2. You must not go to a Minister to be cured merely by Good words, as Wizards do by charms; and so think that all is well when he hath spoken comfortably to you: But you must go for Directions for your own Practice, that so the cure may be done by leisure when you come home. Truly most even of the godly that I have known, do go to a Minister for comfort, as silly people go a Physician for Physic. If the Physician could stroke them whole, or give them a penny worth of some pleasant stuff, that would cure all in an hour, then they would praise him. But alas, the cure will not be done 1. Without cost. 2. Nor without time and patience. 3. Nor without taking down unpleasing medicines; and so they let all alone. So you come to a Minister for advice and comfort; and you look that his words should comfort you before he leaves you, or at least, some short small direction to take home with you: But he tells you, if you will be cured you must more Resolve against that ⟨p. 513⟩disquieting Corruption and Passion; you must more meekly submit to Reproof: you must walk more watchfully and conscionably with God and men; and then you must not give ear to the Tempter, with many the like; he gives you, as I have done here, a bill of thirty several Directions, and tells you, you must practise all these. O this seems a tedious course; You are never the nearer comfort for Hearing these: it must be by long and diligent practising them. Is it not a foolish Patient that will come home from the Physician, and say, I have heard all that he said: but I am never the better? So you say, I have heard all that the Minister said, and I have never the more comfort. But have you Done all that he bid you? and Taken all the Medicines that he gave you? Alas, the cure is most to be done by your self (under Christ) when you come home: The Minister is but the Physician to direct you what course to take for the cure. And then, as silly People run from one Physician to another, hearing what all can say, and desirous to know what every man thinks of them, but throughly follow the advice of none, but perhaps take one medicine from one man, and one from another, and let most even of those lie by them in the box, and so perish more certainly then if they never meddled ⟨p. 514⟩with any at all: so do most troubled souls, hear what one man saith, and what another saith, and seldom throughly follow the advice of any:
2. You must not go to a Minister to be cured meerly by Good words, as Wizards do by charms; and so think that all is well when he hath spoken comfortably to you: But you must go for Directions for your own Practice, that so the cure may be done by liesure when you come home. Truly most even of the godly that I have known, do go to a Minister for comfort, as silly people go a Phys•cian for Physick. If the Physician could stroak them whole, or give them a penny worth of some pleasant stuff, that would cure all in an hour, then they would praise him. But alas, the cure will not be done 1. Without cost. 2. Nor without time and patience. 3. Nor without taking down unpleasing medicines; and so they let all alone. So you come to a Minister for advice and comfort; and you look that his words should comfort you before he leaves you, or at least, some short small direction to take home with you: But he tells you, if you will be cured you must more Resolve against that ⟨p. 513⟩disquieting Corruption and Passion; you must more meekly submit to Reproof: you must walk more watchfully and conscionably with God and men; and then you must not give ear to the Tempter, with many the like; he gives you, as I have done here, a bill of thirty several Directions, and tells you, you must practise all these. O this seems a tedious course; You are never the nearer comfort for Hearing these: it must be by long and diligent practising them. Is it not a foolish Patient that will come home from the Physitian, and say, I have heard all that he said: but I am never the better? So you say, I have heard all that the Minister said, and I have never the more comfort. But have you Done all that he bid you? and Taken all the Medicines that he gave you? Alas, the cure is most to be done by your self (under Christ) when you come home: The Minister is but the Physician to direct you what course to take for the cure. And then, as silly People run from one Physician to another, hearing what all can say, and desirous to know what every man thinks of them, but throughly follow the advice of none, but perhaps take one medicine from one man, and one from another, and let most even of those lie by them in the box, and so perish more certainly then if they never medled ⟨p. 514⟩with any at all: so do most troubled souls, hear what one man saith, and what another saith, and seldom throughly follow the advice of any:
