Divine Comforts, Chapter 1
CHAP. I. The Introduction, with the Explication of the Words, and their Senſe Critical and Moral.
PSAL. XCIV. 19.
In the Multitude of my Thoughts within me, thy Comforts delight my Soul.
LORD, I am Hell, but thou art Heaven, Bp Hooper.was the pathetick Exclamation of the Spirit of Martyrdom in a devout Soul. Here you have a proſpect of both. Tormenting Thoughts are the verieſt Fiends, nothing can make us miſerable without them; nor in the enjoyment of the ſweet Delectation of thoſe divine deſirable Joys, which are moſt ſuitable and proper to rational Nature, and the appetite of an immortal Spirit. The former are our natural Inheritance, theſe the free Donations of infinite Goodneſs, or the unmerited communications of Fidelity and Righteouſneſs.1 Job. 1.9. By our Apoſtacy from God, we rendered our ſelves inſufficient to attain that Felicity, which our innocent Eſtate did entitle us unto, and poſſeſs no ſufficiency to any thing but the making our ſelves the moſt wretched of the whole Creation, and are relievable by nothing but the All-ſufficiency of Heaven. The inanimate Creatures may indeed be diſpoſſeſt of their Heaven, viz. their Centre and Reſt; but the Evil thereof they can neither fear nor feel. Vegetables may live in a Hell through the burning Fever of a Summer's drought, but cannot ſmart and be in pain. Senſitive Natures may be farther diveſted of their Happineſs, be driven out of their Paradiſe in Gilead and Baſhan, and be yet more miſerable under the Servitude of that torturing Devil, the Luſt of degenerate man; but a final period is put to all their Infelicities by that, which (if infinite Grace prevent not) will be only the beginning of our remedileſs Woe; at the worſt they can but die, and 'tis without the ſting of a cruciating Fear, that a Life without end, after Death will introduce a Series of never-ending Plagues. But Immortality, the higheſt Prerogative of humane Nature, is through Sin become its moſt diſmal cauſe of horrour, and in being better than the reſt of the inferiour Creation, we through our own default are only render'd capable of being worſe, both in another, and even in this preſent life, as far as our dreadful Expectations become prolepſis or pre-occupation of thoſe Sufferings, which are no leſs durable than intolerable. Neither can we be eas'd by the hopes, that the leaſt part or degree hereof is avoidable through the efficacy of our home-bred endowments, or any thing we can ſcrape out of the rubbiſh of collapſed Natures, ſince by experience we find, that our greateſt preventive care is not able totally to exclude and keep down thoſe prepoſſeſſing horrible anticipations; nor the Furniture we are enrich'd with, of power to ſupport and eaſe our minds under (much leſs to antidote) thoſe real Plagues, which actually infeſt, and ſink us towards a State much more inſupportable, our hope and help muſt needs therefore periſh from within, our relief is wholly from without; yet not from Earth, but Heaven. There's no Malady ſo perplexing, ſo dangerous, but there's a ſufficient and ſuitable Remedy in God.
In Bedlam I have ſeen a Man under the Severity of that moſt rigid and moſt uncomfortable Confinement, ſo not only unconcern'd but triumphant, as to bear up himſelf in the Port and Majeſty of a King, and in his imaginary height and glory, with a diſdainful ſtatelineſs, converſe with thoſe little ſhreds of Mortality who were bleſt, as he thought, in the Honour of his Empire and Government; and ſometimes with a ſtately humbleneſs invite them to glory in his Condeſcenſions; with ſuch a creative power is Fancy endow'd, that it can produce almoſt any thing out of nothing, dwindle ſubſtantial Woes into Shadows, convert a Hell into an Elyſium. Of ſuch Madmen the World is full: We (as the Priſoners of Juſtice) carry our Chains about with us, and they ſit and ſink into our Fleſh, yea, our very bones; yet, as if we poſſeſt an unconfinable liberty, we jovially dance about, and ſolace our ſelves with this lamentable dream, till our real Miſeries confute our falſe Imaginations. For a Man's ſtate may be miſerable, yet the Man ſo rationally, ſtoically, or brutiſhly mad, as not to be miſerable: That is, ſince nothing can make a Man unhappy but by the mediation of ſomething within him, his Fancy, his Folly, his Fears, his Feeling, his Reaſonable Powers; hence that which a Man either is above the ſence of, or hath no ſenſe of, is to him as if it were not, though never ſo real in it ſelf: Therefore the Venom and Sting of Infelicity is our Senſe, and the Gall and Bitterneſs of our Senſe lies in our Thoughts, the workings of our Minds. A Man that lies aſleep bound hand and foot upon the top of a Precipice, with his Head, and a great part of his Body hanging over a bottomleſs Gulf, is in a caſe moſt wretched in it ſelf, the leaſt hitch tumbles him down into remedileſs Ruine; yet in the condition he is in, viz. Sleeping, he is aware of no danger, to him all's well and ſecure, he has no apprehenſions except of Eaſe, Safety, and Reſt. But awake him that he look about, ſee feel, and think of his Peril and Helpleſsneſs, then will he be all Agony and Horror, ready to ſwoon and die through the direful Apprehenſions of his (as to himſelf) irremediable Death. This is our Caſe, we are naturally aſleep in Security and Iniquity; upon the brinks of Hell, bound hand and foot in the Chains of our Sins, and an Adverſary, Satan, at hand, to puſh us headlong into the Abyſs of Miſery. Beſide, the Omnipotent Vengeance of Heaven awaits us ready to arraign, condemn, and execute us, to which we even dare it every moment. But being aſleep (nay, dead, Eph. 2.1.) we feel nothing; reckleſs and careleſs, in a Bedlam Dream, we conceit that we ſwim upon a ſmooth and Halcyon Sea of ſenſual Joys, as if 'twere a Voyage to Paradiſe, 'till God awake us by the Calls and Convictions of his Word and Spirit; but then, Oh, the inexpreſſible Troubles, Terrors and Aſtoniſhment that arreſt us! becauſe our amazing Jeopardy, whereof we had no apprehenſions before, is now entertain'd into our Thoughts, and works ſo much the more violently there, by how much we find our ſelves the more helpleſs, and therefore hopeleſs. Thus, whatever perplexes us, does it by way of Thoughts, as it inveſts our Mind and Conſideration, it tortures us. 'Till it thus get within us, and engage our conſidering Faculties, it does not ordinarily commit a Rape upon our Iraſcible, or Interrupt the Sweet and Peace of a ſecure and quiet Compoſure and Reſt. But when this Tempeſt, this Hurricane of Thoughts beats upon us, we cannot tell which way to turn, how to bear up againſt it. It confounds our Reaſon, diſcompoſes our Affections, terrifies our Conſciences, tears down all our Confidences, reduces us to an abſolute Nonplus. Our Thoughts trouble us (as Dan. 4.19.) even to aſtoniſhment, and ſo much the more, by how many the more they are. Multitudes of Thoughts beget multitudes of Cares and Fears, and Griefs and Cumbers, and Diſquiets and Deſpondencies; and of theſe ſo many the more, by how much the more intimate and deep within, and by how much the more they are our own, not of a divine Injection, but a corrupt Mind's Fabrication.
In the multitude of my thoughts within in me, in intimo meo [inteſtin] in my Heart [Septuagint & Vulgar Lat.] expreſſing the general ſenſe of the Original Word, by the nobleſt part within, to which the Scripture ſometimes attributes Thoughts, as Gen 6.5, &c. Both in conjunction amount to [my inmoſt Heart or Soul] If they be Thoughts, not meerly the workings of my ſenſitive Powers inward or outward, my Follies or Fancies; but the mature and genuine off-ſpring of my Mind. If they be not a few ſtragglers whereof I can ſay, apparent rarae nantes in gurgite vaſlo, that they ſwim only here and there thinly in the vaſt Ocean of my Underſtanding, but cover the face of my Soul in Multitudes. If they be only my Thoughts, ſuch as ſpring in my own Garden, having no Author but my ſelf, no Original but in and from my ſelf, whatever their object be, whether that which I feel in my own Breſt, or that which is an effect of the ſame cauſe in others, which has ſuch a diſmal aſpect upon me, even Sin. And if they be penetrating Thoughts, that ſink and ſoak into the bottom, and become moſt intimate within me, not lying ſhallow upon the furface of my Soul; In ſuch multitudes of my thoughts within me, I cannot find the leaſt glimmering of Comfort at home, nothing but Terror and Deſpair; conſtrain'd am I therefore to look abroad, and no where can I enjoy any thing reviving,Refer to the 1. Direction. but in thee. O Lord, the Comforts which refreſh me muſt be thine, or none. And ſince nothing can paſs into my Soul, but at the door of Thoughts, even theſe thy Comforts cannot affect me, but as Troubles do, they muſt enter into my Thoughts too, be apprehended by my Mind, ere they can relieve my Heart. The ſame Engine that introduced my Miſery, muſt uſher in my Mercy. I muſt be cured through the ſame Weapon that wounded me. Thoughts, the firſt born of my Soul, muſt bear my Comforts that heal me; the healing is not from any vertue in the Weapon, but thy Comforts, the Salve upon it. My Soul by its Thoughts viewing thy Comforts and tranſmitting them to my Affections is in a tranſport of delight and joy.
