A Brief Receipt Moral and Christian, Title page – To the reader
A BRIEF RECEIPT MORAL & CHRISTIAN, AGAINST The Paſſion of the Heart, or Sore of the Mind, incident to moſt, and very grievous to many, in the troubles of Enemies.
BEING One ſingle Sermon by I. H. Miniſter of Froome.
Publiſhed at this rate by it ſelf, that any who need it, may have it.
For the ease and benefit eſpecially of the more tender, weak and melancholy; who feel theſe arrows ſtick in their ſpirits, but know not the way of plucking them out, or aſſwaging the pain of them.
Have mercy on me O Lord for I am weak: O Lord heal me for my bones are vexed. Pſal. 6 2.
London Printed for E. Blackmore, and are to be ſold at the Angel in Pauls Church-Yard 1658.
Chriſtian Reader.
AS there are diſeaſes, infirmities and hurts in the body, ſo are there in the mind, where we feel them too, as ſenſibly, I wiſh I could ſay, we did not. And as we ſeek out to thoſe who have skill or experience for remedies, and do uſe many, in the one, it is pitty if we be quite defective, in the other. It is true, every Phyſician will not fit every diſeaſe. A man may be good for one, that is good for nothing in another. Nor will every word adminiſtred to the weary by the tongue of the Learned, or the prudent which is better, reach his wound and bring oyl to it. VVhat is ſaid, but gives not refreſhment. It is not words that heal a ſoar, a Medicine. A man muſt have felt, ſtudied, tryed, and paſſed what he ſpeaks, that ſpeaks to the heart, in the anguiſh of another.
There are two wayes, and let me tell you, but two I think, whereby the Soul when it ailes any thing is helped. The one is, when it comes to be perſwaded, that that thing which troubled, or, vexed it, is not evill, or ſo evill, but well for it. This cure is perfect. The other way, when it cannot but take the thing to be evill, and grievous, is by diverſion, or with-drawing the mind or thoughts from it, to other things that are pleaſing, and ſo wear it away. Veneranda malorum oblivio quantum ſapis! The later of theſe may ſerve where the ſpirit is more airy, or the grief light, but when the impreſsion hath ſunk deep, and the temper is melancholy, theſe thoughts will, return and the firſt way only is left for us.
Now there is none thing in the World, which is a Catholicon, or Univerſall means, let the malady be whatſoever it will, ſo far as it lies in the mind, for the accompliſhing this; but it is a certain thing that is hard to come by, very hard to be had; and that is Faith, to wit when a man, that hath ſincerely and unreſervedly given up himſelf to the ſervice of Chriſt, does beleeve moſt ſtedfastly according to that promiſe, Ro, 8.28. that all things ſhall work together for his good. Let ſuch a man be vexed or troubled, grieved or afflicted, his eaſe is at hand, and that too compleat. For then I ſay are all our vexations perfectly cured, when the mind comes to ſee that to be good, which it thought to be evill. Now faith makes the man ſee this, that all theſe things ſhall certainly work for the beſt to him. Let Faith come the Mountain is removed, when before the Graſſehopper was a burden, and a hair a weight.
But alas! as our Saviour foretels us, Luke 18.8. where ſhall we find ſuch a Faith, conſtant, and uniform, as this is, even almoſt in the Earth? There is another thing then muſt be forced to help us here, to ſupply Faith's office, as that is wanting, in this work, and that is, our Reaſon; which as it makes various efforts upon the affections, ſo hath it a various ſucceſſe. For I find that although in ſome paſsions, that do riſe from more conſiderable cauſes, as to be moved at the death of Friends, ſome huge loſſes, and the like, which Reaſon judges to be equal, and at firſt ſides with them. It bears a great ſtroak in the Soul, ſo that as ſoon as the brunt is a litle over, the affections hearken to it, and are allayed by it: Yet in ſome others, that meet happily more cloſely with our complexions, and ſo are not leſſe pungent when there is leſſe cauſe of them, the matter is not ſo great, but the mind is more engaged, and Reaſon thereupon oppoſing the ſame, and checking our ſelves from the beginning, for the very riſing; the affections here come not ſo ſoon to be ordered, but mutinying rather, look upon Reaſon, as it were a party againſt them which the more it chides and upbraids them, the more are they but exaſperated, and fling away from it, ſo that they will not, and cannot be perſwaded, and wrought upon by it; but thoſe things which do vex them comming hereby more to be pondered, do peirce, and ſtick the deeper in them.
