise up trouble to you a second time 'T is not possible for me at so great a distance to direct you in this matter Physicians upon the place that see you and can occasionally fit or change their prescriptions are only fit to advise you This being cared for I shall only put you in mind of a few things which I would have you to establish upon your mind and these are such as a review of your apprehensions in your former trouble will help you to understand First then Call to mind that such dreadful Terrors as you have had are not to be understood as certain evidences of God's rejecting those that are so afflicted tho you so concluded against your self yet the present peace which God in great mercy hath given you is enough to tell you that you were mistaken when you thought so Heman's Case and the instances of many others of your own Acquaintance may abundantly satisfy you that these things may befall the precious Servants of God Secondly Note also That a true converted Person may be brought to that pass as to deny all the Evidences of Grace which he formerly had and may condemn himself for an Hypocrite when at the same time these Evidences appear to By-standers and shine through the black Cloud of their terror Thirdly 'T is further to be noted that the sad Speeches such Men utter and the desperate conclusions that such do make are little else than the Discourses of those that are distracted nor will God rigidly press them upon us as sins of that nature which we would take them to be God in Mercy considers our distress and will more gently pass by such extravagancies than we can readily believe 4. You should also call to mind that you and others in this Case boldly venture to determine that which neither you nor no Man else can know as that you were cut off reprobated made to be destroyed no time of Mercy left c. This was a conclusion which you had no warrant to make nor could you prove it If you concluded your present state to be bad you should not have taken upon you to pronounce God's purpose to have been against you for the future Who knows the Mind of God 5. I also think that you might possibly have some disadvantage by some darkness of mind about the nature of Faith some expressions in your Letter where you complain you could not believe look as if you thought Faith must be a believing that our sins are pardoned I will not much insist on this because I may mistake But if you had such a mistake in your mind 't is no wonder to say you could not believe These things you may do well to consider as mistakes which the disordered Reason you had run upon to the increase of your trouble and now while you are in the calm fix the contrary upon your mind and come up as fully as you can to these following conclusions 1. Let the amiable lovely and compassionate Nature of God be deeply impressed upon your mind think often seriously meditate That God is Love That he delights not in the death of sinners That he is willing to save 2. Make much of the probability or even possibility of Salvation even when the assurance of Faith is wanting 't is a great stay to be able to nourish hope concerning this thing 3. Persuade your self for certain That God's Decree is no rule for you to go by and that you must interpret his Decree by his Promises for it 's certain his Decree doth not contradict his Promise 4. Assure your self that if God sincerely incline your heart to accept of Christ as your Righteousness and Lawgiver and endeavour faithfully to live accordingly he will undoubtedly fulfil his Promise of Peace and Pardon to you and that it is a comfortable evidence of his special Grace 5. Do not think you want Faith because you have not assurance Faith is such a belief of the proffer of Salvation by Christ in the Gospel as makes us willing to accept it upon God's terms 6. Listen not to severe and malignant suggestions of Satan against the Mercifulness and Goodness of God if any such thoughts come into your mind cast them out presently and raise up your mind unto a detestation of them 7. Be thankfully content with that
Decree There are many people whom we are angry with and reprove whom notwithstanding we do in the mean time most sincerely love and Christ has told us Rev. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten 4. The Anger of God is but for a moment because he delights in Mercy Psalm 103.8 The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy He will not always chide neither will he keep his anger for ever It is long before he punishes and 't is with haste that he comes to our help when we repent and many times before In the midst of Wrath he remembers Mercy he does not always inflict what we have deserved but considers what is most proper for him to lay upon us and what we are able to bear and therefore he gives to us some mitigations with our most bitter Cup. He is called the Father of Mercies and the God of all Comfort and tho Punishment does proceed from him as well as Tenderness and Affection yet he is no where called the Father of Judgments Mercy ariseth from