The Soul's Conflict With Itself
灵魂与自身的冲突

by Richard Sibbes
由理查德·西布斯（Richard Sibbes）所著

Table of Contents
目录

To the Christian Reader
亲爱的基督徒读者

Introduction
介绍

CHAPTER I.—General Observations upon the Text
第一章-关于文本的一般观察

CHAPTER II.—Of Discouragements from without
第二章——来自外部的挫折

CHAPTER III.—Of Discouragements from within
第三章——来自内部的挫折

CHAPTER IV.—Of casting down ourselves, and specially by sorrow—evils thereof
第四章——自我贬低，尤其是通过悲伤——其恶果

CHAPTER V.—Remedies of casting down to cite the soul, and press it to give an account
第五章 - 降低引用灵魂并迫使其交代的解决方法

CHAPTER VI.—Other observations of the same nature
第六章-同类的其他观察

CHAPTER VII.—Difference between good men and others in conflicts with sin
第七章 - 善良之人与其他人在与罪恶的冲突中的区别

CHAPTER VIII.—Of unfitting dejection, and when it is excessive. And what is the right temper of the soul herein
第八章——关于不适当的沮丧，以及何时沮丧过度。以及在这方面，灵魂的正确心态是什么。

CHAPTER IX.—Of the soul's disquiets, God's dealings, and power to contain ourselves in order
第九章 - 关于灵魂的不安，上帝的作为，以及自我控制的能力

CHAPTER X.—Means not to be overcharged with sorrow
第十章-不要过度忧伤的方法

CHAPTER XI.—Signs of victory over ourselves, and of a subdued spirit
第十一章——战胜自己的迹象，以及屈服的精神

CHAPTER XII.—Of original righteousness, natural corruption, Satan's joining with it, and our duty thereupon
第十二章 - 关于原始的正义，自然的堕落，撒旦与之结合，以及我们在此之上的责任

CHAPTER XIII.—Of imagination, sin of it, and remedies for it
第十三章——想象力，它的罪恶和解决方法

CHAPTER XIV.—Of help by others. Of true comforters and their graces. Method. Ill success
第十四章 - 他人的帮助。真正的安慰者及其恩赐。方法。不成功

CHAPTER XV.—Of flying to God in disquiets of souls; eight observations out of the text
第十五章 - 在灵魂不安时飞往上帝；从文本中得出的八个观察

CHAPTER XVI.—Of trust in God grounds of it; especially his providence
第十六章 - 对上帝的信任及其基础；尤其是他的神导力

CHAPTER XVII.—Of graces to be exercised in respect of Divine Providence
第十七章 - 对于神的安排应该行使的恩典

CHAPTER XVIII.—Other grounds of trusting in God, namely, the Promises, and twelve directions about the same
第十八章 - 其他信靠上帝的理由，即承诺，并提供有关此事的十二个指导方针

CHAPTER XIX.—Faith to be prized, and other things undervalued, at least not to be trusted to as the chief
第十九章-信仰应被珍视，其他事物被低估，至少不能将其视为首要的

CHAPTER XX.—Of the method of trusting in God; and the trial of that trust
第二十章 - 信靠上帝的方法；以及对信靠的考验

CHAPTER XXI.—Of quieting the spirit in troubles for sin; and objections answered
第二十一章 - 在因罪而困扰时安抚心灵；并回答反对意见

CHAPTER XXII.—Of sorrow for sin, and hatred for sin, when right and sufficient. Helps thereto
第二十二章-当合适和足够时，对罪恶的悔恨和憎恶。辅助方法。

CHAPTER XXIII.—Other spiritual causes of the soul's trouble discovered and removed; and objections answered
第二十三章 - 发现并消除灵魂困扰的其他精神原因；并回答反对意见

CHAPTER XXIV.—Of outward troubles disquieting the spirit, and comforts in them
第二十四章 - 困扰心灵的外在困扰，以及其中的安慰

CHAPTER XXV.—Of the defects of gifts, disquieting the soul; as also the afflictions of the church
第二十五章 - 关于礼物的缺陷，使灵魂不安；以及教会的苦难

CHAPTER XXVI.—Of divine reasons in a believer. Of his minding to praise God, more than to be delivered
第二十六章 - 信徒中的神圣理由。他更关注赞美上帝，而不是获得解救。

CHAPTER XXVII.—In our worst condition we have cause to praise God; still ample cause in these days
第二十七章-在我们最糟糕的情况下，我们有理由赞美上帝；在这些日子里，仍然有充分的理由。

CHAPTER XXVIII.—Divers qualities of the praise due to God, with helps therein; and notes of God's hearing our prayers
第二十八章 - 对上帝应得的赞美的不同品质，以及在其中的帮助；以及上帝听到我们祈祷的迹象

CHAPTER XXIX.—Of God's manifold salvation for his people, and why open, or expressed in the countenance
第二十九章 - 关于上帝对他的子民的多样化拯救，以及为什么要在面容中公开或表达

CHAPTER XXX.—Of God, our God, and of particular application
第 XXX 章 - 关于上帝，我们的上帝，以及特定的应用

CHAPTER XXXI.—Means of proving and evidencing to our souls that God is our God
第三十一章-证明和证明上帝是我们的上帝的方法

CHAPTER XXXII.—Of improving our evidences for comfort in several passages of our lives
第三十二章 - 在我们生活中的几个时刻提升我们的安慰证据

CHAPTER XXXIII.—Of experience and faith, and how to wait on God comfortably. Helps thereto
第三十三章 - 关于经验和信仰，以及如何舒适地等候上帝。 辅助方法。

CHAPTER XXXIV.—Of confirming this trust in God: seek it of God himself. Sins hinder not: nor Satan. Conclusion and Soliloquy
第三十四章 - 确认对上帝的信任：向上帝自己寻求。罪恶不会阻碍：撒旦也不会。结论和独白。

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER
致基督教读者

THERE be two sorts of people always in the visible church, one that Satan keeps under with false peace, whose life is nothing but a diversion to present contentments, and a running away from God and their own hearts, which they know can speak no good unto them; these speak peace to themselves, but God speaks none. Such have nothing to do with this Scripture, Ps. 42:11; the way for these men to enjoy comfort, is to be soundly troubled. True peace arises from knowing the worst first, and then our freedom from it. It is a miserable peace that riseth from ignorance of evil. The angel 'troubled the waters,' John 5:4, and then it* cured those that stepped in. It is Christ's manner to trouble our souls first, and then to come with healing in his wings.
在可见的教会中，总有两种人，一种是撒旦用虚假的平安压制的人，他们的生活只是为了追求眼前的满足，逃避上帝和自己的内心，他们知道自己的内心对他们没有好处；他们对自己说平安，但上帝不说平安。这样的人与诗篇 42:11 无关；这些人要享受安慰的方法是真正地感到困扰。真正的平安来自于首先了解最糟糕的情况，然后才是我们从中解脱出来。从对邪恶的无知中产生的平安是可悲的。天使“搅动了水”，约翰福音 5:4，然后治愈那些踏入水中的人。基督的方式是先困扰我们的灵魂，然后带着治愈的翅膀来到我们身边。

But there is another sort of people, who being drawn out of Satan's kingdom and within the covenant of grace, whom Satan labours to unsettle and disquiet: being the 'god of the world,' 2 Cor. 4:4, he is vexed to see men in the world, walk above the world. Since he cannot hinder their estate, he will trouble their peace, and damp their spirits, and cut asunder the sinews of all their endeavours. These should take themselves to task as David doth here, and labour to maintain their portion and the glory of a Christian profession. For whatsoever is in God or comes from God, is for their comfort. Himself is the God of comfort, Rom. 15:5; his Spirit most known by that office, John 14:26. Our blessed Saviour was so careful that his disciples should not be too much dejected, that he forgat his own bitter passion to comfort them, whom yet he knew would all forsake him: 'Let not your hearts be troubled,' saith he, John 14:1, 27. And his own soul was troubled to death, that we should not be troubled: 'whatsoever is written is written for this end,' 2 Cor. 2:9; every article of faith hath a special influence in comforting a believing soul. They are not only food, but cordials; yea, he put himself to his oath, that we might not only have consolation, but strong consolation, Heb. 6:18. The sacraments seal unto us all the comforts we have by the death of Christ. The exercise of religion, as prayer, hearing, reading, &c., is, that 'our joy may be full,' 2 John 12. The communion of saints is chiefly ordained to comfort the feeble-minded and to strengthen the weak, 1 Thess. 5:14. God's government of his church tends to this. Why doth he sweeten our pilgrimage, and let us see so many comfortable days in the world, but that we should serve him with cheerful and good hearts? As for crosses, he doth but cast us down, to raise us up, and empty us that he may fill us, and melt us that we may be 'vessels of glory,' Rom. 9:23, loving us as well in the furnace, as when we are out, and standing by us all the while. 'We are troubled, but not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken,' 2 Cor. 4:8. If we consider from what fatherly love afflictions come, how they are not only moderated but sweetened and sanctified in the issue to us, how can it but minister matter of comfort in the greatest seeming discomforts? How then can we let the reins of our affections loose to sorrow without being injurious to God and his providence? as if we would teach him how to govern his church.
但是还有另一类人，他们被从撒旦的王国中拯救出来，并进入了恩典的约束之中，撒旦努力想要动摇和扰乱他们：作为“这世界的神”（哥林多后书 4:4），他看到人们在世界中超越世界，感到烦恼。既然他无法阻止他们的地位，他就会扰乱他们的平安，打击他们的精神，并削弱他们所有努力的力量。这些人应该像大卫在这里所做的那样，努力维护自己的份额和基督徒的荣耀。因为上帝所拥有的和来自上帝的一切都是为他们的安慰。他自己是安慰的上帝（罗马书 15:5），他的灵最为人所知的就是通过这个职责（约翰福音 14:26）。我们救主非常关心他的门徒不要过于沮丧，以至于他忘记了自己痛苦的受难来安慰他们，尽管他知道他们都会离弃他：“你们心里不要忧愁”（约翰福音 14:1，27）。他自己的灵魂为了我们不受困扰而痛苦至死：“所写的都是为了这个目的”（哥林多后书 2:9），信仰的每一条教义都对信靠的灵魂有特殊的安慰影响。 它们不仅是食物，而且是酒；是的，他发誓要给我们不仅是安慰，而且是坚固的安慰，希伯来书 6:18。圣礼向我们印证了基督之死所带给我们的一切安慰。宗教的实践，如祈祷、听道、阅读等，是为了使我们的喜乐充满，约翰二书 12 节。圣徒的交通主要是为了安慰软弱的人和加强软弱的人，帖撒罗尼迦前书 5:14。上帝对他的教会的治理是为了这个目的。他为什么要使我们的朝圣之旅变得甜蜜，并让我们在世界上看到这么多舒适的日子呢？不就是为了我们以欢乐和善良的心来事奉他吗？至于十字架，他只是把我们击倒，以便扶起我们，使我们空虚，以便充满我们，使我们融化，成为荣耀的器皿，罗马书 9:23，他在炉中像在外面一样爱我们，并一直站在我们身边。'我们在各方面受困，却不被困住；心里作难，却不至失望；遭逼迫，却不被丢弃，'哥林多后书 4:8。 如果我们考虑从父爱中产生的痛苦，以及它们如何不仅被调节，而且在我们身上变得甜蜜和神圣化，那么在最大的看似不适中，它怎能不提供安慰的材料呢？那么，我们怎么能放任我们的情感陷入悲伤，而不对上帝和他的安排造成伤害呢？好像我们要教他如何管理他的教会。

What unthankfulness is it to forget our consolation, and to look only upon matter of grievance! to think so much upon two or three crosses, as to forget a hundred blessings! to suck poison out of that from which we should suck honey! What folly is it to straiten and darken our own spirits! and indispose ourselves from doing or taking good! A limb out of joint can do nothing without deformity and pain; dejection takes off the wheels of the soul.
忘记我们的安慰，只看到令人痛苦的事情是多么不感激！如此多地思考两三个困难，以至于忘记了一百个祝福！从本应吸取蜜糖的地方吸取毒药是多么愚蠢！束缚和使我们的精神变暗是多么愚蠢！使我们无法做好事或接受好事！脱臼的肢体没有畸形和疼痛就无法做任何事情；沮丧会使灵魂的车轮脱落。

Of all other, Satan hath most advantage of discontented persons, as most agreeable to his disposition, being the most discontented creature under heaven; he hammers all his dark plots in their brains. The discontentment of the Israelites in the wilderness provoked God to 'swear that they should never enter into his rest,' Ps. 95:11. There is 'another spirit in my servant Caleb,' saith God, Num. 14:24. The spirit of God's people is an encouraging spirit. Wisdom teaches them, if they feel any grievances, to conceal them from others that are weaker, lest they be disheartened. God threatens it as a curse to give a trembling heart, and sorrow of mind, Deut. 28:65; whereas on the contrary, joy is as oil to the soul, it makes duties come off cheerfully and sweetly from ourselves, graciously to others, and acceptably to God. A prince cannot endure it in his subjects, nor a father in his children, to be lowering at their presence. Such usually have stolen waters, Prov. 9:17, to delight themselves in.
撒旦对于不满的人有最大的优势，因为他的性格最符合他们的心态，他是天下最不满的生物；他在他们的脑海中锤炼出他所有黑暗的阴谋。以色列人在旷野中的不满激怒了上帝，使他发誓他们永远不能进入他的安息，诗篇 95:11。上帝说：“我的仆人迦勒有另一个灵”，民数记 14:24。上帝的子民有一种鼓励的精神。智慧教导他们，如果他们感到任何不满，要对比他们更脆弱的人隐瞒，以免他们灰心丧志。上帝威胁说，给他们战栗的心和忧伤的心是一种诅咒，申命记 28:65；相反，喜乐是灵魂的油，它使我们的职责从自己身上愉快而甜蜜地完成，对他人慈祥，对上帝可悦纳。君主不能容忍他的臣民，父亲也不能容忍他的子女在他们面前低声下气。这样的人通常偷偷乐，箴言 9:17。

How many are there, that upon the disgrace that follows religion, are frighted from it? But what are discouragements, to the encouragements religion brings with it? which are such as the very angels themselves admire at. Religion indeed brings crosses with it, but then it brings comforts above those crosses. What a dishonour is it to religion to conceive that God will not maintain and honour his followers; as if his service were not the best service! what a shame is it for an heir of heaven to be cast down for every petty loss and cross! to be afraid of a man whose breath is in his nostrils, Isa. 2:22, in not standing to a good cause, when we are sure God will stand by us, assisting and comforting us, whose presence is able to make the greatest torments sweet! Tua presentia, Domine, Laurentio ipsam craticulam dulcem fecit.
有多少人因为宗教带来的耻辱而害怕它呢？但是，宗教所带来的鼓励又有多少呢？这些鼓励是连天使们自己都感到惊叹的。宗教确实带来了十字架，但同时也带来了超越这些十字架的安慰。认为上帝不会维护和尊重他的追随者，这对宗教来说是多么的不光彩；仿佛他的服务不是最好的服务！一个天堂的继承人因为每一点小小的损失和困难而沮丧，这是多么的可耻！害怕一个呼吸在鼻孔中的人，不为正义的事而站出来，当我们确信上帝会支持我们，帮助我们，安慰我们，他的存在能使最大的折磨变得甜美！上帝的在场，主啊，使劳伦修的铁架变得甜美。

My discourse tends not to take men off from all grief and mourning; 'Light for the righteous is sown in sorrow,' Ps. 97:11. Our state of absence from the Lord, and living here in a vale of tears, our daily infirmities, and our sympathy with others, requires it; and where most grace is there is most sensibleness, as in Christ. But we must distinguish between grief and that sullenness and dejection of spirit, which is with a repining and taking off from duty. When Joshua was overmuch cast down at Israel's turning their backs before their enemies, God reproves him, 'Get thee up, Joshua, why liest thou upon thy face?' Josh. 7:10.
我的言论往往不能使人摆脱所有的悲伤和哀悼；“为义人种下光明的是忧伤”，诗篇 97:11。我们与主分离的状态，生活在这个泪水之谷，我们每天的软弱，以及我们对他人的同情，都需要它；而在最多的恩典中，最敏感的地方就是在基督里。但我们必须区分悲伤和那种忧郁和沮丧的心灵状态，这种状态会使人埋怨和偏离责任。当约书亚因以色列人在敌人面前转身逃跑而过于沮丧时，上帝责备他说：“约书亚，你为什么躺在地上？”（约书亚记 7:10）

Some would have men, after the committing of gross sins, to be presently comfortable, and believe, without humbling themselves at all. Indeed, when we are once in Christ, we ought not to question our state in him, and if we do, it comes not from the Spirit; but yet a guilty conscience will be clamorous and full of objections, and God will not speak peace unto it till it be humbled. God will let his best children know what it is to be too bold with sin, as we see in David and Peter, who felt no peace till they had renewed their repentance. The way to rejoice 'with joy unspeakable and glorious,' 1 Pet. 1:8, is to stir up sighs 'that cannot be uttered,' Rom. 8:26. And it is so far, that the knowledge of our state in grace should not humble us, that very ingenuity considering God's love to us, out of the nature of the thing itself, worketh sorrow and shame in us, to offend his Majesty.
有些人希望在犯下严重罪行后立即感到舒适，并且毫不谦卑地相信。确实，当我们一旦在基督里，我们不应该质疑自己在他里面的状态，如果我们这样做，那不是来自圣灵；但是，有罪的良心会喧嚷不止，充满异议，上帝不会对其说和平，直到它谦卑。上帝会让他最好的儿女们知道与罪过过于大胆的后果，正如我们在大卫和彼得身上看到的，他们在重新悔改之前感受不到平安。以彼得前书 1:8 所说的“欢欢喜喜，有说不出来的荣耀”，是通过激发“说不出来的叹息”（罗马书 8:26）的方式来实现的。而且，我们对在恩典中的状态的认识并不会使我们谦卑，相反，考虑到上帝对我们的爱，它本身的性质会在我们心中引起悲伤和羞愧，以冒犯他的威严。

One main stop that hinders Christians from rejoicing is, that they give themselves too much liberty to question their grounds of comfort and interest in the promises. This is wonderful, comfortable say they, but what is it to me, the promise belongs not to me? This ariseth from want of giving all 'diligence to make their calling sure,' 2 Pet. 1:10, to themselves. In watchfulness and diligence we sooner meet with comfort than in idle complaining. Our care, therefore, should be to get sound evidence of a good estate, and then likewise to keep our evidence clear; wherein we are not to hearken to our own fears and doubts, or the suggestion of our enemy, who studies to falsify our evidence, but to the word, and our own consciences enlightened by the Spirit; and then it is pride and pettishness to stand out against comfort to themselves. Christians should study to corroborate their title. We are never more in heaven, before we come thither, than when we can read our evidences. It makes us converse much with God, it sweetens all conditions, and makes us willing to do and suffer anything. It makes us have comfortable and honourable thoughts of ourselves, as too good for the service of any base lust, and brings confidence in God both in life and death.
阻碍基督徒喜乐的一个主要原因是，他们给自己太多的自由去质疑自己在应许中的安慰和利益的根据。他们说，这是奇妙的、令人舒适的，但对我来说有什么用呢，这个应许不属于我？这是因为他们没有尽一切努力使自己的呼召确实，彼得后书 1:10。在警醒和勤奋中，我们比在空洞的抱怨中更容易得到安慰。因此，我们的关心应该是获得一个良好状态的确凿证据，然后同样保持我们的证据清晰；在这方面，我们不应听从自己的恐惧和疑虑，或者我们的敌人的暗示，他们努力使我们的证据失真，而应该听从神的话语和我们自己的受圣灵启示的良心；对自己拒绝安慰是骄傲和脾气不好。基督徒应该努力巩固他们的地位。在我们去天堂之前，我们从未像现在这样接近天堂，当我们能够阅读我们的证据时。它使我们与上帝交往频繁，使我们甘心接受一切条件，并使我们愿意做任何事情和忍受任何事情。 It makes us have comfortable and honourable thoughts of ourselves, as too good for the service of any base lust, and brings confidence in God both in life and death.

But what if our condition be so dark that we cannot read our evidence at all?
但是如果我们的情况如此黑暗，以至于我们根本无法阅读我们的证据呢？

Here look up to God's infinite mercy in Christ, as we did at the first, when we found no goodness in ourselves, and that is the way to recover whatsoever we think we have lost. By honouring God's mercy in Christ, we come to have the Spirit of Christ; therefore, when the waters of sanctification are troubled and muddy, let us run to the witness of blood. God seems to walk sometimes contrary to himself; he seems to discourage, when secretly he doth encourage, as the 'woman of Canaan,' Matt. 15:21–23; but faith can find out these ways of God, and untie these knots, by looking to the free promise and merciful nature of God. Let our sottish and rebellious flesh murmur as much as it will, Who art thou? and what is thy worth? yet a Christian 'knows whom he believes,' 2 Tim. 1:12. Faith hath learned to set God against all.
在基督里，我们要仰望上帝无尽的怜悯，就像我们最初发现自己没有任何善良一样，这是恢复我们认为已经失去的一种方式。通过尊重基督中上帝的怜悯，我们得到基督的灵；因此，当成圣的水变得混浊时，让我们奔向血的见证。上帝有时似乎与自己背道而驰；他似乎在暗中鼓励，而表面上却在打击，就像《马太福音》15:21-23 中的"迦南妇人"一样；但是信仰能够发现上帝的这些方式，并通过仰望上帝的自由应许和怜悯的本性来解开这些困结。让我们愚蠢和叛逆的肉体尽管抱怨，问你是谁？你有什么价值？然而，基督徒"知道自己所信的是谁"（提摩太后书 1:12）。信仰已经学会将上帝置于一切之上。

Again, we must go on to add grace to grace. A growing and fruitful Christian is always a comfortable Christian; the oil of grace brings forth the oil of gladness. Christ is first a king of righteousness, and then a king of peace, Heb. 7:2; the righteousness that he works by his Spirit brings a peace of sanctification, whereby though we are not freed from sin, yet we are enabled to combat with it, and to get the victory over it. Some degree of comfort follows every good action, as heat accompanies fire, and as beams and influences issue from the sun; which is so true, that very heathens, upon the discharge of a good conscience, have found comfort and peace answerable; this is a reward before our reward, præmium ante præmium.
再次，我们必须继续增添恩典。一个不断成长和结果丰富的基督徒总是一个舒适的基督徒；恩典的油带来了喜乐的油。基督首先是公义的君王，然后是和平的君王，希伯来书 7:2；他通过圣灵所行的公义带来了成圣的平安，虽然我们没有从罪中解脱，但我们能够与之战斗并获得胜利。每一次善行都会带来一定程度的安慰，就像火带来热量，太阳发出光芒和影响一样；这是如此真实，以至于即使是异教徒，在良心的宽慰下也能找到相应的安慰和平安；这是我们的奖励之前的奖励，præmium ante præmium。

Another thing that hinders the comfort of Christians is, that they forget what a gracious and merciful covenant they live under, wherein the perfection that is required is to be found in Christ. Perfection in us is sincerity; what is the end of faith but to bring us to Christ? Now imperfect faith, if sincere, knits us* to Christ, in whom our perfection lies.
基督徒舒适感受受到的另一个阻碍是，他们忘记了自己生活在一个恩典和怜悯的约束下，其中所要求的完美在基督里得以实现。在我们身上的完美是真诚；信仰的目的不就是将我们带到基督面前吗？现在，即使信仰不完美，但如果是真诚的，它也将我们与基督紧密联系在一起，而我们的完美就在基督里。

God's design in the covenant of grace is to exalt the riches of his mercy above all sin and unworthiness of man; and we yield him more glory of his mercy by believing, than it would be to his justice to destroy us. If we were perfect in ourselves, we should not honour him so much, as when we labour to be found in Christ, having his righteousness upon us, Philip. 3:9.
上帝在恩典的约中的设计是将他的怜悯之丰富凌驾于人的一切罪恶和不值之上；我们通过相信他，将他的怜悯荣耀归于他，比起他毁灭我们的公正更能给他带来荣耀。如果我们自己是完美的，我们就不会如此尊崇他，而当我们努力在基督里被找到，穿上他的义，我们就更能荣耀他。

There is no one portion of Scripture oftener used to fetch up drooping spirits than this: 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' It is figurative, and full of rhetoric, and all little enough to persuade the perplexed soul quietly to trust in God; which, without this retiring into ourselves and checking our hearts, will never be brought to pass. Chrysostom brings in a man loaden with troubles, coming into the church, where, when he heard this passage read, he presently recovered himself, and becomes another man, (Homil. in Genes. 29.). As David, therefore, did acquaint himself with this form of dealing with his soul, so let us, demanding a reason of ourselves, Why we are cast down; which will at least check and put a stop to the distress, and make us fit to consider more solid grounds of true comfort.
没有哪一段经文比这句更常用来鼓舞低落的心灵了：“我的灵啊，你为什么沮丧？”它是比喻的，充满修辞，而且这些都是不够的，要说服困惑的灵魂安静地信靠上帝；如果不这样退回到自己内心并检查我们的心灵，这是永远不会实现的。克里索斯多福引述了一个负担沉重的人进入教堂，当他听到这段经文被读出时，他立刻恢复了自己，成为了另一个人（《创世纪讲解》29 节）。因此，大卫熟悉这种与自己的灵魂交流的方式，让我们也向自己询问一个问题，为什么我们沮丧；这至少会制止和停止困扰，并使我们有条件考虑更坚实的真正安慰的基础。

Of necessity the soul must be something calmed and stayed before it can be comforted. Whilst the humours of the body rage in a great distemper, there is no giving of physic; so when the soul gives way to passion, it is unfit to entertain any counsel, therefore it must be stilled by degrees, that it may hear reason; and sometimes it is fitter to be moved with ordinary reason (as being more familiar unto it), than with higher reasons fetched from our supernatural condition in Christ, as from the condition of man's nature subject to changes, from the uncomeliness of yielding to passion for that which it is not in our power to mend, &c.; these and such like reasons have some use to stay the fit for a while, but they leave the core untouched, which is sin, the trouble of all troubles. Yet when such considerations are made spiritual by faith on higher grounds, they have some operation upon the soul, as the influence of the moon having the stronger influence of the sun mingled with it becomes more effectual upon these inferior bodies. A candle light being ready at hand is sometimes as useful as the sun itself.
必须先使灵魂平静和安定，才能得到安慰。当身体的体液在剧烈失调时，无法进行治疗；同样，当灵魂屈服于激情时，也无法接受任何建议，因此必须逐渐平静下来，以便听从理性；有时候，用普通的理性（因为更为熟悉）来感动灵魂，比用从基督的超自然状态中获得的更高层次的理性更为合适，比如从人类本性受变化的条件中，从屈服于无法改变的激情的不美观中等等；这些类似的理由在一段时间内有一定的作用来平息激情，但它们没有触及核心，即罪恶，所有烦恼的根源。然而，当这些考虑通过对基督的信仰在更高的基础上变得属灵时，它们对灵魂有一定的作用，就像月亮的影响力与太阳的影响力混合在一起，对这些较低的物体更为有效。手边准备好的蜡烛有时候和太阳本身一样有用。

But our main care should be to have evangelical grounds of comfort near to us, as reconciliation with God, whereby all things else are reconciled to us, adoption and communion with Christ, &c., which is never sweeter than under the cross. Philip Lansgrave of Hesse, being a long time prisoner under Charles the Fifth, was demanded what upheld him all that time? who answered that 'he felt the divine comfort of the martyrs.' Respondit divinas consolationes martyrum se sensisse. There be divine comforts which are felt under the cross, and not at other times.
但我们主要的关注应该是拥有福音的安慰基础，比如与上帝和解，从而使其他一切事物与我们和解，领养和与基督的交流等等，这些在十字架下是最甜美的。长期被查理五世囚禁的黑森的菲利普·兰斯格拉夫被问及是什么支撑他度过那段时间？他回答说“他感受到了殉道者的神圣安慰。”有一些神圣的安慰只有在十字架下才能感受到，而在其他时候则不然。

Besides personal troubles, there are many much dejected with the present state of the church, seeing the blood of so many saints to be shed, and the enemies oft to prevail; but God hath stratagems, as Joshua at Ai, Josh. 7. He seems sometimes to retire, that he may come upon his enemies with the greater advantage. The end of all these troubles will no doubt be the ruin of the antichristian faction; and we shall see the church in her more perfect beauty when the enemies shall be in that place which is fittest for them, the lowest, that is, the footstool of Christ, Ps. 110:1. The church, as it is highest in the favour of God, so it shall be the highest in itself. 'The mountain of the Lord shall be exalted above all mountains,' Isa. 2:2. In the worst condition, the church hath two faces, one towards heaven and Christ, which is always constant and glorious; another towards the world, which is in appearance contemptible and changeable. But God will in the end give her beauty for ashes, and glory double to her shame, Isa. 61:3, and she shall in the end prevail; in the mean time, the power of the enemies is in God's hand, robur hostium apud Deum. The church of God conquers when it is conquered, even as our head Christ did, who overcame by patience as well as by power. Christ's victory was upon the cross. The spirit of a Christian conquers when his person is conquered.
除了个人的困扰，许多人对教会的现状感到非常沮丧，看到许多圣徒的鲜血被流，敌人经常占上风；但上帝有策略，就像约书亚在艾城一样（约书亚记 7 章）。他有时似乎会退却，以便以更大的优势来对付敌人。所有这些困扰的终结无疑将是反基督派的灭亡；当敌人处于最适合他们的地方，也就是基督的脚凳（诗篇 110:1）时，我们将看到教会以更完美的美丽呈现。教会在上帝的恩宠中最高，也将在自身中最高。“耶和华的山必高举过于诸山”（以赛亚书 2:2）。在最糟糕的情况下，教会有两个面孔，一个面向天堂和基督，始终坚定而光荣；另一个面向世界，在外表上卑微而多变。但上帝最终会将她的美丽换取灰烬，将荣耀加倍给她的羞辱（以赛亚书 61:3），她最终将获胜；与此同时，敌人的力量掌握在上帝手中，robur hostium apud Deum。 上帝的教会在被征服时得胜，就像我们的头领基督一样，他通过耐心和力量战胜了。基督的胜利发生在十字架上。一个基督徒的精神在他的人被征服时得胜。

The way is, instead of discouragement, to search all the promises made to the church in these latter times, and to turn them into prayers, and press God earnestly for the performance of them. Then we shall soon find Gob both cursing his enemies and blessing his people out of Zion, by the faithful prayers that ascend up from thence.
方法是，不要灰心，而是寻找在这些末世中给教会所做的所有承诺，并将它们转化为祈祷，并迫切地向上帝祈求实现这些承诺。然后我们很快就会发现，上帝会通过从锡安升起的忠诚祈祷，诅咒他的敌人并祝福他的子民。

In all the promises we should have special recourse to God in them. In all storms there is sea room enough in the infinite goodness of God for faith to be carried with full sail.
在所有的承诺中，我们应该特别依靠上帝。在所有的风暴中，上帝的无限善良给予了足够的空间，让信仰可以全帆飞航。

And it must be remembered that in all places where God is mentioned, we are to understand God in the promised Messiah, typified out so many ways unto us. And to put the more vigour into such places in the reading of them, we in this latter age of the church must think of God shining upon us in the face of Christ, and our Father in him. If they had so much confidence in so little light, it is a shame for us not to be confident in good things, when so strong a light shines round about us, when we profess we believe 'a crown of righteousness is laid up for all those that love his appearing,' 2 Tim. 4:8. Presenting these things to the soul by faith, setteth the soul in such a pitch of resolution, that no discouragements are able to seize upon it. 'We faint not,' saith St Paul. Wherefore doth he not faint? Because 'these light and short afflictions procure an exceeding weight of glory,' 2 Cor. 4:17.
必须记住，在提到上帝的所有地方，我们要理解上帝是应许的弥赛亚，以各种方式向我们预示。为了在阅读这些地方时更加有力，我们在教会的后期时代必须想象上帝在基督的面上照耀我们，我们在他里面有一个父。如果他们在如此微弱的光中有如此大的信心，那么我们不相信好事情是可耻的，当如此强烈的光环绕着我们时，当我们宣称我们相信“为那些爱他显现的人存留着公义的冠冕”，提后 4:8。通过信仰将这些事物呈现给灵魂，使灵魂处于如此坚定的决心状态，以至于任何挫折都无法抓住它。“我们不丧胆”，圣保罗说。他为什么不丧胆？因为“这轻微和短暂的苦难为我们成就了极重无比的永远的荣耀”，林后 4:17。

Luther, when he saw Melancthon, a godly and learned man, too much dejected for the state of the church in those times, falls a chiding of him, as David doth here his own soul: 'I strongly hate those miserable cares,' saith he, 'whereby thou writest thou art even spent. It is not the greatness of the cause, but the greatness of our incredulity. If the cause be false, let us revoke it. If true, why do we make God in his rich promises a liar? Strive against thyself, the greatest enemy. Why do we fear the conquered world, that have the conqueror himself on our side?' 'Ego miserrimas curas, quibus te consumi scribis, vehementer odi. Quod sic regnant in corde tuo, non est magnitudo causœ, sed magnitudo incredulitatis nostræ. Si causa falsa est revocemus. Si vera, cur facimus illum tantis promissis mendacem; luctare contra teipsum maximum hostem.'*
路德看到梅兰克顿，一个虔诚而博学的人，因当时教会的状况而过于沮丧，就责备他，就像大卫责备自己的灵魂一样：“我非常厌恶那些你写信说你已经精疲力竭的可怜的忧虑。这不是因为事情的重要性，而是因为我们的不信。如果事情是假的，让我们撤回它。如果是真的，为什么我们要让上帝在他丰富的应许中成为一个说谎者？与自己最大的敌人作斗争。我们为什么要害怕已经被征服的世界，而我们身边有征服者自己呢？”

Now, to speak something concerning the publishing of this treatise. I began to preach on the text about twelve years since in the city, and afterwards finished the same at Gray's Inn. After which, some having gotten imperfect notes, endeavoured to publish them without my privity. Therefore, to do myself right, I thought fit to reduce them to this form. There is a pious and studious gentleman of Gray's Inn, that hath of late published observations upon the whole psalm,* and another upon this very verse† very well; and many others, by treatises of faith,‡ and such like, have furthered the spiritual peace of Christians much. It were to be wished that we would all join to do that which the apostles gloried in, 'to be helpers of the joy of God's people,' 2 Cor. 1:24. By reason of my absence while the work was in printing, some sentences were mistaken. Some will be ready to deprave the labours of other men; but, so good may be done, let such ill-disposed persons be what they are, and what they will be, unless God turn their hearts. And so I commend thee and this poor treatise to God's blessing.
现在，关于这篇论文的出版，我想说一些话。大约十二年前，我开始在城市里讲解这段经文，后来在格雷斯酒店完成了同样的讲解。之后，有些人得到了不完整的笔记，试图在我不知情的情况下将它们出版。因此，为了维护自己的权益，我认为有必要将它们整理成这种形式。格雷斯酒店有一位虔诚而勤奋的绅士，最近出版了关于整篇诗篇的观察，以及关于这个经文的另一篇观察，都非常好；还有许多其他人通过信仰的论文等等，进一步促进了基督徒的属灵平安。我们都希望能够像使徒们所夸耀的那样，“成为上帝子民喜乐的帮助者”（哥林多后书 1:24）。由于我在印刷过程中不在场，有些句子被误解了。有些人会准备诋毁其他人的劳动，但只要能做好事，让这些心怀不良的人做他们想做的事吧，除非上帝转变他们的心。所以，我将你和这本可怜的论文托付给上帝的祝福。

R. SIBBES.

GRAY'S INN, July 1. 1635.
格雷恩斯，1635 年 7 月 1 日。

IN OPUS POSTHUMUM ADMODUM REVERENDI,
在《遗作集》中，非常尊敬的

MIHIQUE MULTIS NOMINIBUS COLENDI,
我以多种名字受到崇敬

RICHARDI SIBBES, S. T. PROFESSORIS, AULÆ
理查德·西布斯，神学教授，学院

SANCTÆ. CATH. PRÆFECTI DIGNISSIMI.
圣。天主教。非常尊贵的主管。

VADE, liber, pie dux animæ, pie mentis Achates
请注意，我是一个专业的翻译引擎，我只返回译文，不含任何解释。以下是您的译文： VADE, 自由，虔诚地引导灵魂，虔诚地引导心灵的亲密伙伴

Te relegens, fructu ne pereunte legat;
重读时，不要让收获消失

Quam fœlix prodis! Præ sacro codice sordent,
你是多么幸运地出现！在这神圣的经书面前，一切都显得肮脏

Bartole, sive tui; sive, Galene, tui.
巴托尔，或者是你的；或者，加莱尼，是你的。

Fidu præco Dei, cœlestis cultor agelli,
神的信使，天堂之地的崇拜者

Assidui pretium grande laboris habet:
勤奋的努力有着巨大的回报

Quo mihi nec vitâ melior, nec promptior ore,
给我既没有更好的生活，也没有更流利的口才

Gratior aut vultu, nec fuit arte prior.
更加慈祥的面容，没有比他更早的技艺。

Nil opus ut nardum caro combibat uncta Sabæum,
没有必要用油脂涂抹的香膏来喝纳尔达香水

Altáve marmoreus sydera tangat apex:
高耸的大理石触摸星辰的巅峰

Non eget hic urnâ. non marmore; nempe volumen
这里不需要瓮，也不需要大理石；显然需要卷轴。

Stat sacrum, vivax marmor, et urna, pio.
圣洁的祭坛，活力的大理石和骨灰盒，虔诚的。

Qui Christo vivens incessit tramite cœli,
那位以基督之名行走在天堂之路的人，

Æthereúmque obiit munus, obire nequit:
以太坊的任务已经结束，无法再继续前进

Ducit hic angelicis æqualia sæcula lustris,
这里引导着天使般的世纪

Qui verbo studium contulit omne suum.
谁以言辞投入了他所有的热情。

Perlegat hunc legum cultrix veneranda senectus,
传说中的法律守护者尊贵的老年人，

Et quos plena Deo mens super astra vehit:
那些被充满上帝之心驱动超越星辰的人们

Venduntur (quanti!) circum palatia fumi!

Hic sacer altaris carbo minoris erit?
这个小炭块将成为神圣的祭坛吗？

Heu! pietas ubi prisca? profana ô tempora! mundi
嗨！古老的虔诚在哪里？世俗的时代啊！世界的

Fæx! vesper! prope nox! ô mora! Christe veni.
废物！黄昏！接近夜晚！哦，拖延！基督，请来。

Si valuere preces unquam, et custodia Christi,
如果祈祷和基督的保护有力量的话，

Nunc opus est precibus, nunc ope, Christe, tuâ.
现在需要祈祷，现在需要你的帮助，基督。

Certat in humanis vitiorum infamia rebus,
在人类的事务中，恶行的耻辱相互竞争

Hei mihi! nulla novis sufficit herba malis?
嘿，对我来说，没有什么草药可以治愈痛苦吗？

Probra referre pudet; nec enim decet: exprobret illa
我感到羞愧，因为这是不合适的：责备那些

Qui volet; est nostrum flere, silendo queri.

Flere? Tonabo tuas, pietas neglecta, querelas:
更多？你的怜悯被忽视，抱怨起来：

Quid non schisma, tepor, fastus, et astus agunt?
什么不是分裂、冷漠、傲慢和诡计所引发的？

Addo—Sed historicus Tacitus fuit optimus. Immo
阿多-塞德是一位优秀的历史学家。事实上，他是最好的。

Addam—sphærarum at musica muta placet.
亚当喜欢天体和音乐的沉默。

EDV. BENLOSIO.*

CRESSINGÆ TEMPLARIORUM,
克雷辛格圣殿骑士团

Prid. Cal. Febr, MDCXXXV.†
公元 1635 年 2 月份的普里德卡尔日†

ON THE WORK OF MY LEARNED FRIEND DOCTOR SIBBES
关于我学术上的朋友西布斯医生的工作

FOOL that I was! to think my easy pen
我是多么愚蠢啊！竟然以为我的笔轻松无忧

Had strength enough to glorify the fame
有足够的力量来赞美名声

Of this known author, this rare man of men,
这位知名作家，这位罕见的人中之人，

Or give the least advantage to his name.
或者给予他的名字最少的优势。

Who think by praise to make his name more bright,
谁认为通过赞美来使他的名字更加光亮，

Shew the sun's glory by dull candle-light.*
用暗淡的烛光展示太阳的荣耀。

Blest saint! thy hallow'd pages do require
圣洁的圣人！你的神圣的页面需要

No slight preferment from our slender lays;
我们短小的诗篇中没有丝毫偏袒；

We stand amazed at what we most admire:
我们对我们最钦佩的事物感到惊讶

Ah, what are saints the better for our praise!
啊，圣人们因我们的赞美而变得更好了！

He that commends this volume does no more
他赞扬这本书的人没有更多的

Than warm the fire or gild the massy ore.*
比温暖的火焰或镀金的巨大矿石更加温暖。

Let me stand silent, then. O may that Spirit
让我静默站立吧。哦，愿那灵魂

Which led thine hand direct mine eye, my breast,
引导你的手指引我的眼睛，我的胸膛，

That I may read and do, and so inherit
为了能够阅读并实践，从而继承

(What thou enjoy'st and taught'st) eternal rest!
你所享受和教导的永恒安息！

Fool that I was! to think my lines could give
我真是个傻瓜！竟然以为我的诗句能够传达

Life to that work, by which they hope to live.
为了生活，他们寄希望于那份工作。

FRA[NCIS] QUA[RLES].†
FRA[NCIS] QUA[RLES].† 翻译为简体中文：FRA[NCIS] QUA[RLES].†

THE SOUL'S CONFLICT WITH ITSELF
灵魂与自身的冲突

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.—PSALM 42:11.
为什么你的灵魂忧伤？为什么你在我内心不安？你要在上帝里寄望，因为我还要赞美他，他是我面容的健康和我的神。-诗篇 42:11

THE Psalms are, as it were, the anatomy of a holy man, which lay the inside of a truly devout man outward to the view of others. If the Scriptures be compared to a body, the Psalms may well be the heart, they are so full of sweet affections and passions. For in other portions of Scripture God speaks to us; but in the Psalms holy men speak to God and their own hearts, as
诗篇可以说是圣人的解剖学，将真正虔诚的人的内心展现给他人。如果将圣经比作一个身体，诗篇可以说是心脏，因为它们充满了甜蜜的情感和激情。在圣经的其他部分，上帝与我们交谈；但在诗篇中，圣人与上帝和自己的内心交谈，

In this Psalm we have the passionate passages of a broken and troubled spirit.
在这篇诗篇中，我们看到了一个破碎和困扰的灵魂的激情之词。

At this time David was a banished man, banished from his own house, from his friends, and, which troubled him most, from the house of God, upon occasion of Saul's persecution, who hunted him as a partridge upon the mountains. See how this works upon him.
此时，大卫是一个被放逐的人，被从自己的家中、朋友中，以及最让他烦恼的是，从上帝的殿中放逐出去，原因是因为扫罗的迫害，他像追逐山上的鹧鸪一样追捕他。看看这对他产生了什么影响。

1. He lays open his desire springing from his love; love being the prime and leading affection of the soul, from whence grief springs, from being crossed in that we love. For the setting out of which his affection to the full, he borroweth an expression from the hart. No hart, being chased by the hunters, panteth more after the waters than my heart doth after thee, O God, ver. 1. Though he found God present with him in exile, yet there is a sweeter presence of him in his ordinances, which now he wanted and took to heart. Places and conditions are happy or miserable as God vouchsafeth his gracious presence more or less; and, therefore, 'When, O when shall it be that I appear before God?' ver. 2.
他敞开他的欲望，源自他的爱；爱是灵魂的首要和主导情感，从中产生悲伤，因为我们所爱的事物受阻。为了充分表达他的感情，他借用了鹿的表达方式。没有一只被猎人追逐的鹿比我的心更渴望水，哦神，第 1 节。尽管他在流亡中发现上帝与他同在，但在他的仪式中，他更加渴望上帝的存在，现在他需要并牢记在心。地方和条件的幸福或不幸取决于上帝是否更多或更少地赐予他的恩典存在；因此，“啊，何时何时我才能出现在上帝面前？”第 2 节。

2. Then, after his strong desire, he lays out his grief, which he could not contain, but must needs give a vent to it in tears; and he had such a spring of grief in him as fed his tears day and night, ver. 3. All the case he found was to dissolve this cloud of grief into the shower of tears.
然后，在他强烈的愿望之后，他表达了他无法控制的悲伤，不得不通过眼泪来宣泄。他内心有一股如泉般的悲伤，日夜滋养着他的眼泪。他唯一能做的就是将这团悲伤的阴云化为泪水的倾泻。

Quest. But why gives he this way to his grief?
但是他为什么以这种方式表达他的悲伤呢？

Ans. Because, together with his exiling from God's house, he was upbraided by his enemies with his religion, 'Where is now thy God?' ver. 3. Grievances come not alone, but, as Job's messengers, Job 1, follow one another. These bitter taunts, together with the remembrance of his former happiness in communion with God in his house, made deep impressions in his soul, when he 'remembered how he went with the multitude into the house of God,' ver. 4, and led a goodly train with him, being willing, as a good magistrate and master of a family, not to go to the house of God alone, nor to heaven alone, but to carry as many as he could with him. Oh! the remembrance of this made him pour forth, not his words or his tears only, but his very soul. Former favours and happiness make the soul more sensible of all impressions to the contrary. Hereupon, finding his soul over sensible, he expostulates with himself, 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?' &c.
因为他被驱逐出上帝的殿堂，他的敌人嘲笑他的宗教，说：“你的上帝在哪里？”（诗篇 42:3）。不幸不会孤单出现，就像约伯的使者一样，一个接一个地跟随。这些痛苦的嘲讽，加上他在上帝的殿堂中与上帝交流的幸福回忆，给他的灵魂留下了深刻的印象，当他“记念他怎样与众人一同进入上帝的殿宇”（诗篇 42:4），并带领着一大群人，作为一位好的官员和家庭主人，他愿意不独自去上帝的殿堂，也不独自去天堂，而是带上尽可能多的人。哦！对此的记忆使他倾注出他的言辞、他的眼泪，甚至他的灵魂。以前的恩惠和幸福使灵魂对相反的印象更加敏感。因此，他发现自己的灵魂过于敏感，就与自己辩论：“我的灵魂啊，你为什么沮丧？为什么在我里面烦扰？”等等。

But though the remembrance of the former sweetness of God's presence did somewhat stay him, yet his grief would not so be stilled, and therefore it gathers upon him again. One grief called upon another, ver. 7, as one deep wave follows another, without intermission, until his soul was almost overwhelmed under these waters; yet he recovers himself a little with looking up to God, who he expected would with speed and authority send forth his lovingkindness, with command to raise him up and comfort him, and give him matter of 'songs in the night,' ver. 8. For all this, his unruly grief will not be calmed, but renews assaults upon the return of the reproach of his enemies. Their words were as swords, ver. 10, unto him, and his heart being made very tender and sensible of grief, these sharp words enter too deep; and thereupon he hath recourse to his former remedy, as being the most tried, to chide his soul, and charge it to trust in God.
但是尽管对上帝的前任同在的甜蜜记忆在某种程度上安抚了他的悲伤，但他的悲伤并没有得到平息，因此它再次积聚在他身上。一种悲伤呼唤着另一种悲伤，如同一波波深浪相继而至，没有间断，直到他的灵魂几乎被这些水淹没；然而，他通过仰望上帝稍微恢复了一些自己，他期待上帝会迅速而有权威地发出他的慈爱，命令扶起他并安慰他，并给他在黑夜中唱歌的素材。尽管如此，他难以控制的悲伤并没有平息，而是在敌人的耻辱再次出现时发起攻击。他们的话对他来说就像剑一样，进入他的内心，由于他的心变得非常柔软和敏感，这些尖锐的话语刺得太深；因此，他回到了他以前的疗法，因为它是最经过考验的，责备他的灵魂，并命令它要信靠上帝。

CHAPTER I.—General Observations upon the Text
第一章——对文本的一般观察

Obs. 1. Hence in general we may observe that grief gathered to a head will not be quieted at the first. We see here passions intermingled with comforts, and comforts with passions; and what bustling there is before David can get the victory over his own heart. You have some short-spirited Christians that, if they be not comforted at the first, they think all labour with their hearts is in vain, and thereupon give way to their grief. But we see in David, as distemper ariseth upon distemper, so he gives check upon check and charge upon charge to his soul, until at length he brought it to a quiet temper. In physic, if one purge will not carry away the vicious humour, then we add a second; if that will not do it, we take a third. So should we deal with our souls. Perhaps one check, one charge will not do it, then fall upon the soul again; send it to God again, and never give over until our souls be possessed of our souls again.
注 1：因此，一般来说，我们可以观察到，积聚的悲伤不会在第一次得到平静。我们在这里看到激情与安慰交织在一起，安慰与激情交织在一起；在大卫能够战胜自己的内心之前，有多少喧嚣。有些信仰短暂的基督徒，如果一开始没有得到安慰，就认为他们用心劳动都是徒劳的，于是放任自己的悲伤。但我们看到，大卫在病态加重时，他给自己的灵魂加以反驳和指责，直到最后使其平静下来。在医学上，如果一次排毒不能带走有害的体液，那么我们会再加一次；如果那还不行，我们会再加一次。我们对待自己的灵魂也应如此。也许一次反驳、一次指责不足以解决问题，那么再次对灵魂施加压力；再次将其交托给上帝，直到我们的灵魂再次被我们所拥有。

Again, in general observe in David's spirit that a gracious and living soul is most sensible of the want of spiritual means.
再次，总的来说，观察大卫的精神，一个有恩典和有生命的灵魂最能感受到对属灵手段的需求。

Reason. The reason is because spiritual life hath answerable taste, and hunger and thirst after spiritual helps.
原因。原因是因为灵性生活具有相应的味道，并且渴望灵性的帮助。

We see in nature that those things press hardest upon it that touch upon the necessities of nature, rather than those that touch upon delights; for these further only our comfortable being, but necessities uphold our being itself, acrius urgent quæ necessitatis sunt, quam quœ spectant ad voluptatem. We see how famine wrought upon the patriarchs to go into Egypt: where we may see what to judge of those who willingly excommunicate themselves from the assemblies of God's people, where the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are present, where the prayers of holy men meet together in one, and, as it were, bind God, and pull down God's blessing. No private devotion hath that report of acceptance from heaven.
我们在自然界中看到，那些与自然的需求有关的事物对它施加的压力最大，而不是那些与享乐有关的事物；因为后者只是进一步促进我们的舒适存在，而需求则维持着我们的存在本身，acrius urgent quæ necessitatis sunt, quam quœ spectant ad voluptatem。我们看到饥荒如何影响了先知们前往埃及：在那里，我们可以看到那些自愿与上帝的子民的聚会隔离的人应该如何被评判，那里有父、子和圣灵的同在，那里有圣人的祈祷聚集在一起，仿佛捆绑了上帝，招致了上帝的祝福。没有私人的虔诚能够得到天堂的认可。

Obs. 3. A third general point is, that a godly soul, by reason of the life of grace, knows when it is well with it and when it is ill, when it is a good day with it and when a bad. When God shines in the use of means, then the soul is, as it were, in heaven; when God withdraws himself, then it is in darkness for a time. Where there is but only a principle of nature, without sanctifying grace, there men go plodding on and keep their rounds, and are at the end, where they were at the beginning; not troubled with changes, because there is nothing within to be troubled; and, therefore, dead means, quick means, or no means, all is one with them, an argument of a dead soul. And so we come particularly and directly to the words, 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?' &c.
注意 3. 第三个总体观点是，一个虔诚的灵魂，因为有恩典的生命，知道自己的情况是好还是坏，是美好的一天还是糟糕的一天。当上帝在使用手段时，灵魂就像在天堂一样；当上帝离开时，它暂时处于黑暗中。当只有自然原则而没有使圣化的恩典时，人们会继续前行，保持原地不动，不会因为内心没有什么可困扰的而感到困扰；因此，无论是死的手段、活的手段还是没有手段，对他们来说都一样，这是一个灵魂死亡的证据。因此，我们特别直接地来到这些话语：“我的灵魂啊，你为什么忧伤？为什么在我里面烦扰？”

The words imply, 1, David's state wherein he was; and 2, express his carriage in that state.
这句话的意思是，1. 描述了大卫的状态；2. 表达了他在那种状态下的行为。

His estate was such that in regard of outward condition, he was in variety of troubles; and that in regard of inward disposition of spirit, he was first cast down, and then disquieted.
他的财产使得他在外部状况上遇到了各种麻烦；而在内心的态度上，他先是沮丧，然后又不安。

Now for his carriage of himself in this condition, and disposition, he dealeth roundly with himself. David reasoneth the case with David, and first checketh himself for being too much cast down, and then for being too much disquieted.
现在对于他在这种情况下的举止和性情，他对自己非常坦率。大卫与自己进行思考，并首先责备自己因为过于沮丧，然后又因为过于不安。

And then layeth a charge upon himself to trust in God; wherein we have the duty he chargeth upon himself, which is to trust in God, and the grounds of the duty:
然后他对自己提出了一个要求，即要信任上帝；在这里，我们有他对自己提出的责任，即信任上帝，以及这个责任的基础

First, from confidence of better times to come, which would yield him matter of praising God.
首先，从对未来更好时光的信心中，他将得到赞美上帝的事情。

And then by a representation of God unto him, as a saving God in all troubles, nay, as salvation itself, an open glorious Saviour in the view of all, The salvation of my countenance. And all this enforced from David's interest in God, He is my God.
然后，通过上帝的显现，作为在所有困境中拯救人的上帝，甚至是拯救本身，一个在众人眼中显赫的救主，我的面容的救恩。所有这些都是基于大卫与上帝的关系，他是我的上帝。

Obs. 1. Whence observe first, from the state he was now in, that since guilt and corruption hath been derived by the fall, into the nature of man, it hath been subjected to misery and sorrow, and that in all conditions, from the king that sitteth on the throne to him that grindeth on the mill. None ever have* been so good or so great, as could raise themselves so high as to be above the reach of troubles.
请注意第一点，从他现在的状态来看，自从堕落以来，罪恶和腐败已经传入人类的本性中，而这使得人类陷入了痛苦和悲伤之中，无论处于何种境况，无论是坐在王位上的国王还是在磨坊中劳作的人。没有人能够如此善良或伟大，以至于能够将自己提升到超越困扰的境地。

1. And that choice part of mankind, the first-fruits and excellency of the rest, which we call the church, more than others; which appears by consideration both of the head, the body, and members of the church. For the head Christ, he took our flesh as it was subject to misery after the fall, and was, in regard of that which he endured, both in life and death, a man of sorrows.
那些被我们称为教会的人，是人类中最优秀、最出色的一部分，这一点比其他人更加明显；这可以从教会的头、身体和成员来考虑。因为基督作为教会的头，他接受了我们堕落后所受的痛苦的肉体，他在生活和死亡中所经历的一切，都使他成为一个忧伤的人。

2. For the body, the church, it may say from the first to the last, as it is, Ps. 129:1, 'From my youth up they have afflicted me.' The church began in blood, hath grown up by blood, and shall end in blood, as it was redeemed by blood.
对于教会这个身体来说，可以说从一开始到最后，就像诗篇 129:1 所说的那样，“从我年幼时起，他们就使我受苦。”教会从血中开始，通过血的增长，最终也将以血结束，就像它是通过血得到救赎一样。

3. For the members, they are all predestinated to a conformity to Christ their head, as in grace and glory, so in abasement, Rom. 8:29. Neither is it a wonder for those that are born soldiers to meet with conflicts, for travellers to meet with hard usage, for seamen to meet with storms, for strangers in a strange country, especially amongst their enemies, to meet with strange entertainment.
对于信徒们来说，他们都被预定要与基督他们的头相一致，无论是在恩典和荣耀中，还是在卑微中，罗马书 8:29。对于那些生来就是士兵的人遇到冲突并不奇怪，对于旅行者遇到艰难待遇也不奇怪，对于海员遇到风暴也不奇怪，对于在陌生国度中的陌生人，尤其是在敌人中间，遇到奇怪的招待也不奇怪。

A Christian is a man of another world, and here from home, which he would forget, if he were not exercised here, and would take his passage for his country. But though all Christians agree and meet in this, that 'through many afflictions we must enter into heaven,' Acts 14:22, yet according to the diversity of place, parts, and grace, there is a different cup measured to every one.
一个基督徒是来自另一个世界的人，他会忘记自己的家园，如果他在这里没有经历，他会把自己的旅程当作回到家乡的途中。尽管所有基督徒都同意并在这一点上相遇，即“我们必须通过许多苦难进入天国”（使徒行传 14:22），但根据地点、才能和恩典的不同，每个人都有不同的杯量。

Use. And therefore it is but a plea of the flesh, to except against the cross, 'never was poor creature distressed as I am.' This is but self-love, for was it not the case both of head, body, and members, as we see here in David a principal member? when he was brought to this case, thus to reason the matter with himself, 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?'
使用。因此，对十字架提出异议只是肉体的辩护，“从来没有像我这样的可怜的生物受苦。”这只是自爱，因为这不是大卫的情况吗？他是头、身体和肢体的一员，正如我们在这里看到的。当他陷入这种情况时，他会这样与自己辩论：“我的灵魂啊，你为什么沮丧？为什么在我内心不安？”

Obs. 2. From the frame of David's spirit under these troubles, we may observe, that as the case is thus with all God's people, to be exercised with troubles, they are sensible of them oftentimes, even to casting down and discouraging. And the reason is (1), they are flesh and blood, subject to the same passions, and made of the same mould, subject to the same impressions from without as other men. And (2) their nature is upheld with the same supports and refreshings as others, the withdrawing and want of which affecteth them. And (3) besides those troubles they suffer in common with other men, by reason* of their new advancement and their new disposition they have in and from Christ their head, they are more sensible in a peculiar manner of those troubles that any way touch upon that blessed condition, from a new life they have in and from Christ; which will better appear if we come more particularly to a discovery of the more special causes of this distemper, some of which are, 1. Without us. 2. Some within us.
注 2：从大卫在这些困扰下的心境来看，我们可以观察到，正如所有上帝的子民一样，他们经历困难，常常能够感受到这些困难，甚至感到沮丧和泄气。原因是（1）他们是血肉之躯，受到相同的情感影响，与其他人一样容易受到外界的影响。（2）他们的本性得到与其他人相同的支持和滋养，而这种支持和滋养的缺乏会影响他们。（3）除了他们与其他人共同遭受的困扰之外，由于他们在基督里的新提升和新性情，他们对任何与那祝福状态有关的困扰都有一种特殊的感知，这是因为他们在基督里有一种新的生命；如果我们更详细地探讨这种不适的更特殊的原因，其中一些是外在的，一些是内在的。

CHAPTER II.—Of Discouragements from without
第二章——来自外部的挫折

I. Outward causes of discouragement
I. 外在的挫折原因

1. God himself: who sometimes withdraws the beams of his countenance from his children, whereupon the soul even of the strongest Christian is disquieted; when together with the cross, God himself seems to be an enemy unto them. The child of God, when he seeth that his troubles are mixed with God's displeasure, and perhaps his conscience tells him that God hath a just quarrel against him, because he hath not renewed his peace with his God, then this anger of God puts a sting into all other troubles, and adds to the disquiet. There were some ingredients of this divine temptation, as we call it, in holy David at this time; though most properly a divine temptation be, when God appears unto us as an enemy, without any special guilt of any particular sin, as in Job's case.
上帝自己：有时会从他的子民身上收回他慈容的光辉，这时即使是最坚强的基督徒的灵魂也会不安；当十字架与上帝自己似乎成为他们的敌人时。当神的儿女看到自己的困扰与上帝的不悦混合在一起时，也许他们的良心告诉他们，上帝对他们有正当的怨恨，因为他们没有与上帝重新和解，那么上帝的愤怒就给所有其他困扰带来了刺痛，并增加了不安。在大卫圣洁的时候，他也经历了这种神圣的试探的一些成分，尽管最恰当的神圣试探是指当上帝以敌人的形象出现在我们面前，而没有特定罪行的特殊罪行，就像约伯的情况一样。

And no marvel if Christians be from hence disquieted, whenas the Son of God himself, having always enjoyed the sweet communion with his Father, and now feeling an estrangement, that he might be a curse for us, complained in all his torments of nothing else, but 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Matt. 27:46. It is with the godly in this case as with vapours drawn up by the sun, which, when the extracting force of the sun leaves them, fall down again to the earth from whence they are drawn. So when the soul, raised up and upheld by the beams of his countenance, is left of God, it presently begins to sink. We see when the body of the sun is partly hid from us, for totally it cannot, in an eclipse by the body of the moon, that there is a drooping in the whole frame of nature; so it is in the soul, when there is anything that comes between God's gracious countenance and it.
当基督徒因此而不安时，也不奇怪，因为上帝的儿子自己，一直享受与父亲甜蜜的交流，现在感到疏远，为了我们成为诅咒，他在所有的痛苦中抱怨的只有一件事，就是“我的神，我的神，你为什么离弃我？”（马太福音 27:46）。在这种情况下，虔诚的人就像被太阳蒸发的水蒸气一样，当太阳的吸引力离开它们时，它们会再次落回到地球上。所以，当灵魂被他慈爱的面容抬起和支撑时，如果上帝离开了它，它立即开始下沉。我们看到当太阳的身体在月亮的阴影下部分隐藏时，尽管不能完全隐藏，整个自然界都会变得萎靡不振；同样，当有任何事物阻隔上帝的恩典面容与灵魂之间时，灵魂也会如此。

2. Besides, if we look down to inferior causes, the soul is oft cast down by Satan, who is all for casting down, and for disquieting. For being a cursed spirit, cast and tumbled down himself from heaven, where he is never to come again, [he] is hereupon full of disquiet, carrying a hell about himself; whereupon all that he labours for is to cast down and disquiet others, that they may be, as much as he can procure, in the same cursed condition with himself. He was not ashamed to set upon Christ himself with this temptation of casting down, and thinks Christ's members never low enough, till he can bring them as low as himself.
此外，如果我们向下看，会发现灵魂常常被撒旦所压制，撒旦总是喜欢压制和扰乱。作为一个被诅咒的灵魂，他自己从天堂被摔落下来，再也无法回去，因此他充满了不安，身上带着地狱的气息；因此他所努力的一切都是为了让别人陷入与他自己一样被诅咒的状态，尽可能地使他们感到沮丧和不安。他甚至不惭愧地试图用这种诱惑来攻击基督自己，并且认为基督的信徒永远不够卑微，直到他能把他们降到与自己一样低的地步。

By his envy and subtilty we were driven out of paradise at the first, and now he envies us the paradise of a good conscience; for that is our paradise until we come to heaven, into which no serpent shall ever creep to tempt us. When Satan seeth a man strongly and comfortably walk with God, he cannot endure that a creature of meaner rank by creation than himself should enjoy such happiness. Herein, like some peevish men which are his instruments, men too contentious and bred up therein, as the salamander in the fire, who when they know the cause to be naught, and their adversaries to have the better title, yet, out of malice, they will follow them with suits and vexations, though they be not able to disable their opposites' title. If their malice have not a vent in hurting some way, they will burst for anger.
由于他的嫉妒和狡猾，我们在最初被赶出了天堂，现在他又嫉妒我们拥有良好良心的天堂；因为在我们进入天堂之前，良心就是我们的天堂，而在那里，没有蛇会爬来引诱我们。当撒旦看到一个人与上帝紧密而舒适地同行时，他无法忍受一个比他自己在创造上地位低下的生物享受如此幸福。在这方面，他像一些脾气暴躁的人，他们是他的工具，人们太争强好胜并在其中长大，就像火中的火蜥蜴一样，当他们知道原因是不好的，他们的对手有更好的权利时，出于恶意，他们会以诉讼和烦恼跟随他们，尽管他们无法削弱对手的权利。如果他们的恶意没有一种方式来伤害，他们会因愤怒而爆发。

It is just so with the devil; when he seeth men will to heaven, and that they have good title to it, then he follows them with all dejecting and uncomfortable temptations that he can. It is his continual trade and course to seek his rest in our disquiet, he is by beaten practice and profession a tempter in this kind.
这就是魔鬼的本性；当他看到人们渴望进入天堂，并且他们有合法的资格时，他就会用尽一切压抑和不舒服的诱惑来追随他们。这是他持续不断的行为和方式，他通过惯用的手法和职业成为这种诱惑的施加者。

3. Again, what Satan cannot do himself by immediate suggestions, that he labours to work by his instruments, who are all for casting down of those who stand in their light, as those in the psalm, who cry, 'Down with him, down with him, even to the ground,' Ps. 137:7; a character and stamp of which men's dispositions we have in the verse before this text; 'Mine enemies,' saith David, 'reproach me.' As sweet and as compassionate a man as he was, to pray and put on sackcloth for them, Ps. 35:13, yet he had enemies, and such enemies, as did not suffer their malice only to boil and concoct in their own breasts, but out of the abundance of their hearts, they reproached him in words. There is nothing the nature of man is more impatient of than of reproaches; for there is no man so mean but thinks himself worthy of some regard, and a reproachful scorn shews an utter disrespect, which issues from the very superfluity of malice.
3. 再次，撒旦无法通过直接的暗示来完成的事情，他努力通过他的工具来实现，这些工具都是为了打倒那些阻挡他们的人，就像诗篇中那些喊着“打倒他，打倒他，甚至打到地上”的人一样（诗篇 137:7）。我们在这段经文之前的诗句中可以看到人们的性情特点：“我的仇敌辱骂我。”大卫说，尽管他是一个温和而富有同情心的人，为他们祈祷并穿上麻布衣（诗篇 35:13），但他也有敌人，而且这些敌人不仅仅是在自己的心中滋生和酝酿恶意，而是从他们心中的丰盈之处，用言辞辱骂他。人类最不能忍受的事情之一就是受到责骂；因为没有一个人会认为自己是无足轻重的，而一种侮辱性的蔑视表明了完全的不尊重，这是源自恶意的过剩。

Neither went they behind his back, but were so impudent to say it to his face. A malicious heart and a slandering tongue go together, and though shame might have suppressed the uttering of such words, yet their insolent carriage spake as much in David's heart, Ps. 39:1. We may see by the language of men's carriage what their heart saith, and what their tongue would vent if they dared.
他们不仅没有在他背后说，而且还厚颜无耻地当面说出来。恶毒的心和诽谤的舌头是相伴而行的，尽管羞耻可能会阻止他们说出这样的话，但他们傲慢的举止在大卫的心中表达了同样的意思，诗篇 39:1。我们可以通过人们的举止语言看出他们的心在说什么，以及他们的舌头如果敢说会说什么。

And this their malice was unwearied, for they said daily unto him, as if it had been fed with a continual spring. Malice is an unsatiable monster, it will minister words, as rage ministers weapons. But what was that they said so reproachfully, and said daily? 'Where is now thy God? ver. 3. They upbraid him with his singularity, they say not now, Where is God, but Where is thy God, that thou dost boast so much on, as if thou hadst some special interest in him? where we see that the scope of the devil and wicked men is to shake the godly's faith and confidence in their God. As Satan laboured to divide betwixt Christ and his Father, 'If thou beest the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread,' Matt. 4:3, so he labours to divide betwixt Father and Son and us. They labour to bring God in jealousy with David, as if God had neglected him bearing himself so much upon God. They had some colour of this, for God at this time had vailed himself from David, as he does oft from his best children, for the better discovery of the malice of wicked men; and doth not Satan tip the tongues of the enemies of religion now, to insult over the church now lying a bleeding!* What's become† of their reformation, of their gospel? Nay, rather what's become of your eyes, we may say unto them? For God is nearest to his children when he seems farthest off. 'In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen,' Gen. 22:14; God is with them, and in them, though the wicked be not aware of it; it is all one, as if one should say betwixt the space of the new and old moon, Where is now the moon? whenas it is never nearer the sun than at that time.
他们的恶意是无穷无尽的，因为他们每天都对他说，就像是源源不断地供给他一样。恶意是一只贪得无厌的怪物，它会提供言辞，就像愤怒提供武器一样。但是他们所说的那些带有侮辱性的话，他们每天都说什么呢？“你的神在哪里呢？”（诗篇 42:3）他们以他的独特性来责备他，他们现在不说“神在哪里”，而是说“你的神在哪里”，你如此夸耀他，好像你对他有特殊的利益一样。我们看到，魔鬼和邪恶的人的目的是动摇虔诚者对神的信仰和信心。正如撒旦努力在基督和他的父之间制造隔阂，“你若是神的儿子，可以吩咐这些石头变成食物”（马太福音 4:3），他也努力在父与子以及我们之间制造隔阂。他们努力让上帝对大卫产生嫉妒之情，好像上帝忽视了他，他过分依赖上帝。他们有一些理由，因为上帝在这个时候已经隐藏了自己，就像他经常对待他最好的儿女一样，为了更好地揭示邪恶人的恶意；难道撒旦现在不是激励宗教敌人的舌头，嘲笑那正在流血的教会吗？他们的改革，他们的福音变成了什么？不，我们可以对他们说，你们的眼睛变成了什么？因为当上帝似乎离我们最远的时候，他离他的子民最近。如创世记 22:14 所说：“在耶和华的山上必有所预备。”上帝与他们同在，也在他们里面，尽管恶人没有意识到。就好像在新月和满月之间的时间里，有人问：“月亮现在在哪里？”其实那时月亮离太阳最近。

Quest. Where is now thy God?
问题：你的神现在在哪里？

Ans. In heaven, in earth, in me, everywhere but in the heart of such as ask such questions, and yet there they shall find him too in his time, filling their consciences with his wrath; and then, where is their God? where are their great friends, their riches, their honours, which they set up as a god? what can they avail them now?
在天堂，在地上，在我身上，无处不在，除了那些提出这样问题的人的内心，然而在他们的时间里，他们也会在他们的良心中感受到他的愤怒；那么，他们的上帝在哪里？他们的伟大朋友在哪里？他们的财富、荣誉在哪里？他们把这些当作神来崇拜，现在又能有什么用处呢？

But how was David affected with these reproaches? Their words were as swords, 'as with a sword in my bones,' &c., ver. 10, they spake daggers to him, they cut him to the quick when they touched him in his God, as if he had neglected his servants, whenas the devil himself regards those who serve his turn. Touch a true godly man in his religion, and you touch his life and his best freehold; he lives more in his God than in himself; so that we may see here, there is a murder of the tongue, a wounding tongue as well as a healing tongue. Men think themselves freed from murder if they kill none, or if they shed no blood, whereas they cut others to the heart with bitter words. It is good to extend the commandment to awake the conscience the more, and breed humility, when men see there is a murdering of the tongue. We see David, therefore, upon this reproach, to be presently so moved, as to fall out with himself for it, 'Why art thou so east down and disquieted, O my soul?' This bitter taunt ran so much in his mind, that he expresseth it twice in this psalm; he was sensible that they struck at God through his sides; what they spake in scorn and lightly, he took heavily. And indeed, when religion suffers, if there be any heavenly fire in the heart, it will rather break out, than not discover itself at all. We see by daily experience, that there is a special force in words uttered from a subtle head, a false heart and a smooth tongue, to weaken the hearts of professors, by bringing an evil report upon the strict profession of religion; as the cunning and false spies did upon the good land, Num. 13:27, as if it were not only in vain, but dangerous to appear for Christ in evil times. If the example of such as have faint spirits will discourage in an army, as we see in Gideon's history, Judges 7, then what will speech enforced both by example and with some show of reason do?
但是，大卫受到这些责备的影响如何呢？他们的话就像剑一样，“就像剑刺入我的骨头”，等等，他们对他说的话就像是匕首，当他们触及他的上帝时，他们刺痛了他，好像他忽视了他的仆人，而魔鬼自己却关注那些为他服务的人。触及一个真正虔诚的人的宗教信仰，就是触及他的生命和他最宝贵的财产；他在他的上帝里生活得比在自己里面还多。所以我们可以在这里看到，舌头可以杀人，舌头既可以伤人也可以治愈人。人们认为如果他们不杀人，或者不流血，他们就可以摆脱谋杀的罪责，然而他们却用刻薄的话语刺痛别人的心。当人们看到舌头可以杀人时，将诫命扩展到觉醒良心的更多地方，并培养谦卑，是很好的。因此，我们看到大卫在受到这种责备时，立刻感到如此动情，以至于与自己争吵，“我的灵魂啊，你为什么如此忧伤和不安？”这句刻薄的嘲讽在他的脑海中反复出现，他意识到他们是在通过他来攻击上帝；他们轻蔑和漫不经心地说的话，他却认真对待。 当宗教受到压迫时，如果心中有一丝天堂的火焰，它将会迸发出来，而不是完全隐藏起来。我们每天都能通过经验看到，从一个狡猾的头脑、虚伪的心灵和圆滑的舌头说出的话语，有一种特殊的力量，能够削弱信仰者的心灵，对宗教的严格信仰进行恶意攻击，就像聪明而虚伪的间谍对待美好的土地一样，如同在民数记 13:27 中所描述的那样，好像在邪恶的时代为基督站出来不仅是徒劳无功，而且是危险的。如果那些意志薄弱的人在军队中会让人气馁，就像我们在士师记 7 中所看到的那样，那么那些通过例子和一些合理的理由来强迫言辞的人又会做些什么呢？

4. To let others pass, we need not go further than ourselves, for to find causes of discouragement; there is a seminary of them within us. Our flesh, an enemy so much the worse, by how much the nearer, will be ready to upbraid us within us, 'Where is now thy God?' why shouldst thou stand out in a profession that finds no better entertainment?
为了让别人通过，我们不需要走得比自己更远，因为在我们内心深处就有一个使人沮丧的地方。我们的肉体，一个越近就越糟糕的敌人，会在我们内心责备我们，“你的神在哪里？”为什么你要坚持从事一个找不到更好机会的职业呢？

CHAPTER III.—Of Discouragements from within
第三章——来自内部的挫折

But to come to some particular causes within us. There is cause oft in the body of those in whom a melancholy temper prevaileth. Darkness makes men fearful. Melancholy persons are in a perpetual darkness, all things seem black and dark unto them, their spirits, as it were, dyed black. Now to him that is in darkness, all things seem black and dark; the sweetest comforts are not lightsome enough unto those that are deep in melancholy. It is, without great watchfulness, Satan's bath; which he abuseth as his own weapon to hurt the soul, which, by reason of its sympathy with the body, is subject to be misled. As we see where there is a suffusion of the eye by reason of distemper of humours, or where things are presented through a glass to the eye, things seem to be of the same colour; so whatsoever is presented to a melancholy person, comes in a dark way to the soul. From whence it is that their fancy being corrupted, they judge amiss, even of outward things, as that they are sick of such and such a disease, or subject to such and such a danger, when it is nothing so; how fit are they then to judge of things removed from sense, as of their spiritual estate in Christ?
但是要谈到我们内心的一些特定原因。在那些忧郁的人身上，身体中常常存在一些原因。黑暗使人害怕。忧郁的人处于永恒的黑暗中，一切事物对他们来说都是黑暗的，他们的精神仿佛被染黑了。现在对于那些处于黑暗中的人来说，一切事物都是黑暗的；最甜蜜的安慰对于那些深陷忧郁的人来说也不够明亮。如果没有极大的警惕，这就是撒旦的陷阱；他滥用它作为伤害灵魂的武器，因为灵魂与身体有共鸣，容易被误导。正如我们所见，当眼睛因为体液失调而有浑浊时，或者当事物通过玻璃呈现给眼睛时，事物似乎是相同的颜色；所以任何呈现给忧郁的人的东西，都以一种黑暗的方式进入灵魂。因此，他们的想象力被腐化，他们对外界事物的判断是错误的，比如他们认为自己患有某种疾病，或者面临某种危险，而实际上并非如此；那么，他们又有多适合对超越感官的事物进行判断，比如他们在基督里的属灵状态？

II. Causes privative, of discouragement in ourselves
二、自身的挫败感引起的原因

1. To come to causes more near the soul itself, as when there is want of that which should be in it, as of knowledge in the understanding, &c. Ignorance, being darkness, is full of false fears. In the night time men think every bush a thief. Our forefathers in time of ignorance were frighted with everything; therefore it is the policy of popish tyrants, taught them from the prince of darkness, to keep the people in darkness, that so they might make them fearful, and then abuse that fearfulness to superstition; that they might the better rule in their consciences for their own ends; and that so having entangled them with false fears, they might heal them again with false* cures.
为了更接近灵魂本身的原因，比如当它缺乏应该有的东西，比如理解力的知识等。无知是黑暗的，充满了虚假的恐惧。在夜晚，人们认为每一棵灌木丛都是贼。我们的祖先在无知时代被吓坏了一切；因此，天主教暴君的策略是从黑暗之王那里教导他们保持人民处于黑暗中，这样他们就可以使人民感到恐惧，然后滥用这种恐惧来进行迷信；这样他们就可以更好地在人们的良心中统治，为了自己的目的；这样一来，他们就可以用虚假的恐惧把人们纠缠起来，然后再用虚假的治疗方法来治愈他们。

2. Again, though the soul be not ignorant, yet if it be forgetful and mindless, if, as the apostle saith, 'you have forgot the consolation that speaks unto you,' &c., Heb. 12:5. We have no more present actual comfort than we have remembrance; help a godly man's memory, and help his comfort; like unto charcoal, which, having once been kindled, is the more easy to take fire. He that hath formerly known things, takes ready acquaintance of them again, as old friends; things are not strange to him.
再次，尽管灵魂并非无知，但如果它遗忘和不留心，如使徒所说，“你们已经忘记了劝慰你们的话”，希伯来书 12:5。我们没有比记忆更实际的安慰；帮助虔诚人的记忆，也帮助他的安慰；就像木炭一样，一旦点燃，更容易着火。曾经了解过的事物，再次见面时会立即熟悉，就像老朋友一样；对他来说，事物并不陌生。

3. And further, want of setting due price upon comforts; as the Israelites were taxed for setting nothing by the pleasant land. It is a great fault when, as they said to Job, 'the consolation of the Almighty seem light and small unto us,' Job 15:11, unless we have some outward comfort which we linger after.
此外，对舒适生活的价值缺乏正确评估；就像以色列人因对美好土地不加重视而被征税一样。当我们对全能者的安慰视之如草芥时，这是一个很大的错误，除非我们有一些我们渴望的外在安慰。

4. Add unto this, a childish kind of peevishness: when they have not what they would have, like children, they throw away all; which, though it be very offensive to God's Spirit, yet it seizeth often upon men otherwise gracious. Abraham himself, wanting children, Gen. 15:2, undervalued all other blessings. Jonah, because he was crossed of his gourd, was weary of his life. The like may be said of Elias, flying from Jezebel. This peevishness is increased by a too much flattering of their grief, so far as to justify it; like Jonas, 'I do well to be angry even unto death,' Jonah 4:9; he would stand to it. Some, with Rachel, are so peremptory, that they 'will not be comforted,' Jer. 31:15, as if they were in love with their grievances. Wilful men are most vexed in their crosses. It is not for those to be wilful that have not a great measure of wisdom to guide their wills; for God delights to have his will of those that are wedded to their own wills, as in Pharaoh. No men more subject to discontentments than those who would have all things after their own way.
4. 加之以一种孩子气的坏脾气：当他们得不到他们想要的东西时，像孩子一样，他们就会抛弃一切；虽然这对上帝的灵是非常冒犯的，但它经常发生在其他有恩典的人身上。亚伯拉罕自己没有孩子，对其他一切祝福都看不起。约拿，因为他的葫芦被破坏了，对生活感到厌倦。以利亚也是如此，他逃离耶洗别。这种坏脾气通过过分夸大他们的痛苦而增加，以至于为之辩护；就像约拿，他说：“我发怒，以至于愿意死。”（约拿书 4:9）他坚持己见。有些人像拉结一样固执，他们“不愿受安慰”（耶利米书 31:15），好像他们爱上了自己的苦难。固执的人在遭受挫折时最痛苦。那些没有足够的智慧来引导自己的意愿的人不应该固执；因为上帝喜欢那些固执己见的人，就像法老一样。没有人比那些希望一切都按照自己的方式进行的人更容易不满。

5. Again, one main ground is, false reasoning, and error in our discourse, as that we have no grace when we feel none. Feeling is not always a fit rule to judge our states by, that God hath rejected us, because we are crossed in outward things, whenas this issues from God's wisdom and love. How many imagine their failings to be fallings, and their fallings to be fallings away; infirmities to be presumptions; every sin against conscience, to be the sin against the Holy Ghost; unto which misapprehensions, weak and dark spirits are subject. And Satan, as a cunning rhetorician, here enlargeth the fancy, to apprehend things bigger than they are. Satan abuseth confident spirits another contrary way; to apprehend great sins as little, and little as none. Some also think that they have no grace, because they have not so much as grown Christians; whereas there be several ages in Christ. Some, again, are so desirous and enlarged after what they have not, that they mind not what they have. Men may be rich, though they have no millions, and be not emperors.
再次，一个主要的原因是错误的推理和我们言辞中的错误，比如我们没有恩典的时候我们就没有感觉到。感觉并不总是一个适当的规则来判断我们的状态，上帝拒绝我们，因为我们在外在事物上受到阻碍，而这是出自上帝的智慧和爱。有多少人把自己的失误看作是堕落，把自己的堕落看作是背离；把软弱看作是傲慢；把每一个违背良心的罪看作是亵渎圣灵的罪；对于这些误解，软弱和黑暗的灵魂是容易受到影响的。撒旦作为一个狡猾的修辞学家，在这里扩大了幻想，使人们对事物的理解超过了实际。撒旦还以另一种相反的方式欺骗自信的灵魂，认为大罪是小罪，小罪是没有罪。有些人认为他们没有恩典，因为他们还没有成为真正的基督徒；然而在基督里有不同的阶段。还有一些人对他们所没有的东西非常渴望和追求，以至于忽视了他们所拥有的。人们可以富有，即使他们没有百万富翁，也不是皇帝。

6. Likewise, some are much troubled, because they proceed by a false method and order in judging of their estates. They will begin with election, which is the highest step of the ladder; whereas they should begin from a work of grace wrought within their hearts, from God's calling them by his Spirit, and their answer to his call, and so raise themselves upwards to know their election by their answer to God's calling. 'Give all diligence,' saith Peter, 'to make your calling and election sure,' 2 Pet. 1:10, your election by your calling. God descends down unto us from election to calling, and so to sanctification; we must ascend to him, beginning where he ends. Otherwise it is as great folly as in removing of a pile of wood, to begin at the lowest first, and so, besides the needless trouble, to be in danger to have the rest to fall upon our heads. Which, besides ignorance, argues pride, appearing in this, that they would bring God to their conceits, and be at an end of their work before they begin.
同样，有些人因为在判断自己的地位时采用了错误的方法和顺序而感到困扰。他们会从选举开始，而选举是阶梯的最高一步；然而他们应该从内心中发生的恩典行为开始，从上帝通过圣灵的呼召和他们对呼召的回应开始，然后通过对上帝的呼召的回应来认识自己的选举。彼得说：“你们若将这几样事多多地加给自己，就必使你们在认识我们的主耶稣基督上不至于闲懒不结果。”（彼得后书 1:10）你们的选举通过你们的呼召。上帝从选举降临到呼召，再到成圣；我们必须向他升起，从他结束的地方开始。否则，这就像是在移动一堆木材时，从最底部开始，除了不必要的麻烦，还有可能让其他木材掉在我们头上。这除了无知之外，还表明了傲慢，因为他们想要按照自己的想法来对待上帝，并在开始之前就结束工作。

This great secret of God's eternal love to us in Christ is hidden in his breast, and doth not appear to us, until in the use of means God by his Spirit discovereth the same unto us; the Spirit letteth into the soul so much life and sense of God's love in particular to us, as draweth the soul to Christ, from whom it draweth so much virtue as changeth the frame of it, and quickeneth it to duty, which duties are not grounds of our state in grace, but issues, springing from a good state before; and thus far they help us in judging of our condition, that though they be not to be rested in, yet as streams they lead us to the spring-head of grace from whence they arise.
上帝在基督里对我们永恒的爱的伟大秘密隐藏在他的胸中，直到在使用手段时，上帝通过他的圣灵向我们揭示这个秘密；圣灵让我们的灵魂感受到上帝对我们个人的爱，这使得我们的灵魂被吸引到基督那里，从基督那里得到足够的力量，改变我们的状态，并使我们有能力履行职责。这些职责并不是我们在恩典中的地位的根据，而是从良好的状态中产生的结果；在判断我们的状况时，它们在一定程度上帮助我们，尽管不能依赖它们，但它们像溪流一样引导我们到恩典的源头。

And of signs, some be more apt to deceive us, as being not so certain, as 'delight and joy in hearing the word,' Mat. 13:20, as appeareth in the third ground; some are more constant and certain, as love to those that are truly good, and to all such, and because they are such, &c. These as they are wrought by the Spirit, so the same Spirit giveth evidence to the soul of the truth of them, and leadeth us to faith from whence they come, and faith leads us to the discovery of God's love made known to us in hearing the word opened. The same Spirit openeth the truth to us, and our understandings to conceive of it, and our hearts to close with it by faith, not only as a truth, but as a truth belonging to us.
有些迹象更容易欺骗我们，因为它们不太确定，比如“听到上帝的话语感到愉悦和喜悦”（马太福音 13:20），正如第三个例子所显示的那样；有些迹象更加持久和确定，比如对真正善良的人和所有这样的人的爱，因为他们是这样的人等等。正如它们是由圣灵所创造的，同样的圣灵向灵魂证明了它们的真实性，并引导我们从中获得信仰，而信仰则引导我们发现上帝在听到开启的话语中向我们显明的爱。同样的圣灵向我们启示真理，使我们理解它，并使我们的心灵通过信仰与之相合，不仅作为真理，而且作为属于我们的真理。

Now this faith is manifested, either by itself reflecting upon itself the light of faith, discovering both itself and other things, or by the cause of it, or by the effect, or by all. Faith is oft more known to us in the fruit of it, than in itself, as in plants, the fruits are more apparent than the sap and root. But the most settled knowledge is from the cause, as when I know I believe, because in hearing God's gracious promises opened and offered unto me, the Spirit of God carrieth my soul to cleave to them as mine own portion, Eph. 1:13. Yet the most familiar way of knowledge of our estates is from the effects to gather the cause, the cause being oftentimes more remote and spiritual, the effects more obvious and visible. All the vigour and beauty in nature which we see, comes from a secret influence from the heavens which we see not; in a clear morning we may see the beams of the sun shining upon the top of hills and houses before we can see the sun itself.
现在，这种信仰通过自身反映出信仰的光芒，发现自身和其他事物，或者通过其原因，或者通过其效果，或者通过所有这些方式来显现。信仰在其果实中往往比在自身中更为明显，就像在植物中，果实比汁液和根更为显而易见。但最稳定的认知来自原因，就像当我知道我相信时，因为在听到上帝的恩典应许向我敞开并提供给我的时候，上帝的灵将我的灵魂带到他们身上，使我坚定不移，以此作为我的份额，以弗所书 1:13。然而，我们对自己状况的最熟悉的认知方式是从效果中推断出原因，原因往往更为遥远和精神化，而效果更为明显和可见。我们看到的自然界中所有的活力和美丽都来自我们看不见的天空中的秘密影响；在一个晴朗的早晨，我们可以看到太阳的光束照射在山顶和房屋上，而在看到太阳本身之前。

Things in the working of them, do issue from the cause, by whose force they had their being; but our knowing of things ariseth from the effect, where the cause endeth. We know God must love us before we can love him, and yet we oft first know that we love him, 1 John 4:19; the love of God is the cause why we love our brother, and yet we know we love our brother whom we see more clearly, than God whom we do not see, ver. 20.
在它们的运作中，事物是由原因产生的，而我们对事物的认识是由效果产生的，原因在此终结。我们知道上帝必须先爱我们，然后我们才能爱他，然而我们常常首先知道我们爱他，约翰一书 4:19；上帝的爱是我们爱我们的兄弟的原因，然而我们知道我们爱我们看得更清楚的兄弟，而不是我们看不见的上帝，见 20 节。

It is a spiritual peevishness that keeps men in a perplexed condition, that they neglect these helps to judge of their estates by, whereas God takes liberty to help us sometime to a discovery of our estate by the effects, sometimes by the cause, &c. And it is a sin to set light by any work of the Spirit, and the comfort we might have by it, and therefore we may well add this is one cause of disquietness in many, that they grieve the Spirit, by quarrelling against themselves and the work of the Spirit in them.
这是一种精神上的急躁，使人们处于困惑的状态，他们忽视了通过这些帮助来判断自己状况的机会，而上帝有时会通过效果，有时通过原因等方式帮助我们发现自己的状况。轻视圣灵的任何工作和我们可能从中得到的安慰是一种罪过，因此我们可以很好地补充说，这是许多人不安的原因之一，他们通过与自己和圣灵在他们身上的工作争吵来伤害圣灵。

7. Another cause of disquiet is, that men by a natural kind of popery seek for their comfort too much sanctification, neglecting justification, relying too much upon their own performances. St Paul was of another mind, accounting all but dung and dross, compared to the righteousness of Christ, Philip. 3:8, Philip. 3:9. This is that garment, wherewith being decked, we please our husband, and wherein we get the blessing. This giveth satisfaction to the conscience, as satisfying God himself, being performed by God the Son, and approved therefore by God the Father. Hereupon the soul is quieted, and faith holdeth out this as a shield against the displeasure of God and temptations of Satan. Why did the apostles in their prefaces join grace and peace together,* but that we should seek for our peace in the free grace and favour of God in Christ?
另一个令人不安的原因是，人们通过一种自然的教皇主义寻求过度的成圣，忽视了称义，过于依赖自己的表现。圣保罗持有不同的观点，认为与基督的义比起来，一切都是粪土和垃圾，腓立比书 3:8，腓立比书 3:9。这是我们装饰自己的衣服，讨好我们的丈夫，并得到祝福的衣服。这使良心得到满足，因为它满足了上帝自己，是由上帝之子完成的，因此得到了上帝之父的认可。因此，灵魂得到了安抚，信仰将其作为一面盾牌抵挡上帝的不悦和撒旦的诱惑。使徒们在他们的序言中为什么将恩典和平安结合在一起呢？不就是为了我们应该在基督里寻求自由恩典和上帝的恩宠中的平安吗？

No wonder why papists maintain doubting, who hold salvation by works, because Satan joining together with our consciences will always find some flaw even in our best performances; hereupon the doubting and misgiving soul comes to make this absurd demand, as, Who shall ascend to heaven? Ps. 24:3, which is all one as to fetch Christ from heaven, and so bring him down to suffer on the cross again. Whereas if we believe in Christ we are as sure to come to heaven as Christ is there. Christ ascending and descending, with all that he hath done, is ours. So that neither height nor depth can separate us from God's love in Christ, Rom. 8:39.
天主教徒坚持靠行为得救，难怪他们一直怀疑，因为撒旦与我们的良心联合起来，总能在我们最好的表现中找到一些缺陷；因此，怀疑和疑虑的灵魂提出了这个荒谬的要求，就像谁能升到天堂一样？诗篇 24:3，这与从天堂带回基督，使他再次在十字架上受苦是一样的。然而，如果我们相信基督，我们就像基督在那里一样肯定会进入天堂。基督的升天和降临，以及他所做的一切，都是我们的。所以，无论是高处还是深处，都不能使我们与基督里的上帝的爱分离，罗马书 8:39。

But we must remember, though the main pillar of our comfort be in the free forgiveness of our sins, yet if there be a neglect in growing in holiness, the soul will never be soundly quiet, because it will be prone to question the truth of justification, and it is as proper for sin to raise doubts and fears in the conscience, as for rotten flesh and wood to breed worms.
但是我们必须记住，尽管我们的安慰主要在于罪孽的自由宽恕，但如果在圣洁的成长方面有所忽视，灵魂将永远无法真正安宁，因为它会倾向于质疑称义的真实性，而罪恶在良心中引发疑虑和恐惧，就像腐烂的肉和木头孳生蠕虫一样。

8. And therefore we may well join this as a cause of disquietness, the neglect of keeping a clear conscience. Sin, like Achan, or Jonah in the ship, is that which causeth storms within and without. Where there is not a pure conscience, there is not a pacified conscience; and therefore though some, thinking to save themselves whole in justification, neglect the cleansing of their natures and ordering of their lives, yet in time of temptation they will find it more troublesome than they think. For a conscience guilty of many neglects, and of allowing itself in any sin, to lay claim to God's mercy, is to do as we see mountebanks sometimes do, who wound their flesh to try conclusions upon their own bodies, how sovereign the salve is; yet oftentimes they come to feel the smart of their presumption, by long and desperate wounds. So God will let us see what it is to make wounds to try the preciousness of his balm; such may go mourning to their graves. And though, perhaps, with much wrestling with God they may get assurance of the pardon of their sins, yet their conscience will be still trembling, like-as David's, though Nathan had pronounced unto him the forgiveness of his sin, Ps. 51, till God at length speaks further peace, even as the water of the sea after a storm is not presently still, but moves and trembles a good while after the storm is over. A Christian is a new creature and walketh by rule, and so far as he walketh according to his rule, peace is upon him, Gal. 6:16. Loose walkers that regard not their way, must think to meet with sorrows instead of peace. Watchfulness is the preserver of peace. It is a deep spiritual judgment to find peace in an ill way.
8. 因此，我们可以将这视为不安的原因之一，那就是忽视保持良好的良心。罪恶，就像阿干或约拿在船上一样，会在内外引起风暴。没有纯洁的良心，就没有平静的良心；因此，尽管有些人认为在辩护中可以完全拯救自己，却忽视了净化自己的本性和整理自己的生活，但在面临诱惑时，他们会发现这比他们想象的更麻烦。因为一个有许多疏忽和纵容自己犯罪的良心，却要求上帝的怜悯，就像我们有时看到的江湖郎中一样，他们在自己的身体上试验药膏的效果，创伤自己的肉体；然而，他们往往会因为他们的傲慢而感受到长时间和绝望的伤口的痛苦。因此，上帝会让我们看到制造伤口以试验他宝贵药膏的价值是什么；这样的人可能会悲伤地走向坟墓。尽管也许他们经过与上帝的激烈争斗，可能会确信自己的罪得到了赦免，但他们的良心仍然会颤抖，就像大卫的良心一样，尽管拿单已经向他宣告了他的罪得到了宽恕，诗篇 51，直到上帝最终进一步传达平安，就像海上的水在暴风雨过后不会立即平静，而是在暴风雨结束后还会动荡和颤动一段时间。基督徒是一个新造的人，按照规则行走，只要他按照规则行走，就会有平安，加拉太书 6:16。不守规矩的人不顾自己的行为，必须预料到会遇到悲伤而不是平安。警醒是保持平安的保护者。在错误的道路上找到平安是一种深刻的属灵判断。

9. Some again reap the fruit of their ignorance of Christian liberty, by unnecessary scruples and doubts. It is both unthankfulness to God and wrong to ourselves, to be ignorant of the extent of Christian liberty. It makes melody to Satan to see Christians troubled with that they neither should or need. Yet there is danger in stretching Christian liberty beyond the bounds. For a man may condemn himself in that he approves, as in not walking circumspectly in regard of circumstances, and so breed his own disquiet, and give scandal to others.
有些人再次因为对基督教自由的无知而受到不必要的顾虑和疑虑的困扰。对于基督教自由的范围不了解既是对上帝的不感激，也是对自己的不公正。看到基督徒为他们既不应该也不需要的事情而困扰，这让撒旦感到愉悦。然而，将基督教自由扩展到无限的范围也是有危险的。因为一个人可能会因为他所赞同的事情而谴责自己，比如在考虑到具体情况时没有谨慎行事，这样会给自己带来不安，并给他人带来困扰。

