the Sacrament in vain for had I been a true Believer this would never have befallen me This is a very false way of arguing for if you had been never so sincere that sincerity would not have kept away diseases nor this in particular for in Melancholly we think and we speak according to our present apprehensions and our fears and these are greatly caused by the disorder of our Imaginations which is owing to the confusion and the hurry of our thoughts and that confusion is the product of a great and unusual stagnation or fixing of the Spirits when the blood is corrupted and the body indisposed and this most frequently occasioned by the want of rest or sleep And 't is commonly said by others that know not what Melancholly is Why do you think and pore so much Divert your selves think of something else But it is no more possible for people where this disease comes with violence to divert their thoughts than 't is possible for a Man to be wakeful in an Apoplexy and calm in a raging Fever no more than a Man that has a broken Arm or Leg can walk and act as he used to do before And indeed * Mr. Baxter's 32. Dir. p. 6. rational and spiritual methods will not suffice for the cure of this for you may as well expect that a good Sermon or comfortable words should cure the Falling-sickness or Palsie or a broken Head only because this disease works on the spirits and phantasie on which words of advice do also work therefore such Words and Scripture and Reason may somewhat resist it or may palliate or allay some of the effects at present but as soon as time hath worn off the force and effects of these Reasons the distemper presently returns and 't is as natural for a Melancholly person to fear and to meditate terror as 't is for a sick Man to groan or for one in health to breathe 't is certain that tenacious obstinate distempers such as this of Melancholly will not be relieved by meer words or sentences they cannot indeed cast out their troubled thoughts they cannot turn away their minds they can think of nothing but what they do think of no more than a Man in the Tooth-ach can forbear to think of his pain and not so to think is to be cured which they would be glad to be And tho' others urge us to rule our thoughts it gives us no relief but only adds to our misery to be frequently urged to that which we cannot do But my advice to such is That in the use of such things as they find to yield a natural refreshment to their spirits they would look up to God who can make the Winds and Storms to cease and make that unquiet agitation that is in the Blood and Humours to be still again and when he shall be pleased to give you the rest of night and the clearness and activity of your natural spirits then your troublesome and uneasie thoughts by the help they will then receive by reading or advice will wear away I speak nothing but what I my self have experienced to be true for this Disease does magnify our sorrows What I aim at is this That when any are in deep Melancholly so far as they have any Reason left they should not encrease their own terror by thinking that all their former Prayers and endeavours have been to no purpose because they do not then perceive what effect they have had God is certainly more gracious than to reckon the una voidable attendants of a disease that none can cure but himself to be a sin Men are not to be judged by what strange actions or expressions they are guilty of in a violent sickness and among all that are so I think this to be most violent CHAP. XII Of the several ends that God hath in suffering his Servants to be under long Afflictions and spiritual distress and anguish XV. COnsider what ends God may have in letting the apprehensions of his wrath continue for a season and here I know I enter upon a thing whereof we cannot have a certain and a comprehensive knowledg for the Judgments of God and great and long and severe Tryals are too deep for us easily to fathom or to tell particularly what is God's design in this or that The Arcana's of his Government are not obvious to every one that desires to pry into them and there are abundance of very dark and mysterious Providences in this World the Reasons of which we shall never know till the great day Who can tell the very Cause why God suffers one Religious Man to suffer affliction for several years and another that is perhaps no better than he scarcely knows what affliction means One shall be crossed and disappointed in all that he goes about and meet with losses in his Estate and in his Family and be damaged in his Health when another prospers and is well and dies by an easie death in what a smooth path do some good people go into Heaven when others are torn with thorns and bryars and go mourning and weeping all the way Who dare presume to say why this is so and no otherwise A great modesty becomes our inquiries when we endeavour to pierce into the Designs of the Great God whose Throne is established in righteousness but surrounded with clouds and darkness It is the glory of God to conceal a thing Prov. 25.2 his Infinite Majesty will not be accountable to us for what he does there is a thick veil upon the Reasons of his Judgments and Decrees that he may procure a greater veneration from his Creatures Psal 77.19 Thy way is in the sea and thy path in the great waters and thy footsteps are not known Therefore when we say that God does this or that for such or such a reason we must do it with great humility and only so far as the Scripture is our guide and from that we may learn that God suffers his people to be under the apprehensions of his wrath and under long afflictions for such ends as these 1. It is certainly good for the Universe for God does nothing in vain and when any part suffers 't is for the good of the whole tho perhaps we cannot discern how it is so till his hand has finished his own entire design 2. That others may be convinced by their very Senses what a dreadful God he is and how terrible a thing it is to sin When the Lyon roars who will not fear Amos 3.8 When men see those that were once pleasant as themselves shedding tears and crying out in the bitterness of their souls that they are undone and miserable their sad looks and their doleful expressions bear witness to the Being and to the Severity and Justice of God He sometimes in the extraordinary joys which his love produces in the hearts of his people shews Heaven upon Earth and sometimes in the fears and amazements and terrors of