his own Nature and he delighteth in it Micah 7.18 He retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy His wrath is said to be reserv'd in Golden Viols Rev. 15.7 i. e. it doth not flow forth all at once but by degrees but his Mercy is compared to a River and a flowing Stream Isaiah 66.12 to the Oyl of gladness to the smell of Myrrh Aloes and Cassia It is a Glory to this God to relieve the miserable and to help his Servants when all their power and might is gone and he ends the Controversy with them when there is cause enough on their side that he should pursue the Quarrel further When he leads us into a Wilderness yet he provides some Water some refreshment for us there It is one of the great Wonders of his Providence that he supports those poor Souls that have no light of Evidence no sense of his Love no hope nothing but the fears of Wrath and Desolation and yet the matter of Fact and our own Experience plainly tells us that so it is his everlasting Arms are underneath and his Power does maintain our Life when we say that he has forgotten to be gracious He bottles our Tears when we weep and hears our Groans when we lament and proportions the Troubles that he sends that they shall not be too long nor too violent Jer. 30.11 I will not make a full end of thee I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished And those Afflictions which his People suffer are not in all respects proper Punishments because his Anger is mixed with mildness and mitigated by the Intercessions of a Mediator Lam. 3.31 32. The Lord will not cast off for ever but tho he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his tender mercies 5. That his Anger is but for a moment is for his own Name sake His Nature is most inclinable to do us good therefore the Prophets to those Idolaters mentioned in 1 Kings 18.24 says The God that answers by sire let him be God and he chose that Element above the rest to signify how soon we shall have Mercy it comes as upon the wings of the Wind it is as swift as the rays of Light Hosca 11.9 I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim for I am God and not man A Man when he is greatly provoked by his Enemy is not satisfied with having once made him feel his Anger but carries on his Revenge to further degrees and only ceases the pursuit with the Death of him that he first assaulted But the Great God tho he is able to Conquer those that oppose him with a total Defeat and Ruin yet he suffers them to breathe and live that they may Repent and that he may cause his Goodness to shine with a greater Brightness to the World He could follow them with one Blow after another with a Succession of new and greater Miseries but he restrains his Anger for his own sâ—ke And it maybe a great Consolation to poor afflicted People to consider that they have to deal with God and not with Men when they have sinn'd they have not to deal with Men that are full of Rage and Cruelty but with a God that is gracious and full of Mercy not with Men that may Caress them to day and Hate them to morrow but with a God that is unchangeable and even when they are in the Fire or in the Water his Love is still to them the very same Men think it a dishonour to spare their interiors if they do not by the lowest Submissions testify their Sorrow for their Crimes but the Great God is so far above all his Creatures that he may when he will think them below his Indignation and magnify his Goodness in sparing and forgiving them when they most deserve to dye Isaiah 4.8 9. For my names sake will I defer mine anger and for my praise will I refrain for thee that I cut thee not off 'T is his Power that moderates his Anger Those Persons that have the least strength either of Reason or of Courage are the most passionate and inclinable to Revenge In Punishments he shews his Dominion over his Creatures but his Power over himself when he forgives great Injuries and is slow to punish great Affronts and his Power in those Acts of Grace is very great and illustrious He is God and not Man there is more Compassion and more real Pity in him than in the most compassionate or tender hearted Man that we ever knew He is God and not Man he whom we have offended and who can destroy us begins first to treat about a Reconciliation with us This is not the manner and way of Men who think that those who have offended them are to make the first advances towards a repairing of the Breach There is no Attribute in the displaying of which the Great God glories so much as in this of Mercy and 't is by this that he would be known Exod. 34.6 7. 6. That his Anger is but for a moment is because he would make a difference between the righteous and the wicked The Afflictions that he sends upon the Righteous are to prepare them for Heaven and Glory But those Scourges that he uses to the Wicked and Impenitent are but the beginning of their Sorrows the flashes of those Flames that will consume them for ever The distresses of the Righteous are short and so are the Prosperities of the Wicked The Righteous are weeping here but they shall rejoyce hereafter The Wicked have now their Heaven such as it is and hereafter they go to an Eternal Hell and there must they weep and wail when the Good and Holy shall have all their Tears wiped away The one shall find him to be a loving Father and to have been
