SECTION XXII. 491 Or if you have a sickly fancy, and are continually afraid of some distemper seizing you, read not in booksof physic, where the symptoms of diseases are described ; for fancy will bring al- most all these diseases on you in appearance, and give you the pain, though not always the danger of them. Ifyou are with- held from the practice of your duty, by the fear or threatenings of men, there are many remedies provided against this evil in the book ofGod, to inspire you with courage in the ways of virtue and religion, riz. 1. Preserve the love ofGod inyour heart in itswarmest exer- cise,and its sovereignpower. Love will break through a thousand difFiculties,and subdueathousand terrors.-2. Maintain an awful fear of Godand his anger inahigh degree, and remember it is infi- nitely more dangerous toprovoke God, than to fall into the hands of feeble men : Men can only kill the body, but God can destroy soul and body in hell; Mat. x. 28.-3. Keep upon your spirit an awful sense of the evil ofsin;asa more formidable thing than any present sufferings. Fear, above all things, to offend God your Father, and your best friend. -4. Think of the courage of the ancient heroes of faith, who exposed themselves to all manner of losses, pains and death for the sake of Christ : And above all, take the example of Jesus the Son of God, "who endured the cross, and despised the shame, &c." Heb. xii. 2 -5. Think of the advantage and glory of suffering for the sake of God and re- ligion : Think of the awful judgment -seat of Christ, the joys of heaven, and the infinite recompences provided there for our poor little services and sufferings. But of these things I have written much more largely in the two firstsefnons of my third volume, which was published some time ago, and I ask leave to remit the reader to those discourses*. SECTXXII. Rules to Guard against immoderate Sorrow, and to Relieve the Soul, that is under the Pòwer of it. The passion of sorrow is necessary to creatures dwelling in a world which bath so much sin and misery in it. As sorrow is originally the effect ofsin, so sinought to be the chief object of it : Yet we may grive also for our own miseries, or for the miseries ofothers. Hereby we learn more sensibly the effects of sin in time past, and are excited to avoidit for time to come : Hereby we testify our love to our friends under trouble, and are awaken- ed to endeavour the removal of those evils that we or our friends sustain. Jesus himself, who was all innocence, wept for the sins and sorrows of mankind. But though sorrow, as well as some other uneasy passions, are ordained for the good of man in the present state, in order to 4, See volume first, page 425-439.
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