Selected quad for the lemma: world_n
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A32824
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A practical treatise concerning evil thoughts wherein are some things more especially useful for melancholy persons / by William Chilcot.
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Chilcot, William, 1663 or 4-1711.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing C3847; ESTC R6628
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61,347
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294
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must be careful that we do not love the World immoderately For how remote soever Covetousness may seem from Despair the former doth frequently conduce to the latter He that sets too great a value upon the things of this World and a Temporal Prosperity will not only be greatly hindred from doing his Spiritual Duty but when it pleaseth God to deprive him of his prosperity he is very apt to be extremely disquieted and repining and sometimes to look upon himself as utterly forsaken of God because he is strip'd of these outward things He mistakenly looks upon Temporal good things to be certain marks of God's favour whereas in truth they are not but he sometimes deals them promiscuously as the rain descends both upon the just and the unjust And what is the likely consequence of such an enormous love of the World if I say it should please God to bring such an one into adversity but that he should have dismal and even despairing Thoughts of his own condition There have been frequent examples of this nature in the World And thus far have these words of the Apostle been verify'd But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurt-sinful lusts which drown men in perdition For the love of money is the root of all evil which while some have coveted after they have erred from the Faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows Let us not therefore set our affections too much upon these fleeting things Let us enjoy every good thing with submission to and dependance upon God's Providence Let us beware that we do not fix our Hearts on any thing here below neither Riches Possessions Friends Children nor any of these sublunary things For so doing hath oftentimes proved very fatal to many and at last hath thrown them into Melancholy nay even into Desperation The last Remedy against black dreadful or despairing Thoughts is Religiuus and Cheerful Conversation 'T is not jolly vain Company that will be of no use but hurt but godly and cheerful Society will very much contribute to their cure To be always poreing aggravates the Malady and rivets the Despair and sometimes proves fatal indeed And therefore a little good Conversation is very necessary Religious Discourses and Conferences will keep out worse Thoughts and conduce very much to make us rejoyce with them that do rejoyce There is a kind of Melody in them which like that of David's Harp when he play'd to Saul will drive away the evil Spirit 'T is a common thing for such persons as are troubled with this kind of thoughts to affect solitude and desire to be always alone and immur'd in their own sad contemplations But notwithstanding the strongest aversions to Company which they may have 't is advisable that against their Inclinations they be brought in to good and cheerful Conversation and that not once or twice but with Continuance And this is a proper way in time to be rid of such evil Thoughts For the Devil's Temptations and Injections especially of this kind are usually more prevalent and come with greater force when people are alone than when they are in Society And then too they are apt to dote upon their own Notions of things hug their mistakes and think them true however false and erroneous they may be A Religious and Cheerful Friend therefore I take in this case to be of great advantage to comfort advise divert and improve them in better things And more especially do I recommend the frequent Conversation of their Spiritual Guide For it is not to be imagined what efficacy a seasonable Word hath sometimes and what a sweet alteration it causes in disconsolate People It goeth like oyl into their bones or else to use the Preacher's comparison The words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastned by the Masters of assemblies Good conversation strengthens and exhilarates the Spirits to a great degree and is a very proper means against all sad and melancholy or despairing Thoughts And indeed I think Religion is that which goes a great way towards the cure of Melancholy And without it 't is hardly ever to be cur'd 'T is Religion must give a Man a rational and a well-grounded hope of the security of his eternal condition hereafter without which 't is difficult to imagine how his heart should ever be easy and his Thoughts serene quiet and compos'd And therefore he that would avoid this kind of evil Thoughts I exhort and advise him first to fix the grand Point of Religion in himself and then to cherish and improve it by cheerful and Religious Conversation But in doing this we must not think that we can be always imploy'd in Religion that we can have our Thoughts stretch'd up always to such a pitch to be continually engag'd in the duties of Devotion and be thinking that we cannot please God without it For we have Bodies as well as Souls We are Men and not Angels And therefore tho' we should do our utmost and with all imaginable sincecerity yet we should not lay too great a load upon our Spirits for that may be the way instead of preventing to bring on sad and melancholy Thoughts And 't is what Almighty God no where requires of us Who will have mercy and not sacrifice and intended his Service for perfect freedom and Religion for a Law of liberty I have now done with this last kind of evil thoughts viz. sad melancholy or despairing Thoughts And the Rules which have been laid down for the well-governing the Thoughts in general and for the avoiding this sort and these other kinds of evil Thoughts discours'd of in this Treatise duly observ'd will by God's Blessing have some good effect But as an Appendix to this Chapter I shall endeavour to explain to you what is the sin against the Holy-Ghost Because the fear that they have committed this Vnpardonable Sin hath horribly perplex'd and terrify'd the Thoughts of many dejected Christians even almost to Desperation Now every Sin is indeed a Sin against the Holy-Ghost and some are grievances of him And therefore we are exhorted not to Grieve the holy Spirit of God But THE SIN against the Holy-Ghost which is pronounced by our Lord Jesus himself to be unpardonable in this World and in the World to come is called also Blasphemy against the holy-Holy-Ghost by the Evangelists In Matth. 12. 31 32. the words are these Wherefore I say unto you that all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven i. e. is capable of being forgiven but the Blasphemy against the holy-Holy-Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men And whosoever speaketh a word against the son of Man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the holy-Holy-Ghost it shall not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come In Mark 3. 28. c. it is thus express'd Verily I say un-unto you All fins shall be
