A Christian Directory Volume I Part 73

and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father: but the very hairs of your head are numbered: fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows," Matt. x. 29, 30. Oh that this were well believed and considered! Psal. x.x.xiv. 7, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them."

_Direct._ XVIII. Think what a vile dishonour it is to G.o.d to have his creature, even breathing dirt, to be feared more than him! As if he were less powerful to do good or hurt to you than man, and were not able or willing to secure you, so far as to see that no man shall ever be a loser by him, or any thing which he suffereth for his cause![355]

Isa. lvii. 11, "And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart. Have I not held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not?" How did Daniel and the three confessors honour G.o.d, but by fearing him more than the king and the flaming furnace: saying, "We are not careful to answer thee in this matter: if it be so, the G.o.d whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O king: but if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy G.o.ds," &c. Dan. iii. 16-18. Daniel would not cease praying thrice a day openly in his house, for fear of the king, or of the lions. "Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing him that is invisible," Heb. xi.

27. "So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me," Heb. xiii. 6.[356]

_Direct._ XIX. Remember the dangers which you have been saved from already; especially from sin and h.e.l.l. And is an uncirc.u.mcised Philistine more invincible than the lion and the bear?

_Direct._ XX. Remember the great approaching day of judgment, where great and small will be equal before G.o.d; and where G.o.d will right all that were wronged by men, and be the full and final avenger of his children! He hath promised, though "he bear long, to avenge them speedily," Luke xviii. 7, 8. Can you believe that day, and yet not think that it is soon enough to justify you fully and finally, and to make you reparations of all your wrongs? Cannot you stay till Christ come to judge the quick and the dead? You will then be loth to be found with those that, as Saul, made haste to sacrifice, because he could not stay till Samuel came; whose souls "drew back, because they could not live by faith." Matt. x. 26, "Fear them not therefore; for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not be known." 2 Thess. ii. 6-10, "Seeing it is a righteous thing with G.o.d to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance, &c. When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe."

_Direct._ XXI. Remember that the fearful and unbelieving shall be shut out of heaven, Rev. xxi. 8; that is, those that fear men more than G.o.d, and cannot trust him with their lives and all, but will rather venture upon his wrath by sin, than on the wrath of man.

_Direct._ XXII. Turn your fear of the instruments of the devil into pity and compa.s.sion to men in such lamentable misery; and pray for them as Christ and Stephen did: foresee now the misery that is near them. When you begin to be afraid of them, suppose that just now were the day of judgment, and you saw how they will then tremble at the bar of G.o.d (as conscience sometimes makes some of them do, at the hearing or remembering of it; as Felix before Paul): see them as ready to be sentenced to the fire prepared for the devil and his angels, as Matt.

xxv. Can you fear him that is near such endless misery, whom you should condole and pity (as the ancient martyrs used to do)? 1 Pet.

iv. 17, "What shall the end" of the persecutors "be, and where shall the unG.o.dly sinners appear, if judgment begin at the house of G.o.d, and the righteous be saved with so much ado?"

About the fear of death, I have written largely already in my "Treatise of Self-denial," and in the "Saints' Rest," and in "The Last Enemy Death," &c. and in "The Believer's Last Work." Therefore, I shall here pa.s.s it by.[357]

_t.i.t._ 9. _Directions against sinful Grief and Trouble._

Sorrow is planted in nature to make man a subject capable of government, by making him capable of punishment, that he might be kept from sin by the fear or sense of that which nature hath made its punishment: and that the beginnings of pain might help to prevent the sin that would bring more; and might drive the wounded soul to its remedy; or by sympathy might condole the misery of others.

Sorrow or grief, in itself considered, is neither morally good nor evil; but it is a natural pa.s.sion; and evil, that is, hurtful, to him that hath it; but good, that is, an apt, conducible means to the universal or higher ends of government to which the Creator and Universal King hath planted it in man: the same may be said of all capacity of pain and natural misery.

Mere sorrow, in itself considered, is a thing that G.o.d commandeth not, nor taketh pleasure in. Sorrow for our natural or penal hurt, is in itself no duty, but a necessary thing. G.o.d doth not command it, but threatens it; therefore there is no moral good in it. G.o.d will not command or entreat men to feel when they are hurt, or mourn under their torment; but will make them do it whether they will or no: therefore humble souls must take heed of thinking they merit or please G.o.d merely by sorrowing for their sufferings. But yet sorrow for misery may accidentally become a duty and a moral good. 1. _Ratione principii_, by respect to the principle it proceedeth from. As when it is, (1.) The belief of G.o.d's threatenings which causeth the sorrow. (2.) When it cometh from a love to G.o.d. 2. _Ratione materiae_, for the matter's sake, when it is the absence of G.o.d, and his favour, and his Spirit, and image, which is the misery that we lament (which therefore savoureth of some love to G.o.d); and not mere fleshly, sensitive suffering. 3.

