A49244:457
Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The sum and substance of…Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The summe and substance of…
Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The sum and substance of XV. sermons. Preached by that faithful and painful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Lawrence Jury, London. They being his last sermons. To which is added a funeral sermon, being the very last sermon he ever preached.Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The summe and substance of XV. sermons. Preached by that faithful and painful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Lawrence Jury, London. They being his last sermons. To which is added a funerall sermon, being the very last sermon he ever preached.
London: printed by E.G. for J. Rothwell, 1652
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Sermon 11: XI. Sermon at Lawrence Jury London. April 13. 1651.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. From something that is spiritual and good.
3. From something that is evil in us.
1. This may arise from the prevalency of a natural melancholy in the body, whereby the understanding may be darkened, the fancy troubled, reason perverted, and the soul saddened. Melancholy is the mother of discomfort, and the nurser of doubting. It was (as some think) depth of melancholy that prevailed upon Nebuchadnezzar, that he did not know, whilst under the power of that distemper whether he was a man or a beast: And in the like manner may this bodily melancholy so far distemper thy soul, that th•• who hast grace, yet mayest not know whether thou art a child of God, or a child of the devil. It is no more wonder to see a melancholy man doubt and question his spiritual condition, then it is to see a child cry when he is beaten, or to hear a sick man groan. You may silence a melancholy man when you are not able to comfort him, and ⟨p. 134⟩though you may resolve his doubts and scruples by evident and convincing answers and arguments, yet let but such a man retire alone, and brood over his melancholy thoughts, by the prevalency of this perturbing humour, all is forgotten, and he is as unsatisfied, as if you had said nothing to him. And you may perceive, that it is the power of melancholy, that is the cause of a mans distemper, when he is very much troubled, and yet can give no distinct account of any particular thing that doth trouble him.
1. This may arise from the prevalency of a natural melancholy in the body, whereby the understanding may be darkned, the fancy troubled, reason perverted, and the soul sadned. Melancholy is the mother of discomfort, and the nurser of doubting. It was (as some think) depth of melancholy that prevailed upon Nebuchadnezzar, that he did not know, whilest under the power of that distemper whether he was a man or a beast: And in the like manner may this bodily melancholy so far distemper thy soul, that th who hast grace, yet mayest not know whether thou art a childe of God, or a childe of the devil. It is no more wonder to see a melancholy man doubt and question his spiritual condition, then it is to see a childe cry when he is beaten, or to heare a sick man groan. You may silence a melancholy man when you are not able to comfort him, and