An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of…

A soul that hath grace, yea much grace, may appear much scanted in the use of reason: As oppression (from men) makes a wise man mad (Eccles. 7.7.) And the more wise a man is, the more mad it makes him: Fools can bear oppression, and not be troubled much, because they do not understand what justice and right means; and that's the reason why in those parts of the World where Tyrants reign, they love to keep the people ignorant, poor, and low, for such are not much sensible of their oppressions; but oppression is very grievous to an ingenious, wise, and understanding man, and therefore 'tis said to make him mad: The purest intellectuals have the quickest sense of injuries. Thus also some afflictions from the hand of God may (in a degree) make a godly wise man mad, and put him for a present plunge beyond the command of his understanding. It is the confession of holy David (Psal. 73.22.) I was even as a beast before thee, so foolish was I and ignorant: If David a godly man acted below reason, when he saw the prosperity of the wicked; how much more may a godly man act below reason, under the ⟨p. 249⟩feelings of his own adversity. Heman is express in this (Psal. 88.15.) While I suffer thy terrors I am distracted: Yet the word in the Psalm doth not signify properly the distraction of a man that is mad, but the distraction of a man that is in doubt; or the distraction of a man who knows not what to do, not of a man who knows not what he doth, & yet that distraction doth often lead to a degree of this; for a man who is much troubled to know what to do, and cannot know it, grows at last to do he knows not what. We may also take in that about distraction arising from affliction, which was touched about distraction caused by oppression: Those Christians, who are highest in spirituals, and have the quickest sense of Gods dispensations towards them, do soonest fall into it; whereas a soul upright in the main, yet being of weak and low parts, and of small experience in the things of God, will go, yea groan under a heavy burden of affliction all his days, and not be much moved with it.

A soule that hath grace, yea much grace, may appeare much scanted in the use of reason: As oppression (from men) makes a wise man madd (