If this lays us not bare, I do mean, the more we come to ſee it unreaſonable for us to be moved, ſo much as we are moved, in many caſes (ſo impotent is paſsion, ſo touchy infirmi…y) the more it moves us, to be thus moved, that we ought not, and are, and cannot help it. Nay indeed while reaſon goes contrary, our paſsions appear weakneſſe, and what is weakneſſe we are willing to hide, and then the paſsion which vent ſhould let out, concealment keeps in, and foments to its height. Mens intus agitat vulnera et ſemet dolor accendit. And here it is true the evill it ſelf lyes in the fancy, more than the things; yet does not the telling this preſently cure us, though at the firſt glance this may ſometimes do ſomthing; but the very knowing that it is but our fancy, when we poar more upon it, afflicts us more deſperately, ſeeing the ſmart is not the leſſe, and the cure, we find but the harder for this. For when we might get the things to be changed, yet how ſhall we get off the evil in the mind? The matter may be gon, & paſſed away, yet the impreſsion remains, in our own imaginations.
Not that we are leſt though, without all remedy, while it is good to know the worſt, for God hath made every thing that is in this life, ſubject to change. Time is an herb of Soveraign virtue. And as our joys and comforts are mutable, ſo are our griefs & our vexations. Bleſſed be his goodneſs for his. If our Faith then do fail us, & our reaſon cannot ſerve us, yet God can help us. The Lord can offer advantages both, and give the occaſion how they ſhall work. For I perceive though our paſsions indeed be irregular, they have ſome guide and way of their own, and (to arm at leaſt neer as the thing is) when our Reaſons reaſon will not prevail, our paſsions own reaſon; will get the hearing, and if we can tell then, how to wind in with them, it will yeeld ſatisfaction.
The ſubject of the enſuing penfull of Notes, written out by me at t he requeſt of a reverend neighbour at firſt, but importuned to the preſſe by another, who for ſome matter in them belike that hath affected him, will not be denyed, is about theſe commotions or vexations of mind, as it is engaged, and diſeaſed with Enemies, which are many times even the moſt ſoar, the moſt bitter, the moſt lodged, of any. And it is humbly ſuppoſed, there are ſome things here (particularly about the end) that if they be conſiderately applyed by enlargement of the ſame, on the mind, which I adviſe to be done, as the plaiſter is to be bound on to the ſoar, they may do good happily here and there to ſome Spirits, that are raw and tender, and have the feeling of theſe things.
I muſt confeſſe if I did not believe this my ſelf, and that upon my own experience, who am ſuch a poor weak creature, as ſome of theſe paſſages will ſhew me to be. I ſhould be loath, to let a Sermon thus Solitary, and perhaps as ſorrily, paſſe from me. But indeed, there is one affair long ſince in my life private, & paſt, unto which it hath been originally owed, and more lately paid. The dealings of ſome have been bitter to me, and I have born it after a ſort, though with much failing, as I have here preſcribed to others. I will ſay no more, but I have found my peace in theſe things. And bleſſed be God that my part is done, the reſt is with him, So that I do me thinks ſet up this as Samuel did his Ebenezer, even as my ſtone of remembrance that hitherto hath the Lord helped me. And now Lord what wait I for? my hope is in thee Pſal. 39 7. Is. 51.22, 23.
To make an end. If the publiſhing hereof, may really make for any bodies benefit, it is no matter, how it may make for my credit. If thou art grieved, it is needfull for thee to be eaſed, there is no need, that I be praiſed. That the thing is ſo ſmall, it is medicamen parabile, thy expence will be the leſſe, I mean not only of thy mony, to have it, but of thy time, which is more precious, to read it and ponder it. I ſhall be a Phyſician of no coſt, if I be of no value. If I have no leafe for medecine, I may have yet, ſome fruit for meat. And Sampſon ſaid unto his Father, get her for me, for ſhe pleaſeth me well, but he knew not that it was of the Lord.
Thy fellow Servant in the Kingdome and patience of Ieſus Chriſt. Iohn Humfrey.