more bitter and more violent and drawn out to a more formidable length but now because it is not so he hath visited in his anger yet he knoweth it not in great extremity Job 35.15 He has not stirr'd up all his wrath nor amaz'd us with all the Thunder of his Power let us not be like the Israelites Psal 106.7 who provoked him and remembred not the multitude of his Mercies 4. Consider that he uses no other methods with you when he is angry with you than what he has us'd with his dearest servants heretofore and this may tend to compose your Spirits under long and sore Tryals are you better than Moses than Job than Heman than David and Asaph and many other excellent and holy Men with whom he was displeased and who felt his Wrath though it was but for a moment Are we more dutiful and obedient than they were do we not merit the Chastisements of our Heavenly Father as much as they did yea and much more If we have the spirit and the priviledge of Children we ought not to murmur though we have our share in the discipline of the Family Would we have the Course of Providence inverted and changed for us Can we imagine that we shall be always spared when so many great Saints have smarted under the displeasure of God for their sin We are apt to think there is no sorrow like to our sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted us Lam. 1.12 but we do not wisely inquire in this matter for if we trace the steps of holy men of old we shall find that innumerable and very grievous Calamities were their portion as well as ours We have heard of the distresses and of the patience of Job of the pains of his Body and of the troubles of his Soul and when either our Bodies or our Souls are more afflicted than his was then it will be soon enough for us to begin to murmur and if we do it not till then we shall be as remarkable for our patience as he was Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing hapned to you 1 Pet. 4.12 1 Pet. 5.9 All these things are accomplished in your brethren which are in the world and this is duly to be thought upon for there is nothing of which Satan makes a greater use to perplex us in our hour of temptation than of the length and the sharpness of our trials as if therefore God were our Enemy because he does afflict or that we are no Children because we are afflicted so very long thus will the Evil Spirit suggest and say If thou wert a friend of God who is so compassionate and so flow to wrath would he follow thee with breach upon breach with one stroak after another and let his hand be heavy upon thee day and night He supports comforts and refreshes all his Servants but thou hast no refreshment nothing but anguish and vexation therefore thou art none of his but by Faith we must quench this fiery Dart and know that the fruit of our affliction may be very sweet though for the present 't is very bitter and that we are under the Conduct of that Wisdom which can order even this Cross for good and whatever mists that envious Spirit may raise before our eyes let us still remember that his anger is but for a moment that others whom we are sure he lov'd have undergone the like troubles and his own dear Son was still a Son when a man of sorrows and that his Afflictions were of a great length from the Manger to the Cross And if God will have us to be so far conformable to this blessed Person so that we have no rest from trial till we are quiet in the Grave we should not distrust his goodness nor murmur as it 5. Let us compare our present Sufferings and Afflictions with that Happiness which is to come His Anger is but for a moment but his love will be for ever He frowns for a moment but he will shew them his pleased Face for ever He corrects them and they weep for a moment but he will embrace them and they shall rejoice for ever Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning And do we not find our hearts begin to spring within us when we consider that we are in pain for a moment but we shall be at case for ever Is not this good news to those that fear God and yet are afflicted Lift up your heads ye Mourners ye Prisoners of hope 't is but for a little season Let not your hearts faint I know you will say Oh I could bear any thing but the wrath of God he is angry with my Soul he denies an answer to my Prayers he speaks not to me one comfortable word I look up to his Heavens and they are as Brass I run to his Ordinances and hear his Word in the Assemblies of his People but whilst others are wet with the dew of Heaven I remain dry and neglected as I was I seem to be as the mountains of Gilboa there is no dew nor rain falls upon me I seem to be under the Curse of God and because I have formerly not improv'd the means of Grace he seems to say of me as of the barren Figtree never let fruit grow upon thee more and can you tell me whither I shall go and what I shall do in such a case as this You must still in humble submission wait upon the Lord he stays from your present help upon a very gracious Design He bottles your tears and is acquainted with your griefs and that anger that now bows you to the ground shall in a little while be removed and your faith and your hope will not be in vain There are thousands of Joys prepared to meet you when you are a little more purified and prepared for them Isa 54. 