494 DOCTRINE OF THE PASSIONS. sent mercies, and makes us undervalue them all : It deprives xis even of the delightful sense of the love of God : It untunes both the heart and the lips, and withholds the tongue from thankful- ness and praise. -2. It destroys the pleasureeven of those parts ofreligion which we practice, And banishes comfort from the soul, even in the midst of the most refreshing ordinances : For where- soever the bodyis, or whatsoever the man is engaged in, the ¿ye of themind is still fixed upon its own distress.-3. It sinks and weakens our trust and hope in the blessed God : It fills the spirit with impatience, the heart with discontent, and the tongue with murmurs against the wisest and the best of beings. Where immoderate grief is indulged, it prevents the soul from learning those very lessons of piety and duty which the affliction was sent to teach us. -4. It raises in the soul a froward and a fretful temper, makes us peevish and dis- pleased with every thing round about us. Immoderate sorrow inclines to perpetual resentment ; the heart within us uneasy, and there is nothing without can please us :'It fills the place where we are with incessant complaints, and makes us a burden to our friends, instead ofa blessing. 5. It stupifies the better powers of the soul, it buries the active faculties in a sort of dead sloth ; it weakens the heart and the hand to all+the duties of life, and ren- ders us almost useless in the world. The mourner sits with folded hands brooding over his sorrows, and dark and deadly , images ever present themselves to his view ; the weight of grief hangs heavy upon hisheart, and affects his very senses and limbs ; he fancies himself on the confines of the dead, and he knows not how to rise up and act among the living. -6. Such overwhelming sorrow dothgreat dishonour to religion, and the grace of God : It discourages young persons who are looking towards hea- ven, when they find christians of such as our, disconsolate and gloomy temper, because it tempts them to believe, that melan- choly belongs to the ways of godliness, and overspreads all the road to paradise. -7. Excessive grief doubles the real affliction, without giving any relief, and hasoften beenattendedwith dismal consequences : It hath sometimes taken away senses, blinded the eyes with weeping, distracted the thoughts, clouded and disturbed the reasoning powers, and driven the mourner into a silent and sudden madness * : And sometimes it bath worn out the flesh itself, and brought the body to an untimelygrave. The sorrowof this world worketh death; 2 Cor. vii. 10. -8. There are instan- ces, not a few, wherein immoderate griefhath prevailed so far as to hurry persons into despair of the mercy of God, and armed * It was ingeniously observed by a writer on this subject, that in bodily grievances we take a wiser course, and seek for every thing that can giveus ease; but we use quite contrary methods with our minds, we ezaspet ate every scratch till it becomes a wound ; and then we rub and feet the wounds, and keep them se long open, till very often they become incurable,
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