Discourse which perswades to Holy Mourning from the Blessedness that arises from the Comforts annexed to it is grounded upon the Second Beatitude let none surmise that it is at all improperly built upon it as if by Mourning there Mourning for Sin to which our Discourse especially leads were not meant For tho' Grotius and some others from or with him restrain it to Mourning in Adversity or under Affliction which is one very good and approvable Sense that we not only allow but use it in where we urge to Mourning in General yet learned Expositors do commonly understand it of Mourning for Sin Lugentes peccata vel sua vel aliena Mourning for Sins either their own or other Mens Pol. Synop. in loc S. Chrysostom also interprets it of Mourning for Sins and so does S. Jerome S. Ambrose Cyril Hilary Lyra Brugensis Spanhemius Piscator Maldonate c. not to omit the English Annotations Mourning we are upon For as Poverty in Spirit or Lowliness of Mind is set before it so Meekness and eager desire of Righteousness Mercifulness and Purity in Heart the Pacific Temper and patient Sufferance of Persecution and Martyrdom are put after it And when the Adorable Author of our Faith and Religion being just laying the Ground-work of the same made Holy Mourning a chief piece in the Superstructure of it and placed it high amongst the aforesaid Excellencies indispensably necessary to the Christian Life as to make it almost the very first of them this may convince us that it is as good and needful as other choice pieces of that divine Religion which He hath taught us and consequently as pleasing and acceptable unto GOD. And is not this great ACCEPTABLENESS of it another Obligation to Holy Mourning Is it not a mighty and should it not be an â—rresistible Motive to the Exercise CHAP. VI. A Third Motive to Holy Mourning in General It entitles us to divine Comforts in this Life As appears from the Nature of GOD from the Word the Office and the Disposition of CHRIST and from the Mission of the HOLY GHOST OUR precarious manner of existing in the World does sufficiently evince that we are not Authors of our own Beings but that we had them Originally from GOD who is the Source or Fountain of all Essence both to Himself and to all Creatures And we being wholly derived from Him we must of Necessity depend upon Him And this our Entire dependance upon Him must give Him absolute Dominion over us And so whatever He signifies to be His Will in reference to us we are indispensably obliged most heartily to Comply with according to our several Measures and Capacities And as every such Compliance with regard to His Sovereignty is an instance of our Duty so His Goodness hath made it an instrument of our Happiness For when at any time we yield Obedience to His MAJESTY He hath not only promised to accept it Himself but moreover to recompence it graciously unto us And as we shall have Reward for every Piece of Obedience so we shall not miss of one for Holy Mourning provided we be but faithful in the Performance And truly a most excellent Reward it shall be as consisting of Divine COMFORTS from above And that they shall attend upon Holy Mourning as a fair Remuneration of it in this present Life we have good Assurance For there are many irrefragable Arguments to prove it tho' I shall name but these that follow 1. The Nature of GOD. 2. The Word the Office and Disposition of CHRIST And 3. The Mission of the HOLY GHOST First The Nature of GOD. As we have learnt already out of Isai 57.15 the Holy Mourner is GOD's Habitation And where He dwells who is the GOD of all Comfort what Consolations can be wanting Divine Comforts do as naturally and necessarily attend His gracious Presence as radiant Brightness does the Body of the Sun And that we know where-ever it goes casts a Sphere of glorious Light about it and is able to make even Noon-day it self where before there was darkest Midnight Nor is GOD where thus present the Cause of these Comforts naturally only but if we may use the Distinction intentionally too by seconding the Efficacy of His Nature in the Case by the Power of His Will and so making the Comforts he sheds down upon His Servants to be the Issues of his Kindness as well as of his Residence And accordingly He proclaims in the cited Text that the very End of His abode with the Humble and Contrite is to revive their Hearts and to revive their Spirits The Consequence of which is as Happy as Obvious for the Beams of GOD's Favour being darted into Mourners by a double Efficacy that of His Nature and His Will at once they must needs enter with a double Force and so chear good Souls both with the sweeter and the stronger Influence The certain Consequence of which again will be that Men may as well freeze in the midst of Fire as holy Mourners can be destitute of divine Comforts I mean ordinarily tho' for some special and extraordinary Reasons GOD sometimes may yea often does suspend and withdraw his Comforts from them But then I say the Dispensaton must be lookt upon as extraordinary and will be different from and contrary to the usual Methods of His Procedure and the Common Measures of his Dealings with Mourners And yet they need not be troubled at it neither For however GOD may withhold His Consolations from them for a Time they are sure notwithstanding to enjoy them at last And even that intermediate want which they feel shall be better to them some way or other than the Fruition of them could have been Secondly That Holy