_Ratione finis_, in respect of the end; when we sorrow with intent to drive our hearts to Christ our Saviour, and to value mercy and grace, and to recover us to G.o.d. 4. _Ratione effecti_, in respect of the effect, when these forementioned ends become the fruits of it.[358]

Sorrow for sin is a duty and moral good. 1. Formally in itself considered: for to be sorrowful for offending G.o.d, and violating his law, essentially containeth a will to please G.o.d and obey his law. 2.

It must be also made good, by a good principle; that is, by faith and love. 3. By a right end; that it be to carry us from the sin to G.o.d.

4. And by a right guide and matter; that it be sin indeed, and not a mistaken, seeming sin, that is it we sorrow for. But sorrow for sin (materially) may be made sinful, 1. By an ill end and formal reason; when we mourn not for sin as sin, but as one sin hindereth another, or as it marred some ill design. 2. And by the effect; when it doth but sink men in despair, or torment them, and not at all separate them from the sin. 3. When it cometh not at all from any love to G.o.d, or care to please him, but only an unwillingness to be d.a.m.ned, and so it is lamented only as a means of d.a.m.nation; which, though it be a sorrow, positively neither good nor evil, yet it is evil privatively.

But it is the pa.s.sion of grief as in its excess that I am now to speak against. And it is in excess, 1. When we grieve for that which we ought not at all to grieve for; that is, either for some good, or for a thing indifferent that is neither good nor bad; both which come from the error of the mind. 2. When we grieve too much for that which we may grieve for lawfully in some measure; that is, for our own afflictions or penal suffering. 3. When we grieve too much for that which we are bound to grieve for in some measure: as (1.) For our sin.

(2.) For our loss of the favour of G.o.d, or of his grace and Spirit.

(3.) For other men's sin and suffering. (4.) For the sufferings of the church, and calamities of the world. (5.) For G.o.d's dishonour.[359]

Though it is not easy to have too much sorrow for sin, considering it estimatively; that is, we can hardly take sin for a worse evil than it is, and accordingly grieve for it; yet it is oft too easy to have too much sorrow for sin, or any other evil intensively as to the greatness of the pa.s.sion. And thus sorrow for sin is too great, 1. When it distracteth the mind, and overturneth reason, and it is made unfit for the ends of sorrow. 2. When it so cloudeth and clotheth the soul in grief, that it maketh us unfit to see and consider of the promise, to relish mercy, or believe it; to acknowledge benefits, or own grace received, or be thankful for it; to feel the love of G.o.d, or love him for it, to praise him, or to mind him, or to call upon him; when it driveth the soul from G.o.d, and weakeneth it to duty, and teacheth it to deny mercy, and sinketh it towards despair; all this is too much and sinful sorrow: and so is all that doth the soul more hurt than good; for sorrow is not good of itself, but as it doth good, or showeth good.

_Direct._ I. Keep your hearts as true and close to G.o.d as possible, and make sure of his love, that you may know you have not an unregenerate, miserable soul to mourn for, and then all other grief is the more curable and more tolerable. Be once able to say that G.o.d is on your side, that Christ, and the Spirit, and heaven are yours, and then you have the greatest cordial against excessive grief that this world affords. If you say, How should this be done? I answer, that it is opened in its proper place. No marvel if sorrow overwhelm that soul, that is in the chains of sin, under the curse of G.o.d, as soon as awakened conscience comes to feel it. And it is most miserable when it hath the smallest sorrow; there being some hope that sorrow may drive it home to Christ. Therefore if thou have been a secure, unhumbled, carnal wretch, and G.o.d be now beginning to humble thee, by showing thee thy sin and misery, take heed, as thou lovest thy soul, that thou drive not away necessary, healing sorrow and repentance, under pretence of driving away melancholy or over-much sorrow; thy smart tendeth to thy hopes of cure.

_Direct._ II. Renew not the wounds of conscience by renewed, wilful, gross sin. For sin will bring sorrow, especially if thou have any life of grace to feel it: even as falls, and breaking the bones, bring pain. Obey carefully if thou wouldst have peace.