The Word rendered Thoughts is but twice found in Scripture. Interpreters judge from the affinity of it with other Words of the ſame ſound and almoſt the ſame Letters, that it carries an alluſion to the Boughs of a Tree. Such Thoughts then are here to be underſtood, which in like manner proceeding from the Mind of Man ſpread every way, and divide into ſmaller Branches, and the ſmalleſt Twigs, ſo entangling themſelves together as upon every motion to wound each other, and the Tree they ſpring from. Therefore the Seventy render the Word by foreign, which ſignifies the Pangs of of a Woman in Travail. In the fulneſs of the pangs of my Heart, &c. Others render it Perplexities, entangled Thoughts, &c.
Neither does the Engliſh fully expreſs the ſence of the other Word tranſlated Delight, which primarily ſignifies to look upon. The Mood 'tis here uſed in imports a looking upon with Pleaſure, Content, Love, Complacency, even as Lovers look upon one another, ('tis Dr. Hammonds's Paraphraſe) with a ſweet and amiable Regard, with loving and lovely glances of Favour and good will. The Original does not intimate ſo much the Act as the Power and Poſſibility of delighting; not that the Pſalmiſt did actually lay hold upon, embrace, and apply to himſelf, but only that thoſe Comforts of God did rather manifeſt a forwardneſs, and favorable readineſs, to lay hold upon him; they were not already apprehended by him, but offered themſelves to him, lay plain and fair before him, inviting him by their benign and amiable looks, by their goodneſs, and ſweetneſs, and ſuitableneſs to cloſe with, and eſpouſe them. Even then when we are ſo overwhelmed with Perplexities, and Troubles that we do not, or will not, or cannot, or dare not appropriate divine Comforts to our ſelves; they notwithſtanding are prepared for us, and by their lovely looks, and endearing amiableneſs woo us to entertain them.
The ſence therefore of the Verſe is,
In the throng and croud of a numberleſs fulneſs, (that I may include the Greek) of my troubleſome, perplexing, diſquieting, paining, Thoughts, in my inmoſt Soul, thy Comforts have a favourable aſpect upon me.
This, though a ſingular, yet conſidering that the Scripture is a Catholi que Rule of univerſal concernment, and deſcribes Caſes, rather than Perſons; and oft in this Book of Pſalms ſpeaks of the whole Church, under the notion of a ſingle Perſon, as Pſal. 45. Daughter, &c. I ſhall therefore convert into a general Propoſition though in terms a little differing.
That God in the tendereſt affection, has prepared for and offers to his Church in General, and all its true Members in Particular, the ſweeteſt Comforts, in their ſoreſt Perplexities. Whilſt our Hearts are brim full of trouble his Heart is full of compaſſion to us; and ready to adminiſter the moſt ſuitable and ſatisfactory Conſolations, when our Thoughts hurry us into Confuſion. There is that in God's Nature and Word, tendering it ſelf to our acceptance and embracement, which may abundantly ſolace us in the ſevereſt Calamities. Though the World have never ſo malign an aſpect upon us, yet we have very favourable Heavens, which by their benign Influences will revive us, when there's a combination of all below to blaſt us. Every good Soul, when under the bettereſt preſſures, through its own ungovernable cogitations, which are of all torments the neareſt, and moſt unavoidable, may find not only the ſupports of everlaſting Arms, but the communications of infinite Love, Goodneſs, and Peace, with concurrent united Energy and Vertue relieving it under all its ſaddeſt deſpondencies, and by making the joy of the Lord its ſtrength, contributing to lighten its Burthen and ſweeten its Sorrows. You and I, if our Hearts be right with God, may in our deepeſt Agonies, ſing with the Pſalmiſt, In the multitude, &c.