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it is a wonder to see, what strange varieties of humours and passions shall present themselves to him. Here, he shall see one weeping and wringing his hands, for a merely-imaginary disaster; there, another, holding his sides in a loud laughter, as if he were made all of mirth: here, one mopishly stupid, and so fixed to his posture, as if he were a breathing statue; there, another apishly active and restless: here, one ragingly fierce, and wreaking his causeless anger on his chain; there, another gloriously boasting of a mighty style of honour, whereto his rags are justly entitled. And, when he hath wondered a while at this woeful spectacle, let him know and consider, that this is but a slight image of those spiritual phrensies, wherewith the world is miserably possessed. The persons affected believe it not surely, should I go about to persuade any of these guests of Bedlam, that indeed he is mad, and should therefore quietly submit himself to the means of cure, I should be more mad than he only dark rooms, and cords, and hellebore, are meet receipts for these mental distempers. In the mean while, the sober and sad beholders too well see these men's wits out of the socket; and are ready, out of Christian charity, to force upon them due remedies, who cannot be sensible of their own miseries.

Now having learned of the Great Doctor of the Gentiles, to distinguish man into spirit, soul, and body: 1 Thess. v. 23: whereof the body is as the earthly part, the soul as the ethereal, the spirit as the heavenly; the soul animal, the spirit rational, the body merely organical: it is easy for him to observe, that, as each of these parts exceeds other in dignity, so the distemperature thereof is so much greater and more dangerous, as the part is more excellent. When, therefore, he shall hear the Prophet Hosea say, The spiritual man is mad, Hosea ix. 7. he cannot think that charge less, than of the worst of phrensies.

And such, indeed, they are, which have been epidemical to all times. Could they pass for any other than sottishly mad, that would worship cats, and dogs, and serpents? so did the old Egyptians, who thought themselves the most deeply learned of all nations. Could they be less mad than they, that, of the same tree, would make a block for their fire, and a god for their adoration? so did Isaiah's idolaters; Isaiah xliv. 16. Could they be any better, who, when they had molten their ear-rings, and, with their own hands, had shaped a golden calf, could fall down and worship it; and say, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt? so did they, which should have known themselves God's peculiar people; Exod. xxxii. 4. Could they be any other than madmen, that thought there was one god of the hills, another of the vallies? so did the Syrian courtiers; 1 Kings xx. 23. Could they be

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any other than stark mad, that would lance and gash their own flesh, because their Block did not answer them by fire? so did the Baalites; 1 Kings xviii. 28. Lastly, could they be other than the maddest of men, who would pass their own children through the fire, and burn them to ashes in a pretence of devotion? so did the clients of Moloch; 2 Kings xxiii. 10.

Yea, what speak I of the times of ignorance? even since the true light came into the world, and since the beams of his glorious Gospel shined on all faces, there hath been no less need of dark rooms and manacles than before. Can we think them other than notoriously mad, that, having good clothes to their backs, would needs strip them off, and go stark naked? So did the Adamites of old, about the year of our Lord 194: so did certain Anabaptists of Holland, at Amsterdam, in the year 1535: so did the cynical Saint Francis, in the streets of Assissium. Could they be other than mad, which would worship Cain, Judas, the Sodomites? so did those good devotionists, which were called Caiani, about the year 159. Nay, were they not worse than mad, who, if we may believe Hosius, and Lindanus, and Prateolus, worshipped the Devil, ten times every day? so did those heretics, which were in the last age called Demoniaci. Could they be better than mad, which held that beasts have reason, as well as man; that the elements have life; that plants have sense, and suffer pain in their cutting up? so did the Manichees. Could they be other than blasphemously mad, that held there are two gods, one good, the other evil; and that all creatures were made by the latter? so did the Gnostics. Were there ever madmen in the world, if they were not such, who would beseech, yea force passengers, to do them the favour to cut their throats, in a vain affectation of the praise of martyrdom? so did the Circumcillions, a faction of Donatists in the year 349. But, above all other, did not those surpass in madness, who allowed of all heresies, and professed to hold all opinions true? so did Rhetorius, and his followers: St. Augustin's charity sticks at the belief of so impossible a tenet I must crave leave to wonder at his reason: "For," saith he, "many opinions being contradictory to each other, no man that is compos mentis can think both parts can be verifiable;" as if it could be supposed, that a Rhetorius, thus opening, could be any other than beside all his wits: surely, had he been himself, so impossible an absurdity could not have fallen from him; neither could any of these fore-cited practices or opinions have been incident into any, but brains highly distempered. But what do we, raking in the ashes of these old forgotten lunatics? Would to God, we had not work, more than enough, to look for the prodigious phrensies of the present age; than which, there were never, since the world began, either more or worse!

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Can there be, under the cope of heaven, a madder man, than he, that can deny there is a God? such a monster was rare, and hooted at, in the times of Paganism. The heathen orator tells us of but two, in those dark ages before him, that were so far forsaken of their wits; and we know that the old Athenians, when a bold pen durst but question a Deity, sentenced the book to the fire, and the author to exile. But now, alas, I am ashamed to say, that this modern age, under so clear beams of the Gospel, hath bred many professed atheists; who have dared, not in their heart only, as in David's time, but with their blasphemous lips, to deny the God that made them.

And are the phrensies of those insolent souls any whit less wild and outrageous, that dare boast themselves to be God; and stick not to style themselves absolutely deified? avowing, that the soul in their body is the only Christ, or God in the flesh; that all the acts of their beastly and abominable lusts are the works of righteousness; that it is their perfection, and the highest pitch of their glory, to give themselves up to all manner of abominations, without any reluctation; that there is no hell, but a dislike of, and remorse for, their greatest villanies: now shew me, amongst the savagest of Pagans, any one that hath been thus desperately brain-sick; and let me be branded for a slanderer.