_Direct._ III. Be well acquainted with the general grounds of hope in the mercy of G.o.d, the office and death of Christ, and the free, universal offer of pardon, grace, and life in the new covenant.

Abundance of grief doth dwell in many humbled souls, through the ignorance of these general grounds of comfort; which would vanish away if these were known.

_Direct._ IV. Know well the true nature and use of G.o.dly sorrow; how it is but a means to higher grace, and a thing which may exceed, and not a thing that we should stop in, or think we can never have too much of it. Desire it but in its place, and to its proper ends.

_Direct._ V. Know well the nature and excellency of those higher graces which sorrow tendeth to; even love, and thankfulness, and delight in G.o.d, and fruitful obedience. And then you will be carried after these, and will learn to hate the sorrow that hindereth them, and to cherish that sorrow which leadeth you up to them, and to value it but as a means to them.

_Direct._ VI. Manage all your affairs, especially those of your souls, with prudent foresight; and look not only on things as they appear at hand.[360] Judge not by sense, but by reason; for sense cannot foresee, but pleaseth itself at present with that which must be bitterness in the end. Thus, carnal delight is the common way to overwhelming sorrow. He that would not have the pain and sickness of a surfeit to-morrow, must not please his appet.i.te against reason to-day.

Poison will gripe and kill never the less for tasting sweet. You must foreknow how that which you take will work, and what will be the effects of it, and not only how it tasteth, if you would escape the pain. The drunkard thinketh not of his vomiting, and poverty, or shame, or sickness, and therefore causeth them. There is no sorrow so intolerable as that of a guilty soul, that is pa.s.sing in terror to the bar of G.o.d, and thence to everlasting pain. Foresee this sorrow in your most pleasant sin; and remember that when you are tempted to sin, you are tempted to sorrow; and then you may prevent it. And in all your particular actions use a foreseeing judgment, and ask what is like to be the end, before you enter on the beginning. Most of our sorrows come for want of this, and express themselves by, Had I known, or had I thought of this, I had prevented it. Do nothing which you may foresee must be repented of; for repentance is sorrowful; and the weightier the case the deeper the sorrow. How easy and comfortable a life and death might men attain, if they would not buy a little forbidden, poisonous pleasure, with the price of future pain and sorrows! And if they did not foolishly and over-tenderly refuse those holy, necessary, medicinal sorrows, by which their greater, overwhelming, and undoing sorrows should have been prevented!

_Direct._ VII. Look always on your remedy when you look on your misery; and when you find any dangerous sin or sign in you, presently consider what is your duty in order to your recovery and escape. It is an ordinary thing with peevish, distempered natures, when they are reproved for any sin, to resist the reproof by excuses as long as they can; and when they can resist no longer, then they fall into despairing lamentations, if they are so bad, what then shall they do!

and in the mean time never set themselves against the sin, and cast it off and return to their obedience, that their comforts may return: they will do any thing rather than amend. The reason why G.o.d convinceth them of sin is that they may forsake it, and they are sooner brought to any thing than to this: convince them of their pride, or malice, or worldliness, or disobedience, or slothfulness, or pa.s.sion, and they will sooner sink in sorrow and despair than they will set upon a resolved reformation. This is it indeed which the devil desireth; he can allow you grief and desperation, but not to amend. But is this best for you? Or is it pleasing to G.o.d? Deny not your sin, but see withal that there is enough in Christ for your pardon and deliverance. He hath appointed you means for your present recovery, and he is ready to help you. Ask what is your duty for your cure, and set upon it without delay.

_Direct._ VIII. Remember your causes of joy as well as your cause of sorrow, that each may have their due, and your joy and sorrow may both be suited to their causes: to which end you must labour for the exactest acquaintance with your own condition, that possibly you can attain to.[361] If you are yet unG.o.dly, your sorrow must be greater than your joy, or else it will be irrational joy, and pernicious to your souls, and increase your after-sorrow. And you must not overlook so much cause of comfort as is afforded you in G.o.d's patience, and the offers of a Saviour, and of pardon, and grace, and life in him. If you are truly G.o.dly, you must so mourn for sin, and weakness, and wants, and crosses, and afflictions of yourselves and others, as never to forget the invaluable mercies which you have already received, your part in Christ and life eternal, your beginnings of grace, and your reconciliation with G.o.d, which allow and command you greatly to rejoice: and remember that no humiliations will excuse you from the observation and acknowledgment of all these mercies.