forgiven unto the sons of men and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme but he that blasphemeth against the holy-Holy-Ghost hath never forgiveness but is in danger of eternal damnation And in Luke 12. 10 there is but little variation Whosoever shall speak a word against the son of man it shall be forgiven him but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy-Ghost it shall not be forgiven Now for the clearer understanding of these places which speak of the GREAT SIN You are to observe That the two former of these Evangelists St. Matthew and St. Mark in the Context give us an account of our Saviour's having heal'd a Demoniak and when he had expell'd the Devil by the power of the Holy-Ghost which he had without measure to the great amazement of all the People The Scribes and Pharisees whose hearts were sowr'd with the leven of Pride and Envy notwithstanding their own Convictions and in spight of the irresistable Evidence of that and other Miracles which our Saviour did they blasphemously ascribed the doing of them to the Devil representing our Lord as a Wizard or a Conjurer And as absurdly as impiously said He casteth out devils by Beelzebub the Prince of the devils The Obstinacy and Malice of this imputation our Saviour severely reflects upon and publickly declares That these that out of an invenomed Spirit and wilful spight and against the strongest Convictions thus blaspheme the Holy and Eternal Spirit by the oeconomy of whose Almighty Power these things were done and thus endeavour to subvert the whole structure of the Christian Religion and wilfully disown Christ the Saviour These have no other means of salvation left them no other Name under Heaven by which they can be saved There is no other Christ no other Gospel And therefore nothing shall be the portion of such Men but eternal damnation From all which it is sufficiently plain That the sin against the Holy-Ghost consisteth in Words 't is Blasphemy And not every Blasphemy against the Holy-Ghost neither Not every one that speaketh against the Holy-Ghost as some Hereticks have done and now do is guilty of this unpardonable sin which is a Blasphemy against the visible glorious operations the immediate effects and office of the Holy-Ghost and such too as is utter'd not out of Fear Infirmity or Cowardize but out of an hateful and malicious Heart not of rashness but of set-purpose to do despight unto Christ his known Doctrine and Works being accompany'd with an universal defection or falling away from the whole truth of God So that if this sin in its formality could be committed now from this short explanation of the nature of it I hope it doth appear that none of these who are scar'd and terrify'd with the apprehensions of it can have committed it And that therefore their fears and dismal Thoughts about it are groundless and unreasonable and stirred up by the common Enemy of our peace in order to disquiet and hinder them from doing their Duty or to bring them into Melancholy or Despair 'T is most certain that all Persons that wilfully run on in sin and persist in impenitency shall finally perish for ever as surely as if they had committed the the great Sin we are speaking of But 't is also certain that thousands do out of ignorance or inadvertence mistake the nature of this unpardonable Sin and are horribly afraid that they have committed it tho' they know not what it is The vilest action the greatest sin of Practise that can be committed doth not extend to the sin against the Holy-Ghost And therefore such a sin calls indeed for the deepest sorrow and humiliation and most unfeign'd repentance But the sin against the Holy-Ghost and Repentance are things very inconsisistent And this ariseth not from any defect of Mercy in God or want of Merit in the Blood of Christ but from an incapacity in the Offender Upon the whole then you see what this Concluding sin is and consequently how little reason many poor dejected Souls have to be affrighted with the thoughts of having committed it and to sink and despond upon mere Doubts Conjectures and Suspicions CHAP. X. NO Man can be a good Christian indeed that hath not a special regard to his Thoughts and doth not endeavour to have them pure holy and conformable to the Laws of the Gospel And the government of the Thoughts is an happiness never to be attained without the most deep and serious consideration and a ready and willing application of Our selves to proper means The which I have in the preceding Chapters endeavour'd to lay before you And we may not think that it is altogether impossible to put them in practise There is unquestionably a great deal in our own power in order to it as plainly appears from the whole series of this Treatise And 't is no more than what is the evident Design of the Christian Religion By which the great excellency of it not only above all other Arts and Sciences which in their perfection are only the riches and ornaments of the outward Man but beyond all other Religions whatsoever is manifest Christianity soars above all the tempting gayeties and little noisy vanities of this World It is not its business to seek after the silly applauses of the Age or popular admiration 'T is not be seen of Men or to inherit this Bubble 'T is not only to appear outwardly great or good but the design of it is an internal Purity and Holiness a conformity of our Thoughts to the Rules of the Gospel The Philosophy of the Gentile World tho' it went far yet came vastly short of it And all the excellent Rules delivered by the ancient Moralists for the government of Life are much below the Divine Oracles As for the Jewish Religion it consisted of meer Elements and first Rudiments The Law being as the Apostle tells us but as the Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ The Law was delivered in blackness and thick darkness on Mount Sinai and indeed 't was but Darkness in comparison of the more Bright discoveries of the Evangelical State which consisteth not in Types Figures and shadows and Parabolical and Mystical Rites but in plain and perfective Precepts In such admirable Rules and Directions as duly observ'd will wonderfully enrich and beautify the Soul and bring it near to perfection by a resemblance of GOD himself and dispose and prepare it for the Blissful enjoyment of Heaven and the Beatifick Vision The Rites of the Pagan Religions did consist in the vilest impurities And as for Mahomet as Ambition and Lust were the first Motives to his Imposture so Lewdness and Obscenity is his Heaven too And indeed other Religions too have taken care to propagate uncleanness under the specious pretences of a Recluse Life and the severest purity But true Religion indeed such as our Lord Jesus always preach'd and urg'd upon Men and is built upon the genuine design of the holy Scriptures