but all the smart of them is rather from unhappiness than from sinful unworthiness and more for trial perhaps than for punishment yet then they are apt to relent too and to be deeply pensive and duly mournful in proportion to the uneasiness incident to them So the Christians at Miletus wept sorely and sorrowed extreamly to understand they should see Paul's face no more Act. 20.37 38. And when our own demerits or God's good Providence shall at any time sink us into Infelicities the like afflictive Sorrow will not only become us but likewise benefit us and I may safely averr it is so far our Duty as it makes for our best and our highest Interests When private mourning respects our Duties it hath the nature of Zeal in it Thus he that is sensible he wants the Graces of Heaven and prays earnestly for them and through heat and vigour and vehemence of his Spirit mourns in his Supplications for the obtaining of them his mourning is but Zeal which plainly discovers it self in his high Concern for his unhappy Defects and his hearty Endeavour to get them supplied So he that acts the Heavenly Graces which he hath in fearing believing and loving of GOD and weeps and mourns that he can do it no better his mourning is Zeal and this his Carriage is a fair Symptome or Indication of as much For it shews that he is warm in these Actings already and that he hath intense and ardent Desires of more Awe of of more Faith in and of more Affection to the DEITY In short when he that dischargeth any Christian Offices grieves and mourns for his Deficiency in them whence can this come but from Displeasure at himself for presenting Services so imperfect and from Eagerness to offer such as are more worthy and so what is it but unfeigned and inflamed Zeal and a laudable Effect or Expression of it When private Mourning respects our own Sins it may be lookt upon as a piece of true Repentance Nor will it improperly come under that notion as being the first great step we usually take in that needful Duty For as they who feel nothing but Pleasure in sin will be too fond of it and delight so much in it as to be loth to leave it So they who find it bitter and irksome will quickly disgust it and by degrees grow weary of it and be weaned from it till they come finally to forsake it Nor does mourning for sin as it renders it distastful become instrumental to our first Turn from it only but where it continues it conduces greatly to the consummation of our Repentance also helping to perfect as well as to begin it But of this more in the Sequel of the Treatise CHAP. IV. What solemn Mourning in private is It s principal Concomitants these Seven Tears Prayer Fasting Alms-deeds Set-times free Forgiveness and select Associates BEfore we go any farther we must remember that it is not only Mourning and private Religious Mourning that we here treat of but such private and religious Mourning as is solemn Such holy Mourning that is as we do not fall into by Chance or preter-intentionally and as we do not continue in contingently and uncertainly for some few Minutes according as it may happen But such as we design and propose to our selves and such as we deliberately chuse and studiously promote wisely projecting and contriving for it and carefully and industriously labouring after it to raise it to the highest pitch we can and then to keep it there for some reasonable time For as sincere Christians who are upright in their Lives and regular and zealous in the Works of GOD are often visited with sudden Joys and lifted up with unlookt for Consolations while a bright Beam is unexpectly darted into them from above and perhaps at such a time when they are more than usually in Clouds or Darkness So on the contrary it sometimes happens that they are surprized with Grief when they little think of it When they are seated in their best and easiest Circumstances where the Air is free and the Sky is clear and all about them is lightsome and pleasant even then their Serenity grows thick on a sudden and an unexpected Gloominess comes upon them Or if the Heavens be not wholly overcast at once yet some watry Clouds rise in their Horizon and their fair Weather is turned into Showers which fall as Rains very frequently do when the Sun shines Their Hearts are struck I mean with pious Relentings unawares and they slide in an Instant into Holy Sorrow and that so unsensibly that they find themselves in it without any Prospect at all of it and feel their Souls much affected with it without taking any manner of pains to raise it Now such a surreptitious and accidental Mourning is not the Mourning which we here speak to For however the Pangs of it which seize the Christian at his Prayers Meditations or the like may be Instances of the Divine Favour towards him and may shew that he is dear to the HOLY GHOST who is pleas'd to honour Him with unsought Influences yet our principal Subject is an intended premeditated and endeavoured Mourning A Mourning that we strive and labour for using our utmost care and skill to make it as serious and solemn as we can And when it is duly solemn it hath these Seven Attendants or Concomitants 1. Tears 2. Prayer 3. Fasting 4. Alms-deeds 5. Set-times 6. Free Forgiveness 7. Select Associates First Where Holy Mourning is duly solemn it is often accompani'd with Tears They are a most natural Expression of Sorrow and where-ever it rises high in the Heart it is usual with it to run out at the Eyes There it commonly discharges it self tho' I dare not affirm that it always does so For some have such a Masculine hardness in their Temper that scarce any thing is able so far to melt them as to set them a weeping While others again are of so soft and feminine a Constitution that every thing almost can cause them to do it They dissolve apace and sink and drown as it were in Floods of Tears even upon slight and trivial accounts and from very unproportionable Motives and Occasions So that if we would not err here we must lay down some Rule which may serve to guide us in this matter And the safest Rule as well as the plainest to judge our selves by in the Case before us I think is this If we do not weep upon Religious Accounts as well as upon others we may justly suspect that all is not right with us For this strongly argues that either we are not throughly affected with the things of Christianity or that we are short of that Tenderness of Spirit which should dispose us to weep in such weighty Affairs If therefore thou beest naturally prone to Tears and canst shed them freely for lighter concerns as for the Unkindness of Friends the Abusiveness of Enemies or any kind of outward Afflictions or
