the Spirit, let us confider how little and mean are the objects and gratifications of the one in respect of thofe of the other. How the one are low, fordid and Brutish, the other Rational and Angelical, fuch as the highest order of Beings next to God are capable of. How little is there in all the Riches, and Greatnefs, and State of this World, how much lefs in all the mad frolicks of Debauchery, and all the beastlinefs and filthiness of Brutish Lufts, in all those things that make up Carnal Enjoyments, and are the fumm, as the Apostle reckons them up, of all that is in the World, The Luft of the flesh, the luft of the eye, and the pride of life, 1 John 2. 16. How much greater and nobler is it to have a wife, and fober, and vertuous Mind, cafie Thoughts, and a chearful Confcience, Spiritual Defires and Affections fet upon things above, and strong and well-grounded hopes of an Eternal Life and a Glorious Immortality: These are the Objects of our Spiritual Defires, and we fhould increase those by reprefenting the worth and value, the greatnefs and excellency of these above any other things that we can choose or defire, or any enjoyments of the Animal and Senfual Life. 'Tis a vain fancy and opinion of the latter, whereby we raife our imagination and heighten our expectation of fomething great and extraordinary in them; 'tis that kindles our Affections, and inflames our Defires after them; but did we wifely confider how vain, and trifling, and incon

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inconfiderable they are, and how poor, and little, and fhort, and forry gratifications they afford, this would wean us from fuch weak fancies and opinions of them, and fo flack and cool our Defires and Luftings after them.

Lastly, We muft ufe all Religious Means and Methods to mortifie and abate the Luftings of the Flesh, and ftrengthen and increase thofe of the Spirit by the Acts and Exercifes of Religion, Piety and Devotion. 'Tis in the growth and prevalence of the latter lyes our Moral State, and the greatest exercise of all Vertue, and in the right ordering and governing of our Paffions Appetites and Inclinations, fo that we must use all poffible Methods to keep the lower Appetites under, and obedient to the fuperiour, and not let them dethrone our Reason, or disobey Religion; and therefore we must use all the helps we can have from Religion and Philofophy, and the Divine Grace and Affiftance, to tame our inordinate Lufts by Fafting, by Watching, by Prayer, by due watchfulness and circumfpection over our felves, and over all the weak places of our Nature, that Sin do not enter in at some of those inlets that are unguarded, and do not furprize and easily befet us when we are unprepared and unarmed by Religion against the affaults of it; and there is nothing fo helpful to this, and to increase and ftrengthen our Spiritual Defires fo that they fhall always prevail over the Lufts of the Flesh, as the conftant and uninterrupted exercifes of Piety and Devotion: Thefe give

life, and vigour, and nourishment to our Spiritual Defires, and keep them always warm, and heated, and intent upon their proper Objects, whereas a neglect of thofe begets a carelefnefs, ftupidity and fenflefnefs of all thofe things, and finks Men into a meer Senfual, and Animal, and Worldly, and Brutal Life. Nothing is therefore fo proper to bring us to thefe Spiritual Defires, and to make thofe always prevail over the Lufts of the Flesh, as Devotion and Piety, which raise the Mind to things above the Body, and above this World, and take off and abstract the Soul from Senfual and Carnal Enjoyments, and make it live up as near as it can to that Life it fhall have in Heaven, when it fhall be all Spirit, and have no Flesh or Lufts to contend with, or be contrary to it.

I fhall in the next place confider another thing which befalls many a Sinner, and which, tho' a due effect of his Sins, and an evidence of the fad ftate they bring him to, and fo may be of great ufe to be duly confidered on this account, yet is a kind of Excefs of Repentance, and fometimes too great an extream that way, and what ought to have the niceft Refolutions, and best Direations given about it to cure and remove it; I mean, Trouble of Mind, or a Wounded Confcience, which many a Sinner lyes under, and which I fhall briefly Represent and Difcourfe of, by confidering how great a Mifery it is above all others in this World, and what Cure and Remedy there may be for it, or for those who are fallen under it.

SECT. IV.

Of Trouble of Mind, or a Wounded Spirit.

TH

HE greatest part of our Happinessor Mifery lyes in our Minds and Spirits, in those inward Faculties and Senfories which are diftinct from our Body and outward Senfes. We feel very often more pleasure or pain in those distinct from the Body than the Body it felf is capable of; for thefe are quicker and more fenfible than Matter and Body can be, and are the proper fubject of perception of any Pleafure and Pain, and of all Rational Happinefs or Mifery. A Man's inward Thoughts do often give him more torment and uneafinefs, anguish and difquietude of Soul, and more real pain and mifery than any Bodily torment, or even Death it felf; and therefore fome have cho fen Death, and have willingly endured any Bodily pain rather than lye under the greater pain, agonies and horrours of their own Minds; and many that have been under thofe, yet have felt an inward joy comfort and fatisfacton of Mind that has fupported them under the worst pains and fufferings of Body, and the greatest outward evils that could ever fall upon them, and their Minds and Spirits have been chearful and erect and defpifed the threatnings of Tyrants, and born the greatest tortures of Body, and the hardest 'calamities of this World. Thus did all the Martyrs, and thus do many good Men and good Chriftians enjoy an inward happinefs of Mind, a peace,

and

and comfort, and delight of Confcience under a painful and fickly Body, a poor and neceffitous Condition, and under a great many outward Evils which they are here fubject to; but there are fome clofer and more inward Evils felt by others, a guilty and uneafie Mind, a troubled and difquiet Confcience, a fcaring dread of a Divine Vengeance hanging over their heads, and a fearful expectation and looking for of Judgment, which fhall devour them in a little time; thefe are fuch dreadful Evils as fink down a Man's Mind, and opprefs it with an infupportable burden greater than it can bear, and fwallow it up in a gulph of unfpeakable and intolerable Mifery. This is the greatest and the worft of Miferies, to which no other Mifery nor no other Evils here that we are fubject to are comparable: As the Wife Man obferves, Prov. 11. 14. The fpirit of a man may fuftain his infirmities, but a wounded Spirit who can bear? I fhall confider three things relating to fuch a Wounded Spirit or Troubled Mind.

I. How little all other Evils are in refpect

of this.

II. How dreadful and infupportable that is.

III. What is the proper Cure or Remedy for it.

I. All Worldly Evil, or all that we can call outward Mifery to a Chriftian, is in refpect of that but like a fmall Wound to a found Body, a little fcratch upon the Skin, which

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though