_Direct._ IX. Read over all the commands of Scripture that make it your duty to rejoice in the Lord, and exceedingly to rejoice; and make as much conscience of them as of other commands of G.o.d. The same G.o.d commandeth you to rejoice, who commandeth you to hear, and pray, and repent. See Psal. x.x.xiii. 1; Phil. iii. 1; iv. 4; Rom. v. 2; Phil. iii.

3; 1 Thess. v. 16; 1 Pet. i. 6-8; iv. 13; Heb. iii. 6; 2 Cor. vi. 10; Rom. xii. 12; Psal. x.x.xii. 11; cx.x.xii. 9, 16; Rom. xiv. 17; Psal. v. 11.

_Direct._ X. Befriend not your own excessive sorrows, by thinking them to be your duty, nor suspect lawful mirth and joy as if it were a sin, or a thing unbecoming you. For if you take your sin for your duty, and plead for it, and your duty for your sin, and plead against it, you are far from the way of amendment and recovery. And yet it is common with an afflicted, weak, impatient soul, to fall into liking (though not in love) with their inordinate sorrows, and to justify them, and think that it is their duty still to mourn. If these sorrows were of G.o.d, we should be more backward to them: and if our comfort were not more pleasing to G.o.d, our natures would not be so backward to them as they are.

_Direct._ XI. Love no creature too much, and let it not grow too sweet and pleasant to you: else you are preparing for sorrow from the creature. Love it less, and you shall sorrow less. All your grief for crosses and losses, in goods, estate, in children and friends, in reputation, liberty, health, and life, doth come from your over-loving them. Value them but as they deserve, and you may easily bear the loss of them. He that maketh them his idol or felicity, will grieve for the want of them, or the loss of them, as a man undone that cannot live without them. But he that hath placed his happiness and hopes in G.o.d, and valueth the world no further than it tendeth to his ultimate end, will no further grieve for the want of it, than as he misseth it to that end. 1 Tim. vi. 10, "The love of money and coveting after it, doth pierce men through with many sorrows." Mark what you find your heart too much set upon and pleased in, or hoping after, and take it off quickly if you love your peace.

_Direct._ XII. Learn to be pleased and satisfied in the will of G.o.d.

Trust your heavenly Father who knoweth what you need. It is some rebellion or crossness of our wills to the will of G.o.d, which causeth our inordinate griefs and trouble. Because we cannot bring our wills to his will, nor make our reason stoop unto his wisdom, nor think well of his providence, unless he will suit it to our conceits, and interests, and l.u.s.ts, therefore so far as we are carnal we are ordinarily displeased and grieved at his ways. If we might have had our own wills about our estates, or names, or children, or friends, or health, or life, we should not have been troubled (at the present).

But because it is not our way, but G.o.d's way, that is taken, nor our will, but G.o.d's will, that is done, therefore we are grieved and discontent, as if his way and will were worse than ours, and G.o.d had wanted his foolish children to be his counsellors, or they could have chosen better for themselves!

_Direct._ XIII. Afflict yourselves no further than G.o.d or man afflict you; but remember, if you think that you have too much already against your wills, how foolish and self-contradicting it is to lay a great deal more wilfully upon yourselves.[362] Is it slanders or reproach that men afflict you with? Let it be so; that toucheth not the heart.

Is it poverty, crosses, or losses, that G.o.d afflicteth you with? Let it be so; that toucheth not the heart neither. Is it loss of children and friends; or is it pain and sickness? I confess these are sore; but yet they do not touch the heart. If they come thither it is your doing; and (though thither they should come moderately) if they are immoderate, it is your own sinful doing. It is you that grieve, and make the heart ache; G.o.d and man did but make the flesh ache. If others hurt your bodies, will you therefore vex your minds? Will you pierce through your hearts, because they touch your name or goods? If so, remember which part of your sorrow is of their making, and which is of your own: and can you for shame go beg of G.o.d or man to ease the grief which you yourselves are causing, and wilfully continue it while you pray against it? And why lament you that which you cause and choose? It is a shame to be wilfully your own tormentors.