watry Clouds Job 26.27 28. When I looked for good then evil came unto me and when I waited for light there came darkness My bowels boiled and rested not the days of affliction prevented me I went mourning without the Sun I stood up and cried in the congregation Now the Servants of God are going to the Port of Blessedness as Jonas to the Shore covered with the Waters of Affliction They seem now to a careless Eye like the Seed that is buried in the Ground to be quite cast away but they shall arise with new Lustre Inf. 4. This assures us that there is another and a more happy Life after this Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Matth. 5.4 He that goeth forth weeping c. Psalm 126.6 John 16.16 This Sorrow is the forerunner of abiding Joy these Tears of holy Persons are fruitful and profitable Tears and those Souls that now are vext with the Sins of others and their own shall ere long be sweetly refresht the Night is long and doleful but the Morning comes that will cause them to forget all their former trouble God puts their Tears into his Bottles tho in appearance they fall upon the Earth unregarded and seem to be lost even then they fall into the Lap of his Providence which will make them to fructify by his Blessing and to their eternal Joy This little Grain that is sown will return back again into their bosoms with measure filled up and running over and their floods of Tears that now surrounded them shall be turned into Rivers of Pleasure for evermore * Charles Recueil de Sermons p. 119. If in this life only we had hope we were of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 Miserable indeed if we were obliged to bear so many Crosses to meet so many Dangers and such various Calamities and to have no reward but thanks be to God this is not our case Whilest we look upon this World upon the manifold Evils that are here we weep but when we lift up our Eyes to that pure and calm and blessed World that is above we may be chearful and rejoyce here we are tost among Rocks and Shelves with threatning Waves and high Winds but there we behold our rest In this Wilderness we are pursued with the roaring Lyons annoyed with Hunger and with Thirst and other Inconveniencies but we are all the while in our Journey to the promised Land and shortly shall be there and then we shall receive a blessed period of all our Conflicts and our Difficulties Inf. 5. Seeing there is such a weeping Night to the Servants of God this verifies and confirms that Maxim of the Gospel That strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life Thither must we go through the very depths and wade through many Seas of grief though all others find it to be difficult because of the frequent self-denials and mortifications to which they are obliged because of the many sins that beset them and the many sufferings they must undergo yet deserted Souls find it to be a strait way indeed and to them it is covered with Thorns and Bryars and though you whose Mountain is yt strong whose hopes are yet unshaken think it easie yet if ever you come to be sorely tempted to be afflicted with long and sharp Tryals if you come to be greatly pained in your Bodies and greatly troubled in your Souls if you be awakened with the sight of Hell and the threatnings of the Law and broken with the terrors of the Almighty you will joyn your cry to ours and say That the way is very strait Joh and Hunan and Asaph and David and all others have found it to be so There is indeed a Lion in the way but that must not be an excuse to sloth but a motive to our Courage we must take the more caution and be more watchful to avoid him The sense so God's displeasure is as an hot Furnace into which many of his Children are thrown though they shall come out unhurt and when they are come forth they shall be like Gold yet it is grievous to Sense when they must be saved so as by Fire when they must come to their Crown by Racks and Torments by Anguish and Tribulation and to Heaven by the very Gates of Hell I shall close this Chapter with two Exhortations 1. With respect to those with whom it is yet day and who have never been forsaken of God And 2. To such disconsolate souls with whom it is as yet a weeping and a mourning Night 1. If you have not been forsaken and have ever had the light of God's Countenance shining on you beware of the approach of Night Prevent as much as you can the declining of the Day I have shewed you into what a Pit I and some others have fallen take warning by our danger and take heed lest you also come into the like doleful Case You have the smiles of your Heavenly Father you have been ever with him Oh! do not provoke him to turn those reviving smiles into killing frowns be not secure be not self-confident be not faithless but believe and guard your Faith and be watchful for your Enemy the Devil goes about seeking whom he may devour Work while it is day for when this night comes I can assure you by sad experience that you cannot work Pray now with fervour for then you cannot Pray Now Read and Hear the Word of God for then you will find no taste even in the Bread of Life Beware of Indifference and of Lukewarmness beware of grieving the Spirit and of slighting his motions for all these are the shadows of this doleful night Your day is comfortable and your journey pleasant while the Sun shines Oh! make hast to your Eternal home lest your feet stumble on the dark Mountains If you linger wrath will overtake you terrible and amazing wrath such as you cannot now believe and such as you then cannot bear Credit the Report that we bring you from the Land of darkness and go not in the way that will lead you thither We have fallen among Thieves and Robbers among Temptations and Dangers and Tryals that deprived us of all our Comforts do not you tread a path where you will surely be set upon and greatly wounded if you do escape though it may be you say as Job 29.18 I shall dye in my nest and multiply my days as the sand 2. Do not severely judge or censure persons under spiritual trouble It is night with them indeed but they may live to see the morning come God has overthrown them but he will build them up again they are in darkness but rejoice not over them for he will be a light unto them Speak not to the hurt of those that he has wounded look not on with unconcernedness or a secret pleasure in the time of your Brother's trouble Job 30.11 Because he hath loosed my cord and afflicted me
Friends in mind of the Sovereign Grace of God in Jesus Christ often put them in mind that he is merciful and gracious that as far as the Heavens are above the Earth so far are his thoughts above their thoughts his thoughts of mercy and love above their self-condemning guilty thoughts Teach them as much as you can to look up to God by the Great Mediator for Grace and strength and not too much to pore on their own souls where there is so much darkness and unbelief And seek to divert them from puzling themselves too much with God's secret and unknown Decrees and strive to help them to believe in Christ which is their certain duty shew them what great sinners God has pardoned and how he is merciful because he will be merciful finding motives to help them from their very miseries and from his own gracious nature Thus I find they dealt with Mrs. Drake she would send to several Ministers to know concealing her name Whether such and such a Creature without Faith Hope Love to God or Man hard-hearted without natural affection who had rejected all means nor could submit to the same yet might have any hope to go to Heaven And they returned for Answer That such like and much worse though as bad as Manasseh might by the mercy of God be received into favour converted and saved which did much allay her trouble For said she the Fountain of all my misery hath been See her Life pag. 1â—7 that I sought for that in the Law which I should have found in the Gospel and for that in my self which was only to be found in Christ This is what I thought necessary to say to you and you will find the course I have mentioned being taken with your Friends