7,8 For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer Nothing can be less than a moment 't is the least part of time and yet so small a thing as that is are all our troubles here to that endless Eternity which is to come So if your outward afflictions and your spiritual fears should last for Life as none can give you assurance to the contrary yet all this Life is but as a moment as nothing to that state of Blessedness that comes afterward Nor are the degrees of your sorrows here proportionable to the degrees of your approaching glory For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 This great Apostle calls his afflictions very light and yet there was never any that suffered more troubles from the malice of the world
from him as we did but he designs not to raise them again they groan'd under the wrath of the mighty Judge and they must always groan under it no beam of chearful Light will shâ—ne into their Dungeon no Messenger will be dispatched to give them the glad-tidings of Salvation the anger of God threw them out of Heaven and the door is for ever shut they know this to be their woful Case and therefore they rage against him and against his Servants and his Interest in the world What could move Christ to take the nature of Man and not of Angels Heb. 2.16 to say to us Live and to suffer them to dye to visit our sinning World to set us at Liberty to set open the Prison-doors whilst he suffers them to roar in chains of wrath As they have greater Capacities and Natures more knowing than ours so they might have honoured their Creator more than we had they been redeemed but they must mourn for ever and never sing his Praise they must grieve whilst we rejoice whilst we look for our Lord they tremble in the fear of his coming whilst we have the sweetness of hope they are in anguish and vexation in despair and horror we have our Sabbaths but they have no days of rest we can through Jesus Christ call God our Father but they know him not by such a comfortable Name they feel his Power but they tast not his Love they tremble under his Vengeance but all comfort and Joy is fled away from them for ever why are we in the light and they in darkness Why is Christ a Phisician to us whilst he is a Judge to them truly nothing makes the difference but his own love and what manner of love is this 2. It was great love in Christ to bear the anger of God because now his poor tempted Servants have one to whom they may repair in all their straits Heb. 2.18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succor them that are tempted 'T is a great relief to the miserable and afflicted to be pitied by others as Job 19.21 Have pity upon me have pity upon me O ye my friends for the hand of God hath touched me It is some relief when others tho they cannot help us yet seem to be truly concerned for the sadness of our case when by the kindness of their words and of their actions they do a little smooth the wounds that they cannot heal but it is an unspeakable addition to the Cross when a man is brought low under the sense of God's displeasure to have men to mock at his Calamity or to revile him or to speak roughly this does enflame and exasperate the wound that was big enough before and it is an hard thing when one has a dreadful sound in his ears to have every friend to become a Son of Thunder It is a small matter for people that are at ease to deal severely with such as are afflicted but they little know how their severe speeches and their angry words pierce them to the very soul 'T is easie to blame others for complaining but if such had felt but for a little while what it is to be under the fear of God's Anger they would find they could not but complain It cannot but make any person very restless and uneasie when he apprehends that God is his Enemy It is no wonder if he makes every one that he sees and every place that he is in a witness of his grief but now it is a Comfort in our Temptations and in our Fears that we have so compassionate a Friend as Christ is to whom we may repair Heb. 4.15 For we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in every time of need Had it not been for his Mediation the absolute and pure Deity would have been too glorious and inaccessible to us but he is cloathed with our nature and though it has undergone several alterations since he is exalted yet we are sure that he retains a tender sence of our miseries And tho he be very high he does not think it below him to regard the most troubled