Quest. Some may possibly question, Whether all extraordinary agonies of soul, upon the apprehension of eternal damnation, be not the fruits of melancholy? And if not, then what may the difference be betwixt those that proceed from melancholy, and those that are properly the terrors of conscience?
Ans. As to the first part of the question, I answer, First, That all spiritual distresses are not to be ascribed to melancholy. For,
[1.] There are some melancholy persons who are never more free from spiritual troubles—though frequently accustomed to them at other times—than when, upon the occasion of some special trouble, or sickness threatening death, there is greatest cause to fear such onsets upon the increase of melancholy. Some such I have known.
[2.] Sometimes these distresses come suddenly, their conscience smiting them in the very act of sin; and these persons sometimes such as are not of a melancholic constitution. Spira was suddenly thunderstruck with terrors of conscience upon his recantation of some truths which he held; and so were some of the martyrs.
[3.] Sometimes terrors that have continued long, and have been very fierce, are removed in a moment. Now it is not rational to say that melancholy only occasioned all such troubles, wherein bodies that are not naturally of that complexion—and some such have been surprised with terrors of conscience; if we will take a liberty to suppose an accidental melancholy we must of necessity allow some time; and, usually, some precedaneous[351] occasion to mould them into such a distemper. Neither do the fears of melancholy cease on a sudden, but abate gradually, according to the gradual abatement of the humour. To say that Cain’s or Judas’s despair were the invasions of strong melancholy, is not only beyond all proof, but also probability. Neither is it likely that David, whose ruddy countenance and inclination to music are tokens of a sanguine complexion, was always melancholic under his frequent complaints of spiritual trouble.
[4.] They that read the story of Spira, and observe his rational serious replies to the discourses that were offered him for his comfort and his carriage all along, will have no cause to conclude his trouble to be only melancholy; neither did the sober judicious bystanders ascribe his distress to any such cause.
[5.] The agony of Christ upon the cross, under the sense of divine wrath for our sins, though it were without desperation, is an undeniable proof that there may be deep sense of God’s displeasure upon the soul of man, which cannot be ascribed to melancholy.
Second, I answer, That it is not to be denied but that God may make use of that humour as his instrument, for the increase and continuance of terrors upon the consciences of those whom he thinks fit to punish, for any provocation, with spiritual desertion, as he made use of that distemper to punish Saul and Nebuchadnezzar. I speak not here of those distresses which are nothing else but melancholy, such as those before mentioned, of which physicians have given us frequent histories,[352] though in this case the secret ways of God’s providences are to be adored with humble silence; but of those terrors of conscience which have a mixture of melancholy to help them forward, yet so as that the judgment and reason are not thereby perverted. Spira, when his case was hastily concluded by an injudicious friend to be a strong melancholy, made this reply, Well, be it so, seeing you will needs have it so; for thus also is God’s wrath manifested against me. Which shews, [1.] That he believed God doth sometimes manifest his wrath against man by melancholy. And [2.] That he denied this to be his condition; for he still concluded that God sent the terrors of his wrath immediately upon his conscience, as the sentence of his just condemnation for denying Christ. Now when God doth make use of melancholy, as his instrument in Satan’s hand, to make the soul of man more apprehensive of his sin and God’s wrath—though he doth not always make use of this means, as hath been said—while he still preserves the understanding from false imaginations, the distress is still rational, and we have no cause to make any great difference betwixt these troubles that have such a mixture of melancholy, and such as have not. Neither must we say that then it is in the power of the physician to remove or mitigate such spiritual distresses. For if God see it fit to make use of melancholy for such a purpose, he can suspend the power of physic, so that it shall not do its work till God hath performed all his purpose. And the unsuccessfulness of remedies in this distemper, while it seems to be wonderfully stubborn in resisting all that can be done for cure, is more to be ascribed, in some cases, to God’s design, than every physician doth imagine.
As to the latter part of the question, How the terrors of melancholy and those of conscience are to be distinguished? I shall only say this; that, as I said, we are not much concerned to make any distinction where the distressed party acts rationally. It is true something may be observed from these mixtures of melancholy; and thence may some indications be taken by the friends of the distressed, which may be of use to the afflicted party. Physic in this case is not to be neglected, because, though God may permit that distemper in order to the terror of the conscience, we are not of God’s counsel, to know how high he would have it to go, nor how long to continue; but it is our duty, with submission to him, to use all means for help. However, seeing the physician is the only proper judge of the bodily distemper, it were improper to speak of the signs of melancholy in these mixed cases, to those that cannot make use of them. And as for these distresses of melancholy that are irrational, they are of themselves so notorious, that I need not give any account of them. There is usually a constitution inclining that way, and often the parents or friends of the party have been handled in the same manner before; or if their natural temper do not lead them that way, there is usually some cross, trouble, disappointment, or the like outward affliction, that hath first pressed them heavily, and by degrees hath wrought them into melancholy, and then afterward they come to concern themselves for their souls; as that woman in Plater’s observations, who being long grieved with jealousy upon grounds too just, at last fell into grievous despair, crying out that God would not pardon her, that she was damned, that she felt hell already and the torments of it, &c.[353] Or there are some concomitant deliriums, imaginations apparently absurd or false, &c., all which give plain discoveries of irrational distresses. And if there remained any doubt concerning them, the consideration of all circumstances together, by such as are sober and judicious, would easily afford a satisfaction.
(3.) Having now confined the discourse to the spiritual distresses of God’s children, that are not so oppressed with melancholy as to be misled with false imaginations, I must next, concerning these distresses, offer another observable distinction, which is this: That they are either made up of all the five forementioned ingredients, or only of some of them, and so may be called total or partial, though in each of these there may be great differences of degrees.