will do them no prejudice I do not speak only with borrowed expressions in this matter nor without some experience The mild and the gentle way of dealing I know very well you 'l find to be the best and the way of roughness and severity will but aggravate and increase their miseries And I desire you that are yet healthful and chearful to improve your health for if ever this distemper seize you you will be able to do nothing for your Souls or Bodies You may have time but such will be your anguish that you will not be able to do any thing to purpose in that time This Book has a peculiar Relation to the distresses of the mind for as to what concerns that bodily pain that I had with my inward trouble I have largely shewed what it was in my Practical Discourses on Sickness and Recovery that were published about a year ago And what a mercy it is to have our afflictions sanctified and to bear the yoak in our Youth I have explained in my Treatise of Early Religion lately published which is peculiarly designed for young people and if God bless it to their good it may help them to avoid those woful Terrors which many others have groaned under I think I could in the composing of the following Book have used a little more exactness had I set my self studiously to do so and by that means it might have been more pleasant to the Reader but not so well have served my design for according to that old saying Aeger non quaerit medicum Eloquentem sed sanantem A Physitian that can remove the disease is more welcome to the sick than one that can talk finely about it but do him no good and if the Cure be performed 't is no matter tho the potion was not extreamly sweetned I purposely avoided all pretence to a regular smoothness of stile because that the Ears of people in great affliction are not so tender and so delicate as theirs are who are in heaith I know that the Age in which we live is very curious and critical and that the English Language has been within a few years greatly polished and improved and Religion deserves the best words we can find wherewith to express our thoughts And in Eccles 12.10 't is said The Preacher sought out acceptable words by which I suppose he means words that were grateful as well as profitable I hope the Reader will mt find either Bombast or slovenliness in my expressions and if in them there is not as I do not pretend there is an accomplished beauty yet that at least they are not all deformity Whatever some persons may say I think it my duty to express my thoughts not altogether in a neglected and a careless manner so it be with plainness and clearness and such as may tend to edification Tho I have not in the following Book given such a particular relation of my Troubles as perhaps the Readers may expect yet I desire them to take notice that where ever I speak of inward distress as by a third person I there speak what I my self have felt It is an observation of the Readers of St. Cyprian that through all his Writings almost every word doth breathe Martyrdom his Expressions are full of spirit and passion as if he had writ them with his blood and conveyed the anguish of his sufferings into his Writings If I had had the judgment and the Pen of so Eloquent a person I might have much better described the sadness of my case but I am sure nothing in the world could fully express it it was so very terrible and the greatness of the danger does heighten the mercy of God my deliverer to whose Grace and wonderful Salvation I owe my present peace and hope to whom I will devote all my poor endeavours That those which I have used in the following Treatise may be serviceable to his Glory your advantage and the relief of your Melancholly Friends and many others as also to my own good is the prayer of Your Hearty Adviser TIMOTHY ROGERS London Sept. 10. 1691. The LETTERS that were sent from several Divines to the Author are these following LETTER I. From Matching-Hall in Essex Nov. 21. 1690. .................................... Sir I took the first opportunity to read your good Book and besides the many useful things which are there to be learned in detail the general scope and occasion of it did much affect me partly with gratitude partly with an awful fear with the former to consider how it might have been with me with the latter considering how it may be with me I see in what others suffer what I might have suffered and what am I that God should exempt me from the lot of others better than my self It is likely now it is over you may have cause to say That all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth and the comforts that you have in the return of the morning after a night like theirs that live under the Poles may more than recompence all your sorrows and pains And God hath thereby fitted you to support and comfort others from your own experience yet it is a favour to
Divine Goodness on your behalf that he hath visited you with his own Presence tho he had his way in the whirlwind and in the storm when he came unto you I bless the unsearchable Riches of his Grace in our Lord Jesus Christ that he hath shed abroad any sense of his Love upon your Soul who had poured so much of his displeasure forth that you complain of his Anger in every stroke of the Rod of God upon you I rejoyce abundantly that he hath bowed his ear unto Prayer for you when you thought he had bent his Bow like an Enemy that he hath botled up your Tears when your Roarings were poured forth like the Waters that God hath form'd you into a Vessel of Mercy when you thought he had slung you away as a Vessel wherein is no Pleasure In a word I rejoyce with comfort and enlargements that the Lord hath given us so good hopes through Grace that you are Sealed up unto the Day of Redemption who did once mournfully express it in my own Hearing That you were Sealed up unto the Black Day of Wrath and should not see me until the Heavens were no more No more at present but my Hearty Requests at the Throne of Grace That He who hath been the Author of your Faith may become the finisher of the same and confirm you unto the End till an Abundant Entrance through the Broad Gate of Assurance be administred unto you into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I am SIR Your Affectionate Friend Servant and Brother in the Lord J. HUSSEY LETTER III. Dear Brother AS the tidings of your Distemper affected my Soul and drew out my heart to make request unto God for you so the tidings of your deliverance from trouble confirmed by so evident a demonstration of it as your appearance both in the Pulpit and Press hath much affected me with joy and thankfulness to the Lord. In your Book I read the Wisdom and Goodness of God in his severest dealings with his afflicted Servants and the accomplishing of what Job speaks That when he hath tried them he brings them forth at gold you have not been in the Furnace in vain but to humble and prove you and do you good in the end O how good is God! good in himself good and kind to all his Creatures but especially good to Israel You have had abundant experience of it he hath upheld you when falling and raised you up when you was bowed down and hath turned for you your mourning into dancing hath put off your sackcloth and girded you with gladness that your soul may