will be in vain To this agrees the Doctrine of that Great Man the Son of Sirach He that washeth himself after the touching of a dead body if he touch it again what availeth his washing So it is with a Man that fasteth for his Sins and goeth again and doth the same Who will hear his Prayer or what doth his humbling profit him Ecclus. 34.25 26. One Request now concludes the Preface That they who use this Book and find Benefit by it would not only give Glory to GOD for it to whom alone it wholly belongs But also that they would Remember its unworthy Composer in their daily Prayers especially on the days of their Devout and Solemn Addresses to Heaven ☞ That the plain Reader might meet with no Difficulties to stop or hinder Him in the perusing this Treatise some few things not altogether so obvious and easy as the Rest are taken out of his way by being thrown back in the Quality of Notes to the End of the Book THE Holy Mourner c. CHAPTER I. The Usefulness of our Faculties and Passions What Religious Mourning is Two Sorts of it Publick and Private The two Kinds of Private Mourning with the respective Branches of them AS GOD hath given us a lofty Nature and endued that Nature with excellent Faculties So He designs those Faculties for worthy Ends. He intends them not only for Ornament but Use and by them means to make us better as well as higher than other Creatures Thus He gave us an Understanding that we might know Himself as well as other things A Will that we might chuse our Duty as well as other Advantages A Memory that we may treasure up Divine as well as other Truths that so within our selves we might not only have Matter to entertain our Thoughts profitably but also be competently furnish'd with some good Principles from whence to take the measures of our Practice And if we look more downward into the Frame of our Being we shall see that our Passions tho' much inferior to the mentioned Faculties were contrived by the all-wise GOD Who made them for our very Souls Improvement For when He put them into us it was that they might be instrumental to our heavenly and eternal as well as to our temporal and secular Interests Love for instance He planted in us to fix our Hearts immoveably on Himself and to carry them out in Desires towards Him with all the Force and Vigour and Vehemence which that Sweet and Powerful Principle has Fear to awe our Minds into Seriousness and so to balast them as to keep them steady that they being tossed with no Lightness or Folly we may be kept from all Loosness and Sin Hope to draw us to true Religion and not only to induce us to it but to encourage us in it while lively Expectation of its future Rewards carries us through all its present Difficulties enabling us with Laudable Patience and Zeal to perform both its active and passive Duties Joy to enliven and elevate our Spirits that so besides zealous Patience and Constancy we may persist in our Duties with Alacrity and Pleasure For where Joy intermingles with the Offices of Religion it abates or takes off the uneasiness of them and turns them into real and high Delight To mention no more even Grief it self as mean a Passion as men think it and as bitter and irksome as it seems to be is of singular use to the Sincere Christian and serves him in his best and noblest concerns with an happy Efficacy Tho' to instance in what Particulars it does it would be to anticipate the Matter of this Treatise in the Sequel of which they will Sufficiently appear At present therefore we note but this much That Grief is eminently serviceable to good Christians as it ministers to holy or religious Mourning and is an essential or constituent Part of the same This will be evident if we do but consider what religious Mourning is And that I think may not improperly be thus described It is a blessed Work of the HOLY GHOST whereby we grieve heartily upon some spiritual account It is a work of the HOLY GHOST Nor can it be otherwise For where a plentiful Effusion of HIM is promised we find holy Mourning in the true Church to be an immediate Fruit of it I will pour upon the house of David and upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem the SPIRIT says GOD Zech. 12.10 And then it follows in the next Verse in that Day there shall be a great Mourning To Mourn as Men is incident to all and indeed inevitable As Nature hath given us Power to do it So our Circumstances give us Occasion enough here in this State of Mortality and Misery But to Mourn as Christians is quite another thing Religious Sorrow grows at no time upon the Stock of mere Nature tho' never so well cultivated by Virtuous Education That no where flows with any laudable Stream but where the HOLY GHOST first opens the Springs He bloweth with His Wind and the Waters flow Psal 147.18 St. Jerom from a literal turns the Text to an Allegorical Sense and by the Wind understands the Spirit of GOD. But then the Waters which by His means flow are no other than those of pious Tears which cannot flow unless He causes them to do it And therefore by the Way we have no Reason to think that divine