and sorrowful Believer He was on earth acquainted with grief Isa 53.3 And has carryed to Heaven with him a remembrance of what he felt in his own Temptations and of what he felt when his Father frown'd upon him and his own experience renders him more capable of helping us and makes him full of pity when he sees us mourn well knowing what was his own Case As God has fashioned the hearts of all men and some who have naturally more mercy and pity than others and then the holy Spirit by its renewing grace carrying their good Dispositions to greater degrees and proceeding and working usually according to their tempers so it is certain he temper'd the heart of Christ and made it of a softer mould than all the tenderness of all the men in the world put together would have made it he had such a humane nature that might be more merciful than all Men and Angels together Goodwin Christ's Heart in Heaven p. 55. Our groans and our sighs teach his Heart above and tho he does not come with help just when we desire it yet he is providing for our welfare he sends us some inward supports when we have not an immediate deliverance he will not suffer us totally to sink tho he may leave us for a while to try our faith or to let us understand our own weakness we may think that our vessel will be covered with waves when he is guiding us to shore even when we think that he is asleep and has forgot us and cares not though we be cast away only let us never cease to say Master save us or else we perish CHAP. V. Shewing the unreasonableness of long-continued angers among good People as also that the temporary effects of God's displeasure are more elegible than the wrath of Men. Of the Excellency of Religion and that the Enemies of the Church have no cause to insult over it because of its certain deliverance and the dismal Conclusion of their own Wickedness upon which account Christians have no Reason to envy their Prosperity Inf. 2. SEeing God is angry but for a moment How unreasonable are long-continued Anger 's among good People Let not the sun go down upon your wrath Neither give place to the devil Eph. 4.26 27. i. e. he that has injured or provoked another must come to a Temper and sue for a Reconciliation speedily or else before the time of solemn praying to God which was constantly at Evening and so the Exhortation bears proportion with that Matth. 5.23 24. If thou bringest thy gift unto the altar and there remembrest that
Sense will tell us that our Troubles are tedious and very long but our Faith will rectify our Judgment and shew us that tho' we have been in heaviness yet it is but for a season our Sense makes us think our night of weeping very long but Faith sets the morning before our eyes And indeed when that comes the time of sorrow will appear to have been very short our Weeping will bear no proportion with our Joy nor our Groans with our Hallelujahs The luster of our Crown and the glories of our Triumph will make us to forget the Blood and Sweat and Labour of the Combat tho' whil'st here below we thought it hard Faith will wipe away our Tears and cause us to take a further prospect and to see where they now are that were mourners once as well as we Job is no more wondred at upon a Dunghil by his Friends but shining with glory in the Highest Heaven Heman is no more distracted with terrors but infinitely pleased with the sight and enjoyment of his God There is Asaph also singing praises to him tho' he thought and was afraid that his Mercies were clean gone and that he would be favourable no more Faith will solace your drooping spirits by causing you frequently to remember that tho' God is angry yet it is but for a moment and that tho' you have now four Grapes yet they are only to prepare you for a better relish of the Joys above it is this that sets our feet upon a Rock and produces in our fainting Souls a secret support and hope that tho' it be night with us for the present yet that it will not always be so Rev. 3.21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my father on his throne The dangers and distresses on the way will make us better to like our home All the years of our Life tho' spent in sore afflictions and anxieties will be but a very little space when we are Landed at our haven of Joy and Immortality CHAP. IX Of the direct Acts of Faith as the most suitable to a distressed Soul as also of waiting upon God With several considerations to enforce it And that a Person in great Affliction ought to hope that it may be better with him THird General Look forward to Jesus Christ when you find things perplex'd and troubled in your own souls and indeed in the direct Acts of Faith we have nobler objects to converse withal than when we look and pore upon our guilty selves when we look into our troubled hearts we can see nothing besides confusion and disorder there but we may at the same time discern an alsufficient fulness in God and Christ to relieve our wants It is a long and a tedious work to consider by the several steps by which we are to proceed in such a Case