Mourners shall be comforted we have farther Assurance from the Word the Office and the Disposition of CHRIST His Word to our purpose is most Express and Memorable For 't is that which He spake in the Days of His Flesh when He preacht the best Sermon that ever was heard * Mat. 5.4 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted So that true Spiritual Mourning entitles those that are serious in it to true Spiritual Comforts It must minister effectually to them and it can do no otherwise our SAVIOUR having said it Did He ever break His Word to His Proselytes Was He ever guilty of the Least Inconstancy Are not all the Promises in Him * Heb. 1.20 Yea and in Him Amen Where-ever He is pleased then to assert a thing so plainly Where-ever He is pleased to promise it so positively as He does that Mourners shall be comforted there is no colour for doubting or questioning it in the Least as coming from the very Truth it self And besides His Word we have the Mediatory Office of the LORD JESUS to ascertain divine Comforts to holy Mourners An Account of part of this Office is set down in the Beginning of the 61st of Isaiah Some Learned Expositors and Grotious for one would
SPIRIT pronounces Him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same I do not say He is the same in Misery for the Passive part of His great Work for us was over long since His Blessed Self declared that †Joh. 19.30 finisht when He was giving up the Ghost And as for those His Sufferings they shall never be repeated For being sufficient for ever when they were once endured because of their Value they need not be reiterated But then we may consider that by His Intercession His Sufferings are perpetually represented to GOD in our behalf and by His Word the Benefits of them are annuntiated and by His SPIRIT the Efficacy of them is applied according to out Worthiness and Capacity of receiving them And so as much Virtue is derivable from His Passion to our Souls every Day and Hour we live as if to this Minute He were hanging and dying on the meritorious Cross And as the Power and Profit of JESUS's Sufferings are the same to us tho' the Pain of them be ceased as to Him so He Himself is the very same that ever He was The same in Patience the same in Pity the same in Kindness and GOD-like Benevolence to the Sons of Men. But then He having such a fixt Philanthropy and such flaming Love to the Souls of Men how shall He refuse or how can He forbear to impart his Comforts to Holy Mourners Especially when it will cost Him no more to do it than barely to permit them to spring out of Himself who is a most Blessed and inexhaustible Fountain of them Nor is it only easy to Him but matter of delight for in it He not only follows the Duct of His Nature but takes as great Pleasure in dispensing Comforts as we find Benefit in receiving them from Him Now the true and happy Case being this the LORD CHRIST having given His Word that Mourners shall be Comforted and it being His Office to see it done and the very Disposition or Bent of His Nature leading Him to do it and the Work ministring to His Satisfaction as well as to our Interest it must not only be unlikely but quite impossible for Him to withhold divine Comforts from Mourners Unless as hath been hinted there be great and wise Reasons known to Himself why He should do it Thirdly Holy Mourners are sure of Comforts from the Mission of the HOLY GHOST into the World That He came down upon Earth and that when He did so GOD sent Him from Heaven we all know But then in what Quality or Capacity under what Notion or Character upon what Business or to what End did He come from above That Himself hath taught us by the Pen of Saint John He came as a Comforter And so that Lofty Evangelist stiles Him * Joh. 14.16 26.15.26.16.7 more than once intimating that all divine Comforts are deriv'd from Him as indeed they are And therefore divine Joy the same thing with divine Comfort is expressly said to be a Fruit of the SPIRIT Gal. 5.22 And to be Joy in the HOLY GHOST Rom. 14.17 And to be Joy of the HOLY GHOST 1 Thess 1.6 And as these Joys and Comforts are Anticipations of those above and Praelibations or Foretasts of the Happiness to come they with other things there meant are said to be the Earnest of the SPIRIT 2 Cor. 1.22 and the First-fruits of the SPIRIT Rom. 8.23 And all because they are wrought in us or descend upon us by the Spirit 's secret tho' most sensible Operations Now this infinitely Glorious and Gracious SPIRIT being pleased to take such an humble Flight to come down into these inferior Regions so unsuitable to Him and unworthy of Him and the Design of His marvellous Condescention being not only to visit but to comfort Men can any imagine that He should either forget or neglect His Work Or if He comforts others is it likely that He should over-look Holy Mourners They rather of all People ought to be first and most regarded by Him For as they need Comforts more than others so that Necessity is occasion'd or brought upon them by Himself all pious Mourning being but * See Chap. I. a work of His. That considered He is tied to comfort all Holy Mourners by an indissoluble Band of His own making And let none surmise that He will ever offer to break loose from it For to hinder that there is in Him an Impediment both essential and invincible What it is we find in †V. 10. For there He is called the good SPIRIT And that being infallibly true it implies Him possess'd of an answerable