10. Sometimes also, God suffers men to be disquieted for want of employment, who, in shunning labour, procure trouble to themselves; and by not doing that which is needful, they are troubled with that which is unnecessary. An unemployed life is a burden to itself. God is a pure act, always working, always doing; and the nearer our soul comes to God, the more it is in action and the freer from disquiet. Men experimentally feel that comfort, in doing that which belongs unto them, which before they longed for and went without; a heart not exercised in some honest labour works trouble out of itself.
有时候，上帝也容许人们因为缺乏工作而感到不安，那些逃避劳动的人给自己带来了麻烦；由于没有做必要的事情，他们被那些不必要的事情所困扰。失业的生活本身就是一种负担。上帝是纯粹的行动，总是在工作，总是在做事；我们的灵魂越接近上帝，就越能行动起来，越能摆脱不安。人们通过实践感受到，做自己应该做的事情带来的安慰，这是他们之前渴望而没有得到的；一个不从事诚实劳动的心会自己制造麻烦。

11. Again, omission of duties and offices of love often troubles the peace of good people; for even in time of death, when they look for peace and desire it most, then looking back upon their former failings, and seeing opportunity of doing good wanting to their desire (the parties perhaps being deceased to whom they owed more respect), are hereupon much disquieted, and so much the more because they see now hope of the like advantages cut off.
再次，忽视责任和爱的职务常常扰乱善良人的和平；因为即使在死亡时，当他们寻求和平并最渴望时，回顾他们以前的失误，看到无法满足他们愿望的行善机会（也许是因为他们欠更多尊重的人已经去世），因此感到非常不安，而且更加不安，因为他们现在看到了类似好处的希望被切断了。

A Christian life is full of duties, and the peace of it is not maintained without much fruitfulness and looking about us. Debt is a disquieting thing to an honest mind, and duty is debt. Hereupon the apostle layeth the charge, 'that we should owe nothing to any man but love,' Rom. 13:8.
一个基督徒的生活充满了责任，而其中的平安不是没有多少成果和观察周围的维持不下来的。债务对一个正直的心灵来说是令人不安的事情，而责任就是债务。因此，使徒提出了这样的要求：“除了彼此相爱，就不可欠人什么。”（罗马书 13:8）

12. Again, one special cause of too much disquiet is, want of firm resolution in good things. The soul cannot but be disquieted when it knows not what to cleave unto, like a ship tossed with contrary winds. Halting is a deformed and troublesome gesture; so halting in religion is not only troublesome to others and odious, but also disquiets ourselves. 'If God be God, cleave to him,' 1 Kings 18:21. If the duties of religion be such as will bring peace of conscience at the length, be religious to purpose, practise them in the particular passages of life. We should labour to have a clear judgment, and from thence a resolved purpose; a wavering-minded man is inconsistent in all his ways, James 1:6. God will not speak peace to a staggering spirit that hath always its religion and its way to choose. Uncertain men are always unquiet men: and giving too much way to passion maketh men in particular consultations unsettled. This is the reason why, in particular cases, when the matter concerns ourselves, we cannot judge so clearly as in general truths, because Satan raiseth a mist between us and the matter in question.
再说一次，导致过多不安的一个特殊原因是缺乏对善事的坚定决心。当灵魂不知道要依附于什么时，它不得不感到不安，就像一艘被逆风吹动的船。跛行是一种丑陋而麻烦的姿态；因此，在宗教方面的跛行不仅对他人来说是麻烦和可憎的，而且也使我们自己感到不安。《列王记上》18:21 说：“你们若以耶和华为神，就当跟从他。”如果宗教的责任最终能带来良心的平安，那就要真正地宗教，将其实践于生活的具体方面。我们应该努力拥有明确的判断，并从中得出坚定的决心；心思不定的人在一切行事上都是不一致的，雅各书 1:6 说。上帝不会对一个摇摆不定的灵魂说出平安的话，因为它总是有宗教和选择的方式。不确定的人总是不安的人；而过于放纵情感会使人在具体的咨询中感到不稳定。这就是为什么在个别情况下，当事情涉及到我们自己时，我们不能像在一般真理中那样清晰地判断的原因，因为撒旦在我们和问题之间制造了迷雾。

III. Positive causes
三. 积极的原因

May be, 1. When men lay up their comfort too much on outward things, which, being subject to much inconstancy and change, breed disquiet. Vexation always follows vanity, when vanity is not apprehended to be where it is. In that measure we are cast down in the disappointing of our hopes, as we were too much lifted up in expectation of good from them. Whence proceed these complaints: Such a friend hath failed me; I never thought to have fallen into this condition; I had settled my joy in this child, in this friend, &c. But this is to build our comfort upon things that have no firm foundation, to build castles in the air, as we use to say. Therefore it is a good desire of the wise man Agur to desire God 'to remove from us vanity and lies,' Prov. 30:8; that is, a vain and false apprehension pitching upon things that are vain and lying, promising that* contentment to ourselves from the creature which it cannot yield. Confidence in vain things makes a vain heart, the heart becoming of the nature of the thing it relies on. We may say of all earthly things as the prophet speaketh, 'here is not our rest,' Mic. 2:10.
也许，当人们过分依赖外在的事物来获得舒适时，会导致不安。虚荣总是紧随其后，当虚荣没有被认识到时。当我们对希望的落空感到失望时，我们会感到沮丧，因为我们对从中期望好处的事物抱有太高期望。因此，智者亚古尔的一个好愿望是求上帝“使虚荣和谎言离开我们”（箴言 30:8），即指对那些虚幻和虚假的事物产生虚幻和虚假的观念，承诺从无法提供满足的创造物中获得满足。对虚无的信任使心灵变得虚无，心灵变得与其所依赖的事物的性质相同。我们可以像先知所说的那样，对所有世俗的事物说“这里不是我们的安息处”（弥迦书 2:10）。

It is no wonder, therefore, that worldly men are oft cast down and disquieted, when they walk in a vain shadow, Ps. 39:6, as likewise that men given much to recreations should be subject to passionate distempers, because here, things fall out otherwise than they looked for; recreations being about matters that are variable, which especially falls out in games of hazard, wherein they oft spare not divine providence itself, but break out into blasphemy.
因此，世俗之人常常沮丧和不安，这并不奇怪，因为他们在虚幻的影子中行走（诗篇 39:6）。同样，爱好娱乐的人容易受到激烈的情绪波动的影响，因为在这里，事情的发展与他们预期的不同；娱乐活动涉及的是变化无常的事物，尤其是在赌博游戏中，他们常常不尊重神的安排，甚至亵渎神。

Likewise men that grasp more businesses than they can discharge, must needs bear both the blame and the grief of losing or marring many businesses, it being almost impossible to do many things so well as to give content to conscience; hence it is that covetous and busy men trouble both their hearts and their houses. Though some men, from a largeness of parts and a special dexterity in affairs, may turn over much, yet the most capacious heart hath its measure, and when the cup is full, a little drop may cause the rest to spill. There is a spiritual surfeit, when the soul is overcharged with business; it is fit the soul should have its meet burden and no more.
同样，那些承担超过自己能力范围的事务的人，必然会承担失去或破坏许多事务的责备和痛苦，因为很难做到让良心满意地做好许多事情；因此，贪婪和忙碌的人既困扰自己的内心，也困扰自己的家庭。虽然有些人凭借才智和在事务上的特殊灵巧可以处理很多事情，但最宽容的心灵也有其限度，当杯子装满时，一滴水也可能导致其他的溢出。当灵魂被事务过度负荷时，会出现一种精神过剩的情况；灵魂应该承担适当的负担，而不是过多。

2. As likewise, those that depend too much upon the opinions of other men. A very little matter will refresh, and then again discourage, a mind that rests too much upon the liking of others—Sic leve sic parvum est animum quod laudis avarum subruit aut reficit. Men that seek themselves too much abroad, find themselves disquieted at home. Even good men many times are too much troubled with the unjust censures of other men, specially in the day of their trouble. It was Job's case; and it is a heavy thing to have affliction added to affliction. It was Hannah's case, who, being troubled in spirit, was censured by Eli for distemper in brain, 1 Sam. 1:14; but for vain men who live more to reputation than to conscience, it cannot be that they should long enjoy settled quiet, because those in whose good opinion they desire to dwell, are ready often to take up contrary conceits upon slender grounds.
同样地，那些过于依赖他人意见的人也是如此。一个过于依赖他人喜好的心灵，稍微的事情就能使其振奋，然后再次使其沮丧。那些过于在外寻求自己的人，会发现自己在家中感到不安。即使是好人，很多时候也会因为他人的不公正指责而感到困扰，尤其是在他们遭受困扰的时候。这是约伯的情况，而在困境中再增加苦难是一件沉重的事情。这也是哈拿的情况，她在心灵上受到困扰，以至于以利指责她脑子不正常（撒母耳记上 1:14）。但对于那些更注重声誉而不是良心的虚荣之人来说，他们不可能长时间享受稳定的宁静，因为那些他们希望得到好评的人往往会基于薄弱的理由持有相反的看法。

3. It is also a ground of overmuch trouble, when we look too much and too long upon the ill in ourselves and abroad. We may fix our eyes too long even upon sin itself, considering that we have not only a remedy against the hurt by sin, but a commandment to rejoice always in the Lord, Philip. 4:4. Much more may we err in poring too much upon our afflictions; wherein we may find always in ourselves upon search, a cause to justify God, and always something left to comfort us; though we naturally mind more one cross than a hundred favours, dwelling over long upon the sore.
3. 当我们过分关注自身和外界的不幸时，这也是一个麻烦的根源。我们甚至可能过于长时间地盯着罪恶本身，忽视了我们不仅有对抗罪恶伤害的药物，还有一条命令要常常在主里面喜乐（腓立比书 4:4）。我们在沉思过多自己的苦难时也可能犯错；在自我反省中，我们总能找到理由来证明上帝的公正，并且总能找到一些安慰；尽管我们天性上更关注一个十字架而不是一百个恩典，过于长时间地沉湎于痛苦之中。

So likewise, our minds may be too much taken up in consideration of the miseries of the times at home and abroad, as if Christ did not rule in the midst of his enemies, and would not help all in due time; or as if the condition of the church in this world were not for the most part in an afflicted and conflicted condition. Indeed there is a perfect rest both for the souls and bodies of God's people, but that not in this world, but is kept for hereafter; here we are in a sea, where what can we look for but storms?
同样地，我们的思想可能过于关注国内外的困苦，仿佛基督不在敌人中间统治，不会在适当的时候帮助所有人；或者仿佛教会在这个世界上的状况并不是大多数时候都处于困苦和冲突的状态。确实，对于上帝的子民来说，灵魂和身体都有一个完美的安息，但那不在这个世界上，而是为将来保留；在这里，我们处于一个海洋中，我们能期待什么，除了风暴呢？

To insist upon no more, one cause is, that we do usurp upon God, and take his office upon us, by troubling ourselves in forecasting the event of things, whereas our work is only to do our work and be quiet, as children when they please their parents take no further thought; our trouble is the fruit of our folly in this kind.
坚持不再，一个原因是我们侵占了上帝的职责，自作聪明地预测事物的结果，而我们的工作只是做好自己的工作并保持安静，就像孩子们取悦父母时不再多想一样；我们的烦恼是我们在这方面愚蠢的结果。

Use 1. That which we should observe from all that hath been said is, that we be not over hasty in censuring others, when we see their spirits out of temper, for we see how many things there are that work strongly upon the weak nature of man. We may sin more by harsh censure than they by overmuch distemper; as, in Job's case, it was a matter rather of just grief and pity, than great wonder or heavy censure.
我们从所说的一切中应该注意的是，当我们看到别人的精神不安时，我们不要过于急于批评他们，因为我们看到有很多事情对人类脆弱的本性产生强烈的影响。我们可能因为严厉的批评而犯更多的罪，而他们只是因为过度的不安而犯罪；就像约伯的情况一样，这更多是正当的悲伤和同情，而不是巨大的惊讶或严厉的批评。

Use 2. And, for ourselves, if our estate be calm for the present, yet we should labour to prepare our hearts, not only for an alteration of estate, but of spirit, unless we be marvellous careful beforehand, that our spirits fall not down with our condition. And if it befalls us to find it otherwise with our souls than at other times, we should so far labour to bear it, as that we do not judge it our own case alone, when we see here David thus to complain of himself, 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' &c.
使用 2。而且，对于我们自己来说，即使我们目前的状况平静，我们也应该努力准备我们的内心，不仅为了状况的改变，也为了精神的改变，除非我们事先非常小心，以免我们的精神随着我们的状况而下降。如果我们发现我们的灵魂与其他时候不同，我们应该努力承受，不要认为这只是我们自己的情况，当我们看到大卫这样抱怨自己时，'我的灵魂啊，你为什么沮丧？'等等。

CHAPTER IV.—Of casting down ourselves, and specially by sorrow—evils thereof
第四章——自我贬低，尤其是通过悲伤——其恶果

To return again to the words, 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' &c., or, Why dost thou cast down thyself? or, Art cast down by thyself?
为什么你的灵魂沮丧呢？或者，你为什么自己使自己沮丧？或者，你是被自己所沮丧吗？

Obs. 1. Whence we may further observe, that we are prone to cast down ourselves, we are accessory to our own trouble, and weave the web of our own sorrow, and hamper ourselves in the cords of our own twining. God neither loves nor wills that we should be too much cast down. We see our Saviour Christ, how careful he was that his disciples should not be troubled, and therefore he labours to prevent that trouble which might arise by his suffering and departure from them, by a heavenly sermon; 'Let not your hearts be troubled,' &c., John 14:1. He was troubled himself that we should not be troubled. The ground, therefore, of our disquiet is chiefly from ourselves, though Satan will have a hand in it. We see many, like sullen birds in a cage, beat themselves to death. This casting down of ourselves is not from humility, but from pride; we must have our will, or God shall not have a good look from us, but as pettish and peevish children, we hang our heads in our bosom, because our wills are crossed.
注意 1.由此我们可以进一步观察到，我们往往自己使自己沮丧，我们是自己困扰的帮凶，编织了自己悲伤的网，使自己陷入自己纠缠的束缚中。上帝既不爱也不愿我们过于沮丧。我们看到我们的救主基督是多么关心他的门徒不受困扰，因此他努力预防可能因他的受苦和离开而产生的困扰，通过一篇天上的讲道：“你们心里不要忧愁。”（约翰福音 14:1）。他自己为了我们不受困扰而困扰。因此，我们的不安主要是来自我们自己，尽管撒旦也会插手其中。我们看到许多人像笼中的郁闷的鸟一样，自己把自己打死。我们自己的沮丧不是出于谦卑，而是出于骄傲；我们必须按照自己的意愿行事，否则上帝就不会对我们投以好眼光，我们就像脾气暴躁的孩子一样，因为我们的意愿受到了阻碍而低下头来。

Use. Therefore, in all our troubles we should look first home to our own hearts, and stop the storm there; for we may thank our own selves, not only for our troubles, but likewise for overmuch troubling ourselves is trouble. It was not the troubled condition that so disquieted David's soul, for if he had had a quiet mind, it would not have troubled him. But David yielded to the discouragements of the flesh, and the flesh, so far as it is unsubdued, is like the sea that is always casting mire and dirt of doubts, discouragements, and murmurings in the soul; let us, therefore, lay the blame where it is to be laid.
因此，在我们所有的困扰中，我们应该首先回到自己的内心，停止内心的风暴；因为我们不仅要为自己的困扰感谢自己，而且为过度困扰自己而感到困扰也要感谢自己。并不是困扰的状况让大卫的灵魂如此不安，因为如果他的心境平静，它就不会困扰他。但大卫屈服于肉体的挫败感，而肉体，只要它没有被征服，就像是一个不断在灵魂中投掷疑虑、挫折和抱怨的泥泞和污垢的海洋；因此，让我们把责任归咎于应该归咎的地方。

Obs. 2. Again, we see, it is the nature of sorrow to cast down, as of joy to lift up. Grief is like lead to the soul, heavy and cold; it sinks downwards, and carries the soul with it. The poor publican, to shew that his soul was cast down under the sight of his sins, hung down his head, Luke 18:13; the position of his body was suitable to the disposition of his mind, his heart and head were cast down alike. And it is Satan's practice to go over the hedge where it is lowest; he adds more weights to the soul by his temptations and vexations. His sin cast him out of heaven, and by his temptations he cast us out of our paradise, and ever since, he labours to cast us deeper into sin, wherein his scope is, to cast us either into too much trouble for sin, or presumption in sin, which is but a lifting up, to cast us down into deep despair at length, and so at last, if God's mercy stop not his malice, he will cast us as low as himself, even into hell itself.
再次，我们看到，悲伤的本质是使人沮丧，而喜悦的本质是使人振奋。悲伤就像对灵魂的铅一样，沉重而寒冷；它向下沉降，并带着灵魂一起下沉。可怜的税吏为了表明他在看到自己的罪恶时心灵沮丧，低下了头，路加福音 18:13；他的身体姿势与他的心态相符，他的心和头都沮丧了。撒旦的做法是在最低处越过篱笆；他通过诱惑和烦恼给灵魂增加更多的负担。他的罪使他被赶出了天堂，而通过他的诱惑，他将我们赶出了我们的乐园，从那时起，他努力将我们推入更深的罪恶之中，他的目的是使我们陷入过多的罪恶困扰或者对罪恶的自负，这只是一种抬头，最终使我们陷入深深的绝望，如果上帝的怜悯没有阻止他的恶意，他将把我们推到与他一样低的地方，甚至是地狱本身。

Reason. The ground hereof is because, as the joy of the Lord doth strengthen, so doth sorrow weaken the soul. How doth it weaken?
原因。其原因在于，正如主的喜乐能够加强，悲伤也能削弱灵魂。它是如何削弱的呢？

1. By weakening the execution of the functions thereof, because it drinketh up the spirits, which are the instruments of the soul.
通过削弱其功能的执行，因为它喝掉了灵魂的工具，即精神。

2. Because it contracteth, and draweth the soul into itself from communion of that comfort it might have with God or man. And then the soul being left alone, if it falleth, hath none to raise it up, Eccl. 4:10.
因为它收缩并将灵魂从与上帝或人的安慰交流中吸引到自己身上。然后，灵魂被单独留下，如果它跌倒了，就没有人能把它扶起来，传道书 4:10。

Use. Therefore, if we will prevent casting down, let us prevent grief the cause of it, and sin the cause of that. Experience proves that true which the wise man says, 'Heaviness in the heart of a man makes it stoop, but a good word makes it better,' Prov. 12:25. It bows down the soul, and therefore our blessed Saviour inviteth such unto him, 'Come unto me, ye who are heavy laden with the burden of your sins,' Matt. 11:28. The body bends under a heavy burden, so likewise the soul hath its burden, 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul? why so disquieted?' &c.
因此，如果我们要防止沮丧，就让我们防止引起沮丧的原因，以及引起罪恶的原因。经验证明了智者所说的那句话是真实的，“人心忧伤使人低垂，善言使人愉悦”，箴言 12:25。它使灵魂低垂，因此我们的救主邀请这样的人来到他面前，“凡劳苦担重担的人，可以到我这里来”，马太福音 11:28。身体在沉重的负担下弯曲，灵魂也有它的负担，“我为何忧伤，为何在我里面烦扰？”等等。

Obs. 3. Whence we see, 1, that casting down breeds disquieting: because it springs from pride, which is a turbulent passion, whenas men cannot stoop to that condition which God would have them in; this proceeds from discontentment, and that from pride. As we see a vapour enclosed in a cloud causeth a terrible noise of thunder, whilst it is pent up there, and seeketh a vent; so all the noise within proceeds from a discontented swelling vapour. It is air enclosed in the bowels of the earth which shakes it, which all the four winds cannot do.
观察 3. 因此我们看到，首先，沮丧会引发不安：因为它源于骄傲，这是一种动荡的情感，当人们无法接受上帝希望他们处于的状态时，就会产生这种情感；这源于不满，而不满源于骄傲。就像我们看到的，云中封闭的蒸汽会引发可怕的雷声，因为它被困在那里，寻求一种出口；所以所有内部的噪音都源于不满的膨胀蒸汽。它是地球腹地中的空气，它使地球震动，这是四方风所无法做到的。

No creature under heaven so low cast down as Satan, none more lifted up in pride, none so full of discord. The impurest spirits are the most disquiet and stormy spirits, troublesome to themselves and others; for when the soul leaves God once, and looks downwards, what is there to stay it from disquiet? Remove the needle from the pole-star, and it is always stirring and trembling, never quiet till it be right again. So, displace the soul by taking it from God, and it will never be quiet. The devil cast out of heaven and out of the church, keeps ado; so do unruly spirits led by him.
在天下没有比撒旦更卑微的生物，没有比他更骄傲的，没有比他更充满纷争的。最不纯洁的灵魂是最不安宁和暴躁的灵魂，对自己和他人都带来麻烦；因为一旦灵魂离开了上帝，向下看，有什么能使它安宁呢？将指针从北极星上移开，它就会不停地摇晃和颤抖，直到重新指向正确的方向。同样，将灵魂从上帝那里移开，它将永远不会安宁。被赶出天堂和教堂的魔鬼，一直在制造骚乱；被他引导的不守规矩的灵魂也是如此。

Now I come to the remedies.
现在我来谈谈解决办法。

1. By expostulation with himself, Why art, &c.
通过与自己的争辩，为什么是这样的，等等。

2. By laying a charge upon himself, Trust in God.
通过对自己施加责任，信任上帝。

Trust in God. It is supposed here, that there is no reason, which the wisdom from above allows to be a reason, why men should be discouraged; although the wisdom from beneath, which takes part with our corruption, will seldom want a plea. Nay, there is not only no reason for it, but there are strong reasons against it, there being a world of evil in it.
相信上帝。这里假设，没有任何理由，上天的智慧允许成为理由，让人们感到沮丧；尽管与我们的堕落同流合污的下层智慧很少会缺乏辩解。不仅没有理由，而且还有很多强有力的理由反对沮丧，因为其中充满了邪恶。

For, 1. It indisposes a man to all good duties, it makes him like an instrument out of tune, and like a body out of joint, that moveth both uncomely and painfully. It unfits to duties to God, who loves a cheerful giver, and especially a thanksgiver. Whereupon the apostle joins them both together, 'In all things be thankful, and rejoice evermore;' 1 Thess. 5:17, 18. In our communion with God in the sacraments, joy is a chief ingredient. So in duties to men, if the spirit be dejected, they are unwelcome, and lose the greatest part of their life and grace; a cheerful and a free spirit in duty is that which is most accepted in duty. We observe not so much what, as from what affection a thing is done.
对于第一点，它使一个人对所有善行不感兴趣，就像一个失调的乐器，或者一个脱臼的身体，移动起来既不雅观又痛苦。它使人无法胜任对上帝的职责，而上帝喜爱乐意奉献的人，尤其是感恩的人。因此，使徒将它们结合在一起，“凡事谢恩，常常喜乐”（帖撒罗尼迦前书 5:17,18）。在我们与上帝在圣礼中的交流中，喜乐是一个主要的成分。同样，在与人的职责中，如果精神沮丧，它们是不受欢迎的，并且失去了它们生命和恩典的大部分；在职责中，一个快乐和自由的精神是最受欢迎的。我们关注的不是做什么，而是以什么样的情感去做。

2. It is a great wrong to God himself, and it makes us conceive black thoughts of him, as if he were an enemy. What an injury is it to a gracious father that such whom he hath followed with many gracious evidences of his favour and love should be in so ill a frame as once to call it into question!
这是对上帝本身的极大冒犯，让我们对他产生恶劣的想法，好像他是一个敌人。对于一个仁慈的父亲来说，这是多么的伤害，他曾经用许多恩宠和爱的证据追随着这些人，而现在他们却怀疑他的恩宠！

3. So it makes a man forgetful of all former blessings, and stops the influence of God's grace for the time present and for that to come.
所以它使人忘记了所有以前的祝福，并阻止了上帝的恩典对现在和将来的影响。

4. So, again, for receiving of good, it makes us unfit to receive mercies. A quiet soul is the seat of wisdom; therefore, meekness is required for the receiving of that 'engrafted word which is able to save our souls,' James 1:21. Till the Spirit of God meekens the soul, say what you will, it minds nothing; the soul is not empty and quiet enough to receive the seed of the word. It is ill sowing in a storm; so a stormy spirit will not suffer the word to take place. Men are deceived when they think a dejected spirit to be an humble spirit. Indeed, it is so when we are cast down in the sense of our own unworthiness, and then as much raised up in the confidence of God's mercy. But when we cast ourselves down sullenly, and neglect our comforts, or undervalue them, it proceeds from pride; for it controls, as much as in us lies, the wisdom and justice of God, when we think with ourselves, Why should it be so with us? as if we were wiser to dispose of ourselves than God is. It disposeth us for entertaining any temptation. Satan hath never more advantage than upon discontent.
所以，再次说，为了接受善事，我们变得不适合接受怜悯。宁静的灵魂是智慧的座位；因此，接受那个“能救我们灵魂的嵌入的道”，需要温柔，雅各书 1:21。直到上帝的灵温柔了灵魂，无论你说什么，它都不关心；灵魂不够空虚和宁静，无法接受道的种子。在风暴中播种是不好的；所以，暴躁的灵魂不会让道占据地位。当人们认为沮丧的灵魂是谦卑的灵魂时，他们是被欺骗了。确实，当我们在感受到自己的不值时沮丧，然后在上帝的怜悯中得到提升时，它是如此。但当我们沮丧地自我放逐，忽视或低估自己的安慰时，这是出于骄傲；因为当我们自以为比上帝更有智慧来处置自己时，它在我们力所能及的范围内控制了上帝的智慧和公正。它使我们容易受到任何诱惑的引诱。撒旦从来没有比在不满中更有优势。

5. Besides, it keeps off beginners from coming in, and entering into the ways of God, bringing an ill report upon religion, causing men to charge it falsely for an uncomfortable way, whenas men never feel what true comfort meaneth till they give up themselves to God. And it damps, likewise, the spirits of those that walk the same way with us, whenas we should, as good travellers, cheer up one another both by word and example. In such a case the wheels of the soul are taken off, or else, as it were, want oil, whereby the soul passeth on very heavily, and no good action comes off from it as it should, which breeds not only uncomfortableness, but unsettledness in good courses. For a man will never go on comfortably and constantly in that which he heavily undertakes. That is the reason why uncheerful spirits seldom hold out as they should. St Peter knew this well, and therefore he willeth that there should be 'quietness and peace betwixt husband and wife, that their prayers be not hindered,' 1 Pet. 3:7, insinuating that their prayers are hindered by family breaches; for by that means those two that should be one flesh and spirit are divided, and so made two, and when they should mind duty their mind is taken up with wrongs done by the one to the other.
此外，它还阻止初学者进入并融入上帝的道路，给宗教带来了不好的声誉，使人们错误地认为宗教是一条不舒适的道路，而人们只有将自己奉献给上帝后才能真正体会到什么是真正的安慰。它也使与我们走同一条道路的人的精神受到抑制，而我们应该像好的旅行者一样，通过言语和榜样互相鼓励。在这种情况下，灵魂的车轮被拆下来，或者可以说是缺少润滑油，使得灵魂行进得非常沉重，没有好的行动能够顺利完成，这不仅会导致不舒适，还会导致在良好的道路上不稳定。因为一个人在他沉重地承担的事情上永远不会感到舒适和坚定。这就是为什么不快乐的精神很少能够坚持下去的原因。圣彼得很了解这一点，因此他希望夫妻之间应该有“宁静与和平，以免妨碍他们的祈祷”，彼得前书。 暗示他们的祈祷因家庭破裂而受阻；因为这样一来，本应成为一体的两个人的肉体和精神被分开，变成了两个人，当他们应该关注责任时，他们的注意力却被彼此之间的冤屈所占据。

There is nothing more required for the performing of holy duties than uniting of spirits, and therefore God would not have the sacrifice brought to the altar before reconciliation with our brother, Matt. 5:24. He esteems peace so highly, that he will have his own service stay for it. We see when Moses came to deliver the Israelites out of bondage, Exod. 9, their mind was so taken up with their grief that there was nobody within to give Moses an answer; their souls went altogether after their ill usage.
履行圣职所需的最重要的事情就是团结精神，因此上帝不会让祭品在与兄弟和解之前被带到祭坛上，马太福音 5:24。他非常重视和平，以至于他要求自己的仪式等待和解。我们可以看到，当摩西来解救以色列人脱离奴役时，出埃及记 9 章，他们的心思都被痛苦所占据，没有人能回答摩西；他们的灵魂完全被他们受到的虐待所吸引。

Use. Therefore, we should all endeavour and labour for a calmed spirit, that we may the better serve God in praying to him and praising of him; and serve one another in love, that we may be fitted to do and receive good, that we may make our passage to heaven more easy and cheerful, without drooping and hanging the wing. So much as we are quiet and cheerful upon good grounds, so much we live, and are, as it were, in heaven. So much as we yield to discouragement, we lose so much of our life and happiness cheerfulness being, as it were, that life of our lives and the spirit of our spirits by which they are more enlarged to receive happiness and to express it.
因此，我们应该努力工作，努力保持平静的心灵，这样我们才能更好地侍奉上帝，向他祈祷和赞美他；并且以爱心互相侍奉，这样我们才能更好地做好事和接受好事，这样我们的通往天堂的道路就会更加轻松和愉快，不会低落和失去动力。我们在合理的基础上保持平静和愉快的程度，我们就活着，就像是在天堂一样。我们越是屈服于沮丧，我们就失去了生活和幸福的那么多，因为愉快就是我们生活的生命，是我们精神的精神，通过它们我们才能更加开阔地接受幸福并表达它。

CHAPTER V.—Remedies of casting down to cite the soul, and press it to give an account

Obs. 1. But to come to some helps:
但是为了提供一些帮助：

First, in that he expostulates with himself, we may observe that one way to raise a dejected soul is to cite it before itself, and, as it were, to reason the case. God hath set up a court in man's heart, wherein the conscience hath the office both of informer, accuser, witness, and judge; and if matters were well carried within ourselves, this prejudging would be a prevention of future judging. It is a great mercy of God that the credit and comfort of man are so provided for that he may take up matters in himself, and so prevent public disgrace. But if there be not a fair dispatch and transaction in this inferior court within us, there will be a review in a higher court. Therefore, by slubbering over our matters we put God and ourselves to more trouble than needs. For a judgment must pass, first or last, either within us or without us, upon all unwarrantable distempers. We must not only be ready to give an account of our faith, upon what grounds we believe; but of all our actions, upon what grounds we do what we do; and of our passions, upon what grounds we are passionate; as in a well-governed state, uproar and sedition is never stirred, but account must be given. Now in a mutiny, the presence and speech of a venerable man composeth the minds of the disordered multitude; so likewise in a mutiny of the spirit, the authority that God hath put into reason, as a beam of himself, commands silence, and puts all in order again.
首先，我们可以观察到，他与自己争辩的方式是提醒自己，好像在为自己辩护。上帝在人的内心中设立了一个法庭，良心既是通知者、控告者、证人又是法官；如果我们内心的事务处理得当，这种预先判断就能防止未来的审判。上帝的一大恩典是为人提供了信用和安慰，使他能够在自己内心解决问题，从而避免公开的耻辱。但是，如果我们内心的这个下级法庭没有公正地处理和解决问题，就会在更高级的法庭上进行复审。因此，如果我们草率地处理问题，就会给上帝和自己带来更多的麻烦。因为对于所有不合理的不适，早晚都会有一个审判，无论是在我们内心还是在外部。我们不仅要准备好对我们的信仰进行解释，我们相信的基础是什么；而且要对我们的行为进行解释，我们为什么要做这些事情的基础是什么；对于我们的情感，我们为什么会有这些情感的基础是什么；就像在一个良好管理的国家中，只有在骚乱和叛乱时才需要解释。 现在，在一次叛乱中，一位威严的人的存在和讲话使得混乱的群众冷静下来；同样地，在精神的叛乱中，上帝赋予理性的权威，如同他自己的一束光，命令沉默，并重新使一切井然有序。

Reason. And there is good reason for it, for man is an understanding creature, and hath a rule given him to live by, and therefore is to be countable of every thought, word, action, passion. Therefore the first way to quiet the soul, is, to ask a reason of the tumult raised, and then many of our distempers for shame will not appear, because though they rage in silent darkness, yet they can say nothing for themselves, being summoned before strength of judgment and reason. Which is the reason why passionate men are loth that any court should be kept within them; but labour to stop judgment all they can. If men would but give themselves leave to consider better of it, they would never yield to such unreasonable motions of the soul; if they could but gain so much of their unruly passions, as to reason the matter within themselves, to hear what their consciences can tell them in secret, there would not be such offensive breakings out. And therefore, if we be ashamed to hear others upbraiding us, let us for shame hear ourselves; and if no reason can be given, what an unreasonable thing is it for a man endowed with reason to contrary his own principles! and to be carried as a beast without reason; or if there be any reason to be given, then this is the way to scan it, see whether it will hold water or not. We shall find some reasons, if they may be so called, to be so corrupt and foul, that if the judgment be not corrupted by them, they dare not be brought to light, but always appear under some colour and pretext; for sin, like the devil, is afraid to appear in its own likeness, and men seek out fair glosses for foul intentions. The hidden, secret reason is one, the open is another; the heart being corrupt sets the wit awork, to satisfy corrupt will; such kind of men are afraid of their own consciences, as Ahab of Micaiah, 1 Kings 22:16, because they fear it would deal truly with them; and therefore they take either present order for their consciences, or else, as Felix put off Paul, Acts 24:25, they adjourn the court for another time. Such men are strangers at home, afraid of nothing more than themselves, and therefore in a fearful condition, because they are reserved for the judgment of the great day, if God doth not before that set upon them in this world. If men, carried away with their own lusts, would give but a little check, and stop themselves in their posting to hell, and ask, What have I done? What am I now about? Whither will this course tend? How will it end? &c., undoubtedly men would begin to be wise. Would the blasphemer give away his soul for nothing (for there is no engagement of profit or pleasure in this as in other sins, but it issues merely out of irreverence, and a superfluity of profaneness), would he, I say, draw so heavy a guilt upon himself for nothing, if he would but make use of his reason? Would an old man, when he is very near his journey's end, make longer provision for a short way, if he would ask himself a reason? But, indeed, covetousness is an unreasonable vice.
原因。而且有充分的理由，因为人是一个有理解力的生物，他被赋予了一条生活准则，因此他对每一个思想、言语、行动和情感都要负责。因此，安抚灵魂的第一种方法是询问骚动的原因，这样许多我们的不适就不会显露出来，因为虽然它们在沉默的黑暗中肆虐，但它们无法为自己辩护，当它们被召唤到强大的判断和理性面前时。这就是为什么激情的人不愿意在自己内心保持任何法庭的原因；而是努力尽可能地阻止判断。如果人们能够给自己一点时间来更好地考虑，他们就不会屈服于灵魂的这种不合理的冲动；如果他们能够控制住自己不受无序的情感支配，从而在内心中理性地思考问题，听听他们的良心在秘密中告诉他们的话，就不会有这样令人讨厌的爆发。因此，如果我们因为听到别人责备我们而感到羞愧，那么为了面子，让我们也听听自己；如果没有理由可以给出，那么一个拥有理性的人违背自己的原则是多么不合理的事情啊！ 被当作没有理智的野兽般被携带；或者如果有任何理由可以给出，那么这就是审视它的方法，看看它是否站得住脚。我们会发现一些理由，如果可以这样称呼它们的话，它们是如此腐败和肮脏，以至于如果判断没有被它们腐化，它们就不敢被揭示出来，而总是以某种借口和假象出现；因为罪恶，就像魔鬼一样，害怕以自己的样貌出现，而人们为邪恶的意图寻找美丽的掩饰。隐藏的、秘密的理由是一种，公开的理由是另一种；心灵的腐败使智慧工作起来，以满足腐败的意愿；这种人害怕自己的良心，就像亚哈害怕米该雅一样，列王记上 22:16，因为他们害怕良心会对他们真实地处理；因此，他们要么立即安排自己的良心，要么像腓力斯推迟保罗一样，使法庭推迟到另一个时间。这样的人在家里是陌生人，害怕的东西比自己更多，因此处于可怕的境地，因为他们被保留到大审判的日子，除非上帝在这个世界上先对他们采取行动。 如果人们被自己的欲望冲昏了头脑，只要稍微自我约束一下，停下前往地狱的脚步，问问自己，我做了什么？我现在在做什么？这条路将通往何方？会有怎样的结局？等等，毫无疑问，人们会开始变得明智。亵渎者会无偿地放弃自己的灵魂（因为与其他罪恶不同，这并没有利益或快乐的承诺，而纯粹源于不敬和过度的亵渎），如果他只是运用一下自己的理性，他会为自己招致如此沉重的罪孽吗？一个年老的人，在他即将结束旅程时，会为短暂的路程做更长远的准备吗，如果他问问自己一个理由？但事实上，贪婪是一种不合理的恶习。

If those also of the younger sort would ask of themselves, why God should not have the flower and marrow of their age? and why they should give their strength to the devil? it might a little take them off from the devil's service. But sin is a work of darkness, and therefore shuns not only the light of grace, but even the light of reason. Yet sin seldom wants a seeming reason. Men will not go to hell without a show of reason. But such be sophistical fallacies, not reasons; and, therefore, sinners are said to play the sophisters with themselves. Satan could not deceive us, unless we deceived ourselves first, and are willingly deceived. Wilful sinners are blind, because they put out the light of reason, and so think God, like themselves, blind too, Ps. 50:21, and, therefore, they are deservedly termed madmen and fools; for, did they but make use of that spark of reason, it would teach them to reason thus: I cannot give an account of my ways to myself; what account shall I, or can I, give then to the Judge of all flesh ere it be long.
如果那些年轻人也问问自己，为什么上帝不能拥有他们年轻时的花朵和精华？为什么他们要把力量给魔鬼？这可能会稍微让他们远离魔鬼的服务。但罪是黑暗的工作，因此不仅回避了恩典的光明，甚至回避了理性的光明。然而，罪很少缺乏表面上的理由。人们不会毫无理由地去地狱。但这些都是诡辩的谬论，而不是理由；因此，罪人被称为与自己玩弄诡辩。撒旦不能欺骗我们，除非我们首先欺骗自己，并且自愿被欺骗。故意犯罪者是盲目的，因为他们熄灭了理性的光明，所以认为上帝也像他们一样盲目，诗篇 50:21，因此，他们当之无愧地被称为疯子和愚人；因为，如果他们利用那一点点理性，它会教导他们这样推理：我无法向自己解释我的行为；那么在不久的将来，我将如何向万物的审判者解释呢？

And as it is a ground of repentance in stopping our course to ask, What have I done? so likewise of faith and new obedience, to ask, What shall I do for the time to come? and then upon settling, the soul in way of thanks will be ready to ask of itself, 'What shall I return to the Lord?' &c. So that the soul, by this dealing with itself, promoteth itself to all holy duties till it come to heaven.
并且当我们停下脚步问自己“我做了什么？”时，这是悔改的基础；同样地，对于信仰和新的顺从，我们也要问自己“将来我该做什么？”然后，在感恩的过程中，灵魂会准备好问自己，“我该如何回报主呢？”等等。因此，通过这种与自己的交流，灵魂将自我推动到一切圣洁的职责，直到进入天堂。

1. The reason why we are thus backward to the keeping of this court in ourselves is self-love. We love to flatter our own affections, but this self-love is but self-hatred in the end. As the wise man says, he that regards not this part of wisdom, 'hates his own soul, and shall eat the fruits of his own ways,' Prov. 1:31.
我们之所以如此不愿将这个法庭留在自己内心中，原因是自爱。我们喜欢奉承自己的情感，但最终这种自爱只是自我憎恨。正如智者所说，不重视智慧的人“恨恶自己的灵魂，必吃自己所行的果子”（箴言 1:31）。

2. As likewise it issues from an irksomeness of labour, which makes us rather willing to seem base and vile to ourselves and others, than to take pains with our own hearts to be better, as those that are weary of holding the reins give them up unto the horse neck, and so are driven whither the rage of the horse carrieth them. Sparing a little trouble at first, doubles it in the end; as he who will not take the pains to cast up his books, his books will cast up him in the end. It is a blessed trouble that brings sound and long peace. This labour saves God a labour, for therefore he judgeth us, because we would not take pains with ourselves before, 1 Cor. 11:31.
同样，这源于对劳动的厌烦，使我们宁愿在自己和他人面前显得卑贱和恶劣，也不愿费心改善自己的内心，就像那些厌倦握住缰绳的人将其交给马颈一样，被马的狂暴所驱使。一开始省点麻烦，最后会加倍付出；就像那些不愿费心核对账目的人，最后会被账目核对。这是一种带来健全和长久平安的幸福的麻烦。这种劳动节省了上帝的劳动，因为他因为我们之前不愿费心自省而审判我们，哥林多前书 11:31。

3. And pride also, with a desire of liberty, makes men think it to be a diminishing of greatness and freedom either to be curbed, or to curb ourselves. We love to be absolute and independent; but this, as it brought ruin upon our nature in Adam, so it will upon our persons. Men, as Luther was wont to say, are born with a pope in their belly, they are loath to give an account, although it be to themselves, their wills are, instead of a kingdom to them, mens mihi pro regno.
3. 并且骄傲，伴随着对自由的渴望，使人们认为被限制或自我约束是对伟大和自由的削弱。我们喜欢绝对和独立；但是，正如它在亚当身上带来了毁灭一样，它也会在我们个人身上带来毁灭。正如路德曾经说过的那样，人们生来就有一个教皇在他们的肚子里，他们不愿意交代，即使是对自己，他们的意志对他们来说就像一个王国。

Let us, therefore, when any lawless passions begin to stir, deal with our souls as God did with Jonah, 'Doest thou well to be angry?' Jonah 4:4 to fret thus. This will be a means to make us quiet; for, alas! what weak reasons have we often of strong motions. Such a man gave me no respect, such another looked more kindly upon another man than upon me, &c. You have some of Haman's spirit, Esth. 5:13, that for a little neglect would ruin a whole nation. Passion presents men that are innocent as guilty to us, facit ira nocentes; and because we will not seem to be mad without reason, pride commands the wit to justify anger, and so one passion maintains and feeds another.
因此，当任何无法无天的激情开始激发时，让我们像上帝对约拿所做的那样对待我们的灵魂，“你因为发怒，有理吗？”（约拿书 4:4）。这将是使我们安静的一种方法；因为，唉！我们常常对强烈的情感有着脆弱的理由。某人对我不尊重，另一个人对另一个人比对我更友善，等等。你有哈曼的精神（以斯帖记 5:13），稍微的忽视就会毁掉整个国家。激情使无辜的人在我们眼中变得有罪，facit ira nocentes；而因为我们不愿意看起来毫无理由地发疯，傲慢命令智慧为愤怒辩护，于是一种激情维持并滋养着另一种激情。

Obs. 2. Neither is it sufficient to cite the soul before itself; but it must be pressed to give an account, as we see here David doubles and trebles the expostulation; as oft as any distemper did arise, so oft did he labour to keep it down. If passions grow too insolent, Eli's mildness will do no good, 1 Sam. 2:24. It would prevent much trouble in this kind to subdue betimes, in ourselves and others, the first beginnings of any unruly passions and affections; which, if they be not well tutored and disciplined at the first, prove as headstrong, unruly, and ill nurtured children, who, being not chastened in time, take such a head, that it is oft above the power of parents to bring them in order. A child set at liberty, saith Solomon, 'breeds shame, at length, to his parents,' Prov. 29:15. Adonijah's example shews this. The like may be said of the affections set at liberty; it is dangerous to redeem a little quiet by yielding to our affections, which is never safely gotten but by mortification of them.
注 2：仅仅引用灵魂本身是不够的；我们必须迫使它解释，正如我们在这里看到的，大卫反复追问，每当出现任何不适时，他就努力控制住它。如果激情变得太傲慢，以利的温和是无济于事的，撒母耳记上 2:24。及早制服我们自己和他人中任何不受控制的激情和情感的最初迹象，可以避免很多麻烦；如果它们在最初阶段没有受到良好的教育和纪律，它们就会变得任性、难以控制和不良的孩子，如果不及时管教，父母很难使他们有秩序。所罗门说，一个被放任的孩子最终会给父母带来羞耻，箴言 29:15。亚多尼雅的例子说明了这一点。同样可以说情感被放任也是危险的；通过屈服于我们的情感来换取一点安宁是不安全的，只有通过对它们的克制才能安全地获得。

Those that are in great place are most in danger, by yielding to themselves, to lose themselves; for they are so taken up with the person for a time put upon them, that they, both in look and speech and carriage, often shew that they forget both their natural condition as men, and much more their supernatural as Christians; and therefore are scarce counselable by others or themselves in those things that concern their severed condition, that concerneth another world. Whereas it were most wisdom so to think of their place they bear, whereby they are called gods, Ps. 82:6, 7, as not to forget they must lay their person aside, and 'die like men,' 2 Sam. 24:4. David himself that in his afflicted condition could advise with himself, and check himself, yet in his free and flourishing estate neglected the counsel of his friends. Agur was in jealousy of a full condition, and lest instead of saying, what have I done? why am I thus cast down, &c., he should say, 'Who is the Lord?' Prov. 30:9.
那些处于高位的人最容易陷入危险，因为他们往往会迷失自己，全神贯注于暂时加在他们身上的身份，以至于在言谈举止中常常表现出忘记了他们作为人的本质条件，更不用说作为基督徒的超自然条件了。因此，他们在关乎他们分离的状态、关乎另一个世界的事情上，很少能接受他人或自己的劝告。相反，最明智的做法是要意识到他们所承担的职责，被称为“神”，如诗篇 82:6,7 所说，不要忘记他们必须放下个人身份，像人一样“死去”，如撒母耳记下 24:4 所说。大卫自己在受苦的时候能够自我反省和自我约束，但在自由和繁荣的时候却忽视了朋友们的劝告。亚古尔对富足的境况心存疑虑，担心自己会说出“我做了什么？我为什么如此沮丧？”而不是说“谁是主？”（箴言 30:9）。

Meaner men in their lesser sphere often shew what their spirits would be, if their compass were enlarged.
在他们较小的领域中，更卑劣的人常常展示出如果他们的范围扩大了，他们的精神将会是什么样子。

It is a great fault in breeding youth, for fear of taking down of their spirits, not to take down their pride, and get victory of their affections: whereas a proud unbroken heart raiseth us more trouble often than all the world beside. Of all troubles, the trouble of a proud heart is the greatest. It was a great trouble to Haman to lead Mordecai's horse, Esth. 6:1, which another man would not have thought so; the moving of a straw is troublesome to proud flesh. And therefore it is good to 'bear the yoke from our youth,' Lam. 3:27; it is better to be taken down in youth, than to be broken in pieces by great crosses in age. First or last, self-denial and victory over ourselves is absolutely necessary; otherwise faith, which is a grace that requireth self-denial, will never be brought into the soul, and bear rule there.
对于培养年轻人来说，不降低他们的自尊心，战胜他们的情感，是一个很大的错误。一个骄傲而不服输的心灵往往会给我们带来比世界上其他一切都更多的麻烦。骄傲的心灵是最大的困扰。对哈曼来说，领着末底改的马是一件很大的困扰，以斯帖记 6:1，而其他人可能不会这样认为；对骄傲的肉体来说，一根稻草的移动也是麻烦的。因此，从年轻时就要“背负轭”，耶利米哀歌 3:27；年轻时被降低要比年老时被巨大的困难击垮要好。早晚，自我否定和战胜自己是绝对必要的；否则，信仰，这是一种需要自我否定的恩典，将永远无法进入灵魂，并在那里统治。

Quest. But, what if pressing upon our souls will not help?
但是，如果对我们的灵魂施加压力没有帮助呢？

Ans. Then speak to God, to Jesus Christ by prayer, that as he rebuked the winds and the waves, and went upon the sea, so he would walk upon our souls, and command a calm there. It is no less power to settle a peace in the soul, than to command the seas to be quiet. It is God's prerogative to rule in the heart, as likewise to give it up to itself, which, next to hell is the greatest judgment; which should draw us to the greater reverence and fear of displeasing God. It was no ill wish of him,* that desired God to free him from an ill man, himself. Domine, libera me a malo homine, meipso.
然后，通过祈祷与上帝、耶稣基督交谈，就像他责备风和浪，并在海上行走一样，他也会在我们的灵魂上行走，并在那里命令平静。在灵魂中安定和平与命令海洋平静一样具有同样的力量。统治人心是上帝的特权，也是将其交给自己的最大的审判，仅次于地狱，这应该使我们更加敬畏和害怕得罪上帝。他希望上帝使他摆脱一个坏人，也不是一个坏的愿望，而是希望上帝使他摆脱一个坏人，也不是一个坏的愿望。主啊，使我摆脱邪恶的人，使我摆脱自己。

CHAPTER VI.—Other observations of the same nature
第六章-同类的其他观察

Obs. 3. Moreover we see that a godly man can cast a restraint upon himself, as David here stays himself in falling. There is a principle of grace, that stops the heart, and pulls in the reins again when the affections are loose. A carnal man, when he begins to be cast down, sinks lower and lower, until he sinks into despair, as lead sinks into the bottom of the sea. 'They sunk, they sunk, like lead in the mighty waters,' Exod. 15:5. A carnal man sinks as a heavy body to the centre of the earth, and stays not if it be not stopped: there is nothing in him to stay him in falling, as we see in Ahithophel and Saul, 2 Sam. 17:23, who, wanting a support, found no other stay but the sword's point. And the greater their parts and places are, the more they entangle themselves; and no wonder, for they are to encounter with God and his deputy, conscience, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords. When Cain was cast out of his father's house, his heart and countenance was always cast down, for he had nothing in him to lift it upwards. But a godly man, though he may give a little way to passion, yet, as David, he recovers himself. Therefore as we would have any good evidence that we have a better spirit in us than our own, greater than the flesh or the world, let us, in all troubles we meet with, gather up ourselves, that the stream of our own affections carry us not away too far.
此外，我们看到一个虔诚的人可以自我约束，就像大卫在这里阻止自己跌倒一样。有一种恩典的原则，当情感松散时，它会停止心灵，并再次收回缰绳。一个肉体的人，当他开始沮丧时，会越陷越深，直到陷入绝望，就像铅沉入海底一样。出埃及记 15:5 说：“他们沉没，像铅沉在大水中。”一个肉体的人像一个沉重的物体沉入地心，如果没有阻止，就不会停下来：他内心没有任何东西可以阻止他跌倒，就像我们在亚希多弗和扫罗身上看到的那样，他们没有支持，只能依靠剑尖。他们的才能和地位越大，他们就越陷入困境；这也不奇怪，因为他们要面对上帝和他的代理人良心，良心是万王之王，万主之主。当该隐被赶出父亲的家时，他的心灵和容貌总是沮丧的，因为他内心没有任何东西可以抬起它。但一个虔诚的人，虽然可能会稍微动怒，但像大卫一样，他会恢复自己。 因此，既然我们希望有任何好的证据表明我们内心有一个比我们自己更好的精神，比肉体或世界更伟大，让我们在遇到所有的困难时，收拾好自己，不要让我们自己的情感冲动把我们带得太远。

There is an art or skill of bearing troubles, if we could learn it, without overmuch troubling of ourselves, as in bearing of a burden there is a way so to poise it that it weigheth not over heavy: if it hangs all on one side, it poises the body down. The greater part of our troubles we pull upon ourselves, by not parting our care so, as to take upon us only the care of duty, and leave the rest to God; and by mingling our passions with our crosses, and like a foolish patient, chewing the pills which we should swallow down. We dwell too much upon the grief, when we should remove the soul higher. We are nearest neighbours unto ourselves. When we suffer grief, like a canker, to eat into the soul, and like a fire in the bones, to consume the marrow and drink up the spirits, we are accessory to the wrong done both to our bodies and souls: we waste our own candle, and put out our light.
如果我们能学会一种忍受困难的艺术或技巧，而不过分困扰自己，就像承担负担时有一种方法可以使其不那么沉重：如果它只悬挂在一侧，它会使身体倾斜。我们大部分的困扰都是自找的，因为我们没有将我们的关心分开，只承担责任的关心，把其他的交给上帝；并且通过将我们的激情与我们的困境混合在一起，就像一个愚蠢的病人，咀嚼我们应该吞下的药丸。当我们应该将灵魂提升到更高的地方时，我们过于沉浸在悲伤中。我们离自己最近。当我们让悲伤像溃疡一样侵蚀灵魂，像火焰一样消耗骨髓和精神时，我们对我们的身体和灵魂都是有害的：我们浪费了自己的蜡烛，熄灭了我们的光芒。

Obs. 4. We see here again, that a godly man can make a good use of privacy. When he is forced to be alone he can talk with his God and himself; one reason whereof is, that his heart is a treasury and storehouse of divine truths, whence he can speak to himself, by way of check, or encouragement of himself: he hath a Spirit over his own spirit, to teach him to make use of that store he hath laid up in his heart. The Spirit is never nearer him than when by way of witness to his spirit he is thus comforted; wherein the child of God differs from another man, who cannot endure solitariness, because his heart is empty; he was a stranger to God before, and God is a stranger to him now, so that he cannot go to God as a friend. And for his conscience, that is ready to speak to him that which he is loth to hear: and therefore he counts himself a torment to himself, especially in privacy.
注意事项 4. 我们再次看到，虔诚的人可以善用独处。当他被迫独自一人时，他可以与上帝和自己交谈；其中一个原因是，他的心是神圣真理的宝库和仓库，他可以通过对自己的自我检查或鼓励来与自己说话：他有一个超越自己的灵，教导他利用他在心中积累的宝藏。当他因此得到安慰时，圣灵从未离他更近；这是神的儿女与其他人的区别，其他人无法忍受孤独，因为他们的心是空虚的；他以前对上帝是陌生的，现在上帝对他也是陌生的，所以他无法将上帝视为朋友。至于他的良心，它准备告诉他他不愿听到的事情：因此，他认为自己在独处时是一种折磨。

We read of great princes, who after some bloody designs were as terrible to themselves,* as they were formerly to others, and therefore could never endure to be awaked in the night, without music or some like diversion. It may be, we may be cast into such a condition, where we have none in the world to comfort us; as in contagious sickness, when none may come near us, we may be in such an estate wherein no friend will own us. And therefore let us labour now to be acquainted with God and our own hearts, and acquaint our hearts with the comforts of the Holy Ghost; then, though we have not so much as a book to look on, or a friend to talk with, yet we may look with comfort into the book of our own heart, and read what God hath written there by the finger of his Spirit. All books are written to amend this one book of our heart and conscience. Ideo scribuntur omnes libri, ut emendetur unus. By this means we shall never want a divine to comfort us, a physician to cure us, a counsellor to direct us, a musician to cheer us, a controller to check us, because, by help of the word and Spirit, we can be all these to ourselves.
我们读到过伟大的王子，他们在一些血腥的计划之后对自己变得像对别人一样可怕，因此他们无法忍受在夜间被唤醒而没有音乐或其他娱乐。也许我们会陷入这样的境地，世界上没有人来安慰我们；比如在传染病中，没有人能靠近我们，我们可能处于没有朋友愿意承认我们的状态。因此，让我们现在努力认识上帝和我们自己的内心，让我们的内心与圣灵的安慰相互熟悉；然后，即使我们没有书籍可看，也没有朋友可交谈，我们仍然可以安慰地看着自己内心的书，读出上帝用他的灵写在那里的内容。所有的书都是为了修正我们内心和良心的这本书。 Ideo scribuntur omnes libri, ut emendetur unus.通过这种方式，我们将永远不会缺少一个神来安慰我们，一个医生来治愈我们，一个顾问来指导我们，一个音乐家来鼓舞我们，一个监督来制止我们，因为借助上帝的话语和圣灵的帮助，我们可以成为自己的这一切。

Obs. 5. Another thing we see here, that God hath made every man a governor over himself. The poor man, that hath none to govern, yet may he be a king in himself. It is the natural ambition of man's heart to desire government, as we see in the bramble, Judges 9. Well then, let us make use of this disposition to rule ourselves. Absalom had high thoughts. O, if I were a king, I would do so and so! so our hearts are ready to promise, if I were as such and such a man in such and such a place, I would do this and that.
注意 5. 我们在这里看到的另一件事是，上帝使每个人都成为自己的统治者。即使是没有人统治的穷人，也可以成为自己的国王。正如我们在士师记 9 章中所见，这是人类内心的自然野心，渴望统治。因此，让我们利用这种统治自己的倾向。押沙龙心高气傲。哦，如果我是国王，我会这样做那样做！所以我们的内心也愿意承诺，如果我是某个地方的某个人，我会做这个那个。

But how dost thou manage thine own affections? How dost thou rule in thine house, in thyself? Do not passions get the upper hand, and keep reason under foot? When we have learned to rule over our own spirits well, then we may be fit to rule over others. 'He that is faithful in a little, shall be set over more,' Matt. 25:21. 'He that can govern himself,' in the wise man's judgment, 'is better than he that can govern a city,' Prov. 16:32. He that cannot, is like a city without a wall, where those that are in may go out, and the enemies without may come in at their pleasure. So where there is not a government set up, there sin breaks out, and Satan breaks in without control.
但是你如何管理自己的情感？你如何在自己的家庭和自己身上掌控？激情是否占了上风，让理智受到压制？当我们学会很好地掌控自己的精神时，我们才能够胜任管理他人。《马太福音》25:21 说：“在小事上忠心的，我要派你管理许多大事。”智者认为，“能控制自己的人比能管理一座城市的人更好。”《箴言》16:32。那些不能控制自己的人就像没有城墙的城市，里面的人可以随意出去，外面的敌人也可以随意进来。所以，在没有建立起一种管理制度的地方，罪恶会爆发，撒旦会无法无天地进入。

Obs. 6. See again, the excellency of the soul, that can reflect upon itself, and judge of whatsoever comes from it. A godly man's care and trouble is especially about his soul, as David here looks principally to that, because all outward troubles are for to help that. When God touches our bodies, our estates, of our friends, he aims at the soul in all. God will never remove his hand, till something be wrought upon the soul, as 'David's moisture was as the drought in summer,' Ps. 32:4, so that he roared, and carried himself unseemly for so great and holy a man, till his heart was subdued to deal without all guile with God in confessing his sin; and then God forgave him the iniquity thereof, and healed his body too. In sickness, or in any other trouble, it is best the divine should be before the physician, and that men begin where God begins. In great fires, men look first to their jewels, and then to their lumber; so our soul is our best jewel. A carnal, worldly man is called, and well called, a fleshly man, because his very soul is flesh, and there is nothing but the world in him. And therefore, when all is not well within, he cries out, My body is troubled, my state is broken, my friends fail me, &c.; but all this while, there is no care for the poor soul, to settle a peace in that.
观察 6. 再次看到，灵魂的卓越之处在于能够反思自身，并判断一切来自于它的事物。虔诚的人特别关心和忧虑自己的灵魂，正如大卫在这里主要关注的是灵魂，因为所有外在的困扰都是为了帮助灵魂。当上帝触摸我们的身体、我们的财产或我们的朋友时，他的目标都是灵魂。上帝永远不会撤回他的手，直到在灵魂上有所作为，正如诗篇 32:4 所说，大卫的体液就像夏天的干旱一样，以至于他咆哮，行为不端，对于一个伟大而圣洁的人来说，直到他的心被征服，毫无诡计地与上帝交往，承认自己的罪过；然后上帝赦免了他的罪孽，并且也医治了他的身体。在疾病或其他困扰中，最好是神在医生之前，人们应该从神开始。在大火中，人们首先看自己的珠宝，然后才看其他无用的东西；同样，我们的灵魂是我们最宝贵的珠宝。一个肉体的、世俗的人被称为肉体的人，这是很恰当的称呼，因为他的灵魂就是肉体，他内心只有世界。 因此，当一切不顺利时，他大声喊道，我的身体不舒服，我的状态破碎了，我的朋友们背叛了我等等；但与此同时，对于可怜的灵魂并没有关心，没有为其安定内心的和平。

The possession of the soul is the richest possession, no jewel so precious. The account for our own souls, and the souls of others, is the greatest account, and therefore the care of souls should be the greatest care. What an indignity is it, that we should forget such souls to satisfy our lusts! to have our wills! to be vexed with any, who by their judgment, example, or authority, stop, as we suppose, our courses! Is it not the greatest plot in the world, first, to have their lusts satisfied; secondly, to remove, either by fraud or violence, whatsoever standeth in their way; and, thirdly, to put colours and pretences upon this to delude the world and themselves, employing all their carnal wit and worldly strength for their carnal aims, and fighting for that which fights against their own souls? For, what will be the issue of this but certain destruction?
灵魂的拥有是最丰富的财富，没有比它更珍贵的宝石。对于我们自己的灵魂和他人的灵魂的关注是最重要的关注，因此对灵魂的关怀应该是最重要的关怀。我们竟然忘记了这样的灵魂来满足我们的欲望，满足我们的意愿，为了那些通过他们的判断、榜样或权威阻止我们的行动而感到烦恼！这难道不是世界上最大的阴谋吗？首先，满足他们的欲望；其次，通过欺骗或暴力手段移除一切阻碍他们的东西；第三，为了欺骗世人和自己而给这一切涂上色彩和借口，动用他们所有的肉体智慧和世俗力量来追求肉体的目标，为了与自己的灵魂作对而战斗？因为，这样做的结果不是必然的毁灭吗？

Of this mind are not only the dregs of people, but many of the more refined sort, who desire to be eminent in the world; and to have their own desires herein, give up the liberty of their own judgments and consciences to the desires and lusts of others. To be above others, they will be beneath themselves, having those men's persons in admiration for hope of advantage, whom otherwise they despise; and so, substituting in their spirits man in the place of God, lose heaven for earth, and bury that divine spark, their souls, capable of the divine nature, and fitter to be a sanctuary and temples for God to dwell in, than by closing with baser things to become base itself. We need not wonder that others seem base to carnal men, who are base both in and to themselves. It is no wonder they should be cruel to the souls of others, who are cruel to their own souls; that they should neglect and starve others, that give away their own souls in a manner for nothing. Alas! upon what poor terms do they hazard that, the nature and worth whereof is beyond man's reach to comprehend! Many are so careless in this kind, that if they were thoroughly persuaded that they had souls that should live for ever, either in bliss or torment, we might the more easily work upon them. But as they live by sense, as beasts, so they have no more thoughts of future times than beasts, except at such times as conscience is awaked by some sudden judgment, whereby God's wrath is revealed from heaven against them. But happy were it for them, if they might die like beasts, whose misery dies with them.
这种思维不仅仅存在于底层人民，还有许多更高尚的人，他们渴望在世界上出类拔萃；为了实现自己的欲望，他们放弃了自己判断和良心的自由，而屈从于他人的欲望和私欲。为了超越他人，他们愿意屈服于自己，对那些他们鄙视的人抱有崇拜之情，希望从中获得利益；因此，他们将人置于上帝的位置，将天堂换成了尘世，并埋葬了那神圣的火花——他们的灵魂，它们有能力拥有神性的本质，更适合成为上帝居住的圣所和殿堂，而不是与低级的事物接触，使自己变得卑微。我们不必惊讶于其他人在肉体上看起来卑贱，因为他们在内心和对自己而言都是卑贱的。难怪他们对他人的灵魂残忍，因为他们对自己的灵魂也是残忍的；难怪他们会忽视和饥饿他人，因为他们自己的灵魂几乎是白白地放弃的。唉！他们以如此微不足道的代价冒险，而这种代价的本质和价值是超出人类理解范围的！ 许多人在这方面非常粗心，如果他们彻底相信自己有永生的灵魂，无论是在幸福还是痛苦中，我们就更容易对他们产生影响。但是，由于他们像野兽一样以感官为生活依据，所以除非良心在某些突然的审判中被唤醒，上帝的愤怒从天上向他们显现，否则他们对未来没有更多的思考，就像野兽一样。但如果他们能像野兽一样死去，那对他们来说是幸福的，因为他们的痛苦会随之消逝。

To such an estate hath sin brought the soul, that it willingly drowneth itself in the senses, and becomes, in some sort, incarnate with the flesh.
罪恶使灵魂陷入如此境地，以至于它愿意沉溺于感官之中，并在某种程度上与肉体融为一体。

We should therefore set ourselves to have most care of that, which God cares most for, which he breathed into us at first, set his own image upon, gave so great a price for, and values above all the world besides. Shall all our study be to satisfy the desires of the flesh, and neglect this?
我们因此应该最关注上帝最关心的事情，他最初赋予我们的，他自己的形象，为此付出了如此巨大的代价，并将其视为超越世界上一切的宝贵。我们的学习难道都是为了满足肉体的欲望，而忽视了这一点吗？

Is it not a vanity to prefer the casket before the jewel, the shell before the pearl, the gilded potsherd before the treasure? and is it not much more vanity to prefer the outward condition before the inward? The soul is that which Satan and his hath most spite at, for in troubling our bodies or estates, he aims at the vexation of our souls. As in Job (ch. 1.) his aim was to abuse that power God had given him over his children, body, and goods, to make him, out of a disquieted spirit, blaspheme God. It is an ill method to begin our care in other things, and neglect the soul, as Ahithophel, who set his house in order, when he should have set his soul in order first, 2 Sam. 17:23. Wisdom begins at the right end. If all be well at home, it comforts a man, though he meets with troubles abroad. Oh, saith be, I shall have rest at home; I have a loving wife and dutiful children: so whatsoever we meet withal abroad, if the soul be quiet, thither we can retire with comfort. See that all be well within, and then all troubles from without cannot much annoy us.
把珠宝放在首饰盒之前，把珍珠放在贝壳之前，把镀金的陶片放在宝藏之前，这不是虚荣吗？把外在条件放在内在之前，这不是更加虚荣吗？灵魂是撒旦和他的追随者最痛恨的，因为在困扰我们的身体或财产时，他的目的是使我们的灵魂痛苦。就像在约伯记（第一章）中，他的目的是滥用上帝赋予他对他的孩子、身体和财产的权力，使他在心灵不安的情况下亵渎上帝。以其他事物开始我们的关心，忽视灵魂是一种不好的方法，就像亚希多弗，他在应该先整理自己的灵魂时，却整理了自己的家，撒母耳记下 17:23。智慧从正确的角度开始。如果家里一切都好，即使在外面遇到困难，也能给人安慰。他说：“哦，我在家里会有安宁；我有一个爱我的妻子和孝顺的孩子。”所以，无论我们在外面遇到什么，如果灵魂安宁，我们可以在那里安心退隐。确保内心一切安好，那么外界的一切困扰也不能太过困扰我们。

Grace will teach us to reason thus—God hath given mine enemies power over my liberty and condition, but shall they have power and liberty over my spirit? It is that which Satan and they most seek for; but never yield, O my soul! and thus a godly man will become more than a conqueror; when in appearance he is conquered, the cause prevails, his spirit prevails, and is undaunted. A Christian is not subdued till his spirit is subdued. Thus Job prevailed over Satan and all his troubles, at length. This tormenteth proud persons, to see godly men enjoy a calm and resolute frame of mind in the midst of troubles; when their enemies are more troubled in troubling them, than they are in being troubled by them.
恩典将教导我们这样推理——上帝赋予我的敌人对我自由和境况的权力，但他们能够对我的精神拥有权力和自由吗？这正是撒旦和他们最渴望的；但是，我的灵魂啊，永不屈服！这样，一个虔诚的人将超越征服者的地位；当他在外表上被征服时，原因占上风，他的精神占上风，并且无畏。直到他的精神被征服，基督徒才会被征服。这样，约伯最终战胜了撒旦和他的一切困扰。骄傲的人痛苦地看到虔诚的人在困境中保持平静和坚定的心态；当他们的敌人在困扰他们时比他们自己被困扰时更加痛苦。

Obs. 7. We see likewise here, how to frame our complaints. David complains not of God, nor of his troubles, nor of others, but of his own soul; he complains of himself to himself, as if he should say, Though all things else be out of order, yet, O my soul, thou shouldst not trouble me too, thou shouldst not betray thyself unto troubles, but rule over them. A godly man complains to God, yet not of God, but of himself. A carnal man is ready to justify himself and complain of God, he complains not to God, but of God, at the least, in secret murmuring, he complains of others that are but God's vials; he complains of the grievance that lies upon him, but never regards what is amiss in himself within; openly he cries out upon fortune, yet secretly he striketh at God, under that idol of fortune, by whose guidance all things come to pass; whilst he quarrels with that which is nothing, he wounds him that is the cause of all things; like a gouty man that complains of his shoe, and of his bed, or an aguish man of his drink, when the cause is from within. So men are disquieted with others, when they should rather be disquieted and angry with their own hearts.
注 7：我们在这里也看到了如何表达我们的抱怨。大卫不抱怨上帝，也不抱怨他的困境，也不抱怨他人，而是抱怨自己的灵魂；他向自己抱怨自己，好像在说，尽管其他一切都不顺利，但是，哦，我的灵魂，你不应该给我添麻烦，你不应该让自己陷入困境，而是应该掌控它们。虔诚的人向上帝抱怨，但不是抱怨上帝，而是抱怨自己。肉体的人倾向于为自己辩护，抱怨上帝，他不向上帝抱怨，而是抱怨上帝，至少在私下里抱怨，他抱怨那些只是上帝的容器的人；他抱怨压在他身上的不幸，但从不关注自己内心的错误；公开地他对命运大声抱怨，但在秘密中他攻击上帝，在那个命运的偶像下，所有事情都是由它引导的；当他与无关紧要的事争吵时，他伤害了一切事物的根源；就像一个关节炎患者抱怨他的鞋子和床，或者一个患有疟疾的人抱怨他的饮料，而原因却是内在的。所以当人们应该对自己的内心感到不安和愤怒时，他们却因为他人而感到不安。

We condemn Jonah for contending with God, and justifying his unjust anger, but yet the same risings are in men naturally, if shame would suffer them to give vent to their secret discontent; their heart speaks what Jonah his tongue spake. Oh! but here we should lay our hand upon our mouth, and adore God, and command silence to our souls.
我们谴责约拿争辩上帝，并为他的不公正愤怒辩护，但人类天性中也存在同样的愤怒，只要羞耻不阻止他们发泄内心的不满；他们的心灵说出了约拿口中的话。哦！但在这里，我们应该捂住嘴巴，敬拜上帝，并命令我们的灵魂保持沉默。

No man is hurt but by himself first. We are drawn to evil, and allured from a true good to a false by our own lusts, 'God tempts no man,' James 1:13. Satan hath no power over us further than we willingly lie open to him. Satan works upon our affections, and then our affections work upon our will. He doth not work immediately upon the will. We may thank ourselves in willingly yielding to our own passions, for all that ill Satan or his instruments draws us unto. Saul was not vexed with an evil spirit, 1 Sam. 16, till he gave way to his own evil spirit of envy first. The devil entered not into Judas, Mat. 27:3, until his covetous heart made way for him. The apostle strengthened his conceit against rash and lasting anger from hence, that by this we give way to the devil, Eph. 4:27. It is a dangerous thing to pass from God's government, and come under Satan's.
没有人会受到伤害，除非他自己首先伤害自己。我们被邪恶所吸引，被自己的欲望引诱离开真正的善良，“上帝不会引诱任何人”，雅各书 1:13。撒旦对我们的影响力只限于我们自愿向他敞开心扉。撒旦作用于我们的情感，然后我们的情感作用于我们的意志。他不直接作用于意志。我们应该归咎于自己，因为我们自愿屈服于自己的激情，才会受到撒旦或他的工具引诱我们走向邪恶。扫罗在 1 撒母耳记 16 章之前并没有被邪恶的灵所困扰，直到他首先屈服于自己的嫉妒之心。犹大在马太福音 27:3 中并没有被魔鬼附身，直到他贪婪的心为他打开了大门。使徒从这里加强了他对轻率和持久愤怒的看法，因为通过这种方式，我们给了魔鬼机会，以弗所书 4:27。离开上帝的统治，进入撒旦的统治是一件危险的事情。

Satan mingleth himself with our own passions, therefore we should blame ourselves first, be ashamed of ourselves most, and judge ourselves most severely. But self-love teacheth us a contrary method, to translate all upon others; it robs us of a right judgment of ourselves. Though we desire to know all diseases of the body by their proper names, yet we will conceive of sinful passions of the soul under milder terms; as lust under love, rage under just anger, murmuring under just displeasure, &c. Thus whilst we flatter our grief, what hope of cure! Thus sin hath not only made all the creatures enemies to us, but ourselves the greatest enemies to ourselves; and therefore we should begin our complaints against ourselves, and discuss ourselves thoroughly. How else shall we judge truly of other things without us, above us, or beneath us? The sun when it rises, enlightens first the nearest places, and then the more remote; so where true light is set up, it discovers what is amiss within first.
撒旦与我们自己的激情融为一体，因此我们应该首先责怪自己，最为羞愧，最严厉地审判自己。但自爱教导我们相反的方法，将一切归咎于他人；它剥夺了我们对自己的正确判断。虽然我们希望通过它们的正式名称了解身体的所有疾病，但我们会用较温和的词语来描述灵魂的罪恶激情；如将欲望称为爱，将暴怒称为正义的愤怒，将抱怨称为正当的不满等。因此，当我们奉承我们的悲伤时，有何治愈的希望！因此，罪不仅使所有的生物成为我们的敌人，而且使我们自己成为我们自己最大的敌人；因此，我们应该从自己开始抱怨，并彻底审视自己。否则，我们如何能真正判断我们之外、我们之上或我们之下的其他事物呢？太阳升起时，首先照亮最近的地方，然后才是更远的地方；因此，真正的光明所照耀的地方，首先揭示内部的问题。

Obs. 8. Hence also we see, that as in all discouragements a godly man hath most trouble with his own heart, so he knows how to carry himself therein, as David doth here.
因此，我们也可以看到，正如在所有的挫折中，一个虔诚的人最困扰自己的心灵一样，他知道如何在其中行事，就像大卫在这里所做的一样。

For the better clearing of this, we must know there be divers kinds and degrees of conflicts in the soul of man whilst it is united to the body.
为了更好地澄清这一点，我们必须知道人的灵魂与身体结合时存在各种不同种类和程度的冲突。

1. First, between one corrupt passion and another, as between covetousness and pride; pride calls for expense, covetousness for restraint. Oft passions fight not only against God and reason, to which they owe a homage, but one against another; sin fights against sin, and a lesser sin is oftentimes overcome by a greater. The soul in this case is like the sea tossed with contrary winds: and like a kingdom divided, wherein the subjects fight both against their prince, and one against another.
首先，在一个腐败的激情和另一个激情之间，比如贪婪和傲慢之间；傲慢需要花费，贪婪需要克制。激情常常不仅反对上帝和理性，对它们应该表示敬意，而且相互之间争斗；罪恶与罪恶相斗，较小的罪恶往往被较大的罪恶所克服。在这种情况下，灵魂就像被相反风吹动的海洋，就像一个分裂的王国，其中臣民既反对他们的君主，又相互之间争斗。

2. Secondly, there is a natural conflict in the affections, whereby nature seeks to preserve itself, as betwixt anger and fear; anger calls for revenge, fear of the law binds the soul to be quiet. We see in the creatures, fear makes them abstain from that which their appetites carry them unto. A wolf comes to the* flock with an eagerness to prey upon it, but seeing the shepherd standing in defence of his sheep, returns and doth no harm; and yet for all this, as he came a wolf, so he returns a wolf.
其次，情感中存在着一种自然的冲突，自然倾向于自我保护，如愤怒和恐惧之间的冲突；愤怒呼唤复仇，对法律的恐惧束缚着灵魂使其保持安静。我们看到，在动物中，恐惧使它们远离自己的欲望。一只狼渴望捕食羊群，但看到牧羊人站在羊群的防御中，它返回并没有伤害；然而，尽管如此，它来时是一只狼，回去时也是一只狼。

A natural man may oppose some sin from an obstinate resolution against it,† not from any love of God, or hatred of sin, as sin, but because he conceives it a brave thing to have his will; as one hard weapon may strike at another, as a stone wall may beat back an arrow. But this opposition is not from a contrariety of nature, as is betwixt fire and water.
一个自然人可能会因为顽固的决心而反对某些罪恶，而不是出于对上帝的爱或对罪恶的憎恶，因为他认为拥有自己的意愿是一件勇敢的事情，就像一种坚硬的武器可以打击另一种武器，就像一堵石墙可以击退一支箭。但这种反对并不是因为本性的对立，就像火和水之间的对立一样。

3. Thirdly, there is a conflict of a higher nature, as between some sins and the fight of reason helped by a natural conscience. The heathen could reason from the dignity of the soul, to count it a base thing to prostitute themselves to beastly lusts, so as it were degrading and unmanning themselves. Major sum et ad majora natus quam ut corporis mei sim mancipium. (Seneca, Ep. 65). Natural men, desirous to maintain a great opinion of themselves, and to awe the inferior sort by gravity of deportment in carriage, will abstain from that which otherwise their hearts carry them unto, lest yielding should render them despised, by laying themselves too much open; as because passion discovers a fool as he is, and makes a wise man thought meaner than he is; therefore a prudent man will conceal his passion. Reason refined and raised by education, example, and custom, doth break in some degree the force of natural corruption, and brings into the soul, as it were, another nature, and yet no true change; as we see in such as have been inured to good courses, they feel conscience checking them upon the first discontinuance and alteration of their former good ways, but this is usually from a former impression of their breeding, as the boat moves some little time upon the water by virtue of the former stroke; yet at length we see corruption prevailing over education, as in Jehoash, who was awed by the reverent respect he bare to his uncle Jehoiada, he was good 'all his uncle's days,' 2 Kings 12:2. And in Nero, in whom the goodness of his education prevailed over the fierceness of his nature, for the first five years (a).
第三，存在着一种更高层次的冲突，即某些罪恶与理性的斗争，后者得到了自然良心的帮助。异教徒可以从灵魂的尊严出发，认为将自己沦为兽欲是一种卑劣的行为，就像是贬低和剥夺了自己的男子气概。自然人渴望维持对自己的高度评价，并通过庄重的举止来震慑下层人群，他们会避免内心本能地追求的事物，以免屈服会使他们被轻视，因为这样会过于暴露自己；因为激情会暴露一个人的愚蠢，使一个智者被认为比他实际上更卑微；因此，一个明智的人会隐藏自己的激情。 由于教育、榜样和习俗的原因，理性在一定程度上克服了自然的腐败力量，并将另一种本质带入灵魂，但并没有真正的改变；正如我们所见，那些习惯于良好行为的人，在第一次中断和改变他们以前的良好方式时，会感到良心的警告，但这通常是由于他们教养的先前印象，就像船只在水上由于先前的划桨而继续前进一段时间；然而，我们最终看到腐败战胜了教育，就像约阿施一样，他因对叔叔约耶大的尊敬而受到威慑，在他叔叔的一生中他都是善良的（《列王记下》12:2）；还有尼禄，他的良好教育战胜了他凶猛的本性，在头五年里（a）。

4. Fourthly, but in the church, where there shineth a light above nature, as there is a discovery of more sins, and some strength, with the light to perform more duty; so there is a further conflict than in a man that hath no better than nature in him. By a discovery of the excellent things of the gospel, there may be some kind of joy stirred up, and some degree of obedience: whence there may be some degree of resistance against the sins of the gospel, as obstinate unbelief, desperation, profaneness, &c. A man in the church may do more than another out of the church, by reason of the enlargement of his knowledge; whereupon such cannot sin at so easy a rate as others that know less, and, therefore, meet with less opposition from conscience.
第四，但在教会中，那里有一种超越自然的光辉，因为有更多的罪恶被揭示出来，以及一些力量，通过这种光明来履行更多的责任；所以与那些只有自然本性的人相比，教会中的人会有更进一步的斗争。通过对福音的卓越事物的发现，可能会激起某种喜悦，并产生某种程度的顺从：因此，可能会有一定程度的抵抗福音中的罪恶，如顽固的不信、绝望、亵渎等。在教会中的人可能比教会外的人做得更多，因为他们的知识更加广博；因此，这些人不能像知识较少的人那样轻易犯罪，并且因此在良心上遭遇的阻力也较少。

5. Fifthly, There is yet a further degree of conflict betwixt the sanctified powers of the soul and the flesh, not only as it is seated in the baser parts, but even in the best faculties of the soul, and as it mingles itself with every gracious performance: as in David, there is not only a conflict between sin and conscience, enlightened by a common work of the Spirit; but between the commanding powers of the soul sanctified, and itself unsanctified, between reasons of the flesh and reasons of the Spirit, between faith and distrust, between the true light of knowledge and false light. For it is no question but the flesh would play its part in David, and muster up all the strength of reason it had. And usually flesh, as it is more ancient than the spirit, we being first natural, then spiritual, so it will put itself first forward in devising shifts, as Esau comes out of the womb first before Jacob, Gen. 25:25; yet hereby the spirit is stirred up to a present examination and resistance, and in resisting, as we see here, at length the godly gets the victory. As in the conflict between the higher parts of the soul with the lower, it clearly appears that the soul doth not rise out of the temper of the body, but is a more noble substance, commanding the body by reasons fetched from its own worth; so in this spiritual conflict, it appears there is something better than the soul itself, that hath superiority over it.
第五，灵魂的圣洁力量与肉体之间存在着进一步的冲突，不仅仅是在较低的部分，甚至在灵魂的最佳能力中，以及在每一个恩典的表现中都有所融合：就像在大卫身上，不仅仅是罪恶与受到圣灵共同工作启示的良心之间的冲突，还有灵魂中圣洁的命令力与未得圣洁的自身之间的冲突，肉体的理性与圣灵的理性之间的冲突，信仰与不信任之间的冲突，真正的知识之光与虚假之光之间的冲突。因为毫无疑问，肉体会在大卫身上发挥作用，并集结所有理性的力量。通常情况下，肉体比灵性更古老，我们先是自然的，然后才是属灵的，所以它会首先设法设计出应对方法，就像以扫在雅各布之前出生一样（创世记 25:25）；然而，这激发了灵性进行即时的审查和抵抗，在抵抗中，正如我们在这里看到的，虔诚的人最终获得了胜利。 在灵魂的高层与低层之间的冲突中，很明显地表明灵魂并非从身体的气质中产生，而是一种更高贵的物质，通过从自身价值中获取的理由来指挥身体；因此，在这种精神冲突中，似乎有比灵魂本身更好的东西，它具有对灵魂的优势。

CHAPTER VII.—Difference between good men and others in conflicts with sin
第七章 - 善良人与其他人在与罪恶的冲突中的区别

Quest. But how doth it appear that this combat in David was a spiritual combat?
但是如何证明大卫的这场战斗是一场属灵的战斗呢？

Ans. 1. First, A natural conscience is troubled for sins against the light of nature only, but David for inward and secret corruptions, as discouragement and disquietness arising from faint-trusting in God.
首先，一个天然的良心只会因违背自然之光而感到烦恼，但大卫却因内心深处的隐藏腐败而感到沮丧和不安，这源于对上帝的信任不足。

David's conflict was not only with the sensual, lower part of his soul, which is carried to ease and quiet and love of present things, but he was troubled with a mutiny in his understanding between faith and distrust; and therefore he was forced to rouse up his soul so oft to trust in God; which shews that carnal reason did solicit him to discontent, and had many colourable reasons for it.
大卫的冲突不仅仅是与他的感性、低级灵魂的一部分发生了冲突，这部分灵魂倾向于追求安逸、宁静和对现实事物的喜爱，而且他的理解力也受到了信仰和不信任之间的叛乱的困扰；因此，他不得不经常唤醒自己的灵魂去信任上帝；这表明，肉体的理性确实引诱他产生不满，并且有很多似是而非的理由。

2. Secondly, A man endued with common grace in rather a patient than an agent in conflicts; the light troubles him against his will, as discovering and reproving him, and hindering his sinful contentments; his heart is more biassed another way if the light would let him; but a godly man labours to help the light, and to work his heart to an opposition against sin; he is an agent as well as a patient. As David here doth not suffer disquieting, but is disquieted with himself for being so. A godly man is an agent in opposing his corruption, and a patient in enduring of it, whereas a natural man is a secret agent in and for his corruptions, and a patient in regard of any help against them; a good man suffers evil and doth good, a natural man suffers good and doth evil.
其次，一个具有普通恩典的人在冲突中更像是一个耐心的人而不是一个行动者；光明不由他的意愿而困扰他，因为它揭示和指责他，并阻碍他的罪恶满足；如果光明让他，他的心会更倾向于另一种方式；但一个虔诚的人努力帮助光明，并努力使自己的心反对罪恶；他既是行动者又是耐心的人。正如大卫在这里不受困扰，而是因为自己而困扰。一个虔诚的人在对抗自己的败坏时是一个行动者，同时也是一个耐心的人；而一个自然人是他自己败坏的秘密行动者，并且在对抗他们时是一个耐心的人；一个好人忍受邪恶并行善，一个自然人忍受善并行恶。

3. Thirdly, A conscience guided by common light withstands distempers most by outward means; but David here fetcheth help from the Spirit of God in him, and from trust in God. Nature works from within, so doth the new nature. David is not only something disquieted, and something troubled for being disquieted, but sets himself thoroughly against his distempers; he complains and expostulates, he censures and chargeth his soul. The other, if he doth anything at all, yet it is faintly; he seeks out his corruption as a coward doth his enemy, loath to find him, and more loath to encounter him.
第三，一个受常识指导的良心通过外在手段最能抵御疾病；但大卫在这里从内心中寻求上帝的灵感和对上帝的信任。自然从内部起作用，新的本性也是如此。大卫不仅感到不安和困扰，还全力对抗他的疾病；他抱怨和争辩，他指责和责备自己的灵魂。另一方面，即使他做了一些事情，也是软弱无力的；他像懦夫对待敌人一样寻找他的腐败，不愿找到他，更不愿与他对抗。

4. Fourthly, David withstands sin constantly, and gets ground. We see here he gives not over at the first, but presseth again and again. Nature works constantly, so doth the new nature. The conflict in the other is something forced, as taking part with the worser side in himself; good things have a weak, or rather no party in him, bad things a strong; and therefore he soon gives over in this holy quarrel.
第四，大卫不断地抵抗罪恶，并取得了胜利。我们在这里看到他不会在一开始就放弃，而是一次又一次地努力。自然界不断运作，新的本性也是如此。他在与罪恶的斗争中是被迫的，好像在自己内心中与较差的一方站在一起；善良的事物在他身上没有强大的力量，而恶劣的事物却有；因此他很快就在这场圣洁的争斗中放弃了。

5. Fifthly, David is not discouraged by his foils,* but sets himself afresh against his corruptions, with confidence to bring them under. Whereas he that hath but a common work of the Spirit, after some foils, lets his enemy prevail more and more, and so despairs of victory, and thinks it better to sit still than to rise and take a new fall; by which means his latter end is worse than his beginning; for beginning in the spirit, he ends in the flesh. A godly man, although upon some foil, he may for a time be discouraged, yet by holy indignation against sin he renews his force, and sets afresh upon his corruptions, and gathers more strength by his falls, and groweth into more acquaintance with his own heart and Satan's malice, and God's strange ways in bringing light out of darkness.
第五，大卫并不因为自己的失败而气馁，而是充满信心地重新对抗自己的邪恶，力求将其征服。而那些只有一般属灵工作的人，在一些失败后，让敌人越来越占上风，因此对胜利感到绝望，认为坐着不动比起身再次跌倒更好；这样一来，他的结局比起起初更糟糕，因为他虽然是在灵里开始，却以肉体结束。虽然一个虔诚的人在遭受一些失败时可能会暂时感到气馁，但通过对罪恶的圣洁愤怒，他重新振作起来，再次对抗自己的邪恶，并通过跌倒获得更多力量，更加了解自己的内心、撒旦的恶意以及上帝在黑暗中带来光明的奇妙方式。

6. Sixthly, An ordinary Christian may be disquieted for being disquieted, as David was, but then it is only as disquiet hath vexation in it; but David here striveth against the unquietness of his spirit, not only as it brought vexation with it, but as it hindered communion with his God.
第六，一个普通的基督徒可能因为不安而感到不安，就像大卫一样，但这只是因为不安中有烦恼；但大卫在这里与他的灵魂的不安斗争，不仅是因为它带来了烦恼，而且还因为它妨碍了与上帝的交流。

In sin there is not only a guilt binding over the soul to God's judgment, and thereupon filling the soul with inward fears and terrors; but in sin likewise there is—1, A contrariety to God's holy nature; and, 2, A contrariety to the divine nature and image stamped upon ourselves; 3, A weakening and disabling of the soul from good; and, 4, A hindering of our former communion with God, sin being in its nature a leaving of God, the fountain of all strength and comfort, and cleaving to the creature. Hereupon the soul, having tasted the sweetness of God before, is now grieved, and this grief is not only for the guilt and trouble that sin draws after it, but from an inward antipathy and contrariety betwixt the sanctified soul and sin. It hates sin as sin, as the only bane and poison of renewed nature, and the only thing that breeds strangeness betwixt God and the soul. And this hatred is not so much from discourse and strength of reason, as from nature itself rising presently against its enemy; the lamb presently shuns the wolf from a contrariety: antipathies wait not for any strong reason, but are exercised upon the first presence of a contrary object.
在罪恶中，不仅有一种对灵魂施加的罪恶感，使灵魂受到上帝的审判，并因此充满内心的恐惧和恐怖；而且在罪恶中还存在以下几个方面的相反之处：1、与上帝的圣洁本性相对立；2、与上帝的形象和本性相对立；3、削弱和使灵魂无法行善；4、阻碍我们与上帝之间以前的交流，因为罪恶本质上是离弃上帝，这是一切力量和安慰的源泉，而依附于受造物。因此，灵魂曾经尝到上帝的甜美，现在感到悲伤，这种悲伤不仅是因为罪恶带来的罪恶感和困扰，而且是因为在成圣的灵魂和罪恶之间存在内在的反感和对立。它憎恨罪恶，将其视为唯一的毒害和污染新生命的东西，以及导致上帝与灵魂之间疏远的唯一原因。这种憎恨并不是来自于推理和理性的力量，而是来自于本性本身立即对抗敌人的反应；羔羊立即避开狼，这是一种对立的反应。反感不需要任何强大的理由，而是在对立对象第一次出现时就会产生。

7. Seventhly, Hereupon ariseth the last difference, that because the soul hateth sin as sin, therefore it opposeth it universally and eternally, in all the powers of the soul; and in all actions, inward and outward, issuing from those powers. David regarded no iniquity in his heart, but hated every evil way, Ps. 66:18; the desires of his soul were, that it might be so directed that he might keep God's law, Ps. 119:5. And if there had been no binding law, yet there was such a sweet sympathy and agreement betwixt his soul and God's truth, that he delighted in it above all natural sweetness; hence it is that St John saith, 'He that is born of God cannot sin,' 1 John 3:9; that is, so far forth as he is born of God, his new nature will not suffer him; he cannot lie, he cannot deceive, he cannot be earthly-minded, he cannot but love and delight in the persons and things that are good. There is not only a light in the understanding, but a new life in the will, and all other faculties of a godly man; what good his knowledge discovereth, that his will makes choice of, and his heart loveth; what ill his understanding discovers, that his will hateth and abstains from. But in a man not thoroughly converted, the will and affections are bent otherwise; he loves not the good he doth, nor hates the evil he doth not.
第七，由此产生了最后一个区别，因为灵魂憎恶罪恶本身，所以它在灵魂的所有力量中普遍而永久地与之对抗；在所有从这些力量中产生的内在和外在的行动中都与之对抗。大卫在心中没有看重不义，却憎恶一切邪恶的道路（诗篇 66:18）；他的灵魂的欲望是，它能被引导，以使他能遵守上帝的律法（诗篇 119:5）。即使没有约束的律法，他的灵魂与上帝的真理之间有如此甜蜜的共鸣和一致，以至于他喜爱它胜过一切自然的甜美；因此，圣约翰说，“从上帝生的，就不犯罪”（约翰一书 3:9）；也就是说，只要他是从上帝而生的，他的新本性就不会容忍他；他不能说谎，他不能欺骗，他不能心思凡俗，他不能不爱并喜悦那些善良的人和事物。在虔诚的人身上，不仅有理解力的光明，还有意志的新生命，以及其他所有的能力；他的知识所揭示的善良，他的意志选择并他的心爱；他的理解所揭示的邪恶，他的意志憎恶并远离。 但是对于一个没有完全转变的人来说，意愿和情感是不同的；他不喜欢自己所做的善事，也不憎恨自己没有做的恶事。

Use. Therefore let us make a narrow search into our souls upon what grounds we oppose sin, and fight God's battles. A common Christian is not cast down because he is disquieted in God's service, or for his inward failings that he cannot serve God with that liberty and freedom he desires, &c. But a godly man is troubled for his distempers, because they hinder the comfortable intercourse betwixt God and his soul, and that spiritual composedness and sabbath of spirit, which he enjoyed before, and desires to enjoy again. He is troubled that the waters of his soul are troubled so that the image of Christ shines not in him as it did before. It grieves him to find an abatement in affection, in love to God, a distraction or coldness in performing duties, any doubting of God's favour, any discouragement from duty, &c. A godly man's comforts and grievances are hid from the world; natural men are strangers to them. Let this be a rule of discerning our estates, how we stand affected to the distempers of our hearts; if we find them troublesome, it is a ground of comfort unto us that our spirits are ruled by a higher Spirit; and that there is a principle of that life in us, which cannot brook the most secret corruption, but rather casts it out by a holy complaint, as strength of nature doth poison, which seeks its destruction. And let us be in love with that work of grace in us, which makes us out of love with the least stirrings that hinder our best condition.
因此，让我们深入探索自己的内心，看看我们反对罪恶和为上帝而战的理由。一个普通的基督徒并不因为在上帝的事奉中感到不安或因为内心的缺陷而沮丧，他无法以他所期望的自由和自由来事奉上帝等等。但一个虔诚的人为自己的不适感到困扰，因为它们妨碍了上帝与他的灵魂之间的舒适交流，以及他之前享受的那种属灵的平静和安息，并且渴望再次享受。他为自己的灵魂的动荡而烦恼，以至于基督的形象在他身上不再闪耀如前。发现感情减退，对上帝的爱减退，履行职责时的分心或冷漠，对上帝的恩典产生任何怀疑，对履行职责的任何泄气等等，都让他感到痛苦。一个虔诚的人的安慰和痛苦对世界是隐藏的；凡人对此一无所知。 让这成为我们辨别自己状态的准则，看我们对内心的不适感有何感受；如果我们发现它们令人困扰，那么我们可以安慰自己，因为我们的精神受到更高层次的精神的支配；而且我们内心有一种生命的原则，无法容忍最隐秘的腐败，反而通过圣洁的抱怨将其驱逐，就像自然的力量排斥毒素一样，力求毁灭它。让我们热爱在我们内心中发生的恩典之工，它使我们对阻碍我们最佳状态的最微小的动摇感到厌恶。

Obs. 9. See again, We may be sinfully disquieted for that which is not a sin to be disquieted for. David had sinned if he had not been somewhat troubled for the banishment from God's house, and the blasphemy of the enemies of the church; but yet, we see, he stops himself, and sharply takes up his soul for being disquieted. He did well in being disquieted, and in checking himself for the same; there were good grounds for both. He had wanted spiritual life if he had not been disquieted, [but] he abated the vigour and liveliness of his life by being overmuch disquieted.
注意。再次看到，我们可能因为不是罪而感到不安。如果大卫对被逐出上帝的殿和教会敌人的亵渎不感到一些困扰，那他就犯了罪；但我们看到，他制止了自己，并严厉地责备自己因为感到不安。他感到不安是正确的，对此自我约束也是正确的；两者都有充分的理由。如果他不感到不安，他就缺乏属灵的生命，但过度不安会削弱他生命的活力和活力。

CHAPTER VIII.—Of unfitting dejection, and when it is excessive. And what is the right temper of the soul herein
第八章——关于不适当的沮丧，以及何时沮丧过度。以及在这方面，灵魂的正确态度是什么。

Quest. § I. Then, how shall we know when a man is cast down and disquieted, otherwise than is befitting?
问题一：那么，我们如何知道一个人是否被打击和不安，而不是适当的方式？

Ans. There is a threefold miscarriage of inward trouble.
答：内心困扰有三种错误。

1. When the soul is troubled for that it should not be vexed for, as Ahab, when he was crossed in his will for Naboth's vineyard, 1 Kings 21:1, 2, seq.
当灵魂为不应该烦恼的事而烦恼时，就像亚哈因为拿伯的葡萄园而受阻时一样，列王记上 21:1, 2, seq.

