The anatomy of melancholy : what it is, with all the kinds causes, symptomes, prognostickes, & seuerall cures of it in three partitions, with their severall sections, members & subsections, philosophically, medicinally, historically, opened & cut up / By Democritus Junior [pseud.] With a satyricall preface, conducing to the following discourse.

  • Burton Robert, 1576-1640.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The anatomy of melancholy : what it is, with all the kinds causes, symptomes, prognostickes, & seuerall cures of it in three partitions, with their severall sections, members & subsections, philosophically, medicinally, historically, opened & cut up / By Democritus Junior [pseud.] With a satyricall preface, conducing to the following discourse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    hereafter thou slialt; ablack cloud of sin as yet obnubilates thy soul, terrifies thy conscience, but this cloud may conceive a rainbow at the last, and be quite dis- sipated by repentance. Be of good cheer; a child is rational in power, not in act; and so art thou penitent in affection, though not yet in action. ’Tis thy desire to please God, to be heartily sorry; comfort thyself, no time is overpast,, ’tis never too late. A desire to repent is repentance itself, though not in nature,, yet in God’s acceptance; a willing mind is sufficient. “ Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness,” Matt. v. 6. He that is destitute of God’s grace, and wisheth for it, shall have it. “ The Lord (saith David, Psal. x. 17) will hear the desire of the poor,” that is, such as are in distress of body and mind. ’Tis true thou canst not as yet grieve for thy sin, thou hast no feeling of faith, I yield ; yet canst thou grieve thou dost not grieve? It troubles thee, I am sure, thine heart should be so impenitent and hard, thou wouldst have it otherwise; ’tis thy desire to grieve, to repent, mid to believe. Thou lovest God’s children and saints in the meantime, hatest them not, persecutest them not, but rather wishest thyself a true professor, to be as they are, as thou thyself hast been heretofore; which is an evident token thou art in no suck desperate case. ’Tis a good sign of thy conversion, thy sins are pardonable, thou art, or shalt surely be reconciled, “ The Lord is near them that are of a contrite heart,” Luke iv. 18. d A true desire of mercy in the want of mercy, is mercy itself; a desire of grace in the want of grace, is grace itself; a con- stant and earnest desire to believe, repent, and to be reconciled to God, if it be in a touched heart, is an acceptation of God, a reconciliation, faith and repentance itself. For it is not thy faith and repentance, as e Chrysostom truly teacheth, that is available, but God’s mercy that is annexed to it, He- accepts the will for the deed: so that I conclude, to feel in ourselves the want of grace, and to be grieved for it, is grace itself. I am troubled with 'fear my sins are not forgiven, Careless objects: but Bradford answers 'they are; “ For God hath given thee a penitent and believing heart, that is, a heart which desireth to repent and believe; for such an one is taken of him (He accepting the will for the deed) for a truly penitent and believing heart. All this is true, thou repliest, but yet it concerns not thee, tis verified m ordinary offenders, in common sins, but thine are of a higher strain;. even against the Holy Ghost himself, irremissible sins, sins of the first magnitude, written with a pen of iron, engraven with a point of a diamond. Thou art worse than a pagan, infidel, Jew, or Turk, for thou art an apostate and more, thou hast voluntarily blasphemed, renounced God and all religion, thou art worse than Judas himself, or they that crucified Christ: for they did offend out of ignorance, but thou hast thought in thine heart there is no God. Thou hast given thy soul to the devil, as witches and conjurors do, explicite and impliciter by compact, band and obligation (a desperate, a fearful case), to satisfy thy lust, or to be revenged of thine enemies, thou didst never pray, come to church, hear, read, or do any divine duties with any devotion, but for formality and fashion’-sake, with a kind of reluctance, ’twas troublesome and painful to thee to perform any such thing, prater voluntatem, against thy will. Thou never mad’st any conscience of lying, swearing, bearing false witness, murder, adul- tery, bribery, oppression, theft, drunkenness, idolatry, but hast ever done au duties for fear of punishment, as they were most advantageous, and to thine own ends, and committed all such notorious sins with an extraordinary deiignt, hating that thou sliouldest love, and loving that thou shouldest hate. Instea of faith, fear and love of God, repentance, &c., blasphemous thoughts . been ever harboured in his mind, even against God himself, the blessed Inni j , <1 Abernctliy, Perkins. « Non eat poenitentia, tart Dei inisericordia annex*