Comforts are either the Sole or the Chief Indication of the Good SPIRIT 's kind and propitious presence Godly Sorrow is as clear a Symptom and assure a Proof of the HOLY GHOST's resting upon us or residing in us as the most refreshing Joys can be And therefore as humble Acknowledgments should be made to GOD and as hearty Praises rendred to Him for the one as for the other The Cloudy Pillar was as evident a Token of GOD's Providential Care of the Jews and of His special Residence with them as the Pillar of Fire tho' all know it was not so bright a one And tho' the SPIRIT 's Consolations are a more lightsome Sign of His Descent upon us yet holy Mourning must be as plain a Mark of his gracious Presence as being as much an Effect of His favourable Influence And then It is a blessed Work of His. Blessed in the entire Capacity of it For as it is wrought in us by a blessed Cause the breathing of this Glorious SPIRIT we speak of and as it is of a blessed Nature being a lamenting of our Wandrings from and Actings against the Laws and Interests of Righteousness So it hath a most blessed Tendency For it tends directly to the purging our of Sin to the purifying of the Soul to the making us upright and holy upon Earth and happy in the Kingdom of Heaven for ever We farther describe it to be a Grieving heartily As there can be no Mourning where there is no Grieving so on the other side where the Mourning is holy the Grief will be hearty There are two
being the third Branch of that Blessedness which rises from the Comforts annexed to Mourning They are a Seal of our Assurance Which Assurance makes Religion very easy to us and Us zealous in That Which again strengthens Assurance AS there is nothing more excellent than true Religion in its Nature so of all things it leads to the most incomparable Ends. For besides that it here renews us in our Minds and Spirits and transforms us into the beauteous Image of GOD it fits us by degrees for immense Joys above and translates us at last into the glorious Felicities of the eternal World And then over and above these admirable principal Ends of it there are many collateral or by-Advantages to which it serves and of these Assurance is one of special Note and Worth I mean Assurance of our Pardon here and of future Happiness in the Everlasting State That there is such a Thing may fairly be inferr'd from the Intimations of it given us from Heaven Some think they meet with it in 2 Pet. 1.10 But there we have only a Command to make our Calling and Election sure To be so careful and diligent in the business of Religion as that the Call GOD hath given us to Righteousness and Salvation may prove effectual and that we may be found in the event to be of the Number of those choice Persons that are dear to Himself and shall enjoy Him for ever This Text therefore whatever it may seem to do meddles not with the Assurance we are speaking to There is great Difference between our Callings and Elections being made sure and our being sure that they are so Even as much as there is between * Certitudo objecti the certain being of a Thing and †Certitudo subjecti a man's certain perswasion that it is One may have a very good Title to an Estate and yet not know it and one may have Right to Heaven and not be sensible of it And so tho' his Calling and Election be really sure in themselves yet he may not be sure that they are so But S. Peter however some have mistaken him saying nothing of Assurance in the place cited for it makes not the least mention of it we must look farther if we would see Scripture assert it Assurance has been too much mistaken by some while they have made it a Sign of Grace when at the same time they have lived in a state of Sin But we suppose it an Effect of true Grace and a concomitant of Holiness And First the great Evangelical Prophet points at it Isai 32.17 The Work of righteousness shall be Peace and the Effect of righteousness Quietness and assurance for ever Here unto the Righteous three most rich and invaluable Mercies are promised one in Gradation or point of Dignity rising above the other The first is * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peace which includes all outward Prosperity The second is †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quietness that is inward Tranquility Else the adding of that Word to the former would have made but an indecent Tautology The third is †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Assurance Assurance that is of GOD's Love or Favour For it is an Assurance for ever And bating the unchangeable Love of GOD of what else can we be so assured But being once well assured of the ALMIGHTY's Kindness we may remain so to Eternity nothing but our unworthy selves can ever extinguish it and deprive us of it A Second Text to our purpose occurrs Heb. 6.11 There we read of the full assurance of Hope Which Words do not only assert Assurance but in some measure explain the Nature or Notion of it For as they grant there is Assurance and full Assurance so at the same time they allow it to be but * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full Assurance of Hope So that when we advance to the highest strongest and fullest Persuasion Certainty or Assurance of the Pardon of our Sins and of the Salvation of our Souls still all amounts but to a confident lively and well-grounded Hope And so it is as much as Isaiah's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above which Montanus renders Fiducia Assurance And That Martinius describes thus †Est spes roborata ex aliqua firma opinione Vid Lexic Philologic in vocabulum Fiducia It is Hope strengthned by some firm Opinion They that would rise higher in Assurance than thus must go out of this World and go into Heaven And there as Faith shall be converted to blessed Vision So Hope shall be turned into actual Fruition But tho' it be