Principle And this granted if He had not been sent to comfort Mourners they might have expected it from His meer Temper and in case He should omit to do it in Kindness they might almost challenge it of Him in Justice What good Man could bring Trouble to any and not support them under it And can the good Spirit cast down into Mourning and not comfort His dejected For Him to do that will be but pure Equity as it is for Him that makes Wounds to dress and heal them And so in plain Terms the HOLY GHOST can no more refuse comforting of Mourners than a Being of most Perfect and Infinite Goodness can be guilty of that which is a sort of Injustice as well as Unkindness Now must not Holy Mourners be certain of Comforts when they are thus strangely secured to them For every Person we see in the Blessed TRINITY and all of them at once are jointly and severally ingag'd to dispense Celestial Comforts to all such The FATHER upon Account of His Nature The SON upon Account of His Word and Office and the HOLY GHOST upon Account of His Designation and Mission to the Work And then besides the mentioned Obligations upon each of them they are every one spontaneously inclin'd to do it Yet what hath been twice already suggested must here again be once more remembred That Holy Mourners shall be comforted provided it be best for them and that there be no weighty Reasons why they should be barred and hindred from it For such may the Tempers or Conditions of some be that even divine Comforts may be dangerous to them And so Heaven may be forc'd to keep them short of those Comforts lest instead of advantaging they should greatly injure them For Christian Perfections how incomparable was St. Paul Yet * 2 Cor. 12.7 a Thorn in the Flesh a Messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him lest he should be exalted above Measure And if such a one as he could not be trusted with abundance of Revelations without so severe a Curb upon his towring Spirit we may easily apprehend that divine Comforts may often times be of perillous Consequence to ordinary Christians tho' holy Mourners And therefore by the way if it should prove thy Lot to Mourn at any time without Light and no Beam of Comfort should shine into thy Soul be not
from the Mouth of the SON of GOD their Qualifications must needs be such as cannot intitle them to genuine Comforts Yet even these who were thus characterised by our LORD did not only hear but receive the Word ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Joy But then their Joys must be spurious or false because they could have no manner of Right to the true For they are not usually the Lot of fluctuating and unstable Souls that are not rooted and grounded in Religion but of such as are well fixt in Faith and Piety We must withal remember that these false Joys or Comforts being different from the true they will likewise have different Operations and by them will produce very different Effects So that whereas true Comforts inliven the Mind and chear the Heart and delight the Spirit and laying fast hold of Men by their powerful Charms and taking them in their soft and sweet Intanglements draw them still nearer and nearer to GOD and intice them to higher Degrees of Righteousness indearing even all that is good to them False ones on the other side which come down upon them that are dissolute are apt to encourage and harden them in Carelesness And because when they do ill no sensible Inconvenience ensues upon it but they find they are at Ease and a secret Pleasure attends their Exorbitancies this rivets them close to their immoral Practices and makes it next to impossible for them to leave them And then which is worse these unhappy Ones do often Fancy their false Comforts to be true and their egregious mistake proves of evil consequence For while they so conceit or conclude concerning them they seal up their unwary deluded Souls in a deep Security and cause them to flatter themselves with Thoughts of Peace and Hopes of Safety till they sink into fearful unexpected Ruine The very Infelicity which S. Paul observes as incident to the Ungodly 1 Thes 5.3 When they shall say Peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them Now it being thus evident that there are false Comforts and that they very much imitate or resemble the true and yet are as different from them in their Operations and as contrary to them in their Effects as they are seemingly like them in some Qualities and Symptoms this may be matter of concern to good Christians and may occasion them Trouble and great Solicitude For they considering that there are such counterfeit and fallacious Comforts and that they have so mischievous an Influence and Tendency will be fit to surmise that theirs are no better and that notwithstanding the singular content they find in them they will greatly indanger rather than advantage them And how such a suspicion would vex their Spirits and what Uneasiness such a Jealousy would bring upon them is not easiy to say To keep the Mispersuasion therefore out of good Minds where it is not entred and to cure or kill it where 't is gotten in it will be necessary to set down the principal Marks of genuine Comforts That so they that are happy in them that are true by the help of these Marks may for their own satisfaction be able to distinguish them from those that are false The chief Marks then of this Nature are Five The First is taken from the Time wherein they come The Second from