sing praise unto him and not be silent and you have well done in making so publick an acknowledgement of your thankfulness to God that as deliverance hath been granted at the request of many so by the many who have been concerned for you thanks may be given unto the Lord on your behalf I am persuaded the Lord hath taught you the truth of that viz. That the School of the Cross is the School of Light You had not known so well either your own vanity or the Vanity of the Creature and of all humane help nor the marvellous loving-kindness of the Lord in stepping in betwixt the Bridge and the Water many times for your help had you not learned these things by being in the School of Affliction and I am encouraged to believe that the Lord hath reserved you and restored you that you may be through his Grace greatly instrumental for the glory of his Name in turning many to righteousness the most eminent Servants in the Lord's work have been prepared for it by manifold temptations our Blessed Redeemer himself was tempted that he might be able to succour those who are tempted and the Lord comforts his Servants in all their tribulations that they might comfort others with the same comfort wherewith they have been comforted of God the Lord hath brought you out of the depths of distress that you may be the more skilful Pilot to lead others through the Waves and Billows which they are afraid will swallow them up Now Dear Brother What doth the Lord require of you but what Paul sets before young Timothy 1 Tim. 4.12 Be you an example to Believers in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith in purity your sound speech holy converse servent love and spiritual mindedness rightly improving spiritual Gifts both in sincere professing and publishing of the truth and unspotted purity of life will be a speaking Rule to others and so adorn both your Person and Profession that it will appear you have been with Jesus and that the Life of Christ doth shine forth in you And that you may be long a shining and burning Light in this World and at last be abundantly recompenced with the Reward promised to the Wise and Faithful is the fervent desire and prayer of Your Vnworthy but Affectionate Brother in the service of the Gospel RALPH WARD York Nov. 6. 1690. LETTER IV. From Steeple in Dorsetshire May 1. 1691. My Dear Friend I Did hope when I was last in London to have had the satisfaction of a free and large Conversation with your self and to have discours'd some particular matters with you but I was unhappily defeated I am now at too great a distance to use so much freedom with you as some of my Circumstances would prompt me to if I were placed so near you as would admit of my waiting on you personally But tho I do not think it proper to desire satisfaction from you by Letter about some things which would be of great use to my self and about which I believe you can better resolve me than other of my Acquaintance yet if it be consistent with your conveniences I would be glad that you and I might maintain a correspondence sometimes by writing I heartily bless God for his gracious dealings with you and for the good I hope he hath done me by what you have published to the World I have found my self obliged frequently to peruse your Book and the oftner I do read it the more I am affected with it I heartily wish English People might become so sensible of their great concernment that you might have encouragement to publish what you intimate in your Preface you did design It is what I earnestly long to see and what I am persuaded would be of singular use if people were a little awakened out of their Lethargick Distemper Peradventure God will use it to rouze and awaken many who otherwise will sleep on and continue in their doleful regardlesness and formality It would greatly rejoice me to understand by a line or two from you that I have some ground to hope to see that Tract in Print The Lord preserve his faithful Messengers and arm them against Discouragements Remember Eccles 11.1 6. I am Your Affectionate Friend SA BOLD LETTER V. Dear Mr. Rogers SIR I thank you for your Discourses on
Hell as he thinks preparing for him and yet have calm and quiet thoughts It must needs fill him with horror and confusion it must needs eclipse his Reason and put all his Apprehensions into an inexpressible ferment to see himself so like to perish He can mind nothing else nor think of nothing else but his danger and his misery this always returns this always perplexes and overwhelms him I have met but with one that ever handled this Question and because of his Judgment his Learning and the good report that he has in the Churches of Christ I will give you the substance of his Answer 1. This may be for the good of others Is there not many a lesson that such as are not so afflicted may learn from so sad a Providence May not they learn more to admire the Goodness and the Mercy of God to them that they are not in the like case And it is so far good to the person himself tho he discern it not that he is used as an Instrument to promote the Glory of God 2. It may as he says do him the same good as Death will i. e. deliver him from the evil to come from the beholding of such Sorrows on the Church or on his Friends as would have been a daily torment to him and on which being deprived of the use of his Reason he cannot reflect with so great a grief as otherwise he would have done Or 3. By this means the Wise God may have prevented his falling into many such Sins and Temptations as might have been very hurtful to others and have more defiled his own Soul And who knows but this may be the case of the distracted Person See Mr. Richard Allen 's Godly man's Portion p. 62 63. Thus Reader we have been travelling as through a Wilderness of Fiery Serpents You have as I may so say born me company whilst I have been shewing you how God leads his Children through a Desart and the House of Bondage And I hope it has not been without some profit to some poor Troubled Souls for whose sakes especially I have so long insisted on this Subject In the following Part shall with God's Assistance lead you to the brighter side of the Cloud where you will not meet with things very Doleful but very Pleasant A DISCOURSE Concerning TROUBLE of MIND AND THE DISEASE of MELANCHOLY PART II. PSAL. XXX 5. In his favour is Life CHAP. I. Of the several sorts of Life that we enjoy by God's favour and in what conditions of our present Pilgrimage it doth more especially revive us 1. IN God's favour is our Natural life We are the work of his hands and his kindness and bounty does continually maintain what he at first created his Providence secures us from innumerable dangers he gives us meat and drink and health and strength but his displeasure does quickly deprive us of all these 'T is said of all the creatures Psal 104.28 29. What thou givest them they gather thou openest thy hand they are filled with good Thou hidest thy face they are troubled thou takest away their breath they dye and return to the dust 'T is this great God to whom we owe our peace and plenty our liberties and all the comforts we enjoy he saves our Bodies from Plague and long sickness and pining wasting sorrows all the delight we have in our Friends in our Families or in our Relations