impossible that Assurance here should be raised higher than a full Persuasion or Certitude of Hope yet divine Comforts do strangely quicken and invigorate it When they at any time come upon this Assurance or back and second it in way of Accession or Addition to it like the Broad Seal upon a Royal Patent they throughly ratify it And therefore indeed I call them the Seal of Assurance For as a Seal confirms the Deeds to which it is put so Comforts supervenient to Christians Assurance are a means to make it more sound and unquestionable Whoever are happy in the sweet Plerophory or full Assurance we speak of when their Comforts come they stamp it for Current or Legitimate And no marvel they should when they really bring with them an ante-tast of Heaven it self and are those very Joys in a lower Degree which shall crown the Saints in the State of their Felicity And as these Comforts thus prove or evidence our Assurance to be genuine so if any Discomposures chance to befall it or any Interruptions or Breaches happen in it they are useful to redintegrate or make it whole again For as highly pleasing as this Assurance is and as loth as Christians should be to part with it upon that Account it may yet be diminisht and miserably destroyed by their own Follies Tho' it be never so well settled it may be convuls'd and shaken by their Sins of Infirmity yea disjointed and shattered by their Sins of Presumption But then to the Restoration and Re-establishment of it holy Comforts contribute in both Cases First In case it be weakened by Sins of Infirmity Good Christians that have pure Minds have also nice and tender Consciences And those Failures which are little to others and seem as light as Feathers to them are great and heavy and troublesome They lie upon them as Ponderous Loads and the Pressures of them are very uneasy The Darkness of their Understandings the Crookedness of their Wills the Violence of their Appetites the Turbulency of their Passions the Weakness of their Virtues the Shortness of their Attainments the Slightness of their Performances things which slip the Notice or are little observed by most in the World to them are extreamly grievous and afflictive They ruffle their Minds and disturb their Thoughts and discompose their Spirits and disorder their Judgments insomuch
is great and so is the Love of a Mother to her Child and so is the Love of a Man to his faithful Friend But all are short of true Love to JESUS And that they must be so we are well assured by the Word from Heaven For that informs us that as it is the first and great Command and so our prime and chief Duty to love the LORD so it tells us at what Rate we must do it even with all our Heart and with all our Soul and with all our Mind Mat. 22.37 Our Love to Him must be raised to an higher Pitch than what it stands in to any thing else And there 's Reason for it For in that its Elevation or Superiority in that its Pre-eminence above or Prevalence over all other Affections lies the very Sincerity or Essence of it So that to love CHRIST no better than other Things or Persons is indeed not to Love Him at all not at all duly and so not at all acceptably And the same Word tells us that Love to CHRIST is such for Ardency as many Waters cannot quench nor Flouds drown Cant. 8.7 And again it tells us of true Lovers of Him that they are sick of Love to Him Cant. 2.5 A plain case that Love to CHRIST is a Passion so strong and that the Fits of it in some are so violent and high that they affect them with a kind of Sickness The Expression came from the HOLY GHOST and believe it there is nothing Hyperbolical in it No Rhetorical Strain or Figurative Scheme of Speech Nothing Catachrestical or Improper What it affirms is literally true without Flourish There are thousands of eminent Christians in the Church whose Affections to JESUS are so vigorous whose Desires of Him are so vehement whose Longings after Him are so earnest that they bring perfect Qualms over their Hearts and make them quite sick of Love to His MAJESTY And where a pure Mind is carri'd out in so powerful a Love to an Object that is infinitely perfect and glorious let Reason judge how inconceivably delightful its Actings must be O LOVE * O Amor quid te Appellam nescio dulcem an asperum suavem an injucundum Ita enim utroque plenus es ut utrumque esse videaris Salvian Epist 1. said a good Man of old I know not what to call thee good or evil delicious or troublesome sweet or unpleasant For so full of both thou art that thou seemest to be both And most true is this of our kindest Love to one another It is at best but a Miscellaneous thing A Compound made up of two Ingredients some satisfaction and much uneasiness But Love to CHRIST is of quite another Nature He that feels that divine Passion finds nothing in it but divine Pleasure His Mind is full of Peace his Soul dwells at Ease and his Spirit is wrapt up in most heavenly Delights Delights so blissful that there are none like them but those above in the eternal World Divine Love is the sweetest Power that humane Souls are capable of and the most perfect GOD is the sole Object of that Power And therefore whenever it is imploy'd in receiving the influxes of His special Favour and in sending up streams of reciprocal Affection to His MAJESTY O LORD what Delights must here be produc'd No less for certain than such as are beatifying beyond Expression And that indeed is the truest Character of them they are inexpressible When we call them so we really say more what they are and give in a juster Description of them than if leaving that out we should discourse never so long and largely concerning them And let any judge that are able to do it if those Comforts that raise this Love which causes these Delights do not render Men truly Blessed For when Time hath sunk them never so low and Old age hath worn them even quite out