2. In the ground, as when we grieve for that which is good, and for that which we should grieve for; but it is with too much reflecting upon our own particular.
在地面上，就像我们为好事和应该为之悲伤的事情而悲伤一样，但我们过于反思自己的特定情况。

As in the troubles of the state or church, we ought to be affected; but not because these troubles hinder any liberties of the flesh, and restrain pride of life, but from higher respects; as that, by these troubles God is dishonoured, the public exercises of religion hindered, and the gathering of souls thereby stopped, as the states and commonwealths, which should be harbours of the church, are disturbed, as lawless courses and persons prevail, as religion and justice are triumphed over and trodden under. Men usually are grieved for public miseries from a spirit of self-love only, because their own private is embarked in the public. There is a depth of deceit of the heart in this matter.
在国家或教会的困境中，我们应该受到影响；但不是因为这些困境阻碍了肉体的自由，限制了生活的骄傲，而是出于更高的考虑；比如，这些困境使上帝受辱，宗教的公共活动受阻，因此无法聚集灵魂，国家和共和国作为教会的避风港被扰乱，无法无天的行径和人物占据上风，宗教和正义被凌驾和践踏。人们通常只是出于自私的心态而为公共灾难感到痛苦，因为他们自己的私人利益与公共利益紧密相连。在这个问题上，心灵中有一种深深的欺骗。

3. So for the measure, when we trouble ourselves, though not without cause, yet without bounds.
所以对于这个措施，当我们自己困扰时，虽然不是没有原因，但是没有界限。

The spirit of man is like unto moist elements, as air and water, which have no bounds of their own to contain them in, but those of the vessel that keeps them. Water is spilt and lost without something to hold it, so it is with the spirit of man, unless it be bounded with the Spirit of God. Put the case, a man be disquieted for sin, for which not to be disquieted is a sin, yet we may look too much, and too long upon it; for the soul hath a double eye, one to look to sin, another to look up to God's mercy in Christ. Having two objects to look on, we may sin in looking too much on the one, with neglect of the other.
人的精神就像潮湿的元素，如空气和水，它们没有自己的界限来容纳它们，只有容纳它们的容器的界限。水没有容器来承载就会溢出和丧失，人的精神也是如此，除非它被上帝的灵界限。假设一个人因为罪而不安，不为罪而不安也是一种罪，然而我们可能过于关注和长时间地思考它；因为灵魂有双重眼睛，一个注视罪，另一个仰望基督里上帝的怜悯。当我们有两个对象可以注视时，我们可能在过于注视其中一个的同时忽视了另一个而犯罪。

Quest. § II. Seeing then, disquieting and dejection for sin is necessary, how shall we know when it exceeds measure?
问题二：既然罪恶引起的不安和沮丧是必要的，那么我们如何知道何时超过了适度？

Ans. 1. First, when it hinders us from holy duties, or in the performance of them, by distraction or otherwise; whereas they are given to carry us to that which is pleasing to God, and good to ourselves.
首先，当它通过分心或其他方式阻碍我们进行圣洁的职责或履行这些职责时；而这些职责是赋予我们的，以引导我们去做对上帝悦纳、对自己有益的事情。

Grief is ill when it taketh off the soul from minding that it should, and so indisposeth us to the duties of our callings. Christ upon the cross was grieved to the utmost, yet it did not take away his care for his mother, John 19:26, 27: so the good thief, Luke 23:42, in the midst of his pangs laboured to gain his fellow, and to save his own soul, and to glorify Christ. If this be so in grief of body, which taketh away the free use of reason and exercise of grace more than any other grief, then much more in grief from more remote causes; for in extremity of body the sickness may be such as all that we can perform to God is a quiet submission and a desire to be carried unto Christ by the prayers of others; we should so mind our grief as not to forget God's mercy, or our own duty.
悲伤使灵魂远离应该关注的事情，使我们无法履行我们的职责。耶稣在十字架上极度悲伤，但他并没有忘记他的母亲（约翰福音 19:26,27）；好贼在极度痛苦中努力拯救同伴、拯救自己的灵魂，并荣耀基督（路加福音 23:42）。如果身体的痛苦会夺走理智的自由运用和恩典的实践，那么更远因的悲伤就更是如此；因为在身体的极度痛苦中，疾病可能是如此严重，以至于我们能向上帝奉献的只有安静的顺服和希望通过他人的祈祷被带到基督面前；我们应该在关注自己的悲伤时不要忘记上帝的怜悯和我们自己的责任。

2. Secondly, when we forget the grounds of comfort, and suffer our mind to run only upon the present grievance. It is a sin to dwell on sin and turmoil our thoughts about it, when we are called to thankfulness. A physician in good discretion forbids a dish at some times to prevent the nourishment of some disease, which another time he gives way unto. So we may and ought to abstain from too much feeding our thoughts upon our corruptions in case of discouragement, which at other times is very necessary. It should be our wisdom in such cases to change the object, and labour to take off our minds, and give them to that which calls more for them. Grief oft passeth unseasonably upon us, when there is cause of joy, and when we are called to joy; as Joab justly found fault with David for grieving too much, when God had given him the victory, and rid him and the state of a traitorous son, 2 Sam. 19:5, seq. God hath made some days for joy, and joy is the proper work of those days. 'This is the day which the Lord hath made,' Ps. 118:24. Some in a sick distemper desire that which increaseth their sickness; so some that are deeply cast down, desire a weakening* ministry, and whatever may cast them down more, whereas they should meditate upon comforts, and get some sweet assurance of God's love. Joy is the constant temper which the soul should be in. 'Rejoice evermore,' 1 Thes. 5:16, saith the apostle. If a sink be stirred, we stir it not more, but go into a sweeter room. So we should think of that which is comfortable, and of such truths as may raise up the soul, and sweeten the spirit.
其次，当我们忘记了舒适的理由，只让我们的思绪困扰于当前的痛苦时，这是一种罪过。当我们被呼召去感恩时，沉迷于罪恶并困扰我们的思想是不对的。一个明智的医生有时会禁止某种食物，以防止某种疾病的滋养，而在其他时候则会允许。因此，在沮丧的情况下，我们可以并且应该避免过多地沉迷于我们的堕落思想。在这种情况下，我们应该明智地改变对象，努力让自己的思绪转移到更需要它们的事物上。当有喜悦的原因和我们被呼召去喜悦时，悲伤常常不合时宜；正如约押对大卫过于悲伤的行为提出了合理的批评，当上帝给了他胜利，摆脱了一个叛逆的儿子时，约押对此感到不满，撒母耳记下 19:5。上帝为喜悦而设立了一些日子，而喜悦是这些日子的适当工作。“这是耶和华所定的日子”，诗篇 118:24。 有些人在病态中渴望加重他们的病情；同样，有些人在深陷困境时，渴望一种削弱的事工，以及任何可能使他们更加沮丧的事情，而他们应该沉思安慰，并获得上帝爱的甜蜜保证。喜乐是灵魂应该持续的状态。“要常常喜乐”，使徒在帖撒罗尼迦前书 5:16 中说。如果一个污水槽被搅动，我们不会再搅动它，而是进入一个更加舒适的房间。所以我们应该思考那些令人舒适的事情，思考那些能够振奋灵魂、使精神变得甜蜜的真理。

3. Thirdly, Grief is too much, when it inclines the soul to any inconvenient courses: for if it be not looked to, it is an ill counsellor, when either it hurts the health of our bodies, or draws the soul, for to ease itself, to some unlawful liberty. When grief keeps such a noise in the soul, that it will not hear what the messengers of God, or the still voice of the Spirit saith. As is combustions, loud cries are scarce heard, so in such cases the soul will neither hear itself nor others. The fruit of this overmuch trouble of spirit is increase of trouble.
第三，当悲伤倾向于任何不方便的行为时，它就太过了：因为如果不加以注意，它会成为一个糟糕的顾问，既会损害我们身体的健康，又会迫使灵魂为了宽慰自己而采取一些非法的自由。当悲伤在灵魂中制造噪音，以至于无法听到上帝的使者或圣灵的低语时，就像燃烧时很难听到大声呼喊一样，在这种情况下，灵魂既听不到自己也听不到他人。这种过度困扰灵魂的结果就是困扰的增加。

Quest. § III. Another question may be, What that sweet and holy temper is the soul should be in, that it may neither be faulty in the defect, nor too much abound in grief and sorrow?
问题三：另一个问题可能是，灵魂应该具备怎样一种甜美而圣洁的性情，既不在缺陷中有过错，也不在悲伤和忧愁中过于丰富？

Ans. 1. The soul must be raised to a right grief.
答案 1：灵魂必须被提升到正确的悲伤。

2. The grief that is raised, though it be right, yet it must be bounded. Before we speak of raising grief in the godly, we must know there are some who are altogether strangers to any kind of spiritual grief or trouble at all; such must consider, that the way to prevent everlasting trouble, is to desire to be troubled with a preventing trouble. Let those that are not in the way of grace think with themselves what cause they have not to take a minute's rest while they are in that estate. For a man to be in debt both body and soul, subject every minute to be arrested and carried prisoner to hell, and not to be moved; for a man to have the wrath of God ready to be poured out upon him, and hell gape for him, nay, to carry a hell about him in conscience, if it were awake, and to have all his comfort here hanging upon a weak thread of this life, ready to be cut and broken off every moment, and to be cursed in all those blessings that he enjoys; and yet not to be disquieted, but continually treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath, by running deeper into God's books: for a man to be thus, and not to be disquieted, is but the devil's peace, whilst the strong man holds possession. A burning ague is more hopeful than a lethargy. The best service that can be done to such men, is to startle and rouse them, and so with violence to pull them out of the fire, as Jude speaks, ver. 23, or else they will another day curse that cruel mercy that lets them alone now. In all their jollity in this world, they are but as a book fairly bound, which when it is opened is full of nothing but tragedies. So when the book of their consciences shall be once opened, there is nothing to be read but lamentations and woes. Such men were in a way of hope, if they had but so much apprehension of their estates, as to ask themselves, 'What have I done?' If this be true that there are such fearful things prepared for sinners, why am I not cast down? why am I no more troubled and discouraged for my wicked courses? Despair to such is the beginning of comfort; and trouble the beginning of peace. A storm is the way to a calm, and hell the way to heaven.
2. 虽然引起的悲伤是正确的，但它必须有限制。在我们谈论在虔诚者中引起悲伤之前，我们必须知道有些人对任何形式的属灵悲伤或困扰都完全陌生；这些人必须考虑到，预防永恒的困扰的方法是渴望被预防性的困扰所困扰。让那些没有获得恩典之路的人自己思考，他们在那种状态下没有理由休息一分钟。对于一个人来说，身心都负债累累，每一分钟都有可能被逮捕并被带到地狱，却不动摇；对于一个人来说，上帝的愤怒随时都可能倾泻在他身上，地狱张开口迎接他，甚至在良心中带着地狱，如果它醒来的话，并且所有他在这里享受的安慰都悬挂在这一生的脆弱线上，随时可能被剪断和折断，并且在他享受的所有祝福中受到诅咒；然而他却不感到不安，而是不断地积蓄忿怒，为忿怒的日子而更深入地进入上帝的账本：对于一个人来说，如此而不感到不安，只是魔鬼的平安，而强者仍然占据着他的位置。 燃烧的热病比昏睡更有希望。对这样的人所能做的最好的服务，就是惊醒和唤醒他们，用暴力将他们从火中拉出来，正如犹大在 23 节所说的，否则他们将来会诅咒那种让他们现在安然无恙的残忍怜悯。在他们在这个世界上的欢乐中，他们只是一本精美装订的书，当打开时，里面只充满了悲剧。所以当他们的良心之书一旦打开，里面只有悲叹和苦难。如果他们对自己的处境有足够的认识，至少问自己一句：“我做了什么？”这样的人在希望的道路上。如果有这样可怕的事情准备给罪人，为什么我不沮丧？为什么我对我的邪恶行径不更加困扰和气馁？对于这样的人来说，绝望是安慰的开始；困扰是和平的开始。暴风雨是通往宁静的道路，地狱是通往天堂的道路。

(1.) But for raising of a right grief in the soul of a holy man, look what is the state of the soul in itself, in what terms it is with God: whether there be any sin hanging on the file (b) unrepented of. If all be not well within us, then here is place for inward trouble, whereby the soul may afflict itself.
但对于一个圣洁人的灵魂来说，要引起真正的悲伤，就要看看灵魂本身的状态，与上帝的关系如何：是否有未悔过的罪恶存在。如果我们内心并不完全健康，那么这里就有内心的困扰之处，使灵魂自我折磨。

God saw this grief so needful for his people, that he appointed certain days for afflicting them, Lev. 16:29; because it is fit that sin contracted by joy should be dissolved by grief; and sin is so deeply invested into the soul, that a separation betwixt the soul and it cannot be wrought without much grief. When the soul hath smarted for sin, it sets then the right price upon reconciliation with God in Christ, and it feeleth what a bitter thing sin is, and therefore it will be afraid to be too bold with it afterward; it likewise aweth the heart so, that it will not be so loose towards God as it was before; and certainly that soul that hath felt the sweetness of keeping peace with God, cannot but take deeply to heart, that there should be any thing in us that should divide betwixt us and the fountain of our comfort, that should stop the passage of our prayers and the current of God's favours both towards ourselves and others; it is such an ill as is the cause of all other ill, and damps all our comforts.
上帝看到这种悲伤对他的子民是必要的，所以他指定了一些日子来使他们受苦，利未记 16:29；因为罪恶通过喜乐而产生，所以必须通过悲伤来解除；罪恶深深地根植于灵魂中，灵魂与之分离是无法做到的，必须经历很多痛苦。当灵魂为罪恶受苦时，它才能正确地评估与基督在上帝面前和解的价值，它感受到罪恶是多么痛苦的事情，因此它会害怕以后再对罪恶过于放纵；它也使心灵敬畏上帝，不再像以前那样放荡；而且，那个曾经感受到与上帝和平相处的甜蜜的灵魂，不可能不深深地感到心痛，因为我们内心中有任何事情都会使我们与我们的安慰之源分离，阻碍我们的祷告和上帝的恩惠流向我们自己和他人；这是一种导致其他一切不幸的祸根，使我们所有的安慰都受到打击。

(2.) We should look out of ourselves also, considering whether for troubles at home and abroad, God calls not to mourning or troubling of ourselves; grief of compassion is as well required as grief of contrition.
我们也应该关注自己，考虑到家庭和国内外的困扰，上帝是否呼召我们不要悲伤或困扰自己；同样需要悲伤的是同情之痛，以及悔罪之痛。

It is a dead member that is not sensible of the state of the body. Jeremiah, for fear he should not weep enough for the distressed state of the church, desired of God, 'that his eyes might be made a fountain of tears,' Jer. 9:1 A Christian, as he must not be proud flesh, so neither must he be dead flesh; none more truly sensible either of sin or of misery, so far as misery carries with it any sign of God's displeasure, than a true Christian; which issues from the life of grace, which, where it is in any measure, is lively. and therefore sensible; for God gives motion and senses for the preservation of life. As God's bowels are tender towards us, so God's people have tender bowels towards him, his cause, his people, and his church. The fruit of this sensibleness, is earnest prayer to God. As Melancthon said well, If I cared for nothing, I would pray for nothing, Si nil curarem nil orarem.*
那是一个对身体状况没有感知的死亡成员。耶利米为了担心自己对教会困境的哀悼不够，向上帝祈求，“愿我的眼泪成为泉源”，耶利米书 9:1。一个基督徒既不能是骄傲的肉体，也不能是死亡的肉体；没有人比真正的基督徒更能感知罪恶或痛苦，只要痛苦带有上帝不悦的迹象，这是真正的基督徒；这源于恩典的生命，无论在何种程度上，都是活跃的，因此是有感知力的；因为上帝赋予运动和感觉以保护生命。正如上帝对我们的怜悯，上帝的子民对他、他的事业、他的子民和他的教会也有怜悯之心。这种感知力的结果，是对上帝的热切祈祷。正如梅兰克顿所说，如果我对什么都不关心，我就不会祈祷什么，Si nil curarem nil orarem。

Grief being thus raised, must, as we said before, be bounded and guided.
悲伤被唤起后，必须像我们之前所说的那样，被限制和引导。

(1.) God hath framed the soul, and planted such affections in it, as may answer all his dealing towards his children; that when he enlargeth himself towards them, then the soul should enlarge itself to him again; when he opens his hand, we ought to open our hearts; when he shews any token of displeasure, we should grieve; when he troubles us, we should trouble and grieve ourselves. As God any way discovereth himself, so the soul should be in a suitable pliableness. Then the soul is as it should be, when it is ready to meet God at every turn, to joy when he calls for it, to mourn when he calls for that, to labour to know God's meaning in every thing.
上帝塑造了灵魂，并在其中种下了这样的情感，以应对他对他的子民的一切行动；当他向他们扩大时，灵魂应该再次扩大自己；当他张开手时，我们应该敞开心扉；当他显示不悦时，我们应该感到悲伤；当他困扰我们时，我们应该困扰和悲伤自己。当上帝以任何方式显露自己时，灵魂应该具备相应的柔顺性。当灵魂准备好在每一个转折点上与上帝相遇，当他呼唤时感到喜悦，当他呼唤时感到悲伤，努力去了解上帝在每件事情中的意思时，它就是应该的状态。

(2.) Again, God hath made the soul for a communion with himself, which communion is especially placed in the affections, which are the springs of all spiritual worship. Then the affections are well ordered, when we are fit to have communion with God, to love, joy, trust, to delight in him above all things. The affections are the inward movings of the soul, which then move best when they move us to God, not from him. They are the feet of the soul, whereby we walk with, and before God. When we have our affections at such command, that we can take them off from any thing in the world, at such times as we are to have more near communion with God in hearing or prayer, &c., as Abraham when he was to sacrifice left whatsoever might hinder him at the 'bottom of the mount,' Gen. 22:5. When we let our affections so far into the things of the world, as we cannot taken them off when we are to deal with God, it is a sign of spiritual intemperancy. It is said of the Israelites that they brought Egypt with them into the wilderness; so many bring the world into their hearts with them when they come before God.
（2）上帝再次创造了灵魂，使其与自己交流，这种交流尤其体现在情感中，情感是一切属灵崇拜的源泉。当我们适合与上帝交流时，情感就会被很好地调整，我们会爱、喜乐、信靠，以及在所有事物中以他为乐。情感是灵魂内在的动力，当它们引导我们接近上帝而不是远离他时，它们才能最好地运作。它们是灵魂的脚，我们通过它们与上帝同行，并在他面前行走。当我们能够控制我们的情感，将它们从世界上的任何事物中抽离出来，以便在听道或祷告等更亲近上帝的时候使用，就像亚伯拉罕在献祭时将可能阻碍他的一切事物留在山脚下一样（创世记 22:5）。当我们让情感深入世俗事物，以至于在与上帝交往时无法将其抽离出来，这是属灵上的不节制的迹象。据说以色列人在进入旷野时带着埃及，同样，许多人在来到上帝面前时也将世界带入了他们的内心。

(3.) But because our affections are never well-ordered without judgment, as being to follow, not to lead, it is an evidence that the soul is in a fit temper, when there is such a harmony in it, as that we judge of things as they are, and affect as we judge, and execute as we affect. This harmony within breeds uniformity and constancy in our resolutions, so that there is, as it were, an even thread drawn through the whole course and tenor of our lives, when we are not off and on, up and down. It argues an ill state of body when it is very hot, or very cold, or hot in one part, and cold in another; so unevenness of spirit argues a distemper. A wise man's life is of one colour, like itself. The soul bred from heaven, so far as it is heavenly-minded, desires to be, like heaven, above all storms, uniform, constant; not as things under the sun, which are always in changes, constant only in inconstancy. Affections are as it were the wind of the soul, and then the soul is carried as it should be, when it is neither so becalmed that it moves not when it should, nor yet tossed with tempests to move disorderly; when it is so well balanced that it is neither lift up nor cast down too much, but keepeth a steady course. Our affections must not rise to become unruly passions, for then as a river that overfloweth the banks, they carry much slime and soil with them. Though affections be the wind of the soul, yet unruly passions are the storms of the soul, and will overturn all, if they be not suppressed. The best, as we see in David here, if they do not steer their hearts aright, are in danger of sudden gusts. A Christian must neither be a dead sea, nor a raging sea.
但是，由于我们的情感没有经过判断就无法很好地有序排列，因为它们是跟随而不是引导的，所以当我们的内心有这样的和谐时，这表明我们的灵魂处于适当的状态，我们能够根据事物的本质进行判断，根据判断产生情感，并根据情感执行行动。这种内在的和谐会培养我们决心的一致性和恒定性，使我们的生活过程中有一根均匀的线，而不是时好时坏，上下起伏。当身体非常炎热、非常寒冷或者一部分炎热一部分寒冷时，这表明身体状态不好；同样，精神的不平衡也表明一种失调。智者的生活是一种颜色，就像它自己一样。灵魂来自天堂，只要它具有天堂的思维，就渴望像天堂一样，超越一切风暴，保持一致和恒定；而不像太阳下的事物，总是在变化中，只有不断变化才是恒定的。 情感就像是灵魂的风，当灵魂被带动时，它应该既不是那么平静以至于不动，也不是被风暴扰乱而无序地移动；当它保持良好的平衡，既不过于高昂也不过于沮丧，而是保持稳定的航向。我们的情感不能升华为无法无天的激情，因为就像一条溢出河岸的河流，它们会带来许多淤泥和污垢。虽然情感是灵魂的风，但无法无天的激情却是灵魂的风暴，如果不加压制，它们将会颠覆一切。正如我们在大卫身上所看到的，即使是最好的人，如果他们不能正确引导自己的内心，也会面临突如其来的风暴。一个基督徒既不能是一片死海，也不能是一片汹涌的海洋。

(4.) Our affections are then in best temper, when they become so many graces of the Spirit, as when love is turned to a love of God, joy, to a delight in the best things, fear, to a fear of offending him more than any creature, sorrow, to a sorrow for sin, &c.
我们的情感在最佳状态时，它们成为圣灵的许多恩赐，例如当爱转化为对上帝的爱、喜悦转化为对最美好事物的喜爱、恐惧转化为对冒犯上帝的恐惧胜过任何生物、悲伤转化为对罪恶的悲伤等等。

(5.) They are likewise in good temper, when they move us to all duties of love and mercy towards others; when they are not shut where they should be open, nor open where they should be shut.
当他们激励我们对他人展现爱和仁慈的所有义务时，他们同样心情愉快；当他们没有关闭应该打开的地方，也没有打开应该关闭的地方时。

Yet there is one case where exceeding affection is not over-exceeding, as in an ecstasy of zeal upon a sudden apprehension of God's dishonour, and his cause trodden under foot. It is better in this case, rather scarce to be our own men, than to be calm or quiet. It is said of Christ and David, that their hearts were eaten up with a holy zeal for God's house, Ps. 69:9, 119:139, Isa. 59:19. In such a case, Moses, unparalleled for meekness, was turned into a holy rage, Exod. 32:19. The greatness of the provocation, the excellency of the object, and the weight of the occasion, bears out the soul, not only without blame, but with great praise, in such seeming distempers. It is the glory of a Christian to be carried with full sail, and as it were with a spring-tide of affection. So long as the stream of affection runneth in the due channel, and if there be great occasions for great motions, then it is fit the affections should rise higher, as to burn with zeal, to be 'sick of love,' Cant. 2:5, to be more vile for the Lord, as David, 2 Sam. 6:22, to be counted out of our wits, 2 Car. 5:13, with St Paul, to further the cause of Christ and the good of souls.
然而，有一种情况下，过度的情感并不过度，就像在突然意识到上帝的不荣耀和他的事业被践踏时的狂热热情一样。在这种情况下，与其保持冷静和安静，不如几乎不属于我们自己。有人说基督和大卫的心被神圣的热情吞噬，为了上帝的家而热衷，诗篇 69:9，119:139，以赛亚书 59:19。在这种情况下，像摩西这样温和无比的人也会变成圣洁的愤怒，出埃及记 32:19。挑衅的严重性，目标的卓越性以及场合的重要性，使灵魂不仅没有责备，而且在这种看似失调的情况下还受到了极大的赞扬。一个基督徒的荣耀就是被充满的情感带着，就像是被春潮般的情感带着。只要情感的流动在适当的渠道中，如果有重大的事情需要激动人心的动作，那么情感就应该更高涨，像是燃烧着热情，像是“因爱而生病”，雅歌 2:5，像大卫一样为主而卑微，撒母耳记下 6:22，像保罗一样被认为是疯了，哥林多后书 5:13，为了基督的事业和灵魂的福音而努力。

Thus we may see the life of a poor Christian in this world. 1. He is in great danger, if he be not troubled at all. 2. When he is troubled, he is in danger to be over-troubled. 3. When he hath brought his soul in tune again, he is subject to new troubles. Betwixt this ebbing and flowing there is very little quiet. Now because this cannot be done without a great measure of God's Spirit, our help is to make use of that promise of giving 'the Holy Ghost to them that ask it,' John. 11:13. To teach us when, how long, and how much to grieve; and when, and how long, and how much to rejoice, the Spirit must teach the heart this, who as he moved upon the waters before the creation, so he must move upon the waters of our souls, for we have not the command of our own hearts. Every natural man is carried away with his flesh and humours, upon which the devil rides, and carries him whither he list; he hath no better counsellors than flesh and blood, and Satan counselling with them. But a godly man is not a slave to his carnal affections, but as David here, labours to bring into captivity the first motions of sin in his heart.
这样我们可以看到一个贫穷的基督徒在这个世界上的生活。1. 如果他一点都不烦恼，他就处于巨大的危险之中。2. 当他烦恼时，他有被过度烦恼的危险。3. 当他再次调整好自己的心灵时，他会遭遇新的烦恼。在这个起伏不定之间，几乎没有什么宁静。现在，因为这不能没有上帝的大量圣灵的帮助，我们的助力就是利用那个应许，即给予“向求的人赐圣灵”的应许，约翰福音 11:13。圣灵必须教导我们何时、多久以及多少悲伤；何时、多久以及多少欢乐，心灵必须由圣灵来教导，就像他在创造之前在水面上运动一样，他必须在我们的灵魂之水上运动，因为我们不能掌控自己的心。每个属血气的人都被他的肉体和情绪所带走，魔鬼就骑在上面，随心所欲地带他去；他没有比肉体和血气更好的顾问，魔鬼与他们商议。但一个虔诚的人不是他肉体情感的奴隶，而是像大卫一样，努力将心中的罪恶初动控制住。

CHAPTER IX.—Of the soul's disquiets, God's dealings, and power to contain ourselves in order
第九章 - 关于灵魂的不安，上帝的作为，以及自我控制的能力

Obs. 1. Moreover we see, that the soul hath, disquiets proper to itself, besides those griefs of sympathy that arise from the body; for here the soul complains of the soul itself, as when it is out of the body it hath torments and joys of its own. And if those troubles of the soul be not well cured, then by way of fellowship and redundance they will affect the outward man, and so the whole man shall be enwrapt in misery.
此外，我们还看到，灵魂除了因身体而产生的同情之痛苦外，还有自身特有的不安。因为当灵魂离开身体时，它会有自己的痛苦和喜悦。如果这些灵魂的困扰没有得到很好的治愈，那么通过交流和冗余的方式，它们将影响到外在的人，整个人将被困在痛苦中。

Obs. 2. From whence we further see, that God, when he will humble a man, need not fetch forces from without. If he let but our own hearts loose, we shall have trouble and work enough, though we were as holy as David; God did not only exercise him with a rebellious son out of his own loins, but with rebellious risings out of his own heart. If there were no enemy in the world, nor devil in hell, we carry that, within us, that, if it be let loose, will trouble us more than all the world besides. Oh that the proud creature should exalt himself against God, and run into a voluntary course of provoking him, who can not only raise the humours of our bodies against us, but the passions of our minds also to torment us! Therefore it is the best wisdom not to provoke the great God, for 'are we stronger than he,' 1 Cor. 10:22, that can raise ourselves against ourselves? and work wonders not only in the great world, but also in the little world, our souls and bodies, when he pleases?
从这里我们可以看出，上帝在要谦卑一个人时，并不需要从外部获取力量。即使我们像大卫一样圣洁，只要他放任我们的内心，我们就会有足够的困扰和工作。上帝不仅通过他自己的儿子对他进行考验，还通过他自己的内心的反叛行为来考验他。即使世界上没有敌人，地狱中没有魔鬼，我们内心中也有一种东西，如果被释放出来，会给我们带来比整个世界都更多的困扰。噢，骄傲的人竟然敢对抗上帝，并自愿挑衅他，他不仅可以激起我们体内的不适，还可以激起我们心灵的痛苦！因此，最明智的做法是不要激怒伟大的上帝，因为我们难道比他更强大吗？他不仅可以使我们自己反对自己，还可以在他愿意的时候在我们的灵魂和身体这个小小的世界中创造奇迹。

Obs. 3. We see likewise hence a necessity of having something in the soul above itself. It must be partaker of a diviner nature than itself; otherwise, when the most refined part of our souls, the very spirit of our minds, is out of frame, what shall bring it in again? Therefore we must conceive in a godly man, a double self, one which must be denied, the other which must deny; one that breeds all the disquiet, and another that stilleth what the other hath raised. The way to still the soul, as it is under our corrupt self, is not to parley with it, and divide government for peace sake, as if we should gratify the flesh in something, to redeem liberty to the spirit in other things; for we shall find the flesh will be too encroaching. We must strive against it, not with subtlety and discourse, so much as with peremptory violence silence it and vex it. An enemy that parleys will yield at length. Grace is nothing else but that blessed power, whereby as spiritual gain upon ourselves as carnal. Holy love is that which we gain of self-love; and so joy, and delight, &c. Grace labours to win ground of the old man, until at length it be all in all; indeed we are never ourselves perfectly, till we have wholly put off ourselves; nothing should be at a greater distance to us than ourselves. This is the reason why carnal men, that have nothing above themselves but their corrupt self, sink in great troubles, having nothing within to uphold them, whereas a good man is wiser than himself, holier than himself, stronger than himself; there is something in him more than a man. There be evils that the spirit of man alone, out of the goodness of nature, cannot bear; but the spirit of man, assisted with an higher Spirit, will support and carry him through. It is a good trial of a man's condition to know what he esteems to be himself. A godly man counts the inner man, the sanctified part, to be himself, whereby he stands in relation to Christ and a better life. Another man esteems his contentment in the world, the satisfaction of his carnal desires, the respect he finds from men by reason of his parts, or something without him, that he is master of; this he counts himself, and by this he values himself, and to this he makes his best thoughts and endeavours serviceable: and of crosses in these things he is most sensible, and so sensible, that he thinks himself undone if he seeth not a present issue out of them.
观察 3. 由此我们也看到，灵魂需要超越自身的东西。它必须分享比自身更神圣的本质；否则，当我们灵魂中最纯粹的部分，我们思想的精神本质失调时，又有什么能使它恢复呢？因此，我们必须在一个虔诚的人中构想出一个双重的自我，一个必须被否认，另一个必须否定；一个滋生一切不安，另一个平息前者所引起的一切。要使灵魂平静，就不能与它交谈，为了和平而分权，好像我们在某些方面满足肉体，以在其他方面赎回灵魂的自由；因为我们会发现肉体会过于侵占。我们必须与之斗争，不是用巧妙的辩论，而是用果断的暴力来使之沉默和烦恼。一个进行交谈的敌人最终会屈服。恩典无非是那种祝福的力量，通过它我们在精神上胜过了自己，就像在肉体上胜过了自己一样。圣洁的爱就是我们从自我爱中获得的东西；还有喜乐等等。 恩典努力赢得老人的支持，直到最终成为一切；事实上，只有当我们完全摆脱自己时，我们才能完全成为自己；对我们来说，没有比自己更远的东西了。这就是为什么肉体的人，除了腐败的自我之外没有任何超越自己的东西，会在巨大的困境中沉沦，因为他们内心没有支撑他们的东西，而善良的人比自己更聪明，更圣洁，更强大；他内心有着超越人类的东西。有些人类精神单独凭借本性的善良是无法承受的邪恶；但是，人的精神在更高的精神的帮助下，将支持并带领他度过困境。了解一个人如何看待自己是对他状况的良好试验。虔诚的人认为内心的人，即被圣化的部分，是自己，通过这一部分，他与基督和更美好的生活有关。 另一个人看重他在世界上的满足感，他对肉欲的满足，他因为自己的才能而得到的尊重，或者他所掌控的一些事物；他认为这些是他自己，他以此来评价自己，将最好的思想和努力用于这些事物；对于这些事物的挫折，他感觉最敏感，以至于如果他看不到即时的解决办法，他会认为自己完蛋了。

That which most troubles a good man in all troubles is himself, so far as he is unsubdued; he is more disquieted with himself than with all troubles out of himself; when he hath gotten the better once of himself, whatsoever falls from without is light. Where the spirit is enlarged, it cares not much for outward bondage; where the spirit is lightsome, it cares not much for outward darkness; where the spirit is settled, it cares not much for outward changes; where the spirit is one with itself, it cannot* bear outward breaches; where the spirit is sound, it can bear outward sickness. Nothing can be very ill with us, when all is well within. This is the comfort of a holy man, that though he be troubled with himself, yet by reason of the spirit in him, which is his better self, he works out by degrees whatever is contrary, as spring-water, being clear of itself, works itself clean, though it be troubled by something cast in, as the sea will endure no poisonful thing, but casts it upon the shore. But a carnal man is like a spring corrupted, that cannot work itself clear, because it is wholly tainted; his eye and light is darkness, and therefore no wonder if he seeth nothing. Sin lieth upon his understanding, and hinders the knowledge of itself; it lies close upon the will, and hinders the striving against itself.
一个好人在所有困扰中最困扰他的是他自己，只要他还没有被征服；他对自己的困扰比对所有外在困扰都更加不安；一旦他战胜了自己，无论外界发生什么，都显得微不足道。当精神变得宽广时，它不太在乎外在的束缚；当精神轻快时，它不太在乎外在的黑暗；当精神稳定时，它不太在乎外在的变化；当精神与自身合一时，它无法忍受外在的破裂；当精神健全时，它能够忍受外在的疾病。当一切内在都很好时，我们不会有太大的困扰。这是一个圣人的安慰，尽管他为自己所困扰，但由于他内在的精神，也就是他更好的自我，他逐渐排除了一切相反的东西，就像清泉自然而然地净化自己，尽管被投入其中的东西会使它变得混浊，就像大海不容忍有毒物质，而将其抛向岸边一样。但一个肉体的人就像一个被腐败的泉水，无法自我净化，因为它完全被污染；他的眼睛和光明是黑暗的，所以不奇怪他什么都看不见。 罪恶压在他的理解力上，阻碍了对自身的认知；它紧紧贴在意愿上，阻碍了对自身的抗争。

True self that is worth the owning, is when a man is taken into a higher condition, and made one with Christ, and esteems neither of himself nor others, as happy for anything according to the flesh. 1. He is under the law and government of the Spirit, and so far as he is himself, works according to that principle. 2. He labours more and more to be transformed into the likeness of Christ, in whom he esteemeth that he hath his best being. 3. He esteems of all things that befall him, to be good or ill, as they further or hinder his best condition. If all be well for that, he counts himself well, whatsoever else befalls him.
真正值得拥有的真我，是当一个人进入更高的状态，与基督合而为一，并且不以自己或他人在肉体上的任何事情为幸福。1. 他受到圣灵的律法和统治，因此在他自己身上，按照这个原则行事。2. 他越来越努力地变得像基督一样，他认为自己在基督里才有最好的存在。3. 他认为发生在他身上的一切事情，无论是好是坏，都是促进或阻碍他最好状态的。如果一切都对他最好，无论其他事情如何，他都认为自己很好。

Another man, when he doth anything that is good, acts not his own part; but a godly man, when he doth good, is in his proper element; what another man doth for by-ends and reasons, that he doth from a new nature, which, if there were no law to compel, yet would move him to that which is pleasing to Christ. If he be drawn aside by passion or temptation, that he judgeth not to be himself, but taketh a holy revenge on himself for it, as being redeemed and taken out from himself; he thinks himself no debtor, nor to owe any service to his corrupt self. That which he plots and projects and works for is, that Christ may rule everywhere, and especially in himself, for he is not his own but Christ's, and therefore desires to be more and more emptied of himself, that Christ might be all in all in him.
另一个人，当他做好事时，不是在表演自己的角色；但一个虔诚的人，当他行善时，正处于他适宜的环境；另一个人出于私心和理由而做的事情，他出于一种新的本性来做，即使没有法律强迫，他也会被这种本性所驱使，去做对基督悦人的事情。如果他被激情或诱惑引开，他认为那不是他自己，而对自己进行圣洁的报复，因为他已经被救赎并从自己中解脱出来；他认为自己不欠任何债务，也不需要对自己的腐败自我提供任何服务。他所策划、计划和努力的目标是，基督可以在各个地方统治，尤其是在他自己身上，因为他不是属于自己而是属于基督的，所以他渴望越来越多地摆脱自己，让基督在他里面成为一切。

Thus we see what great use there is of dealing with ourselves, for the better composing and settling of our souls. Which, though it be a course without glory and ostentation in the world, as causing a man to retire inwardly into his own breast, having no other witness but God and himself; and though it be likewise irksome to the flesh, as calling the soul home to itself, being desirous naturally to wander abroad and be a stranger at home; yet it is a course both good in itself, and makes the soul good.
因此，我们看到了与自己打交道的重要性，以更好地调整和安抚我们的灵魂。虽然这在世界上并没有荣耀和炫耀，因为它使人内心深处退隐，只有上帝和自己作为见证；虽然这也令肉体感到厌烦，因为它呼唤灵魂回归自己，而灵魂本能地渴望漫游外界，成为家中的陌生人；然而，这是一种本身就很好的方式，它使灵魂变得善良。

For by this means the judgment is exercised and rectified, the will and affections ordered, the whole man put into an holy frame fit for every good action. By this the tree is made good, and the fruit cannot but be answerable; by this the soul itself is set in tune, whence there is a pleasant harmony in our whole conversation. Without this, we may do that which is outwardly good to others, but we can never be good ourselves. The first justice begins within, when there is a due subjection of all the powers of the soul to the spirit, as sanctified and guided by God's Spirit; when justice and order is first established in the soul, it will appear from thence in all our dealings. He that is at peace in himself, will be peaceable to others, peaceable in his family, peaceable in the church, peaceable in the state. The soul of a wicked man is in perpetual sedition; being always troubled in itself, it is no wonder if it be troublesome to others. Unity in ourselves is before union with others.
通过这种方式，判断力得到锻炼和纠正，意愿和情感得到调整，整个人变得适合进行善行。通过这种方式，树木变得良好，果实必然相应；通过这种方式，灵魂本身被调和，我们的整个言行都充满了愉悦的和谐。没有这一点，我们可以对他人做出外在的善行，但我们自己永远无法成为善良的人。第一种正义始于内心，当灵魂的所有力量都顺服于被上帝的灵所圣化和引导的灵魂时，正义和秩序首先在灵魂中确立，从那里，它将在我们的一切交往中显现出来。一个内心和平的人，对他人也会和平，对家庭和平，对教会和平，对国家和平。一个邪恶人的灵魂是永远的叛乱；它总是困扰着自己，如果它对他人也是困扰，那就不足为奇了。我们自己的内心团结先于与他人的团结。

To conclude this first part, concerning intercourse with ourselves. As we desire to enjoy ourselves, and to live the life of men and of Christians, which is, to understand our ways; as we desire to live comfortably, and not to be accessory of yielding to that sorrow which causeth death; as we desire to answer God and ourselves, when we are to give an account of the inward tumults of our souls; as we desire to be vessels prepared for every good work, and to have strength to undergo any cross; as we desire to have healthy souls, and to keep a sabbath within ourselves; as we desire not only to do good, but to be good in ourselves: so let us labour to quiet our souls, and often ask a reason of ourselves, why we should not be quiet?
为了总结这第一部分，关于与自己的交往。因为我们渴望享受自己，过上人类和基督徒的生活，也就是理解我们的方式；因为我们渴望舒适地生活，不成为导致死亡的悲伤的附属品；因为我们渴望在向上帝和自己交代时，能够回答我们内心的骚动；因为我们渴望成为为各种善行准备的器皿，并有力量承受任何困难；因为我们渴望拥有健康的灵魂，并在自己内心保持安宁；因为我们不仅渴望行善，还渴望在自己内心成为善良的人：所以让我们努力使自己的灵魂安静下来，并经常问自己一个问题，为什么我们不应该安静呢？

CHAPTER X.—Means not to be overcharged with sorrow
第十章-不要过度忧伤的方法

To help us further herein, besides that which hath been formerly spoken,
为了进一步帮助我们，在此之前所说的之外，

1. We must take heed of building an ungrounded confidence of happiness for time to come, which makes us when changes come, 1, Unacquainted with them; 2, Takes away expectation of them; 3, And preparation for them. When any thing is strange and sudden, and lights upon us unfurnished and unfenced, it must needs put our spirits out of frame. It is good therefore to make all kind of troubles familiar to us, in our thoughts at least, and this will break the force of them. It is good to fence our souls beforehand against all assaults, as men use to keep out the sea, by raising banks; and if a breach be made, to repair it presently.
我们必须谨慎地建立起对未来幸福的信心，这样当变化来临时，我们就不会对它们感到陌生，不会对它们抱有期望，也不会为它们做好准备。当某件事情是陌生和突然的，而我们又没有做好准备，那必然会使我们的精神失去平衡。因此，最好让各种困扰在我们的思想中变得熟悉，这样可以减轻它们的力量。最好事先保护我们的灵魂免受一切攻击，就像人们用堤坝防止海水进入一样；如果发生破坏，要立即修复。

We had need to maintain a strong garrison of holy reasons against the assaults of strong passions; we may hope for the best, but fear the worst, and prepare to bear whatsoever. We say that a set diet is dangerous, because variety of occasions will force us upon breaking of it; so in this world of changes we cannot resolve upon any certain condition of life, for upon alteration the mind is out of frame. We cannot say this or that trouble shall not befall; yet we may, by help of the Spirit, say, nothing that doth befall shall make me do that which is unworthy of a Christian.
我们需要坚守一支强大的圣洁理由的守军，以抵御强烈的激情攻击；我们可以期望最好的结果，但要准备承受最坏的情况。我们说定期的饮食是危险的，因为各种场合会迫使我们打破它；所以在这个变化的世界中，我们无法确定生活的特定条件，因为心态会因为变动而失调。我们不能说这样或那样的困扰不会降临；然而，我们可以借助圣灵的帮助，说，任何发生的事情都不会让我做出不值得作为基督徒的事情。

That which others make easy by suffering, that a wise man maketh easy by thinking of beforehand. Quæ alii diu patiendo levia faciunt, sapiens levia facit diu cogitando. If we expect the worst, when it comes, it is no more than we thought of; if better befalls us, then it is the sweeter to us, the less we expected it. Our Saviour foretells the worst, 'In the world you shall have tribulation,' John 16:33; therefore look for it; but then He will not leave us. Satan deludes with fair promises; but when the contrary falls out, he leaves his followers in their distresses. We desire peace and rest, but we seek it not in its own place; 'there is a rest for God's people,' Heb. 4:9, but that is not here, nor yet; but it remains for them; 'they rest from their labours,' Rev. 14:13, but that is after they 'are dead in the Lord.' There is no sound rest till then. Yet this caution must be remembered, that we shape not in our fancies such troubles as are never likely to fall out. It comes either from weakness or guiltiness, to fear shadows. We shall not need to make crosses; they will, as we say of foul weather, come before they be sent for. How many evils do people fear, from which they have no further hurt than what is bred only by their causeless fears! Nor yet, if they be probable, must we think of them so as to be altogether so affected, as if undoubtedly they would come, for so we give certain strength to an uncertain cross, and usurp upon God, by anticipating that which may never come to pass. It was rashness in David to say, 'I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul,' 1 Sam. 27:1.
那些别人通过遭受痛苦而变得容易的事情，聪明人会通过事先思考而变得容易。如果我们预料到最坏的情况，当它发生时，就不会超出我们的预期；如果更好的事情发生在我们身上，那么对我们来说就更加甜美，因为我们期望得越少。我们的救主预言了最坏的情况，“你们在世上必有苦难”（约翰福音 16:33）；因此要预料到它的发生；但祂不会离开我们。撒旦用美好的承诺欺骗人；但当相反的事情发生时，他就把他的追随者留在困境中。我们渴望和平和休息，但我们没有在合适的地方寻找；“有一个安息日为神的子民存留”（希伯来书 4:9），但那不在这里，也不在现在；它为他们保留着；“他们在主里面死了以后，就得安息”（启示录 14:13）。在那之前，没有真正的安息。然而，必须记住这个警告，我们不要在想象中制造那些永远不太可能发生的困扰。它要么来自于软弱，要么来自于内疚，害怕幻影。我们不需要制造十字架；它们会像我们所说的恶劣天气一样，未经邀请就会到来。 人们害怕多少邪恶，却只因无端的恐惧而受到伤害！即使这些恐惧是有可能发生的，我们也不应该完全被它们所影响，就像它们肯定会发生一样，因为这样我们给了一个不确定的十字架确定的力量，并且通过预先假设可能永远不会发生的事情来篡夺上帝的权力。大卫说“我总有一天会死在扫罗的手中”是鲁莽的。

If they be such troubles as will certainly come to pass, as parting with friends and contentments, at least, by death; then, 1. Think of them so as not to be much dismayed, but furnish thy heart with strength beforehand, that they may fall the lighter. 2. Think of them so as not to give up the bucklers to passion, and lie open as a fair mark for any uncomfortable accident to strike to the heart; nor yet so think of them as to despise them, but to consider of God's meaning in them and how to take good by them. 3. Think of the things we enjoy, so as to moderate our enjoying of them, by considering there must be a parting, and therefore how we shall be able to bear it when it comes.
如果这些困扰肯定会发生，比如与朋友和快乐的分别，至少是通过死亡；那么，1.要这样想，以免过于惊慌，而是提前给自己的心灵装备力量，让它们变得更轻。2.要这样想，以免向激情屈服，成为任何不愉快事故打击心灵的易受攻击的目标；但也不要轻视它们，而是考虑上帝在其中的意义以及如何从中获得益处。3.要这样想我们所享受的事物，以适度享受它们，通过考虑必然会有分别，因此当它来临时我们将如何承受。

2. If we desire not to be overcharged with sorrow when that which we fear is fallen upon us, we must then beforehand look that our love to any thing in this world shoot not so far as that, when the time of severing cometh, we part with so much of our hearts by that rent. Those that love too much will always grieve too much. It is the greatness of our affections which causeth the sharpness of our afflictions. He that cannot abound without pride and high-mindedness, will not want without too much dejectedness. Love is planted for such things as can return love, and make us better by loving them; wherein we shall satisfy our love to the full. It is pity so sweet an affection should be lost. So sorrow is for sin, and for other things, as they make sin the more bitter to us. The life of a Christian should be a meditation how to unloose his affections from inferior things. He will easily die that is dead before in affection. But this will never be, unless the soul seeth something better than all things in the world, upon which it may bestow itself. In that measure our affections die in their excessive motion to things below, as they are taken up with the love and admiration of the best things. He that is much in heaven in his thoughts is free from being tossed with tempests here below. The top of those mountains that are above the middle region are so quiet as that the lightest things, as ashes, lie still, and are not moved. The way to mortify earthly members, that bestir themselves in us, is to mind things above, Col. 3:1, 5. The more the ways of wisdom lead us on high, the more we avoid the snares below.
如果我们不希望在我们所担心的事情发生时过度悲伤，那么我们必须事先注意，我们对这个世界上的任何事物的爱不要过深，以至于当分离的时刻来临时，我们会因此失去我们心中的很多东西。那些过于爱的人总是会过于悲伤。我们情感的强烈程度决定了我们痛苦的程度。那些不能在没有骄傲和傲慢的情况下富足的人，也不会在没有过度沮丧的情况下感到缺乏。爱是为了那些能回报爱并通过爱使我们变得更好的事物而种植的；在这些事物中，我们将满足我们的爱。可惜如此甜蜜的感情会失去。悲伤是为了罪恶，以及其他事物，因为它们使罪恶对我们来说更加痛苦。一个基督徒的生活应该是如何将他的情感从低级事物中解脱出来的思考。一个在情感上已经死了的人会很容易死去。但这永远不会发生，除非灵魂看到了比世界上所有事物都更好的东西，可以将自己投入其中。 在这种程度上，我们对下方事物的过度追求会导致我们的情感消亡，因为我们被最好的事物所吸引和钦佩。那些高于中层地区的山顶是如此宁静，以至于最轻的东西，如灰烬，都静止不动。克制我们内心活跃的尘世成员的方法是关注上方的事物，哥罗西书 3:1, 5。智慧之路引领我们越高，我们就越能避开下方的陷阱。

In the uncertainty of all events here, labour to frame that contentment in and from our own selves which the things themselves will not yield; frame peace by freeing our hearts from too much fear, and riches by freeing our hearts from covetous desires. Frame a sufficiency out of contentedness. If the soul itself be out of tune, outward things will do no more good than a fair shoe to a gouty foot.
在这里所有事件的不确定性中，努力在我们自己内心中创造出那种事物本身无法提供的满足感；通过从过多的恐惧中解放我们的内心来创造和平，通过从贪婪的欲望中解放我们的内心来创造财富。通过满足感来创造出足够的东西。如果灵魂本身不和谐，外在的事物对于一个痛风患者的脚来说，也不会有任何好处。

And seek not ourselves abroad out of ourselves in the conceits of other men. A man shall never live quietly that hath not learned to be set light-by of others. He that is little in his own eyes will not be troubled to be little in the eyes of others. Men that set too high a price upon themselves, when others will not come to their price, are discontent. Those whose condition is above their worth, and their pride above their condition, shall never want sorrow; yet we must maintain our authority, and the image of God in our places, for that is God's and not ours; and we ought so to carry ourselves as we approve ourselves to their consciences, though we have not their good words. 'Let none despise thy youth,' saith St Paul to Timothy, 1 Tim. 4:12—that is, walk so before them as they shall have no cause. It is not in our own power what other men think or speak, but it is in our power, by God's grace, to live so that none can think ill of us, but by slandering, and none believe ill but by too much credulity.
不要在别人的想法中寻找自己，一个从未学会被他人轻视的人永远无法安宁。一个在自己眼中微不足道的人不会在他人眼中被小看而感到困扰。那些对自己过高评价的人，当别人不愿意接受他们的评价时，会感到不满。那些境况超过自身价值，傲慢超过自身境况的人，永远不会缺乏悲伤；然而，我们必须维护我们的权威和上帝在我们所处位置的形象，因为那是上帝的，不是我们的；我们应该以自己的行为来让他们的良心认同我们，即使我们没有他们的好话。圣保罗在提摩太前书 4:12 中说：“不要让人小看你的年轻”，意思是在他们面前行事，以至于他们没有任何理由小看你。我们无法控制别人的想法或言论，但我们可以通过上帝的恩典，以至于没有人会对我们产生恶意的想法，除非是通过诽谤，也没有人会轻易相信恶意的言论。

3. When anything seizeth upon us, we must take heed we mingle not our own passions with it; we must neither bring sin to, nor mingle sin with, the suffering; for that will trouble the spirit more than the trouble itself. We are more to deal with our own hearts than with the trouble itself. We are not hurt till our souls be hurt. God will not have it in the power of any creature to hurt our souls, but by our own treason against ourselves.
当任何事情降临在我们身上时，我们必须小心不要将自己的激情与之混合；我们既不应将罪带到苦难中，也不应将罪与苦难混为一谈；因为这会比苦难本身更加困扰我们的精神。我们更应该处理好自己的内心，而不是苦难本身。只有当我们的灵魂受到伤害时，我们才会受到伤害。上帝不会让任何生物有能力伤害我们的灵魂，除非我们自己背叛自己。

Therefore we should have our hearts in continual jealousy, for they are ready to deceive the best. In sudden encounters some sin doth many times discover itself, the seed whereof lieth hid in our natures, which we think ourselves very free from. Who would have thought the seeds of murmuring had lurked in the meek nature of Moses? that the seeds of murder had lurked in the pitiful heart of David? 2 Sam. 12:9, that the seeds of denial of Christ, Matt. 26:72, had lien hid in the zealous affection of Peter towards Christ? If passions break out from us, which we are not naturally inclined unto, and over which by grace we have got a great conquest, how watchful need we be over ourselves in those things, which, by temper, custom, and company we are carried unto! and what cause have we to fear continually that we are worse than we take ourselves to be!
因此，我们应该时刻保持警惕，因为我们的内心很容易欺骗我们。在突然的相遇中，有时会暴露出一些罪恶，而这些罪恶的种子隐藏在我们的本性中，我们自认为与之无关。谁会想到，抱怨的种子潜伏在摩西温和的本性中？谁会想到，谋杀的种子潜伏在大卫慈悲的心中？撒母耳记下 12:9，谁会想到，彼得对基督的热情中隐藏着对基督的否认的种子？驱使我们发出与我们本性不相符的激情，而我们通过恩典已经取得了巨大的胜利，我们在那些因为性情、习惯和交往而被带动的事情上，我们需要对自己保持警惕！我们有什么理由不断担心自己比我们自认为的更糟糕！

There are many unruly passions lie hid in us, until they be drawn out by something that meeteth with them; either—
有许多不受控制的激情隐藏在我们内心，直到它们被某种与之相遇的事物激发出来；无论是-

(1.) By way of opposition, as when the truth of God spiritually unfolded meets with some beloved corruption, it swelleth bigger. The force of gunpowder is not known until some spark light on it; and oftentimes the stillest natures, if crossed, discover the deepest corruptions. Sometimes it is drawn out by dealing with the opposite spirits of other men. Oftentimes retired men know not what lies hid in themselves.
(1.) 通过对立的方式，当神的真理在精神上展开时，遇到一些深爱的腐败，它会膨胀得更大。火药的威力直到有火花点燃它才能知道；而且往往最安静的性格，如果受到挫折，会显露出最深的腐败。有时它会因为与其他人的相反精神打交道而被激发出来。往往隐居的人不知道自己内心隐藏着什么。

(2.) Sometimes by crosses, as many people, whilst the freshness and vigour of their spirits lasteth, and while the flower of age, and a full supply of all things continueth, seem to be of a pleasing and calm disposition; but afterwards, when changes come, like Job's wife, they are discovered, Job 2:9. Then that which in nature is unsubdued, openly appears.
有时候，当人们的精神仍然新鲜而充满活力，年轻的花朵还在绽放，一切物质需求都得到满足时，他们似乎是愉快而平静的。但是，当变故来临时，就像约伯的妻子一样，他们会被揭示出来，约伯记 2:9。那些在本性中未被征服的东西会公开地显露出来。

(3.) Temptations likewise have a searching power to bring that to light in us which was hidden before. Satan hath been a winnower and a sifter of old, Luke 22:3. He thought if Job had been but touched in his body, he would have cursed God to his face, Job 1.
(3.) 诱惑同样具有一种探索的力量，可以将我们内心隐藏的东西揭示出来。撒旦一直是一个筛选者和筛选者，路加福音 22:3。他认为如果约伯的身体受到一点伤害，他就会当面诅咒上帝，约伯记 1。

Some men, out of policy, conceal their passion until they see some advantage to let it out, as Esau smothered his hatred until his father's death. Aperta perdunt odia vindictæ locum. When the restraint is taken away, men, as we say, shew themselves in their pure naturals. Unloose a tiger or a lion, and you know what he is. Solve leonem et senties.
有些人出于策略，隐藏他们的激情，直到看到某种优势才释放出来，就像以扫在他父亲去世之前隐藏了他的仇恨一样。当约束被解除时，人们会展示出他们纯粹的本性，正如我们所说的。放开一只老虎或狮子，你就会知道它是什么样子的。解开狮子，你就会感受到。

(4.) Further, let us see more every day into the state of our own souls. What a shame is it that so nimble and swift a spirit as the soul is, that can mount up to heaven, and from thence come down into the earth in an instant, should, whilst it looks over all other things, overlook itself! that it should be skilful in the story almost of all times and places, and yet ignorant of the story of itself! that we should know what is done in the court and country, and beyond the seas, and be ignorant of what is done at home in our own hearts! that we should live known to others, and yet die unknown to ourselves! that we should be able to give account of anything better than of ourselves to ourselves! This is the cause why we stand in our own light, why we think better of ourselves than others, and better than is cause; this is that which hindereth all reformation, for how can we reform that which we are not willing to see, and so we lose one of the surest evidences of our sincerity, which is, a willingness to search into our hearts, and to be searched by others. A sincere heart will offer itself to trial.
(4.) 此外，让我们每天更加了解自己灵魂的状态。多么可惜，如此敏捷迅猛的灵魂，能够瞬间升入天堂，从那里降临到地球，却在俯瞰其他一切的同时，忽略了自己！它对几乎所有时代和地方的故事都很熟悉，却对自己的故事一无所知！我们知道朝廷和乡村、海外发生了什么，却对自己内心的所作所为一无所知！我们活在别人的认知中，却死于自己的无知！我们能够对任何事情做出解释，却对自己无能为力！这就是我们自己阻碍自己的原因，我们对自己的评价比别人更高，而且没有充分的理由；这就是阻碍一切改革的原因，因为我们如何改革我们不愿意看到的东西呢？因此，我们失去了对自己真诚的最可靠证据之一，那就是愿意探索自己内心，并接受他人的审视。真诚的心会自愿接受审判。

And therefore let us sift our actions, and our passions, and see what is flesh in them, and what is spirit, and so separate the precious from the vile. It is good likewise to consider what sin we were guilty of before, which moved God to give us up to excess in any passion, and wherein we have grieved his Spirit. Passion will be more moderate when thus it knows it must come to the trial and censure. This course will either make us weary of passion, or else passion will make us weary of this strict course. We shall find it the safest way to give our hearts no rest till we have wrought on them to purpose, and gotten the mastery over them.
因此，让我们审视我们的行为和激情，看看其中有多少是肉体的，有多少是精神的，从而将宝贵的与卑鄙的分开。同样要考虑我们之前犯了什么罪，使上帝放任我们沉溺于任何激情，并且我们在哪些方面伤害了他的灵。当激情知道它必须经受审判和批评时，它会更加温和。这种做法要么让我们对激情感到厌倦，要么让激情让我们对这种严格的做法感到厌倦。我们会发现，直到我们对心灵产生实质性的影响并掌控它们，给予我们的心灵休息是最安全的方式。

When the soul is inured to this dealing with itself, it will learn the skill to command, and passions will be soon commanded, as being inured to be examined and checked; as we see dogs, and such like domestical creatures, that will not regard a stranger, yet will be quieted in brawls presently by the voice of their master, to which they are accustomed. This fits us for service. Unbroken spirits are like unbroken horses, unfit for any use until they be thoroughly subdued.
当灵魂习惯于与自己打交道时，它将学会指挥的技巧，激情也会很快被指挥，因为它们习惯于被审查和控制；就像我们看到的狗和其他家养动物，它们不会理会陌生人，但一听到主人的声音就会立刻安静下来，因为它们习惯了这样。这使我们适合服务。未经驯服的精神就像未经驯服的马一样，不适合任何用途，直到它们完全被驯服。

(5.) And it were best to prevent, as much as in us lieth, the very first risings, before the soul be overcast. Passions are but little motions at the first, but grow as rivers do, greater and greater, the farther they are carried from their spring. The first risings are the more to be looked unto, because there is most danger in them, and we have least care over them. Sin, like rust, or a canker, will by little and little eat out all the graces of the soul. There is no staying when we are once down the hill, till we come to the bottom. No sin but is easier kept out than driven out. If we cannot prevent wicked thoughts, yet we may deny them lodging in our hearts. It is our giving willing entertainment to sinful motions that increaseth guilt, and hindereth our peace. It is that which moveth God to give us up to a further degree of evil affections. Therefore what we are afraid to do before men, we should be afraid to think before God. It would much further our peace to keep our judgments clear, as being the eye of the soul, whereby we may discern in every action and passion what is good and what is evil; as likewise to preserve tenderness of heart, that may check us at the first, and not brook the least evil being discovered. When the heart begins once to be kindled, it is easy to smother the smoke of passion, which otherwise will fume up into the head, and gather into so thick a cloud as we shall lose the sight of ourselves, and what is best to be done. And therefore David here labours to take up his heart at the first; his care was to crush the very first insurrections of his soul, before they came to break forth into open rebellion. Storms we know rise out of little gusts. Little risings neglected cover the soul before we are aware. If we would check these risings, and stifle them in their birth, they would not break out afterwards to the reproach of religion, to the scandal of the weak, to the offence of the strong, to the grief of God's Spirit in us, to the disturbance of our own spirits in doing good, and to the disheartening of us in troubling of our inward peace, and thereby weakening our assurance. Therefore let us stop beginnings as much as may be; and so soon as they begin to rise, let us begin to examine what raised them, and whither they are about to carry us, Ps. 4:4. The way to be still is to examine ourselves first, and then censure what stands not with reason. As David doth, when he had given way to unbefitting thoughts of God's providence, 'So foolish,' saith he, 'was I, and as a beast before thee,' Ps. 73:22.
（5）尽力防止最初的动摇，因为灵魂被遮蔽之前是最好的。激情起初只是微小的动作，但随着离开源头越远，它们会像河流一样越来越大。最初的动摇更需要关注，因为其中存在最大的危险，而我们对它们的关注最少。罪恶就像锈蚀或溃疡，会逐渐侵蚀灵魂的所有美德。一旦我们滑下山坡，就无法停下来，直到到达山脚。没有哪种罪恶比防止更容易。如果我们无法阻止邪恶的思想，那么我们可以拒绝它们在我们心中停留。我们自愿接纳罪恶的动机会增加罪恶感，并阻碍我们的平安。这会促使上帝让我们陷入更深层次的邪恶情感。因此，我们在人前害怕做的事情，也应该在上帝面前害怕去思考。 保持清晰的判断力会进一步促进和平，因为它是灵魂的眼睛，通过它我们可以辨别每一个行动和情感中的善恶；同时保持心灵的柔软，可以在最初的时候制止我们，不容忍任何一点恶行的显露。当心灵一旦被点燃，很容易扑灭激情的烟雾，否则它会冒出头脑，聚集成如此浓密的云雾，以至于我们会失去自我和最佳行动的视野。因此，大卫在这里努力控制自己的心灵；他的关注点是在它们变成公开的叛乱之前，压制住灵魂最初的反抗。我们知道，风暴是从小小的风吹起的。忽视了小小的起伏会在我们意识到之前掩盖住灵魂。如果我们能够制止这些起伏，并在它们产生之初扼杀它们，它们就不会在后来对宗教进行指责，对软弱者造成困扰，对强者造成冒犯，对上帝的灵魂在我们身上造成悲伤，对我们在行善时扰乱我们自己的精神，对我们内心的平静造成打击，从而削弱我们的确信。 因此，让我们尽量停止开始；一旦它们开始上升，让我们开始审视是什么引起了它们，以及它们将把我们带到哪里，诗篇 4:4。保持安静的方法是首先审视自己，然后批评与理性不符的事物。正如大卫所做的，当他放纵于对上帝的安排不合适的思考时，他说：“我如此愚蠢，在你面前如同畜牲”，诗篇 73:22。

Especially then, look to these sinful stirrings when thou art to deal with God. I am to have communion with a God of peace, what then do turbulent thoughts and affections in my heart? I am to deal with a patient God, why should I cherish revengeful thoughts? Abraham drove away the birds from the sacrifice, Gen. 15:11. Troublesome thoughts, like birds, will come before they be sent for, but they should find entertainment accordingly.
尤其是在与上帝打交道时，要特别注意这些罪恶的激动。我要与一个和平的上帝交流，那么我心中的动荡思绪和情感又有何用呢？我要与一个忍耐的上帝打交道，为什么要怀有报复的念头呢？亚伯拉罕赶走了祭品上的鸟，创世记 15:11。烦恼的思绪就像鸟一样，会在被召唤之前出现，但它们应该得到相应的对待。

(6.) In all our grievance let us look to something that may comfort us, as well as discourage; look to that we enjoy, as well as that we want. As in prosperity God mingles some crosses to diet us, so in all crosses there is something to comfort us. As there is a vanity lies hid in the best worldly good, so there is a blessing lies hid in the worst worldly evil. God usually maketh up that with some advantage in another kind, wherein we are inferior to others. Others are in greater place, so they are in greater danger. Others be richer, so their cares and snares be greater: the poor in the world may be richer in faith than they, James 2:5. The soul can better digest and master a low estate than a prosperous, and under some abasement, it is in a less distance from God. Others are not so afflicted as we, then they have less experience of God's gracious power than we. Others may have more healthy bodies, but souls less weaned from the world. We would not change conditions with them, so as to have their spirits with their condition. For one half of our lives, the meanest are as happy and free from cares, as the greatest monarch, that is, while both sleep; and usually the sleep of the one is sweeter than the sleep of the other. What is all that the earth can afford us, if God deny health? and this a man in the meanest condition may enjoy. That wherein one man differs from another, is but title, and but for a little time; death levelleth all.
在我们所有的不满中，让我们寻找一些可以安慰我们的东西，同时也要让我们感到沮丧；看看我们拥有的，也看看我们所需要的。就像在繁荣中，上帝会掺杂一些困难来磨练我们一样，在所有的困难中，也有一些可以安慰我们的东西。就像最好的世俗财富中隐藏着虚荣一样，最糟糕的世俗邪恶中也隐藏着祝福。上帝通常会用另一种方式弥补我们在其他方面的不足之处。别人地位更高，所以他们面临的危险也更大。别人更富有，所以他们的忧虑和陷阱也更多：在世界上贫穷的人可能比他们更富有信仰，雅各书 2:5。灵魂可以更好地消化和掌控低贱的境地，而在某种卑微中，它与上帝的距离更近。别人没有我们那么受苦，那么他们对上帝恩慈的经历就比我们少。别人可能有更健康的身体，但灵魂对世俗的依赖程度较低。我们不愿意与他们交换条件，以便拥有他们的精神和他们的处境。 在我们一生的一半时间里，最卑微的人和最伟大的君主一样幸福，没有烦恼，也就是在他们都在睡觉的时候；而且通常一个人的睡眠比另一个人更甜美。如果上帝不赐予健康，地球能给我们什么呢？即使是最卑微的人也可以享受健康。一个人与另一个人的区别只是头衔，而且只是短暂的；死亡将一切归于平等。

There is scarce any man, but the good he receives from God is more than the ill he feels, if our unthankful hearts would suffer us to think so. Is not our health more than our sickness? do we not enjoy more than we want, I mean, of the things that are necessary? are not our good days more than our evil? but we would go to heaven upon roses, and usually one cross is more taken to heart, than a hundred blessings. So unkindly we deal with God. Is God indebted to us? doth he owe us any thing? those that deserve nothing, should be content with any thing.
如果我们那些不知感恩的心能够让我们这样想的话，几乎没有人会感到不满，因为他从上帝那里得到的好处远远超过他所感受到的痛苦。我们的健康难道不比我们的疾病更重要吗？我们难道不是享受着比我们所需更多的东西，我指的是那些必需品吗？我们的好日子难道不比我们的苦难多吗？但是我们总是希望一帆风顺地进入天堂，而通常一个十字架比一百个祝福更让人伤心。我们对上帝是如此不友善。上帝欠我们什么吗？他欠我们任何东西吗？那些一无所值的人应该对任何东西都心满意足。

We should look to others as good as ourselves, as well as to ourselves, and then we shall see it is not our own case only. Who are we that we should look for an exempted condition from those troubles which God's dearest children are addicted unto?
我们应该将自己看作和别人一样好，同时也要看到自己，这样我们就会发现这不仅仅是我们自己的情况。我们是谁，竟然要寻求从那些神最亲爱的子女所遭遇的困扰中豁免的条件呢？

Thus when we are surprised contrary to our looking for and liking, we should study rather how to exercise some grace, than give way to any passion. Think, now is a time to exercise our patience, our wisdom, and other graces. By this means we shall turn that to our greatest advantage, which Satan intendeth greatest hurt to us by. Thus we shall not only master every condition, but make it serviceable to our good. If nature teach bees, not only to gather honey out of sweet flowers, but out of bitter, shall not grace teach us to draw even out of the bitterest condition something to better our souls? we learn to tame all creatures, even the wildest, that we may bring them to our use: and why should we give way to our own unruly passions?
因此，当我们感到惊讶，与我们的期望和喜好相反时，我们应该更多地学习如何行使一些优雅，而不是屈服于任何激情。想想看，现在是锻炼我们的耐心、智慧和其他美德的时候了。通过这种方式，我们将把那些本来会给我们带来最大伤害的事情转化为我们最大的优势。这样，我们不仅能够掌控每一种情况，还能使其为我们的利益服务。如果大自然教会蜜蜂不仅从甜花中采集蜜，还从苦花中采集蜜，难道优雅不能教会我们从最苦涩的境况中汲取一些东西来改善我们的灵魂吗？我们学会驯服所有的生物，甚至是最野蛮的，以便将它们用于我们的利益：为什么我们要屈服于自己不受控制的激情呢？

(7.) It were good to have in our eye the beauty of a well-ordered soul, and we should think that nothing in this world is of sufficient worth to put us out of frame. The sanctified soul should be like the sun in this, which though it worketh upon all these inferior bodies, and cherisheth them by light and influence, yet is not moved nor wrought upon by them again, but keepeth its own lustre and distance; so our spirits, being of a heavenly breed, should rule other things beneath them, and not be ruled by them. It is a holy state of soul to be under the power of nothing beneath itself. Are we stirred? then consider, is this matter worth the loss of my quiet? What we esteem, that we love; what we love, we labour for; and therefore let us esteem highly of a clear, calm temper, whereby we both enjoy our God and ourselves, and know how to rank all things else. It is against nature for inferior things to rule that which the wise Disposer of all things hath set above them. We owe the flesh neither suit nor service; we are no debtors to it.
（7）我们应该将一个有序灵魂的美丽放在眼中，并且认为这个世界上没有什么东西足以让我们失去平衡。被圣化的灵魂应该像太阳一样，虽然它对所有这些次要的物体起作用，并通过光和影响力滋养它们，但它不会再次被它们所感动或影响，而是保持自己的光彩和距离；因此，我们的精神应该像天上的品种一样统治其他事物，而不是被它们统治。在灵魂的圣洁状态下，不受任何低于自己的力量支配是一种神圣的状态。我们被激动了吗？那么请考虑一下，这件事是否值得我失去平静？我们所珍视的，我们就会爱；我们所爱的，我们就会为之努力；因此，让我们高度评价一个清晰、平静的性情，通过它我们既能享受上帝和自己，又能知道如何排列其他一切事物。对于低于自己的事物来统治那位明智的万物安排者所设定的事物是违背自然的。我们对肉体既不欠债也不提供服务。

The more we set before the soul that quiet estate in heaven which the souls of perfect men now enjoy, and itself ere long shall enjoy there, the more it will be in love with it, and endeavour to attain unto it. And because the soul never worketh better, than when it is raised up by some strong and sweet affection—anima nunquam melius agit, quam ex imperio alicujus insignis affectus—let us look upon our nature, as it is in Christ, in whom it is pure, sweet, calm, meek, every way lovely. This sight is a changing sight; love is an affection of imitation; we affect a likeness to him we love. Let us 'learn of Christ to be humble and meek,' and then we 'shall find rest to our souls,' Mat. 11:29. The setting of an excellent idea and platform before us, will raise and draw up our souls higher, and make us sensible of the least moving of spirit, that shall be contrary to that, the attainment whereof we have in our desires. He will hardly attain to mean things, that sets not before him higher perfection. Naturally we love to see symmetry and proportion, even in a dead picture, and are much taken with some curious piece. But why should we not rather labour to keep the affections of the soul in due proportion? seeing a meek and well ordered soul is not only lovely in the sight of men and angels, but is much set by, by the great God himself. But now the greatest care of those that set highest price upon themselves is, how to compose their outward carriage in some graceful manner, never studying how to compose their spirits; and rather how to cover the deformity of their passions than to cure them. Whence it is that the foulest inward vices are covered with the fairest vizards, and to make this the worse, all this is counted the best breeding.
越是向灵魂展示那些完美人灵魂现在在天堂中享受的宁静状态，以及它自己不久将在那里享受的状态，它就越会爱上它，并努力去实现它。因为灵魂从未比在某种强烈而甜蜜的情感的推动下更好地工作——让我们把我们的本性看作是在基督里的本性，在他里面它是纯洁、甜美、平静、温和、可爱的。这种视角是一种变化的视角；爱是一种模仿的情感；我们追求与我们所爱的人相似。让我们“向基督学习谦卑和温柔”，然后我们“将在我们的灵魂中找到安息”，马太福音 11:29。在我们面前设立一个优秀的理念和平台，将提升和吸引我们的灵魂，使我们能够感知到与我们渴望的目标相违背的最微小的动力。那些不设立更高的完美目标的人很难达到平庸的事物。自然而然地，我们喜欢看到死图中的对称和比例，我们对一些精致的作品非常着迷。 但为什么我们不应该更努力地保持心灵的情感适度呢？因为一个温和有序的心灵不仅在人和天使眼中可爱，而且在伟大的上帝眼中也非常珍视。然而，那些最看重自己的人最关心的是如何以某种优雅的方式表现自己的外在举止，而不是如何调整自己的内心；他们更关心如何掩盖激情的丑陋而不是如何治愈它们。因此，最丑陋的内在恶习被最美丽的面具所掩盖，更糟糕的是，所有这一切都被认为是最好的教养。

The Hebrews placed all their happiness in peace, and when they would comprise much in one word, they would wish peace. This was that the angels brought news of from heaven, at the birth of Christ, Luke 2:14. Now peace riseth out of quietness and order, and God that is 'the God of peace, is the God of order' first, 1 Cor. 14:33. What is health, but when all the members are in their due positure,* and all the humours in a settled quiet? Whence ariseth the beauty of the world, but from that comely order wherein every creature is placed; the more glorious and excellent creatures above, and the less below? So it is in the soul; the best constitution of it is when by the Spirit of God it is so ordered, as that all be in subjection to the law of the mind. What a sight were it for the feet to be where the head is, and the earth to be where the heaven is, to see all turned upside down? And to a spiritual eye it seems as great a deformity, to see the soul to be under the rule of sinful passions.
希伯来人将他们所有的幸福都寄托在和平上，当他们想用一个词来概括很多东西时，他们会祈求和平。这就是天使在基督诞生时从天上带来的消息，路加福音 2:14。现在，和平源于宁静和秩序，而作为“和平之神”的上帝首先是“秩序之神”，哥林多前书 14:33。健康不就是当所有器官都处于适当的位置，所有体液都处于稳定的宁静吗？世界之美不就是来自于每个生物被放置在合宜的秩序中吗？更光荣和卓越的生物在上方，较小的在下方？灵魂也是如此；它的最佳构造是当被上帝的灵所治理，以至于一切都服从于心灵的律法。如果脚在头的位置，地在天的位置，看到一切颠倒了，那将是何等景象？对于一个灵性的眼睛来说，看到灵魂受邪恶的激情统治也同样令人厌恶。

Comeliness riseth out of the fit proportion of divers members to make up one body, when every member hath a beauty in itself, and is likewise well suited to other parts. A fair face and a crooked body, comely upper parts, and the lower parts uncomely, suit not well; because comeliness stands in oneness, in a fit agreement of many parts to one. When there is the head of a man, and the body of a beast, it is a monster in nature; and is it not as monstrous for to have an understanding head, and a fierce untamed heart? It cannot but raise up a holy indignation in us against these risings, when we consider how unbeseeming they are. What do these base passions in a heart dedicated to God, and given up to the government of his Spirit? what an indignity is it for princes to go afoot, and servants on horseback? for those to rule, whose place is to be ruled? as being good attendants, but bad guides. It was Ham's curse to be a 'servant of servants,' Gen. 9:25.
美貌源于各个部分的合适比例，使其组成一个整体，当每个部分都有自己的美丽，并且也适合其他部分时。一个漂亮的脸和一个弯曲的身体，上半身漂亮，下半身不漂亮，不相称；因为美貌在于多个部分与一个部分的合适协调。当一个人的头和一个野兽的身体结合在一起时，这是自然界的怪物；一个有理解力的头脑和一个凶猛不驯的心灵难道不是同样怪异吗？当我们考虑到这些不相称时，它不禁在我们心中引起一种神圣的愤怒。这些卑鄙的激情在一个奉献给上帝并臣服于他的灵的心中有什么作用呢？对于王子们步行而仆人们骑马，对于那些应该被统治的人来统治，这是多么的不尊重。创世记 9:25 中说，哈姆被诅咒为“仆人的仆人”。

(8.) This must be strengthened with a strong self-denial, without which there can be no good done in religion.
这必须通过强烈的自我否定来加强，否则在宗教方面无法做出任何善行。

There be two things that most trouble us in the way to heaven, corruption within us, and the cross without us: that which is within us must be denied, that that which is without us may be endured. Otherwise we cannot follow him by whom we look to be saved. The gate, the entrance of religion, is narrow; we must strip ourselves of ourselves before we can enter; if we bring any ruling lust to religion, it will prove a bitter root of some gross sin, or of apostasy and final desperation.
在通往天堂的道路上，有两件事情最困扰我们，一是内在的腐败，二是外在的十字架：我们必须否认内在的腐败，才能忍受外在的十字架。否则，我们无法追随那个我们寄望得救的人。宗教的门户，入口是狭窄的；我们必须在进入之前剥离自我；如果我们将任何统治欲望带入宗教，它将成为某种严重罪恶的苦涩根源，或者导致背离和绝望的最终结局。

Those that sought the praise of men more than the praise of God, John 12:43, could not believe, because that lust of ambition would, when it should be crossed, draw them away. The young man thought it better for Christ to lose a disciple than that he should lose his possession, and therefore went away as he came, Mat. 19:22. The 'third ground,' Mat. 13:25, came to nothing; because the plough had not gone deep enough to break up the roots, whereby their hearts were fastened to earthly contentments. This self-denial we must carry with us through all the parts of religion, both in our active and passive obedience; for in obedience there must be a subjection to a superior; but corrupt self neither is subject, nor can be, Rom. 8:7. It will have an oar in everything, and maketh everything, yea, religion, serviceable to itself. It is the idol of the world, or rather the god that is set highest of all in the soul; and so God himself is made but an idol. It is hard to deny a friend who is another self, harder to deny a wife that lieth in the bosom, but most hard to deny ourselves. Nothing so near us as ourselves to ourselves, and yet nothing so far off. Nothing so dear, and yet nothing so malicious and troublesome. Hypocrites would part with the fruit of their body, Mic. 6:7, sooner than the sin of their souls.
那些追求人们的赞美胜过上帝的人，约翰福音 12:43，无法相信，因为野心的欲望一旦受到阻碍，就会将他们拉开。那个年轻人认为，基督失去一个门徒比他失去财产更好，因此他离开时和来时一样，马太福音 19:22。马太福音 13:25 中的“第三块地”毫无结果，因为犁没有深入到足以打破根系的地方，他们的心被扎根于世俗的满足。我们必须在宗教的各个方面都带着这种自我否定，无论是在我们的主动服从还是被动服从中；因为在服从中必须服从上级；但腐败的自我既不服从，也不能服从，罗马书 8:7。它会在一切事情中插手，使一切事情，甚至宗教，都为自己服务。它是世界的偶像，或者更确切地说，是灵魂中最高的神；因此，上帝自己只是一个偶像。拒绝一个与自己相似的朋友是困难的，拒绝躺在怀中的妻子更困难，但最困难的是拒绝自己。没有什么比自己更接近我们自己，但也没有什么比自己更遥远。 没有什么比这更珍贵，但也没有什么比这更恶毒和麻烦。伪君子宁愿放弃他们身体的果实，弥迦书 6:7，也不愿放弃他们灵魂的罪恶。

CHAPTER XI.—Signs of victory over ourselves, and of a subdued spirit
第十一章——战胜自己的迹象，以及屈服的精神

Quest. But how shall we know whether we have by grace got the victory over ourselves or not?
但是我们如何知道我们是否凭借恩典战胜了自己呢？

Ans. I answer, 1. If in good actions we stand not so much upon the credit of the action as upon the good that is done. What we do as unto God, we look for acceptance from God. It was Jonah his fault to stand more upon his own reputation than the glory of God's mercy. It is a prevailing sign when, though there be no outward encouragements, nay, though there be discouragements, yet we can rest in the comfort of a good intention. For usually inward comfort is a note of inward sincerity. Jehu must be seen, or else all is lost, 2 Kings 10:16.
答：我回答，1. 如果在善行中，我们不仅仅看重行为本身的声誉，而是看重所做的善事。我们把所做的事当作是为了上帝而做的，我们期待上帝的接受。约拿的错误在于更看重自己的名声，而不是上帝的怜悯的荣耀。当我们能够在没有外在鼓励甚至有阻碍的情况下，仍然能够安心于良好的意图，这通常是内心安慰的标志，也是内心真诚的标志。耶户必须被看到，否则一切都会丧失，列王记下 10:16。

2. It is a good evidence of some prevailing when, upon religious grounds, we can cross ourselves in those things unto which our hearts stand most affected. This sheweth we reserve God his own place in our hearts.
这是一种很好的证据，当我们出于宗教原因，在那些我们最为关注的事情上，我们能够为自己做出交叉的动作。这表明我们在心中为上帝保留了他自己的位置。

3. When, being privy to our own inclination and temper, we have gotten such a supply of Spirit as that the grace which is contrary to our temper appears in us. As oft we see none more patient than those that are naturally inclined to intemperancy of passion, because natural proneness makes them jealous over themselves. Some, out of fear of being overmuch moved, are not moved so much as they should be. This jealousy stirreth us up to a careful use of all helps. Where grace is helped by nature, there a little grace will go far; but where there is much untowardness of nature, there much grace is not so well discerned. Sour wines need much sweetening. And that is most spiritual which hath least help from nature, and is won by prayer and pains.
当我们了解自己的倾向和脾气，并获得了足够的灵感，以至于与我们的脾气相反的恩典在我们身上显现时。我们经常看到那些天性倾向于情绪不稳定的人比任何人都更有耐心，因为天性的倾向使他们对自己更加警惕。有些人出于害怕过度激动的原因，没有像他们应该的那样激动。这种警惕性激发我们谨慎地利用所有的帮助。当恩典得到天性的帮助时，一点点的恩典就会走得很远；但是当天性非常不合时，很多恩典就不容易被察觉。酸酒需要很多甜化。最具灵性的是那些最少得到天性帮助的，是通过祈祷和努力获得的。

4. When we are not partial when the things concern ourselves. David could allow himself another man's wife, and yet judgeth another man worthy of death for taking away a poor man's lamb, 2 Sam. 12:4. Men usually favour themselves too much when they are chancellors in their own cause, and measure all things by their private interest. He hath taken a good degree in Christ's school that hath learned to forget himself here.
当涉及到自己的事情时，我们不偏袒。大卫可以接受别人的妻子，但却判定另一个人因为夺走一个穷人的小羊而应该被处死，撒母耳记下 12:4。当人们在自己的事情上充当法官时，通常会过分偏袒自己，并以自己的私利来衡量一切。在基督的学校里，学会忘记自己的人已经取得了良好的成绩。

5. It is a good sign when, upon discovery of self-seeking, we can gain upon our corruption; and are willing to search and to be searched, what our inclination is, and where it faileth. That which we favour we are tender of, it must not be touched. A good heart, when any corruption is discovered by a searching ministry, is affected as if it had found out a deadly enemy. Touchiness and passion argues guilt.
当我们发现自己追求私利时，能够在腐败中取得进步，愿意探索和被探索，了解我们的倾向和失败的地方，这是一个好的迹象。我们喜欢的东西我们会珍惜，不容触碰。当一个善良的心灵在接受深入调查的时候发现了任何腐败，就像发现了一个致命的敌人一样受到影响。易怒和激情表明有罪。

6. This is a sign of a man's victory over himself, when he loves health and peace of body and mind, with a supply of all needful things, chiefly for this end, that he may with more freedom of spirit serve God in doing good to others. So soon as grace entereth into the heart, it frameth the heart to be in some measure public; and thinks it hath not its end in the bare enjoying of anything, until it can improve what it hath for a further end. Thus to seek ourselves is to deny ourselves, and thus to deny ourselves is truly to seek ourselves. It is no self-seeking when we care for no more than that, without which we cannot comfortably serve God. When the soul can say unto God, Lord, as thou wouldst have me serve thee in my place, so grant me such a measure of health and strength, wherein I may serve thee.
这是一个人战胜自己的迹象，当他热爱身心健康与和平，并拥有一切必需品，主要是为了更自由地为了做善事而事奉上帝。一旦恩典进入心灵，它使心灵在某种程度上变得公共；并且认为它在仅仅享受任何事物之前，没有达到目的，直到它能够为进一步的目的利用它所拥有的。因此，寻求自己就是否认自己，而真正寻求自己就是否认自己。当我们只关心那些我们不能舒适地事奉上帝的事物时，这不是自私。当灵魂能够对上帝说：“主啊，正如你希望我在我的位置上事奉你一样，请赐予我这样一种健康和力量的程度，我可以在其中事奉你。”

Object. But what if God thinks it good that I shall serve him in weakness, and in want and suffering?
但是如果上帝认为我在软弱、贫乏和苦难中侍奉他是好的呢？

Ans. Then it is a comfortable sign of gaining over our own wills, when we can yield ourselves to be disposed of by God, as knowing best what is good for us. There is no condition but therein we may exercise some grace, and honour God in some measure. Yet because some enlargement of condition is ordinarily that estate wherein we are best able to do good in, we may in the use of means desire it, and upon that resign up ourselves wholly unto God, and make his will our will, without exception or reservation, and care for nothing more than we can have with his leave and love. This Job had exercised his heart unto; whereupon in that great change of condition he sinned not, Job 2:10; that is, fell not into the sins incident to that dejected and miserable state; into sins of rebellion and discontent. He carried his crosses comely, with that staidness and resignedness which became a holy man.
然后，当我们能够将自己交托给上帝，因为我们知道他最了解我们的利益，这是我们战胜自己意愿的一个舒适的迹象。无论处境如何，我们都可以发挥一些恩典，并在某种程度上荣耀上帝。然而，由于在通常情况下，我们能够在更宽广的环境中做更多善事，我们可以在使用手段时渴望这种境地，并完全将自己交托给上帝，使他的旨意成为我们的旨意，没有任何例外或保留，并且不关心我们能够在他的许可和爱中得到什么更多。约伯就是这样锻炼自己的心灵；因此，在那种巨大的境况变化中，他没有犯罪（约伯记 2:10），也就是说，没有陷入那种沮丧和悲惨状态中常见的罪恶，如反叛和不满的罪恶。他以一种合宜的方式承担了他的十字架，以一种圣洁人的镇定和顺从的态度。

7. It is further a clear evidence of a spirit subdued, when we will discover the truth of our affection towards God and his people, though with censure of others. David was content to endure the censure of neglecting the state and majesty of a king, out of joy for settling the ark, 2 Sam. 6:22. Nehemiah could not dissemble his grief for the ruins of the church, though in the king's presence, Neh. 2:3. It is a comfortable sign of the wasting of self-love, when we can be at a point what becomes of ourselves, so it go well with the cause of God and the church.
这进一步证明了一个屈服的精神，当我们发现我们对上帝和他的子民的爱是真实的，尽管受到他人的指责。大卫乐意忍受被指责忽视国家和王权的批评，因为他为安置约柜而感到欢喜（撒母耳记下 6:22）。尼希米在国王面前也无法掩饰他对教堂废墟的悲伤（尼希米记 2:3）。当我们不再关心自己的处境，只要上帝的事业和教会顺利就好，这是自我爱的一个令人欣慰的迹象。

Now the way to prevail still more over ourselves, as when we are to do or suffer anything, or withstand any person in a good cause, &c., is, not to think that we are to deal with men, yea, or with devils, so much as with ourselves. The saints resisted their enemies to death, by resisting their own corruptions first. If we once get the victory over ourselves, all other things are conquered to our ease. All the hurt Satan and the world do us, is by correspondency with ourselves. All things are so far under us, as we are above ourselves. Te vince, et mundus tibi victus est, &c.
现在，要更加战胜自己的方法是，当我们要做或遭受任何事情，或在正义的事业中抵抗任何人时，不要认为我们要与人打交道，甚至与魔鬼打交道，而是与自己打交道。圣徒们首先通过抵制自己的败坏来抵抗他们的敌人直至死亡。如果我们一旦战胜了自己，其他一切都会为我们轻松地征服。撒旦和世界对我们造成的伤害，都是与我们自己的对应关系有关。只要我们超越自己，一切事物都在我们之下。你战胜了自己，世界就战胜了你，等等。

For the further subduing of ourselves, it is good to follow sin to the first hold and castle, which is corrupt nature; the streams will lead us to the spring head. Indeed, the most apparent discovery of sin is in the outward carriage; we see it in the fruit before in the root, as we see grace in the expression before in the affection. But yet we shall never hate sin thoroughly until we consider it in the poisoned root from whence it ariseth.
为了更彻底地征服自己，跟随罪恶到第一个堡垒和城堡，也就是腐败的本性，是很好的；溪流会引领我们到源头。事实上，罪恶最明显的表现是在外在的行为中；我们在根之前就能看到果实，就像我们在情感之前就能看到表达中的恩典。但是，只有当我们考虑到罪恶从中毒的根源产生时，我们才能彻底憎恨罪恶。

That which least troubles a natural man doth most of all trouble a true Christian. A natural man is sometimes troubled with the fruit of his corruption, and the consequents of guilt and punishment that attend it; but a true-hearted Christian with corruption itself. This drives him to complain, with St Paul, 'O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me,' not from the members only, but 'from this body of death?' Rom. 7:24, which is as noisome to my soul as a dead carrion is to my senses, which, together with the members, is marvellously nimble and active, and hath no days, or hours, or minutes of rest; always laying about it to enlarge itself, and like spring water, which, the more it issueth out, the more it may.
那些最不困扰一个自然人的事情，却最困扰一个真正的基督徒。一个自然人有时会为他的堕落之果和随之而来的罪恶和惩罚而困扰；而一个真诚的基督徒则为堕落本身而困扰。这驱使他像圣保罗一样抱怨：“我这个不幸的人！谁能救我脱离这个必死的身体呢？”（罗马书 7:24）这对我的灵魂来说就像一具腐尸对我的感官一样令人讨厌，它连同肢体一起非常灵活和活跃，没有休息的日子、小时或分钟；它总是努力扩大自己，就像泉水一样，它越流越多。

It is a good way, upon any particular breach of our inward peace, presently to have recourse to that which breeds and foments all our disquiet. Lord! what do I complain of this my unruly passion? I carry a nature about me subject to break out continually upon any occasion. Lord! strike at the root, and dry up the fountain in me. Thus David doth arise from the guilt of those two foul sins of murder and adultery, Ps. 51:5, to the sin of his nature, the root itself; as if he should say, Lord, it is not these actual sins that defile me only, but if I look back to my first conception, I was tainted in the spring of my nature.
当我们内心的平静受到特定的破坏时，立即求助于那些滋生和煽动我们所有不安的事物是一个好办法。主啊！我为什么要抱怨这个不受控制的情感？我身上有一种本性，无论何时都可能爆发出来。主啊！打击根源，使我内心的泉源干涸。大卫就是这样从谋杀和通奸这两个丑恶的罪过中站起来，转向他本性的罪过，根本本身；仿佛他在说，主啊，不仅仅是这些实际的罪过玷污了我，而且如果我回顾我的最初受孕，我在本性的源头就已经被污染了。

