Darkness, in the Deeps. David, in Pfal. 116. 3. compares it to the forrows of Death, and (the highest that humane thoughts can reach) the pains of Hell: The forrows of Death compass me, and the pains of Hell gat hold upon me; I found Trouble, and Sorrow. Well might they thus judg, all things confidered, for Sin (that then lies heavy upon them) is a great Weight, a Burthen (faith David) greater than I can bear; efpecially when 'tis preffed on by an heavy Hand, thy Hand prefeth me fare. Sin makes the greatest Wound, confidering the Confcience, which is wounded by it, is the tendereft part, and of exquifite fenfe. (Hence the Grief of it is compared to -the pain of a running fretting ulcer, that diftempers the whole Body: (My Wounds ftink and are corrupted; my Sore ran in the Night and ceafed not) Or to the pain of broken and shattered Bones. Pfal. 38. 3. There is no foundness in my Flesh, because of thine Anger; neither is there any rest in my Bones, becaufe of my Sin.) The Inftrument alfo that makes the Wound is tharp, and cuts deep, ('tis fharper than a two-edged Sword) but when the Weapon is poyfoned (and Satan hath a way to do that) then it burns, making painful malignant Inflammations. The Wrath of God expreffed to the Confcience, brings the greatest Terrour; Who knows the power of thine Anger? Pfal. 90. 11. It is impoffible for the moft trembling Confcience, or moft jealous Fears, to go to the utmost bounds of it, neither can we apprehend any Torture greater the Rack, Tortures, Fire, Gibbets, &c. are all nothing to it. Hence is it that those who were afraid of fuffering for Truth, when by this means they were brought under these Distreffes, could then be willing to fuffer any Torment on the Body; yea, and heartily with to fuffer much more, fo that these Tortures A&t and Mon. might be ended. Thus it was with bainham Martyr, who in the publick Congregation bewailed his Abjuration of the Truth, and prayed all his Hearers rather to Die by and by, than to do as he had done. But that of Spira, feems almost beyond belief; thus fpeaks he to Vergerius: If I could conceive but the leaft fpark of Hope of a better Estate hereafter, I would not refuse to endure the most heavy weight of the Wrath of that Great God, yes, for twenty thousand Years, so that I might at length attain to the end of that Mifery. What dreadful Agonies were thefe,

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that put him to thefe Withes? But 'tis lefs wonder, if you obferve what Apprehenfions he had of his prefent Trouble, he judged it worfe than Hell it felf. (And if you would have a lively Expofition of David's expreffion, The pains of Hell, &c. you may fetch it from this Inftance); My prefent Eftaté (faith he) I now account worse, than if my Soul (Separated from my Body) were with Judas and the rest of the Damned; and therefore I defire rather to be there, than thus to live in the Body. So that if you imagine a Man crusht under the greatest weight, wounded in the most tender parts, and thofe Wounds provoked by the fharpelt Corrofives, his Bones all disjoynted and broken, pined also with hunger and thirft, and in that case put under the higheft Tortures; yet you have but a very shadow of Divine Wrath: Add to all these (according to Spira's with) twenty thousand Years of Hell it felf, yet all is nothing to that which a diftreffed Mind supposeth; while the word Eternity prefents the Soul with the total Sum of utmost Mifery all at once. Oh unexpreffible burthen of a Diftreffed Mind! Who can understand it truly, but he that feels it? How terribly is the Mind of Man fhaken with Terrours, as the Wilderness by a mighty Wind!: which not only produceth violent Motions, but also hideous Noife, Murmur, and Howling.

4. This burthen upon the Mind, forceth the Tongue to vent its Sorrow in the faddeft accent of most doleful Outcrys, their whole language is Lamentation; but when the pangs of their Agonies come upon them, (for their Distresses have their Fits) then they fpeak in the bitterness of their Souls. Oh! (faid Bainham) I would not for all the Worlds good, feel fuch an Hell in my Confcience again. One (formerly mentioned) in thefe Diftreffes, crys out; Wo, wo, wo! Mrs. K. B. a moful, a wretched, a forfaken Woman! It would furely have made a Man's Hair to ftand upright for dread, to have heard Spira roaring out that terrible Sentence: How dreadful is it to fall into the hands of the Living God? Or to have heard his Reply to him that told of his being at Venice, O cursed Day! faith he) O curfed Day! O that I had never gone thither, would God I had then died! &c. The like Out-crys had Da vid often, Pfal. 22.4. My God, my God, why haft thou forfa

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ken me? Why art thou So far from helping me, and from the words of my Roaring? And Heman, Pfal. 88. 14. Lord, why cafteft thou off my Soul, why hideft thou thy Face from me? 'Tis true, David's and Heman's words, have a better Complexion than those others laft mentioned, but their dif quiet of Heart feems (at fometimes) to have urged their Expreffions with impetuous violence; as thofe Paffages fecm to fay, Pfal. 38. 8. I have Roared by reafon of the dif quietness of my Heart. Pfal. 32. 3. My Bones waxed old, through my Roaring all the Day long. Job 3.24. My Roarings are ponred out like Water. If their Lamentations were turned into Roarings, and those Roarings were like the breaking in of a Flood, and that Flood of fo long continuance, that it dried up the Marrow of the Bones, we may fafely imagine, that they were not so much at leasure to order their words, but that their Tongues might speak in that Dialect which is proper to Aftonishment, and Diftrefs.