whether we have believed or not our Duty is at this very instant to believe i. e. under a penitent sense of what we have done amiss to look unto Christ for help We must carefully distinguish between Justification and Sanctification between those habits and those holy actions that are the effects of Faith and Faith it self Our Sanctification is full of imperfection but that Righteousness of Christ wherein alone we are to trust for acceptance with God is compleat and perfect These are things to be considered by people under spiritual distress but if you be under the disease of Melancholly to any great degree I am sensible that neither this nor any other direction will be altogether available It is such a stubborn and obstinate disease that it is not to be overcome by rational methods and perswasion no more than a broken Bone can be set again by words and talk 'T is only God that is fully acquainted with the Nature and Violence of this worst of Distempers 't is his Power and his Grace alone that can chase it away and all those things that depend upon consideration and that may succeed in other Cases have not the same tendency to good in this because it is our disease always to pore and think and it is our misery that we cannot think to any purpose I beseech you to remember that the foundation of all our Peace and Comfort is Christ alone and Faith in him Mortification Self-denial and other Graces are the superstructure that is laid upon it but truly all that we can do in great and deep affliction and sore distresses of Soul is only to look up to Christ as a poor wounded bleeding Man does look and cry to one that passes on the Road for help and our Saviour and our Physician is so compassionate that he will regard us tho' we are able to say little more than this Have mercy on us thou son of David Under the prospect of our great infirmities and of the manifold imperfections of our Duties and under the sense of our own nothingness and unworthiness let us humbly betake our selves to Christ he will not disdain nor slight our approaches to him nor leave them unattended with some manifestations of reviving Grace and Mercy IV. When you have done all this you must wait till the Lord appear to your relief and help Psal 123.2 Behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hands of their masters and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hands of her mistress so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercy upon us Tho' his stroaks be very smart yet we are sure that we have deserved them tho' his delays of help be tedious yet we have merited at his hands a much longer delay We are as so many poor Slaves indeed under the bondage of our fears and our troubles but alas we have brought our selves to that slavery and we must look unto God till he set us free again and tho' our Master be angry with us yet he is a Master still and that relation that we have to him that Interest which we have in his Covenant may be somewhat supporting and comfortable to us 't is a more easie thing to bear any trouble that continues for a Week or for a Month and then passes away but this will be the tryal of our Faith if we can maintain our dependance and trust in God when he afflicts us very sore for many Months or Years together If we see no sign of help no prospect of deliverance we are still to wait till the time even the set time to favour us be come and this must be done with patience with a silent and a quiet resignation to his Will it is the product of a calm and a quiet Soul that is satisfied in the Justice of Providence tho' it be severe only with this limitation that you have the freedom and the command of your natural spirits for if they be put into a hurry and confusion by a disease then indeed you can
221. and were not Forgiveness in God somewhat beyond what men could imagine no flesh could be saved Isa 55.88 My thoughts are not your thoughts neither are my ways your ways saith the Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts It is not the manner of men to pass by multiplied Transgressions as he doth The consideration of his Infinite Mercy removes all those obstructions which our unbelief viewing the greatness and aggravations of our sins throws in the way and tho our sins have been every way inexcusable and do upon every reflection that we make upon them fright and trouble us yet the Mercy of a God surely will yield us some relief for there is no other reason why he does good to this or that sinner but his own Grace Hos 3.4 He freely chuses justifies adopts and renews the Souls of his Elect 't is all not from their merit or from any thing that he foresaw in them but from the good pleasure of his will Eph. 1.5 All that he does for them all that he will do for them to Eternity will be to the praise and glory of his own grace This is the true way to humble us when we see nothing in our selves but what exposes us to misery and that is true Gospel Obedience which is the fruit and product of his Love shed abroad in our hearts This is the only Rock