Trouble of the Mind and the Disease of Melancholy, Title page – Dedication
A DISCOURSE Concerning TROUBLE of MIND, AND THE Diſeaſe of Melancholly.
In Three PARTS.
Written for the Uſe of ſuch as are, or have been Exerciſed by the ſame.
By TIMOTHY ROGERS, M. A. who was long afflicted with both.
To which are Annexed, Some LETTERS from ſeveral DIVINES, relating to the ſame Subject
LONDON: Printed for Thomas Parkhurſt, and Thomas Cockerill, at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapſide; and at the Three Legs in the Poultrey, MDCXCI.
To the very much HONOURED and RESPECTED LADY, The Lady MARY LANE.
MADAM,
YOUR LADYSHIP has a very juſt claim to this DEDICATION; and under your Patronage this BOOK can with good aſſurance venture abroad: You, more than any other, have enquired of me concerning the following Treatiſe, and more frequently urged me to Print it. You were pleaſed to Honour me, during my long Affliction, with your kind Viſits; and though I was greatly afflicted, and in degrees beyond what are very common to Men, yet you did not a little revive me by your Compaſſionate and Gentle words, and by the Charitable hopes that you had of my deliverance, though you have often heard me ſay, That I ſhould never be delivered. I thought that I ſhould never have any more eaſe in my pained Body, nor ever any more hope or quiet in my troubled Soul: But that God who is Omnipotent, and who heard your Prayers, and the Prayers of many others in my behalf, hath wrought a double Salvation for me. He who is the Lord of Nature, has healed my Body; and He who is the Father of Mercies, and the God of all Grace, has given reſt to my weary Soul. None have any Cauſe to preſume, when they conſider what miſeries I felt for a long time, and how I was overwhelmed with the deepeſt ſorrows, for many doleful Months together; neither have any cauſe to deſpair, they cannot be more low, more near to Death and Hell than I thought my ſelf to be, and yet I live, and am not without ſome refreſhing hope of God's acceptance, and can ſay with the Prophet, Let Iſrael hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy: And with him is plenteous redemption.
Your LADYSHIP has never, indeed, been afflicted with that Diſtemper and thoſe Anxieties of Soul whereof I treat in the following Book, and I heartily pray you never may: For MELANCHOLLY is the worſt of all Diſtempers; and thoſe ſinking and guilty Fears which it brings along with it, are inexpreſſibly dreadful. But I know that you have been in manifold Afflictions, and you have had ſeveral very great Loſſes: You loſt ſome years ago a Father, who was, indeed, in all reſpects, for his Holineſs, his Even-temper, and his Publick and Charitable Spirit, worthy to be loved; and I am ſure you greatly loved him, as he you, to the very laſt. You loſt a Mother, whom all that knew her, greatly valued for the skill and experience that ſhe had in matters of Religion, and eſpecially for her admirable acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures; and tho in the latter part of her Life, ſhe ſaw not the Light of this World, yet her Soul was recreated with a Light Spiritual and Divine; and the loſs of her ſight was abundantly recompenced to her, by the clearer views which ſhe had of God, and of a Life to come. And not to mention other Loſſes, you have loſt ſeveral Children, in whom there was all the ſweetneſs of youth, all that good temper, and thoſe blooming appearances of hopefulneſs which could make ſuch little Plants deſirable; but you have born even ſo great a Loſs with a ſubmiſſive and a Chriſtian Patience, as knowing that you have not ſo much cauſe to mourn for thoſe that are gone, as to rejoyce in thoſe that are left; and who are a very great Comfort to you; and may they long be ſo.
As I have had for ſome time heretofore the Honour to ſojourn in your Family, I always obſerved in you that Meekneſs and Good Temper, that Affability and Condeſcention to your Inferiors, which made your Converſation very exemplary, and made it eaſie and pleaſant for any perſons to be in your Houſe. If all the Ladies and Women in the World that are called Good, were of a Temper ſo happy as your Ladyſhip's, What a quiet and peaceable World ſhould we then have! The mutual Love in which Sir THOMAS and You live, renders, indeed, the Married ſtate very excellent and Honourable.
I thought, when I came to deſcribe my inward Troubles, I ſhould have deſcribed them much more largely; but I durſt not review them too particularly, leſt the very thoughts of them, ſhould again, in ſome meaſure, overwhelm me: And, indeed, Inward Terrors, are things that may be ſadly felt; but they cannot be fully expreſs'd. To have the ſenſe of Tormenting, Racking Pain, the immediate proſpected of Death, and together with this, an apprehenſion of God's Diſpleaſure, and the fear of being caſt out of his Glorious Preſence for ever, this was a part of my Caſe; And who can deſcribe that Anguiſh and Tribulation, which ſuch apprehenſions cauſe in a deſolate and a mourning Soul! I have in the following Treatiſe ſaid as much as will, I ſuppoſe, be believed by thoſe who have never been in ſuch a woful ſtate; and if I had ſaid more, it might perhaps ſink ſome poor ſouls, who are already low enough; and if I cannot help them, which I deſign, yet I will be ſure, as far as in me lies, not to make them worſe.
MADAM, I Could ſay a great many excellent things of your LADYS …, and which, in the opinion o… all that have the happineſs to be acquainted with you, would be no flattery; but I know your Virtues are Illuſtrious, and evident enough of themſelves, without my endeavouring to place them in a more open Light. Excuſe, I entreat your, the boldneſs of this DEDICATION, in which, to ſpeak ſincerely, I have a great deal of ſelfiſhneſs; for I queſtion not, but by the means of your Name, this BOOK will be more publick, and ſo be more ſerviceable to people under long and ſore afflictions, whereof this miſerable World is very full. I wiſh you a continuance of the Bleſſings of Heaven, with thoſe of this Earth, which you have in great abundance; And that the Candle of the Lord may conſtantly ſhine on your Taberna…, on Sir Thomas, your Self, and all your Children; and I deſire you to be aſſured, That there is none, that mo… heartily! prays for your preſent and Eternal welfare, than
London, Sept. 8. 1691. Honoured MADAM, Your Ladyſhip's Moſt Obliged Servant, TIMOTHY ROGERS.