the Objects whence they flow The Third from the Instruments whereby they rise The Fourth from the Effects which they produce And the Fifth from the state which we are in The Time wherein true Comforts come is mostly when we are well imploy'd The Objects whence they flow are commonly divine The Instruments whereby they rise are most coelestial The Effects which they produce are ever pious And the State which we are in must still be righteous The First Mark of true Comforts is They mostly visit us when we are well imployed When we are conscionably busied in those devout Exercises which GOD hath injoin'd us Which He hath laid upon us as Tests of our Sincerity as Instances of our Duty as Conditions of our Happiness and as Means to advance His own Honour by bettering and improving of our Nature Of this sort of Exercises are servent Praying attentive Hearing religious Watching solemn Fasting humble Mourning holy Communicating liberal Alms-giving patient Suffering the Angelic Work of singing Praises to GOD and the like When we are busi'd in these or other such high and divine Imployments if then holy Comforts break in upon us they prove themselves in some measure to be genuine For they encourage and abet us in that which is good a fair Argument if not a sure Evidence that they proceed from GOD. And when our Minds are unbent and our Virtuous Imployments are laid aside if they visit us at any time in the Intervals of Duty or in our innocent Rests or Cessations from the same they must still be true For however the Acts of Virtue for a while are then intermitted yet the Habits of it remain entire and when they come in such Junctures as they serve to Recompence Duties past so they dispose and whet us on to other approaching And where they come at so seasonable Times as happily to minister to such excellent Ends they intimate themselves to be of the right Kind But if Comforts usually rise within us when we are vainly set or vitiously inclined or actually ingaged an evil Practices and eagerly running on in licentious Courses this aloud proclaims them to be false and counterfeit and argues that they are not from the Blessed SPIRIT For He that injoins us not to bid the wicked GOD * 2 Joh. 10. Speed will never so interfere with his own Injunction as to countenance any in their naughty Ways by communicating heavenly Consolations to them while they persist in Sin and Lewdness The Second Mark of true Comforts is they commonly flow from divine Objects Men †Mat. 7 6. do not gather Grapes of Thorns nor Figgs of Thistles not can we expect to reap heavenly Comforts from earthly Grounds or Considerations Joys that are divine must spring up from divine Objects and be deriv'd to us by divine Vehicles or Conveyances GOD or His Attributes or Mercies CHRIST or His Merits or Benefits the HOLY GHOST or His Graces or Favours HEAVEN or its Glories or Felicities or some other noble Spiritual Excellencies must be in our Minds when Holy Consolations overflow our Souls For being of so divine a Nature themselves they can never grow but upon such Stocks as are congenerous or of the same kind with them If from these Objects therefore or from any like them we derive our Comforts here may be some Sign that they are genuine For they as we read of the Baptism of John they may be from Heaven and not of Men as flowing rot from the nether but the upper Springs But in case our Comforts be rooted in the Earth and grow up from below only that is from a sense of Health and
must mourn for our own Sins we are next to consider what Reasons there are for our Mourning for the Sins of others The Principal are these Seven ensuing First We must mourn for the sins of others because the Best have done it And so it is as much our Duty as it is to answer the divine Intention or the end of Providence in recording their Practice For why hath the HOLY GHOST registred good men as great Mourners in this respect but that we might come up to their excellent Patterns and make our selves happy by conformity to them And that this may be done we should be often viewing and seriously contemplating such worthy Exemplars of this Nature as in the sacred Writings are set before us For so by observing and wisely considering them we may in time become like them And to work our selves to so blessed an Assimilation let us turn our Eyes and fix our Thoughts upon some of those famous Persons in Scripture who bear the Character of Mourners for other Mens Sins The first of them we note is Ezra of whom in that Book which bears his Name we read thus * Ezra 10.6 Then Ezra rose up from before the House of GOD and went into the chamber of Johanan the Son of Eliashib and when he came thither he did eat no Bread nor drink Water for he mourned because of the trangression of them that had been carri'd away captive A plain case that the good man laid the Sins of his People to heart and that so far as to mourn for them And that he mourned deeply as well as truly appears from his carriage for in the day of his Mourning he neither ate nor drank no not so much as a Bit of Bread or a Drop of Water Nor did his Mourning cause Abstinence only but also Amazement another Argument of its Greatness For as we find in the foregoing chapter he †ver 4. sat astonied until the Evening Sacrifice Such was the sadness and heaviness he conceiv'd for the People's Guilt and so very much loaden and oppressed was he with its ponderous Burthen that for the greatest part of a whole Day together he was scarce able to rise up from under it Too few I fear are now a days sensible of such a Pressure Next to Ezra in the sacred Book stands Nehemiah Who does not only equal Him in the Performance we are upon but seems to out-do him His own Words testify no less Nehem. 