24 SERMON II. PSAL. XLII. 6, 7. According to the Translation of our Liturgy, Why art thou fo full of Heaviness, O my Soul, and why art thou difquieted within me? Put thy trust in God, for I will yet give him thanks for the help of his Coun tenance. H Aving, the laft Time, given you an Account of the Occafion and Scope of thefe Words, as they were fpoken by the Pfalmift, and treated of fuch practical Points, as may be deduced from them, as fo confidered: I now come to that, which I chiefly defigned when I pitched upon this Text, which was, as I told you, to speak to the Cafe of thofe People among us, that are troubled with religious Melancholly. And here, that which I propose to do, is to confider the feveral Things that are most apt to disturb them, and which are wont to create great uneafiness, and trouble, and perplexity to their Minds, and to give fuch an Account of thefe Things, as that every good Man Man may be fatisfied, that there is no Reafon that, for the fake of them, his Soul fhould be caft down, or his Spirit difquieted within him; but, on the contrary, that he ought to praise God, and to look upon him as the help of his Countenance, and his God, as David expresseth it in this Pfalm. But, before I engage in this Argument, it is fit I fhould give you a more particular Account of what I mean by religious Melancholly, and how it is diftinguished from other forts of trouble of Mind, that are incident to Mankind. First of all, there is a Melancholly and dejection of Spirit occafioned by worldly Things, fuch as Sickness, or Poverty, or Diftrefs, or lofs of Friends, or bad Children and Relations, or fome other outward Crofs or Disappointinent, which either is come upon us, or we fear will do. But now this is not that trouble of Mind I am here concerned with, tho' it be the most common Trouble that exercifeth the Minds of Men. Secondly; There is a trouble of Mind upon a religious Account, which most Men both good and bad have fometimes experience of, which likewife is far different from that religious Melancholly I am here to speak of. There is no good Man that at any time. falls into a Sin, or doth any Action that he believes to be difpleafing to God, but he must needs be troubled in Confcience for it, and heartily vexed in his own Mind that he fhould fhould be fo foolish, and fo ungrateful to his great Benefactor. He will truly be forry for his Fault, and patiently confefs it, and earneftly beg Pardon for it. But then it is not his Infelicity to be thus troubled, and afflicted, (as the Cafe is with them that are religiously Melancholly) but it is his Duty and his Advantage: For this is a Mean whereby he must be restored to the Favour of God, and to his own peace and quiet of Mind; and it is the best Preservative likewise against his falling again into the fame Fault. And fo for bad Men, those that live in any course of Vice or wilful Sin, there are few of them but are fometimes much troubled in Mind, and feel a great load of Melancholly upon their Spirits, when they reflect upon their fpiritual Condition: Many Occafions are by the Providence of God thrown in their way, which feldom fail of putting them in mind of their finful Lives, and of the Danger they are in upon account thereof. And, if thefe Reflections be ferious, they cannot but be accompanied with a great deal of Horrour and Amazement. But, however they stifle thefe Thoughts in the time of their Health, yet when they come to be on their fick Beds, and expect nothing but Death; then many of them are moft terribly awakned, their Consciences then fly in their Faces, and in a miferable Agony they are upon account of their former ungodly Life, and would give all the World to be rid of thofe difmal Apprehen prehenfions they have of themselves, and of their own everlasting Condition. But this Trouble likewife is nothing but what is reasonable, and confidering their Circumstances, very neceffary for them. It is not a Melancholly grounded upon a Conceit, or Imagination, or misapprehenfion of Things, for really they have great reason to be thus difquieted and afflicted in their own Minds, and they must be fenfeless and ftupid, if they were not. And it is a Mercy of God to them, that they are thus awakned, for, if ever they repent and come to good, it must in all probability be by fuch Beginnings as thefe. But Thirdly, there is another kind of religious trouble of Mind, which none but good Men, or those that defire fo to be, are fubject too: Which yet is different from that religious Melancholly, that is now under my Confideration. That which I mean, is that Trouble which arifes from our irrefolution or doubtfulness about the goodness or badness of Actions. When, in any Cafe that we happen to be engag'd in, we are at a lofs how to determine our felves, as fearing that, if we act this way, we fin, if we act the other way, we may fin likewife. These kind of Doubts or Scruples do often render the Minds of well-meaning Perfons very uneafie, even fometimes in fuch Instances as another Man, and he an honeft Man too, would find no Difficulty at all in. It may indeed and doth fome fometimes happen, that this perplexity and fcrupulofity, about Actions, doth proceed from Distemper and Indifpofition of Body; and, where it doth fo, it is a Spice of that religious Melancholly I am here to speak of; but, generally, it proceeds from ignorance of Things, and the falfe Notions Men have taken up about the measure of Actions, from their Education, or Converfation, and the like. And, when thefe are once removed, and the Man comes to form a right Judgment of Things, there is an end of the Scruples or Doubts, and confequently of all that Trouble they were the cause of. But Fourthly, As for that fort of trouble of Mind, which we properly call religious Melancholly, and which is my prefent Argument; the best Account I can give of it is this, that it is a dejection of Mind occafioned from the Temperament, or most commonly from the Distemperature, of the Body, accompanied with unreasonable Fears, and Frights, about our fpiritual Condition. We cannot but have obferved (at least they must, that have ever had to do with Mens Souls,) that there are a great many Perfons who, as far as we can judge, either by their Conversation, or by that Account they give of themselves, (which they give in fuch Circumstances too, that no Man can fufpect that they Counterfeit) are very innocent, and vertuous Perfons, and have a hearty Senfe of God and Religion upon their |