The defirableness of dying a Righteous Numb, 23. 10. Let me dye the death of the A good Conscience a pledge of future Hap- 1 John 3. 21. Beloved, if our heart condemn Prov. 10. 19. In the multitude of words there ADDEND. P.156. 1.12. after God is fo too; read, or as great in intenfeness, SERM. SERMON I Preach'd before the Queen at St. The Pains and Terrors of a wounded Proverbs XVIII. 14. the latter part of the verse. A wounded Spirit who can bear? difcourfing upon these words, I fhall endeavour to fhew First, What we are to understand here by a wounded Spirit. Secondly, That fuch a wounded Spirit is indeed intolerable. And then Lastly, I fhall conclude I Serm. I. with fome practical Reflections upon Serm. 1 the whole. First then, By a wounded Spirit, or, as the words fhould be render'd, a troubled and afflicted Spirit or Mind, it is plain we are not to understand a Mind heavy laden and opprefs'd with the common Ill Accidents and Calamities of this Life: fuch as come upon us, wholely without any fault of ours, either immediately and directly from the Divine Providence it felf, or at leaff, by the permiffion of that, from fome other inferiour Agent. And this, not only because the wounded Spirit in my Text is oppos'd to all fuch Evils (which are there call'd Man's infirmity, that is, fuch as are natural and Job. 5. 7. common to Man, who is born to trouble as the Sparks fly upwards) but alfo, because all Afflictions and Troubles of this kind, how fharp and grievous foever, are yet, as is there declar'd, really tolerable. The Spirit or Mind of Man, or, as others would have it tranflated, a Manly Mind; a brave and generous Soul, fortifying and encouraging it felf with fome comfortable and heart'ning Confide rations rations of Reason and Religion (as m that all fuch Afflictions come from God, Serm. 1. the just and wife and good Creatour Difpofer and Governour of all things; that they are sent by him, out of infinite love and kindness to us, to awaken us out of our Sins, and to fright us from them, to reduce us to our Duties, to try and quicken our Graces and Virtues, and by fo doing, to prepare and qualify us for his Favour; that they are always either proportion'd by him to our ftrength, or, which is much at one, that our strength is affifted by his Grace, and thereby 2 Cor. 12 made fufficient for them; that they 9. cannot last long, to be fure, at the utmoft, not longer than our Lives: and that after Death, if we bear them patiently and contentedly, and endeavor to reap thofe good Fruits from them, which the Divine Providence defign'd by them, we shall be rewarded for them with an exceeding and eternal weight of Glory) will find it an 17. eafy matter to fuftain it felf under all thefe infirmities. And therefore Secondly, By a wounded Spirit here, we are certainly to understand a Mind A 2 labour 2 Cor. 4 |