whereon we are to build our Comfort when the Storm comes This Free Grace of God is that which the Saints admire on earth which revives their drooping spirits and which they will wonder at for ever 'T is a shelter from the accusations and the malicious insultings of the Devil for tho he set our sins with all their overwhelming circumstances before us tho we cannot deny the charge and believe that we are miserable in our seves yet do we resolve to flye to the Mercy and the Love of God in Christ We should disparage the Excellencies of his Nature and the Offers of his Goodness if we did not lay hold upon them And this is that which some call a natural Novatianism in the timerous Consciences of Convinced Sinners whereby they doubt and question pardon for Sins of Apostacy and falling after Repentance IX Beware of running into further sin and so to provoke God to further Anger When our Hope is perished there is nothing so evil which we shall not dare to do If help do not speedily come we are apt to say it is in vain to pray it is vain to look up to a God that has thrown us of Jer. 2.25 Thou saidst There is no hope no for I have loved strangers and after them will I go You are lost for ever will the Devil say and therefore it is all one whether you sin or not you can but still be loft this is one of his fiery darts and if by our compliance we suffer it to take hold upon us it will terrifie us the more he will rejoice at our fall and put our Souls by every new Transgression into much more violent and scorching Flames What monstrous Injections what unbecoming Thoughts of God does he suggest and alas how frequently do we entertain them for they come thick upon us In the time of God's displeasure when the edge of his Holy Spiritual Law does wound our Souls what vast multitudes of Corruptions do we then discover that we never saw before How do our old Sins amaze us and new ones arise and spring from them And what can we do in the swelling of Jordan What in so great an inundation but endeavour in our poor feeble manner to look up to Christ for help Beg the Spirit for as one says There is no heart so unclean which this Spirit will not cleanse no soul so feeble which he does not fortifie none so forrowful which he does not comfort none so desolate which he does not cause to rejoice none so slavish which he does not set at liberty none so sick which he does not heal none so dead which he does not quicken Surely he will regard us for he knows that of our selves we cannot bear up against the Winds and Waves And let us always remember That among so many cruel Enemies 't is Unbelief that leads the Van It encourages and draws them on and when we have got the Victory over this all the rest will be daunted and run away By Unbelief we open our hearts and let in all those Thieves and Robbers which deprive us of our Peace It is the defilement of our Consciences by manifold acts of sin that makes us like the troubled Sea which cannot rest And for a Conscience guilty of many neglects to lay claim to God's Mercy is to do as we see Mountebanks sometimes do who wound their Flesh to try Conclusions on their own Bodies how sovereign the Salve is yet often they come to feel the smart of their own Presumption by long and desperate Wounds Let us in the case even of sore Afflictions be afraid to sin Sibbs Souls Conflict p. 31. for that Devil that tempts us will immediately vex and torment us the more for it X. Mistake not those things for evidences of the certain Wrath of God which perhaps are not really so He may suspend the expressions of his Love tho he love us still as Joseph had the tenderness of a Brother whilst his Brethren thought him very angry with them Nay in our secret supports we are not destitute altogether of his care tho we know not how they come As the Metals that lye deep in the ground partake of the Influence of the Sun tho he does not shine upon them with his Light There are few Afflictions but have rather the marks of a Fatherly Kindness in the seasonable Correction of our Faults than the Marks of Displeasure No outward losses no inward troubles that are but for a time are the certain signs of Wrath no tho they be very long and very grievous for it was not so in the case of Job But how shall I know will some say when Afflictions are in wrath It is a question to be answered with great tenderness and caution They are by Divines said to be so 1. When they come with great Violence and suddenly destroy as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah and in the Deluge Psal 58.9 Before your pots can feel the thorns he shall take them away as with a whirlwind both living and in his wrath Nahum 1.9 He will make an utter end affliction shall not rise up the second time And yet this must have some limitations for a good man may be seized with a violent Disease and suddenly dye of whom we ought not to say that he died by the Wrath of God 2. When there is no Mercy discernable in the Cross but only what is evil 3. When one Evil makes way for another and none are sanctified 4.