and both together have put them past relishing all other Pleasures they 'll fill the Religious with such a Love as will replenish them with such Delights as will affect them with unspeakable Sweetness But then Holy Mourning being one chief Door at which these blessed Comforts enter and come in upon us as many as would be Blessed in these Delights which they occasion and which survive all other must look upon it as a thing most eligible and for their own benefit must conscionably use it and keep close to it CHAP. XVI There are false Comforts as well as true How to distinguish the one from the other Whence false Comforts spring A Great deal and very great things have been said of holy Comforts which are Fruits or Effects of Religious Mourning Yet no more than is proper and applicable to them as being indeed most true concerning them For such is their excellent Worth and Usefulness that they do not only answer the Character given them but would easily fill up one far more large and comprehensive And yet as incomparable as these Comforts are there is a kind of mimical or mock-comforts like them And tho' they be false they are Images or Counterfeits of the true and to them that sit under the Influence of them which is Evil and Malignant may prove to be of pernicious consequence That there are False Comforts we need not question for we have loud Hints of them in the holy Books let us note but two King Herod heard John Baptist gladly S. Mar. 6.20 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pleasantly sweetly delightfully And whence came this sweet and delightful Pleasure As for the Baptist he was an austere Man and the Doctrines he taught were undoubtedly strict and severe like himself And so for certain there could be nothing in them which by reason of Agreeableness might take the Humour or tickle the Fancy of that unrighteous Prince The matter of His Preachin◠might be such rather and so delivered 〈◊〉 to be fitter on the other side to incense and provoke him In all likelihood therefore some spark of Comfort whencesoever it came was struck at this time into his Breast Tho' it might be as far from true Comfort as King Herod was from being a good Man The Stony Ground also received the Word with Gladness S. Mar. 4.16 Yet by that Ground as our great Master who delievered the Parable expounds it are meant those that proved unsettled or unsteady such as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had no Root of Virtue in themselves As had no Fixedness or Stability no living lasting growing Principle of real Goodness but were as He there says of them †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 temporary in Religion or wavering and inconstant Professors of it For as He declares in the 17th verse When Affliction or Persecution ariseth for the Words sake immediately they are offended They were ready upon the first Occasion given by any sad or troublesome Emergencies to manifest their fickleness and unsincerity Now when such a Character of any sort of Men comes
the Communication of His blessed Body and Blood by consecrated Elements to worthy Partakers of His holy Table Which tho' they be great and infallible Truths are dark and enigmatical and full of divine and venerable Abstruseness There are REVELATIONS wonderful for Sublimity and Nobleness As those of the Creation of the World of the Fall of the Angels of the Sin and Redemption of Man of the Immortality of the Soul of the Resurrection of the Body and of the general and eternal Judgment There are PROMISES wonderful for Truth and Preciousness As of GOD's hearing our Prayers His pitying our Infirmities His assisting us in Duties His accepting our Performances His pardoning our Miscarriages His purifying our Souls His speaking peace to our Consciences His supplying us with Blessings His adorning us with Virtues and Graces in this Life and His crowning us with everlasting and glorious Recompences in the next These amongst others are wonderful Things which are contained in the sacred Books And when we rightly apprehend them and ruminate upon them or upon any of them they will not fail to lift up our Religious Minds into refreshing Joys especially if the Light of the divine Countenance be display'd upon us at the same Time Then both the Heavenly Instruments of Comfort being at once set a Work they cannot but produce it at a mighty Rate The Fourth Mark of true Comforts is they are productive of pious Effects That they should have no Effects being powerful things would be very strange and that they should have any but good ones must be as impossible considering how excellent they are in themselves and from whence they come Their Nature and Origin proclaim them Operative and all the effects which they work in us are absolutely pious or tending to Godliness Amongst many we are sure to find these that follow Hatred of Sin and Love to Righteousness Gentleness of Spirit and Tenderness of Conscience Fear to offend GOD and Forwardness to please Him Purity of Mind and Integrity of Life Disgust of earthly things and Desire of Heavenly ones Weariness of the World and Willingness to go out of it Wherever therefore Comforts have such Effects and Symptoms they have Evidence on their side to prove that they are right But where they find men bad in case they continue so or if instead of growing better they become worse under them we may cease all Enquiry concerning their truth because there 's enough to evince they are false And as one Specific inseparable Effect of genuine Comforts I might here mention their peculiar sweetness For tho' all Comforts carry sweetness with them where they go yet the Sweetness of the true may as well be distinguisht from that of the false as the Light of the Sun from the Light of a Torch The one is exceedingly finer than the other and also as superior to it in Strength And therefore David does