(4.) Our affections are then in best temper, when they become so many graces of the Spuit, as when love is turned to a love of God, joy, to a de- light in the best things, fear, to a fear of offending him more than any creature, son-ow, to a sorrow for sin, &c.
(5.) They are hkewise in good temper, when they move' us to all duties of love and mercy towards others ; when they are not shut where they should be open, nor open where they should be shut.
Yet there is one case where exceeding affection is not over-exceeding, as in an ecstasy of zeal upon a sudden apprehension of God's dishonour, and his cause trodden under foot. It is better in this case, rather scarce to be our own men, than to be calm or quiet. It is said of Christ and David, that their hearts were eaten up with aholy zeal for God's house, Ps. Ixix. 9, cxix. 139, Isa. hx. 19. In such a case, Moses, unparalleled for meekness, was tm'ned into a holy rage, Exod. xxxii. 19. The gi-eatness of tie provocation, the
160 THE soul's conflict.
excellency of the object, and the weight of the occasion, bears out the soul, not only without blame, but with great praise, in such seeming distempers. It is the gloiy of a Christian to be carried with full sail, and as it were with a spring-tide of affection. So long as the stream of affection runneth in the due channel, and if there be great occasions for great motions, then it is fit the affections should rise higher, as to burn with zeal, to be ' sick of love,' Cant. ii. 5., to be more vile for the Lord, as David, 2 Sam. vi. 22, to be counted out of our wits, 2 Car. v. 13, with St Paul, to further the cause of Christ and the good of souls.
Thus we may see the life of a poor Christian in this world. 1. He is in great danger, if he be not troubled at all. 2. When he is troubled, he is in danger to be over- troubled. 3. When he hath brought his soul in tune again, he is subject to new troubles. Betwixt this ebbing and flowing there is very little quiet. Now because this cannot be done without a gi'eat measure of God's Spirit, our help is to make use of that promise of giving ' the Holy Ghost to them that ask it,' John. xi. 13. To teach us when, how long, and how much to grieve ; and when, and how long, and how much to rejoice, the Spirit must teach the heart this, who as he moved upon the waters before the creation, so he must move upon the waters of our souls, for we have not the command of our own hearts. Eveiy natural man is carried away with his flesh and humours, upon which the devil rides, apd carries him whither he list ; he hath no better counsellors than flesh and blood, and Satan counselling with them. But a godly man is not a slave to his carnal affections, but as David here, labours to bring into captivity the first motions of sin in his heart.
Chapter IX. — Of the souVs disquiets, God's dealings, and power to contain ourselves in order.
Ohs. 1. Moreover we see, that the soid hath disquiets proper to itself, be- sides those griefs of sympathy that arise from the body ; for here the soul complains of the soul itself, as when it is out of the body it hath torments and joys of its own. And if those troubles of the soul be not well cured, then by way of fellowship and redundance they will affect the outward man, and so the whole man shall be enwrapt in misery.
Obs. 2. From whence we further see, that God, when he will humble a man, need not fetch forces from ivithout. If he let but our own hearts loose, we shall have trouble and work enough, though we were as holy as David ; God did not only exercise him with a rebellious son out of his own loins, but with rebellious risings out of his own heart. If there were no enemy in the world, nor devil in hell, we caiTy that within us, that, if it be let loose, will trouble us more than all the world besides. Oh that the proud creature should exalt himself against God, and ran into a voluntary course of provoking him, who can not only raise the humours of our bodies against us, but the passions of our minds also to torment us ! Therefore it is the best wisdom not to provoke the great God, for ' are we stronger than he,' 1 Cor. X. 22, that can raise ourselves against ourselves? and work wonders not only in the great Avorld, but also in the little world, our souls and bodies, when he pleases?
Obs. 3. We see likewise hence a necessity of having something in the soid above itself. It must be partaker of a diviner nature than itself; otherwise, when the most refined part of our souls, the very spu-it of oui* minds, is out of
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frame, what shall bring it in again ? Therefore we must conceive in a godly man, a double self, one which must be denied, the other which must deny ; one that breeds aU the disquiet, and another that stilleth what the other hath raised. The way to still the soul, as it is under om* corrupt self, is not to parley with it, and divide government for peace sake, as if we should gratify the flesh in something, to redeem liberty to the spirit in other things ; for we shall find the flesh will be too encroaching. We must strive against it, not with subtlety and discourse, so much as with peremp- tory violence silence it and vex it. An enemy that parleys will yield at length. Grace is nothing else but that blessed power, whereby as spiritual we gain upon ourselves as carnal. Holy love is that which we gain of self- love ; and so joy, and delight, &c. Grace labours to win ground of the old man, until at length it be all in all ; indeed we are never ourselves perfectly, till we have wholly put off ourselves ; nothing should be at a greater dis- tance to us than ourselves. This is the reason why carnal men, that have no- thing above themselves but their corrupt self, sink in great troubles, having nothing within to uphold them, whereas a good man is wiser than himself, holier than himself, stronger than himself ; there is something in him more than a man. There be evils that the spirit of man alone, out of the good- ness of nature, cannot bear ; but the spirit of man, assisted with an higher Spirit, will support and carry him through. It is a good trial of a man's condition to know what he esteems to be himself. A godly man counts the inner man, the sanctified part, to be himself, whereby he stands in re- lation to Christ and a better life. Another man esteems his contentment in the world, the satisfaction of his carnal desires, the respect he finds from men by reason of his parts, or something without him, that he is master of; this he counts himself, and by this he values himself, and to this he makes his best thoughts and endeavours serviceable : and of crosses in these things he is most sensible, and so sensible, that he thinks himself undone if he seeth not a present issue out of them.