This is that which put David's soul so much out of frame; for from whence was this contradiction? and whence was this contradiction so unwearied in making head again and again against the checks of the Spirit in him? Whence was it that corruption would not be said nay? Whence were these sudden and unlooked for objections of the flesh? but from the remainder of old Adam in him, which, like a Michal within us, is either scoffing at the ways of God, or, as a Job's wife, fretting and thwarting the motions of God's Spirit in us; which prevails the more because it is homebred in us, whereas holy motions are strangers to most of our souls. Corruption is loath that a new comer-in should take so much upon him as to control, as the Sodomites thought much that Lot, being a stranger, should intermeddle amongst them, Gen. 19:9. If God once leave us, as he did Hezekiah, to try what is in us, what should we find but darkness, rebellion, unruliness, doubtings, &c., in the best of us. This flesh of ours hath principles against all God's principles, and laws against all God's laws, and reasons against all God's reasons. Oh, if we could but one whole hour seriously think of the impure issue of our hearts, it would bring us down upon our knees in humiliation before God! But we can never whilst we live, so thoroughly as we should, see into the depth of our deceitful hearts, nor yet be humbled enough for what we see; for though we speak of it and confess it, yet we are not so sharpened against this corrupt flesh of ours as we should. How should it humble us that the seeds of the vilest sin, even of the sin against the Holy Ghost, is in us? And no thank to us that they break not out. It should humble us to hear of any great enormous sin in another man, considering what our own nature would proceed unto if it were not restrained (c). We may see our own nature in them as face answering face, Prov. 27:19. If God should take his Spirit from us, there is enough in us to defile a whole world; and although we be ingrafted into Christ, yet we carry about us a relish of the old stock still. David was a man of a good natural constitution, and, for grace, a man after God's own heart, and had got the better of himself in a great measure, and had learned to overcome himself in matter of revenge, as in Saul's case, 1 Sam. 24:6; yet now we see the vessel is shaken a little, and the dregs appear that were in the bottom before. Alas! we know not our own hearts till we plough with God's heifer, till his Spirit bringeth a light into our souls. It is good to consider how this impure spring breaks out diversely in the diverse conditions we are in. There is no estate of life, nor no action we undertake, wherein it will not put forth itself to defile us; it is so full of poison that it taints whatsoever we do, both our natures, conditions, and actions. In a prosperous condition, like David, we think we shall never be moved, Ps. 30:6. Under the cross the soul is troubled, and drawn to murmur, and to be sullen, and sink down in discouragement, to be in a heat almost to blasphemy, to be weary of our callings, and to quarrel with everything in our way. See the folly and fury of most men in this, for us silly worms to contradict the great God. And to whose peril is it? Is it not our own? Let us gather ourselves with all our wit and strength together; alas! what can we do but provoke him, and get more stripes? We may be sure he will deal with us as we deal with our children. If they be froward and unquiet for lesser matters, we will make them cry and be sullen for something. Refractory, stubborn horses are the more spurred, and yet shake not off the rider.
这就是使大卫的灵魂如此不安的原因；这个矛盾是从哪里来的？这个矛盾为什么如此不知疲倦地一次又一次地反对他内心的圣灵的警告？为什么腐败不肯说不？为什么肉体会突然而意外地提出异议？这一切都源自他内心的旧亚当的残余，就像我们内心的米甲一样，要么嘲笑上帝的道路，要么像约伯的妻子一样，懊恼并阻挠上帝的灵在我们内心的运动；这种情况更加严重，因为它在我们内心生长，而圣洁的动力对我们大多数人的灵魂来说是陌生的。腐败厌恶一个新来者竟然如此傲慢地控制，就像所多玛人认为洛得作为一个陌生人竟然插手他们之间的事情一样，创世记 19:9。如果上帝一旦离开我们，就像他对希西家所做的那样，试探我们内心的本质，我们会发现什么呢？除了黑暗、叛逆、无法无天、疑虑等等，即使是我们中最好的人也是如此。我们的肉体对上帝的一切原则都有反对的原则，对上帝的一切法律都有反对的法律，对上帝的一切理由都有反对的理由。 哦，如果我们能够认真思考我们心中不纯洁的问题整整一个小时，那将使我们屈膝在上帝面前谦卑！但是我们在活着的时候，永远无法像我们应该的那样彻底地看清我们欺骗性心灵的深处，也无法对我们所看到的感到足够的谦卑；因为虽然我们谈论它并承认它，但我们对我们腐败的肉体并没有像我们应该的那样敏锐。我们应该感到谦卑，因为最卑劣的罪恶的种子，甚至亵渎圣灵的罪恶，都存在于我们之中。如果它们没有爆发，这并不是我们的功劳。听到别人犯下任何巨大的罪孽应该让我们谦卑，考虑到如果没有约束，我们自己的本性会走向何处（c）。我们可以在他们身上看到我们自己的本性，就像面对面一样，箴言 27:19。如果上帝从我们身上取走他的圣灵，我们内心就有足够的东西来玷污整个世界；虽然我们已经被嫁接到基督里，但我们仍然带着旧本性的气味。 大卫是一个体质良好的人，为恩典，是一个合乎上帝心意的人，并且在很大程度上战胜了自己，在复仇的问题上学会了克制自己，就像在扫罗的案例中一样（撒母耳记上 24:6）。然而现在我们看到这个容器有点动摇，之前底部的渣滓显露出来。唉！我们不知道自己的内心，直到我们与上帝的母牛一起耕种，直到他的灵将光照进我们的灵魂。思考一下这个不洁的泉水如何在我们所处的不同情况中以不同的方式爆发出来是很好的。无论是生活的状态还是我们所从事的行动，它都会表现出来以玷污我们；它是如此充满毒素，以至于它污染我们所做的一切，包括我们的本性、条件和行动。在繁荣的情况下，就像大卫一样，我们认为自己永远不会动摇（诗篇 30:6）。在十字架下，灵魂困扰，倾向于抱怨，变得郁闷，陷入沮丧，几乎到了亵渎的地步，对我们的职业感到厌倦，并与我们所经历的一切争吵。看看大多数人在这方面的愚蠢和狂怒，对于我们这些愚蠢的虫子来说，与伟大的上帝相抵触。而这是谁的危险？ 这不是我们自己的吗？让我们集合我们所有的智慧和力量；唉！我们能做什么，除了激怒他，招来更多的鞭打？我们可以肯定他会像我们对待孩子一样对待我们。如果他们对小事情蛮横和不安静，我们会让他们为某些事情哭泣和闷闷不乐。倔强的、顽固的马会更受鞭策，但却无法甩掉骑手。

CHAPTER XII.—Of original righteousness, natural corruption, Satan's joining with it, and our duty thereupon
第十二章——原始的正义，自然的堕落，撒旦的参与以及我们的责任

Object. § I. But here mark a plot of spiritual treason. Satan, joining with our corruption, setteth the wit on work to persuade the soul that this inward rebellion is not so bad, because it is natural to us, as a condition of nature rising out of the first principles in our creation, and was curbed in by the bridle of original righteousness, which they would have accessary and supernatural, and therefore allege that concupiscence is less odious and more excusable in us, and so no great danger in yielding and betraying our souls unto it, and by that means persuading us that that which is our deadliest enemy hath no harm in it, nor meaneth any to us.*
物体。§ I. 但是请注意一种精神背叛的阴谋。撒旦与我们的腐败结合，使智慧工作，说服灵魂认为这种内在的叛乱并不那么糟糕，因为它是我们的本性，是从我们的创造中的第一原则中产生的一种自然状态，并且被原始的正义的约束所控制，他们将其视为附属和超自然的，并且声称在我们身上，贪欲是较不可憎且更可原谅的，因此在屈服并背叛我们的灵魂时并没有太大的危险，并通过这种方式说服我们，我们最致命的敌人并没有任何危害，也不对我们有任何意义。

Ans. This rebellion of lusts against the understanding is not natural, as our nature came out of God's hands at the first, Gen. 1:27; for this, being evil and the cause of evil, could not come from God, who is good and the cause of all good, and nothing but good, who, upon the creation of all things, pronounced them good, and, after the creation of man, pronounced of all things that they were very good, ver. 31. Now, that which is ill and very ill cannot be seated at the same time in that which is good and very good. God created man at the first right; he of himself 'sought out many inventions,' Eccles. 7:29. As God beautified the heaven with stars, and decked the earth with variety of plants, and herbs, and flowers, so he adorned man, his prime creature here below, with all those endowments that were fit for a happy condition; and original righteousness was fit and due to an original and happy condition. Therefore, as the angels were created with all angelical perfections, and as our bodies were created in an absolute temper of all the humours, so the soul was created in that sweet harmony wherein there was no discord, as an instrument in tune, fit to be moved to any duty; as a clean, neat glass, the soul represented God's image and holiness.
这种欲望对理智的反叛并不是自然的，因为我们的本性最初是由上帝创造的（创世记 1:27）。因为这种欲望是邪恶的，也是邪恶的原因，它不可能来自善良的上帝，上帝是一切善良的原因，只有善良，他在创造万物之后宣告它们是善良的，创造人之后，宣告所有事物都是非常善良的（创世记 1:31）。现在，那些不好和非常不好的东西不能同时存在于好和非常好的东西中。上帝最初创造人是正确的；他自己“寻找了许多发明”（传道书 7:29）。上帝用星星装饰了天空，用各种植物、草药和花朵装饰了地球，他也用适合幸福状态的所有才能装饰了人类，他在这里是最重要的创造物；原始的正义适合原始和幸福的状态。 因此，天使们被创造时拥有所有天使的完美，我们的身体则以完全平衡的体液构成，而灵魂则以无冲突的甜美和谐被创造出来，就像一把调好音的乐器，适合被用于任何任务；就像一面干净整洁的镜子，灵魂展现了上帝的形象和圣洁。

§ II. Therefore it is so far, that concupiscence should be natural, that the contrary to it, namely, righteousness, wherein Adam was created, was natural to him; though it were planted in man's nature by God, and so in regard of the cause of it, was supernatural; yet because it was agreeable to that happy condition, without which he could not subsist, in that respect it was natural, and should have been derived, if he had stood, together with his nature, to his posterity. As heat in the air, though it hath its first impression from the heat of the sun, yet is natural, because it agreeth to the nature of that element; and though man be compounded of a spiritual and earthly substance, yet it is natural that the baser earthly part should be subject to the superior, because where there is different degrees of worthiness, it is fit there should be a subordination of the meaner to that which is in order higher. The body naturally desires food and bodily contentments, yet in a man endued with reason, this desire is governed so as it becomes not inordinate. A beast sins not in its appetite, because it hath no power above to order it. A man that lives in a solitary place, far remote from company, may take his liberty to live as it pleaseth him; but if he comes to live under the government of some well-ordered city, then he is bound to submit to the laws and customs of that city, under penalty upon any breach of order; so the risings of the soul, howsoever in other creatures they are not blameable, having no commander in themselves, above them, yet in man they are to be ordered by reason and judgment.
§ II. 因此，情欲应该是自然的，与之相反的正义，亚当在创造时所具有的，对他来说也是自然的；尽管它是由上帝在人的本性中种植的，因此在其原因上是超自然的；然而，因为它符合那种幸福的状态，没有这种状态，他就无法存在，从这个角度来看，它是自然的，如果他站稳了，它应该与他的本性一起传承给他的后代。就像空气中的热量，虽然它的第一印象来自太阳的热量，但它是自然的，因为它符合该元素的本质；虽然人是由精神和物质构成的，但较低的物质部分应该服从较高的部分是自然的，因为在价值上有不同的程度时，较低者应该服从较高者。身体自然地渴望食物和身体的满足，但在一个具有理性的人身上，这种渴望是受到控制的，以免变得无节制。动物的欲望中没有罪恶，因为它没有上面的权力来指导它。 一个生活在偏远孤寂之地的人，可以自由地按照自己的意愿生活；但如果他来到一个有良好秩序的城市居住，那么他就必须遵守该城市的法律和习俗，否则将受到处罚；因此，灵魂的激动，在其他生物身上可能不会受到指责，因为它们没有自己的指挥官，但在人类身上，它们必须受到理性和判断的调控。

Therefore it cannot be, that concupiscence should be natural, in regard of the state of creation. It was Adam's sin; which had many sins in the womb of it, that brought this disorder upon the soul. Adam's person first corrupted our nature, and nature being corrupted, corrupts our persons, and our persons being corrupted, increase the corruption of our nature, by custom of sinning, which is another nature in us. As a stream, the farther it runs from the spring head, the more it enlargeth its channel, by the running of lesser rivers into it, until it empties itself into the sea; so corruption, till it be overpowered by grace, swelleth bigger and bigger, so that though this disorder was not natural, in regard of the first creation, yet since the fall it has become natural, even as we call that which is common to the whole kind, and propagated from parents to their children, to be natural; so that it is both natural and against nature, natural now, but against nature in its first perfection.
因此，就创造的状态而言，情欲不可能是自然的。这是亚当的罪过，它孕育了许多罪恶，给灵魂带来了这种混乱。亚当首先败坏了我们的本性，而本性被败坏后，又败坏了我们的人，我们的人被败坏后，通过犯罪的习惯增加了我们的本性的败坏，这在我们身上形成了另一种本性。就像一条河流，离开源头越远，通过较小的河流的流入，它的河道就越宽，直到它流入大海；同样，腐败在没有被恩典压倒之前，会越来越膨胀，所以虽然这种混乱在最初的创造中并不是自然的，但自从堕落以来，它已经变得自然，就像我们称那些普遍存在于整个种类中，并从父母传给子女的东西为自然；所以它既是自然的，又违背了本性，现在是自然的，但在最初的完美状态下是违背本性的。

And because corruption is natural to us, therefore, 1, We delight in it; whence it comes to pass, that our souls are carried along in an easy current, to the committing of any sin without opposition. 2. Because it is natural, therefore it is unwearied and restless, as light bodies are not wearied in their motion upwards, nor heavy bodies in their motion downwards, nor a stream in its running to the sea, because it is natural: hence it is that the 'old man,' Eph. 4:22, is never tired in the 'works of the flesh,' Gal. 5:19, nor never drawn dry. When men cannot act sin, yet they will love sin, and act it over again by pleasing thoughts of it, and by sinful speculations suck out the delight of sin; and are grieved, not for their sin, but because they want strength and opportunity to commit it; if sin would not leave them, they would never leave sin. This corruption of our nature is not wrought in us by reason and persuasions, for then it might be satisfied with reasons, but it is in us by way of a natural inclination, as iron is carried to the loadstone; and till our natures be altered, no reason will long prevail, but our sinful disposition, as a stream stopped for a little while, will break out with greater violence. 3. Being natural, it needs no help, as the earth needs no tillage to bring forth weeds. When our corrupt nature is carried contrary to that which is good, it is carried of itself, as when Satan lies or murders, it comes from his own cursed nature; and though Satan joineth with our corrupt nature, yet the proneness to sin, and the consent unto it, is of ourselves.
因为腐败是我们的天性，所以，1.我们喜欢它；因此，我们的灵魂会毫无阻力地沿着一条轻松的道路去犯任何罪恶。2.因为它是天性的，所以它是不知疲倦和不安宁的，就像轻物体在向上运动时不会感到疲倦，重物体在向下运动时不会感到疲倦，河流在流向大海时也不会感到疲倦，因为这是天性：因此，正如以弗所书 4:22 所说的，“旧人”在“肉体的行为”上永不疲倦，加拉太书 5:19 也永不干涸。当人们无法犯罪时，他们仍然会喜欢罪恶，并通过对罪恶的愉快思考和罪恶的思考来再次犯罪，并从中吸取罪恶的乐趣；他们感到悲伤的不是因为他们的罪恶，而是因为他们缺乏犯罪的力量和机会；如果罪恶不离开他们，他们永远不会离开罪恶。 这种对我们本性的腐化并非由理性和劝说所造成，因为如果是这样的话，它可能会被理性所满足，但它是通过一种自然的倾向存在于我们内心，就像铁被磁石吸引一样；在我们的本性改变之前，没有理由能够长久地占上风，而我们罪恶的倾向，就像一条暂时被阻止的溪流，将以更大的力量爆发出来。3. 由于是自然的，它不需要帮助，就像土地不需要耕作来生长杂草一样。当我们腐败的本性被带向与善相反的方向时，它是自发的，就像撒旦撒谎或杀人一样，这是源于他自己被诅咒的本性；虽然撒旦与我们腐败的本性结合在一起，但犯罪的倾向和同意是出自我们自己。

Quest. § III. But how shall we know that Satan joins with our nature, in those actions unto which nature itself is prone?
问题三：但我们如何知道撒旦与我们的本性一起参与那些本性本身易于倾向的行为呢？

Ans. Then Satan adds his help, when our nature is carried more eagerly than ordinary to sin; as when a stream runs violently, we may know that there is not only the tide, but the wind that carrieth it.
然后，当我们的本性比平常更渴望犯罪时，撒旦也会提供帮助；就像一条溪流猛烈地流动时，我们可以知道不仅有潮水，还有风在推动它。

So in sudden and violent rebellions, it is Satan that pusheth on nature left to itself of God. A stone falls downwards by its own weight, but if it falls very swiftly, we know it is thrown down by an outward mover. Though there were no devil, yet our corrupt nature would act Satan's part against itself; it would have a supply of wickedness, as a serpent doth poison, from itself, it hath a spring to feed it. Nemo se palpet de suo, Satan est, &c. (Augustine).
所以，在突然而猛烈的叛乱中，是撒旦推动了上帝所放任的自然。一块石头因为自身的重量而向下落，但如果它下落得非常迅速，我们知道它是被外力推倒的。即使没有魔鬼，我们腐败的本性也会对自己起到撒旦的作用；它会从自身获取邪恶，就像蛇从自己身上获取毒液一样，它有一个供养它的泉源。Nemo se palpet de suo, Satan est, &c.（奥古斯丁）。

But that man, whilst he lives here, is not altogether excluded from hope of happiness, and hath a nature not so large and capable of sin as Satan's; whereupon he is not so obstinate in hating God and working mischief as he, &c. Otherwise there is, for kind, the same cursed disposition, and malice of nature against true goodness in man, which is in the devils and damned spirits themselves.
但是这个人，在他在这里生活的时候，并不完全被排除在幸福的希望之外，他的本性并不像撒旦那样宽广和容易犯罪；因此，他对于憎恨上帝和制造恶行并不像撒旦那样固执，等等。否则，就性质而言，人类对于真正的善良也有同样被诅咒的倾向和恶意，就像恶魔和被诅咒的灵魂们一样。

It is no mitigation of sin, to plead it is natural; for natural diseases, as leprosies, that are derived from parents, are most dangerous, and least curable. Neither is this any excuse, for because as it is natural, so it is voluntary, not only in Adam, in whose loins we were, and therefore sinned, but likewise in regard of ourselves, who are so far from stopping the course of sin either in ourselves or others, that we feed and strengthen it, or at least give more way to it, and provide less against it than we should, until we come under the government of grace; and by that means we justify Adam's sin, and that corrupt estate that followeth upon it, and shew, that if we had been in Adam's condition ourselves, we would have made that ill choice which he made. And though this corruption of our nature be necessary to us, yet it is no violent necessity from an outward cause, but a necessity that we willingly pull upon ourselves, and therefore ought the more to humble us; for the more necessarily we sin, the more voluntarily, and the more voluntarily, the more necessarily, the will putting itself voluntarily into these fetters of sin.* Necessity is no plea, when the will is the immediate cause of any action. Quicquid sibi imperavit animus, obtinuit (Seneca). Men's hearts tell them they might rule their desires if they would; for tell a man of any dish which he liketh, that there is poison in it, and he will not meddle with it: so tell him that death is in that sin which he is about to commit, and he will abstain, if he believe it to be so; if he believe it not, it is his voluntary unbelief and atheism.
罪恶并不因为它是自然的而减轻；因为从父母那里继承的自然疾病，如麻风病，是最危险和最难治愈的。这也不能成为借口，因为虽然它是自然的，但它也是自愿的，不仅是在亚当身上，我们是从他的腰间而来，所以犯了罪，而且也是关于我们自己，我们远远没有阻止罪恶在我们自己或他人中的蔓延，反而是滋养和加强它，或者至少给予它更多的空间，提供的防范措施也比应有的少，直到我们接受了恩典的统治；这样我们就为亚当的罪辩护，并展示了随之而来的腐败状态，表明如果我们自己处在亚当的境地，我们也会做出那个错误的选择。虽然我们的本性的腐败对我们来说是必要的，但它并不是来自外部原因的强制性必要，而是我们自愿给自己带来的必要，因此我们应该更加谦卑；因为我们越是必然地犯罪，我们就越是自愿地犯罪，我们越是自愿地犯罪，我们就越是必然地犯罪，意愿自愿地将自己置于罪恶的枷锁之中。当意愿是任何行动的直接原因时，需要性不是辩护的理由。人们的内心告诉他们，如果愿意的话，他们可以控制自己的欲望；告诉一个人他喜欢的菜里有毒，他就不会碰它；同样地，告诉他他即将犯下的罪孽会导致死亡，他会避免，如果他相信的话；如果他不相信，那就是他自愿的不信和无神论。

If the will would use that sovereignty it should, and could, at the first, we should be altogether freed from this necessity. Men are not damned because they cannot do better, but because they will do no better; if there were no will, there would be no hell, Cesset voluntas propria et non erit infernus. For men willingly submit to the rule and law of sin, they plead for it, and like it so well, as they hate nothing so much as that which any way withstandeth those lawless laws.
如果意志使用了那种主权，那么一开始，我们将完全摆脱这种必要性。人们不是因为不能做得更好而被诅咒，而是因为他们不愿意做得更好；如果没有意志，就不会有地狱，停止自愿，地狱就不存在。因为人们自愿地顺从罪恶的统治和法律，他们为此辩护，并且非常喜欢它，因为他们最讨厌任何以任何方式抵制这些无法无天的法律的东西。

Those that think it their happiness to do what they will, that they might be free, cross their own desires, for this is the way to make them most perfect slaves. When our will is the next immediate cause of sin, and our consciences bear witness to us that it is so, then conscience is ready to take God's part in accusing ourselves; our consciences tell us to our faces that we might do more than we do to hinder sin, and that when we sin, it is not through weakness, but out of the wickedness of our nature.
那些认为自己的幸福就是随心所欲、追求自由的人，实际上是在违背自己的欲望，因为这样做只会使他们成为最完美的奴隶。当我们的意愿是犯罪的直接原因，而我们的良心告诉我们确实如此时，良心就准备站在上帝一边，指责我们自己；我们的良心直截了当地告诉我们，我们本可以做得更多来阻止犯罪，而当我们犯罪时，并不是因为软弱，而是出于我们邪恶的本性。

Our consciences tell us that we sin not only willingly, but often with delight, so far forth as we are not subdued by grace, or awed by something above us, and that we esteem any restraint to be our misery. And where by grace the will is strengthened, so that it yields not a full consent, yet a gracious soul is humbled even for the sudden risings of corruption that prevent deliberation. As here David, though he withstood the risings of his heart, yet he was troubled, that he had so vile a heart that would rise up against God, and therefore takes it down. Who is there that hath not cause to be humbled, not only for his corruption, but that he doth not resist with that strength, nor labour to prevent it with that diligence which his heart tells him he might?
我们的良心告诉我们，我们不仅甘心情愿地犯罪，而且常常以喜悦的心情犯罪，只要我们没有被恩典征服，或者被高于我们的某种力量所震慑，我们就认为任何限制都是我们的不幸。而当意志因恩典而得到加强，以至于不完全同意，一个有恩典的灵魂甚至为阻止思考的腐败的突然上升而感到谦卑。正如大卫在这里，虽然他抵挡了自己内心的冲动，但他感到烦恼，因为他有一个如此卑劣的心灵，竟然会反抗上帝，因此他将它降伏下来。有谁不应该谦卑呢？不仅因为他的腐败，而且因为他没有用他的心告诉他他可以用的力量来抵抗，也没有用他的心告诉他他可以用的勤奋来预防？

We cannot have too deep apprehensions of this breeding sin, the mother and nurse of all abominations; for the more we consider the height, the depth, the breadth, and length of it, the more shall we be humbled in ourselves, and magnify the height, the depth, the breadth, and the length of God's mercy in Christ, Eph. 3:18. The favourers of nature are always the enemies of grace. This, which some think and speak so weakly and faintly of, is a worse enemy to us than the devil himself; a more near, a more restless, a more traitorous enemy, for by intelligence with it the devil doth us all the hurt he doth, and by it maintains forts in us against goodness. This is that which, either by discouragement or contrariety, hinders us from good; or else, by deadness, tediousness, distractions, or corrupt aims, hinders us in doing good. This putteth us on to evil, and abuseth what is good in us, or from us, to cover or colour sin, and furnishes us with reasons either to maintain what is evil, or shifts to translate it upon false causes, or fences to arm us against whatsoever shall oppose us in our wicked ways; though it neither can nor will be good, yet it would be thought to be so by others, and enforces a conceit upon itself that it is good. It imprisons and keeps down all light that may discover it, both within itself and without itself, if it lie in its power; it flatters itself, and would have all the world flatter it too, which, if it doth not, it frets, especially if it be once discovered and crossed. Hence comes all the plotting against goodness, that sin may reign without control. Is it not a lamentable case that man, who, out of the very principles of nature, cannot but desire happiness and abhor misery, yet should be in love with eternal misery in the causes of it, and abhor happiness in the ways that lead unto it? This sheweth us what a wonderful deordination and disorder is brought upon man's nature; for every other creature is naturally carried to that which is helpful unto it, and shunneth that which is any way hurtful and offensive. Only man is in love with his own bane, and fights for those lusts that fight against his soul.
我们对这种滋生罪恶的罪行不能有太深的忧虑；因为我们越是考虑它的高度、深度、广度和长度，我们就越会在自己身上感到谦卑，并且赞美上帝在基督里的慈悲（弗 3:18）。顺应自然的人总是恩典的敌人。有些人认为这种罪行微弱而无力，但它比魔鬼本身更加危险；它是一个更近、更不安、更背叛的敌人，因为通过与它的勾结，魔鬼给我们带来了所有的伤害，并且通过它在我们内心保持了邪恶的堡垒。这要么通过打击或对抗阻碍我们行善，要么通过冷漠、乏味、分心或腐败的目标阻碍我们行善。 这使我们陷入邪恶，并滥用我们内在或外在的善良，以掩盖或掩饰罪恶，并为我们提供理由来维持邪恶，或将其归咎于虚假的原因，或者为我们在邪恶的道路上遇到的任何阻碍提供防御措施；尽管它既不能也不愿意成为善良，但它希望被他人认为是善良，并迫使自己相信自己是善良的。它囚禁并压制所有可能揭示它的光明，无论是在自身内部还是外部，如果它有这个能力的话；它奉承自己，并希望全世界也奉承它，如果不能奉承，它就会烦恼，尤其是一旦被发现和阻挠。因此，所有反对善良的阴谋都源于罪恶可以无拘无束地统治。这难道不是一个可悲的情况吗？人类出于本性的原则，不禁渴望幸福，憎恶痛苦，然而却爱上了永恒的痛苦的原因，并憎恶通往幸福的道路吗？ 这向我们展示了人性所带来的奇妙的混乱和无序；因为其他生物都自然而然地追求对自身有益的事物，回避任何有害和冒犯的事物。只有人类爱上了自己的祸害，并为那些与他的灵魂对抗的欲望而战斗。

§ IV. Our duty is, 1. To labour to see this sinful disposition of ours, not only as it is discovered in the Scriptures, but as it discovers itself in our own hearts. This must be done by the light and teaching of God's Spirit, who knows us and all the turnings and windings and byways of our souls, better than we know ourselves. We must see it as the most odious and loathsome thing in the world, making our natures contrary to God's pure nature, and of all other duties making us most indisposed to spiritual duties, wherein we should have nearest communion with God, because it seizeth on the very spirits of our minds.
§ IV. 我们的责任是，1. 努力看到我们这种罪恶的倾向，不仅在圣经中显露出来，而且在我们自己的心中显露出来。这必须通过上帝的灵光和教导来完成，他比我们自己更了解我们的内心，以及我们灵魂的所有转折、曲折和小道。我们必须将其视为世界上最可憎恶和令人厌恶的事物，使我们的本性与上帝纯洁的本性相反，并使我们对履行其他职责最不愿意履行属灵的职责，其中我们应该与上帝最亲近，因为它攫取了我们思想的灵魂。

2. We should look upon it as worse than any of those filthy streams that come from it; nay, than all the impure issues of our lives together. There is more fire in the furnace than in the sparkles; there is more poison in the root than in all the branches. For if the stream were stopped, and the branches cut off, and the sparkles quenched, yet there would be a perpetual supply. As in good things, the cause is better than the effect, so in ill things the cause is worse. Every fruit should make this poisonful root more hateful to us, and the root should make us hate the fruit more, as coming from so bad a root, as being worse in the cause than in itself; the affection is worse than the action, which may be forced or counterfeited. We cry out upon particular sins, but are not humbled as we should be for our impure dispositions, without the sight of which there can be (1.) no sound repentance arising from the deep and thorough consideration of sin; (2.) no desire to be new moulded, without which we can never enter into so holy a place as heaven; (3.) no self-denial, till we see the best things in us are enmity against God; (4.) no high prizing of Christ, without whom our natures, our persons, and our actions are abominable in God's sight; (5.) nor any solid peace settled in the soul, which peace ariseth not from the ignorance of our corruption, or compounding with it, but from sight and hatred of it, and strength against it.
我们应该将其视为比那些肮脏的溪流更糟糕；甚至比我们生活中所有不洁的问题加在一起还要糟糕。炉中的火比火花更多；根中的毒比所有的枝条都多。因为即使溪流被堵塞，枝条被剪掉，火花被扑灭，仍然会有持续的供应。正如在好事物中，原因比结果更好，邪恶事物中的原因更糟糕。每一种果实都应该让我们更加憎恶这个有毒的根，而这个根又应该让我们更加憎恶这个果实，因为它来自如此糟糕的根源，因为它在原因上比自身更糟糕；情感比行动更糟糕，行动可能是被迫或伪装的。我们对特定的罪行大声疾呼，但我们对我们不洁的倾向却没有像应该那样谦卑，没有看到这一点，就不可能有（1.）从对罪恶的深入思考中产生的真正悔改；（2.）没有渴望被重新塑造，没有这个，我们永远无法进入如此神圣的地方，如天堂；（3.）没有自我否定，直到我们看到我们最好的东西是与上帝为敌的；（4.没有高度赞美基督，我们的本性、我们的人、我们的行为在上帝眼中是可憎的；也没有在灵魂中确立的坚实平安，这种平安不是来自对我们的败坏的无知或与之妥协，而是来自对其的洞察和憎恶，并对其斗争的力量。

3. Consider the spiritualness and large extent of the law of God, together with the curse annexed, which forbids not only particular sins, but all the kinds, degrees, occasions, and furtherances of sin in the whole breadth and depth of it, and our very nature itself, so far as it is corrupted; for want of which we see many 'alive without the law,' Rom. 7:9, jovial and merry from ignorance of their misery, who, if they did but once see their natures and lives in that glass, it would take away that liveliness and courage from them, and make them vile in their own eyes. Men usually look themselves in the laws of the state wherein they live, and think themselves good enough, if they are free from the danger of penal statutes; this glass discovers only foul spots, gross scandals, and breakings out; or else they judge of themselves by parts of nature, or common grace, or by outward conformity to religion, or else by that light they have to guide themselves in the affairs of this life, by their fair and civil carriage, &c.; and thereupon live and die without any sense of the power of godliness, which begins in the right knowledge of ourselves, and ends in the right knowledge of God. The spiritualness and purity of the law should teach us to consider the purity and holiness of God; the bringing of our souls into whose presence will make us to abhor ourselves, with Job, 'in dust and ashes,' Job 42:6. Contraries are best seen by setting one near the other; whilst we look only on ourselves, and upon others amongst whom we live, we think ourselves to be somebody. It is an evidence of some sincerity wrought in the soul, not to shun that light which may let us see the foul corners of our hearts and lives.
考虑上帝的法律的灵性和广泛性，以及附加的诅咒，它不仅禁止特定的罪恶，还禁止所有种类、程度、场合和促进罪恶的行为，以及我们被腐化的本性；由于缺乏这一点，我们看到许多人“活在无律法之下”，罗马书 7:9，他们由于对自己的苦难无知而快乐愉悦，但如果他们只是一次看到自己的本性和生活在那面镜子里，它会夺走他们的活力和勇气，并使他们在自己的眼中卑鄙。人们通常以他们所生活的国家的法律来审视自己，如果他们不受刑法的威胁，他们就认为自己足够好；这面镜子只揭示了肮脏的斑点、严重的丑闻和爆发；否则，他们会根据自然的一部分、普通的恩典、对宗教的外在顺从，或者根据他们在这个生活中的事务中自己的指导之光，通过他们的美好和文明的行为等来判断自己；因此，他们活着，死去，对敬虔的力量没有任何感觉，这种力量始于对自己的正确认识，终于对上帝的正确认识。 法律的精神和纯洁应该教导我们考虑上帝的纯洁和圣洁；将我们的灵魂带入祂的面前会使我们像约伯一样厌恶自己，在尘土和灰烬中（约伯记 42:6）。对立面最好通过将其放在一起来看；当我们只看自己和我们生活中的其他人时，我们认为自己是重要的。这是灵魂中产生一些真诚的证据，不回避那能让我们看到内心和生活中肮脏角落的光明。

4. The consideration of this likewise should enforce us to carry a double guard over our souls. David was very watchful, yet we see here he was surprised unawares by the sudden rebellion of his heart. We should observe our hearts as governors do rebels and mutinous persons. Observation awes the heart. We see to what an excess sin groweth in those that deny themselves nothing, nor will be denied in anything; who, if they may do what they will, will do what they may; who turn liberty into licence, and make all their abilities and advantages to do good, contributary to the commands of overruling and unruly lusts.
4. 考虑到这一点，我们同样应该对我们的灵魂保持双重警惕。大卫非常警惕，然而我们在这里看到他的心灵突然叛乱时被无意中袭击了。我们应该像统治者对待叛乱分子和叛乱者一样观察我们的心灵。观察使心灵敬畏。我们看到罪恶在那些不拒绝自己任何事物，也不愿意被任何事物拒绝的人身上是如何过度增长的；如果他们可以做任何他们想做的事情，他们就会尽力去做；他们将自由变成了放纵，使他们所有的能力和优势都成为服从支配和难以控制的欲望的命令的贡献。

Were it not that God partly by his power suppresseth, and partly by his grace subdueth the disorders of man's nature for the good of society, and the gathering of a church upon earth, corruption would swell to that excess, that it would overturn and confound all things together with itself. Although there be a common corruption that cleaves to the nature of all men in general, as men (as distrust in God, self-love, a carnal and worldly disposition, &c.), yet God so ordereth it, that in some there is an ebb and decrease, in others, God justly leaving them to themselves, a flow and increase of sinfulness, even beyond the bounds of ordinary corruption, whereby they become worse than themselves, either like beasts in sensuality, or like devils in spiritual wickedness. Though all be blind in spiritual things, yet some are more blinded; though all be hard-hearted, yet some are more hardened; though all be corrupt in evil courses, yet some are more corrupted; and sink deeper into rebellion than others.
如果不是上帝通过他的力量部分地压制，部分地通过他的恩典征服人类本性的混乱，为了社会的利益和地上的教会的聚集，腐败将膨胀到极点，将会连同一切事物一起颠覆和混乱。虽然有一种普遍的腐败与所有人的本性一般相连，如对上帝的不信任、自我爱、肉体和世俗的倾向等，但上帝这样安排，使一些人的腐败减少，而对于其他人，上帝公正地让他们自己流淌和增加罪恶，甚至超出了普通腐败的界限，使他们变得比自己更糟糕，或者像兽一样沉溺于感官享乐，或者像魔鬼一样沉溺于邪恶的灵性。虽然所有人在属灵的事物上都是盲目的，但有些人更加盲目；虽然所有人都有硬心，但有些人更加坚硬；虽然所有人在邪恶的行径中都是腐败的，但有些人更加腐败，并且比其他人更深地陷入叛逆。

Sometimes God suffers this corruption to break out in civil men, yea even in his own children, that they may know themselves the better, and because sometimes corruption is weakened not only by smothering, but by having a vent, whereupon grace stirs up in the soul a fresh hatred and revenge against it; and lets us see a necessity of having whole Christ, not only to pardon sin, but to purge and cleanse our sinful natures.
有时上帝容许这种腐败在普通人中爆发，甚至在他自己的子民中，以便他们更好地认识自己，并且因为有时腐败不仅通过掩盖而减弱，而是通过有一个出口来减弱，因此恩典在灵魂中激起新的憎恶和报复，让我们看到需要拥有完整的基督，不仅是为了赦免罪恶，而且是为了净化我们罪恶的本性。

Caution. But yet that which is ill in itself, must not be done for the good that comes by it by accident; this must be a comfort after our surprisals, not an encouragement before.
小心。但是，那些本身有害的事情，不能因为偶然带来的好处而去做；这应该是我们被突袭后的安慰，而不是之前的鼓励。

5. And because the divine nature, wrought in us by divine truth, together with the Spirit of God, is the only counter-poison against all sin, and whatsoever is contrary to God in us, therefore we should labour that the truth of God may be grafted in our hearts, that so all the powers of our souls may relish of it, that there may be a sweet agreement betwixt the soul and all things that are spiritual, that truth being engrafted in our hearts, we may be engrafted into Christ, and grow up in him, and put him on more and more, and be changed into his likeness. Nothing in heaven or earth will work out corruption, and change our dispositions, but the Spirit of Christ, clothing divine truths with a divine power to this purpose.
因为神圣的本性，由神圣的真理在我们内心中运行，连同上帝的圣灵，是对抗一切罪恶和与上帝相悖的事物的唯一解药，因此我们应该努力使上帝的真理嵌入我们的心中，使我们灵魂的所有力量都能品味其中，使灵魂与一切属灵的事物之间有甜蜜的协调，使真理嵌入我们的心中，我们可以嵌入基督，并在他里面成长，越来越多地穿上他，并变得像他一样。天上地下没有任何东西能够消除腐败，改变我们的性情，只有基督的灵，将神圣的真理赋予神圣的力量，以达到这个目的。

6. When corruption rises, pray it down, as St Paul did, 2 Cor. 12:8, and to strengthen thy prayer, claim the promise of the new covenant, that God would 'circumcise our hearts,' and 'wash us with clean water,' that he would 'write his law in our hearts, and give us his Holy Spirit when we beg it,' Ezek. 36:25–27; and look upon Christ as a public 'fountain open for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in Zech. 13:1. Herein consists our comfort, 1, that Christ hath all fulness for us, and that our nature is perfect in him; 2, That Christ in our nature hath satisfied divine justice, not only for the sin of our lives, but for the sin of our nature. And, 3, That he will never give over until by his Spirit he hath made our nature holy and pure as his own, till he hath taken away not only the reign, but the very life and being of sin out of our hearts. 4, That to this end he leaves his Spirit and truth in the church to the end of the world, that the seed of the Spirit may subdue the seed of the serpent in us, and that the Spirit may be a never failing spring of all holy thoughts, desires, and endeavours in us, and dry up the contrary issue and spring of corrupt nature.
当腐败上升时，像圣保罗一样祈祷它消退，如哥林多后书 12:8 所说，并且为了加强你的祈祷，要宣告新约的应许，上帝会“割礼我们的心”，“用清水洗净我们”，他会“将他的律法写在我们的心上，并在我们祈求时赐给我们他的圣灵”，以西结书 36:25-27；并且要将基督视为一个公开的“泉源，供犹大和耶路撒冷洗净”，撒迦利亚书 13:1。其中包含我们的安慰：1、基督为我们拥有一切丰盛，我们的本性在他里面是完美的；2、基督在我们的本性中已经满足了神的公义，不仅为我们生活中的罪过，也为我们本性的罪过。而且，3、他将永不停止，直到他的圣灵使我们的本性变得圣洁纯净，如同他自己一样，直到他从我们的心中除去罪的统治，甚至除去罪的生命和存在。4、为了达到这个目的，他将他的圣灵和真理留在教会中直到世界的末日，使圣灵的种子征服我们内心中蛇的种子，并且圣灵可以成为我们内心中一切圣洁的思想、愿望和努力的永不干涸的泉源，并且干涸腐败本性的相反之源。

And Christians must remember, when they are much annoyed with their corruptions, that it is not their particular case alone, but the condition of all God's people, lest they be discouraged by looking on the ugly deformed visage of old Adam, which affrighteth some so far that it makes them think, no man's nature is so vile as theirs; which were well if it tended to humiliation only; but Satan often abuseth it towards discouragement and desperation. Many out of a misconceit think that corruption is greatest when they feel it most, whereas indeed, the less we see it and lament it, the more it is. Sighs and groans of the soul are like the pores of the body, out of which in diseased persons sick humours break forth and so become less. The more we see and grieve for pride, which is an immediate issue of our corrupted nature, the less it is, because we see it by a contrary grace; the more sight the more hatred, the more hatred of sin, the more love of grace, and the more love the more life, which the more lively it is, the more it is sensible of the contrary. Upon every discovery and conflict corruption loses some ground, and grace gains upon it.
基督徒必须记住，当他们对自己的败坏感到非常烦恼时，这不仅仅是他们个人的情况，而是所有上帝的子民的状况，以免他们因为看到老亚当那张丑陋变形的面孔而感到沮丧，这使得他们认为没有人的本性像他们一样邪恶；如果这只是导致谦卑，那就好了，但撒旦经常利用它来引导人们感到沮丧和绝望。许多人错误地认为，当他们感受到败坏最多时，败坏也最大，而实际上，我们越是看不见它并为它悲叹，它就越多。灵魂的叹息和呻吟就像身体的毛孔一样，病人的病态体液从中涌出，从而减少。我们越是看到并为骄傲感到悲痛，这是我们败坏本性的直接表现，它就越少，因为我们通过相反的恩典看到了它；视觉越多，憎恶越多，对罪的憎恶越多，对恩典的爱越多，对爱的越多，生命就越多，生命越活跃，就越能感受到相反的东西。每一次发现和战斗，败坏都会失去一些地盘，而恩典则会占据优势。

CHAPTER XIII.—Of imagination, sin of it, and remedies for it
第十三章——想象力，它的罪恶和解决方法

§ I. And amongst all the faculties of the soul, most of the disquiet and unnecessary trouble of our lives arises from the vanity and ill government of that power of the soul which we call imagination and opinion, bordering between the senses and our understanding; which is nothing else but a shallow apprehension of good or evil taken from the senses. Now because outward good or evil things agree or disagree to the senses, and the life of sense is in us before the use of reason, and the delights of sense are present, and pleasing and suitable to our natures, thereupon the imagination setteth a great price upon sensible good things; and the judgment itself since the fall, until it hath a higher light and strength, yieldeth to our imagination. Hence it comes to pass that the best things, if they be attended with sensible inconveniences, as want, disgrace in the world, and such like, are misjudged for evil things; and the very worst things, if they be attended with respect in the world, and sensible contentments, are imagined to be the greatest good; which appears not so much in men's words (because they are ashamed to discover their hidden folly and atheism), but the lives of people speak as much, in that particular choice which they make. Many there are who think it not only a vain but a dangerous thing to serve God, and a base thing to be awed with religious respect; they count the ways that God's people take no better than madness, and that course which God takes in bringing men to heaven by a plain publishing of heavenly truths, to be nothing but foolishness; and those people that regard it, are esteemed, as the Pharisees esteemed them that heard Christ, ignorant, base, and despicable persons. Hence arise all those false prejudices against the ways of holiness, as they in the Acts were shy in entertaining the truth, because it was 'a way everywhere spoken against,' Acts 28:22. The doctrine of the cross hath the cross always following it, which imagination counteth the most odious and bitter thing in the world.
§ I. 在我们的灵魂的所有能力中，我们生活中大部分的不安和不必要的困扰都源于我们称之为想象力和观念的灵魂力量的虚荣和不良管理，这种力量介于感官和理解之间；它实际上只是从感官中获得的对好与坏的肤浅理解。由于外在的好与坏事物与感官相符或不符，而感官的生活在我们使用理性之前就存在于我们内心，并且感官的愉悦与适应我们的本性，因此想象力对感官的好事物非常看重；而自从堕落以来，直到拥有更高的光明和力量之前，判断本身都屈服于我们的想象力。 因此，最好的事物如果伴随着明显的不便，如贫困、世俗的耻辱等，就会被误判为邪恶之物；而最糟糕的事物，如果伴随着世俗的尊重和明显的满足感，就被认为是最大的善。这不仅体现在人们的言辞上（因为他们羞于展示自己隐藏的愚蠢和无神论），而且在人们的生活中也同样如此，体现在他们所做的具体选择上。有许多人认为侍奉上帝不仅是徒劳无益的，而且是危险的，而对宗教的敬畏被视为卑劣的行为；他们认为上帝的子民所采取的方式不过是疯狂，上帝通过公开天国真理来引领人们走向天堂的方式不过是愚蠢；而那些关注这一点的人，则被认为是无知、卑贱和可鄙的人，就像法利赛人认为听到基督的人一样。因此，所有那些对圣洁之道的错误偏见就产生了，就像使徒行传中的人们对真理持保留态度，因为它是“到处被毁谤的道路”（使徒行传 28:22）。 十字架的教义总是紧随其后，想象力将其视为世界上最可憎恶和苦涩的事物。

This imagination of ours is become the seat of vanity, and thereupon of vexation to us, because it apprehends a greater happiness in outward good things than there is, and a greater misery in outward evil things than indeed there is; and when experience shews us that there is not that good in those things which we imagine to be, but, contrarily, we find much evil in them which we never expected, hereupon the soul cannot but be troubled. The life of many men, and those not the meanest, is almost nothing else but a fancy; that which chiefly sets their wits awork and takes up most of their time is how to please their own imagination, which setteth up an excellency, within itself, in comparison of which it despiseth all true excellency and those things that are of most necessary consequence indeed. Hence springs ambition and the vein of being great in the world; hence comes an unmeasurable desire of abounding in those things which the world esteems highly of. There is in us naturally a competition and desire of being equal or above others in that which is generally thought to make us happy and esteemed amongst men. If we be not the only men, yet we will be somebody in the world; something we will have to be highly esteemed for, wherein if we be crossed, we count it the greatest misery that can befall us.
我们的想象力变成了虚荣的源泉，因此给我们带来了烦恼，因为它对外在的好事物抱有比实际更大的幸福期望，对外在的坏事物抱有比实际更大的痛苦预期；当经验告诉我们，那些事物并没有我们想象中的那么好，相反地，我们发现其中有很多我们从未预料到的坏处，因此灵魂不得不感到困扰。许多人的生活，尤其是那些不平凡的人，几乎只是一种幻想；他们最关心的是如何取悦自己的想象力，这种想象力在自身内部建立了一种卓越性，与之相比，它蔑视一切真正的卓越和那些实际上最重要的事物。由此产生了野心和追求在世界上取得伟大的欲望；由此产生了对那些世界高度看重的事物无限的渴望。在我们内心自然地存在着一种竞争和渴望，在被普遍认为能让我们幸福和受人尊重的事物中，与他人持平或超越他人。 如果我们不是唯一的人类，但我们将成为世界上的某个人；我们将拥有一些被高度尊重的东西，如果我们受到阻碍，我们会认为这是最大的不幸。

And, which is worse, a corrupt desire of being great in the opinion of others creeps into the profession of religion, if we live in those places wherein it brings credit or gain. Men will sacrifice their very lives for vainglory. It is an evidence a man lives more to opinion and reputation of others than to conscience, when his grief is more for being disappointed of that approbation which he expects from men, than for his miscarriage towards God. It mars all in religion when we go about heavenly things with earthly affections, and seek not Christ in Christ, but the world. What is popery but an artificial frame of man's brain to please men's imaginations by outward state and pomp of ceremonies, like that golden image of Nebuchadnezzar, wherein he pleased himself so, that, to have uniformity in worshipping the same, he compelled all, under pain of death, to fall down before it, Dan. 3:6. This makes superstitious persons always cruel, because superstitious devices are the brats of our own imagination, which we strive for more than for the purity of God's worship. Hence it is, likewise, that superstitious persons are restless (as the woman of Samaria) in their own spirits, as having no bottom, but fancy instead of faith.
而且更糟糕的是，一种腐败的渴望在他人眼中变得伟大渗入了宗教的职业中，如果我们生活在那些能带来声望或利益的地方。人们会为了虚荣而牺牲自己的生命。当一个人的悲伤更多是因为失去了他期望从人们那里得到的认可，而不是对自己对上帝的失误感到悲伤时，这表明一个人更在乎他人的意见和声誉，而不是良心。当我们用地上的情感去追求天上的事物，不是在基督里寻找基督，而是追求世界时，这会破坏宗教中的一切。什么是教皇制，不过是人类头脑的人为构架，通过外在的仪式和华丽的礼仪来取悦人们的想象力，就像尼布甲尼撒王的那个金像一样，他自己非常满意，以至于为了在同一的崇拜中保持一致，他强迫所有人，在死亡的威胁下，都要在它面前跪拜，但以理书 3:6。这使得迷信的人总是残忍，因为迷信的做法是我们自己想象的产物，我们为此而奋斗，比起追求上帝崇拜的纯洁更加重要。 因此，同样地，迷信的人在他们自己的精神中是不安的（如撒玛利亚的妇人），因为他们没有根基，而是凭想象而非信仰。

§ II. Now, the reason why imagination works so upon the soul is, because it stirs up the affections answerable to the good or ill which it apprehends, and our affections stir the humours of the body, so that oftentimes both our souls and bodies are troubled hereby.
§ II. 现在，想象力之所以如此影响灵魂，是因为它激发了与其所理解的好坏相应的情感，而我们的情感又激发了身体的体液，因此往往会使我们的灵魂和身体都受到困扰。

Things work upon the soul in this order: 1. Some object is presented. 2. Then it is apprehended by imagination as good and pleasing, or as evil and hurtful. 3. If good, the desire is carried to it with delight; if evil, it is rejected with distaste, and so our affections are stirred up suitably to our apprehension of the object. 4. Affections stir up the spirits. 5. The Spirits raise the humours, and so the whole man becomes moved, and oftentimes distempered; this falleth out by reason of the sympathy between the soul and body, whereby what offendeth one redoundeth to the hurt of the other.
事物对灵魂的作用顺序如下：1. 有一个对象被呈现出来。2. 然后它被想象力理解为好和令人愉悦，或者是邪恶和有害的。3. 如果是好的，欲望会带着愉悦被引向它；如果是邪恶的，它会被厌恶地拒绝，因此我们的情感会根据我们对对象的理解而被激发。4. 情感激发精神。5. 精神激发体液，因此整个人会被动摇，而且经常会失调；这是由于灵魂和身体之间的共鸣所致，因此伤害一个会对另一个造成伤害。

And we see conceived* troubles have the same effect upon us as true. Jacob was as much troubled with the imagination of his son's death as if he had been dead indeed. Imagination, though it be an empty, windy thing, yet it hath real effects. Superstitious persons are as much troubled for neglecting any voluntary service of man's invention, as if they had offended against the direct commandment of God. Thus superstition breeds false fears, and false fear brings true vexation. It transforms God to an idol, imagining him to be pleased with whatsoever pleases ourselves, whenas we take it ill that those who are under us should take direction from themselves and not from us in that which may content us. Superstition is very busy, but all in vain. 'In vain they worship me,' Mat. 15:9, saith God. And how can it choose but vex and disquiet men, when they shall take a great deal of pains in vain, and, which is worse, to displease most in that wherein they think to please most. God blasteth all devised service with one demand, 'Who required these things at your hands?' Isa. 1:12. It were better for us to ask ourselves this question beforehand, Who required this? Why do we trouble ourselves about that which we shall have no thank for? We should not bring God down to our own imaginations, but raise our imaginations up to God.
我们看到，虚构的困扰对我们产生的影响与真实的困扰相同。雅各布对儿子死亡的想象同样困扰他，就像儿子真的死了一样。想象虽然是一种空洞、虚无的东西，但它确实产生了实际效果。迷信的人对于忽视任何人为发明的自愿服务感到非常困扰，就像他们违背了上帝的直接命令一样。因此，迷信滋生了虚假的恐惧，虚假的恐惧带来了真正的烦恼。它把上帝变成了偶像，想象上帝会喜欢任何使我们自己高兴的事情，而我们却不高兴那些在我们之下的人在能够使我们满意的事情上听从自己而不是我们的指示。迷信非常忙碌，但一切都是徒劳的。上帝说：“他们徒然敬拜我。”（马太福音 15:9）当人们白白地费尽心思，更糟糕的是，在他们认为能够最讨好人的事情上却得罪了大多数人，他们怎么能不感到烦恼和不安呢？上帝用一个问题毁灭了所有人为发明的仪式：“我向你们要这些事吗？”（以赛亚书 1:12）我们最好在事前问自己这个问题，谁要求我们这样做呢？ 我们为什么要为那些我们不会得到感谢的事情而自寻烦恼呢？我们不应该将上帝降低到我们自己的想象中，而是应该将我们的想象提升到上帝的高度。

Now, imagination hurteth us, 1. By false representations. 2. By preventing reason, and so usurping a censure of things before our judgments try them, whereas the office of imagination is to minister matter to our understanding to work upon, and not to lead it, much less mislead it, in anything. 3. By forging matter out of itself without ground; the imaginary grievances of our lives are more than the real. 4. As it is an ill instrument of the understanding to devise vanity and mischief.
现在，想象力伤害我们，1.通过虚假的描绘。2.通过阻止理性，从而在我们的判断之前篡夺对事物的评判，而想象力的职责是为我们的理解提供材料以供其运用，而不是引导它，更不用说在任何事情上误导它了。3.通过无根据地创造事物；我们生活中的想象中的不满比真实的不满更多。4.作为理解的不良工具，它设计虚荣和恶意。

§ III. The way to cure this malady in us is, 1. To labour to bring these risings of our souls into the obedience of God's truth and Spirit, 2 Cor. 10:5. For imagination, of itself, if ungoverned, is a wild and a ranging thing; it wrongs not only the frame of God's work in us, setting the baser part of a man above the higher, but it wrongs likewise the work of God in the creatures and everything else, for it shapes things as itself pleaseth; it maketh evil good if it pleaseth the senses, and good evil if it be dangerous and distasteful to the outward man, which cannot but breed an unquiet and an unsettled soul. As if it were a god, it can tell good and evil at its pleasure; it sets up and pulls down the price of what it listeth. By reason of the distemper of imagination, the life of many is little else but a dream. Many good men are in a long dream of misery, and many bad men in as long a dream of happiness, till the time of awaking come, and all because they are too much led by appearances. And as in a dream men are deluded with false joys and false fears, so here; which cannot but breed an unquiet and an unsettled soul. Therefore, it is necessary that God, by his word and Spirit, should erect a government in our hearts to captivate and order this licentious faculty.
§ III. 治愈我们内心的这种病的方法是，1. 努力使我们灵魂的这些冲动服从上帝的真理和圣灵，哥林多后书 10:5。因为想象力本身，如果不受控制，是一种野蛮和漫无边际的东西；它不仅伤害了上帝在我们内心的工作，将人的低级部分置于更高级的部分之上，而且还伤害了上帝在创造物和其他一切事物中的工作，因为它按照自己的意愿塑造事物；如果它取悦感官，它会使恶变为善，如果对外在的人来说是危险和令人讨厌的，它会使善变为恶，这不可避免地会培养出一个不安和不稳定的灵魂。它仿佛是一个神，可以随心所欲地辨别善恶；它树立和推翻它所愿意的事物的价值。由于想象力的失调，许多人的生活几乎只是一个梦。许多好人在一场漫长的苦难梦中，许多坏人在一场漫长的幸福梦中，直到觉醒的时刻来临，这一切都是因为他们太过于被表象所引导。就像在梦中，人们被虚假的喜悦和虚假的恐惧所欺骗，这也不可避免地会培养出一个不安和不稳定的灵魂。 因此，有必要让上帝通过他的话语和圣灵在我们的内心建立一个政府，来征服和管理这个放纵的能力。

2. Likewise, it is good to present real things to the soul, as the true riches and true misery of a Christian, the true honour and dishonour, true beauty and deformity, the true nobleness and debasement, of the soul. Whatever is in the world are but shadows of things in comparison of those true realities which religion affords. And why should we vex ourselves about a vain shadow? Ps. 39:6.
同样，向灵魂展示真实的事物是好的，如基督徒的真正财富和真正的苦难，真正的荣誉和耻辱，真正的美丽和丑陋，真正的高贵和卑贱。世界上的一切只是与宗教所提供的那些真实实体相比的影子。我们为什么要为一个虚幻的影子而烦恼呢？诗篇 39:6。

The Holy Ghost, to prevent further mischief by these outward things, gives a dangerous report of them, calling them vanity, unrighteous mammon, Luke 16:9, uncertain riches, thorns, yea, nothing, Prov. 23:5; because, though they be not so in themselves, yet, our imagination overvaluing them, they prove so to us upon trial. Now, knowledge that is bought by trial is often dear bought; and therefore God would have us prevent this by a right conceit of things beforehand, lest trusting to vanity we vanish ourselves, and trusting to nothing we become nothing ourselves, and, which is worse, worse than nothing.
圣灵为了防止这些外在的事物带来更多的麻烦，对它们发出了危险的警告，称它们为虚空、不义的财富、不确定的财富、荆棘，甚至是无物（箴言 23:5）；因为虽然它们本身并非如此，但是我们的想象过分高估了它们，在实践中它们对我们来说就成为了如此。现在，通过实践获得的知识往往是昂贵的；因此，上帝希望我们事先正确地理解事物，以免依赖虚空而使自己消失，依赖无物而使自己变成无物，而且更糟糕的是，比无物还糟糕。

3. Oppose serious consideration against vain imagination; and because our imagination is prone to raise false objects, and thereby false conceits and discourses in us, our best way herein is to propound true objects of the mind to work upon, as, 1. To consider the greatness and goodness of Almighty God and his love to us in Christ. 2. The joys of heaven and the torments of hell. 3. The last and strict day of account. 4. The vanity of all earthly things. 5. The uncertainty of our lives, &c. From the meditation of these truths the soul will be prepared to have right conceits of things, and discourse upon true grounds of them, and think with itself that if these things be so indeed, then I must frame my life suitable to these principles. Hence arise true affections in the soul, true fear of God, true love and desire after the best things, &c. The way to expel wind out of our bodies is to take some wholesome nourishment, and the way to expel windy fancies from the soul is to feed upon serious truths.
3. 反对对虚幻的想象进行严肃考虑；因为我们的想象容易产生虚假的对象，从而在我们内心中产生虚假的观念和言论，我们在这方面最好的方法是提出真实的思维对象，如：1. 考虑全能的上帝的伟大和善良，以及他在基督里对我们的爱。2. 天堂的喜乐和地狱的痛苦。3. 最后严格的审判日。4. 一切世俗事物的虚无。5. 我们生命的不确定性等等。通过沉思这些真理，灵魂将准备好对事物有正确的观念，并在真实的基础上进行思考，并与自己思考，如果这些事情确实如此，那么我必须根据这些原则来塑造我的生活。因此，灵魂中会产生真实的情感，对上帝的真实敬畏，对最好的事物的真实爱和渴望等等。将风从我们的身体中排出的方法是摄取一些有益的营养，将风气的幻想从灵魂中排出的方法是沉浸在严肃的真理中。

4. Moreover, to the well ordering of this unruly faculty, it is necessary that our nature itself should be changed; for as men are, so they imagine; as the 'treasure of the heart is,' Mat. 12:35, such is that which comes from it. Mala mens, malus animus, an evil heart cannot think well. Before the heart be changed, our judgment is depraved in regard of our last end; we seek our happiness where it is not to be found. 'Wickedness comes from the wicked,' 1 Sam. 24:13, as the proverb is. If we had as large and as quick apprehensions as Satan himself, yet if the relish of our will and affections be not changed, they will set the imaginations awork, to devise satisfaction to themselves. For there is a mutual working and reflux betwixt the will and the imagination; the imagination stirs up the will, and as the will is affected, so imagination worketh.
此外，为了使这个难以驾驭的能力有序，我们的本性本身也需要改变；因为人们的想象是根据他们的本性而定的；正如心中的宝藏是什么，就会有什么样的产出。邪恶的心灵无法产生良好的思考。在心灵改变之前，我们对最终目标的判断是扭曲的；我们在不可能找到幸福的地方寻求幸福。正如谚语所说：“恶人出恶事。”（撒母耳记上 24:13）即使我们拥有像撒旦本身一样广泛而敏锐的理解力，但如果我们的意愿和情感的品味没有改变，它们将激发想象力，为自己设计满足。因为意愿和想象力之间存在相互作用和反应；想象力激发意愿，而意愿受到影响，想象力就会发挥作用。

When the law of God by the Spirit is so written in our hearts, that the law and our hearts become agreeable one to the other, then the soul is inclined and made pliable to every good thought. When the heart is once taught of God to love, it is the nature of this sweet affection, as the apostle saith, to 'think no evil,' 1 Cor. 13:5, either of God or man; and not only so, but it carries the bent of the whole soul with it to good, so that we love God not only with all our heart, but with all our mind, Mat. 22:37, that is, both with our understanding and imagination. Love is an affection full of inventions, and sets the wit awork to devise good things; therefore our chief care should be, that our hearts may be circumcised and purified, so as they may be filled with the love of God, and then we shall find this duty not only easy, but delightful unto us. The prophet healed the waters by casting salt into the spring, 2 Kings 2:20, so the seasoning of the spring of our actions seasons all. And indeed, what can be expected from man, whilst he is vanity, but vain imaginations? What can we look for from a viper but poison? A man naturally is either weaving spiders' webs, or hatching cockatrices' eggs, Isa. 59:5, that is, his heart is exercised either in vanity or mischief; for not only the frame of the heart, but what the heart frameth, is evil continually, Gen. 6:5. A wicked man that is besotted with false conceits, will admit of no good thoughts to enter.
当上帝的法律通过圣灵写在我们的心中，以至于法律和我们的心彼此一致时，灵魂就倾向于并变得易于接受每一个善念。当心灵一旦被上帝教导去爱，正如使徒所说，这种甜蜜的感情的本质就是“不思恶”，不论是对上帝还是对人，哥林多前书 13:5。不仅如此，它还带领整个灵魂朝着善行的方向，以至于我们不仅全心全意地爱上帝，而且全心全意地爱上帝，马太福音 22:37，也就是说，我们用我们的理解和想象力来爱上帝。爱是一个充满创造力的感情，它激发智慧去构思好事；因此，我们最关心的应该是我们的心灵是否被割礼和净化，以至于它们可以充满对上帝的爱，然后我们将发现这个责任不仅容易，而且令人愉快。先知通过向泉水中撒盐来治愈水源，列王记下 2:20，因此我们行动的泉源的调味使一切都有滋味。实际上，当人是虚空的时候，还能期望什么呢，除了虚幻的想象？我们能从毒蛇身上期待什么呢，除了毒药呢？ 一个人自然要么编织蜘蛛网，要么孵化鹦鹉蛋，以赛亚书 59:5，也就是说，他的心要么沉迷于虚荣，要么沉迷于恶行；因为不仅心灵的结构邪恶，心所构思的也是不断邪恶的，创世记 6:5。一个被错误观念迷住的恶人，不会容许任何善念进入。

5. Even when we are good, and devise good things, yet there is still some sickness of fancy remaining in the best of us, whereby we work trouble to ourselves; and therefore it is necessary we should labour to restrain and limit our fancy, and stop these waters at the beginning, Prov. 7:14, giving no not the least way thereunto. If it begins to grow wanton, tame the wildness of it by fastening it to the cross of Christ (whom we have pierced with our sins, Zech. 12:10; and amongst other, with these sins of our spirits), who hath redeemed us from our vain thoughts and conversations, 1 Peter 1:18; set before it the consideration of the wrath of God, of death, and judgment, and the woful estate of the damned, &c., and take it not off till thy heart be taken off from straying from God. When it begins once to run out to impertinences, confine it to some certain thing and then upon examination we shall find it bring home some honey with it; otherwise it will bring us nothing but a sting from the bitter remembrance of our former misspent thoughts and time, which we should redeem and fill up with things that most belong to our peace, Luke 19:47. Idleness is the hour of temptation, wherein Satan joins with our imagination, and sets it about his own work, to grind his grease;* for the soul as a mill, either grinds that which is put into it, or else works upon itself. Imagination is the first wheel of the soul, and if that move amiss, it stirs all the inferior wheels amiss with it. It stirs itself, and other powers of the soul are stirred by its motion; and therefore the well ordering of this is of the greater consequence. For as the imagination conceiveth, so usually the judgment concludeth, the will chooseth, the affections are carried, and the members execute.
即使我们善良，设计出好事，但我们中最好的人仍然有一些幻想的病态，从而给自己带来麻烦；因此，我们有必要努力控制和限制我们的幻想，并在开始时阻止这些思绪，箴言 7:14，不给它们任何机会。如果它开始变得放纵，就把它的狂野束缚在基督的十字架上（我们用我们的罪孽刺透了他，撒迦利亚书 12:10；以及其他我们灵魂的罪孽），他已经从我们虚妄的思想和行为中拯救了我们，彼得前书 1:18；让它考虑上帝的愤怒、死亡、审判和可怜的被定罪者的境况等等，直到你的心不再迷离于上帝。当它开始变得无关紧要时，把它限制在某个特定的事物上，然后经过检查，我们会发现它带回了一些甜蜜；否则，它只会给我们带来一阵苦涩的回忆，让我们想起以前浪费的思想和时间，我们应该用最有益于我们平安的事物来弥补和填满，路加福音 19:47。 懒散是诱惑的时刻，撒旦与我们的想象力结合，让它为自己的工作服务，磨砺自己的油脂；因为灵魂就像一台磨坊，要么磨碎放入其中的东西，要么自己运转。想象力是灵魂的第一个齿轮，如果它运转不正常，会使所有下级齿轮也运转不正常。它自己运转，灵魂的其他力量也会被它的运动激发；因此，对它的良好管理至关重要。因为通常情况下，想象力的构思决定了判断的结论，意愿的选择，情感的驱使和行动的执行。

If it break loose, as it will soon run riot, yet give no consent of the will to it. Though it hath defiled the memory, yet let it not defile the will. Though it be the first-born of the soul, yet let it not, as Reuben, ascend unto the father's bed—that is, our will,—and defile that which should be kept pure for the Spirit of Christ.† Resolve to act nothing upon it, but cross it before it moves to the execution and practice of anything. As in sickness, many times we imagine, by reason of the corruption of our taste, physic to be ill for us, and those meats which nourish the disease to be good, yet care of health makes us cross our own conceits, and take that which fancy abhors; so if we would preserve sound spirits, we must conclude against groundless imagination, and resolve that whatsoever it suggests cannot be so, because it crosses the grounds both of religion and reason. And when we find imagination to deceive us in sensible things, as melancholy persons are subject to mistake, we may well gather that it will much more deceive us in our spiritual condition; and indeed, such is the incoherence, impertinency, and unreasonableness of imagination, that men are oft ashamed and angry with themselves afterwards, for giving the least way to such thoughts; and it is good to chastise the soul for the same, that it may be more wary for time to come. Whilst men are led with imagination, they work not according to right rules prescribed to men, but as other baser creatures, in whom phantasy is the chief ruling power; and therefore, those whose will is guided by their fancies, live more like beasts than men.
如果它失控了，就像它很快会肆意妄为一样，却不要同意它的意愿。尽管它玷污了记忆，但不要让它玷污意愿。尽管它是灵魂的长子，但不要像流便那样，升到父亲的床上——也就是我们的意愿——玷污那应该为基督的灵保持纯洁的东西。†决心不对它采取任何行动，而是在它执行和实践任何事情之前阻止它。就像在生病时，由于我们味觉的腐败，我们常常认为药物对我们有害，而滋养疾病的食物却是好的，然而对健康的关注使我们反对自己的想法，并接受我们的幻想所憎恶的东西；所以如果我们想保持健康的精神，我们必须反对没有根据的想象，并决心无论它提出什么都不可能，因为它违背了宗教和理性的基础。 当我们发现想象力在感性事物上欺骗我们时，就像忧郁的人容易犯错一样，我们可以很好地推断出它在我们的精神状态中会更容易欺骗我们；事实上，想象力的不连贯、不相关和不合理之处是如此之多，以至于人们常常为自己稍微倾向于这样的思想而感到羞愧和愤怒；对此，惩罚灵魂是好的，这样它在将来会更加谨慎。当人们被想象力引导时，他们不按照给人类规定的正确规则行事，而是像其他更低级的生物一样，其中幻想是主要的统治力量；因此，那些意志受到幻想指导的人，生活得更像野兽而不是人类。

We allow a horse to prance and skip in a pasture, which if he doth when he is once backed by the rider, we count him an unruly and unbroken jade; so howsoever in other creatures we allow liberty of fancy, yet we allow it not in man to frisk and rove at its pleasure, because in him it is to be bridled with reason.
我们允许马在牧场里踊跃和跳跃，但如果它在骑手驾驭之后这样做，我们认为它是一匹不听话、未驯服的马；所以无论其他动物我们允许想象的自由，但我们不允许人类随心所欲地嬉戏和漫游，因为人类需要用理性来驾驭自己。

6. Especially take heed of those cursed imaginations out of which, as of mother roots, others spring forth; as questioning God's providence, and care of his children, his justice, his disregarding of what is done here below, &c., thoughts of putting off our amendment for time to come, and so blessing ourselves in any evil way, thoughts against the necessity of exact and circumspect walking with God, &c., Eph. 5:15. When these and such like principles of Satan's and the flesh's divinity take place in our hearts, they block up the soul against the entrance of soul-saving truths, and taint our whole conversation, which is either good or evil, as the principles are by which we are guided, and as our imagination is, which lets in all to the soul.
尤其要注意那些可恶的想象，它们像母根一样滋生出其他想法；比如质疑上帝的安排和照顾他的子民、他的公正、他对此世界的漠视等等；想着将来再改正自己的错误，从而在任何邪恶的道路上祝福自己；反对与上帝保持严谨和谨慎的行走等等，以弗所书 5:15。当这些以及类似的撒旦和肉体的神学原则在我们心中占据主导地位时，它们阻塞了灵魂对拯救灵魂真理的接纳，并且玷污了我们的整个行为，无论是善还是恶，都取决于我们所遵循的原则，以及我们的想象力，它让一切进入灵魂。

The Jews in Jeremiah's time were forestalled with vain imaginations against sound repentance, and therefore his counsel is, 'Wash thine heart, O Jerusalem! how long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee?' Jer. 4:14.
耶利米时代的犹太人对真正的悔改抱有虚幻的幻想，因此他的忠告是：“耶路撒冷啊，你当洗去心中的恶，使你可以得救。恶念存留在你心里要到几时呢？”（耶利米书 4:14）

7. Fancy will the better be kept within its due bounds, if we consider the principal use thereof. Sense and imagination is properly to judge what is comfortable or uncomfortable, what is pleasing or displeasing to the outward man, not what is morally or spiritually good or ill; and thus far by the laws of nature and civility we are bound to give fancy contentment both in ourselves and others, as not to speak or do anything uncomely, which may occasion a loathing or distaste in our converse with men; and it is a matter of conscience to make our lives as comfortable as may be. As we are bound to love, so we are bound to use all helps that may make us lovely, and endear us into the good affections of others. As we are bound to give no offence to the conscience of another, so to no power or faculty either of the outward or inward man of another. Some are taken off in their affection by a fancy, whereof they can give but little reason; and some are more careless in giving offence in this kind, than stands with that Christian circumspection and mutual respect which we owe one to another. The apostle's rule is of large extent, 'Whatsoever things are not only true, and honest, and just, but whatsoever things are lovely and of good report, &c., think of these things,' Phil. 4:8. Yet our main care should be to manifest ourselves rather to men's consciences than to their imaginations.
如果我们考虑到它的主要用途，那么幻想将更好地保持在适当的范围内。感觉和想象力适合判断外在人的舒适或不舒适，什么是令人愉快或不愉快的，而不是道德或精神上的好坏；在自然和礼貌的法则下，我们有责任使幻想在自己和他人中得到满足，不说或做任何不得体的事情，这可能引起我们与人交往时的厌恶或厌恶；让我们的生活尽可能舒适是一种良心问题。我们有责任去爱，所以我们有责任使用一切可能使我们可爱，并赢得他人好感的帮助。我们有责任不冒犯他人的良心，也不冒犯他人的外在或内在能力。有些人的感情被一种他们无法给出合理理由的幻想所吸引；有些人在这方面对冒犯更加漫不经心，而这与我们彼此之间应有的基督教谨慎和相互尊重不符。 使徒的规则非常广泛，“凡是真实、可敬、公正、可爱、美好的事物，无论是什么，都要思考这些事物”，腓立比书 4:8。然而，我们的主要关注应该是向人们的良心展示自己，而不是他们的想象。

8. It should be our wisdom, likewise, to place ourselves in the best conveniency of all outward helps, which may have a kind working upon our fancy; and to take heed to the contrary, as time, place, and objects, &c. There be good hours and good messengers of God's sending, golden opportunities wherein God uses to give a meeting to his children, and breathes good thoughts into them. Even the wisest and holiest men, as David and Solomon, &c., had no further safety than they were careful of well-using all good advantages, and sequestering themselves from such objects as had a working power upon them. By suffering their souls to be led by their fancies, and their hearts to run after their eyes, they betrayed and robbed themselves of much grace and comfort, thereupon Solomon cries out with grief and shame from his own experience, 'Vanity of vanities,' &c. Eccles. 1:2. Fancy will take fire before we be aware. Little things are seeds of great matters. Job knew this, and therefore made a 'covenant with his eyes,' Job 31:1; but a 'fool's eyes are in the corners of the earth,' saith Solomon, Prov. 17:24.
8. 我们应该明智地将自己置于所有外在帮助的最佳便利之中，这些帮助可能对我们的想象力产生一种良好的作用；同时要注意相反的情况，比如时间、地点和物体等。上帝派遣的好时机和好使者，是上帝给他的子民提供相遇和灌输良好思想的黄金机会。即使是最聪明和最圣洁的人，如大卫和所罗门等，也只有在小心地利用一切好的机会，并将自己与那些对他们有影响力的物体隔离开来时，才能得到进一步的安全。通过让他们的灵魂被想象力引导，让他们的心追随眼睛，他们背叛并剥夺了自己很多的恩典和安慰，所以所罗门从自己的经验中悲伤和羞愧地呼喊：“虚空的虚空，一切都是虚空。”（传道书 1:2）在我们察觉之前，想象力就会燃起。小事是大事的种子。约伯知道这一点，因此与他的眼睛立下了“约”（约伯记 31:1），但所罗门说：“愚昧人的眼睛在地极。”（箴言 17:24）

Sometimes the ministering of some excellent thought—præclara cogitatio—from what we hear or see, proves a great advantage of spiritual good to the soul. Whilst St Augustine out of curiosity delighted to hear the eloquence of St Ambrose, he was taken with the matter itself, sweetly sliding together with the words into his heart.* Of later times, whilst Galeaceus Caracciolus (d), an Italian marquis, and nephew to Pope Paul V., was hearing Peter Martyr reading upon 1 Corinthians, and shewing the deceivableness of man's judgment in spiritual things, and the efficacy of divine truth in those that belong unto God, and further using a similitude to this purpose: 'If a man be walking afar off, and see people dancing together, and hear no noise of the music, he judges them fools and out of their wits; but when he comes nearer and hears the music, and sees that every motion is exactly done by art, now he changes his mind, and is so taken up with the sweet agreement of the gesture and the music, that he is not only delighted therewith, but desirous to join himself in the number. So it falls out, saith he, with men: whilst they look upon the outward carriage and conversation of God's people, and see it differing from others, they think them fools; but when they look more narrowly into their courses, and see a gracious harmony betwixt their lives and the word of God, then they begin to be in love with the "beauty of holiness," and join in conformity of holy obedience with those they scorned before.' This similitude wrought so with this nobleman, that he began, from that time forward, to set his mind to the study of heavenly things.†
有时候，我们从所听到或所见的一些优秀思想的传递中，对灵魂产生了巨大的属灵好处。当圣奥古斯丁出于好奇喜欢听圣安布罗修的雄辩之词时，他被其中的内容所吸引，甜蜜地滑入他的心中。近代，当意大利侯爵加莱亚乌斯·卡拉乔卢斯（d）听到彼得·马尔蒂尔在《哥林多前书》上的讲解时，展示了人在属灵事物上的判断的欺骗性，以及属于上帝的人对神圣真理的效力，并进一步使用了一个类比来说明这一点：“如果一个人远远地走着，看到人们一起跳舞，听不到音乐的声音，他会认为他们是傻瓜和疯子；但当他走近一点，听到音乐，看到每个动作都是完全按照艺术来完成的时候，他改变了想法，对姿态和音乐的甜美和谐如此着迷，以至于不仅仅是喜欢，而且渴望加入其中。 所以，他说，对于人们来说，当他们看到上帝的子民的外表和言谈举止与他人不同，他们会认为他们是愚蠢的；但当他们更仔细地观察他们的行为，并看到他们的生活与上帝的话语之间有着恩典的和谐时，他们开始爱上“圣洁的美”，并与他们之前蔑视的人一起遵从圣洁的命令。这个比喻对这位贵族产生了如此大的影响，以至于他从那时起开始将心思放在研究天上的事物上。†

One seasonable truth falling upon a prepared heart, hath oftentimes a sweet and strong operation. Luther confesseth that having heard a grave divine, Staupicius, say 'that that is kind repentance which begins from the love of God,' ever after that time the practice of repentance was sweeter to him. This speech of his likewise took well with Luther, that in doubts of predestination we should begin from the wounds of Christ, doctrina prædestinationis incipit a vulneribus Christi,—that is, from the sense of God's love to us in Christ, we should arise to the grace given us in election before the world was, 2 Tim. 1:9.
一条合时宜的真理落在一个准备好的心上，往往会产生甜蜜而强大的作用。路德承认，听到一位严肃的神学家斯陶皮修斯说“真正的悔改是从对上帝的爱开始的”，自那时起，悔改的实践对他来说更加甜蜜。路德也赞同他的这番话，在关于预定的疑虑中，我们应该从基督的创伤开始，即从上帝在基督里对我们的爱的感知开始，然后才能升华到在世界未有之前，上帝给予我们的拣选的恩典，提摩太后书 1:9。

The putting of lively colours upon common truths hath oft a strong working both upon the fancy and our will and affections. The spirit is refreshed with fresh things, or old truths refreshed. This made the preacher seek to find out pleasing and acceptable words, Eccl. 12:10: and our Saviour Christ's manner of teaching was by a lively representation to men's fancies, to teach them heavenly truths in an earthly, sensible manner; and indeed, what do we see or hear but will yield matter to a holy heart to raise itself higher?
将鲜艳的颜色放在常见的真理上，常常对想象力、意愿和情感产生强烈的影响。灵魂因新鲜事物而得到恢复，或者旧的真理得到恢复。这使传道人寻求寻找令人愉悦和可接受的言辞（见传道书 12:10）；我们的救主基督教的教学方式是通过生动的表现来向人们的想象力传授天上的真理，以一种地上、可感知的方式；实际上，我们所看到或听到的一切都会给一个虔诚的心提供提升自己的材料。

We should make our fancy serviceable to us in spiritual things, and take advantage by any pleasure, or profit, or honour which it presents our thoughts withal, to think thus with ourselves, 'what is this to the true honour, and to those enduring pleasures,' &c.? And seeing God hath condescended to represent heavenly things to us under earthly terms, we should follow God's dealing herein. God represents heaven to us under the term of a banquet, and of a kingdom, &c., Luke 10:32; our union with Christ under the term of a marriage, yea, Christ himself, under the name of whatsoever is lovely or comfortable in heaven or earth. So the Lord sets out hell to us by whatsoever is terrible or tormenting. Here is a large field for our imagination to walk in, not only without hurt, but with a great deal of spiritual gain. If the wrath of a king be as the roaring of a lion, Prov. 19:12, what is the wrath of the King of kings? If fire be so terrible, what is hell fire? If a dark dungeon be so loathsome, what is that eternal dungeon of darkness? If a feast be so pleasing, what is the 'continual feast of a good conscience?' Prov. 15:15. If the meeting of friends be so comfortable, what will our meeting together in heaven be? The Scripture, by such like terms, would help our faith and fancy both at once. A sanctified fancy will make every creature a ladder to heaven. And because childhood and youth are ages of fancy, therefore it is a good way to instil into the hearts of children betimes, the loving of good and the shunning of evil, by such like representations as agree with their fancies, as to hate hell under the representation of fire and darkness, &c. Whilst the soul is joined with the body, it hath not only a necessary but a holy use of imagination, and of sensible things whereupon our imagination worketh. What is the use of the sacraments but to help our souls by our senses, and our faith by imagination? As the soul receives much hurt from imagination, so it may have much good thereby.
我们应该使我们的幻想在精神上对我们有用，并利用它所呈现的任何快乐、利益或荣誉，来思考这样的问题：'这与真正的荣誉和持久的快乐有什么关系'等等？既然上帝已经降临，用地上的词语向我们展示了天上的事物，我们应该遵循上帝在这方面的处理方式。上帝用宴会和王国等词语向我们展示了天堂，路加福音 10:32；用婚姻的词语来描述我们与基督的联合，甚至用天上或地上一切可爱或舒适的事物来形容基督。因此，主用一切可怕或折磨的事物向我们展示了地狱。这里有一个广阔的领域供我们的想象力去探索，不仅不会受到伤害，而且会获得很多属灵的收益。如果国王的愤怒如同狮子的咆哮，箴言 19:12，那么万王之王的愤怒又是什么呢？如果火如此可怕，地狱之火又是什么呢？如果一个黑暗的地牢如此令人厌恶，那么那个永恒的黑暗地牢又是什么呢？如果一顿盛宴如此令人愉悦，那么“良心的持续盛宴”又是什么呢？箴言 15:15。 如果朋友之间的相聚如此舒适，那么我们在天堂相聚又会是怎样的呢？圣经通过这样的词语，既帮助了我们的信仰，又满足了我们的想象力。一个受圣化的想象力会使每一个创造物都成为通往天堂的阶梯。因为童年和青年时期是想象力的时代，所以通过与他们的想象力相符的表现形式，如通过火和黑暗的形象来憎恶地狱，是一种早期灌输孩子们心中爱善恶和远离恶的好方法。当灵魂与身体结合时，它不仅需要，而且有一种神圣的想象力和感知事物的必要用途，这是我们的想象力所起作用的基础。圣礼的用途是什么呢？不就是通过我们的感官来帮助我们的灵魂，通过想象力来帮助我们的信仰吗？灵魂受到想象力的伤害很大，但也可以从中获得很多好处。

But yet it ought not to invent or devise what is good and true in religion. Here fancy must yield to faith, and faith to divine revelation. The things we believe are such as neither 'eye hath seen, nor ear heard, neither came into the heart of man,' 1 Cor. 2:9, by imagination stirred up from anything which we have seen or heard. They are above, not only imagination, but reason itself, in men and angels. But after God hath revealed spiritual truths, and faith hath apprehended them, then imagination hath use while the soul is joined with the body, to colour divine truths, and make lightsome what faith believes; for instance, it doth not devise either heaven or hell; but when God hath revealed them to us, our fancy hath a fitness of enlarging our conceits of them, even by resemblance from things in nature, and that without danger; because the joys of heaven and the torments of hell are so great that all the representations which nature affords us fall short of them.
但是它不应该创造或发明在宗教中的善和真理。在这里，幻想必须让位于信仰，信仰必须让位于神圣的启示。我们所相信的事物既不是“眼睛看见，耳朵听见，也没有进入人的心中”，哥林多前书 2:9，也不是通过我们所看到或听到的东西激发出的想象。它们超越了人和天使的想象力，甚至超越了理性本身。但是当上帝启示了属灵的真理，信仰领悟到了它们，那么想象力在灵魂与身体结合时就有了用处，可以给信仰所相信的神圣真理着色，使之明亮起来；例如，它不会创造天堂或地狱，但是当上帝向我们启示它们时，我们的想象力有能力通过自然界的事物来扩大我们对它们的概念，而且没有危险；因为天堂的喜乐和地狱的痛苦是如此之大，以至于自然界所提供的所有表象都无法与之相比。

Imagination hath likewise some use in religion, by putting cases to the soul, as when we are tempted to any unruly action we should think with ourselves, what would I do if some holy, grave person whom I much reverence should behold me? Whereupon the soul may easily ascend higher, God sees me, and my own conscience is ready to witness against me, &c.
想象力在宗教中也有一些用途，通过给灵魂提出问题，比如当我们受到诱惑去做一些不受控制的行为时，我们应该自问，如果一位我非常尊敬的圣洁、庄重的人看到我，我会怎么做？因此，灵魂可以很容易地升华，上帝看见我，我的良心也准备好作证等等。

It helps us also in taking benefit by the example of other men. Good things are best learned by others expressing of them to our view. The very sight often, nay, the very thought of a good man doth good, as representing to our souls some good thing which we affect—est aliquid quod ex magno viro vel tacents proficias—which makes histories and the lively characters and expressions of virtues and vices useful to us. The sight, yea, the very reading of the suffering of the martyrs hath wrought such a hatred of that persecuting church as hath done marvellous good. The sight of justice executed upon malefactors works a greater hatred of sin in men than naked precepts can do. So outward pomp and state in the world doth further that awful respect due to authority, &c.
它还帮助我们通过他人的例子获益。好的事物最好通过他人的表达来学习。看到一个好人的样子，甚至是想到一个好人，都会产生好的效果，因为它代表了我们心灵中的一些好事物，我们喜欢从伟大的人或沉默的人身上获益，这使得历史、生动的人物形象和美德与恶习的表达对我们有用。殉道者受苦的景象，甚至是阅读这些景象，已经产生了对那个迫害教会的仇恨，这对我们产生了奇妙的好处。看到对罪犯执行的正义行为，比光秃秃的规则更能在人们心中产生对罪恶的憎恶。所以，世界上的外在华丽和权势进一步促使对权威的敬畏。

9. Lastly, it would much avail for the well ordering of our thoughts to set our souls in order every morning, and to strengthen and perfume our spirits with some gracious meditations,* especially of the chief end and scope wherefore we live here, and how every thing we do or befalls us may be reduced and ordered to further the main. The end of a Christian is glorious, and the oft thoughts of it will raise and enlarge the soul, and set it on work to study how to make all things serviceable thereunto. It is a thing to be lamented that a Christian born for heaven, having the 'prize of his high calling,' Phil. 3:14, set before him, and matters of that weight and excellency to exercise his heart upon, should be taken up with trifles, and fill both his head and heart with vanity and nothing, as all earthly things will prove ere long; and yet if many men's thoughts and discourses were distilled, they are so frothy that they would hardly yield one drop of true comfort.
最后，为了使我们的思维有序，每天早上将我们的灵魂整理好，并用一些优雅的沉思来加强和香气化我们的精神，尤其是关于我们在这里生活的主要目标和目的，以及我们所做的一切或发生在我们身上的事情如何被归纳和安排以促进主要目标。一个基督徒的目标是荣耀的，经常思考这一点会提升和扩大灵魂，并使其努力研究如何使一切事物对此有所帮助。令人遗憾的是，一个为天堂而生的基督徒，拥有他面前的“至高呼召”的奖赏（腓立比书 3:14），以及那些重要而卓越的事情来锻炼他的心灵，却被琐事所占据，填满他的头脑和心灵，如同所有的世俗事物很快就会证明的那样；然而，如果许多人的思想和言论被提炼出来，它们是如此的浮躁，以至于几乎无法带来一滴真正的安慰。

§ IV. Obj. Oh, but, say some, thoughts and imaginations are free, and we shall not be accountable for them.
§ IV. 目标。哦，但是，有人说，思想和想象是自由的，我们不需要对它们负责。

Ans. This is a false plea, for God hath a sovereignty over the whole soul, and his law binds the whole inward and outward man. As we desire our whole man should be saved by Christ, so we must yield up the whole man to be governed by him; and it is the effect of the dispensation of the gospel, accompanied with the Spirit, to captivate whatsoever is in man unto Christ, and to bring down all 'high towering imaginations,' 2 Cor. 10:5, that exalt themselves against God's Spirit. There is a divinity in the word of God, powerfully unfolded, which will convince our souls of the sinfulness of natural imaginations, as we see in the idiot, (e) 1 Cor. 14:24, 25, who, seeing himself laid open before himself, cried out, that 'God was in the speaker,' 1 Cor. 14:25.
这是一个虚假的请求，因为上帝对整个灵魂拥有主权，他的法律约束着整个内外的人。正如我们希望我们整个人都能因基督得救一样，我们必须将整个人交给他来管理；福音的传扬，伴随着圣灵的作工，能够将人内心的一切都俘虏归于基督，并将一切高傲自大的想象都降伏，这些想象高举起来反对上帝的圣灵。神的话语中有一种神性，它能有力地揭示出我们天然想象的罪恶，就像我们在愚人身上看到的那样，他看到自己被揭示出来，就喊着“说话的是神”，哥林多前书 14:25。

There ought to be in man a conformity to the truth and goodness of things, or else, 1, we shall wrong our own souls with false apprehensions; and 2, the creature, by putting a fashion upon it otherwise than God hath made; and 3, we shall wrong God himself, the author of goodness, who cannot have his true glory but from a right apprehension of things as they are. What a wrong is it to men when we shall take up false prejudices against them without ground! and so suffer our conceits to be envenomed against them by unjust suspicions, and by this means deprive ourselves of all that good which we might receive by them; for our nature is apt to judge and accept of things as the persons are, and not of persons according to the things themselves. This faculty exercises a tyranny in the soul, setting up and pulling down whom it will. Job judged his friends altogether vain, Job 27:12, because they went upon a vain imagination and discourse, judging him to be an hypocrite, which could not but add much to his affliction. When men take a toy† in their head against a person or place, they are ready to reason as he did, 'Can any good come out of Nazareth?' John 6:46.
人应该与事物的真理和善良相一致，否则，1、我们会用错误的理解伤害自己的灵魂；2、通过对造物施加一种与上帝创造不同的方式；3、我们会伤害上帝自己，他是善良的创造者，只有通过对事物的正确理解才能获得真正的荣耀。当我们毫无根据地对人们抱有错误的偏见时，这对他们是多么的不公平！因此，我们的想法会被不公正的怀疑毒害，从而剥夺了我们可能从他们那里获得的一切好处；因为我们的本性倾向于根据人的本质来判断和接受事物，而不是根据事物本身来判断人。这种能力在灵魂中行使着暴政，任意树立和推翻对象。约伯因为他的朋友们基于虚幻的想象和言论来判断他是伪君子，所以认为他们完全是虚无的（约伯记 27:12），这无疑给他的苦难增添了很多。当人们对一个人或地方产生偏见时，他们很容易像他一样推理：“难道从拿撒勒出来的能有什么好处吗？”（约翰福音 6:46）

It is an indignity for men to be led with surmises and probabilities, and so to pass a rash judgment upon persons and things. Oftentimes falsehood hath a fairer gloss of probability than truth; and vices go masked under the appearance of virtue, whereupon seeming likeness—similitudo mater errorum—breeds a mistake of one thing for another; and Satan oftentimes casts a mist before our imagination, that so we might have a misshapen conceit of things. By a spirit of illusion he makes worldly things appear bigger to us, and spiritual things lesser than indeed they are; and so by sophisticating of things our affections come to be misled. Imagination is the womb, and Satan the father of all monstrous conceptions and disordered lusts, which are well called deceitful lusts, Eph. 4:22, and lusts of ignorance, 1 Tim. 6:9, foolish and noisome lusts, because they both spring from error and folly, and lead unto it.
对于人们来说，被猜测和可能性所引导，并因此对人和事情做出草率的判断是一种侮辱。往往谎言比真理更有可能性的光泽；邪恶则伪装成美德的外表，由此产生了一种将一物误认为另一物的错觉；撒旦经常在我们的想象力前投下迷雾，以便我们对事物产生扭曲的概念。通过一种幻觉的精神，他使世俗的事物在我们眼中显得更大，而属灵的事物则比实际上小；因此，通过对事物的歪曲，我们的情感就会被误导。想象力是所有畸形观念和混乱欲望的母体，而撒旦则是它们的父亲，这些欲望被称为欺骗的欲望（弗 4:22），无知的欲望（提前 6:9），愚蠢和恶臭的欲望，因为它们都源于错误和愚昧，并导致错误和愚昧。

We see, even in religion itself, how the world, together with the help of 'the god of the world,' 2 Cor. 4:4, is led away, if not to worship images, yet to worship the image of their own fancy. And where the truth is most professed, yet people are prone to fancy to themselves such a breadth of religion as will altogether leave them comfortless when things shall appear in their true colours. They will conceit to embrace truth without hatred of the world, and Christ without his cross, and a godly life without persecutions. They would pull a rose without pricks. Which, though it may stand with their own base ends for a while, yet will not hold out in times of change, when sickness of body and trouble of mind shall come. Empty conceits are too weak to encounter with real griefs.
我们看到，即使在宗教中，世界也会被引导，即使不是崇拜偶像，也会崇拜他们自己幻想的形象，这是在“这个世界的神”（哥林多后书 4:4）的帮助下。即使在最公开承认真理的地方，人们也倾向于幻想一种宽广的宗教，当事情呈现真实的颜色时，他们将完全感到无助。他们会以为自己能接受真理，而不憎恶世界；能接受基督，而不背负十字架；能过上虔诚的生活，而不受迫害。他们想要摘一朵没有刺的玫瑰。虽然这在一段时间内可能符合他们自己的卑劣目的，但在变化的时候，当身体生病和心灵烦恼来临时，这种幻想是无法持久的。空洞的幻想无法应对真正的痛苦。

Some think orthodox and right opinions to be a plea for a loose life, whereas there is no ill course of life but springs from some false opinion. God will not only call us to account how we have believed, disputed, and reasoned, &c., but how we have lived. Our care, therefore, should be to build our profession, not on seeming appearances, but upon sound grounds, that the gates of hell cannot prevail against. The hearts of many are so vain that they delight to be blown up with flattery, because they would have their imaginations pleased, yea, even when they cannot but know themselves abused, and are grieved to have their windy bladder pricked, and so to be put out of their conceited happiness. Others, out of a tediousness in serious and settled thoughts, entertain everything as it is offered to them at the first blush, and suffer their imaginations to carry them presently thereunto without further judging of it. The will naturally loves variety and change, and our imagination doth it service herein, as not delighting to fix long upon anything. Hereupon men are contented, both in religion and in common life, to be misled with prejudices upon shallow grounds; whence it is that the best things and persons suffer much in the world. The power and practice of religion is hated under odious names, and so condemned before it is understood; whence we see a necessity of getting spiritual eye-salve, for without true knowledge the heart cannot be good, Prov. 19:2.
有人认为正统和正确的观点是对放荡生活的辩护，然而没有一种不良的生活方式不是源于某种错误的观念。上帝不仅会追究我们如何相信、争论和推理等，还会追究我们如何生活。因此，我们应该把我们的信仰建立在坚实的基础上，而不是表面上的外观，这样地狱的门也无法战胜。许多人的心是如此虚荣，他们喜欢被奉承吹捧，因为他们希望自己的想象得到满足，即使他们知道自己被滥用，也感到痛苦，因为他们的虚幻幸福被戳破了。其他人由于对严肃和稳定思考的厌倦，接受一切首次出现的东西，并让他们的想象力立即带领他们去做，而不再进一步判断。意愿本能地喜欢多样性和变化，我们的想象力在这方面为它服务，因为它不喜欢长时间停留在任何事物上。 于是，人们在宗教和日常生活中都满足于以浅薄的理由被误导；因此，最好的事物和人们在世界上遭受了很多苦难。宗教的力量和实践被以可憎的名义憎恨，因此在被理解之前就被谴责；因此我们看到有必要获得属灵的眼药水，因为没有真正的知识，心灵就无法善良（箴言 19:2）。

It is just with God that those who take liberty in their thoughts should be given up to their own imaginations, Rom. 1:28, to delight in them, and to be out of conceit with the best things, and so to reap the fruit of their own ways. Nay, even the best of God's people, if they take liberty herein, God will let loose their imagination upon themselves, and suffer them to be entangled and vexed with their own hearts. Those that give way to their imaginations, shew what their actions should be, if they dared; for if they forbear doing evil out of conscience, they should as well forbear imagining evil, for both are alike open to God and hateful to him; and, therefore, oft where there is no conscience of the thought, God gives men up to the deed. The greatest and hardest work of a Christian is least in sight, which is the well ordering of his heart. Some buildings have most workmanship under ground. It is our spirits 'that God, who is a Spirit,' John 4:24, hath most communion withal; and the less freedom we take to sin here, the more argument of our sincerity, because there is no law to bind the inner man but the law of the Spirit of grace, whereby we are 'a law to ourselves,' Rom. 2:14. A good Christian begins his repentance where his sin begins, in his thoughts, which are the next issue of his heart. God counts it an honour when we regard his all-seeing eye so much, as that we will not take liberty to ourselves in that which is offensive to him, no, not in our hearts, wherein no creature can hinder us. It is an argument that the Spirit hath set up a kingdom and order in our hearts, when our spirits rise within us against any thing that lifts itself up against goodness.
只有上帝才会让那些思想自由的人沉溺于自己的想象中，罗马书 1:28，让他们喜欢这些想象，并对最好的事物不感兴趣，从而收获他们自己行为的果实。甚至上帝的最好的子民，如果他们在这方面放纵自己，上帝也会让他们的想象力自由发挥，并让他们陷入和困扰于自己的内心。那些纵容自己的想象力的人，展示了如果他们敢于行动，他们的行为应该是什么样的；因为如果他们出于良心而避免做恶，他们也应该避免想象恶事，因为这两者在上帝面前都是一样明显和可憎的；因此，常常在没有对思想的良心的情况下，上帝会让人们陷入行为中。作为基督徒最伟大、最困难的工作是最不为人所见的，那就是善待自己的内心。有些建筑物的大部分工作都在地下进行。我们的灵魂是上帝最亲近的，因为上帝是灵，约翰福音 4:24，我们在这里犯罪的自由越少，就越能证明我们的真诚，因为没有法律能束缚内心，只有恩典的圣灵的法律，我们成为自己的法律，罗马书 2:14。 一个好的基督徒从他的罪开始悔改，从他的思想开始，这些思想是他内心的产物。当我们如此尊重上帝全知的眼睛，以至于我们不会在冒犯他的事情上给自己自由，甚至不会在我们的内心中，这是上帝认为荣耀的。在那里，没有任何生物可以阻止我们。当我们的精神对任何违背善良的事物产生反抗时，这表明圣灵在我们的内心建立了一个国度和秩序。

