SECTION V. 565 are better judges than the person who is thus afflicted and tempted. And while they are using proper remedies to remove the disorders of nature, they may also take seasonable hours to set before the mind of a melancholy creature such considerations drawn out of the several parts of this little treatise, as are most suitable to the present case : let them join their hearty prayers together with all the friendly methods of treatment to soften and relieve their distress Of spirit: no harsh or severe usage from their friends is proper in this case : bind up the broken-hearted, and comfort them that theymay not be unwilling to live. Make 'every thing easy round about them in this world, and encourage them to hope in the mercies of God for eternal life, if they do not wilfully fling themselves out of the reach of his covenant, and of all the appointedmethods of his pardoning love. Treat them gently with all the united influences of advice and medicine. By daily prayer commit them to the healing power and the sav- ing mercy of that God, in whose hands are all the springs of nature and grace. And may the God of all grace condescend to hear and to deliver the lives of the tempted from such a dismal period ! May he rescue them by his mercy from the power of the tempter, that they may not plunge their souls into an eternal and unchangeable state at so dreadful an uncertainty ! Dreadful indeed, wherein their surviving relatives can find but,little rosin for comfort or hope concerning them, except what arises from the supposition of their loss of reason. SECT. V.Admonitions to those who have been rescuedfrom this Temptation. WE have good reason to believe, that there are multitudes in every age, who in some season of their lives have been as- saulted with this temptation, and have been delivered from the power of it by some interposing methods of divine providence of special grace. Surely such persons will be ready to receive a word of admonition how to behave themselves after so merciful an escape from death and hell. I. Admonition. Think sometimes with yourselves how nigh you have been to the borders of the pit, and what rich grace preserved you from plunging into destruction. Think how dreadfully near you were to death, and to the regions of eternal sorrow, and what an arm of almighty mercy hath rescued you. Say thus to yourselves, "I who now behold the light of this world, and am in the land of hope, might have been roaring out under agonies of spirit in the land of darkness and despair, if the great and blessed God had not prevented it." Perhapsyour conscience was awakened and the temptation broken, before it prevailed so far as to fix the fatal resolve of your own death, or when you were nearest to its opportunity was x n 3
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