flows from his goodness and his meer mercy and 't is he that saves our Houses from Fire our Estates from Robbers and our Country from desolating Wars Ps 30.7 Lord by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong Man being the noblest creature and the most dignified in all this lower World God has appointed the lower creatures to Minister to his use and his delight The Air as one observes is his Aviary the Sea and Rivers his Fishponds the Vallies his Granary the Mountains his Magazine The first affords Man creatures for nourishment the other Metals for perfection The Animals were created for the support of the Life of Man the Herbs the Dews and Rains for the same purpose there is not the most despicable thing in the whole creation but is endowed with a nature to contribute something for our welfare either as food to nourish us when we are healthful or as Medicine to cure us when we are distempered or as a Garment to cloath us when we are naked and arm us against the cold of the season or as a refreshment when we are weary or as a delight when we are sad all serve for necessity or ornament either to spread our Table beautify our Dwellings furnish our Closets or store our VVardrobes The whole earth is full of his Riches Psal 104.24 2. Spiritual Life is in his favour 'T is he that draws the first lineaments of the new creature and his hand that brings it to perfection he first infuses a vital principle into the soul that is dead in sin and that maintains it afterwards against all the powerful motions of sin and against all the stratagems and tentations of the Devil from his own Grace he did elect his people to Salvation and gives them in time his word and his spirit to quicken them together with all those other blessings of Adoption and Justification and Sanctification which are the product and the fruit of his Electing Love The first quickning and those exercises of Life afterwards which his chosen do perform the first motion and the renewed strength which they receive to enable them to walk in his ways is his own gift 't is his pardon that bestows upon his Servants a new Life when they were dead in Law and could see nothing to ensue but a terrible execution 'T is his favour that contrived the way of our escape from death through the Blood of Christ and that was pleased to accept of the sufferings of that Holy person in our stead That Faith is of his own operation which unites us to his Son the fountain of Life and conveys quickening influences to us Joh. 5.24 He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not enter into condemnation but is passed from death to life This Faith is of his bestowing which enables us to be moderate in our prosperity and to bear the Cross when we are afflicted All those acts that are the fruit of the New Birth as well as the New birth it self are the work of his own hands for he gives both to will and to do he teaches us to fight against our spiritual enemies and his power being employed for us causes us to get the Victory When we are bewildred his Word is our guide to direct us and when we are fainting we have many great and precious Promises to revive our spirits when we are in darkness and when we are in danger he is both our Sun and Shield his Wind blows upon our Gardens and causes
the Spices to flow forth he excites and quickens our Graces when they begin to languish and when we are lukewarm and cold he makes us to be lively and fervent in the performance of our holy Duties for as one says what the Soul is to the Body to move it to natural things to breathe to eat to walk and the like the same is the Spirit of God in our Souls to move us to spiritual actions as the fear of God love to him and trust in him and all the works of Righteousness Charity Humility Patience and Sobriety that are the motions of the new creature so that we may say of this Spirit that he is the Soul of our Souls and take away this Spirit and the Soul resembles a dead Body it has no zeal for God no compunction no tenderness When we are disconsolate one kind look from God makes us to be of good chear When our hearts are benumb'd and our Eyes are dry he melts them into tears with his Love When we are unfruitful he sends his Dew upon our branches that makes us to flourish in his Courts and to look fresh and green and when we are under Spiritual decays he causes us to thrive when we backslide he heals our backslidings he brings us through the great Mediator into a nearness to and acquaintance with himself For as far as we are distant from him so far are we removed from true and real Life When we wander he recals us he sends us fresh influences and establishes our goings when our motions are like those of a wounded body very faint and tottering 3. Eternal Life is in his favour Hence it is said That Eternal life is the gift of God Rom. 6.23 Psal 16.11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence it fulness of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore It is there that they are said to see God for the sight of his face is that which makes it to be such a glorious and delightful place His Wrath is that which kindles Hell the withholding of his Favour makes it to be such a dark and gloomy Dungeon and the clear manifestation of it does make all the Glories of the Coelestial Paradise And therefore Jacob when he had a Vision of God's Favour to him said This place is no other than the gate of Heaven Gen. 29.17 Frame not to your selves a gross and a material Happiness 't is all in the Love and Favour of God To see him fills all the Souls above with ineffable delight to be deprived of this blessed privilege fills all the Souls in misery with Mourning and Lamentation To his Saints God will be all in all his Communications will be entire and full there Lettres de Monsieur Claude p. 10. †As the Creatures are of divers orders every one receives its portion of Divine Favour different from that of others He communicates himself otherwise to the Heavens than to the Earth otherwise to an Angel than to a Man The Earth hath an Image of his firmness the Sun hath an image of his beauty the Heaven an image of his immensity and so in others but there is no Creature that has assembled in it self all the beams of the Communications of God It shall be otherwise in Paradise God shall be all things in the Saints and they shall be filled with his Favour And as he further says God is not so all in all in the Faithful here the troubles of our Conscience the weakness of our Faith the languors of our Devotion the shadows of our Knowledge our Sins our Miseries our Sickness and our Death are the fruits of the Fall and of the Malice of the Devil But in that Felicity there shall be nothing of US in us nothing of the Impression of the Devil All shall be of God our Shadows shall be swallowed up by his Light and our Weakness by his power It is a state of Glory and Glory is a mixture of all the Blessings of God in a degree Sovereignly perfect That Country that is above is indeed the Land of the Living they Live and shall never Dye But this Earth is a Region and a place of Death For beside that which is Natural the most part of men are dead in Sin and truly even those that are alive have but a weak and a fainting Life There it is that that the Saints