The Balm of the Covenant, Proposition 1 – Proposition 2
Proposition I.
That the minds of men, yea, th… best men, are weak and feeble thing under the heavy pressures of affliction and will reel and sink under them except they be strongly relieved an… under-propp'd.
A bowing Wall doth not more need a strong Shore or Butteress than the mind of man needs … strong Support and Stay from Heaven, when the weight of Affliction makes it incline and lea… all one way.Psal. 119.92. Unless thy Law ha… been my delights: I should then hav… perished in my affliction. Q. d. Wha… shift other men make to stand the shock of their afflictions, I know not; but this I know, that if God had not seasonably sent me the relief of a promise, I had certainly gone away in a faint fit of Despondency. O how seasonably did God administer the Cordials of his Word to my drooping sinking Soul!
This weakness in the mind, to support the burdens of Affliction, proceeds from a double cause, viz.
1. From the sinking weight of the Affliction.
2. From the irregular and inordinate workings of the thoughts under it.
1. From the sinking weight that is in Affliction, especially in some sorts of Afflictions: they are heavy pressures, ponderous burdens in themselves. So Iob speaks, O that my grief were throughly weighed, Job 6.2, 3.and my calamity laid in the balances together: for now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea, therefore my words are swallowed up. Q. d. If all the Sand that lies upon all the shores in the World, were shovelled up into one heap, and cast into one scale, and my sorrow… into the other, my grief would weigh it all up. How heavy are the hearts of the afflicted! what insupportable sorrows do they feel▪ and groan under, especially when God smites them in the dearest and nearest concerns they have in the World!
2. But especially the reelings and staggerings of the mind, are occasioned by the inordinate and irregular workings of its own thoughts. Were it but possible to keep the mind in a serene, sedate, and ordinate frame, our burdens would be comparatively light to what we now feel them to be▪ but the falling of the thoughts into confusions and great distractions spoils all. Upon this account i… is, that Afflictions are compare… to a stupifying Dose, which cas… the Soul into amazement.Psal. 60.3. Th… hast shewed thy people hard thing… thou hast made us to drink the wi… of astonishment. Afflictions are called the Wine of Astonishment, from their effects upon the mind: for under a great and sudden stroke of God, it is like a Watch wound up above its due height, so that for a time it stands still, neither Grace nor Reason move at all: and when it begins to move again, O how confused and irregular are its motions! It is full of murmurs, disputes, and quarrels: these aggravate both our sin and misery. 'Tis our own thoughts which take the Arrow God shot at us, (which did but stick before in our Clothes, and was never intended to hurt us, but only to warn us) and thrust it into our very hearts.
For T1houghts, as well as Ponyards, can pierce and wound the hearts of men. Luke 2.35. A sword shall pierce through thine own soul; (i. e.) thy thoughts shall pierce thee. They can shake the whole fabrick of the Body, and loose the best compacted and strongly joynted parts of the Body. Dan. 5.6. His thoughts troubled him, and the joynts of his loyns were loosed. And thus a mans own mind becomes a Rack of Torment to him; a misery which no Creatures, except men and Devils, are subjected to. O how many Bodies have been destroy'd by the Passions of the Soul! they cut through it, as keen Knife through a narrow Sheath. Worldly sorrow works death, 2 Cor. 7.10.
Proposition II.
The merciful God, in condescension to the weakness of his people, hath provided the best supports and reliefs for their feeble and afflicted Spirits.
Psal. 94.19.In the multitude of the thoughts I had within me, thy comforts delight my Soul. Carnal men seek their relief, under trouble, from carnal things; when one Creature forsakes them, they retreat to another which is yet left them, till they are beaten out of all, and then their hearts fail, having no acquaintance with God, or special interest in him: for the Creatures will quickly spend all that allowance of comfort they have to spend upon us. Some try what relief the Rules of Philosophy can yield them, supposing a neat sentence of Seneca may be as good a remedy as a Text of David or Paul; but alas, it will not do: submission from fatal necessity, will never ease the afflicted mind, as Christian resignation will do. It is not the eradicating, but regulating of the affections, that composes a burthened and distracted Soul. One word of God will signifie more to our peace, than all the famed and admired Precepts of men.
To neglect God, and seek relief from the Creature, is to forsake the Fountain of living Waters, and go to the broken Cisterns,Jer. 2.13. which can hold no water. The best Creature is but a Cistern, not a Fountain; and our dependance on it makes it a broken Cistern, strikes a hole through the bottom of it, so that it can hold no water. I, even I (saith God) am he that comforteth thee. Isai. 57.12.The same hand that wounds you, must heal you▪ or you can never be healed. Ou… compassionate Saviour, to asswage our sorrows,Joh. 14.18 hath promised he wi… not leave us comfortless. Our God will not contend for ever, lest the Spirit fail before him, Isai. 57.16. He knew how ineffectual all other comforts and Comforters would be, even Physicians of no value▪ and therefore hath graciously prepared comforts for his distressed ones, that will reach their end.