1.4 And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain Days and fasted and prayed before the GOD of Heaven That he was here concern'd not only for the Affliction and Reproach of his People mentioned v. 3 but mostly for their sins the cause of those Evils is evident from what occurs in the 6th verse For there we find that he prayed before GOD day and night for the children of Israel and confessed the sins which they had sinned against Him So that when he sat down on the Ground that is or in Ashes as the way of Mourners was amongst the Jews and wept his Tears were spent chiefly upon their Sins And for their sins it was that he fasted and prayed and that he mourned certain Days As says * Multis diebus the vulgar Translation many days and so Lyra reads it And how many these days were that Commentator expressly declares when he says that he mourned †Tribus mensibus three months Nor is his Assertion at all improbable For he began his Mourning in Chisleu Neh. 1.1 which is the ninth month with the Hebrews and in Nisan the first of their months he was so deep in it that as we learn in the beginning of the 2d chapter the King discerned the Sorrow of his Heart by the sadness of his Countenance And from Chisleu to Nisan it must be three Months at least How many amongst us tho' they live to great years bestow not half that time in the whole course of their Lives on this needful Duty After these two such famous men a greater follows the King of Israel And as he was above them in dignity and power so in holy Mourning for the sins of others he was not at all inferiour to them Witness that remarkable Declaration of his Psal 119.136 Mine eyes gush out with waters or as the other Translation renders it more ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly Rivers of Waters run down mine Eyes because they keep not thy Law It was too much in David's Time as now it is in our Days the World was full of naughty men that made no conscience of Duty to GOD. Instead of keeping His Laws they grievously violated them the observation of which would have made them righteous here and most blessed for ever But how did David resent this Like a pious Prince and the Prophet of GOD he mourned for it at a mighty Rate Insomuch that his swelling and excessive Grief discharged it self in abundance of pious Tears Not like a violent Land-floud the which is suddenly up and as soon down but like settled Rivers which keep on in a free and even course and flow with constant and copious streams How happily would it be for the Christian Church were store of its Members of such a melting Temper To the Three foregoing I must add a Fourth which is Jeremiah And so eminent a Mourner was he in the Jewish Church that he composed a Book of Lamentions for Her That he was the Author or Pen-man of it the seventy were so confident that in a short Proem they have prefixed to it they warrant and proclaim as much in these words * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jeremiah sat weeping and bewailed Jerusalem with this Lamentation Nor did he only lament the Calamities of the People but their hainous sins as appears in Sundry Passages of the Book And so affecting is the stile or strain of it and so piercing and pathetic the Expressions in it †Orat. 12. that Gregory Nazianzem professes of himself that as often as he read it his Speech was stopt and he overwhelm'd with Tears And if perusal of the Book wrought so powerfully with him that read it how doleful were the Mournings of him that wrote it and what a Floud of Sorrows must issue from him Surely it was with him even as he * Jer. 9.1 wished his Head was Waters and his Eyes a Fountain LORD make ours to be so too on the Days that we set our selves to mourn before Thee But besides those in the Old we have famous Mourners for other Mens Sins in the New Testament I note but Three The First shall be S. Paul Who was very frequent as well as serious in the solemn Exercise Nor was He only frequent but constant in it For as he professes Act. 20.19 he served the LORD with all humility of Mind and with many Tears and Temptations So that pious Mourning and plenty of
City of Rome Strange to think that such dangerous Allurements should dwell in so much Solitude But so long as the World is full of Devils and the Heart of Man is full of Corruptions no wonder that a Desart should he full of Temptations And as one sign that Temptations are strongest there the Scene of our SAVIOUR's First Temptation was a Wilderness Where the Tempter would never have set upon him but that he knew it would make for his own Advantage And in this Respect it conduceth much to it that all things there are quiet and still So that if the Tempter designs to move the senses he may make those external Pictures or Images by which he would prevail and set them to work upon the Mind the more lively and enticing as having nothing to disturb him in painting them out and setting them off in their best Figures and Colours And in case he intends a closer Attaque and slier Application that is to take the Mind by the help of the Fancy he hath then the better opportunity not only to form inward Illusions for his Purpose and to make them more fine