shall be admirers of the Grace and Favour of God That after various difficulties and innumerable temptations and overwhelming fears did at last bring them to that happy Place For the poor trembling Saint that thought himself cast off and forsaken of God to find himself in his Arms in his Presence in his Heaven how great will his joy and praise be How will he ascribe all his life there to the meer Favour and Grace of God that shall set him at liberty when by his many Sins he had deserved to be bound in Eternal Chains That shall cause him to sing Hallelujahs when others weep and wail for ever How will he admire that Grace that has placed him in Heaven when so many others are in Hell And the more admire when he shall consider that this distinction of States was freely made That that Crown which will adorn his Head was freely given How will every look on God fill his Soul with a wondring Joy because he freely gave his Son How will every view of Christ encrease his wonder When he shall consider that he freely undertook the kind work of his Redemption that he freely shed his Blood and paid the debt which the Sinner himself could never pay and that he freely gave the Spirit and offered that Salvation upon easy terms without money and without price which cost him very dear All the Saints above will continually adore the Riches of his Grace that admitted them to Glory when they deserved to be shut out as well as others That they were deformed till he put his comeliness upon them That they were liable to Death till he justified them and polluted in their Natures till he renewed them and dying till he made them to live That they learned nothing but what he taught them had nothing but what he gave them did nothing but what he enabled them to do So that all must be wonderful in their Eyes from the beginning of God's design for their Salvation to the conclusion of it And when it is all finished they must with loud Praises sing Grace Grace By Grace ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God Eph. 2.8 First No common Mercy yields any Comfort without the Favour and Love of God His loving-kindness is better than life Psal 63.3 If a man have all that he can wish every thing that is splendid and delightful every thing that may please his Eye or gratify his Appetite if he have not this with the Love of God he is a Miserable man For this will mingle
whom the Prophets and Apostles and Martyrs and all your Ministers and your Christian Friends have spoke so much to be at length your own Saviour how will you be at ease when you see his Excellencies to be yours and that you are among the joyful and adoring-throng that wait upon him To love him and to have his love shewed to you and to have these mutual Delights to increase but never to decay to possess one another for ever with renewed and repeated Extasies this is an Heaven begun that no thoughts can fully apprehend nor words declare in order to this you must give all diligence to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Often you must try your hearts and your Actions by the Word of God and beg his Spirit and obey his motions and excite your Graces and watch against Sin and deny your selves The Trader endeavours all he can to get a plentiful Trade and would have a great deal of business and money flowing in upon him The Merchant strives to have all the plentiful Returns imaginable Oh! Let us strive that our Souls may not only be safe but that they may prosper too not only that we may pray but pray with boldness to God as Children to a Father and when we are able to look upon him as so related and as our Friend our Service will be more fervent and all our work done with greater life and heart our slavish fears and despondence will give way to Love and Hope and then every thing that concerns us will undergo a most comfortable change we shall be able to hear the Thunders and the Curses and the Threatnings of the Law without astonishment and terror because we shall dwell as in God's Pavilion We shall be able to think of Hell and not be overwhelmed because we shall look upon it as a Dungeon from which we are saved by the Grace of God We shall attend to the Messages of the Gospel for it will bring us glad tidings the blessed Angels will be your Guardians the Ministers of the Church your Directors and your Helpers the Malice of the Wicked and the Rage of Devils will fall below us and not reach our happiness 8. Take heed of concluding the special favour of God from the Common Mercies you enjoy 1. You must not conclude you have this Favour from any of your outward Privileges God may long dwell among a People by the outward Testimonies of his Presence by his Word and the means of Grace and yet leave them at last Who were once more happy than the Jews in his Protection and yet none are more miserable than they are by his departure Jerusalem where he had placed his Name and that was once the glory of all Cities is now no more remarkable for its glorious Temple and its stately Towers for its Riches Grandeur and Splendor wherewith it shined heretofore The Holy Land the Countrey of Judea which our Saviour blest with his presence which he instructed with his heavenly Sermons and honoured with his Miracles is now no more the same Judea that it once was it is now groaning under the cruel Dominion of the Turks and the Seven Churches have lost their Golden Candlesticks and the blessed Guest that one walkt in the midst of them The Stars that shone there are now eclips'd and their glory gone It is a great mercy indeed so have the Gospel but it will not in the issue be so to you unless it shine into your hearts If it do not prevail to the conversion of your Souls it will aggravate your ruine inasmuch as you will go from the clearest Light to the thickest Darkness from the brightest Day to the most dismal Night You cannot conclude that you have this Favour from any common gifts of knowledge or of understanding unless you be sanctified throughout When our Lord ascended he gave gifts to men * Du Monlin's Sermons XI Decade Serm. 2. Like those Liberalities which Kings scatter indifferently among their Subjects in the day of their Coronation without making a distinction between the good and bad and of those pieces of Gold and Silver several partake that least deserve them but their great Honours and the Principal Offices of the Crown they reserve for their peculiar Favourites and for those that belong to the Houshold and wait upon their Persons so Christ distributes many Favours to all that enjoy his Gospel but there are some that are peculiar to his own Family as distinguished from the rest of men such are the gifts of Faith of Regeneration and Adoption Happy was the Womb that bare him and happy were the Paps that gave him suck and yet more happy are those that keep his Words Luke 11.27 28. Neither circumcisim nor uncircimcision availeth any thing but a new creature Gal. 6.15 2. You cannot conclude from your outward Prosperity your Richer or abundance in the World that you have this Favour of God in which is Life Our Lord that by his own Example did intend to shew to men better things than the Goods of this World did first cause his Angels to appear to the poor Shepherds not to the Courts of Princes and the Schools of Philosophers