5. Though the Mind be the principal feat of these Troubles, yet the Body cannot be exempted from a Copartnership in thefe Sorrows. Notwithstanding this is fo far from abating the Trouble, that it increaseth it by a Circulation. The pains of the Body, contracted by the trouble of the Mind, are communicated again to the Fountain from whence they came, and reciprocally augment the difquiet of the Mind. The Body is weakned, their ftrength poured out like Water; they are withered like Grafs; pined as a Skin, become as a Bottle in the fmoak: Thus David frequently complains, Pfal. 22. 14, he describes himself as reduced to a Skeliton: I am poured out like Water, and all my Bones are out of joynt: My Heart is like Wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels; my ftrength is dried up like a Potsherd, my tongue cleaveth to my Jaws, and thou hast brought me to the duft of Death. Neither is this his peculiar cafe, but the common effect of Spiritual Diltreffes, Pfal.39.11. When thou with Rebukes doft correct Man for Iniquity, thou makeft his beauty to confume away like a Moth.

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6. Being thus diftreffed for their Souls, they caft off all care of their Bodies, Eftates, Families, and all their outward Concerns whatsoever. And no wonder, for being perfwaded that they have made Shipwrack of their Souls, they judg the reft are not worth the faving. 7. Giving

7. Giving all for loft, they ufually caft about for fome eafe to their Minds, by feeking after the lower degrees of Mifery, hearing, or fuppofing that all are not tormented alike, they endeavour to perfwade themselves of a Cooler Hell. This if they could reach it, were but poor Comfort, and little to their Satisfaction; but as poor as it is, it is ufually denied to them, for while they judg themselves to be the greateft Sinners, they cannot but adjudg themselves to the greatest Torments: And these Endeavours being fruftrated, they return back to themselves, (as now hopeless of the leaft eafe) worse than before. Now they fix themselves upon the deep contemplations of their Mifery: Ob (think they) how great bad our Happiness been, if we had been made Toads, Serpents, Worms, or any thing but Men! For then should we never have known this Unhappiness; and this begets a thousand vain wishes. Ob that we had never been born! Or that Death could annihilate us! Or that as foon as we had been born, we had died! (As Job fpeaks) Job 3. 11, 12. Why died I not from the Womb? Why did I not give up the ghost, when I came out of the belly?) For then bad we not contracted fo much Guilt. Or that the Mountains and Hills could fall upon us, and cover us from the Face of our Fudge.

8. When all their Hopes are thus dashed, and (like a Shipwracked-Man on a Plank) they are ftill knocked down with new Waves, all their endeavours being ftill fruftrated, they seem to themselves to be able to hold out no longer; then they give over all further Enquiries, and the ufe of Means, they refuse to Pray, Read, Hear. They percieve (as Spira faid) that they pray to their own Condemnation; and that all is to no purpose. They are weary of their Groanings, Pfal. 6.6. Their Eyes fail with looking up; their Knees are feeble,their Hands hang down. And as Heman, Pfal. 88. 4, 5. They count themselves with thofe that go down to the Pit, free among the Dead, like the flain that lie in the Grove, whom God remembreth no more. Thus they lie down under their Burthen, and while they find it fo hard to be born, 'tis ufual for them to come to the utmoft point of Desperateneß. (Satan fuggetting and forwarding them.) Sometimes they open their Mouths with complaints against God, and blafphcme. And (as the laft part of the

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Tragedy) being weary of themselves, they feek to put an end to their prefent Mifery, by putting an end to their Lives.

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I have prefented you with Satan's Stratagems, against the Peace of God's Children: the Remedies against these and other "Subtilties of our grand Enemy, I fhall not offer you, because many others have done that already, to whofe Writings 'I muft refer you. Some principal Directions I have pointed at in the way, and in the General have done this for the help of the Tempted, that I have endeavoured to fhew them the Methods of the Tempter, which is no small help to preserve Men from being thus impofed upon, and to recover out of his Snare thofe that are. 'Tis a great prefervative from Sickness, and no mean advantage to the Cure, to have a difcovery of the Disease, and the Caufes of it. I fhall conclude these Difcoveries with a Caution or two.

1. Let none think worfe of the ferious Practice of holy ftrictnefs in Religion, because these Spiritual Diftreffes do fometimes befal those that are confcientiously careful in the Ways of God, while the prophane and negligent Profeffors, are ftrangers to fuch Trials. Thefe Troubles are indeed very fad ; but a fenflefs, careless State is far worse: these Troubles often end very Comfortably, whereas the other end (except God make them fenfible, by Conviction of their fin and danger) in that real Mifery, the fears whereof occafion these Sorrows to God's Children. And the danger of Spiritual Troubles is not fo great as is that of an hardned Heart, (nay, God frequently makes use of them to prevent eternal Ruine) for one that goes roaring to the Pit, there are thousands that go laughing to Hell.

2. Let none flight, or fcoff at thefe Tremendous Judgments. 'Tis too common with Men, either to afcribe Spiritual Troubles to Melancholy, as if none were ever thus concerned, but fuch, as by too much ferioufnefs in Religion, are become Mad, (a fair pretence for Carelessness) or to a whining Diffimulation: To the former I have faid fomething before, and as for the latter, I shall only reply in the words of Spira, to one that objected Hypocrifie to him: I am a Caft-away, a Vessel of Wrath, yet dare you call it Diffembling and Frenzy, and can mock

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