_Direct._ XIV. Abhor all that tendeth to take down the power and government of reason (that is, all feebleness and cowardice of mind, and a melancholy, a peevish, pa.s.sionate disposition): and labour to keep up the authority of reason, and to keep all your pa.s.sions subject to your wills; which must be done by christian faith and fort.i.tude. If you come once to that childish or distracted pa.s.s, as to grieve and say, I cannot help it; I know it is sinful and immoderate, but I cannot choose; if you say true, you are out of the reach of counsel, advice, or comfort. You are not to be preached to, nor talked to, nor to be written for: we do not write directions to teach men how to touch the stars, or explain the asperities or inequalities of the moon, or the opacous parts of Saturn, or to govern the orbs, or rule the chariot of the sun. If it be become a natural impossibility to you, doctrine can give you no remedy; but if the impossibility be but moral, in the weakness of reason, and want of consideration, it may by doctrine, consideration, and resolution be overcome. You can do more if you will than you think you can.[363] How came you to lose the command of your pa.s.sions? Did not G.o.d make you a rational creature, that hath an understanding and will to rule all pa.s.sions? How come you to have lost the ruling power of reason and will?

You would take it for a disparagement to be told that you have lost the use of your reason; and is it not a princ.i.p.al use of it to rule the pa.s.sions, and all other inferior, subject powers? You say you cannot choose but grieve! But if one could give you that creature which you want or desire, then you could choose: you could rejoice, if one could restore you that child, that friend, that estate which you have lost.

But G.o.d, and Christ, and heaven, it seems, are not enough to cure you: if you must have but them you cannot choose but grieve! And what hearts have you then that are thus affected? Should not those hearts be rather grieved for? G.o.d will sometime make you see, that you had more power than you used.

_Direct._ XV. Observe the mischiefs of excessive sorrow, that you may feel what reason you have to avoid it. While you know not what hurt is in it, you will be the more remiss in your resisting it: I shall briefly name you some of its unhappy fruits.

[Sidenote: The ill effects of sinful grief.]

1. It is a continual pain and sickness of the mind. (This you know by feeling.) 2. It is a destroyer of bodily health and life. For "worldly sorrow worketh death," 2 Cor. vii. 10. Prov. xvii. 22, "A merry heart doth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones." 3. It putteth the soul out of relish with its mercies, and so causeth us to undervalue them, and consequently to be unthankful for them, and not to improve them. 4. It destroyeth the sense of the love of G.o.d, and lamentably undisposeth the soul to love him: and therefore should be abhorred by us were it but for that one effect. 5. It destroyeth the joy in the Holy Ghost, and unfitteth us to obey that command of G.o.d, Rejoice continually. 6. It contradicteth a heavenly mind and conversation, and hindereth us from all foretastes of the everlasting joys.[364] 7. It undisposeth us to the excellent work of praise: who can ascend in the praises of G.o.d, while grief doth oppress and captivate the soul? 8. It destroyeth the sweetness of all G.o.d's ordinances, hearing, reading, prayer, sacraments; we may force ourselves to use them, but shall have no delight in them. 9. It hindereth the exercise of faith, and raiseth distrust, and sinful doubts and fears, within us. 10. It causeth sinful discontents and murmurings at G.o.d and man. 11. It maketh us impatient, peevish, froward, angry, and hard to be pleased. 12. It weakeneth the soul to all that is good, and destroyeth its fort.i.tude and strength: for it is the "joy of the Lord that is our strength," Neh. viii. 10, 13. It hindereth us in the duties of our callings: who can do them as they should be done, under the clog of a disquiet mind? 14. It maketh us a grief and burden to our friends, and robs them of the comfort which they should have in and by us. 15. It maketh us unprofitable to others, and hindereth us from doing the good we might; when we should be instructing, exhorting, and praying for poor sinners, or minding the church of G.o.d, we are all taken up at home, about our own afflictions. 16. It maketh us a stumblingblock and scandal to the unG.o.dly, and hindereth their conversion, while the devil setteth us before the church doors, to keep away the unG.o.dly from a holy life, as men set scarecrows in their fields and gardens, to frighten away the birds. 17. It dishonoureth religion, by making men believe that it is a melancholy, vexatious, self-tormenting life. 18. It obscureth the glory of the gospel, and crosseth the work of Christ, his Spirit, and ministers, who all come upon a message of great joy to all nations; and proclaim glad tidings to the worst of sinners; much more to the sons of G.o.d, and heirs of life. 19. It misrepresenteth G.o.d himself, as if we would persuade men, that he is a hard and cruel master, that none can please, though they do all through a Mediator upon a covenant of grace; and that it is worse with us since we served him than before; and that he delighteth in our grief and misery, and is against our peace and joy; and as if there were no joy nor pleasure in his service. Such hideous doctrine do our lives preach of G.o.d, when those that profess to fear and seek him, do live in such immoderate grief and trouble. 20. And it too much pleaseth the devil, who is glad to torment us here, if he may not do it in h.e.l.l; and especially do make ourselves the executioners upon ourselves, when he is restrained; when he can boast and say, Though I may not vex thee, I will persuade thee to vex thyself. These are the fruits of sinful sorrows.