He could have had Kings if he had pleased to wait upon him and to lay their Crowns and Scepters at his feet but he chose a Train of poor Followers whom he did enrich with Heavenly Treasures and not with those of this Earth though the whole Creation and all its glories were at his Command The Poor were they that received the Gospel and not many Noble are called c. 1 Cor. 1.27 The poor of the world are rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom Jam. 2.5 Tho as Riches are no sign of God's Election neither is Poverty a mark of Grace but yet with the Lower sort of People and those that are not many times very wise for this World God does often build his Church Afflictions and Crosses are no mark of his displeasure nor is a continued Prosperity the character of his Love for many times God lets his Sun shine upon the Wicked to their dying day their strength is firm the Rod is not upon them they fear no evil they know no sorrow there are no tears in their eyes no sadness in their hearts no complaining in their Families See Job 21. from the 7th to the 13th verse Riches are indeed of themselves great blessings with them a man may do abundance of good works which the poorer sort of People cannot by reason of those straits and difficulties that they are to wrastle with they are great Talents and serviceable to great purposes they do afford men great leisure for the affairs of their Souls and not being perplexed with anxious cares how to get a livelihood they may read and meditate and pray with more devotion but then these soft and easie Blessings meeting with the Corruptions that is in Humane Nature they prove frequently to be a
to thy self I have indeed deserv'd this usage for thou wast with me and I did not value thy presence thou didst call but I did not obey thy voice thou didst stand at my Door but I shut thee out wo wo unto me that I have sinned wo unto me that I did not improve thy Grace thy Presence and thy Love as I should have done But tho I have been a Prodigal thou art a Father still and tho I have not done as becomes a Child yet I will return to thee because thou wilt not cast off the comfortable Name of a Father Thus I say do those that have had experience of God's favour mourn for his absence Their Spirits are like the tender Flowers that hang their heads when the Sun is set and they walk more disconsolately than any Subject can be supposed to do who after having once shared in the peculiar Graces of his Prince sees him at length because of his Crimes to look upon him with a severe or a less savourable eye VII If you enjoy the Favour of God you will have a great value for his Word for the Spirit and the Blood of Christ For his Word as discovering to you this God and persuading you by many comfortable Promises and Entreaties to accept of him and not only so but conveying to you saving light and knowledge with its great and powerful efficacy You will love the Word because of the many Supports and Consolations which you have received from it you will love it as the Rule of your Duty and all its Precepts will be dear to you as conveying to you life and strength you will love it so as to read it often so as to meditate upon it and to lay it up in your hearts you will love it as the Instrument of your Regeneration and rejoice in it not only for a season but for ever You will value and obey the Spirit that sets home revealed truths upon your hearts and when you were destitute of this life convinced you of your miserable state and restored vigor and motion to those Faculties of yours that were stupified and benumbed chasing away their ancient darkness and guiding them to their proper Objects and causing those Objects so discovered to produce glorious effects in your once barren Souls You will also prize all the Ordinances of God in which you may have communion with him as Prayer Hearing Meditation and the like and it will leave a sensible grief upon your minds when you miss of these Ordinances by your own fault VIII You will be very humble and heavenly minded His Favour fills all his Servants with the lowest and most self-abasing thoughts you will never speak of him but in terms full of respect never pray to him but with great reverence and veneration the nearer access you have to him the more will you discern of his Infinite Holiness and Purity and how vile you are when compared with him you will wonder at his Condescentions and cast down your Crowns before the Throne and imitate his humble Language in 2 Sam. 9.7 8. when David told Mephibosheth Thou shalt eat bread at my Table continually he bowed himself and said What if thy servant that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am This will cause you to admire the distinguishing Grace of God that is vouchsafed to you more than to many others in the World great numbers whereof are buried in Ignorance or open Idolatry and the rest in Profaneness or Hypocrisy many it may be are passed by in the same Families where you live and whilst you are alive your next Neighbour perhaps is dead And then if you have obtained this Favour you will be heavenly minded your Treasure and your Hearts will be above you will taste and relish spiritual and divine things and never be more pleased than when you are least earthly and carnal and this holy temper will be your comfort and security against the Temptations of Satan and the Evils of this lower World as those Birds that soar aloft are out of the danger of Guns and the Snare of the Fowler who catches those that fly nearer to the ground IX You may then know that you have the Favour of God if you are industrious and zealous in the performance of all holy Duties If you perform them not only from the force of awakening convictions but from love and delight if you refuse no service that may glorify him though it seem to thwart your worldly Interest and to be painful to the Flesh and it is impossible but to find a very calm and chearful progress in your obedience when you know that God accepts what you do As it is a mighty encouragement to the labour of a Servant when he sees that his Master is very well pleased with his work Darkness you know with its many Inconveniences does greatly put a stop to diligence which yet is quickned and excited by the return of Light So if God's Countenance shine upon you it will make you not only to walk uprightly but even to run the way of his Commandments with enlarged hearts Psal 119. and you will associate with such as are serious holy Persons for the living do not use to take pleasure in being among the dead X. And Lastly If this Favour of God be your Life it will make you patiently to long for Heaven This Favour will be sweeter to your taste than honey or the honey-comb it will yield a more delightful relish to your renewed Appetite than all the Joys of this World the little drops that now and then refresh your hearts will cause you to pant for those Rivers of Pleasures that are at his Right-hand for evermore Are you weary of sinning weary of your imperfect Faith and Hope and Love Does the prospect that you have of God at this distance render him so amiable to your Souls that you would fain be with him where he is Are you so sensible of the evil of your Sin that you would fain be in that place where you shall sin no more for ever where your panting Soul shall have all its longings turned into an eternal Complacence and Delight You will often lift up to Heaven your longing eyes and send thither many a servent wish saying with David Oh! when shall I come and appear before God! Psal 42.2 When will it be that I shall see his glorious Face and feel beyond all doubt that I am loved of him and that I love him better than I now do where the joys of hope shall be turned into fruition and when that which I have now but in the promise I shall have in the sweetest and most comfortable possession When shall I be near his Throne and see that glorious Majesty that I have adored When shall I see that Face all serene and have no black or mournful Cloud to interpose between my God and me for ever Oh that I might join in the Hallelujahs of the Blessed