not only own that the Light of GOD's Countenance put Gladness in his Heart Psal 4.7 which signifies it was no flashy frothy sort of Comfort as dwelling in the Heart but he farther declares that it put more Gladness in His Heart than the Increase of Corn and Wine could do That is it produced in him an higher kind of Joy than the greatest abundance of the usefullest Blessings of this Life could possibly infuse Which does more than intimate that a particular and extraordinary Sweetness is contain'd in the true spiritual Comforts And where-ever this Sweetness comes in its Strength it claps a seal upon the Conscience as I may say warranting it to be right and by its fulness and force bears down the Soul into a fiducial belief that the Comforts which imprint it come down from Heaven But having made Sweetness the first beatifying Property of true Comforts to say more concerning it here would be superfluous Only this would be noted that when the Religious are importunate in seeking and supplicating for the Light of GOD's Countenance as we may observe they are in Scripture they have greatest Reason to be so and I heartily wish that all Men were so for it is not only an Instrument but the chiefest Instrument of raising divine Comforts in the Soul The Last Mark of true Comforts is their coming upon us when we are in a good state in a state of Regeneracy or Righteousness The truth is * Mat. 15.26 27. they are the Childrens Bread and therefore shall not be given to Dogs or impious Livers They indeed eat of the Crumbs that fall from their Masters Table They share largely in temporal Blessings and in the common Use or external Injoyment of many Spiritual ones But as for true Comforts they belong not to them nor shall they partake of them They may have Comforts that are like the true but the real Consolations of the SPIRIT fall not to their Lot For as an excellent Man said †Fiat justitia habebis pacem August divine Peace is an Appendix of Righteousness But they that travel in the Rode of Sin are out of the way of true Comfort Hence we may judge of the Quality of our Comforts and be able to determine whether they are such as they ought to be How is it with our Souls that 's the Question to be askt here Are we in a righteous or regenerate condition Have we mortifi'd our Lusts and subdu'd our Corruptions Have we repented of our Sins and fully renounc'd them and finally relinquisht them Do we honour and love GOD and are we resolv'd to do so with our whole Hearts and through our whole Lives And to come home to the point is our Love to GOD express'd in obeying Him and is our Obedience faithful and undissembled Then we may conclude that our Comforts are true But instead of loving GOD if we disregard Him instead of serving Him if we disobey Him and do it constantly or do it frequently in any known instance in all likelihood our Comforts must be false By this last Mark the truth of our Comforts may as well be tri'd as by any of the rest Tho' our safest way will not be to trust to one singly except the last lest we should be deceived King Herod as we observed heard John the Baptist gladly and the People compared to the stony Ground receiv'd the Seed of the Word with Joy And so according to the first Mark Both when their Comforts came upon them were well imployed And according to the second Mark their Comforts flow'd from divine Objects But for all that they were still but counterfeit The best and only way to be assured they are genuine is to find all these Marks upon them at once And by those Four which are here laid down it will be easy to discern True Comforts from False We are next to consider whence these false Comforts spring And they issue from several Fountains First From Nature Secondly From the Evil Spirit Thirdly From Enthusiasm Fourthly From wrong Notions in Divinity Fifthly From Texts
of Scripture mistaken and misapplied First False Comforts are sometimes Effects of Nature Where the Spirits are good and the Bloud is sweet and the Ferments of the Body regular and even besides Health and Indolency we there find a constant readiness in Men or a standing Disposition to Lightsomness and Jollity So that if they of this Constitution who dwell as it were upon the Brinks of Joy be at any time carri'd by Just occasions but a little farther they forthwith step into the pleasing Passion it self And how they should come to be advanced to it and also raised to an high Pitch in it even by a natural complexional Efficiency is easy to apprehend Melancholy in conjunction with a sanguine Temper is able to do it For by mingling its brisk acrimonious Flatulency with a sweetish heavyish kind of Bloud it strikes upon the Nerves with such grateful Touches as cause delightful Titillations in the Body and so affect the Soul with much joy and pleasure Nor need we wonder that such joyous Comforts or Delights should result from meer nature or our bodily Temper if we do but consider how other things are very productive of the like Effects Wine for instance hath a power in it to chear our Spirits or as it is expressed in holy Stile * Psal 104.15 to make glad the Heart of Man Insomuch that Josephus says of it †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antiq. li. 11. cap. 4. it even transports and regenerates Souls It puts a kind of new life into them by mending or raising the Temper of their Bodies and rendring them more healthful and vegete I speak of the moderate and sober use of it it being most baneful both to Soul and Body wherever it is taken in excess So Mela informs us that the Thracians who had no Wine suppli'd the want of it at their Feasts by a certain Seed And of such a Quality was that Seed that the Smoak of it caused Intoxication and Mirth Which things considered how Melancholy should cause high Joys within us will not be difficult to conceive For it is but allowing hypocondriacal