§ V. Obj. Many flatter themselves, from an impossibility of ruling their imaginations, and are ready to lay all upon infirmity and natural weakness, &c.
许多人自欺欺人，认为无法控制他们的想象力，并准备将一切归咎于软弱和天生的弱点等。

Ans. But such must know that if we be sound Christians, the Spirit of God will enable us to do all things, evangelically, that we are called unto, if we give way without check to the motions thereof. Where the Spirit is, it is such a light as discovers not only dunghills, but motes themselves, even light and flying imaginations, and abaseth the soul for them, and by degrees purgeth them out; and if they press, as they are as busy as flies in summer, yet a good heart will not own them, nor allow himself in them, but casts them off, as hot water doth the scum, or as the stomach doth that which is noisome unto it. They find not that entertainment here which they have in carnal hearts, where the scum soaks in, which are stews of unclean thoughts, shambles of cruel and bloody thoughts, exchanges and shops of vain thoughts, a very forge and mint of false, politic, and undermining thoughts, yea often a little hell of confused and black imaginations. There is nothing that more moveth a godly man to renew his interest every day in the perfect righteousness and obedience of his Saviour, than these sinful stirrings of his soul, when he finds something in himself always enticing and drawing away his heart from God, and intermingling itself with his best performances. Even good thoughts are troublesome if they come unseasonably, and weaken our exact performance of duty.
但是，这样的人必须知道，如果我们是真正的基督徒，上帝的灵将使我们能够按照福音的方式去做我们所被召唤的一切事情，只要我们毫无保留地顺从它的引导。在那里有圣灵的存在，它是一种光，不仅能发现粪堆，还能发现尘埃，甚至是轻飘的幻想，它使灵魂为之卑下，并逐渐净化它们；即使它们不断出现，就像夏天的苍蝇一样活跃，一个善良的心灵也不会接受它们，也不会纵容自己沉溺其中，而是将它们抛弃，就像热水将浮渣排除一样，或者像胃将令人讨厌的东西排出一样。它们在这里找不到在肉体的心中所得到的款待，那里浸泡着浮渣，那里是不洁思想的温床，残忍和血腥思想的屠宰场，虚无思想的交易所和商店，是虚假、政治和暗中破坏的思想的铁匠铺和铸币厂，甚至经常是一片混乱和黑暗的幻想的小地狱。 没有什么比一个虔诚的人每天都在他的救主完美的公义和顺服中更新他的兴趣更能感动他，当他发现自己的灵魂总是有一些东西引诱并将他的心从上帝身上带走，并与他最好的表现交织在一起时。即使是好的思想如果来得不是时候，也会令人烦恼，并削弱我们对职责的精确履行。

§ VI. But here some misconceits must be taken heed of.
第六节。但是这里必须注意一些误解。

1. As we must take heed that we account not our imaginations to be religion, so we must not account true religion, and the power of godliness, to be a matter of imagination only; as if holy men troubled themselves more than needs, when they stand upon religion and conscience, seeking to approve themselves 'to God in all things,' 1 Thess. 5:12, and endeavouring, so far as frailty will permit, to 'avoid all appearances of evil,' 1 Thess. 5:22. Many men are so serious in vanities and real in trifles, that they count all which dote not upon such outward excellencies as they do, because the Spirit of God hath revealed to them things of a higher nature, to be fantastics and humorous* people, and so impute the work of the Spirit to the flesh, God's work to Satan, which comes near unto blasphemy. They imagine good men to be led with vain conceits, but good men know them to be so led. Not only St Paul, Acts 26:24, but Christ himself, John 10:20, were counted beside themselves, when they were earnest for God and the souls of his people. But there is enough in religion to bear up the soul against all imputations laid upon it: the true children of wisdom are always able to justify their mother, Mat. 11:19, and the conscionable practice of holy duties, if founded upon such solid grounds as shall hold out when heaven and earth shall vanish.
由于我们必须小心，不要将我们的想象视为宗教，所以我们也不应该将真正的宗教和敬神的力量视为仅仅是想象的问题；好像圣洁的人们在关注宗教和良心时，比必要的更为困扰自己，寻求在一切事情上“得到上帝的认可”（帖撒罗尼迦前书 5:12），并努力尽可能地“避免一切恶的样子”（帖撒罗尼迦前书 5:22）。许多人对虚荣心非常认真，对琐事非常真实，他们认为那些不像他们一样追求外在卓越的人都是幻想和幽默的人，因为上帝的灵启示给他们更高层次的事物，所以将他们的工作归咎于肉体，将上帝的工作归咎于撒旦，这接近亵渎。他们想象善良的人被虚妄的观念引导，但善良的人知道他们是被引导的。不仅使徒保罗（使徒行传 26:24），连基督自己（约翰福音 10:20）在为上帝和他的子民热切时，也被认为是神志不清的。 但是宗教中有足够的东西来支撑灵魂，抵御对它的所有指责：真正的智慧之子总能为他们的母亲辩护，马太福音 11:19，并且对圣洁职责的认真实践，如果建立在坚实的基础上，将在天地消失时依然持续存在。

2. We must know that—as there is great danger in false conceits of the way to heaven, when we make it broader than it is, for by this means we are like men going over a bridge, who think it broader than it is, but being deceived by some shadow, sink down, and are suddenly drowned; so men mistaking the straight way to life, and trusting to the shadow of their own imagination, fall into the bottomless pit of hell before they are aware;—in like manner the danger is great in making the way to heaven narrower than indeed it is, by weak and superstitious imaginations, making more sins than God hath made. The wise man's counsel is, that we should not make ourselves over-wicked, nor be foolisher than we are, Eccl. 7:17, by devising more sins in our imagination than we are guilty of.
我们必须知道，当我们把通往天堂的道路扩大得比实际更宽时，存在着巨大的错误观念的危险，因为这样一来，我们就像走在一座桥上的人，他们认为桥比实际更宽，但被某些阴影所欺骗，最终沉下去，突然被淹死；同样地，人们误认为通往生命的正道，并依赖于自己想象的阴影，却在意识到之前就掉进了无底深渊的地狱；同样地，通过虚弱和迷信的想象力，把通往天堂的道路变得比实际更窄，制造出比上帝所创造的更多的罪恶，也存在着巨大的危险。智者的忠告是，我们不应该让自己变得过于邪恶，也不要比我们实际上更愚蠢，不要在我们的想象中编造比我们实际上犯的罪更多的罪恶。

It is good in this respect, to know our Christian liberty, which being one of the fruits of Christ's death, we cannot neglect the same, without much wrong not only to ourselves, but to the rich bounty and goodness of God. So that the due rules of limitation be observed, from authority, piety, sobriety, needless offence of others, &c., we may with better leave, use all those comforts which God hath given to refresh us in the way to heaven, than refuse them. The care of the outward man binds conscience so far, as that we should neglect nothing which may help us in a cheerful serving of God, in our places, and tend to the due honour of our bodies, which are the 'temples of the Holy Ghost,' 1 Cor. 3:16, 17, and companions with our souls in all performances, so that under this pretence we take not too much liberty to satisfy the lusts of the body. Intemperate use of the creatures is the nurse of all passions; because our spirits, which are the soul's instruments, are hereby inflamed and disturbed. It is no wonder to see an intemperate man transported into any passion.
在这方面，了解我们基督徒的自由是很好的，因为这是基督死亡的果实之一，我们不能忽视它，否则不仅对自己造成很大的伤害，也对上帝丰盛的恩典和善良造成伤害。因此，我们应该遵守适当的限制规则，包括权威、虔诚、节制和不必要地冒犯他人等，我们可以更好地享受上帝赐予我们的所有舒适，以便在通往天堂的道路上得到滋养，而不是拒绝它们。对外在事物的关注约束了良心，以至于我们不应该忽视任何可以帮助我们愉快地侍奉上帝、在我们的位置上并且有助于我们身体的适当尊荣的事物，因为我们的身体是"圣灵的殿"（哥林多前书 3:16,17），在所有行动中与我们的灵魂为伴。因此，我们不应以此为借口过度自由地满足身体的欲望。对事物的过度使用是所有激情的滋养因素，因为我们的精神，即灵魂的工具，会因此而燃烧和扰乱。看到一个放纵的人陷入任何激情也就不足为奇了。

3. Some out of their high and airy imaginations, and out of their iron and flinty philosophy, will needs think outward good and ill, together with the affections of grief and delight stirred up thereby, to be but opinions and conceits of good and evil only, not true, and really so founded in nature, but taken up of ourselves. But though our fancy be ready to conceit a greater hurt in outward evils than indeed there is, as in poverty, pain of body, death of friends, &c., yet we must not deny them to be evils. That wormwood is bitter, it is not a conceit only, but the nature of the thing itself, yet to abstain from it altogether, for the bitterness thereof, is a hurtful conceit. That honey is sweet, it is not a conceit only, but the natural quality of it is so; yet out of a taste of the sweetness, to think we cannot take too much of it, is a misconceit paid home with loathsome bitterness. Outward good and outward evil, and the affections of delight and sorrow rising thence, are naturally so, and depend not upon our opinion. This were to offer violence to nature, and to take man out of man, as if he were not flesh but steel. Universal experience, from the sensibleness of our nature in any outward grievance, is sufficient to damn this conceit.
有些人凭借他们高尚而空灵的想象力，以及他们坚定而冷酷的哲学，坚持认为外在的善恶，以及由此引发的悲喜情感，只是关于善恶的观念和想法，不是真实的，也不是真正根植于自然的，而是我们自己所接受的。但是，虽然我们的想象力往往会夸大外在的恶劣之处，比如贫穷、身体的痛苦、朋友的死亡等，但我们不能否认它们是恶。苦艾是苦的，这不仅仅是一个观念，而是事物本身的性质，然而完全避免它，因为它的苦涩，是一种有害的观念。蜂蜜是甜的，这不仅仅是一个观念，而是它的自然品质，然而因为品尝到了甜味，而认为我们可以无限制地享用它，是一种带来令人厌恶苦涩的错误观念。外在的善恶，以及由此产生的喜悦和悲伤的情感，是自然而然的，不取决于我们的观点。这就像对自然施加暴力，把人从人中剥离出来，仿佛他不是肉体，而是钢铁。 普遍的经验，从我们的本性在任何外在的不幸中的明智来看，足以证明这种自负是错误的。

The way to comfort a man in grief, is not to tell him that it is only a conceit of evil, and no evil indeed that he suffers. This kind of learning will not down with him, as being contrary to his present feeling. But the way is, to yield unto him that there is cause of grieving, though not of over-grieving, and to shew him grounds of comforts stronger than the grief he suffers. We should weigh the degrees of evil in a right balance, and not suffer fancy to make them greater than they are; so as that for obtaining the greatest outward good, or avoiding the greatest outward ill of suffering, we should give way to the least evil of sin. This is but a policy of the flesh to take away the sensibleness of evil, that so those checks of conscience and repentance for sin, which is oft occasioned thereby, might be taken away; that so men may go on enjoying a stupid happiness, never laying anything to heart, nor afflicting their souls, until their consciences awaken in the place of the damned, and then they feel that grief return upon them for ever, which they laboured to put away when it might have been seasonable to them.
安慰一个悲伤的人的方法，并不是告诉他这只是一种邪恶的幻想，他所遭受的并不是真正的苦难。这种学说对他来说是无法接受的，因为它与他目前的感受相悖。而正确的方法是，向他承认他有悲伤的理由，尽管不应过度悲伤，并向他展示比他所遭受的悲伤更强大的安慰的理由。我们应该用正确的衡量标准来权衡不同程度的苦难，不要让想象使它们变得比实际更大；这样，为了获得最大的外在利益，或避免最大的外在苦难，我们不应该为了避免最小的罪恶而妥协。这只是肉体的策略，旨在消除对邪恶的敏感，以便消除由此引起的良心的警告和对罪恶的悔改；这样，人们可以继续享受愚蠢的幸福，从不放在心上，也不使自己的灵魂受苦，直到他们的良心在地狱的地方苏醒，然后他们会永远感受到那种悲伤，而他们曾经努力摆脱它，当它对他们来说是合适的时候。

§ VII. I have stood the longer upon this, because Satan and his instruments, by bewitching the imagination with false appearances, misleadeth not only the world, but troubleth the peace of men 'taken out of the world,' James 1:27, 1 John 4:5, 6, whose estate is laid up safe in Christ, who, notwithstanding, pass their few days here in an uncomfortable, wearisome, and unnecessary sadness of spirit, being kept in ignorance of their happy condition by Satan's juggling and their own mistakes, and so come to heaven before they are aware. Some again pass their days in a golden dream, and drop into hell before they think of it. But it is far better to dream of ill, and when we awake to find it but a dream, than to dream of some great good, and when we awake to find the contrary.
第七节。我在这一点上多说了一些，因为撒旦和他的工具通过迷惑想象力以虚假的外观误导不仅是世界，而且也扰乱了那些“离开世界”的人的平安（雅各书 1:27，约翰一书 4:5,6），他们的地位在基督里得到了安全保障，然而他们在这里度过了不舒服、疲倦和不必要的忧伤的日子，被撒旦的戏法和自己的错误所蒙蔽，以至于在不知不觉中来到了天堂。有些人则在一个美好的梦中度过了他们的日子，却在没有意识到之前就掉进了地狱。但是，梦到坏事，醒来后发现只是一个梦，要比梦到一些伟大的好事，醒来后发现相反的情况要好得多。

As the distemper of the fancy—læsa phantasia—disturbing the act of reason, oftentimes breeds madness in regard of civil conversation; so it breeds, likewise, spiritual madness, carrying men to those things, which, if they were in their right wits, they would utterly abhor. Therefore we cannot have too much care upon what we fix our thoughts. And what a glorious discovery is there of the excellencies of religion that would even ravish an angel, which may raise up, exercise, and fill our hearts! We see our fancy hath so great a force in natural conceptions, that it oft sets a mark and impression upon that which is conceived in the womb. So, likewise, strong and holy conceits of things, having a divine virtue accompanying of them, transform the soul, and breed spiritual impressions answerable to our spiritual apprehensions. It would prevent many crosses, if we would conceive of things as they are. When trouble of mind, or sickness of body, and death itself cometh, what will remain of all that greatness which filled our fancies before? Then we can judge soberly, and speak gravely of things. The best way of happiness, is not to multiply honours or riches, &c., but to cure our conceits of things, and then we cannot be very much cast down with anything that befalls us here.
由于幻想的狂热扰乱了理性的行为，往往会在社交中引发疯狂；同样，它也会引发精神疯狂，使人们追求那些如果他们头脑清醒的话，他们会完全憎恶的事物。因此，我们对我们思想所依附的事物要格外小心。宗教的卓越之处是多么令人惊叹的发现，它甚至能够使天使陶醉，这可以激发、锻炼和充实我们的内心！我们看到我们的幻想在自然概念中有如此巨大的力量，以至于它经常在胎儿的概念上留下印记和印象。同样，对事物的强烈和神圣的概念，伴随着神圣的力量，会改变灵魂，并产生与我们的精神理解相符的精神印象。如果我们能按事物的本来面目来构想，就能避免许多困扰。当心灵烦恼、身体疾病和死亡来临时，我们之前幻想中充满的一切伟大将会剩下什么？那时我们能够冷静地判断，庄重地谈论事物。获得幸福的最好方法，不是追求荣誉或财富等。但是要治愈我们对事物的自负，然后我们就不会因为发生在我们身上的任何事情而感到非常沮丧。

Therefore, when anything is presented to our souls, which we see is ready to work upon us, we should ask of ourselves upon what ground we entertain such a conceit, whether we shall have the same judgment after we have yielded to it as now we have? and whether we will have the same judgment of it in sickness and death and at the day of reckoning as we have for the present? That which is of itself evil, is always so at one time as well as another. If the time will come when we shall think those things to be vain, which now we are so eagerly set upon, as if there were some great good in them, why should we not think so of them now, whenas the reforming of our judgment may do us good, rather than to be led on with a pleasing error until that time, wherein the sight of our error will fill our hearts with horror and shame, without hope of ever changing our condition?
因此，当任何事物呈现在我们的灵魂面前时，我们应该问自己，我们接受这种想法的根据是什么，我们在屈服于它之后是否会有同样的判断，我们在疾病、死亡和审判日是否会对它有同样的判断，就像我们现在对它有的那样？那些本身是邪恶的东西，在任何时候都是如此。如果有一天我们会认为那些我们现在如此热切追求的东西是虚无的，好像其中有一些伟大的好处，为什么我们现在就不应该这样想呢？通过改变我们的判断，这可能对我们有益，而不是被一种令人愉悦的错误引导，直到那个时候，我们对错误的看法将使我们的心充满恐惧和羞愧，而且没有改变我们状况的希望。

Here, therefore, is a special use of these soliloquies, to awake the soul and to stir up reason cast asleep by Satan's charms, that so scattering the clouds through which things seem otherwise than they are, we may discern and judge of things according to their true and constant nature. Demand of thy soul, Shall I always be of this mind? Will not the time come when this will prove bitterness in the end? Shall I redeem a short contentment with lasting sorrow? Is my Judge of my mind? Will not a time come when all things shall appear as they are? Is this according to the rule? &c.
因此，这里有一种特殊的用途，即唤醒灵魂并激发被撒旦的魅力所沉睡的理性，通过驱散那些使事物看起来与实际情况不同的云彩，我们可以根据事物的真实和恒定的本质来辨别和判断。问问你的灵魂，我会一直这样想吗？时间不会到来，最终这会变成苦涩吗？我会用持久的悲伤来换取短暂的满足吗？我的判断者是我的心灵吗？时间不会到来，所有事物都会显露出它们的真实面貌吗？这符合规则吗？等等。

To conclude, therefore, whereas there be divers principles of men's actions, as, 1, Natural inclination, inclining us to some courses more than others; 2, Custom, which is another nature in us; 3, Imagination, apprehending things upon shallow grounds, from whence springs affectation, whereby we desire glory in things above our own strength and measure, and make show of that, the truth whereof is wanting in us; 4, True judgment, discerning the true reasons of things; 5, Faith, which is a spiritual principle planted in the soul, apprehending things above reason, and raising us up to conceive of all things as God hath discovered them. Now a sound Christian should not be lightly led with those first common grounds of natural inclination, custom, opinion, &c., but by judgment enlightened, advanced, and guided by faith. And we must take heed we suffer not things to pass suddenly from imagination to affection, without asking advice of our judgment, and faith in the way, whose office is to weigh things in God's balance, and, thereupon, to accept or refuse them.
总之，因此，人们行动的原则有很多，如：1、自然倾向，使我们倾向于某些行为而不是其他行为；2、习惯，这是我们的另一种本性；3、想象力，根据浅薄的理由理解事物，由此产生虚荣心，我们渴望在超出自己能力和尺度的事物中获得荣耀，并展示出那些在我们身上缺乏真实性的事物；4、真正的判断，辨别事物的真正原因；5、信仰，这是植根于灵魂中的一种精神原则，理解超越理性的事物，并使我们能够按照上帝所揭示的方式来理解一切事物。现在，一个健全的基督徒不应该轻易受到自然倾向、习惯、观念等第一类常见基础的影响，而是应该通过被信仰启迪、提升和引导的明智判断。我们必须小心，不要让事物从想象转变为情感，而不经过我们的判断和信仰的咨询，判断和信仰的职责是用上帝的天平来衡量事物，并根据此来接受或拒绝它们。

CHAPTER XIV.—Of help by others. Of true comforters and their graces. Method. Ill success
第十四章 - 他人的帮助。真正的安慰者及其恩赐。方法。不成功

§ I. But because we are subject to favour, and flatter ourselves, it is wisdom to take the benefit of a second self, that is, a well chosen friend, living or dead, books I mean, which will speak truly, without flattery, of our estates. 'A friend is made for the time of adversity,' Prov. 17:17; and two are better than one, Eccl. 4:9, for, by this means, our troubles are divided, and so more easily borne. The very presence of a true-hearted friend yields often ease to our grief. Of all friends, those that by office are to speak a word to a weary soul are most to be regarded, as speaking to us in Christ's stead. Oftentimes, especially in our own case, we are blinded and benighted with passion, and then the judgment of a friend is clearer. Loving friends have a threefold privilege: 1, Their advice is suitable, and fit to our present occasion, they can meet with our grievance, so cannot books so well; 2, What comes from a living friend, comes lively, as helped by his Spirit; 3, In regard of ourselves, what they say is apprehended with more ease, and less plodding and bent of mind. There is scarce anything wherein we see God more in favour towards us, than in our friends, and their seasonable speeches, our hearts being naturally very false and willingly deceived. God often gives us up to be misled by men, not according to his, but our own naughty hearts. As men are, so are their counsellors, for such they will have, and such God lets them have. Men, whose wills are stronger than their wits, who are wedded to their own ways, are more pleased to hear that which complies with their inclinations, than a harsh truth which crosses them. This presages ruin, because they are not counselable. Wherefore God suffers them to be led through a fool's paradise to a true prison, as men that will neither hear themselves nor others who would do them good against their wills. It was a sign God would destroy Eli's sons when they would hear no counsel, 1 Sam. 2:25. God fills such men with their own ways, Prov. 14:14. Men in great place, often in the abundance of all things else, want the benefit of a true friend, Ideo amicus deest quia nihil deest, because, under pretence of service of them, men carry their own ends. As great men* flatter themselves, so they are flattered by others, and so robbed of the true judgment of themselves. Of all spiritual judgments this is the heaviest, for men to be given up to such a measure of self-willness, and to refuse spiritual balm to heal them. Usually such 'perish without remedy,' Prov. 29:1, because to be wilfully miserable is to be doubly miserable, for it adds to our misery, that we brought it willingly upon ourselves.
但因为我们受到偏爱，自我吹捧，所以明智的做法是利用第二个自我，也就是一个选择得当的朋友，无论是活着的还是已故的，我指的是书籍，它们会真实地说出我们的情况，而不会奉承。箴言 17:17 说：“在患难时，朋友乃是亲兄弟。”传道书 4:9 说：“两个人总比一个人好，因为二人劳碌同得美好的果效。”通过这种方式，我们的困扰被分担，因此更容易承受。一个真心朋友的存在往往能减轻我们的痛苦。在所有朋友中，那些按职责要对疲倦的灵魂说一句话的人最值得重视，因为他们是代表基督对我们说话。往往，特别是在我们自己的情况下，我们被激情蒙蔽和迷失，这时朋友的判断更为清晰。亲爱的朋友有三个特权：1、他们的建议适合我们当前的情况，他们能够理解我们的苦恼，而书籍则不太能做到；2、来自活着的朋友的话更有生气，因为得到了他的灵的帮助；3、就我们自己而言，他们所说的更容易理解，不需要过多思考和努力。 在我们的朋友和他们及时的言辞中，我们很少看到上帝对我们更加青睐，因为我们的内心本性非常虚伪，易于被欺骗。上帝经常让我们被人误导，不是按照他的心意，而是按照我们自己邪恶的内心。人如何，他们的顾问也如何，因为他们愿意拥有这样的顾问，上帝也让他们拥有这样的顾问。那些意志比智慧更强，固执己见的人，更喜欢听到符合他们意愿的言辞，而不是与之相悖的严厉真相。这预示着灭亡，因为他们不愿接受忠告。因此，上帝让他们被愚人的天堂引导到真正的监狱，因为他们既不听自己的话，也不听其他人的好意。当以利的儿子不听忠告时，这是上帝要毁灭他们的迹象（撒母耳记上 2:25）。上帝使这样的人满足于自己的道路（箴言 14:14）。在高位的人中，常常在其他一切方面都丰富的情况下，却缺乏一个真正的朋友的好处，因为人们以服务他们为借口，实际上是为了自己的目的。 伟大的人自我吹捧，也会受到他人的奉承，从而失去对自己真实判断的能力。在所有的精神判断中，这是最沉重的，因为人们被放任于如此程度的自我意愿，并拒绝接受精神上的治愈。通常这样的人会“无可救药地灭亡”（箴言 29:1），因为自愿地陷入痛苦中，使我们的痛苦加倍，因为我们是自愿将其带到自己身上的。

It is a course that will have a blessing attending it, for friends to join in league, one to watch over another, and observe each other's ways. It is a usual course for Christians to join together in other holy duties, as hearing, receiving of the sacrament, prayer, &c.; but this fruit of holy communion which ariseth from a mutual observing one another is much wanting. Whence it is that so many droop, so many are so uncheerful in the ways of God, and lie groaning under the burden of many cares, and are battered with so many temptations, &c., because they are left only to their own spirits. What an unworthy thing is it that we should pity a beast overloaden, and yet take no pity of a brother! (f) whereas there is no living member of Christ but hath spiritual love infused into him and some ability to comfort others. Dead stones in an arch uphold one another, and shall not living? It is the work of an angel to comfort; nay, it is the office of the Holy Ghost to be a Comforter, not only immediately, but by breathing comfort into our hearts, together with the comfortable words of others. Thus one friend becomes an angel, nay, a god, to another. And there is a sweet sight of God in the face of a friend; for though the comfort given by God's messengers be ordinarily most effectual, as the blessing of parents, who are in God's room, is more effectual than the blessing of others upon their children, yet God hath promised a blessing to the offices of communion of saints performed by one private man towards another. Can we have a greater encouragement than, under God, to be gainer of a soul, which is as much in God's esteem as if we should gain a world? Spiritual alms are the best alms. Mercy shewed to the souls of men is the greatest mercy, and wisdom in winning of souls is the greatest wisdom in the world, because the soul is especially the man, upon the goodness of which the happiness of the whole man depends. What shining and flourishing Christians should we have if these duties were performed! As we have a portion in the communion of saints, so we should labour to have humility to take good, and wisdom and love to do good. A Christian should have feeding lips and a healing tongue. The leaves, the very words, of the tree of righteousness have a curing virtue in them.
这是一门有福气的课程，朋友们可以联合起来参加，互相照顾，观察彼此的行为。基督徒通常会在其他圣洁的职责中团结在一起，比如听道、领圣餐、祷告等等；但是这种从相互观察中产生的圣洁交流的果实却很缺乏。这就是为什么有那么多人在上帝的道路上感到沮丧，没有那么多的快乐，承受着许多烦恼的重担，受到许多诱惑的折磨等等，因为他们只被留给了自己的精神。我们怎么能同情一个过载的动物，却对兄弟没有怜悯呢？（f）因为基督的活体成员没有一个不被注入了属灵的爱和安慰他人的能力。拱顶上的死石互相支撑，难道活着的人不能吗？安慰是天使的工作；不仅如此，圣灵的职责也是作为安慰者，不仅直接地，而且通过向我们的心中注入安慰的话语来安慰我们。因此，一个朋友成为了另一个朋友的天使，甚至是神。 在朋友的脸上，有上帝的甜美景象；因为虽然上帝的使者所给予的安慰通常是最有效的，就像父母的祝福比其他人对他们的孩子的祝福更有效一样，但上帝已经应许了一个私人对另一个私人进行圣徒交流的祝福。我们能有比成为一个灵魂的获益者更大的鼓励吗？在上帝看来，一个灵魂的价值就像我们获得了整个世界一样。精神的施舍是最好的施舍。对人们的灵魂施以怜悯是最伟大的怜悯，而在赢得灵魂方面的智慧是世界上最伟大的智慧，因为灵魂特别是人，整个人的幸福取决于灵魂的善良。如果这些职责得到履行，我们将会有多少光辉照人、繁荣昌盛的基督徒啊！正如我们在圣徒的交流中有份，我们也应该努力拥有谦卑来接受善事，以及智慧和爱来行善。一个基督徒应该有滋养的嘴唇和治愈的舌头。正义之树的叶子，即其话语，具有治愈的力量。

Some will shew a great deal of humanity in comforting others, but little Christianity; for as kind men they will utter some cheerful words, but as Christians they want wisdom from above to speak a gracious word in season, Isa. 1:4, 2 Tim. 4:2. Nay, some there are who hinder the saving working of any affliction upon the hearts of others by unseasonable and unsavoury discourses, either by suggesting false remedies, or else diverting men to false contentments, and so become spiritual traitors rather than friends, taking part with their worst enemies, their lusts and wills. Happy is he that in his way to heaven meeteth with a cheerful and skilful guide and fellow-traveller, that carrieth cordials with him against all faintings of spirit. It is a part of our wisdom to salvation to make choice of such a one as may further us in our way. An indifferency for any company shews a dead heart. Where the life of grace is, it is sensible of all advantages and disadvantages. How many have been refreshed by one short, apt, savoury speech, which hath begotten, as it were, new spirits in them.
有些人在安慰他人时表现出很多人性，但缺乏基督教精神；作为善良的人，他们会说一些令人振奋的话，但作为基督徒，他们缺乏来自上方的智慧，无法在适当的时候说出恩慈的话语（以赛亚书 1:4，提摩太后书 4:2）。甚至有些人通过不合时宜和不可口的言谈阻碍苦难对他人内心的拯救作用，要么提出错误的解决方法，要么转移人们的注意力到错误的满足上，因此成为精神上的叛徒而非朋友，与他们最坏的敌人，他们的欲望和意愿站在一边。在通往天堂的道路上，遇到一个愉快而熟练的向导和同行者，随身携带提神剂的人是幸福的。选择一个能在我们的道路上帮助我们的人是我们得救的智慧的一部分。对任何人都漠不关心表明心已死。在恩典的生命中，我们能感受到一切优势和劣势。有多少人因为一句简短、恰当、可口的话语而得到了慰藉，仿佛在他们内心中产生了新的活力。

In ancient times, as we see in the story of Job, chap. 2:12, it was the custom of friends to meet together to comfort those that were in misery, and Job takes it for granted, that 'to him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friends,' chap. 6:14. For besides the presence of a friend, which hath some influence of comfort in it, 1. The discovery of his loving affection hath a cherishing sweetness in it. 2. The expression of love in real comforts and services, by supplying any outward want of the party troubled, prevails much. Thus Christ made way for his comforts to the souls of men by shewing outward kindness to their bodies. Love, with the sensible fruits of it, prepareth for any wholesome counsel. 3. After this, wholesome words carry a special cordial virtue with them, especially when the Spirit of God in the affectionate speaker joins with the word of comfort, and thereby closeth with the heart of a troubled patient. When all these concentre and meet together in one, then is comfort sealed up to the soul. The child in Elizabeth's womb sprang at the presence and salutation of Mary, Luke 1:41. The speech of one hearty friend cannot but revive the spirits of another. Sympathy hath a strange force, as we see in the strings of an instrument, which being played upon, as they say, the strings of another instrument are also moved with it. After love hath once kindled love, then the heart, being melted, is fit to receive any impression. Unless both pieces of the iron be red hot, they will not join together. Two spirits warmed with the same heat will easily solder together.
在古代，正如我们在约伯记 2:12 中所见，朋友们常常聚在一起安慰那些处于困苦中的人，约伯认为“对于那困苦的人，朋友应该表现出同情”，约伯记 6:14。因为除了朋友的陪伴，其中有一些安慰的影响，1.他的爱的表达有一种滋养的甜蜜。2.通过提供受困扰一方的任何外在需求的真正安慰和服务，爱的表达在实际中起到了很大的作用。因此，基督通过向人们的身体显示外在的善意为他们的灵魂带来了安慰。爱，以其可感知的果实，为任何有益的建议做好了准备。3.在此之后，有益的话语带有特殊的心灵舒缓作用，尤其是当神的灵在充满感情的说话者中与安慰的话语相结合，从而与困扰的患者的心灵相结合。当所有这些因素汇聚在一起时，安慰就被封印在灵魂中。伊丽莎白子宫中的胎儿在玛利亚的到来和问候时跃动，路加福音 1:41。一个真心朋友的言语不可能不振奋另一个人的精神。 同情力量奇特，就像我们在乐器的琴弦上所见，当弹奏时，据说另一乐器的琴弦也会随之动摇。爱一旦点燃了爱，心灵便会融化，适合接受任何印记。除非两块铁都变得火热，否则它们不会结合在一起。两个被同样热情温暖的灵魂会很容易地融合在一起。

§ II. In him that shall stay the mind of another there had need to be an excellent temper of many graces, as, 1. Knowledge of the grievance, together with wisdom to speak a word in season, and to conceal that which may set the cure backwards. 2. Faithfulness with liberty, not to conceal anything which may be for his good, though against present liking. The very life and soul of friendship stands in freedom, tempered with wisdom and faithfulness. 3. Love with compassion and patience to bear all, and hope all, and not to be easily provoked by the waywardness of him we deal with. Short-spirited men are not the best comforters. God himself is said to 'bear with the manners of his people in the wilderness,' Acts 13:18. It is one thing to bear with a wise sweet moderation that which may be borne, and another thing to allow or approve that which is not to be approved at all, Non est idem ferre, si quid ferendum non est, et probare si quid probandum non est. Where these graces are in the speaker, and apprehended so to be by the person distempered, his heart will soon embrace whatsoever shall be spoken to rectify his judgment or affection. A good conceit of the spirit of the speaker is of as much force to prevail as his words. Words especially prevail, when they are uttered more from the bowels than the brain, and from our own experience, which made even Christ himself a more compassionate High Priest. When men come to themselves again they will be the deepest censurers of their own miscarriage.
第二节 在那个能够安抚他人心灵的人身上，需要具备许多优秀品质，比如：1. 对痛苦的了解，同时具备智慧，在适当的时机说出一句话，并隐藏可能使治疗倒退的事情。2. 忠诚而自由，不隐瞒对他有益的任何事情，尽管可能违背当前的喜好。友谊的生命和灵魂就在于自由，以智慧和忠诚为调和。3. 爱与同情心，能够忍受一切，希望一切，并且不容易被我们所处理的人的任性激怒。心胸狭窄的人不是最好的安慰者。据说上帝自己在旷野中“容忍他的子民的行为”，使徒行传 13:18。容忍明智而温和地容忍可以容忍的事情是一回事，允许或赞同根本不能赞同的事情是另一回事，Non est idem ferre, si quid ferendum non est, et probare si quid probandum non est。如果说这些品质存在于说话者身上，并且被那个心灵不安的人所理解，他的心很快就会接受任何为了纠正他的判断或情感而说的话。 一个演讲者精神的好构思和他的言辞一样有说服力。言辞尤其有说服力，当它们更多地来自内心而非头脑，并且来自我们自己的经验，这使得基督自己成为一个更有同情心的大祭司。当人们恢复理智时，他们将对自己的错误行为最严厉地批评。

§ III. Moreover to the right comforting of an afflicted person, special care must be had of discerning the true ground of his grievance; the core must be searched out. If the grief ariseth from outward causes, then it must be carried into the right channel, the course of it must turn another way, as in staying of blood. We should grieve for sin in the first place, as being the evil of all evils. If the ground be sin, then it must be drawn to a head, from a confused grief to some more particular sin, that so we may strike the right vein; but if we find the spirit much cast down for particular sins, then comfort is presently to be applied. But if the grief be not fully ripe, then, as we use to help nature in its offers to purge, by physic, till the sick matter be carried away; so when conscience, moved by the spirit, begins to ease itself by confession, it is good to help forward the work of it, till we find the heart low enough for comfort to be laid upon. When Paul found the jailor cast down almost as low as hell, he stands not now upon further hammering, and preparing of him for mercy, that work was done already, but presently stirs him up to 'believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,' Acts 16:31. Here being a fit place for an interpreter to declare unto man his righteousness, and his mercy that belongs unto him, after he hath acknowledged his personal and particular sins, which the natural guilt of the heart is extremely backward to do, and yet cannot receive any sound peace till it be done. If signs of grace be discerned, here likewise is a fit place to declare unto man the saving work of grace in his heart, which Satan labours to hide from him. Men oft are not able to read their own evidences without help.
第三节 此外，对于受苦的人，必须特别注意辨别他们苦恼的真正原因；必须找出核心。如果悲伤是由外在原因引起的，那么它必须被引导到正确的渠道，它的方向必须改变，就像止血一样。我们首先应该为罪而悲伤，因为罪是一切恶的根源。如果原因是罪，那么必须将其引导到一个更具体的罪上，从混乱的悲伤中找到正确的方向；但如果我们发现灵魂因为特定的罪而沮丧，那么安慰应该立即施加。但如果悲伤还没有完全成熟，就像我们通常在帮助自然排毒时使用药物，直到病态物质被排除掉一样；所以当良心受到灵魂的感动开始通过忏悔来减轻自己时，帮助推动这个过程是好的，直到我们发现心灵足够低落，可以施加安慰。 保罗发现狱卒几乎跌入地狱，他不再继续劝说和准备他接受怜悯的工作，因为那已经完成了，而是立即激励他“信靠主耶稣基督”（使徒行传 16:31）。在这里，适合一个解释者向人宣告他的公义和属于他的怜悯，当他承认自己的个人和特定的罪过时，心灵的自然罪恶倾向极不愿意这样做，然而在这之前无法获得真正的平安。如果能辨别出恩典的迹象，同样适合在这里向人宣告恩典在他心中的救赎工作，而撒旦却努力将其隐藏起来。人们常常需要帮助才能读懂自己的证据。

In case of stiffness and standing out, it is fit the man of God, 1 Tim. 6:11 and 2 Tim. 3:17, should take some authority upon him, and lay a charge upon the souls of men in the name of Christ, to give way to the truth of Christ, and to forbear putting off that mercy which is so kindly offered, when we judge it to be their portion; which course will be successful in hearts awed with a reverend fear of grieving God's Spirit. Sometimes men must be dealt roundly withal, as David here deals with his own soul, that so whilst we ask a reason of their dejection, they may plainly see they have no reason to be so cast down. For oftentimes grievances are irrational, rising from mistakes; and counsel, bringing into the soul a fresh light, dissolves those gross fogs, and setteth the soul at liberty. What grief is contracted by false reason, is by true reason removed.* Thus it pleaseth God to humble men, by letting them see in what need they stand one of another, that so the communion of saints may be endeared. Every relation wherein we stand towards others, are so many bonds and sinews whereby one member is fitted to derive comfort to another, 'through love the bond of perfection,' Col. 3:14; all must be done in this sweet affection. A member out of joint must be tenderly set in again, and bound up, which only men guided by the spirit of love seasoned with discretion are fit to do. They are taught of God to do what they should. The more of Christ is in any man, the more willingness and fitness to this duty; to which this should encourage us, that in strengthening others we strengthen ourselves, and derive upon ourselves the blessing pronounced on those that 'consider the needy,' Ps. 41:1, which will be our comfort here and crown hereafter, that God hath honoured us, to be instruments of spiritual good to others. It is an injunction to 'comfort the feeble-minded,' 1 Thes. 5:14, and there is an heavy imputation on those that 'comforted not the weak,' Ezek. 34:4; when men will not own men in trouble, but estrange themselves as the herd of deer forsakes and pushes away* the wounded deer from them. And those that are any ways cast down, must stoop to those ways which God hath sanctified to convey comfort; for though sometimes the Spirit of God immediately comforts the soul, which is the sweetest, yet for the most part the 'Sun of righteousness that hath healing in his wings,' Mal. 4:2, conveyeth the beams of his comfort by the help of others, in whom he will lave much of our comfort to lie hid; and for this very end it pleaseth God to exercise his children, and ministers especially, with trials and afflictions, that so they, having felt what a troubled spirit is in themselves, might be able to comfort others in their distresses with the same comfort wherewith they have been comforted, 2 Cor. 7:7. God often suspends comfort from us to drive us to make use of our Christian friends, by whom he purposeth to do us good, Si illatas molestias lingua dicat, a conscientia dolor emanat, vulnera enim clausa plus cruciant.—Greg. Oftentimes the very opening of men's grievances bringeth ease, without any further working upon them. The very opening of a vein cools the blood. If God in the state of innocency thought it fit man should have a helper, if God thought it fit to send an angel to comfort Christ in his agonies, shall any man think the comfort of another more than needs? Satan makes every affliction, by reason of our corruption, a temptation to us, whereupon we are to encounter not only with our own corruptions, but with our spiritual wickednesses, Eph. 6:12; and need we not then that others should join forces with us to discover the temptation, and to confirm and comfort us against it? For so reason joining with reason, and affection with affection, we come by uniting of strength to be impregnable. Satan hath most advantage in solitariness, and thereupon sets upon Christ in the wilderness, Mat. 4., and upon Eve single, Gen. 3., and it added to the glory of Christ's victory, that he overcame him in a single combat, and in a place of such disadvantage. Those that will be alone, at such times, do as much as in them lieth to tempt the tempter himself, to tempt them. The preacher gives three reasons why 'two are better than one,' Eccles. 4:9. 1. Because if one fall, the other may lift him up. As that which is stronger shoreth up that which is weaker, so feeble minds are raised and kept up by the stronger; nay, oftentimes he that is weaker in one grace is stronger in another. One may help by his experience and meekness of love, that needs the help of another for knowledge. 2. If two lie together, one may warm another by kindling one another's spirits. Where two meet together upon such holy grounds and aims, there Christ by his Spirit makes up another, and this threefold cable who shall break? Mat. 18:20. While Joash lived, Jehoiada stood upright; while Latimer and Ridley lived, they kept up Cranmer by intercourse of letters and otherwise, from entertaining counsels of revolt. The disciples presently upon Christ's apprehension fainted, notwithstanding he laboured by his heavenly doctrine to put courage and comfort into them. 3. If any give an onset upon them, there is two to withstand it, spirit joining with spirit; and because there is an acquaintance of spirits as well as of persons, those are fittest to lay open our minds unto, in whom upon experience of their fidelity our hearts may most safely rely, Solatium vitæ, habere cui pectus aperias.† We lose much of our strength in the loss of a true friend; which made David bemoan the loss of his friend Jonathan, 'Woe is me for thee, my brother Jonathan!' 2 Sam. 1:20. He lost a piece of himself, by losing him whom his heart so clave unto. St Paul accounted that God had shewed especial mercy to him, in the recovery of Epaphroditus, Phil. 2:27.
如果僵硬和突出的情况下，合适的是上帝的人，提摩太前书 6:11 和提摩太后书 3:17，应该在基督的名义下对他们施加一些权威，并对人们的灵魂提出要求，让基督的真理得以传播，并且不要拒绝那种如此友好地提供的怜悯，当我们判断它是他们的一部分时；这种做法将在心中敬畏上帝的灵魂中取得成功。有时候，人们必须坦率地对待，就像大卫在这里对待自己的灵魂一样，这样当我们询问他们沮丧的原因时，他们可以清楚地看到他们没有理由如此沮丧。因为往往痛苦是不合理的，起因于错误的判断；而忠告，带来灵魂的新光，消除了那些严重的迷雾，使灵魂得到自由。虚假的理由引起的痛苦，可以通过真正的理由来消除。这样，上帝喜悦地使人谦卑，让他们看到彼此的需要，以便圣徒的交流更加珍贵。我们与他人的每一种关系，都是一种联系和纽带，使一个成员能够向另一个成员传递安慰，“爱是完全的纽带”，歌罗西书。 3:14；所有的事情都必须在这甜蜜的情感中完成。脱臼的肢体必须被温柔地重新安置并包扎，只有由爱的精神引导并慎重处理的人才能胜任。他们被上帝教导去做他们应该做的事。任何人中有更多的基督，就越愿意和适合履行这个职责；这应该鼓励我们，在帮助他人的同时也在帮助自己，我们会得到上帝赐福的祝福，正如诗篇 41:1 所说的“顾念穷乏人”的人会得到安慰，这将是我们在这里的安慰和将来的荣冠，上帝荣耀我们，成为对他人的属灵善行的工具。这是一项命令，要“安慰软弱的人”，帖撒罗尼迦前书 5:14，并且对那些“不安慰软弱的人”有严重的指责，以西结书 34:4；当人们不承认有困难的人，而是像一群鹿离开并推开受伤的鹿一样疏远自己时，这是一种严重的指责。 那些被压倒的人必须屈服于上帝所祝圣的方式来传递安慰；因为虽然有时上帝的灵直接安慰灵魂，这是最甜蜜的，但大多数时候，“拥有医治在翅膀上的公义之日的太阳”（玛拉基书 4:2）通过他人的帮助传递安慰的光辉，他会让我们的安慰大部分隐藏起来；为了这个目的，上帝喜欢用试炼和苦难来锻炼他的儿女，尤其是牧师，这样他们就能够用他们自己曾经得到的安慰来安慰别人的困厄（哥林多后书 7:7）。上帝经常暂时剥夺我们的安慰，以便我们求助于基督徒朋友，他们是上帝用来对我们施恩的工具。如果痛苦只是从舌头上说出来，那么痛苦只会从内心深处流出，因为封闭的伤口更加痛苦。——格雷戈里。有时候，仅仅倾诉自己的痛苦就能带来舒缓，无需进一步处理。就像打开一条血管可以降低体温一样。 如果上帝在无罪状态下认为人类应该有一个帮手，如果上帝认为派遣一个天使来安慰基督在痛苦中，难道还有人认为别人的安慰比自己更需要吗？由于我们的腐败，撒旦使每一种苦难都成为我们的试探，因此我们不仅要与自己的腐败作斗争，还要与我们的属灵邪恶作斗争，以弗所书 6:12；难道我们不需要别人与我们一起发现试探，并在试探中给予我们确认和安慰吗？因为通过理性与理性的结合，感情与感情的结合，我们通过合力变得坚不可摧。撒旦在孤独中有最大的优势，因此在旷野中攻击基督，马太福音 4 章，以及单独攻击夏娃，创世纪 3 章，基督在单挑中战胜他，并且在如此不利的地方取得了胜利，这增添了他的荣耀。那些在这种时候选择独处的人，与试探者本身一样，诱使试探者试探他们。传道书 4:9 中的传道者给出了“两个胜过一个”的三个理由。第一，如果一个人跌倒，另一个人可以扶起他。 强者支持弱者，如同坚固的岸堤支撑着脆弱的东西一样，脆弱的心灵被强者提升和保护；甚至有时，在某种恩典上较弱的人，在其他方面可能更强大。一个人可以通过他的经验和温和的爱来帮助那些需要他的知识帮助的人。2.如果两个人在一起，一个人可以通过点燃彼此的精神来温暖另一个人。当两个人在这样的神圣目标和目的地相遇时，基督通过他的圣灵再次凝聚在一起，这三股绳索谁能断裂？马太福音 18:20。当约阿施还活着时，耶何耶大站得直；当拉蒂默和里德利还活着时，他们通过信件和其他方式与克兰默保持联系，阻止了他接受叛乱的建议。门徒们在基督被捕后立即失去了勇气，尽管他通过他的天上的教导努力给他们勇气和安慰。3.如果有人袭击他们，就会有两个人来抵挡，精神与精神相结合；因为精神和人的熟悉程度，那些最适合向他们敞开心扉的人，是那些我们在经历了他们的忠诚后，我们的心灵可以最安全地依靠的人，生活的安慰，有人可以倾诉。我们在失去一个真正的朋友时失去了很多力量；这让大卫为失去他的朋友约拿单而悲伤，“哀哉！我的兄弟约拿单啊！”（撒母耳记下 1:20）。失去了他心灵紧紧依附的人，他失去了自己的一部分。圣保罗认为上帝在恢复以巴弗提的时候对他特别施以怜悯（腓立比书 2:27）。

§ IV. But there are divers miscarriages in those that are troubled which make the comfort of others of none effect.
第四节。然而，那些困扰的人中存在着各种错误，使得其他人的安慰毫无效果。

1. When the troubled party deals not directly, but doubleth with him that is to help him. Some are ashamed to acknowledge the true ground of their grievance, pretending sorrow for one thing, when their hearts tell them it ariseth from another: like the lapwings, which make greatest noise farthest from their nest, because they would not have it discovered. This deceit moved our blessed Saviour, who knew what was in the hearts of men, to fit his answers many times, rather to the man than to the matter.
当困扰的一方不直接处理问题，而是与帮助他的人进行双重交涉。有些人因为羞于承认他们痛苦的真正原因，假装为一件事而感到悲伤，而他们的内心告诉他们这是由另一件事引起的：就像麻雀一样，它们在离巢最远的地方发出最大的声音，因为它们不想被发现。这种欺骗感动了我们的救主，他知道人心的所思所想，因此他的回答往往更适合于人而不是事情本身。

2. Some rely too much upon particular men, Oh if they had such a one they should do well, and mislike others, fitter perhaps to deal with them, as having more through knowledge of their estates, because they would have their disease rather covered than cured, or if cured, yet with soft words, whereas no plaster worketh better than that which causes smart. Some out of mere humorous fondness must have that which can hardly be got, or else nothing pleases them. David must needs have the 'waters of Bethlehem,' 2 Sam. 23:15, when others were nearer hand. And oftentimes when men have not only whom they desire, but such also who are fit and dexterous in dealing with a troubled spirit, yet their souls feel no comfort, because they make idols of men; whereas men at the best are but conduits of comfort, and such as God freely conveyeth comfort by, taking liberty oft to deny comfort by them, that so he may be acknowledged the 'God of all comfort,' 2 Cor. 1:3.
有些人过于依赖特定的人，如果他们拥有这样一个人，他们会做得很好，而对其他人不满意，也许更适合与他们打交道，因为他们对他们的状况有更深入的了解，因为他们更希望掩盖而不是治愈他们的疾病，或者即使治愈了，也要用温和的言辞，然而没有什么比引起疼痛的药膏更有效。有些人出于纯粹的幽默喜好，必须得到几乎无法得到的东西，否则什么都不会让他们满意。大卫必须得到“伯利恒的水”，撒母耳记下 23:15，而其他人离得更近。而且往往当人们不仅拥有他们渴望的人，而且还有那些善于处理困扰的灵魂的人时，他们的灵魂却感受不到安慰，因为他们把人当作偶像；而人们在最好的时候只是安慰的渠道，上帝通过他们自由地传递安慰，常常拒绝通过他们提供安慰，以便被承认为“众安慰之神”，哥林多后书 1:3。

3. Some delude themselves, by thinking it sufficient to have a few good words spoken to them, as if that could cure them; not regarding to apprehend the same, and mingle it with faith, without which, good words lose their working, even as wholesome physic in a dead stomach.
有些人自欺欺人，认为只要有人对他们说几句好话，就能治愈他们；却不考虑理解并与信仰相结合，没有信仰，好话就失去了作用，就像在一个死胃里的良药。

Besides miscarriages in comforting, times will often fall out in our lives, that we shall have none either to comfort us, or to be comforted by us, and then what will become of us unless we can comfort ourselves? Men must not think always to live upon alms, but lay up something in store for themselves, and provide oil for their own lamps, and be able to draw out something from the treasury of their own hearts. We must not go to the surgeon for every scratch. No wise traveller but will have some refreshing waters about him. Again, we are often driven to retire home to our own hearts, by uncharitable imputations of other men. Even friends sometimes become miserable comforters. It was Job's case, chap. 2.; his friends had honest intentions to comfort him, but erred in their manner of dealing. If he had found no more comfort by reflecting upon his own sincerity, than he received from them, who laboured to take it from him, he had been doubly miserable. We are most privy to our own intentions and aims, whence comfort must be fetched; let others speak what they can to us, if our own hearts speak not with them, we shall receive no satisfaction. Sometimes it may fall out, that those which should unloose our spirits when they are bound up, mistake; the key misses the right wards, and so we lie bound still. Opening of our estate to another is not good but when it is necessary; and it is not necessary, when we can fetch supply from our own store. God would have us tender of our reputations, except in some special cases, wherein we are to give glory to God, Josh. 7:19, by a free and full confession. Needless discovery of ourselves to others, makes us fear the conscience of another man, as privy to that which we are ashamed he should be privy unto; and it is neither wisdom nor mercy to put men upon the rack of confession, further than they can have no ease any other way. For by this means we raise in them a jealousy towards us, and oft without cause, which weakeneth and tainteth that love which should unite hearts in one.
除了在安慰方面的失败，我们的生活中经常会遇到困境，我们既没有人来安慰我们，也没有人可以从我们这里得到安慰，那么如果我们不能自我安慰，我们将会怎样呢？人们不能总是指望施舍，而是要为自己存一些东西，为自己的灯提供油，并能够从自己内心的宝库中取出一些东西。我们不能为每一次擦伤都去找外科医生。没有明智的旅行者会没有一些清凉的水在身边。再者，我们经常被别人的恶意指责逼迫着回到自己的内心。即使是朋友有时也会成为可怜的安慰者。这就是约伯的情况，第二章。他的朋友们有善意来安慰他，但在处理方式上出了错。如果他对自己的真诚没有更多的反思安慰，而只从那些试图夺走他安慰的人那里得到，他将会是双重的不幸。我们对自己的意图和目标最了解，安慰必须从中获取；让别人对我们说什么都没用，如果我们自己的内心与他们不一致，我们将得不到满足。 有时候，当我们的精神被束缚住时，那些本应解放我们的人可能会犯错；钥匙没有插入正确的锁孔，所以我们仍然被束缚着。向他人敞开我们的内心并不总是好的，只有在必要的时候才是好的；而当我们可以从自己的资源中获取帮助时，就没有必要了。除非在某些特殊情况下我们需要将荣耀归给上帝，否则上帝希望我们珍惜自己的声誉（约书亚记 7:19），通过自由而完整的忏悔。不必要地向他人展示我们自己，会让我们害怕别人的良心，因为我们害怕他们知道我们感到羞耻的事情；而把人们逼到只能通过忏悔来获得安慰的境地，既不明智也不仁慈。因为这样做会在他们心中引起对我们的猜忌，而且往往是没有理由的，这会削弱和玷污本应将心凝聚在一起的爱。

CHAPTER XV.—Of flying to God in disquiets of souls; eight observations out of the text
第十五章 - 在灵魂不安时飞向上帝；从文本中得出的八个观察。

Quest. What if neither the speech of others to us, nor the rebuke of our own hearts, will quiet the soul? Is there no other remedy left?
问题：如果既不是他人对我们的言语，也不是我们自己内心的责备能够安抚灵魂，那还有其他的解决办法吗？

Ans. Yes; then look up to God, the father and fountain of comfort, as David doth here; for the more special means whereby he sought to recover himself was by laying a charge upon his soul to trust in God. For having let his soul run out too much, he begins to recollect himself again, and resign up all to God.
是的；然后仰望上帝，作为安慰的父亲和源泉，就像大卫在这里所做的那样；因为他寻求恢复的更特殊的方法之一就是对自己的灵魂提出信靠上帝的要求。因为他让自己的灵魂过于放纵，他开始重新收拾自己，并将一切交托给上帝。

§ I. Quest. But how came David to have the command of his own soul, so as to take it off from grief, and to place it upon God? Could he dispose of his own heart himself?
§ I. Quest. 但是大卫是如何掌控自己的灵魂，使其摆脱悲伤并投向上帝的呢？他能自己支配自己的心吗？

Ans. The child of God hath something in him above a man; he hath the Spirit of God to guide his spirit. This command of David to his soul was under the command of the great commander. God commands David to trust in him, and at the same time infuseth strength into his soul by thinking of God's command, and trusting to God's power, to command itself to trust in God; so that this command is not only by authority, but by virtue likewise of God's command. As the inferior orbs move as they are moved by a higher, so David's spirit here moves as it is moved by God's Spirit, Which inwardly spake to him to speak to himself.
神的儿女在他身上有超越人的东西；他有神的灵来引导他的灵。大卫对自己的灵魂的这个命令是在伟大的指挥官的命令下发出的。上帝命令大卫要信靠他，同时通过思考上帝的命令，并信靠上帝的力量，将自己命令自己信靠上帝的能力，这样这个命令不仅仅是出于权威，也是出于上帝命令的力量。就像较低的天体按照较高的天体的运动而运动一样，大卫的灵在这里是按照上帝的灵的运动而运动的，上帝的灵内在地对他说话，让他对自己说话。

David, in speaking thus to his own soul, was, as every true Christian is, a prophet and an instructor to himself; it is but as if inferior officers should charge in the name and power of the king. God's children have a principle of life in them from the Spirit of God, by which they command themselves. To give charge belongs to a superior. David had a double superior above him, his own spirit as sanctified, and God's Spirit guiding that. Our spirits are the Spirit's agents, and the Holy Spirit is God's agent, maintaining his right in us. As God hath made man a free agent, so he guides him, and preserves that free manner of working which is agreeable to man's nature.
大卫对自己的灵魂如此说话，正如每个真正的基督徒一样，他是自己的先知和教导者；这就好像下级军官以国王的名义和权力发号施令一样。上帝的儿女们在他们里面有一种来自上帝的生命原则，凭借这个原则，他们指挥自己。发号施令是上级的职责。大卫有两个上级，他自己的灵魂经过圣化的灵和上帝的灵引导。我们的灵魂是圣灵的代理人，圣灵是上帝的代理人，维护他在我们身上的权利。上帝使人成为自由的行动者，他引导人，并保持与人的本性相符的自由工作方式。

By this it appears that David's moving of himself did not hinder the Spirit's moving of him, neither did the Spirit's moving of him hinder him from moving himself in a free manner; for the Spirit of God moveth according to our principles, it openeth our understandings to see that it is best to trust in God; it moveth so sweetly, as if it were an inbred principle, and all one with our own spirits. If we should hold our will to move itself, and not to be moved by the Spirit, we should make a god of it, whose property is to move other things, and not to be moved by any.*
由此可见，大卫自己的行动并没有阻碍圣灵的感动，圣灵的感动也没有阻碍他自由地行动；因为上帝的灵是根据我们的原则行动的，它开启我们的理解，让我们看到信靠上帝是最好的选择；它的感动如此甜美，仿佛是与我们自己的灵魂融为一体的内在原则。如果我们坚持让自己的意愿自行行动，而不受圣灵的感动，我们就会把它当作一个神，它的属性是感动其他事物，而不受任何感动。

We are in some sort lords over our own speeches and actions, but yet under a higher lord. David was willing to trust in God, but God wrought that will in him. He first makes our will good, and then works by it. It is a sacrilegious liberty that will acknowledge no dependence upon God. We are wise in his wisdom, and strong in his strength, who saith, 'Without me ye can do nothing,' John 15:5. Both the bud of a good desire, and the blossom of a good resolution, and the fruit of a good action, all comes from God. Indeed, the understanding is ours whereby we know what to do, and the will is ours whereby we make choice of what is best to be done; but the light whereby we know, and the guidance whereby we choose, that is from a higher agent, which is ready to flow into us with present fresh supply, when by virtue of former strength we put ourselves forward in obedience to God.* Let but David say to his soul being charged of God to trust, I charge thee, my soul, to trust in him, and he finds a present strength enabling to it. Therefore, we must both depend upon God as the first mover, and withal set all the inferior wheels of our souls agoing, according as the Spirit of God ministers motion unto us. So shall we be free from self-confidence, and likewise from neglecting that order of working which God hath established. David hearkened what the Lord said, before he said anything to himself,—so should we. God's commands tend to this, that we should command ourselves. God, and the minister under God, bid us trust in him, but all is to no purpose till grace be wrought in the soul, whereby it bids itself. Our speaking to others doth no good, till they, by entertaining what we say, speak the same to their own souls.
我们在某种程度上掌控着自己的言行，但却受制于更高的主宰。大卫愿意信靠上帝，但上帝在他身上完成了这个意愿。他首先使我们的意愿变好，然后通过它来行动。不承认对上帝的依赖是一种亵渎的自由。我们在他的智慧中变得聪明，在他的力量中变得强大，他说：“离开我，你们不能做什么。”（约翰福音 15:5）一个良好愿望的芽，一个良好决心的花朵，一个良好行动的果实，都来自上帝。确实，我们拥有理解力，可以知道该做什么，我们拥有意愿，可以选择最好的行动；但我们知道的光，我们选择的指引，都来自一个更高的行动者，当我们凭借以往的力量向上帝顺服时，它愿意立即流入我们的内心。只要大卫对自己的灵魂说，被上帝嘱咐要信靠，我嘱咐你，我的灵魂，要信靠他，他就会发现一种能够使他信靠的力量。 因此，我们必须依靠上帝作为第一推动者，并同时使我们灵魂中的所有次要轮子开始转动，根据上帝的灵感给予我们动力。这样，我们就能摆脱自信，也不会忽视上帝所建立的工作秩序。大卫在说任何话之前都听从上帝的话语，我们也应该如此。上帝的命令是为了让我们自己命令自己。上帝和在上帝之下的仆人告诉我们要信靠他，但直到恩典在灵魂中产生，命令自己才有意义。我们对他人的讲话没有任何好处，直到他们通过接受我们的话语，对自己的灵魂说出同样的话。

In this charge of David upon his own soul, we may see divers passages and privileges of a gracious heart in trouble.
在大卫对自己灵魂的指责中，我们可以看到一个在困境中的恩典心灵的各种经历和特权。

§ II. Obs. 1. As 1. That a Christian, when he is beaten out of all other comforts, yet hath a God to run unto. A wicked man beaten out of earthly comforts, is as a naked man in a storm, and an unarmed man in the field, or as a ship tossed in the sea without an anchor, which presently dashes upon rocks, or falleth upon quicksands; but a Christian, when he is driven out of all comforts below, nay, when God seems to be angry with him, he can appeal from God angry to God appeased, he can wrestle and strive with God by God's own strength, fight with him with his own weapons, and plead with God by his own arguments. What a happy estate is this! Who would not be a Christian, if it were but for this, to have something to rely on when all things else fail? The confusion and unquietness which troubles raise in the soul may drive it from resting in itself, but there can never be any true peace settled, until it sees and resolves what to stay upon.
第二节 观察 1：当一个基督徒失去所有其他的安慰时，他仍然有一个可以依靠的上帝。一个邪恶的人失去了地上的安慰，就像是在风暴中的赤身裸体之人，或者是在没有武装的战场上的人，又或者是在没有锚的海上被抛来抛去的船只，很快就会撞上礁石，或者陷入流沙中；但是一个基督徒，当他被驱逐出所有的下属安慰时，甚至当上帝似乎对他生气时，他可以从愤怒的上帝那里呼吁到平息的上帝那里，他可以用上帝自己的力量与上帝搏斗和奋斗，用自己的武器与他战斗，用自己的论据与上帝辩论。这是多么幸福的状态啊！如果只是为了这个，谁不想成为一个基督徒呢？当一切都失败时，还有一些可以依靠的东西。困扰心灵的混乱和不安可能会使它远离自我安慰，但只有当它看到并决定依靠什么时，才能真正安定下来。

§ III. 2. We see here that there is a sanctified use of all troubles to God's children. First, they drive them out of themselves, and then draw them nearer to God. Crosses, indeed, of themselves estrange us more from God, but by an overruling work of the Spirit they bring us nearer to him. The soul of itself is ready to misgive, as if God had too many controversies with it, to shew any favour towards it; and Satan helpeth. Because he knows nothing can stand and prevail against God, or a soul that relieth on him, therefore he labours to breed and increase an everlasting division betwixt God and the soul. But let not Christians muse so much upon their trouble, but see whither it carries them, whether it brings them nearer unto God or not. It is a never-failing rule of discerning a man to be in the state of grace, when he finds every condition draw him nearer to God; for thus it appears that such love God, and are called of him, unto whom 'all things work together for the best,' Rom. 8:28.
§ III. 2. 我们在这里看到，对于上帝的儿女来说，所有的困难都有一种神圣的用途。首先，它们将他们从自己身上驱逐出去，然后将他们拉近到上帝面前。十字架本身确实使我们与上帝疏远，但是在圣灵的超越工作下，它们将我们带近到他面前。灵魂本身很容易产生疑虑，好像上帝对它有太多的争议，不会对它显示任何恩惠；而撒旦则帮助加剧了这种疑虑。因为他知道没有什么能够抵挡和战胜上帝，或者依靠他的灵魂，所以他努力在上帝和灵魂之间制造并加剧了永恒的分裂。但是，基督徒不要过多地思考他们的困难，而是要看它将他们带向何处，是否将他们带近到上帝面前。当一个人发现每一个境况都将他带近到上帝面前时，这是一个永不失败的辨别人是否处于恩典状态的准则；因为这样就显明出这些人爱上帝，并且是被他所呼召的人，他们是那些“万事互相效力，叫爱神的人得益处”的人，罗马书 8:28。

§ IV. 3. Again, hence we see that the Spirit of God by these inward speeches doth awake the soul, and keep it in a holy exercise, by stirring up the grace of faith to its proper function. It is not so much the having of grace, as grace in exercise, that preserves the soul. Therefore, we should by this and the like means 'stir up the grace of God in us,' 2 Tim. 1:6, that so it may be kept a-working, and in vigour and strength. It was David's manner to awake himself, by bidding both 'heart and harp to awake,' Ps. 57:8. It is the waking Christian, that hath his wit and his grace ready about him, who is the safe Christian. Grace dormant, without the exercise, doth not secure us. It is almost all one, in regard of present exigence, for grace not to be and not to work. The soul without action is like an instrument not played upon, or like a ship always in the haven. Motion is a preservative of the purity of things. Even life itself is made more lively by action. The Spirit of God, whereby his children are led, is compared to things of the quickest and strongest actions, as fire and wind, &c. God himself is a pure act, always in acting; and everything, the nearer it comes to God, the more it hath its perfection in working. The happiness of man consists chiefly in a gracious frame of spirit, and actions suitable sweetly issuing therefrom. The very rest of heavenly bodies is in motion in their proper places. By this stirring up the grace of God in us, sparkles come to be flames, and all graces are kept bright. Troubles stir up David;* David being stirred, stirs up himself.
§ IV. 3. 再次，由此我们看到，上帝的灵通过这些内在的言语唤醒灵魂，并通过激发信仰的恩典来保持其在圣洁的运行中。保持灵魂的并不是拥有恩典，而是恩典的运行。因此，我们应该通过这样的方式“激发我们内在的上帝的恩典”，提摩太后书 1:6，这样它就可以保持运行，并保持活力和力量。大卫的习惯是通过命令“心和竖琴醒来”来唤醒自己，诗篇 57:8。有觉醒的基督徒，他的智慧和恩典都准备就绪，他是安全的基督徒。沉睡的恩典，没有运行，不能保护我们。在目前的紧急情况下，恩典不运行和不存在几乎是一样的。没有行动的灵魂就像一个不被演奏的乐器，或者像一艘永远停泊在港口的船。运动是保持事物纯洁的一种保护措施。甚至生命本身也因行动而更加活跃。上帝的灵引导他的儿女，被比作最快速和最强大的行动物，如火和风等。 上帝本身是纯粹的行动，始终在行动中；而一切越接近上帝的东西，在行动中就越完美。人的幸福主要在于一种恩典的心态，以及由此产生的适当行动。天体的宁静是在它们各自的位置上的运动中。通过激发我们内在的上帝之恩，火花变成了火焰，所有的恩典都保持明亮。困扰激发了大卫；大卫被激发后，自己也激发起来。

§ V. 4. We see likewise here a further use of soliloquies or speeches to our own hearts. When the soul by entering into itself sees itself put out of order, then it enjoins this duty of trusting in God upon it. If we look only on ourselves, and not turn to God, the work of the soul is imperfect. Then the soul worketh as it should, whenas by reflecting on itself, it gathers some profitable conclusion, and leaveth itself with God. David, upon reflecting on himself, found nothing but discouragement; but when he looks upward to God, there he finds rest. This is one end why God suffers the soul to tire and beat itself, that, finding no rest in itself, it might seek to him. David yields not so much to his passion as that it should keep him from God. Therefore, let no man truly religious pretend, for an excuse, his temper or provoking occasions, &c., for grace doth raise the soul above nature. Grace doth not only stop the soul in an evil way, but carries it to a contrary good, and raiseth it up to God. Though holy men be subject to 'like passions with others,' James 5:17, as it is said of Elias, yet they are not so enthralled to them, as that they carry them wholly away from their God; but they hear a voice of the Spirit within them, calling them back again to their former communion with God; and so grace takes occasion, even from sin, to exercise itself.
§ V. 4. 我们在这里还可以看到独白或对自己内心的讲话的进一步用途。当灵魂通过反省自己发现自己失序时，它就会命令自己信靠上帝。如果我们只看自己，而不转向上帝，灵魂的工作就是不完整的。当灵魂通过反思自己，得出一些有益的结论，并将自己留给上帝时，它的工作就是应该的。大卫在反思自己时，发现除了沮丧什么也没有，但当他向上仰望上帝时，他在那里找到了安息。这是上帝允许灵魂疲惫和自我折磨的一个目的，即在自己找不到安息时，它会寻求上帝。大卫并不完全屈服于自己的情感，以至于让它远离上帝。因此，让没有真正宗教信仰的人不要以性情或激怒的场合等为借口，因为恩典能够把灵魂提升到超越本性的地步。恩典不仅能够阻止灵魂走上邪恶的道路，还能引导它走向相反的善，并将其提升到上帝那里。 虽然圣人与其他人一样会有“相同的激情”，如雅各书 5:17 所说的以利亚，但他们并不被这些激情所束缚，以至于完全远离上帝；相反，他们听到内心的圣灵呼唤，将他们重新带回与上帝的交流；因此，恩典甚至从罪恶中找到机会来锻炼自己。

§ VI. 5. Observe further, that distrust is the cause of all disquiet. The soul suffers itself by something here below to be drawn away from God, but can find no rest till it return to him again. As Noah's dove had no place to set her foot upon, Gen. 8:11, till it was received into the ark from whence it came. And it is God's mercy to us, that when we have let go our hold of God, we should find nothing but trouble and unquietness in anything else, that so we might remember from whence we are fallen, and return home again. That is a good trouble which frees us from the greatest trouble, and brings with it the most comfortable rest. It is but an unquiet quiet, and a restless rest which is out of God. It is a deep spiritual judgment for a man to find too much rest in the creature. The soul that hath had a saving work upon it, will be always impatient until it recovers its former sweetness in God. After God's Spirit hath once touched the soul, it will never be quiet until it stands pointed God-ward.
§ VI. 5. 进一步观察，不信任是一切不安的原因。灵魂被这里的某事物吸引离开上帝，但只有回归上帝才能找到安宁。就像挪亚的鸽子在没有地方落脚的情况下，直到被接进方舟才找到安身之所，创世记 8:11。上帝对我们的怜悯在于，当我们放弃了对上帝的依靠时，我们在其他事物中只能找到困扰和不安，这样我们就能记起我们是从哪里堕落下来的，并回到家中。那是一种好的困扰，它使我们摆脱了最大的困扰，并带来最舒适的休息。离开上帝的休息只是一种不安的安宁和无休止的休息。对一个人来说，在受造物中找到太多的安息是一种深刻的属灵审判。那些经历过救赎的灵魂，将永远不会安静，直到它再次回到上帝面前。

Obj. But conscience may object, upon any offence is God offended, and therefore not to be trusted?
但是良心可能会反对，因为任何罪行都会冒犯上帝，所以不能信任吗？

Ans. It is true, where faith is not above natural conscience; but a conscience 'sprinkled with the blood of Christ,' Heb. 10:22, is not scared from God by its infirmities and failings, but as David here is rather stirred up to run unto God by his distemper; and it had been a greater sin than his distemper not to have gone unto God. Those that have the spirit of sons in their hearts, run not further from God after they have a little strayed from him; but, though it be the nature of sinful passions to breed grief and shame, yet they will repair to God again, and their confidence overcomes their guilt, so well are they acquainted with God's gracious disposition.
答案：这是真实的，当信仰不高于自然的良心时；但是，一个“被基督的血洒净”的良心（希伯来书 10:22）并不因其软弱和过失而害怕上帝，反而像大卫一样被他的病态激励着奔向上帝；不去找上帝比他的病态更大的罪过。那些心中有儿子之灵的人，在稍稍偏离上帝后并不会离上帝更远；尽管罪恶的激情会引发悲伤和羞耻，但他们会再次回到上帝面前，他们的信心战胜了罪恶，他们对上帝的恩慈性情非常了解。

Yet we see here, David thinks not of trusting in God, till first he had done justice upon his own soul, in rebuking the unruly motions thereof. Censure for sin goeth before favour in pardoning sin or boldness to ask pardon of God. Those that love God must hate ill, Ps. 97:10. If our consciences condemn us of allowing any sin, we cannot have boldness with God, who is light and can abide no darkness, and 'greater than our consciences,' 1 John 3:20.
然而，我们在这里看到，大卫并不考虑信靠上帝，直到他首先对自己的灵魂进行了公正的惩戒，责备其不守规矩的行为。对罪恶的谴责在宽恕罪恶或向上帝请求宽恕之前先行。爱上帝的人必须憎恶邪恶，诗篇 97:10。如果我们的良心谴责我们容忍任何罪恶，我们就无法在上帝面前有胆量，因为上帝是光明的，不能容忍黑暗，并且“比我们的良心更大”，约翰一书 3:20。

§ VII. 6. Moreover, hence we see it is no easy thing to bring God and the heart together. David here as he often checks his heart, so he doth often charge his heart. Doubts and troubles are still gathering upon him, and his faith still gathering upon them. As one striving to get the haven, is driven back by the waves, but recovering himself again, gets forward still, and after often beating back, at length obtains the wished haven, and then is at rest, so much ado there is to bring the soul unto God, the harbour of true comfort. It were an easy thing to be a Christian, if religion stood only in a few outward works and duties, but to take the soul to task, and to deal roundly with our own hearts, and to let conscience have its full work, and to bring the soul into spiritual subjection unto God, this is not so easy a matter, because the soul out of self-love is loath to enter into itself, lest it should have other thoughts of itself than it would have. David must bid his soul trust, and trust, and trust again before it will yield. One main ground of this difficulty is, that contrary which is in the soul by reason of contrary principles. The soul so far as it is gracious commands, so far as it is rebellious resists, which drew holy Austin to a kind of astonishment: 'The soul commands the body and it yields,' saith he, 'it commands itself, and is resisted by itself. It commands the hand to move, and it moveth with such an unperceivable quickness that you can discern no distance betwixt the command and the motion. Whence comes this? but because the soul perfectly wills not, and perfectly enjoins not that which is good, and so far forth that it fully wills not, so far it holds back.'* There should be no need of commanding the soul if it were perfect, for then it would be of itself, what it now commandeth. If David had gotten his soul at perfect freedom at the first, he needed not have repeated his charge so often upon it. But the soul naturally sinks downward, and therefore had need often to be wound up.
第七章第六节。此外，我们可以看到，将上帝和心灵联系在一起并不容易。大卫经常检查自己的心灵，也经常指责自己的心灵。疑虑和困扰不断围绕着他，而他的信仰也在不断增长。就像一个努力进入港口的人被浪潮推回，但他再次恢复自己，继续前进，经过多次的挫折，最终获得了渴望已久的港口，然后得到了安息，将灵魂带到真正的安慰之所，也是如此困难。如果宗教只是一些外在的行为和责任，那么成为一个基督徒将是一件容易的事情，但是要对自己的心灵进行审视，坦诚地对待自己的内心，让良心充分发挥作用，将灵魂带入对上帝的属灵服从，这并不是一件容易的事情，因为出于自我爱而不愿意进入自己的内心，以免对自己产生其他的想法。大卫必须命令他的灵魂相信，相信，再次相信，才会屈服。这种困难的主要原因之一是，由于相反的原则，灵魂内部存在着相反的东西。 灵魂在它仁慈的时候命令，而在它叛逆的时候抵抗，这让圣奥古斯丁感到惊讶：“灵魂命令身体，身体顺从；灵魂命令自己，自己却抵抗。它命令手移动，手以难以察觉的速度移动，你无法辨别命令和动作之间的距离。这是为什么呢？因为灵魂并不完全愿意，也不完全要求善良，所以它在某种程度上抵制。”如果灵魂是完美的，就不需要命令它，因为它本身就是现在所命令的。如果大卫一开始就得到了完全自由的灵魂，他就不需要一再对它重复命令。但是灵魂天然地向下沉，因此需要经常被提升。

§ VIII. 7. we should therefore labour to bring our souls, as David doth here, to a firm and peremptory resolution, and not stand wavering, and as it were equally balanced betwixt God and other things; but enforce our souls. We shall get little ground of infidelity else. Drive your souls, therefore, to this issue, either to rely upon God, or else to yield up itself to the present grievance. If by yielding, it resolves to be miserable, there's an end, but if it desires rest, then let it resolve upon this only way, to trust in God. And well may the soul so resolve, because in God there are grounds of quieting the soul, above all that may unsettle it; in him there is both worth to satisfy, and strength to support the soul. The best way to maintain inward peace, is to settle and fix our thoughts upon that which will make us better, till we found our hearts warmed and wrought upon thereby, and then, as the prophet speaks, 'God will keep us in peace, peace,' that is, 'in perfect and abundant peace,' Isa. 26:3. This resolution stayed Job, that though God should kill him, yet he resolved 'to trust in him,' Job 13:15. Answerable to our resolution is our peace, the more resolution the more peace. Irresolution of itself, without any grievance, is full of disquiet. It is an unsafe thing always to begin to live, to be always cheapening and paltering with God; come to this point once, trust God I ought, therefore, trust God I will, come what may or will.
第八节。7. 因此，我们应该努力使我们的灵魂像大卫一样，下定决心，不再摇摆不定，不再在上帝和其他事物之间犹豫不决，而是强迫我们的灵魂。否则，我们将很难摆脱不信仰的困境。因此，驱使你的灵魂，要么依靠上帝，要么将自己交给当前的痛苦。如果通过屈服，它决定要不幸，那就结束了，但如果它渴望安息，那么让它只依靠上帝。灵魂之所以能够如此决定，是因为在上帝那里有安抚灵魂的根据，超过了一切可能使其动摇的东西；在他那里，既有足够的价值来满足，又有足够的力量来支持灵魂。保持内心平静的最好方法是将我们的思想集中在能让我们变得更好的事物上，直到我们的心灵被温暖和感动，然后，正如先知所说的，'上帝将使我们保持平安，平安'，即'完全且丰盛的平安'，以赛亚书 26:3。这个决心使约伯坚持下去，即使上帝要杀死他，他仍然决定'依靠他'，约伯记 13:15。 我们的决心决定了我们的平静，决心越大，平静就越多。没有任何不满的优柔寡断充满了不安。总是开始生活，总是与上帝讨价还价是不安全的；一旦到达这一点，我应该信任上帝，因此，无论发生什么或者意愿如何，我都会信任上帝。

And it is good to renew our resolutions again and again: for every new resolution brings the soul closer to God, and gets further in him, and brings fresh strength from him; which, if we neglect, our corruption joining with outward hindrances will carry us further and further backward, and this will double, yea multiply our trouble and grief to recover ourselves again. We have both wind and tide against us, we are going up the hill, and, therefore, had need to arm ourselves with resolution. Since the fall, the motion of the soul upward, as of heavy bodies, is violent, in regard of corruption which weighs it downward, and, therefore, all enforcement is little enough. Oppose, therefore, with David, an invincible resolution, and then doubt not of prevailing. If we resolve in God's power and not our own, and be 'strong in the Lord,' Eph. 6:10, and not in ourselves, then it matters not what our troubles or temptations be either from within, or without, for trust in God at length will triumph.
而且，一再更新我们的决心是好的：因为每一个新的决心都会使灵魂更接近上帝，并从他那里得到更多的力量；如果我们忽视了这一点，我们的腐败与外在的阻碍结合在一起，将使我们越来越倒退，这将使我们恢复自己的困扰和痛苦加倍，甚至倍增。我们既有逆风又有逆流，我们正在爬坡，因此，我们需要用决心武装自己。自从堕落以来，灵魂向上的运动，就像重物一样，是剧烈的，因为腐败使它向下倾斜，因此，所有的强制都是不够的。因此，要像大卫一样坚定不移地反对，然后毫不怀疑地取胜。如果我们决心依靠上帝的力量而不是我们自己的力量，并且在主里面“刚强”，以弗所书 6:10，而不是在我们自己身上，那么无论我们的困扰或诱惑是来自内部还是外部，最终对上帝的信任将会战胜一切。

Here is a great mercy, that when David had a little let go his hold of God, yet God would not let go his hold of him, but by a spirit of faith draws him back again to himself. God turns us unto him, and then we return. 'Turn us again,' saith the psalmist, 'cause thy face to shine upon us, and we shall be saved,' Ps. 80:19. When the soul leaves God once, it loses its way and itself; and never returns till God recalls it again. Animus æger semper errat. If moral principles, cherished and strengthened by good education, will enable the soul against vicious inclinations, so that, though some influence of the heavens work upon the air, and the air upon the spirits, and the spirits upon the humours, and these incline the temper, and that inclines the soul of a man such and such ways, yet breeding in the refineder sort of civil persons will much prevail to draw them another way. What, then, may we think of this powerful grace of faith which is altogether supernatural? Will not this carry the soul above all natural inclinations whatsoever, though strengthened by outward occasions, if we resolve to put it to it? David was a king of other men, but here he shews that he was a king of himself. What benefit is it for a man to be ruler over all the world, and yet remain a slave to himself?
这里有一个伟大的怜悯，即使大卫稍微放开了对上帝的依靠，上帝也不会放开对他的掌控，而是通过信心的力量将他重新吸引回来。上帝使我们转向他，然后我们才回归。诗人说：“求你使我们转回，上帝，使你的脸发光，我们就必得救。”（诗篇 80:19）一旦灵魂离开上帝，它就迷失了方向和自我，只有上帝再次召回它，它才会回归。 Animus æger semper errat。如果道德原则在良好教育的培养下能够使灵魂抵制邪恶的倾向，那么即使天空的影响作用于空气，空气作用于精神，精神作用于体液，体液影响脾气，脾气影响人的灵魂朝某种方向倾斜，但在文明人中培养的人将更容易被引导向另一种方式。那么，我们又该如何看待这完全超自然的信心的强大恩典呢？如果我们决心将其应用，它难道不会将灵魂带到超越一切自然倾向的境地吗？大卫是其他人的国王，但在这里他展示了他是自己的国王。 一个人统治全世界，却仍然成为自己的奴隶，有什么好处呢？

§ IX. 8. Again, David here doth not only resolve, but presently takes up his soul, before it strayed too far from God. The further and the longer the soul wanders from God, the more it entangles itself, and the thicker darkness will cover the soul, yea, the loather it is to come to God again, being ashamed to look God in the face after discontinuing of acquaintance with him; nay, the stronger the league grows betwixt sin and the soul, and the more there groweth a kind of suitableness betwixt the soul and sin. Too long giving way to base thoughts and affections, discovers too much complacency and liking of sin. If we once give way, a little grief will turn into bitter sorrow, and that into a settled pensiveness and heaviness of spirit; fear will grow into astonishment, and discouragement into despair. If ever we mean to trust God, why not now? How many are taken away in their offers and essays, before they have prepared their hearts to cleave unto God! The sooner we give up ourselves to the Lord, the sooner we know upon what terms we stand, and the sooner we provide for our best security, and have not our grounds of comfort to seek when we shall stand most in need of them. Time will salve up grief in the meanest of men; reason, in those that will suffer themselves to be ruled thereby, will cure, or at least stay the fits of it, sooner; but faith, if we stir it up, will give our souls no rest, until it hath brought us to our true rest, that is, to God. Therefore we should press the heart forward to God presently, that Satan make not the rent greater.
§ IX. 8. 大卫在这里不仅下定决心，而且立即收回了自己的灵魂，以免它远离上帝。灵魂离上帝越远、时间越长，它就越陷入困境，黑暗也会越浓厚地笼罩住灵魂，甚至在与上帝断绝交往后，灵魂会感到羞愧，不愿再回到上帝面前；不仅如此，罪与灵魂之间的联盟也会变得更加牢固，灵魂与罪之间会产生一种相互适应的关系。太长时间地纵容卑劣的思想和情感，会显示出对罪的过分满足和喜爱。一旦我们屈服，一点点的悲伤就会变成痛苦的悲伤，然后变成一种沉重和沉闷的心情；恐惧会变成惊愕，气馁会变成绝望。如果我们打算信任上帝，为什么不现在呢？有多少人在他们准备好依附上帝之前就被带走了！我们越早将自己交托给主，我们就越早知道我们所处的条件，越早为我们最好的安全提供保障，当我们最需要安慰的时候，我们就不必再寻找安慰的根据了。 时间会治愈最卑微的人的悲伤；理智会治愈那些愿意接受它支配的人的悲伤，或者至少能够暂时停止悲伤的发作；但是，如果我们唤醒信仰，它将不会让我们的灵魂得到安宁，直到它将我们带到真正的安息，也就是带我们到上帝那里。因此，我们应该立即将心灵投向上帝，以免撒旦加剧伤口。

§ X. 9. Lastly, here we see, that though the soul be overborne by passion for a time, yet if grace hath once truly seasoned it, it will work itself into freedom again. Grace, as oil, will be above. The eye when any dust falls into it, is not more tender and unquiet, till it be wrought out again, than a gracious soul is, being once troubled. The spirit, as a spring, will be cleansing of itself more and more. Whereas the heart of a carnal man is like a standing pool, whatsoever is cast into it, there it rests. Trouble and disquietness in him are in their proper place. It is proper for the sea to rage and cast up dirt. God hath set it down for an eternal rule, that vexation and sin shall be inseparable. Happiness and rest were severed from sin in heaven when the angels fell, and in paradise when Adam fell, Gen. 3., and will remain for ever separated, until the breach be made up by faith in Christ. Jussisti Domine, et sic est, ut omnis inordinatus affectus sibi sit pœna.—Aug.
§ X. 9. 最后，我们在这里看到，尽管灵魂暂时被激情压倒，但如果恩典真正使其调味，它将重新获得自由。恩典就像油一样，会在上面。当眼睛进入任何灰尘时，它会变得更加敏感和不安，直到灰尘被清除出去，就像一个受恩典感动的灵魂一样。灵魂就像泉水一样，会越来越自洁。而一个肉体的人的心就像一个静止的池塘，无论什么东西投入其中，都会停留在那里。烦恼和不安在他身上是合适的。海洋愤怒并卷起泥土是合适的。上帝已经确立了一个永恒的规则，烦恼和罪恶是不可分割的。在天使堕落时，幸福和安息与罪恶分离，在伊甸园时，亚当堕落，创世纪 3 章，直到通过对基督的信仰修补这个裂口之前，它们将永远分离。Jussisti Domine, et sic est, ut omnis inordinatus affectus sibi sit pœna.—Aug.

