(1.) But for raising of a right grief in the soul of a holy man, look what is the state of the soul in itself, in what terms it is with God : whether there be any sin hanging on the file {b) unrepented of. If all be not well within us, then here is place for inward trouble, whereby the soul may afflict itself.
God saw this grief so needful for his people, that he appointed certain days for afflicting them, Lev. xvi. 29 ; because it is fit that sin contracted by joy should be dissolved by grief; and sin is so deeply invested into the soul, that a separation betwixt the soul and it cannot be vrrought without much grief. When the soul hath smarted for sin, it sets then the right price upon reconciliation with God in Christ, and it feelcth what a bitter thing sin is, and therefore it will be afraid to be too bold with it afterward; it likewise aweth the heart so, that it will not be so loose towards God as it was before ; and certainly that soul that hath felt the sweetness of keeping peace with God, cannot but take deeply to heart, that there should be any ithing in us that should divide betwixt us and the fountain of our comfort, that should stop the passage of our prayers and the current of God's favours both towards ourselves and others ; it is such an ill as is the cause of aU other ill, and damps all our comforts.
(2.) We should look out of ourselves also, considering whether for troubles at home and abroad, God calls not to mourning or troubling of ourselves ; gi-ief of compassion is as well required as grief of contrition.
It is a dead member that is not sensible of the state of the body. Jeremiah, for fear he should not weep enough for the distressed state of the church, deshed of God, ' that his eyes might be made a fountain of tears,' Jer. ix. 1. A Christian, as he must not be proud flesh, so neither must he be dead flesh ; none more truly sensible either of sin or of misery, so far as misery carries with it any sign of God's displeasure, than a true Christian ; which issues from the life of gi-ace, which, where it is in any measm-e, is lively, and therefore sensible ; for God gives motion and senses for the preserva- tion of life. As God's bowels are tender towards us, so God's people have tender bowels towards him, his cause, his people, and his chm-ch. The fruit of this sensibleness, is earnest prayer to God. As Melancthon said well. If I cared for nothing, I would pray for nothing, Si tiil curarem nil orareni.'^-
Grief being thus raised, must, as we said before, be bounded and guided.
(1.) God hath framed the soul, and planted such affections in it, as may answer all his dealing tovv'ards his children ; that when he enlargeth himself towards them, then the soul should enlarge itself to him again ; when he opens his hand, we ought to open our hearts ; when he shews any token of displeasure, we should grieve ; when he troubles us, we should trouble and • grieve ourselves. As God any way discovereth himself, so the soul should be in a suitable pliablcness. Then the soul is as it should be, when it is ready to meet God at every turn, to joy when he calls for it, to mourn when he calls for that, to labour to know God's meaning in every thing.
* Melanctlion. . . . The following is tlie cxAct saying :— * Ad alium, qui a curls cum dchortaLatur : ^\ nihil, m(\\\\t, curarem, nihil orarem.' — Dicta Melauclhonis, in his Life iu Mclcbior Adam's \ita;Gurm. Theolog. ed. Frankfort, 1053, ix 358. — G.
THE soul's conflict. 159
(2.) Again, God hath made the soul for a communion with himself, which communion is especially placed ia the affections, which are the springs of all spiritual worship. Then the affections are well ordered, when we are fit to have communion with God, to love, joy, trust, to dehght in him above all things. The affections are the inward movings of the soul, which then move best when they move us to God, not from him. They are the feet of the soul, whereby we walk with, and before God. When we have our affections at such command, that we can take them off from any thing in the world, at such times as we are to have more neai* communion with God in hearing or prayer, &c., as Abraham when he was to saciifice left whatsoever might hinder him at the ' bottom of the mount,' Gen. xxii. 5. "When we let our affections so far into the things of the world, as we cannot taken them off when we are to deal with God, it is a sign of spiritual intemperancy. It is said of the Israehtes that they brought Egypt with them into the wilder- ness ; so many bring the world into then- hearts with them when they come before God.
(3.) But because our affections are never well-ordered without judgment, as being to follow, not to lead, it is an evidence that the soul is in a fit temper, when there is such a harmony in it, as that we judge of things as they are, and affect as we judge, and execute as we affect. This haiTaony within breeds uniformity and constancy in our resolutions, so that there is, as it were, an even thread drawn through the whole com'se and tenor of our hves, when we are not off' and on, up and down. It argues an ill state of body when it is very hot, or very cold, or hot in one part, and cold in an- other ; so unevenness of spirit argues a distemper. A wise man's hfe is of one colour, like itself. The soul bred from heaven, so far as it is heavenly- minded, desires to be, like heaven, above all storms, uniform, constant ; not as things under the sun, which are always in changes, constant only in inconstancy. Affections are as it were the wind of the soul, and then the soul is carried as it should be, when it is neither so becalmed that it moves not when it should, nor yet tossed with tempests to move disorderly ; when it is so well balanced that it is neither lift up nor cast down too much, but keepeth a steady coui'se. Our affections must not rise to become unruly passions, for then as a river that overfloweth the banks, they carry much slime and soil with them. Though affections be the wind of the soul, yet imruly passions are the storms of the soul, and will overturn all, if they be not suppressed. The best, as we see in David here, if they do not steer their hearts aright, are in danger of sudden gusts. A Christian must neither be a dead sea, nor a raging sea.