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
Evil will not always cover himself with Clouds from his own People His common care has provided for the pleasure of his Creatures fruit to delight their Tasts and Flowers and various Colours their Eyes and their smell Rivers and Trees and Meadows and Groves and all the variety of Nature to recreate and entertain them and if all this Accommodation be made for Rebels he will not fail to entertain his Subjects with joys of a better kind Joy is sown for the Righteous and it will arise in the time of Harvest and that time will shortly come If God have done so much to gratify the senses of his Creatures with suitable satisfactions the Souls of his People that are more Noble shall not be disappointed of such as are Coelestial and Divine for joy is that which with a sweet violence does attract the heart of Man God regards the distressed and has a peculiar pity for those that are in the greatest trouble* as Mothers tend with a peculiar care the weakest Child The World indeed admires flatters waits upon those on whom the Sun shines and who are in a prosperous condition as Rivers run into the Sea where there is no need of Water so it heaps its friendships and kindnesses on those that least need them and forsakes the disgraced †Manton Serm. on 2 Thes 2.17 p. 432. the poor and those that are in want but God when his Servants are in the greatest troubles encouragâ—s them by his Name which is The Father of Mercies and the God of all Consolations he is most mindful of them and visits them most and gives them most of his comfortable presence when they are most afflicted 2 Cor. 1.4 He comforteth us in all our tribulations He will not give them a constant ease they shall not be excused from the common inconveniencies of the Fall from sickness or from death but himself is willing to be their own portion he is in all their own God They shall labour but they shall have rest they shall fight but he will Crown their heads with Victory they shall sow in tears but reap in joy The Waves and the Floods that now overwhelm them shall be turned into Rivers of pleasure for evermore The Vse of Exhortation is in these following Particulars 1. Be very well satisfied that God carry you to Heaven in the way that he thinks most proper It were indeed a thing very desirable to be at ease to travel with his light about us but if we must go through darkness and danger and calamity to Heaven let us be satisfied that his will is done tho we go weeping and groaning thither You 'l think perhaps that he deserves not the name of a Christian that will not suffer God to guide him any way so it be to Salvation but alas how few are there that are satisfied with his methods when his Candle shines upon our Tabernacle we are well enough pleased but when he begins to correct and chasten us for a long season then we murmur and repine and when we meet with difficulties and tears and troubles one upon another then we think he is an hard Master this is our common case and our common folly We can all make the Prayer of Jabez 1 Chron. 4.10 Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed and inlarge my coast and that thine hand might be with me and that thou wouldst keep me from evil that it may not grieve me But how few can say heartily with our Blessed Lord If the Cup must not pass thy will be done He could bring you to Heaven without a tear or a sigh but if not who can resist his order or blame his Providence He led the Children of Israel forty years wandring to and fro in a great and a terrible Wilderness wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions and drought and no water Deut. 8.15 when he could have led them quickly to the Land of Canaan You must not think to come to Heaven without many a sad heart and many weeping eyes through the vally of Bacha must you travel to the Mount of God The Ark that had a Noah in it did not immediately rest it was not in one day that the great waters did abate or fall into their old Channels your passage to glory may be safe tho it be very troublesome and the rods that seem to be the most painful may be most necessary to you for tho the Israelites met with various troubles yet Psal 107.7 He led them forth by the right way that they might go to a City of habitation It may be you shall be shipwrackt into the Haven and tho you be saved yet it shall be so as by fire Through many a sharp Cross and many a bitter Tribulation and in the fire your Comforts and your Ease may suffer loss for a time but it shall be made up again Afflictions ruin none that belong to God and many a Christian shall say at last I had perished if I had not perished I had been undone for ever if I had not been afflicted Out of the ruins of the flesh God raises the glorious structure of the new Creature and from the destruction of our Earthly comforts he causes Heavenly joys to spring let us not find fault with God's Providence for it will turn our water into wine our tears of grief into the most pleasant joys And as at the Marriage of Cana we shall have the best at last Our Afflictions will encrease our Grace and we shall ere long mount up from the Wilderness of this world fraught with Myrrh and Frankincense and all the spices of the Merchants Let us not find fault if we meet with the waters of Marah in our Journey to the Land of Promise * Hall on the Marriage in Cana p. 162. Thirst and bitterness is the portion of Pilgrims 'T is enough for us that we shall have rest at last tho we must not expect that the Providence of God should go out of its ordinary course for us Let us confide in his Goodness his Faithfulness and Loving-kindness his Word and Promise this is the quiet harbour into which we must put our trembling souls these are the Consolations that will make our bitter waters sweet Submit therefore to God to him pour out your hearts tho you be long afflicted and with one wave upon another 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 2. LEt us with whom it was once Night improve that Morning-joy that now shines upon us and that briefly in these particulars 1. Let us be continual admirers of God's Grace and mercy to us He has prevented us with his Goodness when he saw nothing in us but impatience and unbelief when we were like Jonas in the belly of Hell his Bowels earned over us and his Power brought us safe to Land What did we to hasten