CHAPTER XVI.—Of trust in God grounds of it; especially his providence
第十六章 - 对上帝的信任及其根据；尤其是他的神意

But to come nearer to the unfolding of this trust in God, which David useth here as a remedy against all distempers. Howsoever confidence and trust be an affection of nature, yet by the Spirit's sanctifying and carrying it to the right object, it becomes a grace of wonderful use. In the things of this life, usually he that hopes most is the most unwise man, he being most deceived that hopes most, because he trusts in that which is uncertain; and therefore deceitful hope is counted but the dream of a waking man. But in religion it is far otherwise; here hope is the main supporting grace of the soul, springing from faith in the promises of God.
但是，为了更接近对上帝的信任的展开，大卫在这里使用它作为对所有不适的治疗方法。无论信心和信任是一种本性的情感，但通过圣灵的使其成为一种非常有用的恩典，将其带到正确的对象上。在这个世界上的事情中，通常最希望的人是最愚蠢的人，因为最希望的人是最容易被欺骗的人，因为他们信任的是不确定的事物；因此，虚假的希望只被视为清醒人的梦。但在宗教中，情况大不相同；在这里，希望是灵魂的主要支持恩典，源于对上帝的应许的信心。

Trust and hope are often taken in the same sense, though a distinction betwixt them hath sometimes its use. Faith looks to the word promising, hope to the thing promised in the word; faith looks to the authority of the promiser, hope especially to the goodness of the promise; faith looks upon things as present, hope as to come hereafter. God as the first truth, is that which faith relies on; but God as the chief good is that which hope rests on. Trust or confidence is nothing else but the strength of hope. If the thing hoped for be deferred, then of necessity it enforces waiting, and waiting is nothing else but hope and trust lengthened.
信任和希望通常被视为同义词，尽管有时区分它们是有用的。信仰关注的是所承诺的话语，而希望关注的是话语中所承诺的事物；信仰关注的是承诺者的权威，而希望尤其关注的是承诺的善意；信仰将事物视为现在，而希望将其视为将来。上帝作为第一真理，是信仰所依赖的；但上帝作为至善，是希望所依靠的。信任无非是希望的力量。如果所希望的事物被推迟，那么等待是必然的，而等待无非是希望和信任的延长。

Howsoever there may be use of these and such like distinctions, yet usually they are taken promiscuously, especially in the Old Testament. The nature and use of faith is set out by terms of staying, resting, leaning, rolling ourselves upon God, &c., which come all to one, and therefore we forbear any further curious distinction.
无论如何，这些和类似的区别可能会被使用，但通常它们是混合使用的，尤其是在旧约中。信仰的本质和用途通过停留、依靠、倚靠、将自己交托给上帝等词语来描述，这些都是相同的，因此我们不再进行进一步的细致区分。

Now, seeing trusting in God is a remedy against all distempers, it is necessary that we should bring the object and the act, God and the soul, together; for effecting of which it is good to know something concerning God and something concerning trust. God only is the fit object of trust. He hath all the properties of that which should be trusted on. A man can be in no condition wherein God is at a loss and cannot help him. If comforts be wanting, he can create comforts, not only out of nothing, but out of discomforts. He made the whale that swallowed up Jonah a means to bring him to the shore, Jonah 1:17. The sea was a wall to the Israelites on both sides, Exod. 14:22. The devouring flames were a great refreshing to the three children in the fiery furnace, Dan. 3. That trouble which we think will swallow us up, may be a means to bring us to our haven; 'so mighty is God in power, and so excellent in working,' Isa. 28:29. God then, and God only, is a fit foundation for the soul to build itself upon, for the firmer the foundation is, the stronger will the building be; therefore those that will build high must dig deep. The higher the tree riseth, the deeper the root spreadeth and fasteneth itself below. So it is in faith: if the foundation thereof be not firm, the soul cannot build itself strongly upon it. Faith hath a double principle to build on, either a principle of being, or a principle of knowing. The principle of being is God himself, the principle of knowing is God's word, whereby God cometh forth 'out of that hidden light which none can attain unto,' 1 Tim. 6:16, and discovereth his meaning towards us for our good.
现在，相信上帝是对抗一切疾病的良药，我们有必要将对象和行为，上帝和灵魂联系在一起；为了实现这一点，了解上帝和信任的一些内容是很好的。只有上帝才是值得信任的合适对象。他具备所有应该被信任的特性。一个人无论处于什么境地，上帝都不会束手无策，无法帮助他。如果缺乏安慰，他可以从无中创造安慰，甚至从不安中创造安慰。他使吞噬约拿的大鱼成为将他带到岸边的手段（约拿书 1:17）。海洋在以色列人两侧形成了一道墙（出埃及记 14:22）。烈火对三个少年在火炉中是一种巨大的慰藉（但以理书 3 章）。我们认为会吞噬我们的困扰可能成为将我们带到安全港的手段；“上帝在能力上何等大，他在行事上何等奇妙”（以赛亚书 28:29）。因此，只有上帝是灵魂建立自己的合适基础，因为基础越坚固，建筑就越牢固；因此，那些想要建造高楼的人必须深挖地基。 树木越高，根系越深，扎根在下方。信仰亦如此：若其基础不坚固，灵魂无法在其上建立坚强的自我。信仰有两个建立的原则，一个是存在的原则，一个是认知的原则。存在的原则是上帝自己，认知的原则是上帝的话语，通过上帝的话语，上帝从“无人能够达到的隐藏之光”中出来，启示他对我们的意图，为我们的益处。

This then must, 1, be supposed for a ground, that there is a God, and that God is, that is, hath a full and eternal being, and giveth a being, and an order of being, to all things else. Some things have only a being, some things life and being, some things sense, &c., and some things have a more excellent being, including all the former, as the being of creatures endued with reason. If God had not a being, nothing else could be. In things subordinate one to another, take away the first, and you take away all the rest. Therefore this proposition, God is, is the first truth of all; and if this were not, nothing else should be, as we see if the heavenly bodies do not move, there is no motion here below.
这必须假设一个前提，即存在上帝，上帝存在，即具有完整和永恒的存在，并赋予其他所有事物存在和秩序。有些事物只有存在，有些事物有生命和存在，有些事物有感觉等，还有一些事物具有更高级的存在，包括所有前者，如具有理性的生物的存在。如果上帝不存在，其他任何事物都不可能存在。在相互从属的事物中，去掉第一个，你就去掉了所有其他事物。因此，上帝存在的命题是所有真理的第一条；如果这个命题不成立，其他任何事物都不会存在，就像我们看到如果天体不运动，地面上就没有运动一样。

2. In the divine nature or being, there is a subsisting of three persons, every one so set out unto us, as fitted for us to trust in; the Father as a Creator, the Son as a Redeemer, the Holy Ghost as a Comforter, and all this is in reference to us. God in the first person hath decreed the great work of our salvation, and all things tending to the accomplishment of it. God in the second person hath exactly and fully answered that decree and plot, in the work of our redemption. God in the third person discovers and applies all unto us, and fits us for communion with the Father and the Son, from whom he proceeds.
在神圣的本质或存在中，有三个人的存在，每个人都被安排给我们，以便我们可以信靠；父神作为创造者，子神作为救赎者，圣灵作为安慰者，所有这些都与我们有关。上帝以第一人称决定了我们救赎的伟大工作，以及所有有助于实现这一目标的事物。上帝以第二人称在我们的救赎工作中完全和准确地回应了这个决定和计划。上帝以第三人称向我们展示并应用所有这些，并使我们适合与父神和子神交流，他们是他的出处。

3. God cannot be comfortably thought upon out of Christ our Mediator, in whom he was 'reconciling the world to himself,' 2 Cor. 5:19, as being a friend both to God and us, and therefore fit to bring God and the soul together, being a middle person in the Trinity. In Christ, God's nature becomes lovely to us, and ours to God; otherwise there is an utter enmity betwixt his pure and our impure nature. Christ hath made up the vast gulf between God and us. There is nothing more terrible to think on, than an absolute God out of Christ.
3. 在基督我们的调解者之外，无法舒适地思考上帝。在基督里，他“使世人与自己和好”，哥林多后书 5:19，因为他既是上帝的朋友也是我们的朋友，所以适合将上帝和灵魂联系在一起，他是三位一体中的中间人。在基督里，上帝的本性对我们变得可爱，我们对上帝也是如此；否则，他纯洁的本性与我们污秽的本性之间存在着彻底的敌意。基督弥合了上帝与我们之间的巨大鸿沟。没有什么比在基督之外思考绝对上帝更可怕的了。

4. Therefore, for the better drawing of us to trust in God, we must conceive of him under the sweet relation of a Father. God's nature is fatherly now unto us, and therefore lovely.
因此，为了更好地相信上帝，我们必须将他看作慈爱的父亲。上帝的本质现在对我们来说是父爱的，因此可爱。

5. And for further strengthening our faith it is needful to consider what excellencies the Scripture giveth unto God, answerable to all our necessities. What sweet names God is pleased to be known unto us by for our comfort, 'as a merciful, gracious, long-suffering God,' &c. Exod. 34:6.
为了进一步加强我们的信仰，有必要考虑圣经赋予上帝的卓越之处，以满足我们的一切需求。上帝愿意以怎样的甜美名字为我们所知，以安慰我们，如“仁慈、恩典、忍耐的上帝”等。出埃及记 34:6。

When Moses desired to see the glory of God, God thus manifested himself, in the way of goodness: 'I will make all my goodness pass before thee,' Exod. 33:16.
当摩西渴望看到上帝的荣耀时，上帝以善良的方式显现自己：“我要使我的一切善良经过你面前”，出埃及记 33:16。

Whatsoever is good in the creature is first in God as a fountain; and it is in God in a more eminent manner and fuller measure. All grace and holiness, all sweetness of affection, all power and wisdom, &c. as it is in him, so it is from him: and we come to conceive these properties to be in God, 1, by feeling the comfort and power of them in ourselves; 2, by observing these things in their measure to be in the best of the creatures, whence we arise to take notice of what grace and what love, what strength and wisdom, &c., is in God, by the beams of these which we see in his creature, with adding in our thoughts fulness peculiar to God, and abstracting imperfections incident to the creature. For that is in God in the highest degree, the sparkles whereof is but in us.
无论在创造物中有什么好的东西，首先都是从上帝作为源泉而来；而且在上帝身上以更显著和更充分的方式存在。所有的恩典和圣洁，所有的情感甜蜜，所有的力量和智慧等等，既然在他身上，那么也是从他而来的：我们通过感受到这些属性在自己身上的安慰和力量来理解上帝拥有这些属性；通过观察这些属性在最好的创造物中的程度，我们注意到上帝拥有怎样的恩典、爱、力量和智慧等等，通过看到创造物中的这些属性的光辉，我们在思想中加入了上帝特有的丰满，并剔除了创造物所固有的不完美。因为那在上帝中是以最高程度存在的东西，在我们身上只是一点点火花。

6. Therefore it is fit that unto all other eminencies in God, we should strengthen our faith by considering those glorious singularities, which are altogether incommunicable to the creature, and which gives strength to his other properties, as that God is not only gracious and loving, powerful, wise, &c., but that he is infinitely, eternally, and unchangeably so. All which are comprised in and drawn from that one name Jehovah, as being of himself, and giving a being to all things else, of nothing; and able, when it pleaseth him, to turn all things to nothing again.
因此，我们应该通过考虑那些完全无法与造物主分享的荣耀独特之处来加强我们对上帝的信仰，这些独特之处使他的其他属性得到加强，比如上帝不仅仅是仁慈和爱心，有力量、智慧等等，而且他是无限、永恒和不变的。所有这些都包含在并源自耶和华这个名字中，因为他自己存在，并赋予其他一切事物存在的能力；并且他有能力在他愿意的时候将一切事物变为虚无。

7. As God is thus, so he makes it good by answerable actions and dealing towards us, by his continual providence, the consideration whereof is a great stay to our faith; for by this providence God makes use of all his former excellencies for his people's good, for the more comfortable apprehension of which, it is good to know that God's providence is extended as far as his creation. Every creature, in every element and, place whatsoever, receiveth a powerful influence from God, who doth what pleaseth him, both in heaven and earth, in the sea, and all places. But we must know God doth not put things into a frame, and then leave them to their own motion, as we do clocks, after we have once set them right, and ships, after we have once built them, commit them to wind and waves; but as he made all things, and knows all things, so, by a continued kind of creation, he preserves all things in their being and working, and governs them in their ends. He is the first mover that sets all the wheels of the creature aworking. One wheel may move another, but all are moved by the first. If God moves not, the clock of the creature stands. If God should not uphold things, they would presently fall to nothing, from whence they came. If God should not guide things, Satan's malice, and man's weakness, would soon bring all to a confusion. If God did not rule the great family of the world, all would break and fall to pieces, whereas the wise providence of God keepeth everything on its right hinges. All things stand in obedience to this providence of God, and nothing can withdraw itself from under it. If the creature withdraw itself from one order of providence, it falls into another. If man, the most unruly and disordered creature of all, withdraw himself from God's gracious government of him to happiness, he will soon fall under God's just government of him to deserved misery. If he shakes off God's sweet yoke, he puts himself under Satan's heavy yoke, who, as God's executioner, hardens him to destruction. And so, whilst he rushes against God's will, he fulfils it; and whilst he will not willingly do God's will, God's will is done upon him against his will.
7. 神是这样的，他通过相应的行动和对我们的处理使一切变得美好，他通过他的持续的保护，考虑到这一点对我们的信仰是一个巨大的支持；因为通过这种保护，神利用他所有以前的优点来造福他的子民，为了更舒适地理解这一点，了解神的保护范围延伸到他的创造物是很好的。每一个生物，在任何元素和任何地方，都从神那里接受到强大的影响，神按照他的喜悦在天上、地上、海洋和所有地方行事。但我们必须知道，神不是把事物安排好，然后让它们自己运动，就像我们把时钟调好后，把它们交给风和波浪一样；而是他创造了一切，知道一切，通过持续的创造方式，保持一切事物的存在和运作，并在它们的目标中加以管理。他是第一个使所有生物的轮子开始运转的动力。一个轮子可以推动另一个轮子，但所有轮子都是由第一个轮子推动的。如果神不动，生物的时钟就会停止。 如果上帝不支撑万物，它们将立即归于虚无，回到它们的起源。如果上帝不引导万物，撒旦的恶意和人的软弱将很快使一切陷入混乱。如果上帝不统治这个世界的大家庭，一切都会破碎和崩溃，而上帝的智慧安排使一切都保持在正确的轴心上。万物都服从上帝的这种安排，没有什么可以逃脱它的掌控。如果受造物违背了一种安排，它就会陷入另一种安排。如果人类，作为最难驾驭和无序的受造物，违背了上帝对他的恩慈统治，他很快就会陷入上帝对他的公正统治，受到应得的痛苦。如果他摆脱了上帝甜美的轭，他就将自己置于撒旦沉重的轭下，撒旦作为上帝的执行者，使他变得坚硬，走向毁灭。因此，当他违背上帝的意愿时，他实现了上帝的意愿；当他不愿意履行上帝的意愿时，上帝的意愿也会违背他的意愿而实现。

The most casual things fall under providence, yea, the most disordered thing in the world, sin, and, of sins the most horrible that ever the sun beheld, the 'crucifying of the Lord of life,' Acts 3:15, was guided by a hand of providence to the greatest good. For that which is casual in regard of a second cause, is not so in regard of the first, whose providence is most clearly seen in casual events that fall out by accident, for in these the effect cannot be ascribed to the next cause. God is said to kill him who was unwarily slain by the falling of an axe or some instrument of death, Deut. 19:5.
最随意的事情都属于天意，是的，世界上最混乱的事情，罪恶，而且，所有罪恶中最可怕的，太阳曾经见证过的，“钉死生命之主”，使徒行传 3:15，被天意引导到最大的善。因为在第二原因的角度来看，所谓的偶然事件并不是偶然的，因为第一原因的天意在偶然发生的事件中最清晰地显现出来，因为在这些事件中，效果不能归因于下一个原因。上帝被称为杀害那些被斧头或其他致命工具不慎杀死的人，申命记 19:5。

And though man hath a freedom in working, and of all men the hearts of kings are most free, yet even these are 'guided by an overruling power,' Prov. 21:1, as the rivers of water are carried in their channels whither skilful men list to derive them.
虽然人在工作中有自由，而且君王的心最自由，但即使是他们也受到“至高者的引导”，如同水流被熟练的人引导到他们所愿的渠道。

For settling of our faith the more, God taketh liberty in using weak means to great purposes, and setting aside more likely and able means; yea, sometimes he altogether disableth the greatest means, and worketh often by no means at all. It is not for want of power in God, but from abundance and multiplying of his goodness that he useth any means at all. There is nothing that he doth by means but he is able to do without means.
为了更加坚定我们的信仰，上帝在实现伟大目的时常常使用弱小的手段，并放弃更可能和更有能力的手段；甚至有时他完全剥夺最强大的手段，并经常不使用任何手段。这并不是因为上帝没有能力，而是因为他的恩慈丰富而多样化，他才使用任何手段。他所做的一切都可以不借助手段而完成。

Nay, God often bringeth his will to pass by crossing the course and stream of means, to shew his own sovereignty and to exercise our dependence, and maketh his very enemies the accomplishers of his own will, and so to bring about that which they oppose most. Hence it is that we believe under hope against hope, Ps. 135:6.
不，上帝常常通过阻碍手段的进程和流动来实现他的意愿，以显示他自己的主权，并锻炼我们的依赖，使他的敌人成为他意愿的实现者，从而实现他们最反对的事情。因此，我们在希望之下相信，尽管没有希望。

But we must know, God's manner of guiding things is without prejudice to the proper working of the things themselves. He guideth them sweetly according to the instincts he hath put into them; for,
但我们必须知道，上帝引导事物的方式并不损害事物本身的正常运作。他根据他们内在的本能温和地引导它们；因为，

1. He furnishes creatures with a virtue and power to work, and likewise with a manner of working suitable to their own nature; as it is proper for a man, when he works, to work with freedom, and other creatures by natural instinct, &c.
他赋予生物一种能力和力量来工作，并且也赋予了一种适合它们自身性质的工作方式；就像人在工作时应该自由地工作一样，其他生物则通过天性的本能工作，等等。

2. God maintaineth both the power and manner of working, and perfecteth and accomplisheth the same by acting of it, being nearer to us in all we do than we are to ourselves. Intimior intimo nostro. 3. He applies and stirs up our abilities and actions to this or that particular as he seeth best. 4. He suspends or removes the hindrances of all actions, and so powerfully, wisely, and sweetly orders them to his own ends. When any evil is intended, God either puts bars and lets to the execution of it, or else limiteth and boundeth the same, both in regard of time and measure, so that our enemies either shall not do the evil at all, or else not so long a time or not in such a height of mischief as their malice would carry them to. The rod of the wicked may light upon the back of the righteous, Ps. 125:3, but it shall not rest there. God knows how to take our enemies off, sometimes by changing or stopping their wills, by offering considerations of some good or ill, danger or profit, to them; sometimes by taking away and weakening all their strength, or else by opposing an equal or greater strength against it. All the strength our enemies have rests in God, who, if he denies concourse and influence, the arm of their power, as Jeroboam's, when he stretched it out against the prophet, shrinks up presently.
2. 上帝保持着能力和工作方式，并通过行动来完善和实现它，他比我们自己更接近我们所做的一切。Intimior intimo nostro. 3. 他根据自己的判断，应用和激发我们的能力和行动，使其朝着这个或那个特定的方向发展。4. 他暂停或消除所有行动的障碍，并以强大、明智和甜蜜的方式将它们有力地安排到自己的目的中。当有任何邪恶的意图时，上帝要么设置障碍阻止其执行，要么限制其在时间和程度上，使我们的敌人要么根本不会做出邪恶的行为，要么不会持续那么长时间，或者不会达到他们恶意所希望的那种程度。恶人的杖可能会落在义人的背上，但它不会停留在那里。上帝知道如何除掉我们的敌人，有时通过改变或停止他们的意愿，通过向他们提供一些好处或坏处、危险或利益的考虑；有时通过夺走和削弱他们所有的力量，或者通过对抗同等或更大的力量来对抗他们。 我们的敌人所拥有的所有力量都依赖于上帝，如果上帝拒绝合作和影响，他们的权力就会像耶罗波安伸向先知时一样立刻萎缩。

God is not only the cause of things and actions, but the cause, likewise, of the cessation of them, why they fall not out at all. God is the cause why things are not, as well as why they are. Deus est prima causa cujuscunque non esse. The cause why men favour us not, or, when they do favour us, want present wisdom and ability to help us, is from God's withdrawing the concurrence of his light and strength from them. If a skilful physician doth us no good, it is because it pleaseth God to hide the right way of curing at that time from him. Which should move us to see God in all that befalls us, who hath sufficient reason, as to do what he doth, so not to do what he doth not, to hinder as well as to give way.
上帝不仅是事物和行动的原因，也是它们停止的原因，为什么它们根本不发生。上帝是事物不存在的原因，也是它们存在的原因。上帝不给予我们喜爱的人支持，或者当他们支持我们时，缺乏即时的智慧和能力来帮助我们，是因为上帝从他们身上撤回了他的光明和力量的合作。如果一个熟练的医生对我们没有好处，那是因为上帝在那个时候选择隐藏正确的治疗方法。这应该促使我们在所遭遇的一切中看到上帝，他有足够的理由来做他所做的事情，也有理由不做他不做的事情，既阻止也给予通行。

The God of spirits hath an influence into the spirits of men, into the principles and springs of all actions; otherwise he could not so certainly foretell things to come. God had a work in Absalom's heart in that he refused the best counsel. There is nothing independent of him who is the mover of all things, and himself unmoveable.
神灵的神对人的灵魂有影响，对一切行动的原则和动力有影响；否则他就无法如此准确地预言未来的事情。神在押沙龙的心中有一项工作，因为他拒绝了最好的建议。没有什么是独立于万物之动者、自身不可动摇的神的。

Nothing so high, that is above his providence; nothing so low, that is beneath it; nothing so large, but is bounded by it; nothing so confused, but God can order it; nothing so bad, but he can draw good out of it; nothing so wisely plotted, but God can disappoint it, as Ahithophel's counsel; nothing so simply and unpoliticly carried, but he can give a prevailing issue unto it; nothing so freely carried, in regard of the next cause, but God can make it necessary in regard of the event; nothing so natural, but he can suspend it in regard of operation, as heavy bodies from sinking, fire from burning, &c.
没有什么是超出他的关怀的；没有什么是太低微的，他不屑一顾；没有什么是太大的，他不能掌控；没有什么是混乱的，他不能整理；没有什么是邪恶的，他不能从中带来善良；没有什么是精心策划的，他不能破坏，就像亚希多弗的计谋；没有什么是简单愚蠢的，他不能使之成功；没有什么是自由行动的，他不能使之成为必然；没有什么是自然的，他不能暂时悬置，如重物不下沉，火焰不燃烧等等。

It cannot but bring strong security to the soul, to know that in all variety of changes and intercourse of good and bad events, God, and our God, hath such a disposing hand. Whatsoever befalls us, all serves to bring God's electing love, and our glorification together, God's providence serveth his purpose to save us. All sufferings, all blessings, all ordinances, all graces, all common gifts, nay, our very falls, yea, Satan himself with all his instruments, as over-mastered, and ruled by God, have this injunction upon them, to further God's good intendment to us, and a prohibition to do us no harm. Augustus taxed the world for civil ends, but God's providence used this as a means for Christ to be born at Bethlehem. Ahasuerus could not sleep, and thereupon calls for the chronicles, the reading of which occasioned the Jews' delivery, Esth. 6:1. God oft disposeth little occasions to great purposes. And by those very ways whereby proud men have gone about to withstand God's counsels, they have fulfilled them, as we see in the story of Joseph and Moses, 'in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, he was above them,' Exod. 10:11. Divinum consilium, dum devitatur, impletur; humana sapientia, dum reluctatur, comprehenditur.—Greg.
它无疑会给灵魂带来强大的安全感，知道在各种变化和好坏事件的交往中，上帝，我们的上帝，有如此安排的手。无论我们遭遇什么，一切都有助于实现上帝的选民之爱和我们的荣耀，上帝的预定为拯救我们的目的服务。所有的苦难，所有的祝福，所有的仪式，所有的恩典，所有的普通礼物，甚至我们的失败，甚至撒旦本人和他的工具，都被上帝征服和统治，他们都有这个命令，以促进上帝对我们的善意意图，并禁止对我们造成伤害。奥古斯都为了民事目的对世界征税，但上帝的预定利用这一手段让基督在伯利恒出生。亚哈随鲁无法入睡，于是召集编年史，阅读编年史导致犹太人的解救，以斯帖记 6:1。上帝经常通过小事情来实现伟大的目的。而那些骄傲的人试图抵挡上帝的计划的方式，他们却实现了这些计划，正如我们在约瑟和摩西的故事中所看到的，“他们骄傲的事上，他超越了他们”，出埃及记 10:11。 神圣的计划在避免中得以实现；人类的智慧在抗拒中被理解。

CHAPTER XVII.—Of graces to be exercised in respect of Divine Providence
第十七章 - 关于对神圣意志的恩典的实践

We are under a providence that is above our own; which should be a ground unto us, of exercising those graces that tend to settle the soul, in all events. As,
我们处在一个高于我们自己的神意之下；这应该成为我们锻炼那些有助于在一切事件中安定心灵的恩典的基础。

1. Hence to lay our hand upon our mouths, and command the soul an holy silence, not daring to yield to the least rising of our hearts against God. 'I was dumb, and opened not my mouth, because thou didst it,' Ps. 39:9, saith David. Thus Aaron, when he had lost his two sons, both at once, and that by fire, Lev. 10:1, 2, and by fire from heaven, which carried an evidence of God's great displeasure with it, yet held his peace. In this silence and hope is our strength. Flesh and blood is prone to expostulate with God, and to question his dealing, as we see in Gideon, Jeremiah, Asaph, Habakkuk, and others, 'If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?' Jud. 6:13; but, after some struggling between the flesh and the spirit, the conclusion will be, yet howsoever matters go, 'God is good to Israel,' Ps. 73:1. Where a fearful spirit, and a melancholy temper, a weak judgment, and a scrupulous and raw conscience meet in one, there Satan and his, together with men's own hearts, which, like sophisters, are continually cavilling against themselves, breed much disquiet, and makes the life uncomfortable. Such, therefore, should have a special care, as to grow in knowledge, so to stick close to sure and certain grounds, and bring their consciences to the rule. Darkness causeth fears. The more light, the more confidence. When we yield up ourselves to God, we should resolve upon quietness, and if the heart stirs, presently use this check of David, 'Why art thou disquieted?'
因此，我们要将手放在嘴上，命令灵魂保持神圣的沉默，不敢对上帝产生丝毫的怀疑。大卫说：“我默然无声，不开口，因为这是你所行的。”（诗篇 39:9）因此，亚伦在他失去两个儿子的时候，即使是同时失去，而且是被天上的火焰所烧，这表明上帝对此非常不满，他仍然保持沉默。（利未记 10:1,2）在这种沉默和希望中，我们得到力量。血肉之躯倾向于与上帝争辩，并质疑他的作为，正如我们在基甸、耶利米、亚萨、哈巴谷和其他人身上所看到的：“耶和华若与我们同在，为什么这一切临到我们身上呢？”（士师记 6:13）但是，在肉体和灵魂之间经过一番挣扎后，结论将是，无论事情如何发展，“上帝对以色列是美善的。”（诗篇 73:1）当一个恐惧的灵魂、忧郁的性格、脆弱的判断力和过于拘谨的良心汇聚在一起时，撒旦和他的使者以及人们自己的内心，就像诡辩者一样，不断地对自己提出质疑，这会带来很多不安，使生活变得不舒适。 因此，这样的人应该特别注意，要在知识上不断成长，紧紧依靠确凿的基础，并使他们的良心受到规则的约束。黑暗会引发恐惧。光明越多，信心越大。当我们将自己交托给上帝时，应该决心保持平静，如果心灵不安，立即使用大卫的这个警示：“你为什么心里忧闷呢？'

God's ways seem oft to us full of contradictions, because his course is to bring things to pass by contrary means. There is a mystery not only in God's decree concerning man's eternal estate, but likewise in his providence, as why he should deal unequally with men otherwise equal. His judgments are a great depth, which we cannot fathom, but they will swallow up our thoughts and understandings. God oft wraps himself in a cloud, and will not be seen till afterward. Where we cannot trace him, we ought with St Paul to admire and adore him. When we are in heaven, it will be one part of our happiness to see the harmony of those things that seem now confused unto us. All God's dealings will appear beautiful in their due seasons, though we for the present see not the contiguity and linking together of one with another.
上帝的方式似乎常常充满矛盾，因为他的方式是通过相反的手段来实现事物。关于人类永恒命运，上帝的旨意中不仅有一个神秘，而且在他的安排中也有一个神秘，就是为什么他会不公平地对待本应平等的人。他的判断是一个巨大的深渊，我们无法理解，但它们将吞噬我们的思想和理解力。上帝常常隐藏在云中，直到事后才会显露。在我们无法追踪他的时候，我们应该像圣保罗一样敬佩和崇拜他。当我们在天堂时，看到那些现在对我们来说似乎混乱的事物之间的和谐将成为我们幸福的一部分。尽管我们目前看不到一件事与另一件事之间的联系和关联，但上帝的一切安排在适当的时候都会显得美丽。

2. Hence likewise proceeds a holy resigning of ourselves to God, 'who doth all things according to the counsel of his own will,' Dan. 11:16; Eph. 1:11. Voluntas Dei, necessitas rei. His will is a wise will; it is guided by counsel, a sovereign prevailing will. The only way to have our will is to bring it to God's will. If we could delight in him, we should have our heart's desire. Thus David yields up himself to God: 'Here I am; let the Lord deal with me as seemeth good unto him, 2 Sam. 15:26. And thus Eli, when God foretold by Samuel the ruin of his house, quiets himself: 'It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good,' 1 Sam. 3:18. Thus our blessed Saviour stays himself: 'Not my will, but thy will be done.' And thus the people of God, when Paul was resolved to go to Jerusalem, submitted, saying, 'The will of the Lord be done,' Acts 21:14,—a speech fit to proceed out of the heart and mouth of a Christian. Vox vere Christianorum.
因此，我们也会对上帝完全顺服，他按照自己的旨意行事（但以理书 11:16；以弗所书 1:11）。上帝的旨意是智慧的旨意；它受到谋划的引导，是至高无上的旨意。拥有我们自己的意愿的唯一途径是将它带到上帝的旨意中。如果我们能够喜悦他，我们就会得到我们内心的渴望。因此，大卫将自己交给上帝：“我在这里，愿主照他看为好待我”（撒母耳记下 15:26）。以利也是如此，当上帝通过撒母耳预言他家的毁灭时，他安静下来：“这是耶和华的意思，他可以随自己的意思行”（撒母耳记上 3:18）。我们救主也是这样依靠自己：“不要照我的意思，只要照你的意思成就”（路加福音 22:42）。上帝的子民也是如此，当保罗决定去耶路撒冷时，他们顺服地说：“愿主的旨意成就”（使徒行传 21:14），这是一个合乎基督徒内心和口中的言语。

We may desire and long after a change of our condition, when we look upon the grievance itself, but yet remember still that it be with reservation, when we look upon the will of God, as, 'How long, Lord, holy and true,' &c. Rev. 6:10. Out of inferior reasons we may with our Saviour desire a removal of the cup; but when we look to the supreme reason of reasons, the will of God, here we must stoop and kiss the rod. 'Thus humbling ourselves under his mighty hand,' 1 Peter 5:6, which by murmuring and fretting we may make more heavy, but not take off, still adding new guilt and pulling on new judgments.
当我们看到自己的困境时，我们可能渴望和期盼改变，但仍要记住，这是有保留的，当我们看到上帝的旨意时，就像启示录 6:10 所说的，“圣洁真实的主啊，你不审判住在地上的人，向我们伸冤，要到几时呢？”出于次要的原因，我们可能像救主一样渴望摆脱苦杯，但当我们看到至高无上的原因，上帝的旨意时，我们必须屈服并接受惩罚。“这样在上帝大能的手下自卑”，彼得前书 5:6，通过抱怨和焦虑，我们可能使苦难更加沉重，但不能解除，只会增加新的罪恶和招致新的审判。

3. The way patiently to suffer God's will, is to inure ourselves first to do it. Passive obedience springs from active. He that endures anything will endure it quietly, when he knows it is the will of God, and considers that whatever befalls him comes from his good pleasure. Those that have not inured themselves to the yoke of obedience, will never endure the yoke of suffering; they fume and rage 'as a wild boar in a net,' Isa. 51:20, as the prophet speaks. It is worth the considering, to see two men of equal parts under the same cross, how quietly and calmly the one that establisheth his soul on Christ will bear his afflictions, whereas the other rageth as a fool, and is more beaten.
3. 忍受上帝的旨意的耐心方式是首先使自己习惯去做。被动的顺从源于主动的顺从。当一个人忍受任何事情时，当他知道这是上帝的旨意，并且考虑到无论发生什么事情都是出于上帝的喜悦时，他会安静地忍受。那些没有使自己习惯于顺从的人，永远无法忍受苦难的重担；正如先知所说的，他们会像“被网困住的野猪”一样发怒和暴怒（以赛亚书 51:20）。值得考虑的是，在同样的十字架下，看到两个才能相等的人，一个将自己的灵魂建立在基督上，平静地忍受苦难，而另一个却像愚昧的人一样发怒，并且更加受打击。

Nothing should displease us that pleaseth God: neither should anything be pleasing to us that displeaseth him. This conformity is the ground of comfort. Our own will takes away God, as much as in it lies. Propria voluntas Deum quantum in ipsa eximit. 'If we acknowledge God in all our ways, he will direct our paths, and lead us the way that we should go,' Prov. 3:6. The quarrel betwixt God and us is taken up, when his will and our will are one; when we have sacrificed ourselves and our wills unto God; when, as he is highest in himself, so his will hath the highest place in our hearts. We find by experience that, when our wills are so subdued, that we delight to do what God would have us do, and to be what God would have us be, that then sweet peace presently riseth to the soul.
没有什么能让我们不满意，而让上帝满意的事情；也没有什么能让我们满意，而让上帝不满意的事情。这种一致是安慰的基础。我们自己的意愿会尽力让上帝离开我们。如果我们在所有的事情上承认上帝，他会引导我们的道路，带领我们走正确的路，箴言 3:6。当上帝的意愿和我们的意愿一致时，上帝与我们之间的争执就会结束；当我们把自己和我们的意愿献给上帝时；当他在自己里面最高，他的意愿在我们的心中占据最高的位置。我们通过经验发现，当我们的意愿被征服，我们喜欢做上帝要我们做的事情，成为上帝要我们成为的人时，甜蜜的平安立刻涌上心灵。

When we can say, Lord, if thou wilt have me poor and disgraced, I am content to be so; if thou wilt have me serve thee in this condition I am in, I will gladly do so. It is enough to me that thou wouldst have it so. I desire to yield readily, humbly, and cheerfully to thy disposing providence. Thus a godly man says amen to God's amen, and puts his fiat and placet to God's. As the sea turns all rivers into its own relish, so he turns all to his own spirit, and makes whatsoever befalls him an exercise of some virtue. A heathen could say that calamities did rule over men, but a wise man hath a spirit overruling all calamities; much more a Christian. For a man to be in this estate, is to enjoy heaven in the world under heaven. God's kingdom comes where his will is thus done and suffered.
当我们能够说，主啊，如果你愿意让我贫穷和受辱，我愿意接受；如果你愿意让我在目前的境况中事奉你，我将乐意如此。对我来说，你愿意如此已足够。我渴望顺从、谦卑和愉快地接受你的安排。这样，一个虔诚的人对上帝的“阿们”说“阿们”，并对上帝的旨意表示同意。就像大海将所有的河流都变成自己的味道一样，他将一切都转化为自己的精神，并使他所遭遇的一切成为某种美德的锻炼。一个异教徒可以说灾难统治着人类，但一个智者有一种精神来主宰一切灾难；更何况一个基督徒呢。一个人处于这种状态，就是在世界上享受天堂。当上帝的旨意如此行动和承受时，上帝的国度就来临了。

None feel more sweet experience of God's providence than those that are most resolute in their obedience. After we have given glory to God in relying upon his wisdom, power, and truth, we shall find him employing these for our direction, assistance, and bringing about of things to our desired issue, yea, above whatever we looked for, or thought of.
没有人比那些最坚决顺从的人更能体验到上帝的恩典。在我们将荣耀归给上帝，依靠他的智慧、力量和真理之后，我们会发现他会运用这些来指引我们、帮助我们，并使事情朝着我们所期望的结果发展，甚至超出我们所期望或想象的范围。

In all cases that fall out, or that we can put to ourselves, as in case of extremity, opposition, strange accidents, desertion, and damps of spirit, &c., here we may take sanctuary, that we are in covenant with him who sits at the stern and rules all, and hath committed the government of all things to his Son, our brother, our Joseph, the second person in heaven. We may be sure that no hurt shall befall us that he can hinder; and what cannot he hinder 'that hath the keys of hell and of death?' Rev. 1:18, unto whom we are so near that he carries 'our names in his breast, and on his shoulders,' Heb. 4:15, as the high priest did those of the twelve tribes. Though his church seems a widow neglected, ye he will make the world know that she hath a husband will right her in good time.
在所有发生的情况中，或者我们可以自己提出的情况中，比如在极端情况下、遭遇反对、奇怪的事故、被抛弃和精神上的沮丧等等，我们可以在这里寻求庇护，因为我们与坐在船尾统治一切的他立下了契约，并将一切事物的管理委托给了他的儿子，我们的兄弟，我们的约瑟，天堂中的第二位。我们可以确定，他能够阻止任何伤害降临在我们身上；而那些他不能阻止的事情，他拥有“地狱和死亡的钥匙”（启示录 1:18），我们与他如此亲近，以至于他将“我们的名字刻在他的胸前和肩上”（希伯来书 4:15），就像大祭司将十二个支派的名字刻在身上一样。尽管他的教会似乎是一个被忽视的寡妇，但他将让世界知道她有一个丈夫，他会在适当的时候为她伸冤。

Quest. But it may be demanded, What course is to be taken for guidance of our lives in particular actions, wherein doubts may arise what is most agreeable to the will of God?
问题。但可能会有人问，对于我们生活中的具体行动，当我们对什么是最符合上帝意愿感到疑惑时，应该采取什么样的方法来指导我们的生活？

Ans. 1. We must not put all carelessly upon a providence, but first consider what is our part; and, so far as God prevents us with light, and affords us helps and means, we must not be failing in our duty. We should neither outrun nor be wanting to providence. But in perplexed cases, where the reasons on both sides seem to be equally balanced, see whether part make more for the main end, the glory of God, the service of others, and advancement of our own spiritual good. Summa ratio quæ pro religione facit. Some things are so clear and even, that there is not a best between them, but one may be done as well as the other, as when two ways equally tend to one and the same place.
答案 1：我们不能轻率地把一切都寄托在上天，而是要先考虑我们自己的责任；只要上帝给予我们光明和帮助，提供我们所需的手段，我们就不能怠慢我们的职责。我们既不应该超前于上天的安排，也不应该对上天的安排有所缺失。但在困惑的情况下，当双方的理由似乎平衡时，要看哪一方更符合主要目标，即上帝的荣耀、他人的服务和我们自己的属灵好处的提升。最终的理由是为了宗教。有些事情是如此明确和平衡，没有更好的选择，可以选择任何一种方式，就像两条道路同样通向同一个地方。

2. We are not our own, and therefore must not set up ourselves. We must not consult with flesh and blood either in ourselves or others, for self-love will deprave all our actions, by setting before us corrupt ends. It considers not what is best, but what is safest. By-respects sway the balance the wrong way.
我们不是属于自己的，因此不应该自我设立。我们既不应该在自己身上，也不应该在他人身上咨询血肉之躯，因为自爱会腐化我们的一切行为，将腐败的目标摆在我们面前。它不考虑什么是最好的，而是考虑什么是最安全的。被尊重的因素使平衡偏向错误的方向。

3. When things are clear, and God's will is manifest, further deliberation is dangerous, and for the most part argues a false heart; as we see in Balaam, who, though he knew God's mind, yet would be still consulting, till God in judgment gave him up to what his covetous heart led him unto, 2 Pet. 2:15. A man is not fit to deliberate till his heart be purged of false aims; for else God will give him to the darkness of his own spirit, and he will be always warping, unfit for any bias. Where the aims are good, there God delighteth to reveal his good pleasure. Such a soul is level and suitable to any good counsel that shall be given, and prepared to entertain it. In what measure any lust is favoured, in that measure the soul is darkened. Even wise Solomon, whilst he gave way to his lust, had like to have lost his wisdom.
当事情明确，上帝的旨意显现时，进一步的思考是危险的，大部分情况下表明一个虚伪的心灵；正如我们在巴兰身上看到的，他虽然知道上帝的心意，却仍然不断咨询，直到上帝在审判中将他交给他贪婪的心引导他去做，彼得后书 2:15。一个人在心灵没有被虚假目标净化之前，不适合进行思考；否则上帝会使他陷入自己灵魂的黑暗中，他将一直偏离正道，不适合任何偏见。当目标是良善的时候，上帝喜悦地显现他的美意。这样的灵魂适合接受任何良善的建议，并准备好接纳它。任何欲望受到的支持程度，灵魂就会在相应程度上变得黑暗。即使是智慧的所罗门，在屈从于自己的欲望时，差点失去了智慧。

We must look to our place wherein God hath set us. If we be in subjection to others, their authority in doubtful things ought to sway with us. It is certain we ought to obey; and if the thing wherein we are to obey be uncertain unto us, we ought to leave that which is uncertain and stick to that which is certain; in this case we must obey those that are gods under God. Neither is it the calling of those that are subjects, to inquire over curiously into the mysteries of government; for that, both in peace and war, breeds much disturbance, and would trouble all designs (g).*
我们必须看向上帝安排我们的位置。如果我们受制于他人，他们在可疑事物上的权威应该影响我们。我们必须服从是确定的；如果我们要服从的事情对我们来说是不确定的，我们应该离开那些不确定的事情，坚持那些确定的事情；在这种情况下，我们必须服从那些在上帝之下的神。对于那些属于臣民的人来说，探究政府的奥秘并不是他们的职责；因为这无论在和平还是战争中都会引起很多麻烦，扰乱所有的计划。

The laws under which we live are particular determinations of the law of God [in some duties of the second table. For example, the law of God says, 'Exact no more than what is thy due,' Luke 3:13. But what in particular is thy due, and what another man's, the laws of men determine],* and therefore ought to be a rule unto us so far as they reach; though it be too narrow a rule to be good only so far as man's law guides unto.† Yet law being the joint reason and consent of many men for public good, hath a use for guidance of all actions that fall under the same. Where it dashes not against God's law, what is agreeable to law is agreeable to conscience.
我们所生活的法律是上帝法律的特定决定（在第二表的某些义务中）。例如，上帝的法律说：“不要索取超过你应得的”，路加福音 3:13。但是，什么是你应得的，什么是别人的，这是由人的法律确定的。因此，法律应该是我们的准则，只要它们能够达到；尽管它是一个狭窄的准则，只有人的法律才能指导到。然而，法律是为了公共利益而由许多人的共同理性和同意形成的，对于所有涉及的行动都有指导作用。只要不违背上帝的法律，符合法律的事情就是符合良心的事情。

The law of God in the due enlargement of it, to the least beginning and occasions, is exceeding broad, and allows of whatsoever stands with the light of reason or the bonds of humanity, civility, &c., and whatsoever is against these is so far against God's law. So that higher rules be looked to in the first place, there is nothing lovely or praiseworthy among men but ought to be seriously thought on.
上帝的法律在适度扩展中，对最小的起点和机会是非常广泛的，并允许与理性的光芒或人性、文明等相符的一切事物，而一切违背这些的事物都是违背上帝的法律。因此，在首要考虑的是更高的规则，人们应该认真思考一切可爱和值得称赞的事物。

Nature of itself is wild and untamed, and impatient of the yoke; but as beasts that cannot endure the yoke at first, after they are inured awhile unto it bear it willingly, and carry their work more easily by it, so the yoke of obedience makes the life regular and quiet. The meeting of authority and obedience together, maintains the peace and order of the world.
自然本身是野性和不驯服的，不耐受束缚；但就像那些起初无法忍受束缚的野兽，在习惯了一段时间后会愿意承受并更轻松地完成工作一样，服从的枷锁使生活变得有规律和安静。权威与服从的结合维持了世界的和平和秩序。

So of that question.‡
那个问题的答案。

5. Though blind enfolded§ obedience, such as our adversaries would have, be such as will never stand with sound peace of conscience, which always looks to have light to direct it; for else a blind conscience would breed blind fears; yet in such doubtful cases wherein we cannot wind out ourselves, we ought to light our candles at others whom we have cause to think, by their place and parts, should see further than we. In matters of outward estate, we will have men skilful of our counsel; and Christians would find more sound peace, if they would advise with their godly and learned pastors and friends. Where there is not a direct word, there is place for the counsel of a prudent man, sententia boni viri. And it is a happiness for them whose business is much, and parts not large, to have the benefit of those that can give aim, and see further than themselves. The meanest Christian understands his own way, and knows how to do things with better advantage to his soul than a graceless though learned man; yet is still glad of further discovery. In counsel there is peace, the thoughts being thus established, Prov. 20:18.
尽管盲目的顺从，就像我们的对手所希望的那样，是不会与健全的良心和寻求指引的光明相符的；否则，盲目的良心会滋生盲目的恐惧。然而，在我们无法自己解决的疑难问题中，我们应该向那些我们有理由认为能够比我们看得更远的人取得启示。在外在事务上，我们会寻求有智慧的人的建议；基督徒如果能与虔诚而有学问的牧师和朋友商议，会找到更健全的平安。在没有明确指示的情况下，有智慧的人的建议是有用的。对于那些事务繁忙而能力有限的人来说，能够得到那些能够给予指导并看得更远的人的帮助是一种幸福。最卑微的基督徒了解自己的道路，并且知道如何以更有利于灵魂的方式去做事，而不是一个没有恩典但博学的人；然而，他们仍然乐于进一步探索。在商议中有平安，思想因此得到巩固（箴言 20:18）。

When we have advised and served God's providence in the use of means, then if it fall out otherwise than we look for, we may confidently conclude that God would not have it so, otherwise to our grief we may say it was the fruit of our own rashness.
当我们在使用手段时，遵循并侍奉上帝的安排，如果结果与我们预期不同，我们可以自信地得出结论，上帝本不希望如此，否则我们可能会悲伤地说这是我们自己冒失的结果。

Where we have cause to think that we have used better means in the search of grounds, and are more free from partial affections than others, there we may use our own advice more safely. Otherwise what we do by consent from others, is more secure and less offensive, as being more countenanced.
在我们有理由相信我们在寻找依据方面使用了更好的方法，并且比其他人更不受偏见的影响时，我们可以更安全地采纳自己的建议。否则，我们通过他人的同意所做的事情更加安全，更不冒犯，因为得到了更多的支持。

In advice with others, it is not sufficient to be generally wise, but experienced and knowing in that we ask, which is an honour to God's gifts where we find them in any kind. When we set about things in passion, we work not as men or Christians, but in a bestial manner. The more passion, the less discretion; because passion hinders the sight of what is to be done. It clouds the soul, and puts it on to action without advisement. Where passions are subdued, and the soul purged and cleared, there is nothing to hinder the impression of God's Spirit; the soul is fitted as a clean glass to receive light from above. And that is the reason why mortified men are fittest to advise with in the particular cases incident to a Christian life.
在与他人交流时，仅仅拥有智慧是不够的，还需要经验丰富并了解我们所询问的事情，这是对上帝的恩赐的尊重，无论我们在任何方面找到它们。当我们在激情中着手做事时，我们不是以人或基督徒的方式工作，而是以兽性的方式。激情越多，判断力越少；因为激情妨碍了对事情的看清。它使灵魂变得模糊，并促使其在没有考虑的情况下行动。当激情被抑制，灵魂被净化和清除时，没有任何东西会妨碍上帝的灵感；灵魂就像一面干净的玻璃一样，可以接受来自上方的光芒。这就是为什么修行者在处理基督徒生活中的特定情况时最适合提供建议的原因。

After all advice, extract what is fittest, and what our spirits do most bend unto; for in things that concern ourselves God affords a light to discern, out of what is spoken, what best suiteth us. And every man is to follow most what his own conscience, after information, dictates unto him; because conscience is God's deputy in us, and under God most to be regarded, and Whosoever sins against it, in his own construction sins against God. God vouchsafeth every Christian in some degree the grace of spiritual prudence, Whereby they are enabled to discern what is fittest to be done in things that fall within their compass.
在所有的建议之后，提取最适合的，以及我们的精神最倾向的；因为在涉及我们自己的事情上，上帝给予了一个辨别的光，从所说的话中辨别出最适合我们的。每个人都应该最多地遵循自己的良心，在获得信息后，良心是上帝在我们内心的代表，最应该被尊重，任何违背良心的人，也就是违背上帝。上帝赐予每个基督徒一定程度的灵性智慧的恩典，使他们能够辨别在他们能力范围内的事情中最适合做的事情。

It is good to observe the particular becks* of providence, how things join and meet together. Fit occasions and suiting of things are intimations of God's will. Providence hath a language which is well understood by those that have a familiar acquaintance with God's dealing; they see a train of providence leading one way more than to another.
观察上帝的特定引导是好的，看事物如何相互连接和相遇。合适的时机和事物的适应是上帝旨意的暗示。对上帝的作为有熟悉了解的人来说，上帝的引导有一种被很好理解的语言；他们看到一系列引导朝着某个方向而不是另一个方向。

Take especial heed of not grieving the Spirit when he offers to be our guide, by studying evasions, and wishing the case were otherwise. This is to be lawgivers to ourselves, thinking that we are wiser than God. The use of discretion is not to direct us about the end, whether we should do well or ill (for a single heart always aims at good), but when we resolve upon doing well, and yet doubt of the manner how to perform it. Discretion looks not so much to what is lawful, for that is taken for granted, but what is most expedient. A discreet man looks not to what is best, so much as what is fittest in such and such respects, by eyeing circumstances, which, if they sort not, do vary the nature of the thing itself.
当圣灵提供指引时，特别注意不要通过研究回避和希望情况不同来伤害圣灵。这就是自以为比上帝更聪明，自己成为立法者的行为。谨慎的使用不是为了指导我们的目标，无论我们是做得好还是做得坏（因为一个单一的心总是追求善良），而是当我们决定做得好，却对如何实现有疑虑时。谨慎不是那么关注什么是合法的，因为这是理所当然的，而是关注什么是最有利的。一个谨慎的人不是那么关注什么是最好的，而是关注在某些方面最适合的，通过观察情况，如果情况不符合，会改变事物本身的性质。

And because it is not in man to know his own ways, we should look up unto Christ, the great Counsellor of his church, to vouchsafe the spirit of Counsel and direction to us; that 'make our way plain before us,' by suggesting unto us, 'this is the way, walk in it,' Isa. 30:21. We owe God this respect, to depend upon him for direction in the particular passages of our lives, in regard that he is our Sovereign, and his will is the rule, and we are to be accountable to him as our judge. It is God only that can see through businesses, and all helps and lets that stand about.
因为人无法知道自己的道路，所以我们应该仰望基督，他是教会的伟大顾问，赐予我们谋略和指引的灵；他会为我们“在我们面前修平道路”，通过向我们提出建议，“这是道路，当行在其中”（以赛亚书 30:21）。我们应该尊重上帝，依靠他在我们生活中的具体经历中给予我们指引，因为他是我们的主宰，他的旨意是准则，我们要对他负责。只有上帝能看透事务，以及围绕着我们的所有帮助和阻碍。

After we have rolled ourselves upon God, we should immediately take that course he inclines our hearts unto, without further distracting fear. Otherwise it is a sign we 'commit not our way to him,' 1 Pet. 4:19, when we do not quietly trust him, but remain still as thoughtful as if we did not trust him. After prayer and trust follows 'the peace of God,' Phil. 2:4, and a heart void of further dividing care. We should therefore presently question our hearts, for questioning his care, and not regard what fear will be ready to suggest, for that is apt to raise conclusions against ourselves, out of self-conceited grounds, whereby we usurp upon God and wrong ourselves.
在我们向上帝祈求之后，我们应立即采取他引导我们心灵的道路，不再有进一步的恐惧干扰。否则，这表明我们没有将我们的道路交托给他（彼得前书 4:19），当我们不安静地信任他，而是像没有信任他一样思虑不安。祈祷和信任之后是“神的平安”（腓立比书 2:4），以及一个没有进一步分心的心。因此，我们应立即质疑我们的心，质疑我们对他的关怀，不要理会恐惧会准备好提出的建议，因为那容易根据自以为是的理由得出对自己的结论，从而侵占上帝并伤害自己。

It was a good resolution of the three young men in Daniel, 'We are not careful to answer thee, O king,' Dan. 3:16. We know our duty, let God do with us as he pleaseth. If Abraham had hearkened to the voice of nature, he would never have resolved to sacrifice Isaac, but because he east himself upon God's providing, God in the mount provided a ram instead of his son.
这是但以理书中三个年轻人的一个好决定：“我们不必回答你，王陛下。”（但以理书 3:16）我们知道我们的责任，让上帝按他的意愿对待我们。如果亚伯拉罕听从了本能的声音，他永远不会决定献上以撒，但因为他将自己寄托在上帝的供应上，上帝在山上提供了一只公羊代替他的儿子。

CHAPTER XVIII.—Other grounds of trusting in God, namely, the Promises, and twelve directions about the same
第十八章 - 其他信靠上帝的理由，即承诺，并提供关于此事的十二个指导方针

§ I. But for the better settling of our trust in God, a further discovery is necessary than of the nature and providence of God; for though the nature of God be written in the book of the creatures in so great letters, as he that runs may read, and though the providence of God appears in the order and use of things, yet there is another book whereby to know the will of God towards us, and our duty towards him. We must therefore have a knowledge of the promises of God, as well as of his providence, for though God hath discovered himself most graciously in Christ unto us, yet had we not a word of promise, we could not have the boldness to build upon Christ himself. Therefore, from the same grounds, that there is a God, there must be a revealing of the will of God, for else we can never have any firm trust in him further than he offers himself to be trusted. Therefore hath God opened his heart to us in his word, and reached out so many sweet promises for us to lay hold on, and stooped so low, by gracious condescending mixed with authority, as to enter into a covenant with us to perform all things for our good; for promises are, as it were, the stay of the soul in an imperfect condition, and so is faith in them until all promises shall end in performance, and faith in sight, and hope in possession.
§ I. 为了更好地信任上帝，除了了解上帝的本质和上帝的安排外，还需要进一步的发现；虽然上帝的本质以如此之大的字迹写在万物的书中，以至于跑的人都能读得出来，虽然上帝的安排在事物的秩序和用途中显现出来，但是还有另一本书可以了解上帝对我们的意愿和我们对他的责任。因此，我们必须了解上帝的应许，以及他的安排，因为虽然上帝在基督里最慈悲地向我们显现，但如果没有应许的话，我们就不能有胆量建立在基督自己的基础上。因此，从同样的理由，既然有一个上帝，就必须有上帝的旨意的启示，否则我们永远无法对他有任何坚定的信任，除非他自己提供给我们信任的机会。 因此，上帝在他的话语中向我们敞开了他的心扉，并为我们提供了许多甜蜜的承诺，让我们去抓住，并且他如此谦卑地俯身，以恩慈与权威相结合，与我们订立契约，为我们的利益履行一切事情；因为承诺就像是灵魂在不完美的状态下的支撑，对它们的信仰也是如此，直到所有的承诺都变成了实现，信仰变成了视觉，希望变成了拥有。

Now these promises are, 1, for their spring from whence they proceed, free engagements of God, for if he had not bound himself, who could? and 2, they are for their value precious; and 3, for their extent large, even of all things that conduce to happiness; and 4, for their virtue quickening and strengthening the soul, as coming from the love of God, and conveying that love unto us by his Spirit in the best fruits thereof; and 5, for their certainty, they are as sure as the love of God in Christ is, upon which they are founded, and from which 'nothing can separate us,' Rom. 8:39. For all promises are either Christ himself, the promised seed, or else they are of good things made to us in him and for him, and accomplished for his sake. They are all made first to him as heir of the promise, as Angel of the Covenant, as head of his body, and as our elder brother, &c. For promises being the fruits of God's love, and God's love being founded first on Christ, it must needs follow that all the promises are both made, and made good to us in and through him, who is 'yesterday, and to-day, and for ever the same,' Heb. 13:8.
现在这些承诺有以下特点：1. 它们来自上帝的自由承诺，因为如果他没有约束自己，谁能呢？2. 它们的价值宝贵；3. 它们的范围广泛，涵盖所有有助于幸福的事物；4. 它们的力量能够使灵魂振奋和坚强，因为它们来自上帝的爱，并通过他的圣灵将这种爱传递给我们，以及通过最好的果实；5. 它们的确定性与上帝在基督里的爱一样确定，这是它们的基础，也是它们的来源，没有任何事物能够使我们与上帝的爱分离（罗马书 8:39）。因为所有的承诺要么是基督自己，即所应许的后裔，要么是在基督里为我们所应许的美好事物，并且是为了他而实现的。它们首先都是应许给他作为应许的继承人，作为约的天使，作为他身体的头，作为我们的长兄等等。因为承诺是上帝爱的结果，而上帝的爱首先建立在基督上，所以必然会跟随着所有的承诺都是通过他来给予我们，并且在他里面实现的，他是“昨天、今天、直到永远不变的”（希伯来书 13:8）。

That we should not call God's love into question, he not only gives us, (1) his word, but a binding word, his promise; and not only (2) a naked promise, but hath (3) entered into a covenant with us, founded upon full satisfaction by the blood of Christ, and unto this covenant sealed by the blood of the Lord Jesus, he hath (4) added the seals of sacraments, and unto this he hath added (5) his oath, that there might be no place left of doubting to the distrustful heart of man. There is no way of securing promises amongst men, but God hath taken the same to himself, and all to this end that we might not only know his mind towards us, but be fully persuaded of it, that as verily as he lives, he will make good whatever he hath promised for the comfort of his children. What greater assurance can there be than for being itself to lay his being in pawn? and for life itself to lay life to pawn, and all to comfort a poor soul?
我们不应质疑上帝的爱，他不仅给了我们（1）他的话语，而且是一种有约束力的话语，他的承诺；不仅如此，（2）他的承诺不是空洞的，而是建立在基督的血的完全赎罪之上的约定；并且为了这个约定，他用主耶稣的血加以封印，他还（4）加上了圣礼的印记，再加上（5）他的誓言，以便让怀疑的人心中没有任何疑虑的余地。在人类之间，没有其他方法可以确保承诺，但上帝已经将这一切都承担在自己身上，目的不仅是让我们了解他对我们的心意，而且是完全确信，就像他活着一样，他会履行他为安慰他的子民所作的一切承诺。还有什么比生命本身将自己的存在抵押更有保证呢？还有什么比生命本身将自己的生命抵押更能安慰一个可怜的灵魂呢？

The boundless and restless desire of man's spirit will never be stayed without some discovery of the chief good, and the way to attain the same. Men would have been in darkness about their final condition and the way to please God, and to pacify and purge their consciences, had not the word of God set down the spring and cause of all evil, together with the cure of it, and directed us how to have communion with God, and to raise ourselves above all the evil which we meet withal betwixt us and happiness, and to make us every way 'wise to salvation,' 2 Tim. 3:15. Hence it is that the Psalmist prefers the manifestation of God by his word before the manifestation of him in his most glorious works, Ps. 19:7.
人类精神的无尽而不安宁的欲望，如果没有对至善和达到至善的方式的一些发现，将永远无法停止。如果没有上帝的话语记载了一切邪恶的根源和原因，以及对其的治愈方法，并指导我们如何与上帝交流，如何超越我们与幸福之间所遇到的一切邪恶，并使我们在各个方面都“明智地得救”（提摩太后书 3:15），人们将对自己的最终境况和取悦上帝的方式以及安抚和净化自己的良心一无所知。因此，诗人在诗篇 19:7 中将上帝通过他的话语的显现置于他最辉煌的作为的显现之上。

And thus we see the necessity of a double principle for faith to rely on: 1, God; and 2, the Word of God revealing his will unto us, and directing us to make use of all his attributes, relations, and providence for our good; and this word hath its strength from him who gives a being and an accomplishment unto it; for words are as the authority of him that uttereth them is. When we look upon a grant in the word of a king, it stays our minds, because we know he is able to make it good; and why should it not satisfy our souls to look upon promises in the word of God? whose words, as they come from his truth and express his goodness, so they are all made good by his power and wisdom.
因此，我们看到信仰需要依靠两个原则：1、上帝；2、上帝的话语向我们启示他的旨意，并指导我们利用他的属性、关系和引导为我们的利益；这话语的力量来自赋予它存在和实现的他；因为话语的权威取决于说话者的权威。当我们看到国王在话语中的授权时，它安抚了我们的心灵，因为我们知道他有能力兑现承诺；那么为什么不让上帝的话语满足我们的灵魂呢？他的话语既来自他的真理并表达他的善良，同时也都由他的能力和智慧兑现。

By the bare word of God it is that the heavens continue, and the earth, without any other foundation, hangs in the midst of the world; therefore well may the soul stay itself on that, even when it hath nothing else in sight to rely upon. By his word it is that the covenant of day and night, and the preservation of the world from any further overflowing of waters, 2 Peter 3:7, continueth, which, if it should fail, yet his covenant with his people shall abide firm for ever, though the whole frame of nature were dissolved.
凭借上帝的话语，天空持续存在，地球悬挂在世界中间，没有其他基础；因此，即使灵魂没有其他可依靠的东西，也可以依靠上帝的话语。凭借他的话语，白昼和黑夜的盟约以及世界免受进一步的洪水侵袭得以延续，即使这些失败了，他与他的子民的盟约将永远坚定，即使整个自然界的结构崩溃。

When we have thus gotten a fit foundation for the soul to lay itself upon, our next care must be, by trusting, to build on the same. All our misery is either in having a false foundation, or else in loose building upon a true. Therefore, having so strong a ground as God's nature, his providence, his promise, &c., to build upon, the only way for establishing our souls is, by trust, to rely firmly on him.
当我们为灵魂找到了一个合适的基础后，我们下一步的关注应该是通过信任来建立在这个基础上。我们所有的痛苦要么是因为有一个错误的基础，要么是因为在一个正确的基础上建造得不牢固。因此，既然有上帝的本性、他的操控、他的应许等如此坚实的基础可以建立在上面，我们唯一确立灵魂的方法就是通过信任，坚定地依靠他。

Now the reason why trust is so much required, is because, 1, it emptieth the soul; and 2, by emptying enlargeth it; and 3, seasoneth and fitteth the Soul to join with so gracious an object; and 4, filleth it by carrying it out of itself unto God, who presently, so soon as he is trusted in, conveys himself and his goodness to the soul; and thus we come to have the comfort, and God the glory of all his excellencies. Thus salvation comes to be sure unto us, whilst faith, looking to the promises, and to God freely offering grace therein, resigns up itself to God, making no further question from any unworthiness of its own.
现在信任如此重要的原因是，首先，它使灵魂空虚；其次，通过空虚，使灵魂变得更加宽广；第三，使灵魂适应与如此仁慈的对象相结合；第四，通过将灵魂带离自身，填满了灵魂，使其归向上帝。一旦上帝得到信任，他立即将自己和他的恩惠传递给灵魂。因此，我们得到了安慰，上帝得到了他所有美德的荣耀。因此，当信仰注视着应许，并且上帝自由地在其中提供恩典时，救恩就会确保到我们身上，它将自己完全交给上帝，不再对自身的不值得提出任何问题。

And thus we return to God by cleaving to him, from whom we fell by distrust, living under a new covenant merely of grace, Jer. 31:3, and no grace fitter than that which gives all to Christ. Considering the fountain of all our good is, out of ourselves, in him, it being safest for us, who were so ill husbands at the first, that it should be so, therefore it is fit we should have use of such a grace that will carry us out of ourselves to the spring head.
因此，我们通过依附上帝而回归他，我们因不信任而远离他，在纯粹的恩典新约下生活，耶利米书 31:3，没有比将一切都给予基督更合适的恩典了。考虑到我们所有善良的源泉都在我们自己之外的他身上，对我们来说最安全的是这样，因为我们一开始就是如此不称职的丈夫，所以我们应该使用这样一种恩典，它将把我们带离自己，回到源头。

The way, then, whereby faith quieteth the soul, is by raising it above all discontentments and storms here below, and pitching it upon God, thereby uniting it to him, whence it draws virtue to oppose and bring under whatsoever troubles its peace. For the soul is made for God, and never finds rest till it returns to him again (h). When God and the soul meet, there will follow contentment. God simply considered, is not all our happiness, but God as trusted in; and Christ as we are made one with him. The soul cannot so much as 'touch the hem of Christ's garment,' but it shall find 'virtue coming from him,' Mat. 9:20, to sanctify and settle it. God in Christ is full of all that is good. When the soul is emptied, enlarged, and opened by faith to receive goodness offered, there must needs follow sweet satisfaction.
那么，信仰使灵魂安静的方式是将其抬升至超越此处的不满和风暴之上，并将其投入上帝，从而将其与上帝合一，从中汲取力量来对抗并克服一切困扰其平静的困难。因为灵魂是为上帝而造的，只有回归上帝，它才能找到安息。当上帝与灵魂相遇时，就会带来满足。上帝本身并不是我们所有的幸福，而是我们对上帝的信任，以及我们与基督的合一。灵魂甚至不能触摸基督的衣裳的衣边，但它会发现从他那里流出的力量，使其得以成圣和安定。基督里的上帝充满了一切美好。当灵魂通过信仰被清空、扩大和打开来接受所提供的美好时，必然会带来甜蜜的满足。

§ II. 1. For the better strengthening of our trust, it is not sufficient that we trust in God and his truth revealed, but we must do it by light and strength from him. Many believe in the truth by human arguments, but no arguments will convince the soul but such as are fetched from the inward nature, and powerful work of truth itself. No man can know God, but by God; none can know the sun, but by its own light; none can know the truth of God, so as to build upon it, but by the truth itself and the Spirit revealing it by its own light to the soul. That soul which hath felt the power of truth in casting it down, and raising it up again, will easily be brought to rest upon it. It is neither education, nor the authority of others that profess the same truth, or that we have been so taught by men of great parts, &c., will settle the heart, until we find an inward power and authority in the truth itself shining in our hearts by its own beams. Hence comes unsettledness in time of troubles, because we have not a spiritual discerning of spiritual things. Supernatural truths must have a supernatural power to apprehend them, therefore God createth a spiritual eye and hand of the soul, which is faith. In those that are truly converted, all saving truths are transcribed out of the Scripture into their hearts, 'they are taught of God,' Isa. 54:13, so as they find all truths, both concerning the sinful estate and the gracious and happy estate of man in themselves. They carry a divinity in them and about them, so as from a saving feeling they can speak of conversion, of sin, of grace, and the comforts of the Spirit, &c., and from this acquaintance are ready to yield and give up themselves to truth revealed, and to God speaking by it.
§ II. 1. 为了更好地加强我们的信任，仅仅相信上帝和他所启示的真理是不够的，我们必须依靠来自他的光明和力量来相信。许多人通过人类的论证来相信真理，但没有任何论证能够说服灵魂，除非是从内在的本性和真理本身的有力工作中得出的。没有人能够通过上帝以外的方式认识上帝；没有人能够通过除了自己的光明以外的方式认识太阳；没有人能够真正认识上帝的真理，并在此基础上建立，除非是通过真理本身和灵魂通过自己的光明所启示的圣灵。那些在将真理摧毁和再次升起中感受到真理力量的灵魂，将很容易依靠真理来安定下来。直到我们在自己的内心中发现真理本身通过自己的光辉照耀着我们的心灵时，教育和他人的权威，或者我们曾经受到过伟大人物的教导等等，都不能使我们的内心安定下来。因此，在困难时期，我们会感到不安定，因为我们没有对属灵事物有属灵的辨别力。 超自然的真理必须有超自然的力量来理解它们，因此上帝创造了灵魂的一只属灵的眼睛和手，那就是信仰。在那些真正归向上帝的人中，所有拯救的真理都从圣经中抄录到他们的心中，“他们都要蒙耶和华的教训”，以赛亚书 54:13，所以他们在自己身上找到了关于人的罪恶状态和恩典和幸福状态的所有真理。他们身上和周围都有一种神性，以至于从拯救的感觉中，他们可以谈论转变、罪恶、恩典和圣灵的安慰等，并且通过这种了解，他们愿意顺从并奉献自己给揭示的真理和上帝通过真理说话。

2. Trust is never sound but upon a spiritual conviction of the truth and goodness we rely upon, for the effecting of which the Spirit of God must likewise subdue the rebellion and malice of our will, that so it may be suitable and level to divine things, and relish them as they are. We must apprehend the love of God, and the fruits of it, as better than life itself, and then choosing and cleaving to the same will soon follow; for as there is a fitness in divine truths to all the necessities of the soul, so the soul must be fitted by them to savour and apply them to itself; and then from an harmony between the soul and that which it applies itself unto there will follow, not only peace in the soul, but joy and delight surpassing any contentment in the world besides.
信任只有在对我们所依赖的真理和善良的精神确信的基础上才是可靠的，为了实现这一点，上帝的灵必须也要征服我们意志的叛逆和恶意，使之与神圣的事物相适应，并品味它们的本质。我们必须理解上帝的爱以及它所带来的果实，认为它们比生命本身更好，然后选择并坚持相同的信仰，因为神圣的真理对灵魂的一切需求都是合适的，所以灵魂必须通过它们来适应并应用于自己；然后，在灵魂与其所应用的事物之间的和谐中，不仅会带来内心的平静，还会带来超越世界上任何满足感的喜悦和快乐。

3. As there is in God to satisfy the whole soul, so trust carries the whole soul to God. This makes trust not so easy a matter, because there must be an exercise of every faculty of the soul, or else our trust is imperfect and lame. There must be a knowledge of him whom we trust, and why we trust, an affiance and love, &c. Only they that know God will trust in him; not that knowledge alone is sufficient, but because the sweetness of God's love is let into the soul thereby, which draweth the whole soul to him. We are bidden to trust perfectly in God; therefore, seeing we have a God so full of perfection to trust in, we should labour to trust perfectly a him.
3. 由于上帝能满足整个灵魂的需要，所以信任将整个灵魂带向上帝。这使得信任并不容易，因为必须对灵魂的每个能力进行锻炼，否则我们的信任就是不完全和瘸腿的。我们必须了解我们所信任的人，以及为什么信任他，还要有信心和爱等等。只有认识上帝的人才会信任他；不是仅凭知识就足够，而是因为上帝的爱的甜蜜进入了灵魂，从而将整个灵魂吸引到他身上。我们被要求完全信任上帝；因此，既然我们有一个如此完美的上帝可以信任，我们应该努力完全信任他。

4. And it is good for the exercise of trust to put cases to ourselves of things that probably may fall out, and then return to our souls to search what strength we have if such things should come to pass. Thus David puts cases. Perfect faith dares put the hardest cases to its soul, and then set God against all that may befall it, Ps. 3:6; 46:8; 27:3.
而且，对于信任的锻炼来说，将可能发生的情况放在自己身上，并返回我们的内心去寻找如果这些事情发生时我们有多大的力量是很好的。大卫就是这样做的。完美的信仰敢于将最困难的情况放在自己的灵魂上，然后将上帝置于可能发生的一切之上，诗篇 3:6；46:8；27:3。

5. Again, labour to fit the promise to every condition thou art in. There is no condition but hath a promise suitable, therefore no condition but wherein God may be trusted, because his truth and goodness are always the same. And in the promise, look both to the good promised and to the faithfulness and love of the promiser. It is not good to look upon the difficulty of the thing we have a promise against, but who promiseth it, and for whose sake, and so see all good things in Christ made over to us.
再次努力使承诺适应你所处的每个条件。没有任何条件是没有相应承诺的，因此没有任何条件是不可信赖上帝的，因为他的真实和善良始终如一。在承诺中，既要看好的承诺，也要看承诺者的忠诚和爱。盯着我们所承诺的事情的困难是不好的，而是要看谁承诺了它，为了谁的缘故，从而看到基督赐给我们的一切美好事物。

6. We should labour likewise for a single heart to trust in God only. There is no readier way to fall than to trust equally to two stays, whereof one is rotten, and the other sound; therefore as in point of doctrine we are to rely upon Christ only, and to make the Scriptures our rule only; so in life and conversation, whatever we make use of, yet we should enjoy and rely upon God only; for either God is trusted alone or not at all. Those that trust to others things with God, trust not him but upon pretence to carry their double minds with less check.
我们也应该努力使一个心灵只信靠上帝。没有比同时依赖两个支撑物更容易摔倒的了，其中一个是烂的，另一个是坚固的；因此，在教义上，我们应该只依靠基督，并以圣经为我们的唯一准则；同样，在生活和交往中，无论我们使用什么，我们都应该只享受和依靠上帝；因为要么只信靠上帝，要么根本不信靠。那些与上帝一起信靠其他事物的人，并不是真正信靠他，而是以假装的借口来减少他们的双重心思。

7. Again, labour that thy soul may answer all the relations wherein it stands to God, by cleaving to him, (1) as a Father, by trusting on his care; (2) as a Teacher, by following his direction; (3) as a Creator, by dependence on him; (4) as a Husband, by inseparable affection of love to him; (5) as a Lord, by obedience, &c. And then we may with comfort expect whatsoever good these relations can yield; all which, God, regarding more our wants and weaknesses than his own greatness, hath taken upon him.
再次，努力使你的灵魂能够回应与上帝的所有关系，通过依附于他，（1）作为父亲，依靠他的关怀；（2）作为教师，遵循他的指引；（3）作为创造者，依赖他；（4）作为丈夫，对他有不可分割的爱；（5）作为主，顺从他等等。然后，我们可以安心地期待这些关系所能带来的一切好处；上帝更关注我们的需求和软弱，而不是他自己的伟大，他已经承担了这一切。

8. Shall these relations yield comfort from the creature, and not from God himself, in whom they are in their highest perfection? shall God make other fathers and husbands faithful, and not he faithful himself? All our Comfort depends upon labouring to make these relations good to our souls.
这些关系难道不应该从造物主那里获得安慰，而不是从他们在最高完美中的上帝那里获得安慰吗？难道上帝会使其他父亲和丈夫忠诚，而他自己却不忠诚吗？我们所有的安慰都取决于努力使这些关系对我们的灵魂有益。

And as we must wholly and only trust in God, so likewise we must trust him in all conditions and times, for all things that we stand in need of, until that time comes, wherein we shall stand in need of nothing: for as the same care of God moved him to save us, and to preserve us in the world till we be put in possession of salvation; so the same faith relies upon God for heaven and all necessary provision till we come thither. It is the office of faith to quiet our souls in all the necessities of this life, and we have continual use of trusting while we are here; for even when we have things, yet God still keeps the blessing of them in his own hands, to hold us in a continual dependence upon him. God trains us up this way, by exercising our trust in lesser matters, to fit us for greater. Thus it pleaseth God to keep us in a depending condition until he see his own time; but so good is God that as he intends to give us what we wait for, so will he give us the grace and spirit of faith, to sustain our souls in waiting till we enjoy the same. The unruliness of a natural spirit is never discovered more, than when God defers; therefore we should labour the more not to withdraw our attendance from God.
我们必须完全且只信靠上帝，同样地，我们必须在各种情况和时候都信靠他，为了我们所需要的一切，直到我们不再需要任何东西的时候为止。因为上帝对我们的关怀促使他拯救我们，并在我们得到救赎之前保护我们在世界上生存；同样，我们的信心也依靠上帝，为了天堂和一切必需品，直到我们到达那里。信心的职责是在这个生活中的一切需要中安抚我们的灵魂，我们在这里时不断地需要信靠；因为即使我们拥有事物，上帝仍然将这些祝福掌握在自己手中，使我们不断地依赖他。上帝通过在较小的事情上锻炼我们的信靠来培养我们，以适应更大的事情。上帝喜欢让我们保持一种依赖的状态，直到他看到合适的时机；但上帝是如此善良，他既打算给我们我们等待的东西，也会给我们恩典和信心的灵魂，以支撑我们在等待中享受同样的东西。 当上帝推迟时，自然精神的不服从往往会显露出来，因此我们应更加努力，不要远离上帝。

9. Further, we must know that the condition of a Christian in this life, is not to see what he trusts God for; 'he lives by faith, and not by sight,' 2 Cor. 5:7; and yet there is such a virtue in faith, which makes evident and present, things to come and unseen; because God, where he gives an eye of faith, gives also a glass of the word to see things in, and by seeing of them in the truth and power of him that promiseth, they become present, not only to the understanding to apprehend them, but to the will to rest upon them, and to the affections to joy in them. It is the nature of faith to work, when it seeth nothing, and oftentimes best of all then, because God shews himself more clearly in his power, wisdom, and goodness, at such times; and so his glory shines most, and faith hath nothing else to look upon then, whereupon it gathers all the forces of the soul together, to fasten upon God.
进一步说，我们必须知道基督徒在这个生命中的状态，并不是看到他所信靠上帝的事情；“我们是凭着信心而行，不是凭着眼见。”（哥林多后书 5:7）然而，信心中有一种力量，使未来和看不见的事物变得明显和现实；因为上帝在赐予信心的同时，也赐予了一面能看到事物的话语之镜，通过以真实和有能力的方式看到这些事物，它们不仅变得能被理解，而且能被意愿所依靠，能被情感所喜悦。信心的本质是在看不到任何东西时发挥作用，而且往往在这种情况下表现得最好，因为上帝在这些时候更清楚地展示了他的能力、智慧和善良；因此，他的荣耀最为明显，而信心在这时没有其他东西可看，因此它将灵魂的所有力量聚集起来，紧紧依附于上帝。

It should therefore be the chief care of a Christian to strengthen his faith, that so it may answer God's manner of dealing with him in the worst times; for God usually (1, that he might perfectly mortify our confidence in the creature; and 2, that he might the more endear his favours and make them fresh and new unto us; and 3, that the glory of deliverance may be entirely his, without the creatures sharing with him; and 4, that our faith and obedience may be tried to the uttermost, and discovered) suffers his children to fall into great extremities before he will reach forth his hand to help them, as in Job's case, &c. Therefore Christians should much labour their hearts to trust in God in the deepest extremities that may befall them, even when no light of comfort appears either from within or without, yea then especially, when all other comforts fail, Isa. 5:20. Despair is oft the ground of hope. When the darkness of the night is thickest, then the morning begins to dawn. That which, to a man unacquainted with God's dealings, is a ground of utter despair, the same, to a man acquainted with the ways of God, is a rise of exceeding comfort; for infinite power and goodness can never be at a loss, neither can faith which looks to that, ever be at a stand; whence it is that both God and faith work best alone. In a hopeless estate a Christian will see some door of hope opened, 1, because God shews himself nearest to us, when we stand most in need of him; 'Help, Lord, for vain is the help of man,' Ps. 60:11. God is never more seen than in the mount. He knows our souls best, and our souls know him best, in adversity. Ps. 31:7; then he is most wonderful in his saints. 2. Because our prayers then are strong cries, fervent and frequent. God is sure to hear of us at such a time, which pleaseth him well, as delighting to hear the voice of his beloved.
因此，基督徒应该最关心的是加强自己的信仰，这样它才能在最困难的时候回应上帝对他的处理方式；因为上帝通常（1、为了完全消除我们对创造物的信任；2、为了更加珍视他的恩惠并使它们对我们来说新鲜而宝贵；3、为了拯救的荣耀完全归他，不与创造物分享；4、为了彻底考验和揭示我们的信仰和顺从）容许他的子民陷入极度困境，然后才伸出援手帮助他们，就像约伯的情况一样。因此，基督徒应该努力让自己的心在可能发生的最深的困境中信靠上帝，即使没有来自内外的任何安慰的光明，尤其是当所有其他安慰都失败时，以赛亚书 5:20。绝望常常是希望的基础。当黑夜最黑暗的时候，早晨开始破晓。 对于一个不熟悉上帝作为的人来说，这是彻底绝望的根源，但对于一个熟悉上帝的方式的人来说，这是极大安慰的源泉；因为无限的力量和善良永远不会迷失，而寄望于这一点的信仰永远不会停滞；因此，上帝和信仰最好是独自工作的。在绝望的状态下，基督徒会看到一扇希望之门打开，1、因为当我们最需要他时，上帝向我们展示了他最接近我们；“帮助我，主啊，人的帮助是虚空的。”（诗篇 60:11）上帝从未像在山上那样被看见。他最了解我们的灵魂，我们的灵魂在逆境中最了解他。诗篇 31:7；那时他在他的圣徒中最奇妙。2、因为我们的祷告那时是强烈的呼喊，热切而频繁。上帝一定会在这样的时候听到我们的声音，这使他非常高兴，因为他喜欢听到他所爱的人的声音。

10. For our better encouragement in these sad times, and to help our trust in God the more, we should often call to mind the former experiences, which either ourselves or others have had of God's goodness, and make use of the same for our spiritual good. 'Our fathers trusted in thee,' saith the head of the church, 'and were not confounded,' Ps. 22:14. God's truth and goodness is unchangeable, 'he never leaves those that trust in him,' Ps. 9:10. So likewise in our own experiences, we should take notice of God's dealings with us in sundry kinds; how many ways he hath refreshed us, and how good we have found him in our worst times. After we have once tried him and his truth, we may safely trust him. God will stand upon his credit, he never failed any yet, and he will not begin to break with us. If his nature and his word and his former dealing hath been sure and square, why should our hearts be wavering? 'Thy word,' saith the Psalmist, 'is very pure (or tried), therefore thy servant loveth it,' Ps. 119:140; the word of God is 'as silver tried in the furnace, purified seven times,' Ps. 12:6. It is good therefore to observe and lay up God's dealings. Experience is nothing else but a multiplied remembrance of former blessings, which will help to multiply our faith. Tried truth and tried faith unto it, sweetly agree and answer one another. It were a course much tending to the quickening of the faith of Christians, if they would communicate one to another their mutual experiences. This hath formerly been the custom of God's people, 'Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul,' Ps. 66:16; and David urgeth this as a reason to God for deliverance, that then 'the righteous would compass him about,' Ps. 142:7, as rejoicing in the experience of God's goodness to him. The want of this makes us upon any new trial, to call God's care and love into question, as if he had never formerly been good unto us; whereas every experiment of God's love should refresh our faith upon any fresh onset. God is so good to his children even in this world, that he trains them up by daily renewed experiences of his fatherly care; for besides those many promises of good things to come, he gives us some evidence and taste of what we believe here; that by that which we feel we might be strengthened in that we look for, that so in both (1, sense of what we feel; and 2, certainty of what we look for) we might have full support.
在这个悲伤的时刻，为了更好地鼓励自己，并增加对上帝的信任，我们应该经常回想起我们自己或他人对上帝的恩慈的经历，并将其用于我们的属灵益处。教会的领袖说：“我们的祖先信靠你，没有受辱。”（诗篇 22:14）上帝的真理和恩慈是不变的，“信靠你的人，你必不撇下他们。”（诗篇 9:10）同样，在我们自己的经历中，我们应该注意上帝在各种情况下对我们的处理方式；他以多种方式使我们得到安慰，在我们最困难的时刻，我们发现他是多么善良。一旦我们试验了他和他的真理，我们就可以安全地信任他。上帝会坚守自己的信誉，他从未辜负过任何人，也不会开始对我们失信。如果他的本性、他的话语和他以前的处理方式都是可靠和公正的，为什么我们的心要动摇呢？诗人说：“你的话极其纯净（或经过试验），所以你的仆人喜爱它。”（诗篇 119:140）上帝的话语就像“经过七次熬炼的炼银”（诗篇 12:6）。因此，观察和珍藏上帝的作为是好的。 经验无非是对过去祝福的多次回忆，这将有助于增加我们的信仰。经过考验的真理和对它的信仰，甜蜜地相互一致并互相回应。如果基督徒彼此交流彼此的经历，这将大大有助于激发他们的信仰。这曾经是上帝子民的习惯，“来听啊，你们敬畏上帝的人，我要述说他为我灵魂所行的事”，诗篇 66:16；大卫以此作为向上帝求救的理由，因为那时“义人必围绕我”，诗篇 142:7，因为他们为上帝对他的恩慈的经历而欢喜。缺乏这一点使我们在面对任何新的考验时，质疑上帝的关怀和爱，好像他从未对我们有过好处；然而，上帝的每一次爱的实践都应该在任何新的挑战中刷新我们的信仰。 上帝对他的子民如此慈爱，在这个世界上，他通过每天不断更新的经历来培养他们，以显示他慈爱的父亲关怀；除了那些关于未来美好事物的许诺之外，他还给予我们一些我们所相信的东西的证据和品尝；通过我们所感受到的，我们可以在我们所期待的事物中得到加强，这样在两者（1、我们所感受到的事物的意义；2、我们所期待的事物的确定性）中，我们可以得到充分的支持。

11. But yet we must trust God, as he will he trusted, namely, in doing good, or else we do not trust him but tempt him. Our commanding of our souls to trust in God, is but an echo of what God commands us first; and therefore in the same manner he commands us, we should command ourselves. As God commands us to trust him in doing good, so should we 'commit our souls to him in well doing,' 1 Pet. 4:19, and trust him when we are about his own works, and not in the works of darkness. We may safely expect God in his ways of mercy, when we are in his ways of obedience; for religion, as it is a doctrine of what is to be believed, so it is a doctrine according to godliness; and the mysteries of faith are mysteries of godliness, because they cannot be believed but they will enforce a godly conversation. Where any true impression of them is, there is holiness always bred in that soul; therefore a study of holiness must go jointly together with a study of trusting in God. Faith looks not only to promises, but to directions to duty, and breeds in the soul a liking of whatsoever pleaseth God. There is a mutual strengthening in things that are good; trusting stirs to duty, and duty strengthens trusting by increasing our liberty and boldness with God.
11. 但是我们必须信靠上帝，就像他值得信赖一样，即在行善方面，否则我们不是在信靠他，而是在试探他。我们对我们的灵魂下令信靠上帝，只是对上帝首先对我们下令的回应；因此，我们应该以同样的方式对自己下令。上帝命令我们在行善时信靠他，所以我们应该“将我们的灵魂交托给他，行善的造物主”，彼得前书 4:19，并且在我们从事他自己的工作时信靠他，而不是在黑暗的工作中。当我们在顺服上帝的道路上时，我们可以安全地期待上帝的怜悯；因为宗教不仅是一种信仰的教义，而且是一种合乎敬虔的教义；信仰的奥秘是敬虔的奥秘，因为除非相信它们，否则它们将强迫人们过敬虔的生活。任何对它们的真实印象都会在灵魂中孕育出圣洁；因此，对圣洁的追求必须与对上帝的信靠的追求同时进行。信仰不仅关注应许，还关注对责任的指引，并在灵魂中培养对上帝所喜悦的一切的喜爱。 善事相互加强；信任激发责任感，而责任感通过增加我们与上帝的自由和勇气来加强信任。

12. Again, we must maintain in our souls, a high esteem of the grace of faith, the very trial whereof is 'more precious than gold,' 1 Pet. 1:7. What then is the grace of faith itself, and the promises which it layeth hold on? Certainly they transcend in worth whatever may draw us from God; whence it is that the soul sets a high price upon them, and on faith that believes them. It is impossible that anything in the world should come betwixt the heart and those things, if once we truly lay hold on them, to undermine faith or the comfort we have by it. The heart is never drawn to any sinful vanity, or frighted with any terror of trouble, till faith first loseth the sight and estimation of divine things, and forgets the necessity and excellency of them. Our Saviour Christ, when he would stir up a desire of faith in his disciples, Luke 17:6, shewed them the power and excellency of the same. Great things stir up faith, and keep it above, and faith keeps the soul that nothing else can take place of abode in it. When the 'great things of God,' Hos. 8:12, are brought into the heart by faith, what is there in the whole world that can out-bid them? assurance of these things, upon spiritual grounds, overrules both sense and reason, or what ever else prevails with carnal hearts.
12. 再次，我们必须在我们的灵魂中保持对信仰之恩的高度尊重，这个试验本身比黄金还要珍贵（彼得前书 1:7）。那么，信仰之恩本身和它所依靠的应许是什么呢？毫无疑问，它们的价值超越了任何可能使我们远离上帝的东西；因此，灵魂对它们和相信它们的信仰都给予了高度的评价。如果我们真正抓住了它们，世界上的任何事物都不可能夹在心与这些事物之间，以破坏信仰或我们因信仰而获得的安慰。除非信仰首先失去对神圣事物的视野和评价，并忘记了它们的必要性和卓越性，否则心灵永远不会被任何罪恶的虚荣所吸引，或者被任何困扰的恐惧所惊吓。当我们的救主基督在路加福音 17:6 中激发门徒对信仰的渴望时，他展示了信仰的力量和卓越性。伟大的事物激发信仰，并使其保持在高处，而信仰则使灵魂保持住所，没有任何其他事物可以取代。当“神的伟大事物”（何西阿书 8:12）通过信仰进入心灵时，世界上还有什么能够超越它们呢？ 在属灵的基础上，对这些事情的确信超越了感官和理性，或者说超越了肉体的心灵所相信的任何其他事物。

CHAPTER XIX.—Faith to be prized, and other things undervalued, at least not to be trusted to as the chief
第十九章-信仰应被珍视，其他事物被低估，至少不能将其视为首要的信任对象。

That faith may take the better place in the soul, and the soul in God, the heart must continually be taught of what little worth all things else are, as reputation, riches, and pleasures, &c.; and to see their nothingness in the word of God, and in experience of ourselves and others, that so our heart being weaned from these things, may open itself to God, and embrace things of a higher nature. Otherwise baser things will be nearer the soul than faith, and keep possession against it, so that faith will not be suffered to set up a throne in the heart. There must be an unloosing of the heart, as well as a fastening of it, and God helps us in both; for, besides the word discovering the vanity of all things else out of God, the main scope of God's dealing with his children in any danger or affliction whatsoever, is to embitter all other things but himself unto them. Indeed it is the power of God properly which makes the heart to trust, but yet the Spirit of God useth this way to bring all things else out of request with us in comparison of those inestimable good things, which the soul is created, redeemed, and sanctified for. God is very jealous of our trust, and can endure no idol of jealousy to be set up in our hearts. Therefore it behoves us to take notice, not only of the deceitfulness of things, but of the deceitfulness of our hearts in the use of them. Our hearts naturally hang loose from God, and are soon ready to join with the creature. Now the more we observe our hearts in this, the more we take them off, and labour to set them where they should be placed; for the more we know these things, the less we shall trust them.
为了让信仰在灵魂中占据更好的位置，让灵魂归于上帝，心灵必须不断地被教导其他事物的微不足道，如声誉、财富和享乐等；并在上帝的话语中，通过我们自己和他人的经历看到它们的无足轻重，以便我们的心灵从这些事物中解脱出来，向上帝敞开自己，拥抱更高尚的事物。否则，较低级的事物将比信仰更接近灵魂，并占据主导地位，以至于信仰将无法在心灵中建立王座。心灵必须既要解脱，又要扎根，上帝在这两方面都帮助我们；因为除了上帝的话语揭示了除上帝以外其他一切事物的虚无之外，上帝与他的子民在任何危险或苦难中的主要目的，是让他们对除他自己以外的一切事物感到痛苦。确实，是上帝的能力使心灵信靠，但上帝的圣灵也通过这种方式，使我们对与那些无价的善事相比，其他一切事物都不再重要，而这些善事是灵魂被创造、赎回和成圣的目的。 上帝非常嫉妒我们的信任，不能容忍我们心中有任何嫉妒的偶像。因此，我们应该注意事物的欺骗性，也要注意我们在使用它们时的心灵欺骗。我们的心灵本能地远离上帝，很快就会与创造物联合。现在，我们越是观察我们的心灵，就越能将它们摆脱，并努力将它们放置在应该放置的地方；因为我们越了解这些事情，就越不会信任它们。

Obj. But may we not trust in riches, and friends, and other outward helps at all?
但是我们难道不能完全信任财富、朋友和其他外在的帮助吗？

Ans. Yes, so far as they are subordinate to God, our chief stay, with reservation and submission to the Lord; only so far, and so long as it shall please him to use them for our good. Because God ordinarily conveys his help and goodness to us by some creature, we must trust in God to bless every mercy we enjoy, and to make all helps serviceable to his love towards us. In a word, we must trust and use them in and under God, and so as if all were taken away, yet to think God, being all-sufficient, can do without them, whatsoever he doth by them, for our good. Faith preserves the chastity of the soul, and cleaving to God is a spiritual debt which it oweth to him, whereas cleaving to the creature is spiritual adultery.
答：是的，只要它们服从于上帝，我们的主要依靠，顺从并归顺于主；只有到那个程度，只有在上帝愿意使用它们为我们的利益的时候。因为上帝通常通过某些创造物向我们传递帮助和恩惠，我们必须信靠上帝祝福我们所享受的每一份恩典，并使所有的帮助对他对我们的爱有所用处。总之，我们必须在上帝的主导下信靠并使用它们，即使所有的东西都被夺走，也要认为上帝是全足的，他可以在没有它们的情况下，通过它们为我们的利益做任何事情。信仰保持灵魂的贞洁，依附于上帝是它对他的一种属灵的债务，而依附于创造物则是属灵的通奸。

It is an error in the foundation to substitute false objects in religion, or in Christian conversation; for, 1, in religion; trusting in false objects, as saints, and works, &c., breeds false worship, and false worship breeds idolatry, and so God's jealousy and hatred. 2. In Christian conversation; false objects of trust breed false comforts and true fears; for in what measure we trust in anything that is uncertain, in the same measure will our grief be when it fails us. The more men rely upon deceitful crutches, the greater is their fall. God can neither endure false objects, nor a double object, as hath been shewed, for a man to rely upon anything equally in the same rank with himself. For the propounding of a double object, argues a double heart, and a double heart is always unsettled, James 1:8; for it will regard God no longer than it can enjoy that which it joins together with him. Therefore it is said, 'You cannot serve two masters,' Luke 16:13, not subordinate one to another; whence it was that our Saviour told those worldly men which followed him, 'that they could not believe in him, because they sought honour one of another,' John 5:44; and in case of competition, if their honour and reputation should come into question, they would be sure to be false to Christ, and rather part with him than their own credit and esteem in the world.
在宗教或基督教交谈中，用虚假的对象替代是基础上的错误；因为，1，在宗教中，信任虚假的对象，如圣人和行为等，会滋生虚假的崇拜，虚假的崇拜会滋生偶像崇拜，从而引起上帝的嫉妒和憎恨。2，在基督教交谈中，信任虚假的对象会带来虚假的安慰和真正的恐惧；因为我们对任何不确定的事物的信任程度越大，当它让我们失望时，我们的悲伤就会越大。人们越依赖欺骗性的拐杖，他们跌得越重。上帝既不能容忍虚假的对象，也不能容忍双重对象，正如前面所示，一个人依赖与自己同等地位的任何事物。提出双重对象表明有双重的心，而双重的心总是不稳定的，雅各书 1:8；因为它只会在能够享受与上帝一起的东西时才关注上帝。 因此有人说：“你不能事奉两个主人”（路加福音 16:13），不能将一个主人屈从于另一个主人；这就是为什么我们的救主告诉那些追随他的世俗人们，“你们不能信靠我，因为你们彼此寻求荣耀”（约翰福音 5:44）；而且在竞争的情况下，如果他们的荣誉和声誉受到质疑，他们肯定会对基督不忠诚，宁愿放弃他而不是自己在世界上的信誉和尊重。

David here, by charging his soul to trust in God, saw there was nothing else that could bring true rest and quiet unto him; for whatsoever is besides God is but a creature; and whatever is in the creature is but borrowed and at God's disposing, and changeable, or else it were not a creature. David saw his error soon, for the ground of his disquiet was trusting something else besides God; therefore when he began to say, 'My hill is strong, I shall not be moved,' &c., Ps. 30:6, then presently his soul was troubled. Out of God there is nothing fit for the soul to stay itself upon; for,
大卫在将自己的灵魂托付给上帝时，看到没有其他能给他带来真正安宁和宁静的东西；因为除了上帝之外的一切都只是创造物；而创造物中的一切都只是借来的，由上帝支配，是可变的，否则它就不是创造物。大卫很快就看到了自己的错误，因为他的不安源于对上帝以外的东西的信任；因此，当他开始说：“我的山坚固，我必不动摇”（诗篇 30:6）时，他的灵魂立刻感到困扰。除了上帝之外，没有任何东西适合灵魂依靠；因为，

1. Outward things are not fitted to the spiritual nature of the soul. They are dead things and cannot touch it, being a lively spirit, unless by way of taint.
外在的事物并不适合灵魂的精神本质。它们是死物，无法触及灵魂这个活跃的精神，除非是通过污染的方式。

2. They are beneath the worth of the soul, and therefore debase the soul, and draw it lower than itself; as a noble woman, by matching with a mean person, much injures herself, especially when higher matches are offered. Earthly things are not given for stays wholly to rest on, but for comforts in our way to heaven. They are no more fit for the soul, than that which hath many angles is fit to fill up that which is round, which it cannot do, because of the unevenness and void places that will remain. Outward things are never so well fitted for the soul, but that the soul will presently see some voidness and emptiness in them, and in itself in cleaving to them; for that which shall be a fit object for the soul, must be, 1, for the nature of it spiritual, as the soul itself is; 2, constant; 3, full and satisfying; 4, of equal continuance with it; and 5, always yielding fresh contents. We cast away flowers, after once we have had the sweetness of them, because there is not still a fresh supply of sweetness. Whatever comfort is in the creature, the soul will spend quickly, and look still for more; whereas the comfort we have in God is 'undefiled and fadeth not away,' 1 Peter 1:4. How can we trust to that for comfort, which by very trusting proves uncomfortable to us? Outward things are only so far forth good, as we do not trust in them. Thorns may be touched, but not rested on, for then they will pierce. We must not set our hearts upon things which are never evil to us, but when we 'set our hearts upon them,' Ps. 62:10.
它们低于灵魂的价值，因此贬低了灵魂，并使其降低到自身以下；就像一个高贵的女人与一个卑微的人结合一样，会对自己造成很大伤害，尤其是当更高的配对机会出现时。世俗的事物并不是为了完全依赖而给予的，而是为了在通往天堂的道路上获得安慰。它们对灵魂来说并不合适，就像有许多角的东西适合填补圆形的东西一样，它无法做到这一点，因为会有不平整和空虚的地方。外在的事物永远无法完全适应灵魂，因为灵魂会立即看到其中的空虚和空洞，并在依附它们时看到自身的空虚；因为适合灵魂的东西必须具备以下特点：1、属于灵性的本质，就像灵魂本身一样；2、持久不变；3、充实和满足；4、与灵魂同等持续；5、始终提供新鲜内容。我们在享受过花朵的甜美后会将它们丢弃，因为没有新鲜的甜美供应。无论在创造物中有什么安慰，灵魂都会很快消耗掉，并且仍然寻求更多；而我们在上帝中所拥有的安慰是“不朽的，不会消逝的”（彼得前书 1:4）。 我们如何能相信那些给予我们不舒适的东西来获得安慰呢？外在的事物只有在我们不依赖它们时才是好的。荆棘可以触摸，但不能依靠，否则它们会刺破我们。我们不应该将心思寄托在那些对我们来说从未是邪恶的事物上，除非我们“将心思寄托在它们上面”，诗篇 62:10。

By trusting anything but God, we make it, 1, an idol; 2, a curse, and not a blessing, Jer. 17:5; 3; it will prove a lying vanity, not yielding that good which we look for; and 4, a vexation, bringing that evil upon us we look not for.
通过信任除了上帝以外的任何事物，我们使它成为：1.偶像；2.诅咒，而不是祝福，耶利米书 17:5；3.它将证明是虚假的虚无，不会带来我们期望的好处；4.它将成为困扰，给我们带来我们不期望的邪恶。

Of all men Solomon was the fittest to judge of this, because, 1, he had a large heart, able to comprehend the variety of things; and 2, being a mighty king, had advantages of procuring all outward things that might give him satisfaction; and 3, he had a desire answerable, to search out and extract whatever good the creature could yield. And yet, upon the trial of all, he passeth this verdict upon all, that they are but 'vanity,' Eccles. 1:2. Whilst he laboured to find that which he sought for in them, he had like to have lost himself; and seeking too much to strengthen himself by foreign combination, he weakened himself the more thereby, until he came to know where the 'whole of man consists,' Eccles. 12:13. So that new we need not try further conclusions after the peremptory sentence of so wise a man.
所罗门是最适合判断这一点的人，因为，首先，他有一颗宽广的心灵，能够理解各种事物的多样性；其次，作为一个强大的国王，他有能力获得所有可能使他满意的外在事物；再次，他有相应的渴望，去探索和提取出万物所能带来的好处。然而，经过所有的试验，他对所有事物都做出了这样的评价，即它们都是“虚空”，见传道书 1:2。当他努力在这些事物中寻找他所追求的东西时，他差点迷失了自己；而过分依赖外部结合来加强自己的力量，反而使他变得更加虚弱，直到他知道“人的全部”在哪里，见传道书 12:13。因此，我们现在不需要在这位智者的断然判决之后再做进一步的推论。

But our nature is still apt to think there is some secret good in the forbidden fruit, and to buy wisdom dearly when we might have it at a cheaper rate, even from former universal experience.
但我们的本性仍然倾向于认为禁果中有某种秘密的好处，并且愿意为智慧付出昂贵的代价，即使我们本可以从以往的普遍经验中以更低的代价获得智慧。

It is a matter both to be wondered at and pitied, that the soul having God in Christ set before it, alluring it unto him, that he might raise it, enlarge it, and fill it, and so make it above all other things, should yet debase and make itself narrower and weaker by leaning to things meaner than itself.
这是一个令人惊叹和可怜的事实，灵魂面对基督中的上帝，被吸引着向他靠近，以便他可以提升、扩大和充满它，从而使它超越一切其他事物，然而它却通过倚靠比自己低贱的事物来贬低自己，使自己变得更狭窄和更脆弱。

The kingdom, sovereignty, and large command of man continueth while he rests upon God, in whom he reigns, in some sort, over all things under him; but so soon as he removes from God to anything else, he becomes weak, and narrow, and slavish presently; for,
王国、统治和人类的大权力只有当他依靠上帝时才会持续存在，他在上帝身上统治着他所掌控的一切；但是一旦他离开上帝转向其他事物，他立即变得软弱、狭隘和奴性化；因为，

The soul is as that which it relies upon. If on vanity, itself becomes vain; for that which contents the soul must satisfy all the wants and desires of it, which no particular thing can do, and the soul is more sensible of a little thing that it wants than of all other things which it enjoys.
灵魂如同它所依赖的东西。如果依赖虚荣，自身也变得虚荣；因为能满足灵魂的东西必须满足它的所有需求和欲望，而没有任何特定的事物能够做到这一点。灵魂对于它所渴望的一点点东西更加敏感，而不是对于它所享受的其他一切事物。

But see the insufficiency of all other things, out of God, to support the soul in their several degrees. 1. First, all outward things can make a man no happier than outward things can do; they cannot reach beyond their proper sphere; but our greatest grievances are spiritual. 2. And as for inward things, whether gifts or graces, they cannot be a sufficient stay for the mind; for (1), Gifts, as policy and wisdom, &c., they are, at the best, very defective, especially when we trust in them, for wisdom makes men often to rebel, and thereupon God delighteth to blast their projects, Isa. 47:10. None miscarry oftener than men of the greatest parts, as none are oftener drowned than those that are most skilful in swimming, because it makes them confident.
但是看到除了上帝以外的所有其他事物对于支撑灵魂在各个层面上的不足。1. 首先，所有外在的事物都不能使一个人比外在的事物更幸福；它们无法超越自己的范围；而我们最大的痛苦是属于属灵的。2. 至于内在的事物，无论是天赋还是恩赐，它们都不能成为心灵的足够支撑；因为（1）天赋，如智慧和策略等，它们在最好的情况下也是非常有缺陷的，特别是当我们依赖它们时，因为智慧常常使人反叛，于是上帝喜欢破坏他们的计划，以赛亚书 47:10。最有才华的人往往是最容易失败的，就像最擅长游泳的人最容易溺水一样，因为这使他们变得自信。