and inviting to the Imagination by which he would fain debauch the Judgment but also to hold the Imagination by which he strives to corrupt the Understanding more close and fixt to the Delusions he represents For where there is Solitariness there is little to divert For these Reasons it was that Satan might chuse to show CHRIST the Kingdoms of the World also and the Glory of them in a * 'T is said that the Devil took our SAVIOUR up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into an exceeding high Mountain A Character which perhaps no Mountain in Judaea could truly answer And so it might be far from Palaestine and most probably in some Desart because there the Devil could best form and set home his tempting Representations Wilderness rather than in another Place And as he would have imposed upon Him by fictitious Appearances or specious Illusions so he seems to have attempted the same upon St. Jerome For when he was as much alone as he possibly could be in his farthest Recess from the World still he owns and declares that he was in the Companies of singing or dancing †Choreis intererat puellarum Ubi supra young Ladies And therefore to retire from the World to avoid Temptations may be but a vain or preposterous course For however by so doing we may shun some Temptations yet at the same time we may run into others perhaps full as bad not to say worse So long as we abide in this lower World no manner of Sequestration from it can secure or fence us against Temptations to Sin Let but one more instead of many attest the Truth which is here upon Proof I mean St. Austin whom I take to be as good and holy a Man as any that ever liv'd since his Time His Testimony lies in these Words * Quis pertinens ad Christum non variis tentationibus agitatur Quotidie agit cum illo Diabolus Angeli ejus ut pervertatur qualibet cupiditate qualibet suggestione aut promissione lucri vel terrore damni vel promissione vitae vel terrore mortis aut alicujus potentis inimicitiis vel alicujus potentis amicitiis Omnibus modis instat Diabolus quemadmodum dejiciat In Psal 62. Who that belongs to CHRIST is not vexed with various Temptations The Devil and his Angels do every day disquiet him that so by one Lust or other by one Suggestion or other he may be perverted or turned aside Either by the Promise of Gain or by the Fear of Loss by the Promise of Life or by the Dread of Death by the Enmity or by the Friendship of the Great and Mighty The Devil is urgent by all manner of means to foil the Christian or to cast him down So that from all hands we learn that with Solicitations to Evil we must be infested while we are upon Earth But then when Christians are beset with such Throngs and begirt with such Armies of pestilent Temptations when there are so many within them and so many without them and abundance of malignant and mighty Spirits to manage both and with the utmost Cunning and Dexterity to set them home upon them that they might be worsted by them and there is no way for them to shift or decline them must not these Christians be in a pitiable case For as to stand will be most difficult for them so to fall will be as dangerous Nor can they be secure that they shall not fall from any inherent Abilities of their own Alas they are but Flesh and Blood and were they to contest but their own perverse Nature and others that partake of it and are like themselves they would so have Task enough upon them But then besides this they are to * Eph. 6 12. wrestle against Principalities against Powers and against the potent Rulers of the Kingdom of Darkness And is it possible they should make their Part good with these who are so much their Superiors and their over-match But therefore here again divine Comforts exert their Strength and show themselves to be things of Blessed Use For by their heavenly Power they do so corroborate tempted struggling Souls as to inable them to hold out in their Noble Agonies or Spiritual Conflicts So that as many as are under the Influence of them are out of the reach of the Devil's Shafts Whatever Arrows he levels at them or le ts fly against them are sure either never to hit them or not to hurt them For their Comforts within do so shield them from the Malice and Mischief of Hell as to render them invulnerable by its worst spite and violence A Christian tempted in the midst of Consolations stands like a Rock in the midst of the Sea He may be beaten on every side with boisterous Waves but the surly Billows that dash against him do only break themselves to pieces while he still remains steddy and immoveable They who write of Gemms and precious Stones tell us that many of them are of singular Virtue against the Plague and Poisons And for this * Ansel Boet. Hist Gem. lib. 2. cap. 43. the Sapphire †Cap. 53. the Emrald the ‖ Cap. 103. Jasper * Cap. 198. the Aetites or Eagle-stone are commended amongst others Yet we need not doubt but heavenly Comforts are more sovereign Antidotes and effectual Amulets against Satan's pestilent and poisonous Injections They so fortify the Souls where they dwell as to render them Temptation-proof Nor is it hard to conceive how they do it For all the hold that Temptations can lay upon those where they fasten is by the Enticement of some flattering Pleasures wherewith they offer to entertain and gratify them So that could but their Minds be set against those Pleasures or any way drawn off from lingring after them the Temptations would immediately be broken