Humors to have Affinity with Wine or its Vapours to have cognation with the Fumes of the Thracian Seed and the work is done And that Nature which out-does the most exquisite Chymists should refine Melancholy to such a Degree and sublimate or exalt it to such an Height as to make it so capable of the forementioned Operations as to fill us with joyous and triumphant Delights cannot be surprizing to the intelligent For they know very well that where Melancholy is predominant and duly heated and invigorated by a sanguine Temper or Constitution very strong Joys and even rapturous Delights will result from it So * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle expressly affirms that it produces Extasies and Joys of Mind and that too as he adds †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Probl. sect 30. with singing And when Men may so overflow with Joys as that their Joys shall rise up into Raptures and their Raptures run out and spend themselves in singing must not the Gratifications they feel within be exceeding high Yet these are Fruits that may grow upon the bare stock of Nature and so may have nothing at all of the Good SPIRIT in them or of His true Consolations Secondly Inward Comforts False ones I mean may be Effects of a worse Cause than this they may be derived from Satan himself As GOD sheds abroad true Joys and heavenly Consolations into the Hearts of His Servants to encourage and strengthen them in the Works of Religion so the Devil who loves to ape the ALMIGHTY where he can does sometimes cast false Joys and delusive Comforts into the Hearts of his Vassals to animate and imbolden them in the Ways of unrighteousness For should they always walk on in Dulness and Darkness this might so startle them as to make them seriously bethink themselves It might so alarm and terrify them as at some time or other to fright them out of their vitious into virtuous Courses Now and then therefore he tantalizes them with some feeble Glimmerings of false Light and Comfort He darts some glaring Joys into their Souls to make them well opinion'd of themselves And perswading them by this means that their Condition is good tho' it be quite otherwise he so prevails with them to persist in Sin till at length they fall into irrecoverable Ruine Nor is it hard to conceive how the Evil Spirit should kindle this Fire of false Joys in our Breasts and warm us as it were with Comforts which flash from Hell For since an agreeable mixture of Melancholy with our Bloud can raise us as we have heard to an Elevation of rapturous Delights the Devil who hath power to actuate the Humors and Vapours in our Bodies especially if we be his Servants by his dexterous agitation of those Vapours and Humors inforcing them beyond their natural strength he may easily transport us with ravishing Satisfactions And thus the strange Delights which some Men feel and which they reckon to be divine Influences from above and blessed Productions of the HOLY GHOST are but natural Effects or Satanical Injections and so rather hellish Infusions than Inspirations from Heaven Thirdly False Comforts may proceed from Enthusiasm For where that prevails Imagination is strong Insomuch that the Mind which should always be under the government of free Reason is wholly sway'd by this lower Faculty And where Fancy rules it easily over-powers and bears down the Soul into a firm Belief of the Truth of what she vigorously apprehends be her Apprehensions never so enormous and extravagant Hence it hath come to pass that one Fanciful Enthusiast has conceited himself to be a Prophet or an Angel another has thought himself to be the true Messiah or the great Judge of the World another has boasted himself to be GOD the FATHER or the HOLY GHOST Now when the Strength of Fancy or Force of Imagination thus carries away the Mind into a credulous Assent to such wretched Mis-conceits these or the like Conceits naturally lift up Souls which fully believe them to be great Truths into very high Joys and Ravishments of Spirit Yet be they never so lofty or never so luscious they are but a corrupt and dangerous sort of Fruit as having nothing but Enthusiasm for their chiefest Root Fourthly False Comforts may arise from wrong Notions which Men have in Divinity Thus some too opinionative are mightily for absolute or irrespective Predestination Others for Justification by Faith alone Others for being justifi'd by CHRIST's Righteousness imputed And others again are as stiff Assertors and as strenuous Maintainers of that absurd Perswasion that GOD sees no Sin in His own Children Now they that firmly believe and fiercely contend for these and such Fancies conclude they are highly beneficial to them in their greatest Interests and so they are strangely affected with them and influenced by them and feel them
as being nearer to the common Sentient and so to the Soul her self Now let us but suppose and the Supposition is very easy that the Blessed SPIRIT can so influence the Soul and so possess her with ravishing Delights which we call Comforts as wholly to take her up and divert her from attending to what the Body suffers and this must be one mighty Alleviation of pain if not a perfect Exclusion or Cure of it For what better Anodyne can there be than an absolute inanimadversion or non-reflection upon Evil than a compleat alienation or entire abstraction of the Mind from what should trouble it And then let us but suppose also as well we may that the same good SPIRIT can imprint such delicate Motions upon the curious Fibres of all the Nerves in the Brain as shall produce strong divine Joys and Pleasures and that these fine Motions may be so brisk and vigorous as to continue in spite of all contrary Impressions tho' never so forcible made by any Violence on other parts of the Filaments of those Nerves and the great Work we speak of is intelligibly done