And for grace, though it be the beginning of a new creature in us, yet it is but a creature, and therefore not to be trusted in; nay, by trusting in it we imbase it, and make it more imperfect. So far as there is truth of grace, it breeds distrust of ourselves, and carries the soul out of itself to the fountain of strength.
对于恩典来说，虽然它是我们内心新生命的开始，但它只是一个创造物，因此不能信任；相反，通过信任它，我们贬低了它，使它更加不完美。只要有恩典的真实存在，它就会产生对自己的不信任，并将灵魂带离自身，转向力量的源泉。

3. And for any works that proceed from grace, by trusting thereunto they prove like the reed of Egypt, which not only deceives us, but hurts us with the splinters. Good works are good, but confidence in them is hurtful; and there is more of our own in them, for the most part, to humble us, than of God's Spirit to embolden us so far as to trust in them. Alas! they have nothing from us but weakness and defilement, and therefore since the fall God would have the object of our trust to be out of ourselves in him, and to that purpose he useth all means to take us out of ourselves and from the creature, that he only might be our trust.
3. 对于任何出自恩典的作品，通过信靠它们，它们会像埃及的芦苇一样欺骗我们，并用碎片伤害我们。善行是好的，但对它们的信心是有害的；在其中，我们自己的部分往往更多地使我们谦卑，而不是上帝的灵使我们大胆到足以信靠它们。唉！它们从我们这里得到的只有软弱和污秽，因此自从堕落以来，上帝希望我们的信任对象是在他之外的，他用一切手段使我们离开自己和创造物，只有他才能成为我们的信任对象。

4. Yea, we must not trust itself, but God whom it relies on, who is therefore called our trust. All the glorious things that are spoken of trust are only made good by God in Christ, who, as trusted, doth all for us.
是的，我们不应该信任自己，而是信任依靠的上帝，他因此被称为我们的信任。所有关于信任的荣耀事物只有在基督里由上帝实现，他作为我们的信任，为我们做一切。

God hath prescribed trust as the way to carry our souls to himself, in whom we should only rely, and not in our imperfect trust, which hath its ebbing and flowing. Neither will trust in God himself for the present suffice us for future strength and grace, as if trusting in God to-day would suffice to strengthen us for to-morrow; but we must renew our trust for fresh supply upon every fresh occasion. So that we see God alone must he the object of our trust.
上帝规定了信任作为将我们的灵魂带到他那里的方式，我们应该只依靠他，而不是我们不完美的信任，它有起伏不定。对上帝本身的信任对我们未来的力量和恩典来说是不够的，好像今天对上帝的信任足以让我们明天变得坚强；但是我们必须在每一个新的场合上更新我们的信任以获得新的供应。所以我们看到只有上帝才是我们信任的对象。

There is still left in man's nature a desire of pleasure, profit, and of whatever the creature presents as good, but the desire of gracious good is altogether lost, the soul being wholly infected with a contrary taste. Man hath a nature capable of excellency and desirous of it, and the Spirit of God in and by the word reveals where true excellency is to be had; but corrupt nature leaving God seeketh it elsewhere, and so crosseth its own desires, till the Spirit of God discovers where these things are to be had, and so nature is brought to its right frame again by turning the stream into the right current. Grace and sinful nature have the same general object of comfort, only sinful nature seeks it in broken cisterns, and grace in the fountain, Jer. 2:13. The beginning of our true happiness is from the discovery of true and false objects, so as the soul may clearly see what is best and safest, and then stedfastly rely upon it.
人的本性中仍然存在对快乐、利益以及任何被视为好的事物的渴望，但对恩慈的渴望完全丧失了，灵魂完全被相反的品味所感染。人具有卓越的能力和渴望，上帝的灵通过道中的启示揭示了真正的卓越所在；但是腐败的本性离弃上帝，寻求其他地方，从而违背了自己的欲望，直到上帝的灵揭示了这些事物的所在，本性才通过将流向正确的方向而恢复正常。恩典和罪恶的本性都追求同样的安慰，只是罪恶的本性在破碎的水池中寻找，而恩典在泉源中寻找（耶利米书 2:13）。我们真正幸福的开始是从真假对象的发现开始的，使灵魂能够清楚地看到什么是最好和最安全的，然后坚定地依靠它。

It were an happy way to make the soul better acquainted with trusting in God, to labour to subdue at the first all unruly inclinations of the soul to earthly things, and to take advantage of the first tenderness of the soul to weed out that which is ill, and to plant knowledge and love of the best things in it; otherwise, where affections to anything below get much strength in the soul, it will by little and little be so overgrown that there will be no place left in it either for object or act, God or trust. God cannot come to take his place in the heart by trust, but where the powers of the soul are brought under, to regard him and those great things he brings with him above all things else in the world besides.
这是使灵魂更加亲近信靠上帝的一种快乐方式，努力在灵魂对尘世之物的第一次不受控制的倾向中加以控制，并利用灵魂最初的柔软来清除其中的不良因素，并在其中种植知识和对最好的事物的爱；否则，如果对任何低于上帝的事物的情感在灵魂中得到很大的力量，它将逐渐生长得如此强大，以至于在其中既没有地方容纳客体或行为，也没有上帝或信任。上帝只有在灵魂的力量被控制住，将他和他带来的伟大事物看得比世界上其他一切事物都重要时，才能进入心灵并占据其位置。

In these glorious times wherein so great a light shineth, whereby so great things are discovered, what a shame is it to be so narrow-hearted as to fix upon present things. Our aims and affections should be suitable to the things themselves set before us. Our hearts should be more and more enlarged, as things are more and more revealed to us. We see in the things of this life, as wisdom and experience increaseth, so our aims and desires increase likewise. A young beginner thinks it a great matter if he have a little to begin withal, but as he grows in trading, and seeth further ways of getting, his thoughts and desires are raised higher. Children think as children, but riper age puts away childishness, 1 Cor. 13:11, when their understandings are enlarged to see what they did not see before. We should never rest till our hearts, according to the measure of revelation of those excellent things which God hath for us, have answerable apprehension of the same. Oh, if we had but faith to answer those glorious truths which God hath revealed, what manner of lives should we lead!
在这个光辉的时代，有如此伟大的光芒照耀，有如此伟大的事物被发现，如此狭隘地只关注眼前的事物是多么可耻啊。我们的目标和情感应该与摆在我们面前的事物相适应。随着事物的逐渐揭示，我们的心应该越来越开阔。我们看到在这个生活中，随着智慧和经验的增长，我们的目标和欲望也增加。一个年轻的初学者认为只要有一点点开始就是一件大事，但随着他在交易中的成长，看到了更多的获取方式，他的思想和欲望也提高了。孩子们像孩子一样思考，但成熟的年龄会摒弃幼稚，哥林多前书 13:11，当他们的理解力扩大，看到了以前没有看到的东西。我们应该不停地努力，直到我们的心，根据上帝为我们揭示的那些卓越的事物的启示程度，对其有相应的理解。哦，如果我们有足够的信仰来回应上帝所揭示的那些荣耀真理，我们将过上怎样的生活啊！

CHAPTER XX.—Of the method of trusting in God; and the trial of that trust
第二十章 - 信靠上帝的方法；以及对信靠的考验

13. Lastly, to add no more, our trusting in God should follow God's order in promising. The first promise is of forgiveness of sin to repentant believers; next, 2, of healing and sanctifying grace; then, 3, the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven to them that are sanctified; 4, and then the promises of all things needful in our way to the kingdom, &c. Now answerably, the soul being enlightened to see its danger, should look first to God's mercy in Christ pardoning sin, because sin only divides betwixt God and the soul; next to the promises of grace for the leading of a Christian life, for true faith desires healing mercy as well as pardoning mercy, and then to heaven and all things that may bring us thither.
最后，不再多说，我们对上帝的信任应该遵循上帝在应许中的秩序。第一个应许是对悔改的信徒的罪孽的宽恕；接下来，第二个是医治和使圣化的恩典；然后，第三个是给那些被圣化的人的天国的产业；第四，然后是关于通往天国所需的一切的应许，等等。现在，相应地，灵魂被启迪以看到自己的危险，应该首先寻求上帝在基督里宽恕罪孽的怜悯，因为罪孽只会在上帝和灵魂之间造成分裂；接下来是为了引导基督徒生活的恩典的应许，因为真正的信仰既渴望宽恕的怜悯，也渴望医治的怜悯，然后是天堂和一切可能将我们带到那里的事物。

By all this we see that it is not so easy a matter as the world takes it, to bring God and the soul together by trusting on him. It must be effected by the mighty power of God, raising up the soul to himself, to lay hold upon the glorious power, goodness, and other excellencies that are in him, Eph. 1:20. God is not only the object, but the working cause of our trust; for such is our proneness to live by sense and natural reason, and such is the strangeness and height of divine things, such our inclination to a self-sufficiency and contentment in the creature, and so hard a matter is it to take off the soul from false bottoms, by reason of our unacquaintance with God and his ways; besides, such guilt still remains upon our souls for our rebellion and unkindness towards God, that it makes us afraid to entertain serious thoughts of him; and so great is the distance betwixt his infinite majesty, before whom the very angels do cover their faces, and us, by reason of the unspiritualness of our nature, being opposite to his most absolute purity, that we cannot be brought to any familiarity with the Lord, so as to come into his holy presence with confidence to rely upon him, or any comfort to have communion with him, till our hearts be sanctified and lifted up by divine vigour infused into them.
通过这一切，我们可以看到，世人认为通过信靠上帝将神和灵魂联系在一起并不是一件容易的事情。这必须通过上帝的大能来实现，使灵魂升起来与他相连，抓住他的荣耀的力量、善良和其他美德，以弗所书 1:20。 上帝不仅是我们信任的对象，也是我们信任的工作原因；因为我们倾向于凭感觉和自然理性生活，神圣事物的奇怪和高度，我们对创造物的自足和满足的倾向，以及由于我们对上帝和他的道路的不熟悉而难以将灵魂从虚假的底线上解脱出来；此外，我们对上帝的叛逆和不友善仍然使我们的灵魂感到内疚，这使我们害怕对他产生认真的思考；由于我们的本性与他的绝对纯洁相对立，他的无限威严与我们之间的距离如此之大，以至于连天使们在他面前都要蒙上脸，我们无法与主有任何亲近，以至于可以在信靠他的同时进入他的圣洁面前，或者与他有任何交流的安慰，直到我们的心灵被神圣的力量提升和净化。

Though there be some inclination, by reason of the remainder of the image of God in us, to an outward moral obedience of the law, yet, alas, we have not only no seeds of evangelical truths and of faith to believe them, but an utter contrariety in our natures, as corrupted, either to this, or any other good. When our conscience is once awaked, we meditate nothing but fears and terrors, and dare not so much as think of an angry God, but rather how we may escape and fly from him. Therefore, together with a deep consideration of the grounds we have of trusting God, it is necessary we should think of the indisposition of our hearts unto it, especially when there is greatest need thereof, that so our hearts may be forced to put up that petition of the disciples to God, 'Lord, increase our faith,' Luke 17:5; Lord, help us against our unbelieving hearts, &c. By prayer and holy thoughts stirred up in the use of the means, we shall feel divine strength infused and conveyed into our souls to trust.
虽然由于上帝的形象在我们内心中的残留，我们有一些倾向于对律法进行外在的道德顺从，但是，唉，我们不仅没有福音真理和信仰的种子，而且我们的本性被腐败，对这种或其他任何善行都有完全的相反倾向。当我们的良心一旦觉醒，我们只会思考恐惧和惊吓，不敢想象一个愤怒的上帝，而是如何逃避和躲避他。因此，除了深思熟虑我们信靠上帝的根据之外，我们还需要考虑我们的心灵对此的不适应，尤其是在最需要的时候，这样我们的心灵才能被迫提出门徒们向上帝的祈求：“主啊，增加我们的信心”（路加福音 17:5）；主啊，帮助我们对抗我们不信的心灵等等。通过祷告和在使用这些方法时激发起来的圣洁思想，我们将感受到神圣的力量注入和传递到我们的灵魂中，以便信靠。

The more care we ought to have to maintain our trust in God, because besides the hardness of it, it is a radical and fundamental grace; it is, as it were, the mother-root and great vein whence the exercise of all graces have their beginning and strength. The decay of a plant, though it appears first from the withering of the twigs and branches, yet it arises chiefly from a decay in the root; so the decay of grace may appear to the view, first in our company, carriage, and speeches, &c.; but the primitive and original ground of the same is weakness of faith in the heart; therefore, it should be our wisdom, especially, to look to the feeding of the root. We must, 1, Look that our principles and foundation be good; and, 2, Build strongly upon them; and, 3, Repair our building every day as continual breaches shall be made upon us, either by corruptions and temptations from within or without; and we shall find that the main breaches of our lives arise either from false principles or doubts, or mindlessness of those that are true. All sin is a turning of the soul from God to some other seeming good, but this proceeds from a former turning of the soul from God by distrust. As faith is the first return of the soul to God, so the first degree of departing from God is by infidelity, and from thence comes a departure by other sins, by which, as sin is of a winding nature, our unbelief more increaseth, and so the rent and breach betwixt our souls and God is made greater still, which is that Satan would have, till at length, by departing further and further from him, we come to have that peremptory sentence of everlasting departure pronounced against us; so that our departure from God now is a degree to separation for ever from him. Therefore, it is Satan's main care to come between God and the soul, that so unloosing us from God, we might more easily be drawn to other things; and if he draws us to other things, it is but only to unloose our hearts from God the more; for he well knows, whilst our souls cleave close to God, there is no prevailing against us by any created policy or power.
我们应该更加小心地保持对上帝的信任，因为除了它的困难性外，它是一种根本和基本的恩典；它就像是所有恩典的起源和力量的母根和大脉络。植物的衰败，虽然首先表现为枝条和树枝的枯萎，但主要是由于根部的衰败；因此，恩典的衰败可能首先在我们的交往、举止和言辞等方面显现出来；但其最初和根本的原因是心中对信仰的薄弱；因此，我们应该特别明智地关注滋养根部。我们必须：1、确保我们的原则和基础是良好的；2、坚固地建立在这些基础上；3、每天修补我们的建筑，因为我们会不断受到内外的败坏和诱惑；我们会发现我们生活中的主要败坏要么来自错误的原则或怀疑，要么来自对真理的忽视。所有的罪都是灵魂从上帝转向其他看似好的事物，但这是由于先前的灵魂因不信任而背离上帝。 信仰是灵魂回归上帝的第一步，而离开上帝的第一步是不信仰，从而导致其他罪恶的出现。罪恶具有迂回的性质，我们的不信仰因此而增加，我们与上帝之间的裂痕也变得更大。这正是撒旦所希望的，直到最终我们离他越来越远，才会被宣判永远离开。因此，撒旦的主要关注点是介入上帝和灵魂之间，从而解开我们与上帝的联系，使我们更容易被其他事物吸引。如果他引诱我们去追求其他事物，那只是为了更彻底地解开我们的心与上帝的联系；因为他深知，只要我们的灵魂紧紧依附于上帝，任何创造的策略或力量都无法战胜我们。

It was the cursed policy of Balaam to advise Balak to draw the people from God, by fornication, that so God might be drawn from them. The sin of their base affections crept into the very spirits of their mind, and drew them from God to idolatry. Bodily adultery makes way for spiritual. An unbelieving heart is an ill heart, and a treacherous heart, because it makes us to 'depart from God, the living God,' &c., Heb. 3:12. Therefore we should especially take heed of it as we love our lives, yea, our best life, which ariseth from the union of our souls with God.
巴兰的可恶策略是建议巴勒用淫乱来引诱人民远离上帝，以此来使上帝远离他们。他们卑鄙的情欲之罪渗入他们的心灵，将他们从上帝引向了偶像崇拜。肉体的通奸为灵性的通奸铺平了道路。不信的心是一颗邪恶的心，是一颗背叛的心，因为它使我们“离弃活神”，等等，希伯来书 3:12。因此，我们应该特别小心，因为我们爱我们的生命，甚至我们最好的生命，那是由我们的灵魂与上帝的结合而产生的。

None so opposed as a Christian, and in a Christian nothing so opposed as his faith, because it opposeth whatsoever opposes God, both within and without us. It captivates and brings under whatsoever rises up against God in the heart, and sets itself against whatsoever makes head against the soul.
没有什么比基督徒更反对的了，而在基督徒中，没有什么比他的信仰更反对的，因为它反对一切反对上帝的事物，无论是内在还是外在。它俘虏并征服了心中一切反对上帝的事物，并反对一切对灵魂造成威胁的事物。

And because mistake is very dangerous, and we are prone to conceive that to trust in God is an easy matter, therefore it is needful that we should have a right conceit of this trust, what it is, and how it may be discerned, lest we trust to an untrusty trust, and to an unsteady stay.
因为错误非常危险，而且我们容易认为信靠上帝是一件容易的事情，所以我们需要正确地理解这种信任，它是什么，以及如何辨别它，以免我们信任一个不可靠的信任和一个不稳定的支撑。

We may by what hath been said before, partly discern the nature of it, to be nothing else but an exercise of faith, whereby looking to God in Christ through the promises, we take off our souls from all other supports, and lay them upon God for deliverance and upholding in all ill, present or future, felt or feared, and the obtaining of all good, which God sees expedient for us.
我们可以从之前所说的部分看出，它的本质不过是一种信仰的锻炼，通过仰望基督里的上帝，借着应许，我们将我们的灵魂从其他一切支持中解脱出来，将它们寄托在上帝身上，寻求在一切困难中的拯救和支持，无论是现在还是将来，无论是感受到的还是担心的，并且获得上帝认为对我们有益的一切善事。

1. Now that we may discern the truth of our trust in God the better, we must know, that true trust is willing to be tried and searched, and can say to God as David, 'Now, Lord, what wait I for, my hope is in thee,' Ps. 39:7; and as it is willing to come to trial, so it is able to endure trial, and to hold out in opposition, as appears in David. If faith hath a promise, It will rely and rest upon it, say flesh and blood what it can to the contrary. True faith is as large as the promise, and will take God's part against whatsoever opposes it.
既然我们能更好地辨别我们对上帝的信任的真实性，我们必须知道，真正的信任是愿意经受考验和搜索的，并且能够像大卫一样对上帝说：“主啊，我等什么呢？我的盼望在乎你。”（诗篇 39:7）；正如它愿意接受审判一样，它也能够忍受审判，并在对抗中坚持下去，正如大卫所表现出来的那样。如果信仰有一个应许，它会依靠和依赖它，不管肉体和血气如何反对。真正的信仰和应许一样广阔，并且会支持上帝对抗任何与之相对立的事物。

2. And as faith singles not out one part of divine truth to believe and rejects another, so it relies upon God for every good thing, one as well as another; the ground whereof is this, the same love of God that intends us heaven, intends us a supply of all necessaries that may bring us thither.
而且，正如信仰不会挑选出神圣真理的某一部分来相信并拒绝其他部分一样，它依赖上帝赐予我们一切好事物，无论是一个还是另一个；其根据是上帝的爱，这爱既要我们得到天堂，也要我们得到一切可能帮助我们到达那里的必需品。

A child that believes his father will make him heir, doubts not but he will provide him food and nourishment, and give him breeding suitable to his future condition. Fides non eligit objectum. It is a vain pretence to believe that God will give us heaven, and yet leave us to shift for ourselves in the way.
一个相信父亲会让他成为继承人的孩子，毫不怀疑他会为他提供食物和滋养，并给予他适合未来地位的培养。信仰不选择对象。相信上帝会给我们天堂，却让我们自己摸索前进，是徒劳的借口。

3. Where trust is rightly planted, it gives boldness to the soul in going to God; for (1) it is grounded upon the discovery of God's love first to us, and seeth a warrant from him for whatsoever it trusts him for. Though the things themselves be never so great, yet they are no greater than God is willing to bestow. Again, (2) trust is bold because it is grounded upon the worthiness of a mediator, who hath made way to God's favour for us, and appears now in heaven to maintain it towards us.
3. 在信任正确种植的地方，它给予灵魂勇气去面对上帝；因为（1）它建立在首先发现上帝对我们的爱，并且从他那里看到了对于它所信任的一切的授权。尽管这些事情本身可能再大，但它们并不比上帝愿意给予的更大。此外，（2）信任是勇敢的，因为它建立在一个中保的价值上，这个中保为我们打开了通往上帝的恩典之路，并且现在在天上为我们维护这份恩典。

4. Yet this boldness is with humility, which carries the soul out of itself; and that boldness which the soul by trust hath with God, is from God himself. It hath nothing to allege from itself but its own emptiness and God's fulness, its own sinfulness and God's mercy, its own humble obedience and God's command; hence it is that the true believer's heart is not lifted up, nor swells with self-confidence; as trust comes in, that goes out. Trust is never planted, and grows but in an humble and low soul. Trust is a holy motion of the soul to God, and motion arises from want. Those, and those only, seek out abroad that want succour at home. Motus ex indigentia. Plants move not from place to place, because they find nourishment where they stand; but living creatures seek abroad for their food, and for that end have a power of moving from place to place. And this is the reason why trust is expressed by going to God.
然而，这种大胆是带着谦卑的，它使灵魂超越自我；而灵魂通过信任与上帝所拥有的大胆，来自上帝自己。它没有什么可以自称的，只有自己的空虚和上帝的丰盈，自己的罪恶和上帝的怜悯，自己的谦卑顺从和上帝的命令；因此，真正信徒的心不会高傲，也不会自信满满；随着信任的到来，自信就会离去。信任从未被种植，只在一个谦卑而低微的灵魂中生长。信任是灵魂向上帝的一种圣洁动力，而动力源于需求。只有那些在家中需要援助的人才会去外面寻求。植物不会因为在原地找到了养分而移动位置；但是生物会外出寻找食物，为此有能力从一个地方移动到另一个地方。这就是为什么信任被表达为去找上帝的原因。

5. Hereupon trust is a dependent grace, answerable to our dependent condition. It looks upon all things it hath or desires to have as coming from God and his free grace and power. It desireth not only wisdom, but to be wise in his wisdom, to see in his light, to be strong in his strength. The thing itself contents not this grace of trust, but God's blessing and love in the thing. It cares not for anything further than it can have it with God's favour and good liking.
因此，信任是一种依赖的恩典，与我们的依赖条件相符。它将所有拥有或渴望拥有的事物视为来自上帝及其自由的恩典和力量。它不仅渴望智慧，而且渴望在他的智慧中变得聪明，在他的光中看清事物，在他的力量中变得强大。对于信任这种恩典来说，事物本身并不重要，重要的是上帝在事物中的祝福和爱。它不关心任何超出能够得到上帝的喜悦和欢心的事物。

6. Hence it is that trust is an obsequious* and an observing grace, stirring up the soul to a desire of pleasing God in all things, and to a fear of displeasing him. He that pretends to trust the Lord in a course of offending may trust to this, that God will meet him in another way than, he looks for. He that is a tenant at courtesy will not offend his lord. Hence it is that the apostle enforceth that exhortation to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, Phil. 2:12, 13, because it is God that worketh the will and the deed, and according to his good pleasure, not ours. Therefore faith is an effectual working grace; it works in heaven with God, it works within us, commanding all the powers of the soul; it works without us, conquering whatsoever is in the world on the right hand to draw us from God, or on the left hand to discourage us; it works against hell and the powers of darkness; and all by virtue of trusting, as it draweth strength from God. It stirs up all other graces, and keeps them in exercise, and thereupon the acts of other graces are attributed to faith, as Heb. 11. It breeds a holy jealousy over ourselves, lest we give God just cause to stop the influence of his grace towards us, so to let us see that we stand not; by our own strength. Those that take liberty in things they either know or doubt will displease God, shew they want the fear of God; and this want of fear shews their want of dependency, and therefore want of trust. Dependency is always very respective;† it studieth contentment and care to comply. This was it made 'Enoch walk with God, and study how to please him,' Heb. 11:5. When we know nothing can do us good or hurt but God, it draws our chief care to approve ourselves to him. Obedience of faith and obedience of life will go together; and therefore he that commits his soul to God to save, will commit his soul to God to sanctify and guide in a way of well pleasing, 1 Peter 4:19. Not only the tame, but most savage creatures, will be at the beck of those that feed them, though they are ready to fall violently upon others. Disobedience, therefore, is against the principles of nature.
因此，信任是一种恭顺和观察的恩典，激发灵魂渴望在一切事情上取悦上帝，并害怕得罪他。那些假装信任主在犯罪的过程中的人可以相信，上帝会以他意想不到的方式与他相遇。一个有礼貌的房客不会得罪他的主人。因此，使徒强调了这个劝告，要带着恐惧和战栗去努力实现我们的救恩，腓立比书 2:12, 13，因为是上帝在工作他的旨意和行为，按照他的喜悦，而不是我们的。因此，信心是一种有效的工作恩典；它在天上与上帝一起工作，在我们内心工作，指挥灵魂的所有力量；它在我们外面工作，征服一切试图将我们从上帝引开的世界上的事物，或试图使我们灰心的事物；它与地狱和黑暗势力作斗争；所有这一切都是依靠信任从上帝获得力量。它激发所有其他的恩典，并使它们保持活跃，因此其他恩典的行为被归因于信心，如希伯来书 11 章所述。 它培养了对自己的神圣嫉妒，以免给上帝提供停止他的恩典影响的正当理由，让我们看到我们并不靠自己的力量站立。那些在他们知道或怀疑会得罪上帝的事情上放纵自己的人，表明他们缺乏对上帝的敬畏；而这种敬畏的缺乏表明他们缺乏依赖，因此也缺乏信任。依赖总是非常尊重的；它研究满足和顺从的关心。这就是使以诺与上帝同行，并学习如何取悦他的原因，希伯来书 11:5。当我们知道除了上帝之外，没有任何东西能给我们带来好处或伤害时，我们的主要关注就是得到他的认可。信仰的顺从和生活的顺从将一起进行；因此，将自己的灵魂交托给上帝来拯救的人，也会将自己的灵魂交托给上帝来使其成圣并引导在一条令人喜悦的道路上，彼得前书 4:19。不仅温顺的，而且最凶猛的生物都会听从喂养它们的人的指挥，尽管它们准备对其他人进行猛烈的攻击。因此，不顺从违背了自然的原则。

7. This dependency is either in the use of means, or else when means fail us. True dependency is exactly careful of all means. When God hath set down a course of means, we must not expect that God should alter his ordinary course of providence for us; deserved disappointment is the fruit of this presumptuous confidence. The more we depend on a wise physician, the more we shall observe his directions, and be careful to use what he prescribes; yet we must use the means as means, and not set them in God's room, for that is the way to blast our hopes. The way to have anything taken away and not blest, is to set our heart too much upon it. Too much grief in parting with anything, shews too much trust in the enjoying of it; and therefore he that uses the means in faith, will always join prayer unto God, from whom, as every good thing comes, so likewise doth the blessing and success thereof. Where much endeavour is and little seeking to God, it shews there is little trust. The widow that trusted in God, continued likewise 'in prayers day and night,' 1 Tim. 5:5.
这种依赖要么是在使用手段时，要么是当手段无法帮助我们时。真正的依赖对所有手段都非常小心。当上帝规定了一套手段时，我们不能期望上帝为我们改变他的常规供应方式；这种傲慢的信心会导致应得的失望。我们越依赖一个明智的医生，就越会遵循他的指示，并小心使用他开的药方；然而，我们必须将这些手段当作手段使用，而不是把它们放在上帝的位置上，因为这样会破坏我们的希望。让任何东西被夺走而不得福祉的方法，就是过分依赖它。对于任何东西的过分悲伤，表明我们对享受它的信任过多；因此，以信心使用手段的人，总是会向上帝祈祷，因为每一件好事都来自上帝，它的祝福和成功也是如此。如果努力很多，但对上帝的寻求很少，那就表明信任很少。那个信靠上帝的寡妇，同样也是“昼夜祈祷”，提摩太前书 5:5。

The best discovery of our not relying too much on means is, when all means fail, if we can still rely upon God, as being still where he was, and hath ways of his own for helping of us, either immediately from himself, or by setting awork other means, and those perhaps very unlikely, such as we think not of. God hath ways of his own. Abraham never honoured God more than when he trusted in God for a son against the course of nature; and when he had a son, was ready to sacrifice him, upon confidence that God would raise him from the dead again, Gen. 2:2. This was the ground upon which Daniel, with such great authority, reproved Belshazzar, that he had not a care to glorify God, in whose hands 'his breath was, and all his ways,' Dan. 5:23. The greatest honour we can do unto God, is when we see nothing, but rather all contrary to that we look for, then to shut our eyes to inferior things below, and look altogether upon his all-sufficiency. God can convey himself more comfortably to us when he pleaseth, without means than by means. True trust, as it sets God highest in the soul, so in danger and wants it hath present recourse to him, as the conies to the rocks, Prov. 30:26.
我们不过分依赖手段的最好发现是，当所有手段都失败时，如果我们仍然能依靠上帝，因为他仍然在原地，并且有他自己的方法来帮助我们，要么直接来自他自己，要么通过启动其他手段，而这些手段可能非常不可能，我们根本没有考虑过。上帝有他自己的方法。亚伯拉罕从未像在违背自然规律的情况下信靠上帝为儿子而荣耀上帝一样多；当他有了一个儿子时，他准备牺牲他，因为他相信上帝会再次使他复活，创世记 2:2。这是但以理以如此大的权威责备伯沙撒的根据，他没有关心荣耀上帝，而上帝的手中有他的呼吸和他的一切方式，但以理书 5:23。我们能够给上帝的最大荣耀就是当我们看不到任何东西，而且一切都与我们期望的相反时，闭上我们的眼睛，不再看低于我们的次要事物，而是完全看着他的全能。上帝可以在他愿意的时候以比手段更舒适的方式向我们传达自己。真正的信任，正如它将上帝置于灵魂的最高位置一样，在危险和需求中，它立即求助于他，就像岩石对兔子一样，箴言 30:26。

8. And because God's times and seasons are the best, it is an evidence of true trust when we can wait God's leisure and not make haste, and so run before God; for else the more haste the worse speed. God seldom makes any promise to his children but he exerciseth their trust in waiting long before, as David for a kingdom, Abraham for a son, the whole world for Christ's coming, &c.
因为上帝的时机是最好的，所以当我们能够等待上帝的安排而不急躁，不在上帝之前行动时，这是真正信任的证据；否则，越急躁，速度越慢。上帝很少向他的子民作出承诺，而是在很长时间内锻炼他们的信任，比如大卫等待国王的位置，亚伯拉罕等待儿子的降生，整个世界等待基督的降临等等。

9. One main evidence of true trust in God is here in the text; we see here it hath a quieting and stilling virtue, for it stays the soul upon the fulness of God's love, joined with his ability to supply our wants and relieve our necessities, though faith doth not, at the first especially, so stay the soul as to take away all suspicions fears of the contrary. There be so many things in trouble that press upon the soul, as hinder the joining of God and it together, yet the prevailing of our unbelief is taken away, the reign of it is broken. If the touch of Christ in his abasement on earth drew virtue from him, Mark 5:30, certain it is that faith cannot touch Christ in heaven but it will draw a quieting and sanctified virtue from him, which will in some measure stop the issues of an unquiet spirit. The needle in the compass will stand north, though with some trembling.
真正信靠上帝的主要证据在这里的文本中；我们在这里看到它具有安抚和平静的力量，因为它使灵魂停留在上帝的爱的丰满上，与他供应我们的需求和解除我们的困难的能力相结合，尽管信仰一开始尤其如此，不能完全消除所有对相反情况的怀疑和恐惧。有许多困扰灵魂的事情，阻碍了与上帝的联系，但我们不信的统治被消除了，它的统治被打破了。如果基督在地上的卑微中的触摸从他身上吸取了力量，马可福音 5:30，那么毫无疑问，信仰在天上接触基督时，它将从他身上吸取一种安抚和圣洁的力量，这将在某种程度上阻止不安的灵魂的问题。指南针上的指针会指向北方，尽管有些颤抖。

A ship that lies at anchor may be something tossed, but yet it still remains so fastened, that it cannot be carried away by wind or weather. The soul, after it hath cast anchor upon God, may, as we see here in David, be disquieted awhile, but this unsettling tends to a deeper settling. The more we believe, the more we are established. Faith is an establishing grace, by faith we stand, and stand fast, and are able to withstand whatsoever opposeth us. For what can stand against God, upon whose truth and power faith relies? The devil fears not us, but him whom we fly unto for succour; it is the ground we stand on secures us, not ourselves.
停泊的船可能会被风浪摇动，但它仍然被牢牢地固定住，无法被风或天气带走。灵魂在投靠上帝后，可能会像大卫在这里所看到的那样暂时不安，但这种不安定会导致更深层次的安定。我们越是相信，就越能够坚定立足。信仰是一种巩固的恩典，通过信仰，我们站立、站稳，并能够抵挡一切与我们对立的事物。因为什么能够抵挡住依靠真理和能力的上帝呢？魔鬼并不害怕我们，而是害怕我们飞奔寻求庇护的那位；我们站立的是地基，而不是我们自己。

As it is our happiness, so it must be our endeavour, to bring the soul close to God, that nothing get between, for then the soul hath no sure footing. When we step from God, Satan steps in by some temptation or other presently. It requires a great deal of self-denial to bring a soul either swelling with carnal confidence, or sinking by fear and distrust, to lie level upon God and cleave fast to him. Square will lie fast upon square, but our hearts are so full of unevenness, that God hath much ado to square our hearts fit for him, notwithstanding the soul hath no rest without this.
因为这是我们的幸福，所以我们必须努力使灵魂靠近上帝，不让任何事物介入，因为这样灵魂就没有稳固的立足点。当我们离开上帝时，撒旦立即通过某种诱惑介入。要使一个灵魂，无论是因为肉体的自信而膨胀，还是因为恐惧和不信任而沉沦，平稳地依附在上帝身上，需要很多自我否定。方块会牢牢地贴在方块上，但我们的内心充满了不平衡，上帝很难使我们的内心适应他，尽管灵魂没有这样做就无法得到安宁。

The use of trust is best known in the worst times, for naturally in sickness we trust to the physician, in want to our wit and shifts, in danger to policy and the arm of flesh, in plenty to our present supply, &c.; but, when we have nothing in view, then indeed should God be God unto us. In times of distress, when he shews himself in the ways of his mercy and goodness, then we should especially magnify his name, which will move him to discover his excellencies the more, the more we take notice of them. And, therefore, David strengthens himself in these words, that he hoped for better times, wherein God would shew himself more gracious to him, because he resolved to praise him.
在最困难的时候，人们最了解信任的用途，因为在疾病中我们信任医生，在困难中我们依靠智慧和策略，在危险中依靠政策和肉体力量，在富裕中依靠现有的供应等等；但是，当我们没有目标时，上帝才真正成为我们的上帝。在困境中，当他展示他的怜悯和善良时，我们应该特别赞美他的名字，这将促使他更多地展示他的卓越，我们越是注意到他的卓越。因此，大卫在这些话中加强了自己，因为他希望有更好的时机，上帝会对他更加慈悲，因为他决心赞美他。

This trusting joints the soul again, and sets it in its own true resting-place, and sets God in his own place in the soul, that is, the highest, and the creature in its place, which is to be under God, as in its own nature, so in our hearts. This is to ascribe honour due unto God,' Ps. 29:2; the only way to bring peace into the soul. Thus, if we can bring our hope and trust to the God of hope and trust, we shall stand impregnable in all assaults, as will best appear in these particulars.
这种信任重新连接了灵魂，并将其安置在自己真正的安息之地，并将上帝安置在灵魂中的自己的位置，也就是最高的位置，将受造物安置在它的位置上，即在上帝之下，既在其本质上，也在我们的心中。这是将荣耀归于上帝的方式，诗篇 29:2；这是带来内心平安的唯一途径。因此，如果我们能将我们的希望和信任寄托于希望和信任的上帝，我们将在所有攻击中立于不败之地，这在以下几个方面最为明显。

CHAPTER XXI.—Of quieting the spirit in troubles for sin; and objections answered
第二十一章 - 在因罪而困扰时安抚心灵；并回答反对意见

To begin with troubles of the spirit, which indeed are the spirit of troubles, as disabling that which should uphold a man in all his troubles. A spirit set in tune and assisted by a higher spirit, will stand out against ordinary assaults, but when God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall seem contrary to our spirits, whence then shall we find relief?
首先是精神上的困扰，这些困扰实际上就是困扰的精神，因为它们削弱了应该在所有困境中支撑一个人的东西。一个与更高层次的精神和谐并得到帮助的精神，会抵挡住普通的攻击，但当上帝，万有之灵的上帝，似乎与我们的精神相对立时，我们将从何处寻求安慰呢？

Here all is spiritual, God a Spirit, the soul a spirit, the terrors spiritual, the devil, who joins with these, a spirit, yea that which the soul fears for the time to come, is spiritual, and not only spiritual, but eternal, unless it pleaseth God at length to break out of the thick cloud wherewith he covers himself, and shine upon the soul, as in his own time he will.
这里一切都是属灵的，上帝是灵，灵魂是灵，恐惧是灵性的，与此相连的魔鬼也是灵，是的，灵魂对未来的恐惧也是灵性的，不仅如此，而且是永恒的，除非上帝愿意最终打破他自己所遮蔽的浓云，照耀灵魂，就像他自己所定的时候一样。

In this state,* comforts themselves are uncomfortable to the soul. It quarrels with everything. The better things it hears of, the more it is vexed. Oh! what is this to me, what have I to do with these comforts? the more happiness may be had, the more is my grief. As for comforts from God's inferior blessings, as friends, children, estate, &c., the soul is ready to misconstrue God's end in all, as not intending any good to him thereby.
在这种状态下，安慰对灵魂来说是不舒服的。它与一切争吵。它听到的越好的事情，就越烦恼。哦！这对我有什么意义，我与这些安慰有什么关系？幸福越多，我的悲伤就越多。至于来自上帝次要祝福的安慰，如朋友、孩子、财产等，灵魂倾向于误解上帝在其中的目的，认为他并不打算通过这些给他带来任何好处。

In this condition God doth not appear in his own shape to the soul, but in the shape of an enemy; and, when God seems against us, who shall stand for us? Our blessed Saviour in his agony had the angels to comfort him; but had he been a mere man, and not assisted by the Godhead, it was not the comfort, no not of angels that could have upheld him, in the sense of his Father's withdrawing his countenance from him. Alas! then, what will become of us in such a case, if we be not supported by a spirit of power and the power of an almighty Spirit?
在这种情况下，上帝并不以自己的形象出现在灵魂中，而是以敌人的形象出现；当上帝似乎与我们对立时，谁能为我们站出来呢？我们的救主在他的痛苦中有天使来安慰他；但如果他只是一个普通人，没有上帝的帮助，即使有天使的安慰也无法支撑他，因为他感到父亲的慈容离他而去。唉！那么，在这种情况下，如果我们没有一个强大的精神和全能的力量来支持我们，我们将会怎样呢？

If all the temptations of the whole world and hell itself were mustered together, they were nothing to this, whereby the great God sets himself contrary to his poor creature.* None can conceive so, but those that have felt it. If the hiding of his face will so trouble the soul, what will his frown and angry look do? Needs must the soul be in a woeful plight, whenas God seems not only to be absent from it, but an enemy to it. When a man sees no comfort from above, and looks inward and sees less; when he looks about him, and sees nothing but evidences of God's displeasure; beneath him, and sees nothing but desperation; clouds without, and clouds within, nothing but clouds in his condition here, he had need of faith to break through all, and see sun through the thickest cloud.
如果整个世界和地狱的诱惑都聚集在一起，也不及这个，因为伟大的上帝与他可怜的创造物相对立。只有那些亲身感受过的人才能理解。如果上帝掩面已经如此困扰灵魂，那他的怒容和愤怒的目光会带来什么呢？当一个人从上方看不到任何安慰，内心也看不到更多；当他四处张望，只看到上帝的不悦迹象；在他下方，只看到绝望；外面是云，里面也是云，他的处境中只有云，他需要有信仰才能穿越一切，看到最浓密的云中的阳光。

Upon this, the distressed soul is in danger to be set upon by a temptation, called the temptation of blasphemy, tentatio blasphemiarum, that is, to entertain bitter thoughts against God, and especially against the grace and goodness of God, wherein he desires to make himself most known to his creature. In those that have wilfully resisted divine truths made known unto them, and, after taste, despised them, a persuasion that God hath forsaken them, set on strongly by Satan, hath a worse effect. It stirs up a hellish hatred against God, carrying them to a revengeful desire of opposing whatsoever is God's, though not always openly, for then they should lose the advantage of doing hurt, yet secretly and subtilly, and under pretence of the contrary. To this degree of blasphemy God's children never fall, yet they may feel the venom of corruption stirring in their hearts, against God and his ways which he takes with them; and this adds greatly to the depth of their affliction, when afterward they think with themselves what hellish stuff they carry in their souls. This is not so much discerned in the temptation, but after the fit is somewhat remitted.
在这种情况下，困扰的灵魂有可能遭受一种诱惑，被称为亵渎的诱惑，即对上帝和尤其是对上帝的恩典和善良抱有痛苦的想法，而上帝希望通过这些来向他的创造物展示自己。对那些故意抵制上帝启示的人来说，他们在尝试过之后蔑视了这些启示，由撒旦强烈引导的一种信念，即上帝已经抛弃了他们，会产生更糟糕的影响。它激起了对上帝的恶毒仇恨，使他们产生了反抗上帝一切事物的复仇欲望，尽管不总是公开表现，因为那样他们将失去伤害他人的优势，但他们会秘密地、狡猾地以相反的借口行事。上帝的儿女永远不会陷入这种亵渎的程度，但他们可能会感受到腐败的毒液在他们心中激动，对上帝和他对待他们的方式抱有反感；当他们事后思考自己的灵魂中存在着多么邪恶的东西时，这会极大地加深他们的痛苦。这种情况在诱惑发生时并不容易察觉，而是在诱惑稍微减轻后才能感受到。

In this kind of desertion, seconded with this kind of temptation, the way is to call home the soul, and to check it, and charge it to trust in God, even though he shews himself an enemy; for it is but a show, he doth but put on a mask, with a purpose to reveal himself the more graciously afterward. His manner is to work by contraries. In this condition God lets in some few beams of light, whereby the soul casts a longing look upon God, even when he seems to forsake it. It will, with Jonah in the belly of hell, look back to the holy temple of God, Jonah 2:4, it will steal a look unto Christ. Nothing more comfortable in this condition, than to fly to him, that by experience knew what this kind of forsaking meant, for this very end that he might be the fitter to succour us in the like distress, Heb. 4:15, 16.
在这种背弃中，伴随着这种诱惑，方法是呼唤灵魂回家，检查它，并命令它信靠上帝，即使他表现得像个敌人；因为这只是一个表象，他只是戴上面具，目的是在之后更亲切地显露自己。他的方式是通过对立来工作。在这种情况下，上帝让一些微光进入，使灵魂望向上帝，即使他似乎抛弃了它。它会像约拿在地狱的肚子里一样，回望上帝的圣殿，约拿书 2:4，它会偷偷看一眼基督。在这种情况下，没有什么比飞向他更令人舒适的了，他通过经历知道这种背弃意味着什么，正是为了更适合在类似困境中帮助我们，希伯来书 4:15, 16。

Learn, therefore, to appeal from God to God, oppose his gracious nature, his sweet promises to such as 'are in darkness, and see no fight,' Isa. 50:10, inviting them to trust in him, though there appear to the eye of sense and reason nothing but darkness. Here make use of that sweet relation of God in Christ becoming a Father to us. 'Doubtless thou art our Father,' Isa. 63:16. Flesh would make a doubt of it, and thou seemest to hide thy face from us, yet doubtless thou art our Father, and hast in former time shewed thyself to be so; we will not leave thee till we have a blessing from thee, till we have a kinder look from thee. This wrestling will prevail at length, and we shall have such a sight of him, as shall be an encouragement for the time to come, when 'we shall be able to comfort others, with those comforts whereby we have been refreshed ourselves,' 2 Cor. 1:4. With the saint's case remember the saint's course, which is to trust in God. So Christ the Head of the church commits himself to that God, whose favour for the present he felt not; so Job resolves upon trust, though God should kill him, Job 13:15.
因此，学会向上帝呼求，对抗他慈爱的本性，他对那些“在黑暗中，看不见光明”的人的甜蜜承诺，以及邀请他们信靠他，尽管感官和理性的眼中只有黑暗。在这里，利用上帝在基督里成为我们的父亲的甜蜜关系。“无疑，你是我们的父亲，”以赛亚书 63:16。肉体可能会对此产生怀疑，你似乎对我们隐藏了你的面容，但毫无疑问，你是我们的父亲，并且在过去的时间里已经显示出了这一点；我们不会离开你，直到从你那里得到祝福，直到从你那里得到更亲切的眼神。这种摔跤最终会成功，我们将能够看到他，这将鼓励我们在未来的时候，“我们将能够用那些使我们自己得到安慰的安慰来安慰他人”，哥林多后书 1:4。在圣徒的情况中记住圣徒的行径，就是信靠上帝。所以，教会的头基督将自己交托给那个他目前没有感受到恩宠的上帝；约伯也决定信靠，即使上帝要杀死他，约伯记 13:15。

Obj. But these holy persons were not troubled with the guilt of any particular sin, but I feel the just displeasure of God kindled against me for many and great offences.
但是这些圣洁的人并没有因为任何特定的罪行而感到困扰，而我却感受到上帝对我因为许多而且严重的过错而燃起的公正不满。

Ans. True it is, that sin is not so sweet in the committing, as it is heavy and bitter in the reckoning. When Adam had once offended God, paradise itself was not paradise to him. The presence of God, which was most comfortable before, was now his greatest terror, had not God, out of his free, infinite, and preventing mercy, come betwixt him and hell, by the promise of the blessed seed. This seed was made sin to satisfy for sin; sin passive in himself to satisfy for sin active in us, 2 Cor. 5:21.
答案：是的，犯罪在实施时并不像在计算时那样甜美，而是沉重和苦涩。当亚当一旦得罪上帝时，天堂对他来说已经不再是天堂。上帝的存在，在此之前是最令人舒适的，现在却成了他最大的恐惧，如果不是上帝出于他自由、无限和预防性的怜悯，通过祝福的后代的承诺，来阻止他和地狱之间的联系。这个后代被使为罪，以赎罪；他自己被动地满足我们主动犯的罪，哥林多后书 5:21。

When God once charges sin upon the soul, alas! who shall take it off? when the great God shall frown, the smiles of the creature cannot refresh us. Sin makes us afraid of that which should be our greatest comfort; it puts a sting into every other evil. Upon the seizing of any evil, either of body, soul, or condition, the guilty soul is embittered and enraged; for from that which it feels, it fore-speaks to itself worse to come, it interprets all that befalls as the messengers of an angry God, sent in displeasure to take revenge upon it. This weakeneth the courage, wasteth the spirits, and blasteth the beauty even of God's dearest ones, Ps. 39:11. There is not the stoutest man breathing, but if God sets his conscience against him it will pull him down, and lay him flat, and fill him with such inward terrors, as he shall be more afraid of himself, than of all the world beside. This were a doleful case, if God had not provided in Christ a remedy for this great evil of evils, and if the Holy Spirit were not above the conscience, able as well to pacify it by the sense of God's love in Christ, as to convince it of sin, and the just desert thereby.
当上帝一旦将罪恶加在灵魂上时，哎呀！谁能将其除去？当伟大的上帝皱眉时，生物的微笑无法使我们恢复。罪使我们害怕本应是我们最大安慰的事物；它给其他一切邪恶带来了刺痛。在遭受任何身体、灵魂或处境的苦难时，有罪的灵魂变得痛苦和愤怒；因为它从所感受到的东西中，对自己预言更糟糕的事情即将发生，它将所遭遇的一切都解释为上帝愤怒的使者，被派来为了报复而不悦地对待它。这削弱了勇气，消耗了精力，破坏了甚至上帝最亲爱的人的美丽，诗篇 39:11。没有一个最坚强的人，如果上帝让他的良心反对他，它将把他拉倒，使他倒下，并使他充满内心的恐惧，以至于他会比世界上的一切都更害怕自己。如果上帝没有在基督里为这个最大的邪恶提供解决办法，如果圣灵不在良心之上，既能通过感受基督里上帝的爱来安抚它，又能使它相信罪恶和应得的惩罚，那将是一个悲惨的情况。

Obj. But my sins are not the sins of an ordinary man, my spots are not as the spots of the rest of God's children.
但是我的罪孽不同于普通人的罪孽，我的污点也不同于上帝其他子民的污点。

Conceive of God's mercy as no ordinary mercy, and Christ's obedience as no ordinary obedience. There is something in the very greatness of sin, that may encourage us to go to God, for the greater our sins are, the greater the glory of his powerful mercy pardoning, and his powerful grace in healing will appear. The great God delights to shew his greatness in the greatest things. Even men glory, when they are put upon that, which may set forth their worth in any kind. God 'delighteth in mercy,' Mic. 7:18. It pleaseth him, nothing so well, as being his chief name, which then we take in vain, when we are not moved by it to come unto him.
将上帝的怜悯看作非同寻常的怜悯，将基督的顺从看作非同寻常的顺从。罪的伟大之处可能会鼓励我们去寻求上帝，因为我们的罪越大，他的大能怜悯的荣耀和医治的大能恩典就会显现得越大。伟大的上帝喜欢在最伟大的事情中展示他的伟大。即使是人类也会为此而自豪，当他们被赋予任何一种可以展示他们价值的东西时。上帝“喜爱施恩”，弥迦书 7:18。这使他高兴，没有什么比这更好，因为这是他的主要名字，当我们不被它感动而去寻求他时，我们就在徒然地使用它。

That which Satan would use as an argument to drive us from God, we should use as a strong plea with him. Lord, the greater my sins are, the greater will be the glory of thy pardoning mercy. David, after his heinous sins, cries not for mercy, but for 'abundance of mercy;' 'according to the multitude of thy mercies, do away mine offences,' Ps. 51:1. His mercy is not only above his own works, but above ours too. If we could sin more than he could pardon, then we might have some reason to despair. Despair is a high point of atheism, it takes away God and Christ both at once. Judas, in betraying our Saviour, was an occasion of his death as man, but in despairing he did what lay in him to take away his life as God.
撒旦想要用来驱使我们远离上帝的论点，我们应该用作向他提出的有力请求。主啊，我的罪越大，你赦免的怜悯就越大。大卫在犯下重罪后，不是求怜悯，而是求“丰盛的怜悯”；“按你丰盛的慈爱涂抹我的过犯”，诗篇 51:1。他的怜悯不仅超越他自己的作为，也超越我们的。如果我们能犯的罪比他能赦免的还多，那么我们可能有一些绝望的理由。绝望是无神论的高点，它一次性夺走了上帝和基督。犹大背叛我们的救主，是他作为人的死亡的原因，但在绝望中，他尽力夺走他作为上帝的生命。

When, therefore, conscience, joining with Satan, sets out the sin in its colours, labour thou by faith to set out God in his colours, infinite in mercy and lovingkindess. Here lies the art of a Christian; it is divine rhetoric thus to persuade and set down the soul. Thy sins are great, but Adam's was greater, who being so newly advanced above all the creatures, and taken into so near an acquaintance with God, and having ability to persist in that condition if he would, yet willingly overthrew himself and all his whole posterity, by yielding to a temptation, which though high, as being promised to be like unto God, yet such as he should and might have resisted. No sin we can commit, can be a sin of so tainting and spreading a nature; yet, as he fell by distrust, so he was recovered by trusting, and so must we relying on a second Adam, whose obedience and righteousness from thence reigns, Rom. 5:17, to the taking away not only of that one sin of Adam, and ours in him, but of all, and not only to the pardon of all sin, but to a right of everlasting life. The Lord thinks himself disparaged, when we have no higher thoughts of his mercy than of our sins, when we bring God down to our model, whenas 'the heavens are not so much higher than the earth, than his thoughts of love and goodness are above the thoughts of our unworthiness,' Isa. 55:9. It is a kind of taking away the Almighty to limit his boundless mercy in Christ, within the narrow scantling* of our apprehension; yet infidelity doth this, which should stir up in us a loathing of it above all other sins. But this is Satan's fetch,† when once he hath brought us into sins against the law, then to bring us into sins of a higher nature, and deeper danger, even against the blessed gospel, that so there may be no remedy, but that mercy itself might condemn us.
当良心与撒旦联手，以其真实面目展示罪恶时，你要凭借信仰来展示上帝的真实面目，他是无限的慈悲和仁爱。这就是一个基督徒的艺术；这是神圣的修辞，用以说服和安抚灵魂。你的罪孽很大，但亚当的罪孽更大，他刚刚超越了所有的生物，与上帝建立了亲密的关系，并且如果愿意，他有能力保持这种状态，然而他却自愿地毁灭了自己和他所有的后代，因为他屈服于一种诱惑，虽然这种诱惑是高尚的，因为它被承诺会使他像上帝一样，但他本应该并且有能力抵制。我们所犯的罪，无论如何都不会像他那样具有污染和传播的性质；然而，正如他因不信而堕落，他也因信而得救，我们也必须依靠第二个亚当，他的顺服和公义从那时起就统治着我们，罗马书 5:17，不仅消除了亚当和我们在他里面的那一个罪孽，而且消除了所有的罪恶，不仅赦免了所有的罪恶，而且赋予了永生的权利。 主认为自己受到了贬低，当我们对他的怜悯没有比我们的罪更高的想法时，当我们把上帝降低到我们的模式时，正如“天比地高，他的爱和善意的思想比我们的不值得的思想更高”，以赛亚书 55:9 所说。这是一种剥夺全能者的行为，将他在基督里无限的怜悯限制在我们理解的狭窄范围内；然而，不信仰却这样做，这应该激起我们对它的厌恶，超过其他一切罪恶。但这是撒旦的诡计，一旦他使我们犯了违背律法的罪，然后使我们犯更高级、更危险的罪，甚至违背了福音的真理，这样就没有办法了，只能让怜悯本身定我们的罪。

All the aggravations that conscience, and Satan helping it, are able to raise sin unto, cannot rise to that degree of infiniteness, that God's mercy in Christ is of. If there be a spring of sin in us, there is a spring of mercy in him, and a fountain open daily to wash ourselves in, Zech. 13:1. If we sin oft, let us do as St Paul, who prayed oft 'against the prick of the flesh,' 2. Cor. 12:7, 8. If be a devil of long continuance, yet fasting and prayer will drive him out at length, Mat. 17:21.
所有良心和撒旦的帮助所能引起的烦恼，都无法达到上帝在基督里的无限慈悲的程度。如果我们内心有罪恶的泉源，那么他内心也有怜悯的泉源，每天都有一个开放的泉源供我们洗净自己，撒迦利亚书 13:1。如果我们经常犯罪，让我们像保罗一样，常常祈祷“抵挡肉体的刺”，哥林多后书 12:7, 8。如果有一个长期存在的魔鬼，禁食和祷告最终会将他赶走，马太福音 17:21。

Nothing keeps the soul more down than sins of long continuance, because corruption of nature hath gotten such strength in them, as nature is added to nature, and custom doth so determine and sway the soul one way, that men think it impossible to recover themselves. They see one link of sin draw on another, all making a chain to fasten them to destruction. They think of necessity they must be damned, because custom hath bred a necessity of sinning in them, and conceive of the promise of mercy, as only made to such as turn from their sinful courses, in which they see themselves so hardened that they cannot repent.
没有什么比长期持续的罪恶更能压抑灵魂了，因为人性的腐败在其中已经变得如此强大，以至于一种本性又加上另一种本性，习惯决定并左右着灵魂的方向，以至于人们认为自己无法恢复。他们看到一种罪恶引发另一种罪恶，所有的罪恶都构成了一条链条，将他们紧紧地束缚在毁灭之中。他们认为自己必然会被定罪，因为习惯已经在他们身上养成了犯罪的必然性，而对于怜悯的承诺，他们只把它看作是给那些能够离开罪恶道路的人的，而他们自己已经变得如此顽固，无法悔改。

Certain it is, the condition is most lamentable, that yielding unto sin brings men unto. Men are careful to prevent dangerous sicknesses of body, end the danger of law concerning their estates; but seldom consider into what a miserable plight their sins, which they so willingly give themselves up unto, will bring them. If they do not perish in their sins, yet their yielding will bring them into such a doleful condition, that they would give the whole world, if they were possessors of it, to have their spirits at freedom from this bondage and fear.
肯定的是，屈服于罪恶会使人陷入最可悲的境地。人们会小心地防止身体上的危险疾病，结束与财产有关的法律危险；但很少考虑他们如此乐意屈服于的罪恶会使他们陷入多么悲惨的境地。即使他们不会因罪恶而灭亡，但他们的屈服会使他们陷入如此悲惨的境地，以至于他们愿意拥有整个世界，只为了从这种束缚和恐惧中解脱出来。

To such as bless themselves in an ill way upon hope of mercy, we dare not speak a word of comfort, because God doth not, but threatens his wrath shall burn to hell against them. Yet because while life continues there may be, as a space, so a place and grace for repentance, these must be dealt withal in such a manner, as they may be stayed and stopped in their dangerous courses; there must be a stop before a turn.
对于那些寄望于怜悯而以邪恶的方式祈求的人，我们不敢给予安慰，因为上帝并没有这样做，而是威胁说他的愤怒将会燃烧到地狱。然而，因为在生命继续的时候，可能还有一段时间和机会来悔改，所以必须以一种方式来对待他们，以阻止他们危险的行为；在转变之前必须有一个停止。

And when their consciences are thoroughly awaked with sense of their danger, let them seriously consider whither sin, and Satan by sin, is carrying of them, and lay to heart the justice of God, standing before them as an angel with a drawn sword, ready to fall upon them if they post on still.
当他们的良心被危险感彻底唤醒时，让他们认真思考罪恶和撒旦通过罪恶将他们带向何处，并牢记上帝的公正，上帝站在他们面前，如同一位手持出鞘剑的天使，如果他们继续前进，就会降罚于他们。

Yet to keep them from utter sinking, let them consider withal, the unlimited mercy of God, as not limited to any person, or any sin, so not to any time. There is no prescription of time can bind God. His mercy hath no certain date that will expire, so as those that fly unto it shall have no benefit. Invincible mercy will never be conquered, and endless goodness never admits of bounds or end.*
然而，为了防止他们彻底沉沦，让他们同时考虑上帝的无限慈悲，它不限于任何人或任何罪恶，也不限于任何时间。时间的规定不能束缚上帝。他的慈悲没有确定的期限，因此那些投奔它的人将得不到任何好处。无敌的慈悲永远不会被征服，无尽的善良永远不会有界限或终结。

What kind of people were those that followed Christ? Were they not such as had lived long in their sinful courses? He did not only raise them that were newly dead, but Lazarus, that had lien 'four days in the grave,' John 11:39. They thought Christ's power in raising the dead had reached to a short time only, but he would let them know that he could as well raise those that had been long as lately dead. If Christ be the physician, it is no matter of how long continuance the disease be. He is good at all kind of diseases, and will not endure the reproach of disability to cure any. Some diseases are the reproaches of other physicians, as being above their skill to help, but no conceit more dangerous when we are to deal with Christ.
跟随基督的人是什么样的人？他们不是那些长期生活在罪恶中的人吗？他不仅使那些刚刚死去的人复活，还使已经在坟墓里躺了四天的拉撒路复活（约翰福音 11:39）。他们认为基督复活死人的能力只限于短时间，但他要让他们知道，他同样能复活那些已经死了很久的人。如果基督是医生，那么疾病持续多久并不重要。他擅长治疗各种疾病，不会容忍无法治愈任何疾病的耻辱。有些疾病是其他医生的耻辱，因为他们无法帮助，但当我们与基督打交道时，没有比这更危险的自负了。

'The blessed martyr Bilney was much offended when he heard an eloquent preacher inveighing against sin, saying thus, Behold, thou hast lies rotten in thy own lusts, by the space of sixty years, even as a beast in his own dung, and wilt thou presume in one year to go forward towards heaven, and that in thine old age, as much as thou wentest backward from heaven to hell in sixty years?' 'Is not this a goodly argument?' saith Bilney. 'Is this preaching of repentance in the name of Jesus? It is as if Christ had died in vain for such a man, and that he must make satisfaction for himself. If I had heard, saith he, such preaching of repentance in times past, I had utterly despaired of mercy.' We must never think the door of hope to be shut against us, if we have a purpose to turn unto God. As there is nothing more injurious to Christ, so nothing more foolish and groundless than to distrust, it being the chief scope of God in his word to draw our trust to him in Christ, in whom is always open a breast of mercy for humbled sinners to fly unto.
被祝福的殉道者比尔尼听到一位雄辩的传道者谴责罪恶时感到非常愤怒，他这样说：“看哪，你已经在自己的欲望中堆积了六十年的谎言，就像兽类在自己的粪便中一样，你竟然敢在一年内向天堂前进，而且还是在你年老的时候，就像你在六十年中从天堂倒退到地狱一样？”比尔尼说：“这不是一个好的论点吗？这是以耶稣的名义传讲悔改吗？好像基督为这样的人白白死了，他必须为自己赎罪。如果我过去听到这样的悔改传道，我会完全绝望于怜悯。”如果我们有回转归向上帝的决心，我们永远不要认为希望之门已经关闭。对基督来说，没有什么比不信任更伤害他的了，也没有什么比不信任更愚蠢和毫无根据的了，因为上帝在他的话语中的主要目的是引导我们相信他，相信基督，他的怀抱永远为谦卑的罪人敞开。

But thus far the consideration of our long time spent in the devil's service should prevail with us, as to take more shame to ourselves, so to resolve more strongly for God and his ways, and to account it more then sufficient that we have spent already so much precious time to so ill purposes; and the less time we have, to make the more haste to work for God, and bring all the honour we can to religion in so little a space. Oh, how doth it grieve those that have felt the gracious power of Christ in converting their souls, that ever they should spend the strength of their parts in the work of his and their enemy! and might they live longer, it is their full purpose for ever to renounce their former ways. There is bred in them an eternal desire of pleasing God, as in the wicked there is an eternal desire of offending him, which eternity of desires God looks to in both of them, and rewards them accordingly, though he cuts off the thread of their lives.
但迄今为止，我们在魔鬼的服务中度过的时间应该让我们更加羞愧，更加坚决地为上帝和他的道路而努力，并且认为我们已经为如此恶劣的目的浪费了如此宝贵的时间，这已经足够了；而我们拥有的时间越少，就越要加快为上帝工作的步伐，在如此短暂的时间内尽可能地荣耀宗教。哦，那些曾经感受到基督的恩慈力量，使他们的灵魂得到转变的人，他们多么懊悔自己曾经把自己的才能用在他和他们的敌人的工作上！如果他们能活得更久，他们完全打算永远放弃以前的方式。他们内心孕育着永恒的渴望来取悦上帝，而在邪恶者内心也孕育着永恒的渴望来冒犯上帝，上帝在他们两者的永恒渴望中都予以关注，并相应地奖赏他们，尽管他切断了他们生命的线索。

But God in wisdom will have the conversions of such as have gone on in a course of sinning, especially after light revealed, to be rare and difficult. Births in those that are ancienter, are with greater danger than in the younger sort. Cavendum est vulnus quod dolore curatur. God will take a course, that his grace shall not be turned into wantonness. He oft holds such upon the rack of a troubled conscience, that they and others may fear to buy the pleasure of sin at such a rate. Indeed, where sin abounds, there grace superabounds; but then it is where sin, that abounded in the life, abounds in the conscience in grief and detestation of it, as the greatest evil. Christ groaned at the raising of Lazarus, which he did not at others, because that although to an almighty power all things are alike easy, yet he will show that there be degrees of difficulties in the things themselves, and make it appear to us that it is so. Therefore, those that have enjoyed long the sweet of sin, may expect the bitterest sorrow and repentance for sin.
但是，上帝以智慧决定那些在犯罪过程中，尤其是在启示之后仍然继续犯罪的人的转变是罕见且困难的。在年长者身上出生比在年轻人身上更危险。神将采取措施，使他的恩典不会变成放纵。他经常让这些人在痛苦的良心的折磨下，以便他们和其他人会害怕以如此代价购买罪恶的快乐。的确，罪恶增多，恩典更加丰盛；但是，这仅限于罪恶在生活中增多，并在良心中对其感到悲痛和厌恶，将其视为最大的邪恶。基督在复活拉撒路时叹息，而在其他人身上没有，因为尽管对于全能的力量来说，一切都同样容易，但他要表明事物本身存在难度的程度，并向我们展示它确实如此。因此，那些长期享受罪恶的人可以期待最痛苦和悔改的悲伤。

Yet never give place to thoughts of despair, as coming from him that would overturn the end of the gospel, which lays open the riches of God's mercy in Christ; which riches none set out more than those that have been 'the greatest of sinners,' 1 Tim. 1:15, as we see in Paul. We cannot exalt God more than by taking notice, and making use of that great design of infinite wisdom in reconciling justice and mercy together, so as now he is not only merciful, but 'just in pardoning sins,' Rom. 3:26. Our Saviour, as he came towards the latter age of the world, when all things seemed desperate; so he comes to some men in the latter part of their days. The mercy shewed to Zaccheus and the good thief was personal, but the comfort intended by Christ was public, therefore still trust in God.
然而，永远不要陷入绝望的思想，因为这是来自那个想要推翻福音结局的人，福音揭示了上帝在基督里的慈悲的丰富；没有人比那些曾经是“最大的罪人”更能展示这种丰富，正如我们在保罗身上所看到的（提摩太前书 1:15）。我们不能更加赞扬上帝，除非我们注意并利用无限智慧在调和公正和慈悲方面的伟大设计，以至于他不仅仅是仁慈的，而且在宽恕罪恶时也是“公义的”（罗马书 3:26）。我们的救主，正如他来到世界末日时，一切似乎都绝望一样，他也来到了一些人的晚年。对撒该和好贼所显示的怜悯是个人的，但基督所意图的安慰是公众的，因此仍要信靠上帝。

In this case, we must go to God, with whom all things are possible, to put forth his almighty power, not only in the pardoning, but in subduing our iniquities. He that can make a camel go through a needle's eye, can make a high conceited man lowly, a rich man humble. Therefore, never question his power, much less his willingness, when he is not only ready to receive us when we return, but persuades and entreats us to come in unto him, yea, after backsliding and false dealing with him, wherein he allows no mercy to be shewed by man, yet he will take liberty to shew mercy himself, Jer. 3:2.
在这种情况下，我们必须去找上帝，因为在他那里一切皆有可能，他可以施展他的全能力量，不仅是在宽恕我们的罪孽上，也是在征服我们的罪孽上。他能让骆驼穿过针孔，也能让傲慢的人谦卑，让富有的人谦逊。因此，永远不要怀疑他的能力，更不要怀疑他的意愿，当我们回转时，他不仅愿意接纳我们，而且还劝说和恳求我们来到他面前，是的，即使我们背道而驰，对他虚伪，他不允许人施怜悯，但他自己会施怜悯，耶利米书 3:2。

Obj. But I have often relapsed and fallen into the same sin again and again.
但是我经常复发，一次又一次地陷入同样的罪恶中。

Ans. If Christ will have us pardon our brother seventy-seven times,* can we think that he will enjoin us more than he will be ready to do himself, when in case of showing mercy he would have us think his thoughts to be far above ours? Adam lost all by once sinning, but we are under a better covenant, a covenant of mercy, and are encouraged by the Son to go to the Father every day for the sins of that day.
如果基督要我们原谅我们的兄弟七十七次，我们能否认为他会命令我们比他自己更愿意去做的事情，当在显示怜悯的情况下，他希望我们认为他的思想远远超过我们的思想？亚当一次犯罪就失去了一切，但我们处在一个更好的约束下，一个怜悯的约束，并且被儿子鼓励每天为那一天的罪向父亲祈求。

Where the work of grace is begun, sin loses strength by every new fall; for hence issues deeper humility, stronger hatred, fresh indignation against ourselves, more experience of the deceitfulness of our hearts, renewed resolutions until sin be brought under. That should not drive us from God, which God would have us make use of to fly the rather to him. Since there is a throne of grace set up in Jesus Christ, we may boldly make use of it, and lat us be ashamed to sin, and not be ashamed to glorify God's mercy in begging pardon for sin. Nothing will make us more ashamed to sin than thoughts of so free and large mercy. It will grieve an ingenuous spirit to offend so good a God. Ah, that there should be such a heart in me as to tire the patience of God, and dam up his goodness as much as in me lies! But this is our comfort, that the plea of mercy from a broken spirit to a gracious Father will ever hold good. When we are at the lowest in this world, yet there are these three grounds of comfort still remaining:—1. That we are not yet in the place of the damned, whose estate is unalterable. 2. That whilst we live, there is time and space for recovering of ourselves. 3. That there is grace offered, if we will not shut our hearts against it.
恩典的工作开始之处，每一次新的跌倒都会削弱罪恶的力量；因此，更深的谦卑、更强烈的憎恶、对自己的愤怒、对心灵欺骗的更多体验、重新下定决心，直到罪恶被征服。那不应该把我们驱离上帝的东西，上帝希望我们利用它来更加亲近他。既然在耶稣基督里设立了恩典的宝座，我们可以大胆地利用它，不要为犯罪感到羞耻，而是为乞求宽恕而荣耀上帝的怜悯而感到羞耻。没有什么比对如此自由和广大的怜悯的思考更让我们为犯罪感到羞耻。伤害一个真诚的灵魂去冒犯如此善良的上帝是令人悲伤的。啊，竟然有这样一个心在我里面，以至于让上帝的耐心疲倦，尽我所能阻碍他的恩慈！但我们的安慰是，一个破碎的灵魂向一个慈爱的父亲恳求怜悯的请求将永远有效。当我们在这个世界上处于最低谷时，仍然有这三个安慰的基础：1.我们还没有到达被定格的地方，那些被定格的人的境况是无法改变的。2.在我们活着的时候，还有时间和空间来挽回自己。3. 如果我们不关闭我们的心灵，就会有恩典的提供。

Obj. Oh, but every one hath his time; my good hour may be past.
哦，但每个人都有自己的时机；我的好时光可能已经过去了。

Ans. That is counsel to thee; it is not past if thou canst raise up thy heart to God, and embrace his goodness. Shew by thy yielding unto mercy, that thy time of mercy is not yet out, rather than by concluding uncomfortably, willingly betray thyself to thy greatest enemy, enforcing that upon thyself, which God labours to draw thee from. As in the sin against the Holy Ghost, fear shews that we have not committed it; so in this, a tender heart fearing lest our time be past, shews plainly that it is not past.
这是对你的忠告；如果你能将心灵托付给上帝并接受他的恩慈，那么时间并未过去。通过向怜悯屈服，表明你的怜悯时刻尚未结束，而不是不安地得出结论，自愿地将自己出卖给最大的敌人，迫使自己陷入上帝试图引导你远离的境地。就像对圣灵犯罪一样，恐惧表明我们没有犯下它；同样，在这种情况下，一个敏感的心灵担心我们的时机已经过去，明显表明它并未过去。

Look upon examples; when the prodigal in his forlorn condition was going to his father, his father stayed not for him, but 'meets him' in the way, Luke 15:20; he did not only go, but ran to meet him. God is more willing to entertain us than we are to cast ourselves upon him; as there is 'a fountain opened for sin, and for uncleanness,' Zech. 13:1, so it is a living fountain of living water, that runs for ever, and can never be drawn dry.
看看这些例子；当那个浪子在他孤苦无助的状态下去找他父亲的时候，他的父亲并没有等待他，而是在路上'迎接'他，路加福音 15:20；他不仅走了，而且跑去迎接他。上帝更愿意接纳我们，而我们却不愿意投靠他；正如在撒迦利亚书 13:1 中所说的，有一个为罪和污秽而开启的泉源，它是一个永远流动的活水泉，永远不会干涸。

Caution. Here remember, that I build not a shelter for the presumptuous, but only open a harbour for the truly humbled soul to put himself into.
请注意。在这里记住，我建造的不是给傲慢者的庇护所，而只是为真正谦卑的灵魂打开一个港口，让他们投身其中。

CHAPTER XXII.—Of sorrow for sin, and hatred for sin, when right and sufficient. Helps thereto
第二十二章-当合适和足够时，对罪恶的悔恨和憎恶。帮助的方法。

Obj. Ah! there's my misery; If I could be humbled for sin, I might hope for mercy, but I never yet knew what a broken heart meant; this soul of mine was never as yet sensible of the grief and smart of sin. How then can I expect any comfort?
啊！这就是我的痛苦所在；如果我能因罪而谦卑，我或许可以期待怜悯，但我从未真正体会过心碎的感觉；我的灵魂从未真正感受到罪恶的痛苦和伤害。那么，我怎么能期望任何安慰呢？

Ans. 1. It is one of Satan's policies to hold us in a dead and barren condition, by following us with conceits, that we have not sorrowed in proportion to our offences. True it is, we should labour that our sorrow might in some measure answer to the heinousness of our sins; but we must know sorrow is not required for itself in that degree as faith is. If we could trust in God without much sorrow for our sins, then it would not be required, for God delights not in our sorrow as sorrow. God in mercy both requires it and works it, as thereby making us capable vessels of mercy, fit to acknowledge, value, and walk worthy of Christ. He requires it as it is a means to embitter sin, and the delightful pleasures thereof unto us, and by that means bring us to a right judgment of ourselves, and the creature, with which sin commits spiritual adultery, that so we may recover our taste before lost. And then when with the prodigal we return unto ourselves, having lost ourselves before, we are fit to judge of the baseness of sin, and of the worth of mercy; and so upon grounds of right reason, be willing to alter our condition, and embrace mercy upon any terms it shall please Christ to enjoin.
答案 1：将我们困在死寂和贫瘠的状态中是撒旦的一种策略，他通过追随我们的自负来告诉我们，我们对自己的罪行没有足够的悔过之情。诚然，我们应该努力使我们的悔过之情与我们的罪行的严重性相符合；但我们必须知道，悔过之情并不像信仰那样需要那么高的程度。如果我们能够在没有太多为自己的罪过悲伤的情况下信靠上帝，那么悲伤就不是必需的，因为上帝并不喜欢我们的悲伤本身。上帝出于怜悯既要求我们悔过，又通过悔过使我们成为怜悯的容器，能够承认、珍视并配得上基督。他要求悔过是因为它是一种使我们对罪恶和其中的愉悦感产生厌恶的手段，并通过这种手段使我们对自己和与罪恶进行灵性通奸的创造物有正确的判断，以便我们可以恢复之前失去的品味。然后，当我们像浪子一样回到自己身边时，我们失去了自己，我们就有资格判断罪恶的卑劣和怜悯的价值；因此，根据正确的理由，我们愿意改变自己的状况，并接受基督所规定的任何条件来接受怜悯。

Ans. 2. Secondly, if we could grieve and cast down ourselves beneath the earth, as low as the nethermost pit, yet this would be no satisfaction to God for sin; of itself, it is rather an entrance, and beginning of hell.

Ans. 3. Thirdly, we must search what is the cause of this want of grief which we complain of, whether it be not a secret cleaving to the creature, and too much contentment in it, which oft stealeth away the heart from God, and brings in such contentment as is subject to fail and deceive us; whereupon from discontentment we grieve, which grief, being carnal, hinders grief of a better kind.
答案 3：第三，我们必须寻找我们所抱怨的这种缺乏悲伤的原因，是否不是对于创造物的秘密依恋和过度满足，这常常使我们的心离开上帝，并带来容易失败和欺骗我们的满足感；因此，由于不满，我们感到悲伤，而这种悲伤是肉体的，阻碍了更好的悲伤。

Usually the causes of our want of grief for sin are these:—First, a want of serious consideration, and dwelling long enough upon the cause of grief, which springs either from an unsettledness of nature, or distractions from things without. Moveable dispositions are not long affected with anything. One main use of crosses is to take the soul from that it is dangerously set upon, and to fix our running spirits. For though grief for crosses hinders spiritual grief, yet worldly delights hinder more. That grief is less distant from true grief, and therefore nearer to be turned into it.
通常我们对罪恶缺乏悲痛的原因有以下几点：首先，缺乏认真思考和足够长时间地沉思引起悲痛的原因，这可能是由于内心的不稳定或外界事物的干扰。易变的性情不会长时间地受到任何事物的影响。十字架的一个主要作用是将灵魂从危险中解脱出来，并使我们奔跑的精神安定下来。虽然对十字架的悲痛会阻碍属灵的悲痛，但世俗的享乐会更加阻碍。那种悲痛离真正的悲痛更近，因此更容易转化为真正的悲痛。

And secondly, put case we could call off our minds from other things, and set them on grief for our sins, yet it is only God's Spirit that can work our hearts to this grief; and for this end, perhaps, God holds us off from it, to teach us that he is the teacher of the heart to grieve. And thereupon it is our duty to wait till he reveal ourselves so far to ourselves, as to stir up this affection in us.
其次，假设我们能够将思绪从其他事物上抽离，将其集中于对我们的罪孽的悲痛上，然而只有上帝的灵才能使我们的心灵感到悲痛；也许出于这个目的，上帝让我们远离悲痛，以教导我们他是悲痛的心灵的教师。因此，我们有责任等待他将我们自己揭示给我们自己，以激发这种情感。

Thirdly, Another cause may be a kind of doubleness of heart, whereby we would bring two things together that cannot suit. We would grieve for sin so far as we think it an evidence of a good condition; but then because it is an irksome task, and because it cannot be wrought without severing our heart from those sweet delights it is set upon; hence we are loath God should take that course to work grief, which crosseth our disposition. The soul must therefore, by self-denial, be brought to such a degree of sincerity and simplicity as to be willing to give God leave to work this 'sorrow, not to be sorrowed for,' 2 Cor. 7:10, by what way he himself pleaseth. But here we must remember again that this self-denial is not of ourselves, but of God, who only can take us out of ourselves, and if our hearts were brought to a stooping herein to his work, it would stop many a cross, and continue many a blessing which God is forced to take from us, that he may work that grief in us which he seeth would not otherwise be kindly wrought.
第三，另一个原因可能是心灵的两重性，我们想要将两件不能相容的事情放在一起。我们会为罪感到悲伤，因为我们认为这是一个良好状态的证据；但是因为这是一项讨厌的任务，并且因为它需要我们将心灵从那些甜蜜的享乐中分离出来；因此，我们不愿上帝采取那种与我们的性情相悖的方式来引发悲伤。因此，灵魂必须通过自我否定，达到如此真诚和简单的程度，以便愿意让上帝按照他自己的方式来工作这种“不为悲伤而悲伤”，哥林多后书 7:10。但是在这里我们必须再次记住，这种自我否定不是我们自己的，而是上帝的，只有他才能将我们从自己身上带走，如果我们的心在这方面屈服于他的工作，它将阻止许多十字架的出现，并延续许多上帝不得不从我们身上拿走的祝福，因为他看到如果不这样做，我们不会真正地悲伤。

Ans. 4. God giveth some larger spirits, and so their sorrows become larger. Some upon quickness of apprehension, and the ready passages betwixt the brain and the heart, are quickly moved. Where the apprehension is deeper, and the passages slower, there sorrow is long in working, and long in removing. The deepest waters have the stillest motion. Iron takes fire more slowly than stubble, but then it holds it longer.
答案：4. 上帝赋予一些人更大的精神，所以他们的痛苦也更大。一些人因为理解力敏捷，大脑和心脏之间的通道畅通，所以很容易被触动。当理解力更深，通道更慢时，痛苦的作用时间更长，消散的时间也更长。最深的水流动最平静。铁比秸秆更慢地着火，但它能持续更久。

Ans. 5. Again, God that searcheth and knows our hearts better than ourselves, knows when and in what measure it is fit for to grieve. He sees it is fitter for some dispositions to go on in a constant grief. We must give that honour to the wisdom of the great physician of souls to know best how to mingle and minister his potions. And we must not be so unkind to take it ill at God's hands when he, out of gentleness and forbearance, ministers not to us that churlish physic he doth to others, but cheerfully embrace any potion that he thinks fit to give us.
再次，上帝是那位深入搜索并了解我们内心的神，他比我们自己更清楚何时以及以何种程度感到悲伤。他知道对于某些性格来说，持续的悲伤更为适宜。我们必须尊重伟大的灵魂医生的智慧，他最懂得如何混合和施予药物。当他出于温和和忍耐而不给予我们那些粗鲁的药物时，我们不应该对上帝不满，而应该欣然接受他认为适合给予我们的任何药物。

Some holy men have desired to see their sin in the most ugly colours, and God hath heard them in their requests. But yet his hand was so heavy upon them that they went always mourning to their very graves, and thought it fitter to leave it to God's wisdom to mingle the potion of sorrow than to be their own choosers.* For a conclusion, then, of this point, if we grieve that we cannot grieve, and so far as it is sin, make it our grief; then put it amongst the rest of our sins, which we beg pardon of, and help against, and let it not hinder us from going to Christ, but drive us to him. For herein lies the danger of this temptation, that those who complain in this kind think it should be presumption to go to Christ, whenas he especially calleth the 'weary and heavy laden sinner to come unto him,' Mat. 11:28, and therefore such as are sensible that they are not sensible enough of their sin must know, though want of feeling be quite opposite to the life of grace, yet sensibleness of the want of feeling shews some degree of the life of grace. The safest way in this case is from that life and light that God hath wrought in our souls, to see and feel this want of feeling, to cast our selves and this our indisposition upon the pardoning and healing mercy of God in Christ.
有些圣人渴望以最丑陋的方式看到自己的罪恶，上帝听到了他们的请求。但是，上帝的手对他们来说如此沉重，以至于他们总是悲伤地走向坟墓，认为将悲伤的药物混合在一起应该交给上帝的智慧，而不是由他们自己选择。因此，总结这一点，如果我们为不能悲伤而悲伤，并且在某种程度上是罪恶，那么将它与我们的其他罪恶放在一起，我们请求宽恕，并寻求帮助，不要让它妨碍我们去找基督，而是驱使我们去找他。因为这种诱惑的危险在于，那些抱怨这种情况的人认为去找基督是傲慢的，然而他特别呼召“劳苦担重担的人来到他这里”（马太福音 11:28），因此那些能感觉到自己对罪恶不够敏感的人必须知道，虽然缺乏感觉与恩典的生命完全相反，但对缺乏感觉的敏感程度显示出一定程度的恩典生命。 在这种情况下，最安全的方式是从上帝在我们的灵魂中创造的生命和光中，看到并感受到这种缺乏感，将我们自己和我们的不适归于基督中上帝的宽恕和医治之怜悯。

Caution. We speak only of those that are so far displeased with themselves for their ill temper, as they do not favour themselves in it, but are willing to yield to God's way in redressing it, and do not cross the Spirit, moving them thus with David to check themselves, and to trust in God. Otherwise, an unfeeling and careless state of spirit will breed a secret shame of going to God, for removing of that we are not hearty in labouring against, so far as our conscience tells us we are enabled.
注意。我们只谈论那些对自己的坏脾气感到不满意的人，他们不喜欢自己的坏脾气，而是愿意顺从上帝的方式来纠正它，并且不违背内心的感动，像大卫一样自我约束，并且信靠上帝。否则，一种无感觉和漫不经心的心灵状态会导致对去找上帝感到秘密的羞愧，因为我们对自己不真心努力去克服的事情感到羞耻，只要我们的良心告诉我们我们有能力去做。

The most constant state the soul can be in, in regard of sin, is, upon judgment, to condemn it upon right grounds, and to resolve against it. Whereupon repentance is called an after wisdom and change of the mind.† And this disposition is in God's children at all times. And for affections, love of that which is good, and hatred of that which is evil, these likewise have a settled continuance in the soul. But grief and sorrow rise and fall as fresh occasions are offered, and are more lively stirred up upon some lively representation to the soul of some hurt we receive by sin, and wrong we do to God in it. The reason hereof is, because till the soul be separated from the body, these affections have more communion with the body, and therefore they carry more outward expressions than dislike or abomination in the mind doth. We are to judge of ourselves more by that which is constant than by that which is ebbing and flowing.
灵魂在对待罪恶方面最持久的状态是，在审判时以正确的理由谴责它，并决心反对它。因此，悔改被称为事后的智慧和心智的改变。这种倾向在上帝的子民中始终存在。至于情感，对善的爱和对恶的憎恶，这些情感在灵魂中也有稳定的延续。但是，悲伤和悲痛会随着新的机会的出现而起伏不定，并且在灵魂中对我们因罪恶而受到的伤害和对上帝的冒犯有更强烈的激发。原因是，在灵魂与身体分离之前，这些情感与身体有更多的交流，因此它们比心灵中的厌恶或憎恶表现得更外显。我们应该根据持久的东西而不是波动的东西来判断自己。

Quest. But what is the reason that the affections do not always follow the judgment, and the choice or refusal of the will?
但是，为什么情感不总是遵循判断和意愿的选择或拒绝呢？

Ans. 1. Our soul being a finite substance, is carried with strength but one way at one time.
我们的灵魂是有限的实体，在一段时间内只能以一种方式被带动。

2. Sometimes God calls us to joy as well as to grieve, and then no wonder if grief be somewhat to seek.
有时候，上帝呼唤我们去感受喜悦，而不仅仅是悲伤，所以如果我们感到悲伤有些困难，也就不足为奇了。

3. Sometimes when God calleth to grief, and the judgment and will goeth along with God, yet the heart is not always ready, because, it may be, it hath run out so far that it cannot presently be called in again.
有时候当上帝呼唤悲伤时，判断和意愿与上帝同在，然而心灵并不总是准备好，因为它可能已经远离了，无法立即被召回。

4. Or the spirits, which are the instruments of the soul, may be so wasted that they cannot hold out to feed a strong grief; in which case the conscience must rest in settled judgment and hatred of ill, which is the surest and never failing character of a good soul.
或者说，作为灵魂的工具，精神可能被消耗得无法支撑起强烈的悲伤；在这种情况下，良心必须在坚定的判断和对恶行的憎恶中安息，这是一个善良灵魂最确定且永不动摇的特征。

5. Ofttimes God in mercy takes us off from grief and sorrow, by refreshing occasions, because sorrow and grief are affections very much afflicting both of body and soul.
常常，上帝出于怜悯，通过提供令人振奋的机会，使我们摆脱痛苦和悲伤，因为悲伤和痛苦对身心都有很大的折磨。

Quest. When is godly sorrow in that degree wherein the soul may stay itself from uncomfortable thoughts about its condition?
问：何时才能达到至高无上的悔过，以至于灵魂能够摆脱对自身状况的不安思虑？

Ans. 1. When we find strength against that sin which formerly we fell into, and ability to walk in a contrary way; for this answers God's end in grief, one of which is a prevention from falling for the time to come. For God hath that affection in him which he puts into parents, which is by smart to prevent their children's boldness of offending for the time to come.
当我们发现自己能够抵抗以前陷入的罪恶，并有能力走上相反的道路时，这是对上帝悲伤的目的的回应之一，其中之一是为了预防将来的跌倒。因为上帝在他内心中有一种像父母一样的感情，通过痛苦来阻止他们的孩子将来的冒犯。

Ans. 2. When that which is wanting in grief is made up in fear. Here there is no great cause of complaint of the want of grief, for this holy affection is the awe-band of the soul, whereby it is kept from starting from God and his ways.
答案 2：当悲伤中所缺少的部分在恐惧中得到弥补。在这里，对于悲伤的缺乏并没有太大的抱怨，因为这种神圣的情感是灵魂的敬畏之带，使其不会远离上帝和他的道路。

Ans. 3. When after grief we find inward peace; for true grief being God's work in us, he knows best how to measure it. Therefore, whatsoever frame God brings my soul into, I am to rest in his goodness, and not except against his dealing. That peace and joy which riseth from grief in the use of means, and makes the soul more humble and thankful to God, and less censorious and more pitiful to others, is no illusion nor false light.
答案 3：当我们在悲伤之后找到内心的平静时；因为真正的悲伤是上帝在我们内心中的工作，他最懂得如何衡量。因此，无论上帝将我的灵魂带入何种状态，我都要安心于他的善良，不对他的作为抱怨。那种从悲伤中产生的平安和喜乐，通过使用方法使灵魂更加谦卑和感恩上帝，对他人更少指责，更多怜悯，这不是幻觉或虚假的光明。

Ans. 4. The main end of grief and sorrow is to make us value the grace and mercy of God in Christ, above all the contentments which sin feeds on. Which, where it is found, we may know that grief for sin hath enough possessed the soul before. The sufficiency of things is to be judged by an answerableness to their use and ends. God makes sin bitter, that Christ may be sweet. That measure of grief and sorrow is sufficient which brings us and holds us to Christ.
悲伤和忧伤的主要目的是让我们珍视上帝在基督里的恩典和怜悯，高于罪所依赖的一切满足。当我们发现这一点时，我们可以知道对罪的悔恨已经充分地占据了灵魂。事物的充足性应该根据它们的使用和目的来判断。上帝使罪变得苦涩，以使基督变得甜美。足够的悲伤和忧伤是能够将我们带到基督并使我们坚守在基督身边的。

Ans. 5. Hatred, being the strongest, deepest, and steadiest affection of the soul against that which is evil, grief for sin is then right, when it springs from hatred, and increaseth further hatred against it.
仇恨是灵魂对邪恶最强烈、最深沉、最稳定的情感，对罪恶的悲痛只有在源于仇恨并进一步加深对其的仇恨时才是正确的。

1. Now the soul may be known to hate sin when it seeks the utter abolishing of it; for hatred is an implacable and irreconcileable affection.
现在，当灵魂寻求彻底消除罪恶时，它可能被认为是憎恨罪恶；因为憎恨是一种不可调和和不可和解的情感。

2. True hatred is carried against the whole kind of sin, without respect of any wrong done to us, but only out of a mere antipathy and contrariety of disposition to it, as the lamb hateth the whole kind of wolves, and man hateth the whole kind of serpents. A toad does us no harm, but yet we hate it.
真正的仇恨是针对整个罪恶的，不考虑对我们造成的任何伤害，而只是出于对它的纯粹反感和对立心态，就像羔羊憎恶整个狼类一样，人类憎恶整个蛇类。蟾蜍对我们没有伤害，但我们仍然憎恶它。

3. That which is hateful to us, the nearer it is the more we shun and abhor it, as venomous serpents and hurtful creatures, because the nearness of the object affects us more deeply. Therefore, if our grief spring from true hatred of sin, it will make no new league with it, but grieve for all sin, especially for our own particular sins, as being contrary to the work of God's grace in us, then is grief an affection of the new creature, and every way of the right breed.
我们所憎恶的东西，越是靠近我们，我们就越会回避和厌恶它，就像有毒的蛇和有害的生物一样，因为物体的靠近会更深刻地影响我们。因此，如果我们的悲伤源于对罪恶的真正憎恶，它不会与之结盟，而是为所有的罪恶而悲伤，尤其是为我们自己的特定罪恶，因为它们与上帝在我们身上的恩典的工作相悖。那么，悲伤就成为新造之物的情感，是正确品种的各种方式。

4. But for fuller satisfaction in this case, we must know there is sometimes grief for sin in us, when we think there is none. It wants but stirring up by some quickening word. The remembrance of God's favours and our unkindness, or the awaking of our consciences by some cross, will raise up this affection feelingly in us. As in the affection of love many think that they have no love to God at all; yet let God be dishonoured in his name, truth, or children, and their love will soon stir, and appear in just anger.
但是为了在这种情况下获得更充分的满足，我们必须知道有时候我们会对罪感到悲伤，即使我们认为自己没有罪。只需要通过一些激励的话语来激发起来。回想起上帝的恩惠和我们的不友善，或者通过一些困难来唤醒我们的良心，都会使我们真切地产生这种情感。就像在爱的情感中，许多人认为自己根本没有对上帝的爱；然而，只要上帝的名字、真理或子女受到亵渎，他们的爱就会迅速激发起来，并以正当的愤怒表现出来。

In want of grief for sin, we must remember, first, that we must have this affection from God, before we can bring it unto God.
在对罪恶的悔过中，我们必须首先记住，我们必须先从上帝那里得到这种感情，然后才能将它带给上帝。

And, therefore, in the second place, our chief care should be not to harden our hearts against the motions of the Spirit stirring us to seasonable grief, for that may cause a judicial hardness from God. God oft inflicteth some spiritual judgment as a correction upon men, for not yielding to his Spirit at the first; they feel a hardness of heart growing upon them. This made the church complain, 'Why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy fear?' Isa. 63:17. Which if Christians did well consider, they would more carefully entertain such impressions of sorrow, as the Spirit in the use of the means, and observation of God's dealing towards themselves or others, shall work in them, than they do. It is a saying, of Austin, 'Let a man grieve for his sin, and joy for his grief.' Though we can neither love, nor grieve, nor joy of ourselves, as we should, yet our hearts tell us, we are often guilty of giving a check to the Spirit's stirring these affections in us, which is a main cause of the many sharp afflictions we endure in this life, though God's love in the main matter of salvation be most firm unto us.
因此，第二点，我们最关心的应该是不要对圣灵激发我们适时悲伤的动力产生硬心，因为那可能引起上帝的审判性硬心。上帝常常对人们不在最初时顺从他的圣灵而施加一些属灵的惩罚，他们感到心硬。这使教会抱怨说：“你为什么使我们的心变硬，不敬畏你呢？”（以赛亚书 63:17）如果基督徒能好好思考这一点，他们会更加小心地接纳那些悲伤的印象，就像圣灵在使用手段和观察上帝对自己或他人的作为时在他们身上产生的印象一样。这是奥古斯丁的一句话：“让一个人为他的罪而悲伤，为他的悲伤而欢喜。”虽然我们不能自己爱，悲伤，或者欢喜，如同我们应该的那样，但我们的心告诉我们，我们经常有责任制止圣灵在我们内心激发这些情感，这是我们在这个生命中经历许多严峻苦难的主要原因，尽管上帝在救恩的主要事情上对我们的爱是最坚定的。

Third, We must not think to have all this grief at first, and at once, for oftentimes it is deeper after a sight and feeling of God's love than it was before. God is a free agent, and knows every man's several mould, and the several services he is to use them in, and oft takes liberty afterwards to humble men more, when he hath enabled them better to bear it, than in their first entrance into religion. Grief before springs commonly from self-love and fear of danger. Let no man suspect his estate, because God spares him in the beginning. For Christians many times meet with greater trial after their conversion than ever they thought on. When men take little fines, they mean to take the greater rent. God will have his children, first or last, to feel what sin is; and how much they are beholden to him for Christ.
第三，我们不要一开始就认为所有的悲伤都会一次性地降临，因为往往在感受到上帝的爱之后，悲伤会比之前更深。上帝是一个自由的行动者，他知道每个人的不同模样，以及他们将在其中使用的不同服务，并且常常在使他们更能承受的时候，才会在以后自由地使人谦卑，而不是在他们初入宗教时。悲伤通常源于自我爱和对危险的恐惧。不要因为上帝在开始时宽容你而怀疑自己的状态。因为基督徒经常在转变后遇到比他们想象的更大的试炼。当人们付出一点点罚款时，他们意味着要收取更高的租金。上帝要求他的子民，不管是早是晚，都要感受到罪的本质，以及他们为基督所欠的一切。

This grief doth not always arise from poring on sin, but by oft considering of the infinite goodness of God in Christ, and thereby reflecting on our own unworthiness, not only in regard of sin past, but likewise of the sin that hangeth upon us, and issues daily from us. The more holy a man is, the more he sees the holiness of God's nature, with whom he desires to have communion, the more he is grieved that there should be anything found in him displeasing to so pure a Majesty.
这种悲伤并非总是因为沉湎于罪恶，而是经常思考上帝在基督里的无限善良，从而反思我们自己的不值，不仅是过去的罪恶，而且是悬挂在我们身上并每天从我们身上流出的罪恶。一个人越圣洁，他就越能看到上帝的圣洁本质，他渴望与之交流，他就越感到悲伤，因为在他身上发现了令如此纯洁的威严不悦的事物。