displeasure whilest his favour and his gracious eye makes others to go smiling thither Enoch and Elias had a pleasant Removal from the world very short and very glorious was their passage hence but the most part of men groan a long while before they are called away and then he does it to shew his own Power that when the wound appears to be desperate he can give a cure with a word When the night is fullest of horror he can bring the reviving day When the storms are highest he need but say to the waves to our doubts and our fears Be still and immediately there is a calm What is not a God and so great and so good a God able to do He that produced from a meer Chaos this beautiful and pleasant World need only say to us in the middle of our doleful darkness Let there be light and it shall be so Job 5.18 He maketh sore and bindeth up he woundeth and his hands make whole in acknowledgment of this Soveraign Ability it is that David prays Psal 51.8 Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice Why so had not Nathan told him That his sin was pardoned Yes but all the testimonies of men are nothing without the inward witness of the Holy Spirit God has committed to men the administration of his Word but reserves the Spirit to himself that Spirit which gives consolation to our hearts and peace to our Consciences When Mary and Martha were in sorrow for their Brother's death 't is said Joh. 11.19 Many of the Jews came from Jerusalem to comfort them but they received no comfort till Christ himself came thither CHAP. VI. Shewing whence it is that Melancholly and Troubled People love Solitariness and whence it is that serious Persons are not so light and frothy in their Conversations as others are With some other Inferences deducible from the foregoing Doctrine With some Advices to those that have never been deserted and to such as are complaining that they are so Inf. 1. HEnce you see the Reason why People in trouble love Solitariness They are full of Sorrow and Sorrow if it have taken deep root is naturally reserved and flies all Conversation Grief is a thing that is very silent and private Those People that are very Talkative and Clamorous in their Sorrows are never very sorrowful Some are apt to wonder why Melancholly People delight to be so much alone and I 'll tell them the reason of it 1. Because the disorder'd Humours of their Bodies alter their Temper their Humours and their Inclinations that they are no more the same that they use to be their very Distemper is averse to what is joyous and diverting and they that wonder at them may as wisely wonder why they will be diseased which they would not be if they knew how to help it but the Disease of Melancholly is so obstinate and so unknown to all but those that have it that nothing but the Power of God can totally overthrow it and I know no other cure for it 2. Another Reason why they chuse to be alone is Because People do not generally mind what they say nor believe them but rather deride them which they do not use so cruelly to do with those that are in other Distempers and no Man is to be blamed for avoiding Society when they do not afford the common Credit to his Words that is due to the rest of Men. But 3. Another and the principal Reason why People in Trouble and Sadness chuse to be alone is Because they generally apprehend themselves singled out to be the Marks of God's peculiar Displeasure and they are often by their sharp Afflictions a terror to themselves and a wonder to others It even breaks their hearts to see how low they are fallen how oppressed that were once as easy as pleasant as full of hope as others are Job 6.21 Ye see my casting down and are afraid Psalm 71.7 I am as a wonder unto many And it is usually unpleasant to others to be with them Psalm 88.18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me and mine acquaintance into darkness And tho it was not so with the Friends of Job to see a Man whom they had once known Happy to be so Miserable one whom they had seen so very Prosperous to be so very Poor in such sorry forlorn Circumstances did greatly affect them he poor Man was changed they knew him not Job 2.12 13. And when they lift up their eyes afar off and knew him not they lift up their voice and wept and they rent every one his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights and none spake a word to him for they saw that his grief was very great As the Prophet represents one under spiritual and great Afflictions that he sitteth alone and keepeth silence Lam. 3.28 Inf. 2. Hence we see the Reason why the Servants of God have not such light and frothy spirits as others They do not indeed always mourn but even when they rejoice 't is with a serious and solid Joy Their own Sins and the fear they have of sinning and the concern they have for the Sins of others cause them to walk softly The many Miseries to which they are obnoxious and the many that they see the Church of God groaning under keep them from innumerable Follies from many Lightnesses and Vanities in Conversation which others do not scruple tho frequently when their Countenances are grave their Hearts are full of the most lively joys Inf. 3. What a mean sorry thing a Christian is many times in this World as to his outward appearance A Mourner never makes so great a shew as one in Triumph does His Graces and his Excellencies are many times like the Ground in Winter covered with Rain and Storm which make him not to be much regarded because Christ was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief therefore the Jews saw no beauty or comeliness in him that they should desire him they hid their faces from him because he was stricken smitten of God and afflicted Isaiah 53.3 4. The life of all Believers is hid with God in Christ Col. 3.3 'T is maintained with suitable nourishment formed by the Gospel and preserved by the Spirit but because of innumerable Temptations and Weaknesses the Glory of their Grace is very much eclipsed 't is hidden under a thousand Crosses and Infirmities and does not yet appear in the clearest Light A Christian in this World is like a King that Travels Incognito in a strange Land he is coursly treated by Men that do not know the greatness of his Birth and Quality he Travels but in the habit of a Pilgrim and cloathed with Heaviness and hath Tears for his Meat and Drink Or he is as the Sun ascending to his Meridian but obscured from our sight with many thick and