upon the holy Sufferers For thus we may readily and fairly apprehend how all sense of Pain should be drowned in them and how their Souls might swim in deep Consolations when their Bodies were sinking under the Executioner's hands Not that we suppose tho that the SPIRIT 's influence upon Martyrs was ever so strong and vigorous as to leave no room or occasion for their Faith Love Patience and the like divine Graces to act in for their better Support and Comfort NOTE VI. Pag. 169. AND the Chief Reasons of it are Two First Because the evil Spirit with whom they are in Covenant may be delighted with the Steams of humane Blood And for a like reason they haunt Church-yards more than other Places and appear most frequently where the Dead are interred So Origen tells Celsus pretty often how the Daemons were gratifi'd with the Steams of those bloody Sacrifices which were offered to them and how they were greedily desirous of them Which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lickorishness of Carnal Devils And that they are strangely desirous of the Blood of Mankind and delighted with it is evident from the Complaints which the Devil us'd to make amongst his Devotoes in America For oftentimes when he appeared to them he would tell them he was thirsty meaning for Peoples Blood And then his Priests would urge their Kings to offer up store of Captives to their Gods lest poor things they should die for want of refreshment And as when they had no Captives they would go out on purpose to fight and take some so when they had plenty they would offer them most freely killing them as Victims sometimes by hundreds in a Day To which we may add those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mactations of Men wherein Multitudes of old were sadly sacrific'd to heathen Deities And if the reekings of dead or dying Sacrifices were so grateful to them without all question the Nidours or Fumes exhaled from the Veins of People alive must be far more pleasing For being of an hotter and finer nature they may well yield them a brisker and more relishing Flavour Secondly Evil Spirits suck of those Wretches whom they draw into hellish Compacts with them that they may have opportunity of corrupting them by transfusing a pernicious Venom into them Of tincturing their Bodies with so vile a Malignity as will help to numm and stupify their Souls in their moral Capacity As shall fill them with Darkness and Blindness and Dulness and Deadness to all that is good and at the same time dispose them to every evil thing to which they shall think fit to excite and instigate them As to Anger Envy Malice Revenge the basest Obscenities and most barbarous Cruelties And when wicked Fiends by their noxious Breathings into People do so poyson their Souls as to pervert their Bodies no wonder that the HOLY GHOST who still countermines the Wicked One in all his Workings should by His Inspirations I mean His consolatory ones not only most heavenly affect our Souls but withal derive an healthful Temper to our Bodies And let me add by these Consolations our Bodies may be so raised and improved as in some measure perhaps to advance towards the Adamical Crasis or Original Constitution They may approach as near as readily they can do to that excellent Temper which the Protoplasts at first were happy in Whereby it may sometimes happen tho' but seldom that they may not only attain to perfect Health which otherwise they might not have acquired but possibly may rise a step higher and gain such a balsamic Quality to themselves as may inable them to preserve Health in others and also such an healing Virtue as may inable them to restore Health to those about them that are commonly or continually with them I mean by salutary Perspirations or sanative Effluvia's which stream plentifully from them For as the Bodies of Men in high Distempers are so full of morbific Virulence or Malignity in themselves as to breathe out such store of contagious Emissions as will infect others with the like Diseases so they that are arrived at this excellent Temper and delicate Complexion of Body which sends forth these salutiferous and medicinal Exhalations may secretly and unperceivably derive Health as well as preserve it to those Persons with whom they frequently or constantly converse NOTE VII Pag. 292. COncerning this Mark there are several Opinions Some think 't was a Letter out of the Name Jehovah stampt upon his Forehead Others that it was a fierce and furious and truculent Aspect arising from the Checks and Gripes of his clamorous and tormenting Conscience And truly a wounded and accusing Conscience does often change the very Looks of people blasting the pleasant Air of their Faces where the Guilt is much inferior to Cain's Others think it was a constant trembling of all his Members especially of his Head join'd with a lamentable dejection of Countenance and so the Fathers conceive it to be And that Expression Gen. 4.12 insinuates as much a Fugitive and Vagabond shalt thou be The Hebrew words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify moved and agitated to which the Greek ones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answer tossed and discomposed Intimating that he was subject to strange kind of Motions and Agitations in his Body the judicial Effects of GOD's Malediction upon him for his Fratricide And the appearance of these tremulous Motions about him did import or rather indicate so much terror and trouble in himself and imprint so much Awe and Dread upon others that they durst not do by him as he did by his poor Brother lest by contracting the same Guilt they should incurr the same dismal Punishment FINIS THE CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE Usefulness of our Faculties and Passions What Religious Mourning is Two Sorts of it Public and Private The two Kinds of Private Mourning