What should I need to instance in any more, or to contract a large volume of Heresiology? In short, there is no true heretic in the world, that is not, in some degree, a madman. And this spiritual madness is so much worse than the natural, as in other regards, so especially in this; that, whereas that distemper of the brain contains itself in its own bounds, without any danger of diffusion to others; the spiritual, as extremely contagious, spreads its infection, to the peril of all that come within the air of it.

In this sad case, what is to be done? Surely, we may, as we do, mourn for the miserable distractions of the world; but it is thou only, O Lord, that canst heal them. O thou, that art the great and sovereign Physician of Souls; that, after seven years' brutality, restoredst the frantic Babylonian to his shape and senses; look down mercifully upon our Bedlam, and restore the distracted world to their right temper once again: as for those, that are yet sound, keep them, O God, in their right wits unto the end; preserve them safe, from all the pestilent taintures of schism and heresy: and, for me, the more insight thou givest me into, and the more sense of, these woeful distempers; so much the more thankful do thou make me to

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Cicero de Naturâ Deorum: initio.

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Heart-Bleedings for Professors' Abominations set forth under the Hands of 16 churches of Christ's Baptized into the Name of Christ." pp. 5, 6, 7, &c.

thine infinite goodness, that thou hast been graciously pleased to keep me within compass. And oh, do thou still and ever keep me, within the compass of thy revealed will, and all just moderation; and suffer me not to be miscarried into any of those exorbitances of judgment, which may prove a trouble to thy Church, and a scandal to thy Name.

XXX.

THE DIFFERENCE OF ACTIONS.

THERE is great difference in sins and actions, whether truly or seemingly offensive: there are gnats, and there are camels. Neither is there less difference in consciences: there are consciences so wide and vast, that they can swallow a camel; and there are consciences so strait, as that they strain at a gnat: yea, which is strange to observe, those very consciences, which, one while, are so dilated, that they strain not at a camel; another while, are so drawn together by an anxious scrupulousness, that they are ready to be choked with a gnat. How palpably was this seen, in the Chief Priest, and Pharisees, and Elders of the Jews! the small gnat, of entering into the Judgment-Hall of the Roman Governor, would by no means down with them; that heinous act would defile them, so as they should not eat the passover; John xviii. 28: but, in the mean time, the huge camel of the murder of the Lord passed down glib and easily through their throats. They are ready to choke, with one poor ear of corn pulled on a sabbath by a hungry passenger; yet whole houses of widows, the while, pass down their gorges, with ease. An unwashed hand or cup was piacular; while, within, their hearts are full of extortion and excess; Matt. xxiii. 25. I wish the present age did not abound with instances. It is the fashion of hypocrites, to be seemingly scrupulous in small things, while they make no conscience at all of the greatest: and to be so much less conscionable of greater matters of the Law, judgment, mercy, and faith; as they are more scrupulously punctual in their mint, anise, and cummin. O God, I would not make more sins, than thou hast made. I desire to have a heart wisely tender, not fondly scrupulous. Let my soul endure no fetters, but thine. If indifferent things may be my gnats, let no known sin be other than a camel to me; and let me rather choke in the passage, than let down such a morsel.

XXXI.

THE NECESSITY OF LABOUR.

THE great and wise God, that hath been pleased to give to all creatures their life and being, without their endeavour or

knowledge, hath yet ordained not to continue their being, without their own labour and co-operation: so as he hath imposed upon them all a necessity of pains-taking, for their own preservation. The wild beasts of the desert must walk abroad, and forage far for their prey: the beasts of the field must earn their pasture, with their work and labour, in very feeding to fill a large maw, with picking up those several mouthfuls, whereby they are sustained: the fowls of several kinds must fly abroad, to seek their various diet; some, in the hedges; some, in the fields; some, in the waters: the bee must, with unwearied industry, gather her stock of wax and honey, out of a thousand flowers. Neither know I any, that can be idle, and live. But man, as he is appointed to be the lord of all the rest; so he is, in a special manner, born to labour: as he, upon whom the charge lies, to provide both for himself and all the creatures under his command: being not more impotent than they, in his first entrance into the world; than he is, afterwards, by the power of his reason, more able to govern them, and to order all things that may concern both their use and conservation. How willingly, O Lord, should I stoop to this just condition of my creation! Labour is my destiny; and labour shall be my trade. Something, I must always do, both out of thy command, and my own inclination; as one, whose not unactive spirit abhors nothing more, than the torment of doing nothing. O God, do thou direct me to, and employ me in, those services, that may be most for thy glory, for the good of others, and my own discharge and comfort.

XXXII.

ACQUAINTANCE WITH HEAVEN.

WHAT a high favour is it, in the Great God of Heaven, that he is pleased to stoop so low, as to allow wretched man, here upon earth, to be acquainted with so Infinite a Majesty! yet, in the multitudes of his mercies, this hath he condescended unto. So far hath he yielded to us, as that he is pleased we should know him; and, to that end, he hath clearly revealed himself to mankind: and, more than so, he is willing and content that we should enjoy him, and should continually make a comfortable use of his presence with us; that we should walk with him, and impart all our secret thoughts and counsels to him; that we should call for his gracious aid upon all our occasions; that we should impart all our wants, and fears, and doubts to him, with expectation of a merciful and sure answer, and supply from heaven: yea, that he should invite us, silly wretches, to his presence; and call us up to the throne of grace; and encourage us poor souls, dejected with the conscience of our unworthiness, to put up our suits boldly to his

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