_Direct._ XVI. Govern your thoughts, and suffer them not to muse and feed on those objects which cause your grief. No wonder if your sore be always smarting, when you are always rubbing on it in your thoughts. Of this I spake more fully even now.

_t.i.t._ 10. _Directions against sinful Despair (and Doubting)._

Despair is the contrary to hope.[365] There is a despair that is a duty, and a despair that is a sin, and a despair that is indifferent, as being but of natural and not of moral kind. Despair is a duty, when it is contrary to the sinful hope before described; that is, 1. When we despair of any thing which G.o.d hath told us shall never come to pa.s.s: for we are bound to believe his word: as that all the world should be saved or converted, or that our bodies should not die and perish, and many such like. 2. It is a duty to despair of ever attaining a good end by means, or upon terms, which G.o.d hath told us it shall never be attained by: and so it is a great duty for an unregenerate person to despair of ever being saved without regeneration, conversion, and holiness; and to despair of ever being pardoned or saved, if he live after the flesh and have not the Spirit of Christ, and repent not unfeignedly of his sin, and be not a new creature, and crucify not the flesh with its affections and l.u.s.ts.[366] Such a despair is one of the first things necessary to the conversion of a sinner, because the false hopes of being pardoned and saved without regeneration, is the present hinderance to be removed.

Despair is a sin, when it is contrary to any hope which G.o.d commandeth us (so it be not only a negative despair, or bare not hoping, which in sleep and other times may be innocent, but a positive despair, which concludeth against hope). As, 1. Particular despair of the benefit of some particular promise; as if Israel had despaired of deliverance from Egypt, or Abraham of a son. 2. General despair of the fulfilling of some general promise; as if we despaired of the resurrection, or the kingdom of Christ in glory. 3. When by misapplication we despair of that pardon and salvation to ourselves, which yet we believe shall be to others.

Yea, despair is sinful sometimes when it is not contrary to any promise or commanded hope: for if G.o.d have not revealed his will one way or other, it is no duty to expect the thing, and yet it is a sin to conclude positively that it will not be: for then we shall say more than we know, or than G.o.d hath revealed. If hope be taken for the comfort that ariseth in us from the apprehension of a mere possibility, then indeed it is a duty to hope for that good which is possible only; but if hope be taken for a confident expectation, then both such hope, and also the contrary despair, would be a sin. We may (so) _non-sperare_ but not _desperare_. Possibles must be taken but for possibles, yet still for such.

He that despaireth but of some common mercy which he should not despair of, _ratione materiae_ committeth a sin of the smaller sort: he that despaireth of a great mercy to others, (though not promised,) committeth a greater sin _ratione materiae_; as if you despair of the conversion of a bad child, or of the continuance of the gospel to the kingdom, &c. But he that despaireth of his own pardon and salvation, sinneth more perilously _ratione materiae_.

The despairing of pardon and salvation upon a despair of the truth of the gospel, or sufficiency of Christ, is d.a.m.nable, and a certain mark of a wretched infidel, if it be predominant.[367] But to believe all the gospel to be true, and desire Christ and life as best, and yet to despair upon too bad thoughts of one's self, or through some other mistake, this is a sin of infirmity, consistent with grace (unless the despair be so total and prevalent, as to make the sinner settledly cast off a G.o.dly life, and give up himself to a life of wickedness).

The Scripture speaketh little of this humble sort of despair, and no where threateneth it as it doth infidelity.

The commonest despair (like Spira's) which cometh immediately from invincible predominant melancholy (though occasioned first by sin) is no otherwise sinful or dangerous, than the despair or raving of a mad-man, or one in a doting fever, is. It is the too humble despair, through personal misapplication, and particular mistakes, that I shall speak of in this place.

_Direct._ I. Take heed of being ignorant of, or misunderstanding, the three great general grounds of faith and hope; that is, 1. The infinite goodness of G.o.d, and his unmeasurable love and mercy. 2. The relation of Christ's office to all, and the sufficiency of his ransom and sacrifice for all. 3. The universality of the promise, or the act of oblivion, or deed of gift of free pardon and salvation to all on condition of penitent belief and acceptance, which is procured and given by Christ, and contained in the gospel. If you mistake so about any one of these as not to believe or understand them, or if you do not well consider and improve them, no wonder if you be left under continual doubtings and liable to despair.