I fhall therefore in the Third place briefly confider what is the proper Cure and Remedy of fuch a wounded Spirit or troubled Mind, for there is no Spiritual Illness but what is curable if we take it in time, by Religion; no Wound of Soul but what there is Balm for in Gilead, in Christianity; there is no Disease too great for our Heavenly Phyfician, but what the Gospel has a proper and certain Remedy for, if we duly and timely apply it. A Man may tarry too long indeed, and not use the Phyfick till it be too late, till Death comes and puts an end to the time of Tryal, and the time of Repentance; and then a Wounded Spirit, i. e. the extremest Sorrow for a Man's Sins, the deepeft Contrition of Soul for them, canot conie up to true Gospel Repentance to which there is a certain Promise of Pardon and Forgiveness, for that is only upon turning to God, and leaving all our Sins, and leading a new Life, and bringing forth the Fruits of Repentance by Obedience to the Gospel for the future, which is a neceffary condition by the terms of the Gospel which he cannot perform whom God cuts off before he can do it; and therefore fuch an one must be left to the Infinite Mercy and Righteous Judgment of God, to be dealt with by fuch meafures as are not within the the Covenant of Grace, or the Terms of the Gospel, for by those I cannot fee any title he has to Pardon: But in other Cafes a Wounded Spirit may be the greatest Mercy, and even the very beginning of Health, or of a Cure to a Soul : Soul, when God does not fuffer a Man to go on fenflefly in his Sins, till he come to a feered Confcience, and a reprobate Senfe, and to hardness of Heart and blindnefs of Mind, but by fome methods of his Grace and Providence alarums his Confcience and awakens his ftupid Mind, and brings his almoft fenflefs and ftupified Soul to fome Spiritual fenfe of his condition. Then his Soul will be wounded as David's was when he reflects upon thofe Sins which he committed without confideration, and he will be fore ftruck and fmitten as every Penitent muft, at the remembrance of his evil ways. All Repentance is fuch a wounding of the Soul as makes its Heart bleed within it, and its Blood and Spirits melt into Tears and Sorrow for what it has done; 'tis not fuch an cafie thing as most men think it to be; 'tis fuch a Pain, fuch a Wound to the Soul, that the Pleasure of the greatest Sin is but a poor trifle to it, and no man that rightly understood it would venture upon any Sin from the referved hopes of it. Repentance is a bitter Remedy made up of very strong and unpleasant ingredients, and we must go through a long courfe to purge out the old Difeafe and take away the root of it: fo that before a wicked mind can be cured by it, it must be cut and lanced, and wounded, and have very fevere applications made to it. The work of Regeneration or the New Birth cannot be wrought without many pangs or throws, nor does God ever almoft bring a bad man to become a good one without fome trouble trouble and diforder of Mind. There is a trouble of Mind indeed which is exceffive and unreasonable, for every Sinner ought in fome measure to be troubled in Mind, and he has not a due fenfe of his Sins if he is not; but there is a trouble of Mind which takes away the hopes of Mercy and throws Men into defpair, which is commonly called a Wounded Spirit, and 'tis fo in the higheft degree; and whether there is any Remedy for that, and what it is, and what advice is to be given in fuch a cafe, and what judgment to be made of it, I fhall briefly confider. 1. Then this is often joyned with Mclancholy of Body which is very hard to be cured, and till it be so it is apt to darken the Mind, and bring a cloud over the Spirits, and to fill the Soul with very black Idea's and Imaginati ons, and to hinder it from making true judgment of it self or its own actions; and this is as pityable, and ought as much to be remedied by Phyfick and Care, as other Diseases of Body for I have known very good Perfons fubject to it; and one of the best means to cure it is to know that this is one caufe of that trouble of Mind, which will be fo much abated when one is perfuaded from whence it often comes, or is hightened: For Mclancholy is not curable by Religion or Divinity, and they who are fubject to it fhould take the more care of their lives that there be no true and great cause to fall in and joyn with the Melancholy of their Bodies, and they fhould make a judgment of themselves in their beft tempers, and when their thoughts are cleareft, and and fhould truft others, and especially theirs piritual Guides to judge for them, fince they are fo unfit generally to pafs judgment uponthemselves. 2. This Trouble of Mind which makes Men defpair of Mercy, is most unreafonable, and contrary to the whole tenour and defign of the Gofpel; for there is Pardon held out to the greatest Sinner by the Blood of Chrift, and to the greatest Sin, or the greateft number of Sins if we Repent of them, and leave them, and become good Men before we dye. This is as certain as the Gospel is true,' and therefore no Man has any just cause to defpair for the greatest Sin or Sins, who is fo heartily troubled for them that he would not for the World commit them again, and who refolves never to do fo by the Grace of God, but to practise the contrary Vertues, and who makes good this Refolution by a Vertuous, and Pious, and Religious Life, this Man will as certainly be happy as if he had been always innocent and never had offended God: I cannot fay he will be in a state as comfortable and free from trouble, though if he has thus Repented and become a good man, he has good reafon to be fo; but he will be as fafe, and if he has ftill fome trouble of mind remaining upon the remembrance of his Sins though never fo long paft, and he cannot fee the Pardon of them with the fame certainty and evidence that he knows he committed them, yet this fhall not hinder his Pardon nor affect his Salvation if he has truly and fully Repented of them. For, 3. And Lastly, This Trouble of Mind which proceeds from judging too hardly or feverely of himself is rather an Infirmity than a Sin, and God will not condemn a Man for it though he may condemn himself; for God will not condemn a Man unjustly though he should unjustly condemn himself, much less because he does fo. Despair is indeed a fad ftate, but I cannot say it is always a damnable Sin, or want of Faith as fome think, for it may arife not from a disbelief of the Gospel, or of the Divine Goodness, or the freeness and fulness of God's Grace in and through Chrift, but meerly from a falfe, and mistaken, and too hard and humble an opinion of a Man's felf, and this is a fault not of a Man's Will but of his Judgment, and a weakness and imperfection in his Understanding, for which he fhall never be condemn'd by a Righteous God, but he will reverse this falfe Judgment which he made of himself when he lived or when he dyed, and fet it right in the Court of Heaven, and do Justice to him at the great Tribunal, though he did not do it to himself here. That God will judge Men according to their Works is plain in Scripture, but no where that I know, that he will do fo according to their Thoughts, their vain Hopes, and prefumptuous or vain Fears, and Troubles, and Doubts, and even Defpairs of themfelves. So that tho' this Trouble of Mind or this Wounded Spirit be a comfortless and unhappy ftate, yet it truly depends upon the cause to make judgment of it, or to conclude any thing from it, and true and timely Repentance is the best and certainest Remedy for it. |