Use. Therefore, we should all endeavour and labour for a calmed spirit, that we may the better serve God in praying to him and praising of him ; and serve one another in love, that we may be fitted to do and receive good, that we may make our passage to heaven more easy and cheerful,' without drooping and hanging the wing. So much as we are quiet and cheerful upon good gi'ounds, so much we live, and are, as it were, in heaven. So much as we jaeld to discouragement, we lose so much of our life and hap- piness, cheerfulness being, as it were, that life of our lives and the spirit of our spirits by which they are more enlarged to receive happiness and to express it.
Chapter V. — Remedies of casting down • to cite tlie soul, and press it to give an account.
Ohs. 1, But to come to some helps :
First, in that he expostulates with himself, we may observe that one way to raise a dejected soul is to cite it before itself, and, as it were, to reason the case. God hath set up a court in man's heart, wherein the conscience hath the office both of informer, accuser, witness, and judge ; and if matters were well carried within ourselves, this prejudging would be a prevention
THE soul's conflict. 145
of future judging. It is a great mercy of God that tlie credit aud comfort of mau ai'e so provided for that he may take up matters iu himseU", and so prevent public disgrace. But if there be not a fair dispatch and transac- tion in this inferior coui't withiu us, there will be a review in a higher coui-t. Therefore, by slubbering over oui' matters we put God aud oui'selves to more trouble than needs. For a judgment must pass, fii'st or last, either within us or without us, upon all unwarrantable distempers. We must not only be ready to give an account of our faith, upon what grounds we be- lieve ; but of aU our actions, upon what grounds we do what we do ; and of our passions, upon what grounds we are passionate ; as in a well-governed state, uproar and sedition is never stii'red, but account must be given. Now in a mutiny, the presence and speech of a venerable man composeth the minds of the disordered multitude ; so likewise in a mutiny of the spiiit, the authority that God hath put into reason, as a beam of himself, com- mands silence, and puts all in order again.
Reason. And there is good reason for it, for man is an understanding creature, and hath a rule given him to Uve by, and therefore is to be countable of eveiy thought, word, action, passion. Therefore the fii-st way to quiet the soul, is, to ask a reason of the tumult raised, and then many of our distempers for shame will not appear, because though they rage iu silent darkness, yet they can say nothing for themselves, being summoned before strength of judgment and reason. Which is the reason why pas- sionate men are loth that any court should be kept within them ; but labour to stop judgment all they can. If men would but give themselves leave to consider better of it, they would never yield to such unreasonable motions of the soul ; if they could but gain so much of their unruly passions, as to reason the matter within themselves, to hear what their consciences can tell them in secret, there would not be such oflensive breakings out. And there- fore, if we be ashamed to hear others upbraiding us, let us for shame hear om'selves ; and if no reason can be given, what an unreasonable thing is it for a man endowed with reason to coutrarj'' his own principles ! and to be carried as a beast without reason ; or if there be any reason to be given, then this is the way to scan it, see whether it will hold water or not. We shall find some reasons, if they may be so called, to be so corrupt and foul, that if the judgment be not corrupted by them, they dare not be brought to light, but always appear under some colour and pretext ; for sin, like the devil, is afraid to appear in its own likeness, and men seek out fair glosses for foul intentions. The hidden, secret reason is one, the open is another; the heart being corrupt sets the wit awork, to satisfy corrupt will ; such kind of men are afraid of their own consciences, as Ahab of Micaiah, 1 Ivings xxii. 16, because they fear it would deal truly with them ; and therefore they take either present order for their consciences, or else, as Felix put oil' Paul, Acts xxiv. 25, they adjourn the court for another time. Such men are strangers at home, afraid of nothing more than themselves, and there- fore in a fearftd condition, because they are reserved for the judgment of the great day, if God doth not before that set upon them in this world. If men, carried away with thefr own lusts, would give but a Uttle check, and stop themselves in their posting to hell, and ask. What have I done ? What am I now about ? Whither will this course tend ? How will it end '? &c., un- doubtedly men would begin to be wise. Would the blasphemer give away his soul for nothing (for there is no engagement of profit or pleasure in this as in other sins, but it issues merely out of in-everence, and a supeiiiuity of profaneness), would he, I say, draw so heavy a guilt upon himself for no-