some profitable suggestions, by which the unhappy condition of many may be reached and relieved.

The more conversant we become with the varied cases of spiritual disquietude, occurrent in our churches, the more occasion we see for all the aid which may be furnished by the counsels and experience of others. That this should have been made no more frequently the subject of discussion by the pen or the pulpit, is to be ascribed, not to its intrinsic barrenness, nor its want of importance, as is evident from the prominency given it in the older English writers, but the demand for treatises on subjects like that of our present discussion is small, and for the most part restricted to those whose cases are portrayed, and very often to a smaller number even than they. Sometimes there is such an utter prostration of all energy, intellectual and moral, in the afflicted themselves, that it is extremely difficult to arrest their attention even by instructions, which, if heeded, would relieve their spirits, and restore them to cheerfulness.

"In perusing the memoirs of those who have devoted themselves to God," Dr. Cheyne says, "nothing has appeared to us more remarkable than their ignorance of, or inattention to, many of those things which affect their spiritual enjoyment; and especially that physical causes should be so continually overlooked by those who must be fully aware of the influence which the body exercises over the mind, and the mind over the body, in all men, but particularly in Christians." They are habitually desponding and unhappy; not appearing to know how much the pleasurable emotions of the soul are dependent on the state of the health.

Non est vivere, sed valere, vita.

Existence is not life, but to be well.

To those, then, who are perplexed about their spiritual state, and are often fearful and sad, we would say,

ENDEAVOUR, SO FAR AS POSSIBLE, TO ASCER

TAIN THE TRUE CAUSE OF YOUR DOUBTS AND SPIRITUAL TROUBLES.

This is Baxter's prescription.

"If you

should mistake in the cause," he says, "it

would much frustrate the most excellent means

for cure. The very same doubts and complaints may come from several causes in several persons, and therefore admit not of the same way of cure. Sometimes the cause begins in the body, and thence proceedeth to the mind; sometimes it begins in the mind, and thence distempereth the body. Again, it proceedeth from wordly crosses, or scruples upon points of religious doctrine, decays of inward grace, or, as it was with David, from the deep wounds of some scandalous sin. Which of these is your own case, you must be careful to find out, and apply the means for cure accordingly. And if, upon close and careful examination, it prove like Achan's fraud, to be some latent sin, then relief can only come (as it infallibly will come,) by putting it away. If the cause be found in the state of your health, then acquit your soul from all that part of your disquietness which proceeds from this source; remembering in all your self-examinations, self-judgings, and reflections on your heart, that it is not directly to be charged with those

sorrows that come from your spleen, save only remotely, as all other diseases are the fruits of sin, as a lethargic dullness is the deserved fruit of sin; but he that should charge it immediately on his soul, would wrong himself, and he that would attempt the cure, must do it on the body."

It is admitted that such counsel as this is attended with more or less danger; that it may encourage presumption in some, and thus lead them to heal the hurt of their spirit too slightly and hastily, by resolving it into a cause over which they have no control, and for which they are not accountable. How many pains which afflict the soul, especially in later life, are only retributory. They are the bitter things in which the sufferer is made to possess the iniquities of his youth; "the physical results of early crime in the disease and infirmity of the body; the mental results, in the weakness, disorder, and unsettledness of the intellect; and the moral results, in the hardness, impenitency, and unbelief of the soul." And although the petulance, impa

tience, repining, and restive spirit which they often produce, are the effect of a physical cause, yet they are not blameless, and are no more to be ascribed to the mere sovereignty or providence of God, than is the delirium tremens of the drunkard, or the death of the suicide. It is hoped that the subject has been sufficiently guarded against this perversion, by what has been said in the preceding chapter. Unhappily, however, as has also been intimated before, many of those who need such instructions, are too dejected and inert to be aroused to make any serious and persevering inquiry after the source of their despondency. "To reason with a man against the views which arise from melancholy," Dr. Alexander says, "is commonly as inefficacious as reasoning against bodily pain. I have long made this a criterion, to ascertain whether the dejection experienced was owing to a physical cause; for in that case, argument, though demonstrative, had no effect." Very many are predisposed to take it for granted that their gloom proceeds from a culpable cause, whatever it may be;