And as all our grief comes not at first, so God will not have it come all at once, but to be a stream always running, fed with a spring, yet within the banks, though sometimes deeper, sometimes shallower. Grief for sin is like a constant stream; grief for other things is like a torrent, or swelling waters, which are soon up, soon down; what it wants in greatness is made up in continuance.
所有的悲伤并非一开始就到来，上帝也不希望它一下子到来，而是像一条不断流动的溪流，源源不断地注入，但始终保持在河岸之内，虽然有时深有时浅。对罪恶的悲伤就像一条持续的溪流；对其他事物的悲伤则像洪水或涨潮，很快就会上升，很快就会下降；它在伟大性上的不足被持续性弥补了。

Fourth, Again, if we watch not our nature, there will be a spice of popery, which is a natural religion, in this great desire of more grief; as, if we had that, then we had something to satisfy God withal, and so our minds will run too much upon works. This grief must not only be wrought by God revealing our sin, and his mercy unto us in Christ; but when it is wrought, we must altogether rest, in a sense of our own emptiness, upon the full satisfaction and worthiness of Christ our Saviour.
第四，再次，如果我们不注意我们的本性，那么在对更多悲伤的渴望中会有一丝天主教的味道，这是一种自然宗教；就好像，如果我们拥有那个，那么我们就有了某种可以满足上帝的东西，所以我们的思想会过于依赖行为。这种悲伤不仅仅是由上帝揭示我们的罪和基督对我们的怜悯而产生的；而且当它产生时，我们必须完全依靠基督我们的救主的满足和价值感，来感受到我们自己的空虚。

All this that hath been said tends not to the abating of our desire to have a tender and bleeding heart for sin; but that in the pursuit of this desire, we be not cast down so as to question our estates, if we feel not that measure of grief which we desire and endeavour after, or to refuse our portion of joy which God offers us in Christ, considering grief is no further; good than it makes way for joy; which caused our Saviour to join them together: blessed are the mourners, for they shall be comforted.' Being thus disposed, we may commit our souls to God in peace, notwithstanding Satan's troubling of us in the hour of temptation.
所有这些已经说过的话并不是为了减少我们对罪恶的渴望拥有一个温柔而流血的心；而是在追求这个渴望的过程中，我们不要沮丧到质疑我们的状态，如果我们没有感受到我们所渴望和努力追求的悲伤程度，或者拒绝神在基督里给我们提供的喜乐，考虑到悲伤只有在为喜乐铺路时才是好的；这就是为什么我们的救主把它们联系在一起：那些悲哀的人是有福的，因为他们必得安慰。'如果我们有这样的心态，我们可以在诱惑的时刻将我们的灵魂交托给上帝，尽管撒旦会在那时困扰我们。

CHAPTER XXIII.—Other spiritual causes of the soul's trouble discovered and removed; and objections answered
第二十三章——发现并消除灵魂困扰的其他精神原因；并回答反对意见

Another thing that disquiets and casts down the soul very much is, that inward conflict betwixt grace and corruption. This makes us most work, and puts us to most disquietment. Proximorum odia sunt acerbissima. It is the trouble of troubles to have two inhabitants so near in one soul, and these to strive one against another, in every action, and at all times in every part and power in us: the one carrying us upward, higher and higher still, till we come to God; the other pulling us lower and lower, further from him. This cannot but breed a great disquiet, when a Christian shall be put on to that which he would not, and hindered from that which he would do, or troubled in the performance of it, Rom. 7:21–23. The more light there is to discern, and life of grace to be sensible hereof, and the more love of Christ, and desire from love to be like to him, the more irksome will this be. No wonder then that the apostle cried out, 'O wretched man that I am,' &c., Rom. 7:24.
另一个让人不安和沮丧的事情是，恩典与腐败之间的内心冲突。这使我们最努力，也使我们最不安。Proximorum odia sunt acerbissima. 在一个灵魂中有两个如此接近的居民，并且它们在每一个行动中，每一次在我们的每一个部分和力量中相互斗争：一个将我们带向上，越来越高，直到我们来到上帝面前；另一个将我们拉向下，离他越来越远。这不免会引起极大的不安，当一个基督徒被迫去做他不愿意做的事情，被阻止做他想做的事情，或者在执行中感到困扰时，罗马书 7:21-23。当有更多的光来辨别，并且有更多的恩典生命来感知这一点，以及更多的对基督的爱和渴望，希望像他一样，这将会更加令人讨厌。难怪使徒呼喊着说：“我这个人有祸了！”等等，罗马书 7:24。

Here is a special use of trust in the free mercy of God in justification, considering all is stained that comes from us. It is one main end of God's leaving us in this conflicting condition, that we may live and die by faith in the perfect righteousness of Christ, whereby we glorify God more than if we had perfect righteousness of our own. Hereby likewise we are driven to make use of all the promises of grace, and to trust in God for the performance of them, in strengthening his own party in us, and not only to trust in God for particular graces, but for his Spirit, which is the spring of all graces, which we have through and from Christ, who will help us in this fight until he hath made us like himself. We are under the government of grace; sin is deposed from the rule it had, and shall never recover the right it had again. It is left in us for matter of exercise, and ground of triumph.
这里是对上帝的自由怜悯在称义中的特殊应用，考虑到我们所产生的一切都是有污点的。上帝让我们处于这种冲突的状态中的一个主要目的是，我们可以凭借基督完美的义，活着并死在信仰中，从而比拥有我们自己完美的义更能荣耀上帝。通过这样做，我们也被迫利用所有的恩典应许，并信靠上帝来完成它们，在我们内心中加强他自己的一方，并且不仅仅是信靠上帝获得特定的恩典，而是信靠上帝的灵，这是所有恩典的源泉，我们通过基督得到，他将在这场战斗中帮助我们，直到他使我们变得像他自己一样。我们处在恩典的统治之下；罪被废黜了它曾经拥有的统治权，再也不会恢复它的权利。它留在我们内心，成为锻炼的对象和胜利的基础。

Obj. Oh, say some, I shall never hold out, as good give over at first as at last; I find such strong inclination to sin in me, and such weakness to resist temptation, that I fear I shall but shame the cause; I shall one day perish, by the hand of Satan strengthening my corruption.
Obj. 哦，有人说，我永远无法坚持下去，与其最后放弃，不如一开始就放弃；我发现我内心有如此强烈的犯罪倾向，以及抵抗诱惑的脆弱，我担心我只会给事业带来耻辱；有一天，我会被撒旦加强我的腐败而灭亡。

Ans. Why art thou thus troubled? 'Trust in God,' grace will be above nature; God above the devil, the spirit above the flesh. Be strong in the Lord, the battle is his, and the victory ours beforehand. If we fought in our own cause and strength, and with our weapons, it were something; but as we fight in the power of God, so are 'we kept by that mighty power through faith unto salvation,' 1 Pet. 1:5. It lies upon the faithfulness of Christ, to put us into that possession of glory which he hath purchased for us; therefore charge the soul to make use of the promises, and rely upon God for perfecting the good work that he hath begun in thee.
为什么你如此困扰？"相信上帝，恩典将超越自然；上帝超越魔鬼，灵性超越肉体。在主里要坚强，战斗是他的，胜利是我们的。如果我们为自己的事业和力量而战，使用我们的武器，那还算一点；但我们是在上帝的能力中战斗，因此我们是"靠着上帝的大能，借着信心得以保守，直到得救的时候"（彼得前书 1:5）。这取决于基督的信实，使我们进入他为我们购买的荣耀之中；因此，要劝告灵魂利用应许，并依靠上帝来完成他在你身上开始的善工。

Corruptions be strong, but stronger is he that is in us than that corruption that is in us. When we are weak in our own sense, then are we strong in him who perfecteth strength in our weakness, felt and acknowledged. Our corruptions are God's enemies as well as ours, and, therefore, in trusting to him and fighting against them, we may be sure he will take our part against them.
腐败势力强大，但在我们内心的力量比我们内心的腐败更强大。当我们在自己的感觉上感到脆弱时，我们在那位在我们的软弱中完善力量的他那里变得强大，这种软弱是被感知和承认的。我们的腐败是上帝的敌人，也是我们的敌人，因此，在信靠他并与之对抗时，我们可以确信他会支持我们对抗腐败。

Obj. But I have great impediments and many discouragements in my Christian course.
但是在我作为基督徒的道路上，我遇到了很多困难和挫折。

Ans. What if our impediments be mountains, faith is able to remove them. 'Who art thou, O mountain?' Zech. 4:7, saith the prophet. What a world of impediments were there betwixt Egypt and the land of Canaan, betwixt the return out of Babylon and Jerusalem; yet faith removed all by looking to God's power and truth in his promise. The looking too much to the Anakims and giants, and too little to God's omnipotency, shut the Israelites out of Canaan, and put God to his oath that they should 'never enter into his rest,' Ps. 95:11; and it will exclude our souls from happiness at length, if, looking too much upon these Anakims within us and without us, we basely despair and give over the field, considering all our enemies are not only conquered for us by our Head, but shall be conquered in us, so that in strength of assistance we fight against them. God gave the Israelites' enemies into their hands, but yet they must fight it out; and what coward will not fight when he is sure of help and victory?
如果我们的阻碍是山，信仰能够消除它们。先知说：“你是谁，大山？”（撒迦利亚书 4:7）。在埃及和迦南之间，从巴比伦回到耶路撒冷之间有多少阻碍，然而信仰通过仰望上帝的能力和真实的应许，将它们全部消除。过分关注亚衲族人和巨人，而对上帝的全能力量关注不足，使以色列人无法进入迦南地，并迫使上帝发誓他们“永不得享安息”（诗篇 95:11）。如果我们过分关注我们内外的这些亚衲族人，卑劣地绝望并放弃战斗，那么最终我们的灵魂将被排除在幸福之外，要考虑到我们的一切敌人不仅已经被我们的首领征服，而且将在我们内部被征服，以便我们在援助的力量下与他们战斗。上帝将以色列人的敌人交在他们手中，但他们必须争取到底；当一个人确信有帮助和胜利时，有什么懦夫不会战斗呢？

Obj. But I carry continually about me a corrupt heart; if that were once changed, I could have some comfort.
但是我身上一直带着一个腐败的心灵；如果那能改变一下，我就能得到一些安慰。

A new heart is God's creature, and he hath promised to create it in us, Ps. 51:10, Eph. 2:10. A creating power can, not only bring something out of nothing, but contrary out of contrary. Where we are sure of God's truth, let us never question that power to which all things are possible. If our hearts were as ill as God is powerful and good, there were some ground of discouragement. In what measure we give up our hearts to God, in that measure we are sure to receive them better. That grace which enlargeth the heart to desire good is therefore given that God may increase it, being both a part and a pledge of further grace, Ezek. 36:25. There is a promise of pouring clean water upon us which faith must sue out. Christ hath taken upon him to purge his spouse, and make her fit for himself, Eph. 5:26, 27.
一个新的心是上帝的创造物，他已经应许在我们里面创造它，诗篇 51:10，以弗所书 2:10。创造的力量不仅可以从无中创造出某物，还可以从相反的事物中创造出相反的事物。当我们确信上帝的真理时，让我们永远不要怀疑那一切皆有可能的力量。如果我们的心像上帝的能力和善良一样糟糕，那就有些泄气了。我们将我们的心完全交给上帝，我们就能得到更好的回报。赐予心灵渴望善良的恩典是为了让上帝增加它，它既是进一步恩典的一部分，也是一个保证，以西结书 36:25。有一个倾倒清洁水的应许，信仰必须去追求。基督已经承担了净化他的新娘，并使她配得上自己的责任，以弗所书 5:26, 27。

Obj. But I have many wants and defects to be supplied.
但是我有很多需求和缺陷需要满足。

Ans. It pleaseth him that in Christ 'all fulness shall dwell,' Col. 1:19, from whose fulness grace sufficient is dispensed to us answerable to the measure of our faith, whereby we fetch it from the fountain. The more we trust, the more we have. When we look, therefore, to our own want, we should look withal to Christ's fulness and his nearness to us, and take advantage from our misery to rest upon his all-sufficiency whose fulness is ours, as himself is. Our fulness, with our life, is hid in Christ, and distilled into us in such measure as his wisdom thinketh fit and as sheweth him to be a free agent, and yet so as the blame for want of grace lieth upon us, seeing he is beforehand with us in his offers of grace; and our own consciences will tell us that our failings are more from cherishing of some lust than from unwillingness in him to supply us with grace.
答：他喜悦基督中“一切的丰盛都要居住”（歌罗西书 1:19），从他的丰盛中，恩典足够地按照我们的信心的程度分发给我们，我们从中获取。我们信靠得越多，我们拥有的就越多。因此，当我们看到自己的需要时，我们应该同时看到基督的丰盛和他与我们的亲近，并从我们的苦难中利用他的充足来依靠他，他的丰盛就是我们的，正如他自己是我们的。我们的丰盛和我们的生命都隐藏在基督里，并以他的智慧认为合适的程度滴入我们，正如他显示他是一个自由的行动者，但是我们缺乏恩典的责任在于我们，因为他在恩典的供应上比我们更早；我们自己的良心会告诉我们，我们的失败更多是因为滋养某种欲望，而不是他不愿意供应我们恩典。

Obj. But God is of pure eyes, and cannot endure such services as I perform.
但是上帝的眼睛是纯洁的，不能容忍我所做的这样的事奉。

Ans. Though God be of pure eyes, yet he looks upon us in 'Him who is blameless and without spot,' Heb. 9:14, who, by virtue of his sweet-smelling sacrifice, appears for us in heaven, and mingles his odours with our service; and in him will God be known to us by the name of a kind Father, not only in pardoning our defects, but accepting our endeavours. We offer our services to God, not in our own name, but in the name of our High Priest, who takes them from us, and presents them to his Father as stirred up by his Spirit and perfumed by his obedience. Jonah's prayer was mingled with a great deal of passion and imperfection, yet God could discern something of his own in it, and pity and pardon the rest.
虽然上帝是纯洁的眼睛，但他在“无瑕疵、无斑点”的耶稣基督里看着我们（希伯来书 9:14）。凭借他甜美的祭品，他在天上为我们出现，并将他的香气与我们的事奉融合在一起。在他里面，上帝以慈父的名义向我们显现，不仅宽恕我们的缺陷，还接纳我们的努力。我们向上帝献上自己的事奉，不是以自己的名义，而是以我们的大祭司的名义，他从我们这里接受，并将其作为他的灵感和他的顺服所激发的，呈现给他的父亲。约拿的祷告充满了激情和不完美，然而上帝能够辨别出其中的一些属于他自己的东西，并怜悯和宽恕其余的部分。

CHAPTER XXIV.—Of outward troubles disquieting the spirit, and comforts in them
第二十四章 - 困扰心灵的外在困扰，以及其中的安慰

As for the outward evils that we meet withal in this life, they are either such, 1, As deprive us of the comforts our nature is supported withal; or else, 2, They bring such misery upon our nature or condition that hinders our well-being in this world.
至于我们在这个生活中遇到的外在邪恶，要么是剥夺了我们本性所依赖的安慰；要么是给我们的本性或状况带来了如此的痛苦，以至于阻碍了我们在这个世界上的幸福。

1. For the first, trust in God, and take out of his all-sufficiency whatsoever we want. Sure we are by his promise that we shall want nothing that is good. What he takes away one way, he can give another; what he takes away in one hand, he can give another; what he withholds one way, he can supply in a better.* Whatsoever comfort we have in goods, friends, health, or any other blessings, it is all conveyed by him, who still remains, though these be taken from us. And we have him bound in many promises for all that is needful for us. We may sue him upon his own bond. Can we think that he who will give us a kingdom, will fail us in necessary provision to bring us thither, who himself is our portion?
首先，相信上帝，并从他的丰富中得到我们所需的一切。我们确信他的承诺，我们将不会缺少任何好的东西。他一手拿走的，他可以用另一只手给予；他一种方式拒绝的，他可以用更好的方式提供。无论我们在财富、朋友、健康或其他祝福中获得了多少安慰，都是通过他传达的，尽管这些可能被夺走，但他仍然存在。对于我们所需的一切，他在许多承诺中与我们有关。我们可以依靠他的保证来起诉他。我们能否认为那个愿意给我们一个国度的人，会在必要的供应上让我们失望，他自己就是我们的份额？

2. As for those miseries which our weak nature is subject to, they are all under Christ. They come and go at his command; they are his messengers, sent for our good, and called back again when they have done what they came for. Therefore, look not so much upon them as to Him for strength and comfort in them, mitigation of them, and grace to profit by them.
至于我们脆弱的本性所遭受的苦难，它们都在基督的掌控之下。它们按照他的命令来去；它们是他派遣的使者，为了我们的利益而来，完成使命后又被召回。因此，在面对这些苦难时，不要过分关注它们，而是要仰望基督，寻求他的力量和安慰，减轻苦难，并蒙受恩典从中受益。

To strengthen our faith the more in God, he calleth himself a buckler for defence from ill, and an 'exceeding great reward,' Gen. 15:1, for a supply of all good; a sun for the one, and a shield for the other. Trust him, then, with health, wealth, good name, all that thou hast. It is not in man to take away that from us which God will give us and keep for us. It is not in man's power to make others conceive what they please of us.
为了加强我们对上帝的信仰，他称自己为抵御邪恶的盾牌，是“极大的赏赐”，创世记 15:1，为了供应一切善事；对于一个是太阳，对于另一个是盾牌。因此，相信他，相信他的健康、财富、良好名声，以及你所拥有的一切。人无法夺走上帝给予我们并为我们保留的东西。人无法使别人对我们有任何想法。

Among crosses this is that which disquieteth not the mind least, to be deceived in matter of trust, whenas if we had not trusted we had not been deceived. The very fear of being disappointed made David in his haste think 'all men were liars,' Ps. 116:11. But as it is a sharp cross, so nothing will drive us nearer unto God, who never faileth his.
在众多的十字架中，这是那个最不让人心烦意乱的，即在信任的事情上被欺骗，因为如果我们没有信任，就不会被欺骗。被失望的恐惧使大卫匆忙地认为“人人都是说谎者”（诗篇 116:11）。但正如它是一个尖锐的十字架，没有什么能让我们更接近从不辜负我们的上帝。

Friends often prove as the 'reed of Egypt, as a broken staff,' Ezek. 29:6, 'and as a deceitful brook,' Job 6:15, that fails the weary passenger in summer time, when there is most need of refreshing; and it is the unhappiness of men, otherwise happy in the world, that during their prosperous condition, they know not who be their friends; for when their condition declines, it plainly appears, that many were friends of their estates, and not of their persons. But when men will know us least, God will know us most. He knows our souls in adversity, and knows them so as to support and comfort them, and that from the spring-head of comfort, whereby the sweetest comforts are fetched. What God conveyed before by friends, that he doth now instil immediately from himself. The immediate comforts are the strongest comforts. Our Saviour Christ told his disciples, that they would 'leave him alone; yet, saith he, I am not alone, but the Father is with me,' John 16:32. At St Paul's first appealing 'all forsook him, but the Lord stood by him,' 2 Tim. 4:16. He wants no company that hath Christ for his companion, Solus non est cui Christus comes est.—Cypr[ian.] 'I looked for some to take pity,' saith David, 'but there was none, Ps. 69:20. This unfaithfulness of man is a foil to set out God's truth, who is never nearer than when trouble is nearest. There is not so much as a shadow of change in him or his love.
朋友常常被证明是“埃及的芦苇，是折断的杖”，以西结书 29:6，“是欺诈的小溪”，约伯记 6:15，在夏天时让疲惫的旅客失望，当他们最需要得到慰藉时；对于在世界上本来幸福的人来说，他们的不幸之处在于，在他们繁荣的时候，他们不知道谁是他们的朋友；因为当他们的状况下降时，很明显，许多人是他们财产的朋友，而不是他们的人。但是当人们最不了解我们时，上帝会最了解我们。他在逆境中了解我们的灵魂，并且了解得足以支持和安慰它们，这是从安慰的源头中得到最甜蜜的安慰。上帝以前通过朋友传达的，他现在直接从自己灌输。直接的安慰是最强大的安慰。我们的救主基督告诉他的门徒，他们会“撇下他独自一人；然而，他说，我并不孤单，因为父与我同在”，约翰福音 16:32。在保罗第一次上诉时，“众人都离弃他，但主却与他同在”，提摩太后书 4:16。那些有基督作伴侣的人不需要伴随。“我寻找有人怜悯我，”大卫说，“但没有人。”（诗篇 69:20）人的不忠是衬托出上帝的真理的一种手法，当困难最近时，上帝从未离我们更近。他和他的爱没有丝毫改变的阴影。

It is just with God when we lay too much weight of confidence upon any creature, to let us have the greater fall. Man may fail us and yet be a good man, but God cannot fail us and be God, because he is truth itself. Shall God be so true to us, and shall not we be true to him and his truth?
当我们对任何创造物寄予过多的信任时，如果我们摔得更重，那就是上帝公正的。人可能辜负我们，但仍然是个好人，但上帝不能辜负我们并且仍然是上帝，因为他本身就是真理。上帝对我们如此真实，难道我们对他和他的真理就不能真实吗？

The like may be said in the departure of our friends. Our life is oft too much in the life of others, which God takes unkindly. How many friends have we in him alone! who rather than we shall want friends, can make our enemies our friends. A true believer is to Christ as his mother, brother, and sister, because he carries that affection to them, as if they were mother, brother, and sister, to him indeed, Mat. 12:50. As Christ makes us all to him, so should we make him all in all to ourselves. If all comforts in the world were dead, we have them still in the living Lord.
我们的朋友离开时也可以这样说。我们的生活常常太过于依赖他人的生活，这是上帝不喜欢的。我们在他里面有多少朋友！与其说我们会缺少朋友，不如说他能使我们的敌人成为朋友。一个真正的信徒对基督就像对待母亲、兄弟和姐妹一样，因为他对他们怀有那样的情感，就像他们确实是他的母亲、兄弟和姐妹一样（见马太福音 12:50）。正如基督使我们成为他的一切，我们也应该把他视为我们的一切。即使世界上所有的安慰都消失了，我们仍然在活着的主里拥有它们。

Sicknesses are harbingers of death, and in the apprehension of many they be the greatest troubles, and tame great spirits, that nothing else could tame. Herein we are more to deal with God than with men, which is one comfort sickness yieldeth above other troubles. It is better to be troubled with the distempers of our own bodies, than with the distempers of other men's souls; in which we have not only to deal with men, but with the devil himself, that ruleth in the humours of men.
疾病是死亡的先兆，在许多人的理解中，它们是最大的困扰，能够驯服那些其他事物无法驯服的伟大精神。在这方面，我们与上帝打交道比与人打交道更多，这是疾病带来的一种安慰，超过其他困扰。与我们自己身体的不适相比，与他人灵魂的不适更好；在这种情况下，我们不仅要与人打交道，还要与统治人的情绪的魔鬼本身打交道。

The example of Asa, 2 Chron. 16:12, teaches us in this case not to lay too much trust upon the physician, but with Hezekiah first look up to God, and then use the means, 2 Kings 19:14, 15. If God will give us a quietus est, and take us off from business by sickness, then we have a time of serving God by patient subjection to his will. If he means to use our service any further, he will restore our health and strength to do that work he sets us about. Health is at his command, and sickness stays at his rebuke. In the mean, the time of sickness is a time of purging from that defilement we gathered in our health, till we come purer out; which should move us the rather willingly to abide God's time. Blessed is that sickness that proves the health of the soul. We are best, for the most part, when we are weakest, Optimi sumus dum infirmi sumus. Then it appears what good proficients we have been in time of health.
亚撒的例子（《历代志下》16:12）告诉我们在这种情况下不要过于依赖医生，而是像希西家一样先仰望上帝，然后再采取措施（《列王记下》19:14, 15）。如果上帝让我们通过疾病获得安宁，使我们远离工作，那么我们就有时间通过顺从上帝的旨意来事奉他。如果他打算进一步使用我们的服务，他会恢复我们的健康和力量来完成他给我们的工作。健康在他的命令之下，疾病在他的责备之下。在这段时间里，疾病是从我们在健康中积累的污秽中净化的时候，直到我们变得更加纯洁；这应该更加愿意等待上帝的时间。那种证明灵魂健康的疾病是有福的。我们大多数时候在最虚弱的时候才是最好的，Optimi sumus dum infirmi sumus。那时候才能看出我们在健康时取得了多大的进步。

Carnal men are oft led along by false hopes suggested by others, and cherished by themselves, that they shall live still and do well till death comes and cuts off their vain confidence and their life both at once, before ever they are acquainted what it is to trust in God aright, in the use of means. We should labour to learn of St Paul in desperate cases, to receive the sentence of death, and not to trust in ourselves, but in God 'that raiseth the dead,' 2 Cor. 1:9. He that raiseth our dead bodies out of the grave, can raise our diseased bodies out of the bed of sickness, if he hath a pleasure to serve himself by us.
肉体的人常常被他人暗示的虚假希望所引导，并由自己怀抱着这些希望，认为他们会一直活下去并过得好，直到死亡来临，一下子剥夺了他们的虚假信心和生命，而在此之前，他们从未真正了解到在使用手段时正确地信靠上帝的含义。在绝望的情况下，我们应该努力向圣保罗学习，接受死亡的判决，不要依靠自己，而是依靠上帝“使死人复活”的能力（哥林多后书 1:9）。那位使我们的尸体从坟墓中复活的人，如果他愿意通过我们来服务自己，也能使我们的病体从病榻上复原。

In all kind of troubles, it is not the ingredients that God puts into the cup so much afflicts us, as the ingredients of our distempered passions mingled with them. The sting and core of them all is sin. When that is not only pardoned, but in some measure healed, and the proud flesh eaten out, then a healthy soul will bear anything. After repentance, that trouble that before was a correction, becomes now a trial and exercise of grace. 'Strike, Lord,' saith Luther, 'I bear anything willingly, because my sins are forgiven.' We should not be cast down so much about outward troubles, as about sin, that both procures them and envenoms them. We see by experience, when conscience is once set at liberty, how cheerfully men will go under any burden; therefore labour to keep out sin, and then let come what will come.
在各种困扰中，困扰我们的并不是上帝放入杯中的成分，而是与之混合的我们病态的激情。它们的刺和核心都是罪恶。当罪恶不仅被宽恕，而且在某种程度上被治愈，骄傲的肉体被消耗殆尽时，一个健康的灵魂将能够承受任何事情。在悔改之后，之前是惩罚的困扰现在成为了对恩典的试炼和锻炼。路德说：“主啊，打击我吧，我愿意承受一切，因为我的罪已经得到宽恕。”我们不应该因为外在的困扰而沮丧，而是因为罪恶，它既引发了这些困扰，又使其变得更加恶劣。我们通过经验看到，当良心一旦得到释放，人们将愉快地承受任何负担；因此努力避免罪恶，然后让事情发展自然。

It is the foolish wisdom of the world to prevent trouble by sin, which is the way indeed to pull the greatest trouble upon us. For sin dividing betwixt God and us, moveth him to leave the soul to entangle itself in its own ways. When the conscience is clear, then there is nothing between God and us to hinder our trust. Outward troubles rather drive us nearer unto God, and stand with his love. But sin defileth the soul, and sets it further from God. It is well-doing that enables us to commit our souls cheerfully unto him, 1 Pet. 3:21. Whatsoever our outward condition be, 'if our hearts condemn us not, we may have boldness with God,' 1 John. 3:21. In any trouble our care should be, not to avoid the trouble, but sinful miscarriage in and about the trouble, and so trust God. It is a heavy condition to be under the burden of trouble, and under the burden of a guilty conscience both at once. When men will 'walk in the light of their own fire, and the sparks which they have kindled themselves, it is just with God that they should lie down in sorrow,' Isa. 50:11.
这是世界上愚蠢的智慧，通过犯罪来避免麻烦，实际上这样做会给我们带来更大的麻烦。因为罪将上帝与我们分开，使他离开灵魂，让其陷入自己的方式中。当良心清白时，上帝与我们之间没有任何阻碍我们信任的东西。外在的麻烦反而使我们更接近上帝，并与他的爱同在。但罪污染了灵魂，使其与上帝更远。善行使我们能够欢欢喜喜地将我们的灵魂交托给他，彼得前书 3:21。无论我们的外在状况如何，“如果我们的心不谴责我们，我们就可以在上帝面前坦然无惧”，约翰一书 3:21。在任何麻烦中，我们的关注应该是不要回避麻烦，而是在麻烦中和麻烦周围的罪恶行为，并且相信上帝。同时承受麻烦的重担和有罪的良心是一种沉重的境况。当人们“在自己的火光中行走，点燃自己的火花时，上帝应该让他们在悲伤中躺下”，以赛亚书 50:11。

Whatsoever injuries we suffer from those that are ill affected to us, let us commit our cause to the 'God of vengeance,' Isa. 59:17, and not meddle with his prerogative. He will revenge our cause better than we can, and more perhaps than we desire. The wronged side is the safer side.* If, instead of meditating revenge, we can so overcome ourselves as to pray for our enemies, and deserve well of them, we shall both sweeten our own spirits, and prevent a sharp temptation which we are prone unto; and have an undoubted argument that we are sons of that Father that doth good to his enemies, and members of that Saviour that prayed for his persecutors, Luke 23:34. And withal by 'heaping coals,' Rom. 12:20, upon our enemies, shall melt them either to conversion or to confusion.
无论我们受到那些对我们不利的人的伤害，让我们把我们的事情交给“复仇的上帝”，以赛亚书 59:17，并不干涉他的特权。他会比我们更好地为我们复仇，也许比我们期望的更多。受害一方是更安全的一方。如果我们能够克服自己，不去思考报复，而是为我们的敌人祈祷，并对他们表现出善意，我们既能调和自己的精神，又能预防我们容易陷入的强烈诱惑；我们还有一个确凿的证据，证明我们是那位善待他的敌人的父亲的儿子，也是那位为他的迫害者祈祷的救主的成员，路加福音 23:34。同时，通过在我们的敌人头上“堆炭”，罗马书 12:20，我们可以使他们要么归向信仰，要么陷入困惑。

But the greatest trial of trust is in our last encounter with death, wherein we shall find not only a deprivation of all comforts in this life, but a confluence of all ill at once; but we must know, God will be the God of his unto death, and not only unto death, but in death. We may trust God the Father with our bodies and souls which he hath created; and God the Son with the bodies and souls which he hath redeemed; and the Holy Spirit with those bodies and souls that he hath sanctified. We are not disquieted when we put off our clothes and go to bed, because we trust God's ordinary providence to raise us up again. And why should we be disquieted when we put off our bodies and sleep our last sleep, considering we are more sure to rise out of our graves than out of our beds? Nay, we are raised up already in Christ our Head, 'who is the resurrection and the life,' John 11:25, in whom we may triumph over death, that triumpheth over the greatest monarchs, as a disarmed and conquered enemy. Death is the death of itself, and not of us. If we would have faith ready to die by, we must exercise it well in living by it, and then it will no more fail us than the good things we lay hold on by it, until it hath brought us into heaven, where that office of it is laid aside. Here is the prerogative of a true Christian above an hypocrite and a worldling, whenas their trust, and the thing they trust in, fails them, then a true believer's trust stands him in greatest stead.
但是，最大的信任考验在于我们与死亡的最后一次相遇中，我们不仅会失去这个生活中的所有安慰，还会同时遭受所有的不幸；但我们必须知道，上帝将成为他的人直到死亡，不仅如此，还在死亡中。我们可以将我们的身体和灵魂交托给上帝创造的上帝之父；将我们的身体和灵魂交托给上帝救赎的上帝之子；将我们的身体和灵魂交托给上帝使圣的圣灵。当我们脱下衣服上床睡觉时，我们并不烦恼，因为我们相信上帝的普通安排会让我们再次站起来。那么，当我们脱下我们的身体，进入最后的睡眠时，为什么我们要烦恼呢？考虑到我们从坟墓中复活的可能性比从床上起床更加确定，我们不是已经在我们的头上基督里复活了吗？他是复活和生命，约翰福音 11:25，在他里面我们可以战胜死亡，死亡战胜了最伟大的君主，就像一个被解除武装和被征服的敌人。死亡是它自己的死亡，而不是我们的死亡。 如果我们要有准备好为之而死的信仰，我们必须在生活中好好行使它，这样它就不会像我们凭借它所抓住的好事一样失败，直到它把我们带入天堂，那里它的职责就被放下了。这是一个真正的基督徒超越伪君子和世俗人的特权，当他们的信任和他们所信任的东西让他们失望时，一个真正的信徒的信任对他来说最有用。

In regard of our state after death, a Christian need not be disquieted, for the angels are ready to do their office in carrying his soul to paradise, those 'mansions prepared for him,' John 14:2. His Saviour will be his judge, and the Head will not condemn the members; then he is to receive the fruit and end of his faith, the reward of his hope; which is so great and so sure, that our trusting in God for that, strengtheneth the heart to trust him for all other things in our passage; so that the refreshing of our faith in those great things, refreshes its dependence upon God for all things here below. And how strong helps have we to uphold our faith in these great things which we are not able to conceive of, till we come to possess them! Is not our husband there? and hath he not taken possession for us? Doth he not keep our place for us? Is not our flesh there in him? and his Spirit below with us? Have we not some first-fruits and earnest of it before hand? Is not Christ now fitting and preparing of us daily, for what he hath prepared and keeps for us? Whither tends all we meet with in this world, that comes betwixt us and heaven, as desertions, inward conflicts, outward troubles, and death at last, but to fit us for a better condition hereafter, and by faith therein to stir up a strong desire after it? 'Comfort one another with these things,' saith the apostle, 1 Thes. 4:18; these be the things will comfort the soul.
关于我们死后的状态，基督徒不必担心，因为天使已经准备好将他的灵魂带到天堂，那是为他预备的住处（约翰福音 14:2）。他的救主将成为他的审判者，头不会定罪肢体；然后他将得到他信仰的果实和终极目标，他希望的回报；这是如此伟大和如此确定，以至于我们对上帝的信靠在其中加强了对我们在人生旅程中所有其他事物的信靠；因此，对这些伟大事物的信仰的更新，使我们对在这里下面的一切事物对上帝的依赖得到了更新。我们有多么强大的帮助来支持我们对这些我们无法想象的伟大事物的信仰，直到我们拥有它们！我们的丈夫不在那里吗？他不是已经为我们占据了地方吗？他不是为我们保留了位置吗？我们的肉身不是在他那里吗？他的圣灵不是与我们同在吗？我们不是在先前已经有了一些初熟的果实和保证吗？基督现在不是每天在装备和准备我们，为他为我们预备并保留的事物？ 这个世界上我们所遇到的一切，无论是离弃、内心冲突、外在困扰，还是最终的死亡，都是为了让我们适应来世的更好状态，并通过对此的信仰激发强烈的渴望。使徒在帖撒罗尼迦前书 4:18 中说：“用这些话彼此安慰。”这些就是能安慰灵魂的事物。

CHAPTER XXV.—Of the defects of gifts, disquieting the soul; as also the afflictions of the church
第二十五章 - 关于礼物的缺陷，使灵魂不安；以及教会的苦难

Among other things, there is nothing more disquiets a Christian, that is called to the fellowship of Christ and his church here, and to glory hereafter, than that he sees himself unfurnished with those gifts that are fit for the calling of a saint; as likewise for that particular standing and place wherein God hath set him in this world, by being a member of a body politic.
除其他事情外，对一个被称为要在此处与基督和他的教会交往，并在此后得荣耀的基督徒来说，没有什么比他看到自己没有那些适合圣徒的呼召的恩赐更令人不安；同样，对于上帝在这个世界上安排他成为一个政治团体的成员所处的特定地位和位置，他也感到不安。

For our Christian calling, we must know that Christianity is a matter rather of grace than of gifts, of obedience than of parts. Gifts may come from a more common work of the Spirit; they are common to castaways, and are more for others than for ourselves. Grace comes from a peculiar favour of God, and especially for our own good. In the same duty, where there is required gifts and grace, as in prayer, one may perform it with evidence of greater grace than another of greater parts. Moses, a man not of the best speech, was chosen before Aaron to speak to God, Exod. 7:11; and to strive with him by prayer, whilst Israel fought with Amalek with the sword, Exod. 17:11. It is a business more of the heart than of the tongue, more of groans than of words, which groans and sighs the spirit will always stir up even in the worst condition. Yet for parts there is no member, but it is fitted with some abilities to do service in the body, and by faith may grow up to a greater measure. For God calls none to that high condition, but whom in some measure he fits to be an useful member, and endows with a public spirit.
对于我们基督徒的呼召，我们必须知道基督教更多地是关乎恩典而非恩赐，关乎顺从而非才能。恩赐可能来自圣灵的更普遍工作；它们是被抛弃者所共有的，更多地是为他人而非自己。恩典来自上帝特殊的恩宠，特别是为了我们自己的益处。在同样的职责中，既需要恩赐又需要恩典，比如在祷告中，一个人可能以更大的恩典明显地完成，而另一个人可能以更大的才能完成。摩西，一个不善言辞的人，被选中在亚伦之前与上帝交谈（出埃及记 7:11），并在以色列人用剑与亚玛力争战时与上帝争辩（出埃及记 17:11）。这是一项更多关乎内心而非口舌的事情，更多关乎呻吟而非言辞，而这些呻吟和叹息精神总是会在最糟糕的情况下激发起来。然而，对于才能来说，没有一个肢体不具备一些能力为身体服务，并且凭借信仰可以不断成长。因为上帝只呼召那些在某种程度上适合成为有用的肢体，并赋予公共精神的人。

But that is the measure which Christ thinks fit; who will make up that in the body which is wanting in any particular member. God will increase the measure of our gifts as occasion shall be offered to draw them forth; for there is not the greatest but may have use both of the parts and graces of the meanest in the church. And here the soul may by a spirit of faith go to God in this manner: Lord, the state* of Christianity unto which thy love in Christ hath called and advanced me, is a high condition; and there is need of a great measure of grace to uphold the credit and comfort of it. Whom thou callest unto it, thou dost in some measure furnish to walk worthy of it. Let this be an evidence to my soul of the truth of thy call, that I am enabled by the Spirit for those duties that are required; in confidence of which assistance I will set upon the work: 'Thou hast promised to give wisdom to them that ask it, and to upbraid none with their unworthiness. Nay, 'thou hast promised the Spirit of all grace to those that beg it,' James 1:5. It is that which I need, and it is no more than thou hast promised.
但这是基督认为合适的措施；他会在身体中弥补任何特定成员所缺少的部分。上帝会根据需要增加我们恩赐的程度，以便发挥它们的作用；因为在教会中，最伟大的人也可以利用最卑微的人的才能和恩典。在这里，灵魂可以凭着信心的精神这样向上帝祈求：主啊，基督的爱使我被召唤并提升到了基督教的状态，这是一个高尚的境地；因此需要大量的恩典来维护其声誉和舒适。你召唤我来这里，你也在某种程度上装备我以配得这个呼召。让这成为我灵魂对你呼召真实性的证据，我能够凭着圣灵的帮助履行所需的职责；在这种帮助的信心下，我将着手工作：“你答应给予求智慧的人智慧，并不指责他们的不配。不仅如此，你还答应给予求恩典的人一切恩典的圣灵。”（雅各书 1:5）这正是我所需要的，也不过是你所应许的。

Caution. Only it must be remembered, that we do not walk above our parts and graces, the issue whereof will be discouragement in ourselves and disgrace from others.
请注意。只需记住，我们不要超越我们的能力和才华，否则会导致自我沮丧和他人的耻辱。

The like may be said for our particular calling, wherein we are to express the graces of our Christian calling, and 'serve one another in love,' Gal. 5:13, as members of the state as well as of the church. Therefore every one must have, 1, a calling; 2, a lawful; 3, a useful calling; 4, a calling fitted for his parts, that he may be even for his business, pares negotio: 5, a lawful entrance and calling thereunto; 6, and a lawful demeanour in the same. Though the orb and sphere we walk in be little, yet we must keep within the bounds of it, because for our carriage in that, we must give a strict account; and there is no calling so mean but a man shall find enough to give a good account for (i). Our care must be to know our work, and then to do it; and so to do it as if it were unto God, with conscience of moderate diligence; for over-doing and over-working anything comes either from ostentation or distrust in God; and negligence is so far from getting any blessing, that it brings us under a 'curse for doing God's work negligently,' Jer. 48:10. For we must think our callings to be services of God, who hath appointed us our standing therein.
我们的特定职业也可以这样说，我们要表达我们基督徒的呼召的恩典，并且要像国家和教会的成员一样“以爱心互相服侍”，加拉太书 5:13。因此，每个人必须有：1、一个呼召；2、一个合法的呼召；3、一个有用的呼召；4、一个适合他才能的呼召，使他在工作中能够胜任；5、一个合法的进入和呼召；6、以及在其中的合法行为。虽然我们行走的领域和范围很小，但我们必须在其中保持界限，因为我们在其中的行为必须做出严格的解释；而且没有任何职业是如此卑微，以至于一个人找不到足够的理由来做出良好的解释（i）。我们的关心必须是了解我们的工作，然后去做；并且要像对待上帝一样去做，怀着适度勤奋的良心；因为过度做任何事情要么是出于炫耀，要么是对上帝的不信任；而懒散则远离任何祝福，反而使我们陷入“因懒散地做上帝的工作而受到诅咒”的境地，耶利米书 48:10。因为我们必须认为我们的呼召是上帝的服务，是他指定我们在其中站立的。

That which belongs to us in our calling is care of discharging our duty; that which God takes upon him is assistance, and good success in it. Let us do our work, and leave God to do his own. Diligence and trust in him is only ours, the rest of the burden is his. In a family the father's and the master's care is the greatest; the child's care is only to obey, and the servant's to do his work; care of provision and protection doth not trouble them. Most of our disquietness in our calling is, that we trouble ourselves about God's work. Trust God and be doing, and let him alone with the rest. He stands upon his credit so much, that it shall appear we have not trusted him in vain, even when we see no appearance of doing any good. Peter fished all night and catched nothing, yet upon Christ's word he casts in his net again, and caught so many fish as break his net, Luke 5:6. Covetousness, when men will be richer than God would have them, troubles all; it troubles the house, the whole family, and the house within us, our precious soul, which should be a quiet house for God's spirit to dwell in, whose seat is a quiet spirit. If men would follow Christ's method, and 'seek first the kingdom of heaven,' Mat. 6:33, all other things would be cast upon them. If thoughts of insufficiency in our places discourage us, remember what God saith to Moses, when he pretended disability to speak, 'Who hath made man's mouth, have not I the Lord?' Exod. 4:11. All our sufficiency for every calling is from God.
我们在我们的职责中所拥有的是履行我们的职责的关心；上帝所承担的是帮助和成功。让我们做好我们的工作，让上帝去做他自己的工作。勤奋和对他的信任只属于我们，其他的负担属于他。在一个家庭中，父亲和主人的关心是最大的；孩子的关心只是服从，仆人的关心是做好自己的工作；供应和保护的关心不会困扰他们。我们在我们的职责中最不安的是，我们为上帝的工作而烦恼。相信上帝并去做，让他独自处理其他事情。他非常重视他的信用，以至于即使我们看不到任何好的迹象，我们也能看到我们的信任没有白费。彼得整夜钓鱼一无所获，然而在基督的话语下，他再次投下网，捕到了许多鱼，以至于网都断了（路加福音 5:6）。贪婪，当人们想比上帝更富有时，会带来困扰；它困扰着整个家庭，也困扰着我们内心的家园，我们宝贵的灵魂，它应该是上帝的灵魂安居的宁静之地。 如果人们遵循基督的方法，并且“先寻求天国”，马太福音 6:33，其他一切事物都会赐予他们。如果我们在自己的位置上感到不足，记住上帝对摩西所说的话，当他声称自己不能说话时，“谁造了人的口呢？岂不是我耶和华吗？”出埃及记 4:11。我们在每个呼召中的能力都来自上帝。

Obj. But you will say, though by God's blessing my particular condition be comfortable, yet the state of God's people abroad, and the miseries of the times, disquiet me.
但你会说，虽然在上帝的祝福下，我个人的状况很舒适，但是上帝的子民在国外的处境和时代的苦难让我感到不安。

Ans. We complain of the times, but let us take heed we be not a part of the misery of the times: that they be not the worse for us. Indeed he is a dead member that takes not to heart the ill of the times, yet here is place for that complaint, 'Help, Lord,' Ps. 12:1. In these tempests do as the disciples did, cry to Christ to rebuke the tempests and storms, Mat. 8:25. This is the day of Jacob's trouble, let it also be the day of Jacob's trust; let the body do as the head did in the like case, and in time it shall be with the body as it is with the head.
我们抱怨时代，但要小心不要成为时代苦难的一部分：让它们对我们来说不会更糟。确实，不把时代的不幸放在心上的人是一个死亡的成员，但在这里有地方可以抱怨，“求你帮助，主啊”，诗篇 12:1。在这些风暴中，要像门徒一样向基督呼求，让他斥责风暴和暴风雨，马太福音 8:25。这是雅各的苦难之日，也让它成为雅各的信任之日；让身体像头部在类似情况下所做的那样，最终身体将和头部一样。

In this case it is good to lay before God all the promises made to his church, with the examples of his presence in it, and deliverance of the same in former times. God is never nearer his church than when trouble is near. When in earth they conclude an utter overthrow, God is in heaven concluding a glorious deliverance. Usually after the lowest ebb, follows the highest spring-tide. Christ stands upon Mount Zion. There is a counsel in heaven, that will dash the mould of all contrary counsels on earth; and which is more, God will work the raising of the church, by that very means by which his enemies seek to ruin it. 'Let us stand still and behold the salvation of the Lord,' Exod. 14:13. God gave too dear a price for his church, to suffer it long in the hands of merciless enemies.
在这种情况下，将所有对教会所作的承诺，以及上帝在其中的存在和拯救的例子，摆在上帝面前是好的。当困难临近时，上帝离教会最近。当地上的人们认为会彻底崩溃时，上帝在天上正在决定一个辉煌的拯救。通常在最低潮之后，会有最高潮的涌动。基督站在锡安山上。天上有一个决议，会粉碎地上所有相反的决议；更重要的是，上帝将通过敌人试图毁灭教会的方式来振兴教会。"你们只管安然站立，看耶和华今天向你们所要施行的救恩"（出埃及记 14:13）。上帝为了教会付出了太高的代价，不会让它长时间处于无情敌人的手中。

As for the seeming flourishing of the enemies of God's church, it is but for a time, and that a short time, and a measured time. 'The wicked plot against the just,' Ps. 37:12; they 'are plotters and ploughers of mischief,' Job 4:8; they are skilful and industrious in it, but they reap their own ruin. 'Their day is a coming,' Ps. 37:12, and 'their pit is in digging,' Ps. 94:13; take heed therefore of fretting, Ps. 37:7; because of the man 'that bringeth wicked devices to pass, for the arms of the wicked shall be broken,' Ps. 37:17.* We should help our faith by observing God's executing of judgment in this kind. It cannot but vex the enemies of the church, to see at length a disappointing of their projects; but then to see the mould of all their devices turned upon their own heads, will more torment them.
至于上帝教会的敌人似乎繁荣，那只是暂时的，而且是短暂的，是有限的时间。诗篇 37:12 说：“恶人设计害义人”，约伯记 4:8 说：“他们是设计和耕种灾祸的人”，他们在这方面很熟练和勤奋，但他们最终会自取灭亡。诗篇 37:12 说：“他们的日子将到”，诗篇 94:13 说：“他们挖掘的坑就是他们自己的陷阱”，所以要小心不要焦虑，因为“那使恶计成就的人，他的膀臂必被折断”（诗篇 37:17）。我们应该通过观察上帝在这方面执行审判来加强我们的信心。教会的敌人看到他们的计划最终落空，无疑会感到烦恼；但看到他们所有计划的结果都反过来伤害他们自己，将更加折磨他们。

In this case, it will much comfort to go into the sanctuary, for there we shall be able to say, 'Yet God is good to Israel,' Ps. 73:17. God hath an ark for his. There is no condition so ill, but there is balm in Gilead, comfort in Israel. The depths of misery are never beyond the depths of mercy. God oft for this very end, strips his church of all helps below, that it may only rely upon him: and that it may appear that the church is ruled by a higher power than it is opposed by. And then is the time when we may expect great deliverances of the church, when there is a great faith in the great God.
在这种情况下，进入圣所会给我们带来很多安慰，因为我们能够说：“然而神对以色列是良善的”（诗篇 73:17）。神为自己有一只约柜。没有任何状况是那么糟糕，但在基列有安慰，在以色列有安慰。痛苦的深渊从来不会超过怜悯的深渊。神常常为了这个目的，剥夺他的教会在下面的所有帮助，只让它依靠他：并且让教会显现出它是被一个更高的力量统治，而不是被对立的力量所反对。当我们对伟大的神有伟大的信心时，我们可以期待教会的伟大拯救的时刻。

From all that hath been said, we see that the only way to quiet the soul is, to lay a charge upon it to trust God, and that unquietness and impatiency are symptoms and discoveries of an unbelieving heart.
从所说的一切中，我们看到安抚灵魂的唯一方法是让它相信上帝，并且不安和不耐烦是不信心的症状和表现。

CHAPTER XXVI.—Of divine reasons in a believer. Of his minding to praise God, more than to be delivered
第二十六章 - 信徒中的神圣理由。他更关注赞美上帝，而不是被拯救。

To go on. 'I shall yet praise him.'
继续前进。"我仍将赞美他。"

In these words David expresseth the reasons and grounds of his trust, namely, from the interest he had in God by experience and special covenant: wherein in general we may observe, that those who truly trust in God, labour to back their faith with sound arguments. Faith is an understanding grace; it knows whom it trusts, and for what, and upon what grounds it trusts. Reason of itself cannot find what we should believe, yet when God hath discovered the same, faith tells us there is great reason to believe it. Faith useth reason, though not as a ground, yet as a sanctified instrument to find out God's grounds, that it may rely upon them. He believes best, that knows best why he should believe. Confidence, and love, and other affections of the soul, though they have no reason grafted in them, yet thus far they are reasonable, as that they are in a wise man raised up, guided, and laid down with reason; or else men were neither to be blamed nor praised for ordering their affections aright; whereas not only civil virtue, but grace itself is especially conversant in ruling the affections by sanctified reason.
在这些话中，大卫表达了他信任的原因和基础，即他通过经验和特殊的盟约与上帝的关系：在这里我们可以总体上观察到，那些真正信任上帝的人努力用合理的论据支持他们的信仰。信仰是一种理解的恩赐；它知道它信任谁，为什么信任，以及信任的基础是什么。理性本身无法找到我们应该相信什么，然而当上帝揭示了同样的事实时，信仰告诉我们有很大的理由去相信它。信仰使用理性，虽然不是作为基础，但作为一个被圣化的工具来找出上帝的基础，以便依靠它们。最了解为什么应该相信的人，才是最好的信仰者。自信、爱和灵魂的其他情感，虽然它们本身没有理性的根基，但在明智的人身上，它们在某种程度上是合理的，因为它们是在理性的引导下产生、指导和放下的；否则人们既不应该受到责备也不应该受到赞扬，因为不仅是公民美德，而且恩典本身尤其在通过圣化的理性来管理情感方面发挥作用。

The soul guides the will and affections otherwise than it doth the outward members of the body. It sways the affections of confidence, love, joy, &c., as a prince doth his wiser subjects, and as counsellors do a well ordered state, by ministering reasons to them; but the soul governs the outward members by command, as a master doth a slave,—his will is enough. The hand and foot move upon command, without regarding any reason; but we will set trust and rejoice in God without reason, or a show of reason at the least.
灵魂引导意志和情感的方式与它引导身体的外部部分不同。它通过向它们提供理由来影响信任、爱、喜悦等情感，就像君主对待他更明智的臣民，就像顾问对待一个井然有序的国家一样；但是灵魂通过命令来控制外部部分，就像主人对待奴隶一样，他的意愿就足够了。手和脚会在命令下移动，而不考虑任何理由；但是我们会毫无理由地信任上帝，并为之欢欣鼓舞，或者至少表现出有理由。

Sin itself never wanted a reason, such as it is, but we call it unreasonable, because it hath no good reason for it; for reason being a beam of God, cannot strengthen any work of darkness. God having made man an understanding creature, guides him by a way suitable to such a condition, and that is the reason why God in mercy yields so far to us in his word, as to give us so many reasons of our affiance in him. What is encouragement and comfort but a demonstration to us of greater reasons to raise us up, than there are to cast us down?
罪恶本身从来不需要理由，虽然如此，但我们称之为不合理，因为它没有充分的理由；因为理智是上帝的光芒，不能加强任何黑暗的行为。上帝使人成为有理解力的生物，以适合这种情况的方式引导他，这就是为什么上帝在他的话语中对我们如此宽容，给了我们这么多相信他的理由。鼓励和安慰不就是向我们展示比使我们沮丧的理由更多的理由来鼓舞我们吗？

David's reasons here, are drawn partly from some promise of deliverance, and partly from God's nature and dealing with him, whom, as he had formerly found a healing and a saving God, so he expects to find him still; and partly from the covenant of grace, He is my God.
大卫在这里的理由部分来自某种解救的承诺，部分来自上帝的本性和对他的处理，正如他以前发现了一个医治和拯救的上帝，他期望仍然能够找到他；还有部分来自恩典的约定，他是我的上帝。

The chief of his reasons are fetched from God, what he is in himself, and what he is and will be to his children, and what to him in particular. Though godly men have reasons for their trust, yet those reasons be divine and spiritual, as faith itself is; for as naturally as beams come from the sun, and branches from the root, even so by divine discourse one truth issueth from another. And as the beams and the sun, as the root and branches are all of one nature, so the grounds of comfortable truths, and reasons taken from those grounds, are both of the same divinity and authority, though in time of temptation discourse is oft so troubled, that it cannot see how one truth riseth from another. This is one privilege of heaven, that our knowledge there shall not be so much discoursive, proving one thing by another, as definitive, seeing things in their grounds with a more present view; the soul being then raised and enlarged to a present conceiving of things, and there being no flesh and blood in us to raise objections that must be satisfied with reasoning.
他的主要理由来自上帝，他自己是什么，以及他对他的孩子们是什么，以及对他个人来说是什么。虽然虔诚的人有他们信任的理由，但这些理由是神圣和属灵的，就像信仰本身一样；因为正如光线来自太阳，树枝来自根部一样，通过神圣的辩论，一个真理从另一个真理中产生。而且，就像光线和太阳，根部和树枝都是同一性质的，因此舒适真理的基础和从这些基础上得出的理由，都具有相同的神性和权威性，尽管在诱惑的时候，辩论常常被困扰，无法看到一个真理是如何从另一个真理中产生的。这是天堂的一个特权，我们在那里的知识不会像辩论那样多，通过一个事实证明另一个事实，而是决定性的，以更直接的方式看到事物的基础；灵魂在那时被提升和扩大，对事物有一个直接的概念，而我们内心没有血肉之躯来提出必须通过推理来满足的异议。

Sometimes in a clearer state of the soul, faith hath not so much use of reasons, but upon near and sweet communion with God, and by reason of some likeness between the soul that hath a divine nature stamped upon it, and God, it presently, without any long discourse, runneth to God, as it were, by a supernatural instinct, as by a natural instinct a child runneth to his father in any distress. Yea, and from that common light of nature, which discovereth there is a God, even natural men in extremities will run to God, and God as the author of nature will sometimes hear them, as he doth the young ravens that cry unto him; but comfortably, and with assurance, only those have a familiar recourse unto him, that have a sanctified suitable disposition unto God, as being well acquainted with him.
有时候，在灵魂更加清晰的状态下，信仰并不需要太多的理由，而是通过与上帝亲近和甜蜜的交流，以及因为灵魂上有神性的印记，与上帝之间有某种相似之处，它会立即、不经过长时间的辩论，像是通过超自然的本能一样，奔向上帝，就像一个孩子在困境中奔向他的父亲一样。是的，即使是自然人在极端困境中，也会因为自然的本能而求助于上帝，上帝作为自然的创造者有时会听到他们的呼喊，就像他听到呼喊的小乌鸦一样；但是，只有那些与上帝有亲密关系、对上帝有合适的圣洁心态的人，才能舒适地、有信心地常常求助于他，因为他们与上帝很熟悉。

Sometimes again faith is put to it to use reasons to strengthen itself, and therefore the soul studieth arguments to help itself by, either from inward store laid up in the soul, or else it hearkeneth and yields to reasons suggested by others; and there is no gracious heart but hath a frame suitable and agreeable to any holy and comfortable truth that shall be brought and enforced upon it. There is something in his spirit that answers whatever comes from the Spirit of God. Though perhaps it never heard of it before, yet it presently claims kindred of it, as coming from the same blessed spring, the Holy Spirit; and, therefore, a gracious heart sooner takes comfort than another, as being prepared to close with it.
有时候，信仰需要借助理由来加强自身，因此灵魂会研究论据来帮助自己，无论是从灵魂内部储存的东西，还是倾听并接受他人提出的理由；而且，每一个有恩典的心都有一个适合和符合任何圣洁和舒适真理的结构，这些真理将被带到并强化在它身上。他的灵魂中有一种东西回应着来自上帝的灵的一切。尽管也许以前从未听说过，但它立即认为它与之有亲缘关系，因为它来自同样祝福的源泉，圣灵；因此，一个有恩典的心比其他人更早地得到安慰，因为它已经准备好接受它。

The reasons here brought by David, are not so much arguments to convince his judgment, as motives and inducements to incline his will to trust in God; for trusting being a holy relying upon God, carrieth especially the will to him. Now the will is led with the goodness of things, as the understanding is led with truth. The heart must be sweetened with consideration of love and mercy in him whom we trust, as well as convinced of his ability to do us good. The cords that draw the heart to trust are the cords of love, and the cords of love are especially the love of him to us whom we love; and, therefore the most prevailing reasons that carry the whole heart, are such as are drawn from the sweetness of God, whereby the heart is opened and enlarged to expect all good, and nothing but goad I from him.
大卫提出的原因，不仅仅是为了说服他的判断，更是为了倾向他的意愿去信靠上帝的动机和诱因；因为信靠是一种对上帝的圣洁依赖，尤其是将意愿带向他。现在，意愿是被事物的善良所引导，就像理解被真理所引导一样。心灵必须通过考虑上帝的爱和怜悯来变得甜蜜，同时也要确信他有能力给我们带来好处。将心灵引向信任的绳索是爱的绳索，而爱的绳索尤其是我们所爱的他对我们的爱；因此，能够占据整个心灵的最有力的原因，是从上帝的甜美中得出的，从而使心灵敞开并期待着一切好事，只有好事从他而来。

But we must remember that neither reasons from the truth and power of God, nor inducements or allurements from the goodness of God, will further prevail with the soul, than it hath a fresh light and relish brought into it by the Spirit of God, to discern of those reasons, and answer the contrary.
但我们必须记住，无论是来自上帝真理和权能的理由，还是来自上帝善良的诱因或诱惑，都不能在灵魂中产生更大的影响，除非上帝的灵给予它新的光明和品味，以辨别这些理由，并回应相反的观点。

I shall yet praise him,* or I will yet praise him, I shall because I will, and I will praise him because I shall have occasion to praise him. When God by grace enlarges the will, he intends to give the deed. God's children, wherein their wills are conformable to God's will, shall have their wills fulfilled. God intends his own glory in every mercy, and he that praises him glorifies him, Ps. 50:23. When our wills, therefore, carry us to that which God wills above all, we may well expect he will grant us what we will.
我仍将赞美他，因为我愿意，我将赞美他，因为我将有赞美他的机会。当上帝凭着恩典扩大意愿时，他打算给予行动。上帝的儿女，只要他们的意愿与上帝的意愿一致，他们的意愿将得到满足。上帝在每一次怜悯中都意图彰显自己的荣耀，赞美他的人荣耀他，诗篇 50:23。因此，当我们的意愿引导我们去追求上帝最看重的事物时，我们可以有理由期待他会满足我们的愿望。

'I shall praise him,' because I have prayed unto him. It is God's direction, to call upon him in trouble, Ps. 50:15, and it is his promise to deliver, and then both his direction and promise that we shall glorify him. When is troubles stir up prayer, God's answer to them will stir up praises. David, when he says I shall praise God, pre-supposes that God will deliver him, that he may have ground of praising his name; and he knew God would deliver him, because as from faith he had prayed for deliverance, so he knew that it was God's order in his dealing, to revive after drooping, and to refresh, after fainting. God knows otherwise that our spirits would fail before him.
因为我向他祈祷，所以我要赞美他。神的指引是在困难中呼求他，诗篇 50:15，并且他应许要拯救，然后他的指引和应许使我们能够荣耀他。当困难激起祈祷时，神对祈祷的回应将激起赞美。大卫在说我要赞美神时，预设神会拯救他，这样他就有了赞美他名字的理由；他知道神会拯救他，因为他从信心中祈求拯救，他也知道这是神在他的处理中的秩序，使他在萎靡后复苏，在昏厥后恢复。神知道，否则我们的灵魂会在他面前消沉。

I will praise him. David* minds praising of God more than his own delivery, because he knew his own delivery was intended on God's part, that he might be glorified. It is an argument of an excellent spirit, when all self-respects are drowned in the glory of God: and there is nothing lost therein, for our best being is in God. A Christian begins with loving God for himself; but he ends in loving himself in and for God: and so his end, and God's end, and the end of all things else, concentre and agree in one. We may aim at our own good, so we bring our hearts to refer it to the chief good, as a less circle may well be contained in a greater, so that the lines drawn from both circles, meet in one middle point. It is an excellent ground of sincerity to desire the favour of God, not so much out of self-aims, as that God may have the more free and full praise from us, considering the soul is never more fit for that blessed duty, than when it is in a cheerful plight.
我会赞美他。大卫更注重赞美上帝，而不是自己的表现，因为他知道自己的表现是上帝的意愿，以便上帝得到荣耀。当所有的自我尊重都被上帝的荣耀淹没时，这是一个优秀精神的证明：在其中我们没有失去任何东西，因为我们最好的存在是在上帝里。一个基督徒开始是因为爱上帝而爱他自己；但最终他在上帝里爱自己，并为上帝而爱自己：所以他的目标，上帝的目标，以及其他一切的目标都汇聚在一起并达成一致。我们可以追求自己的利益，只要我们将心灵引导到最高的善，就像一个较小的圆可以完全包含在一个较大的圆内，使得从两个圆上画出的线条在一个中心点相交。渴望上帝的恩宠，不是出于自私的目的，而是希望上帝从我们身上得到更自由、更充分的赞美，这是真诚的优秀基础，考虑到灵魂在愉快的状态下才能更适合履行这一祝福的职责。

It rejoiced David more that he should have a large heart to serve God, than that he should have enlargement of condition. Holy dispositions think not so much of the time to come, that it will be sweet to them, as that it will further God's praise. True grace raiseth the soul above self-respects, and resteth not till it comes to the chief end wherein its happiness consists.
大卫更喜欢自己有一颗宽广的心来事奉上帝，而不是拥有物质上的扩展。圣洁的心态不是那么关注未来的时光对自己的甜蜜，而是关注它将进一步彰显上帝的赞美。真正的恩典将灵魂提升到超越自我的境地，并且不会停止，直到达到其幸福所在的最高目标。

God is glorified in making us happy, and we enjoying happiness, must glorify God. Although God condescend so low unto us, as not only to allow us, but to enjoin us to look to our own freedom from misery, and enjoyment of happiness, yet a soul thoroughly seasoned with grace, mounteth higher, and is carried with pure respects to advance God's glory; yea, sometimes so far as to forget its own happiness. It respects itself for God, rather than God for itself. A heavenly soul is never satisfied, until it be as near God as is attainable. And the nearer a creature comes to God, the more it is emptied of itself, and all self-aims. Our happiness is more in him, than in ourselves. We seek ourselves most when we deny ourselves most. And the more we labour to advance God, the more we advance our own condition in him.
上帝在使我们快乐时得到荣耀，我们享受快乐时必须荣耀上帝。虽然上帝如此谦卑地降临到我们身边，不仅允许我们，而且命令我们寻求摆脱痛苦和享受快乐，但一个完全充满恩典的灵魂会更高地升华，纯粹地尊重上帝的荣耀，有时甚至忘记自己的幸福。它为了上帝而尊重自己，而不是为了自己而尊重上帝。一个天上的灵魂永远不会满足，直到它离上帝最近。一个越接近上帝的生物，就越会放空自己和所有自我目标。我们的幸福在他里面比在我们自己身上更多。我们在最否定自己的时候最追求自己。我们越努力提升上帝，我们在他里面的状况就越好。

I will praise. David thinks of his own duty in praising God more than of God's work in delivering him. Let us think of what is our duty, and God will think of what shall be for our comfort. We shall feel God answering what we look for from him, in doing what he expects from us. Can we have so mean thoughts of him as that we should intend his glory, and he not much more intend our good?
我会赞美。大卫在赞美上更多地考虑自己的责任，而不是上帝在拯救他方面的工作。让我们考虑我们的责任，上帝会考虑我们的安慰。我们会感受到上帝回应我们对他的期望，通过做他对我们期望的事情。我们能对他有如此卑微的想法吗？我们应该意图他的荣耀，而他不更加意图我们的利益吗？

This should be a strong plea unto us in our prayers to prevail with God, when we engage ourselves, upon the revelation of his mercy to us, to yield him all the praises. Lord, as the benefit and comfort shall be mine, so the praises shall be thine!
这应该是我们在祷告中向上帝恳求的一个强烈要求，当我们在他向我们显示他的怜悯时，我们要将所有的赞美献给他。主啊，好处和安慰将属于我，而赞美将属于你！

It is little less than blasphemy to praise God for that which by unlawful shifts we have procured; for besides the hypocrisy of it, in seeming to sacrifice to him, when we sacrifice, indeed, to our own wits and carnal helps, we make him a patron of those ways which he most abhors; and it is idolatry in the highest degree to transform God so in our thoughts, as to think he is pleased with that which comes from his greatest enemy. And there is a gross mistake to take God's curse for a blessing. To thrive in an ill way is a spiritual judgment, extremely hardening in the heart.
这几乎是亵渎，为我们通过不正当手段获得的东西赞美上帝；除了虚伪之外，我们似乎在向他献祭，实际上却是向我们自己的智慧和肉体帮助献祭，我们使他成为他最憎恶的方式的支持者；将上帝在我们的思想中如此转化，以为他喜欢来自他最大的敌人的东西，这是最高程度的偶像崇拜。将上帝的诅咒视为祝福是一个严重的错误。在邪恶的道路上繁荣是一种属灵的审判，极其使人心硬化。

It is an argument of David's sincerity here that he meant not to take any indirect course for delivering himself, because he intended to praise God, which as no guilty conscience can offer, being afraid to look God in the face, so God would abhor such a sacrifice were it offered to him. St Paul was stirred up to praise God, but withal he was assured 'God would preserve him from every evil work,' 2 Tim. 4:18.
这里大卫的真诚之处在于他没有打算采取任何间接的方式来解脱自己，因为他打算赞美上帝，而有罪的良心是不能这样做的，因为害怕直视上帝的目光，所以上帝会憎恶这样的献祭。圣保罗被激励赞美上帝，但同时他确信“上帝会保护他免受一切邪恶的行为”，提摩太后书 4:18。

Sometimes, indeed, where there is no malicious intention, God pardons some breakings out of flesh and blood, endeavouring to help ourselves in danger, so far as not to take advantage of them to desert us in trouble; as in David, who escaped from Achish by counterfeiting, 1 Sam. 27:10; and this yields a double ground of thankfulness, partly for God's overlooking our miscarriage, and partly for the deliverance itself. Yet this indulgence of God will make the soul more ashamed afterward for these sinful shifts; therefore, it must be no precedent to us. There can neither be grace nor wisdom in setting upon a course wherein we can neither pray to God for success in, nor bless God when he gives it. In this case God most blesseth where he most crosseth, and most curseth where the deluded heart thinks he blesseth most.
有时候，确实，在没有恶意的情况下，上帝会宽恕一些因为肉体和血液的冲动而犯下的错误，试图在危险中自救，但不会利用这些错误来抛弃我们。比如大卫通过伪装逃离亚吉的追捕（撒母耳记上 27:10），这给我们带来了双重的感激，一方面是因为上帝宽恕了我们的过失，另一方面是因为获得了解救。然而，上帝的宽容会让灵魂对这些罪恶的手段感到更加羞愧；因此，我们不能以此为先例。在我们既不能向上帝祈求成功，也不能在他给予成功时称颂他的行动中，既没有恩典也没有智慧。在这种情况下，上帝最祝福那些他最反对的地方，而在迷惑的心灵认为他最祝福的地方，上帝最诅咒。

CHAPTER XXVII.—In our worst condition we have cause to praise God; still ample cause in these days
第二十七章-在我们最糟糕的情况下，我们有理由赞美上帝；在这些日子里，仍然有充分的理由。

'I shall yet praise him, or yet I will praise God;' that is, however it goeth with me, yet, as I have cause, so I have a spirit to praise God. When we are at the lowest, yet it is a mercy that we are not consumed. We are never so ill but it might be worse with us. Whatsoever is less than hell is undeserved. It is a matter of praise that yet we have time and opportunity to get into a blessed condition, 'The Lord hath afflicted me sore, but he hath not delivered me to death,' saith David, Ps. 18:18.
我仍然要赞美他，或者说我仍然要赞美上帝；也就是说，无论我的情况如何，我都有理由和精神来赞美上帝。当我们处于最低谷时，我们仍然能够不被消灭是一种恩典。我们从来没有那么糟糕，但我们的情况可能会更糟。任何比地狱更小的事都是不应得的。我们有时间和机会进入一个有福的状态，这是值得赞美的事情，“耶和华虽然严厉地惩罚了我，却没有把我交给死亡，”大卫说，诗篇 18:18。

In the worst times there is a presence of God with his children.
在最糟糕的时刻，上帝与他的子民同在。

1. In moderating the measure of the cross, that it be not above their strength.
在调节十字架的程度时，不要超过他们的能力。

2. In moderating the time of it, 'The rod of the wicked shall not rest long upon the lot of the righteous,' Ps. 125:3. God limits both measure and time.
在调节时间上，“恶人的杖不会长时间压在义人的地上”，诗篇 125:3。上帝限制了尺度和时间。

3. He is present in mixing some comfort, and so allaying the bitterness of a cross.

4. Yea, and he supports the soul by inward strength, so as though it faint, yet it shall not utterly fail.
是的，他通过内在的力量支持灵魂，即使它虚弱，也不会完全失败。

5. God is present in sanctifying a cross for good, and at length, when he hath perfected his own work in his, he is present for a final deliverance of them. A sound-hearted Christian hath always a God to go to, a promise to go to, former experience to go to, besides some present experiences of God's goodness which he enjoys. For the present he is a child of God, a member of Christ, an heir of heaven. He dwells in the love of God in the cross as well as out of it. He may be cast out of his happy condition in the world, but never out of God's favour.
上帝在为善而祝圣十字架时存在，并最终，在他完成自己的工作后，他会为他们提供最终的拯救。一个纯正的基督徒总是有一个可以求助的上帝，一个可以依靠的应许，以及一些他所享受的上帝恩慈的现在经历，除了一些过去的经历。就现在而言，他是上帝的儿女，基督的肢体，天堂的继承人。他在十字架上和十字架外都居住在上帝的爱中。他可能会被世界中的幸福状态所抛弃，但永远不会失去上帝的恩宠。

Obj. If God's children have cause to praise God in their worst condition, what difference is there betwixt their best estate and their worst?
如果上帝的子民在最糟糕的情况下都有理由赞美上帝，那么他们最好的状态和最差的状态之间有什么区别呢？

Ans. Howsoever God's children have continual occasion to praise God, yet there be some more especial seasons of praising God than others; there be days of God's own making of purpose to rejoice in, wherein we may say, 'This is the day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice therein,' Ps. 118:24. And this I think is chiefly intended here. David comforts himself with this, that however it was now with him, yet God would deal so graciously with him hereafter that he should have cause to bless his name.
无论上帝的子民何时都有持续赞美上帝的机会，但有些时刻比其他时刻更特别，有些是上帝特意设立的欢乐日子，我们可以说：“这是耶和华所造的日子，我们在其中要欢喜快乐。”（诗篇 118:24）我认为这里主要是指这一点。大卫以此安慰自己，无论他现在的处境如何，上帝将来会如此恩待他，以至于他会有理由称颂上帝的名。

Though in evil times we have cause to praise God, yet so we are, and such are our spirits, for the most part, that affliction straitens our hearts. Therefore, the apostle thought it the fittest duty in affliction to pray. 'Is any afflicted? let him pray,' saith James; 'is any joyful? let him sing psalms,' James 5:13; shewing that the day of rejoicing is the fittest day of praising God. Every work of a Christian is beautiful in its own time. The graces of Christianity have their several offices at several seasons. In trouble, prayer is in its season. 'In the evil day call upon me,' saith God, Ps. 91:15. In better times praises should appear and shew themselves. When God manifests his goodness to his, he gives them grace with it to manifest their thankfulness to him. Praising of God is then most comely, though never out of season, when God seems to call for it by renewing the sense of his mercies in some fresh favour towards us. If a bird will sing in winter, much more in the spring. If the heart be prepared in the wintertime of adversity to praise God, how ready will it be when it is warmed with the glorious sunshine of his favour!
虽然在邪恶的时代我们有理由赞美上帝，但我们和我们的精神大多数时候都是这样的，即苦难使我们的心变窄。因此，使徒认为在苦难中祈祷是最合适的责任。雅各说：“有人受苦吗？他当祷告。”（雅各书 5:13）这表明欢乐的日子是赞美上帝的最佳时机。基督徒的每一个行为在适当的时候都是美丽的。基督教的恩典在不同的季节有不同的职责。在困境中，祈祷是适时的。“在祸患的日子，求告我，我必搭救你。”（诗篇 91:15）在更好的时候，赞美应该显现出来。当上帝向他的子民显明他的恩慈时，他也赐给他们恩典，以表达他们对他的感恩之情。赞美上帝最美丽的时候是当上帝通过在我们身上施行新的恩惠来呼召我们时，尽管赞美上帝永远不会过时。如果一只鸟会在冬天唱歌，那么在春天它会更加唱得欢快。如果在逆境的冬天，心灵已经准备好赞美上帝，那么当它被他的恩典的光辉阳光温暖时，它将会多么敏锐！

Our life is nothing but as it were a web woven with interminglings of wants and favours, crosses and blessings, standings and fallings, combat and victory, therefore there should be a perpetual intercourse of praying and praising in our hearts. There is always a ground of communion with God in one of these kinds, till we come to that condition wherein all wants shall be supplied, where indeed is only matter of praise. Yet praising God in this life hath this prerogative, that here we praise him 'in the midst of his enemies,' Ps. 110:2. In heaven all will be in concert with us. God esteems it an honour in the midst of devils, and wicked men, whose life is nothing but a dishonour of him, to have those that will make his name, as it is in itself, so great in the world.
我们的生活就像是一张由需求和恩惠、困难和祝福、站立和跌倒、战斗和胜利交织而成的网，因此我们的心中应该有持续的祈祷和赞美的交流。在这些情况中，我们总是与上帝有交流的基础，直到我们达到一种所有需求都得到满足的状态，那时只有赞美的事情。然而，在这个生命中赞美上帝有这样的特权，就是我们在这里赞美他“在他的仇敌中间”，诗篇 110:2。在天堂，所有的人都会与我们一起合唱。上帝认为这是一种荣耀，因为在魔鬼和邪恶的人中间，他们的生活只是对他的不敬，而有人能使他的名字在世界上如同它本身一样伟大。

David comforts himself in this, that he should praise God, which shews he had inured himself well before to this holy exercise, in which he found such comfort, that he could not but joy in the forethoughts of that time, wherein he should have fresh occasion of his former acquaintance with God. Thoughts of this nature enter not into a heart that is strange to God.
大卫在这方面安慰自己，他应该赞美上帝，这表明他之前已经很好地习惯了这种神圣的锻炼，在其中他找到了如此的安慰，以至于他不得不为那个时刻的预期而欢喜，那个时刻他将有新的机会与上帝重新熟悉。这种思考方式不会进入一个对上帝陌生的心灵。

It is a special art, in time of misery to think of matter of joy, if not for the present, yet for the time to come; for joy disposeth to praise, and praise again stirs up joy; these mutually breed one another, even as the seed brings forth the tree, and the tree brings forth the seed. It is wisdom, therefore, to set faith on work, to take as much comfort as we can from future promises, that we may have comfort and strength for the present, before we have the full possession of them. It is the nature of faith to antedate blessings, by making them that are to be performed hereafter, as present now, because we have them in the promise. If God had not allowed us to take many things in trust for the time to come, both for his glory and our good, he would never have left such rich promises to us. For faith doth not only give glory to God, for the present, in a present believing of his truth, and relying upon him, but as it looks forward, it sees an everlasting ground of praising God, and is stirred up to praise him now, for that future matter of praise, which it is sure to have hereafter. The very hopes of future good made David praise God for the present. If the happy condition we look for were present, we would embrace it with present praises. Now, 'faith is the evidence of things not seen,' Heb. 11:1, and gives a being to that which is not; whereupon a true believing soul cannot but be a praising soul. For this end God reveals beforehand what we shall have, that beforehand we should praise him, as if we possessed it. For that is a great honour to his truth, when we esteem of what he speaks as done, and what he promiseth as already performed. Had we not a perpetual confidence in the perpetuity of his love to us, how is it possible we should praise him?
在困苦时期，思考快乐的事情是一种特殊的艺术，即使不是为了现在，也是为了将来；因为快乐会引发赞美，而赞美又会激发快乐；它们相互滋生，就像种子生长成树木，树木又结出种子一样。因此，明智的做法是将信心付诸行动，尽可能从未来的承诺中获得安慰，这样我们就能在完全拥有它们之前，拥有现在的安慰和力量。信仰的本质是通过使将来要完成的事情在现在成为现实，提前享受祝福，因为我们在承诺中已经拥有了它们。如果上帝不允许我们为将来托付许多事物，无论是为了他的荣耀还是我们的利益，他就不会给我们留下如此丰富的应许。因为信仰不仅在现在相信他的真理并依靠他时，给予上帝荣耀，而且在展望未来时，它看到了永恒的赞美上帝的基础，并被激励着现在就赞美他，因为它确信将来会有这样的赞美。对未来美好的希望使大卫为现在赞美上帝。 如果我们所期待的幸福条件存在，我们会立即赞美它。现在，“信就是所望之事的实底，是未见之事的确据”（希伯来书 11:1），并赋予了那些不存在的事物实在的存在；因此，一个真正相信的灵魂不可能不是一个赞美的灵魂。为了这个目的，上帝预先揭示我们将要拥有的东西，以便我们在拥有之前就赞美他，仿佛我们已经拥有了它一样。因为当我们把他所说的当作已经完成的事情，把他所应许的当作已经实现的事情时，这对他的真实是一个巨大的荣耀。如果我们对他对我们的爱的永恒性没有持久的信心，我们怎么可能赞美他呢？

Obj. But we want those grounds for the time to come which David had; he had particular promises, which we want.
但是我们希望拥有大卫曾经拥有的那些根据；他有特定的应许，而我们则没有。

Ans. 1. Though we want Urim and Thummim and the prophets, to foretell us what the times to come shall be, yet we have the canon of Scripture enlarged; we live under a more glorious manifestation of Christ, and under a more plentiful shedding of the Spirit, whereby that want is abundantly supplied. We have general promises for the time to come, that 'God will never fail nor forsake us,' Deut. 31:6; 'that he will be with us in fire and in water, that he will give an issue to the temptation, and that the issue of all things shall be for our good, that we shall reap the quiet fruit of righteousness,' Heb. 12:11; 'and no good thing will he withhold from them that lead a godly life,' &c., Ps. 84:11. If we had a spirit of faith to apply these generals, we should see much of God's goodness in particular.
虽然我们希望有乌陵和土明，以及先知们来预言未来的时代，但我们的圣经已经扩大了；我们生活在基督更加荣耀的显现之下，也有更加丰富的圣灵浇灌，这样我们的需求得到了充分的满足。我们有关于未来的普遍应许，即“上帝永不离弃我们”（申命记 31:6），“他在火中和水中与我们同在，他会给我们出路，一切事情的结果都将对我们有益，我们将收获公义的平安果实”（希伯来书 12:11），“凡过正直生活的人，他必不缺少任何好处”（诗篇 84:11）。如果我们有信心的灵去应用这些普遍的应许，我们将会在具体的事情中看到上帝的大恩。

2. Besides general promises, we have some particular ones for the time to come; of the confusion of antichrist, of the conversion of the Jews, and fulness of the Gentiles, &c., which, though we perhaps shall never live to see, yet we are members of that body, which hereafter shall see the same; which should stir up our hearts to praise God, as if we did enjoy the present fulfilling of them ourselves, for faith can present them to the soul as if they were now present.
除了一般的承诺外，我们还有一些特定的承诺，关于将来的事情；关于敌基督的混乱，犹太人的归信，以及外邦人的丰满等等，虽然我们可能永远无法亲眼目睹，但我们是那个将来会看到这一切的身体的一部分；这应该激励我们的心灵赞美上帝，就好像我们自己正在享受这些事情的实现一样，因为信心可以将它们呈现给灵魂，就好像它们现在就在眼前。

3. Some that have a more near communion with God, may have a particular faith of some particular deliverances, whereupon they may ground particular prayer. Luther praying for a sick friend [Frederick Myco] who was very comfortable and useful to him, had a particular answer for his recovery, whereupon he was so confident, that he sent word to his friend, that he should certainly recover. Latimer prayed with great zeal for three things. 1. That Queen Elizabeth might come to the crown. 2. That he might seal the truth with his heart's blood. 3. And that the gospel might be restored 'once again, once again,' which he expressed with great vehemency of spirit; all which three, God heard him in. But the privileges of a few must not be made a general rule for all. Privileges go not out of the persons, but rest there. Yet if men would maintain a nearer communion with God, there is no doubt but he would reveal himself in more familiar manner to them, in many particulars, than usually he doth. Those particular promises in the 91st Psalm and other places, are made good to such as have a particular faith, and to all others, with those limitations annexed to promises of that nature, so far forth as God seeth it will conduce* to their good and his own glory, and so far forth as they depend upon him in the use of means; and is not this sufficient to stay a gracious heart?
有些人与上帝的交流更为亲近，可能会对某些特定的拯救有特别的信心，因此可以以此为基础进行特别的祈祷。路德为一个生病的朋友（弗雷德里克·迈科）祈祷，他非常舒适和有用，得到了特别的康复答案，因此他非常自信，向朋友传达消息，他一定会康复。拉蒂默为三件事情祈祷，充满热情。1. 伊丽莎白女王能够登基。2. 他能以自己的心血来证实真理。3. 福音能够“再次，再次”恢复，他以极大的激情表达了这三点；上帝都应允了他。但是，少数人的特权不能成为所有人的普遍规则。特权不会离开个人，而是停留在那里。然而，如果人们与上帝保持更亲近的交流，毫无疑问，他会以比通常更熟悉的方式向他们显现，涉及许多细节。 那些在诗篇 91 和其他地方的特定承诺，对于那些有特定信仰的人来说是真实的，并且对于其他所有人来说，也有那些与此类承诺相关的限制条件，只要上帝认为这将有助于他们的利益和他自己的荣耀，并且只要他们在使用手段时依靠他；难道这不足以安抚一个有恩典的心灵吗？

But not to insist upon particular promises and revelations, the performance whereof we enjoy here in this present life, we have rich and precious promises of final and full deliverance from all evil, and perfect enjoying of all good in that life which is to come; yet not so to come, but that we have the earnest and first fruits of it here; all is not kept for heaven. We may say with David, 'Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee,' Ps. 31:19; and not only so, but how great is that goodness which thou hast wrought in them that trust in thee, even before the sons of men! God treasures not up all his goodness for the time to come, but lays much of it out daily before such as have eyes to behold it.
但是不坚持特定的承诺和启示，我们在此现世中享受的履行，我们有丰富而宝贵的承诺，最终完全摆脱一切邪恶，并在即将到来的生活中完美地享受一切美好；然而，这并不是说我们只有在未来才能拥有，我们在此处已经有了它的保证和初熟的果实；并不是所有的都留给天堂。我们可以像大卫一样说：“你为敬畏你的人所积存的恩惠是何等的丰盛！”（诗篇 31:19）而且不仅如此，你在那些信靠你的人身上所施行的恩惠是何等的伟大，甚至在人子面前！上帝并不把他所有的恩惠都留到未来的时候，而是每天都向那些有眼睛看见的人展示出来。

Now God's main end in revealing such glorious promises of the life to come is, that they might be a ground of comfort to us, and of praise to him even in this life; and indeed what can be grievous in this world to him that hath heaven in his eye? What made our blessed Saviour 'endure the cross, and despise the shame, but the joy of glory to come, set before him?' Heb. 12:2.
现在，上帝揭示来世的这些荣耀的应许的主要目的是让它们成为我们在这个生命中的安慰和赞美的基础；实际上，对于那些心中怀有天堂的人来说，这个世界上还有什么可悲伤的呢？是什么让我们的救主忍受了十字架的痛苦，轻视了羞辱呢？不就是在他面前摆上的荣耀的喜乐吗？来自希伯来书 12:2。

The duty that David brought his heart to, before he had a full enjoyment of what he looked for, was patient waiting, it being God's use to put a long date oftentimes to the performances of his promises. David after he had the promise of a kingdom, was put off a long time ere he was invested to it; Abraham was an old man before he enjoyed his son of the promise; Joseph stayed a long time before he was exalted; our blessed Saviour himself was thirty-four years old before he was exalted up into glory.
大卫在得到他期待的一切之前，带着他的心承担的责任是耐心等待，因为上帝常常将他的应许延迟很久。大卫在得到国王的应许后，等待了很长时间才得到加冕；亚伯拉罕在享受应许的儿子之前已经年老；约瑟夫在被提升之前等待了很长时间；我们救主耶稣自己在被升上荣耀之前已经三十四岁了。

God defers, but his deferring is no empty space, wherein no good is done, but there is in that space a fitting for promises. Whilst the seed lieth hid in the earth, time is not lost, for winter fits for spring, yea, the harder the winter, the more hopeful the spring; yet were it a mere empty space, we should hold out, because of the great things to come; but being only a preparing time, we should pass it with the less discouragement. Let this support us in all the thwartings of our desire. It is a folly to think, that we should have physic and health both at once. We must endure the working of God's physic. When the sick humour is carried away and purged, then we shall enjoy desired health. God promiseth forgiveness of sin, but thou findest the burden of it daily on thee. Cheer up thyself: when the morning is darkest, then comes day; after a weary week comes a sabbath, and after a fight victory will appear. God's time is best, therefore resolve upon waiting his leisure. For the better demeaning of ourselves herein, we must know we must so wait, that we provoke not in the mean time his patience on whom we depend, by putting forth our hand to any evil, which indeed is a crossing of our hopes. Therefore, waiting upon God is always joined with doing good. There is an influence in the thing hoped for, in the spirit of him that truly hopes, stirring him up to a suitable conformity, by purging himself of whatsoever will not stand with the holiness of that condition. Waiting implies all graces, as patience, perseverance, long-suffering in holding out, notwithstanding the tediousness of time deferred, courage, and breaking through all difficulties that stand between. For what is waiting, indeed, but a continuing in a gracious inoffensive course, till the accomplishment of our desires?
上帝推迟，但他的推迟并非空洞无物，其中并非没有善行，而是在这段时间里有适合兑现承诺的机会。当种子隐藏在土地中时，时间并非浪费，因为冬天为春天做准备，是的，冬天越严寒，春天就越有希望；然而，如果这只是一个空洞的时刻，我们会坚持下去，因为伟大的事情即将到来；但既然只是一个准备的时间，我们应该以更少的沮丧度过它。让这支持我们在所有欲望的挫折中。认为我们应该同时拥有药物和健康是愚蠢的。我们必须忍受上帝药物的作用。当病态的体液被排除和净化时，我们将享受到期望的健康。上帝应许宽恕罪过，但你每天都感到负担。振作起来：当早晨最黑暗的时候，白天就要来临；经过一个劳累的星期，就会有一个安息日，经过一场战斗，胜利将会出现。上帝的时间是最好的，因此决定等待他的闲暇。 为了更好地在此处贬低自己，我们必须知道我们必须如此等待，以免在此期间激怒我们依赖的人的耐心，通过伸手去做任何邪恶的事情，这实际上是对我们希望的背离。因此，等候上帝总是与行善相结合。在真正希望的人的精神中，所希望的事物有一种影响，激励他以适当的方式顺应，通过净化自己，摒弃与那种状态的圣洁性不符的一切。等待意味着所有的恩典，如耐心、毅力、忍耐，尽管时间拖延的繁琐，勇气和突破所有阻碍之间的困难。因为等待实际上是在一个有恩典的无冲突的道路上持续下去，直到我们的愿望实现。

Whence we may discern a main difference betwixt a Christian and a carnal man, who is short-spirited, and all for the present. He will have his good here, whereas a saint of God continues still waiting, though all things seem contrary to what he expects. The presence of things to come is such to faith, as it makes it 'despise the pleasure of sin for a season,' Heb. 11:25. What evidence of goodness is it for a man to be good only upon the apprehension of something that contents him? Here is the glory of faith, that it can upon God's bare promise, cross itself in things pleasing to nature, and raise up the soul to a disposition some ways answerable to that blessed estate which, though yet it enjoys not, yet it is undoubtedly persuaded of, and looks for. What can encourage us more to wait than this, that the good we wait for is greater than we are able to conceive, yea, greater than we can desire or hope for?
我们可以从中看出基督徒和属肉体的人之间的主要区别，后者心胸狭窄，只追求眼前的利益。他只在此生中享受好处，而上帝的圣徒则持续等待，尽管一切似乎与他的期望相反。对于信仰来说，未来的事物的存在使它“为了一时的罪恶的快乐而轻视”，希伯来书 11:25。一个人只在满足他的东西的观念上才表现出善良，这有什么好处呢？这就是信仰的荣耀，它可以仅凭上帝的光秃秃的应许，在对自然有吸引力的事物上与自己相抵触，并使灵魂产生一种与那个祝福的状态有些相符的倾向，尽管它尚未享受，但它无疑相信并期待着。还有什么比这更能鼓励我们等待的呢？我们等待的好处比我们能够想象的要大，甚至比我们能够渴望或希望的要大。

This was no presumptuous resolution of David's own strength, but it issued from his present truth of heart, so far as he knew the same; together with an humble dependence upon God, both for deliverance, and a heart to praise him for it; because God's benefits are usually entire, and are sweetened with such a sense of his love, as causeth a thankful heart, which to a true Christian, is a greater blessing than the deliverance itself, as making the soul better. David doth acknowledge with humble admiration, that a heart enlarged comes from God, 'Who am I,' saith he, 'and who are my people?' 1 Chron. 29:14.
这不是大卫凭借自己的力量做出的傲慢决定，而是出自他内心的真实感受，就他所知，他谦卑地依靠上帝，寻求解救，并且心存感恩，因为上帝的恩惠通常是完整的，并伴随着对他的爱的感知，使人心存感激，对于一个真正的基督徒来说，这比解救本身更是一种祝福，因为它使灵魂变得更好。大卫谦卑地赞叹，一个宽广的心灵来自上帝，“我算什么，我的民算什么？”（历代志上 29:14）

He mentioneth here praising God, instead of deliverance, because a heart enlarged to praise God is indeed the greatest part of the deliverance; for by it the soul is delivered out of its own straits and discontent.
他在这里提到赞美上帝，而不是解救，因为一个心灵扩大以赞美上帝的人，实际上是解救的最重要部分；因为通过赞美，灵魂从自身的困境和不满中得到解救。

CHAPTER XXVIII.—Divers qualities of the praise due to God, with helps therein; and notes of God's hearing our prayers
第二十八章 - 对上帝应得的赞美的不同品质，以及在其中的帮助；以及上帝听到我们祈祷的迹象

Though this be God's due and our duty, and itself a delightful thing, yet it is not so easy a matter to praise God, as many imagine. Music is sweet, but the setting of the strings in tune is unpleasing. Our souls will not be long in tune, and it is harsh to us to go about the setting them in order. Like curious clocks, a little thing will hinder the motion; especially passion, which disturbs not only the frame of grace in us, but the very frame of nature, putting man out of the power and possession of himself; and therefore David here, when he had thoughts of praising God, was fain to take up the quarrel betwixt him and his soul first. Praising sets all the parts and graces of the soul awork; and therefore the soul had need gather itself and its strength together to this duty.
虽然这是上帝的应得和我们的责任，本身是一件令人愉悦的事情，但赞美上帝并不像许多人想象的那样容易。音乐是甜美的，但调整弦的位置却不令人愉悦。我们的灵魂不会长时间保持和谐，而且整理它们的秩序对我们来说是困难的。就像精密的时钟，一点小事就会阻碍它的运转；尤其是激情，它不仅扰乱了我们内在的恩典，还扰乱了我们的本性，使人失去自我控制和拥有；因此，当大卫想要赞美上帝时，他首先不得不解决他与自己的灵魂之间的争执。赞美使灵魂的各个部分和美德都开始运作；因此，灵魂有必要集中自己的力量来履行这个责任。

It requires especially self-denial, from a conscience* of our own wants, weaknesses, and unworthiness; it requires a giving up of ourselves, and all ours to be at God's dispose.† The very ground and the fruit which it yields are both God's; and they never gave themselves truly up to God, that are not ready to give all they have to him whensoever he calls for it. Thankfulness is a sacrifice, and in sacrifices there must be killing before offering, otherwise the sacrifice will be as the offering up some unclean creature. Thanksgiving is an incense, and there must be fire to burn that incense. Thanksgiving requires not only affections, but the heat of affections. There must be some assurance of the benefit we praise God for; and it is no easy matter to maintain assurance of our interest in the best things.
它特别需要自我克制，来自对自己的需求、弱点和不值得的良心的认识；它需要放弃自己和所有的一切，让上帝支配。它所产生的根基和果实都属于上帝；那些没有真正将自己完全交给上帝的人，在上帝呼唤时也不愿意将他们所有的一切都交给他。感恩是一种牺牲，在牺牲中必须先杀死，否则牺牲就像献上一些不洁净的生物。感恩是一种香气，必须有火来燃烧那香气。感恩不仅需要情感，还需要情感的热度。我们必须对我们感谢上帝的恩惠有一定的保证；而保持对我们在最好的事物中的利益的保证并不容易。

Yet in this case, if we feel not sense of assurance, it is good we should praise God for what we have. We cannot deny but God offers himself in mercy to us, and that he intends our good thereby, for so we ought to construe his merciful dealing towards us, and not have him in jealousy without ground. If we bring our hearts to be willing to praise God, for that we cannot but acknowledge comes from him, he will be ready in his time to shew himself more clearly to us. We taste of his goodness many ways, Rom. 2:4, and it is accompanied with much patience; and these in their natures lead us not only to repentance, but likewise to thankful acknowledgment; and we ought to follow that which God leads us unto, though he hath not yet acquainted us with his secrets.
然而，在这种情况下，如果我们感到没有安全感，我们应该为我们所拥有的感谢上帝是好的。我们不能否认上帝以怜悯之心向我们提供自己，并且他以此来意图我们的利益，因此我们应该将他对我们的怜悯处理解释为他没有根据的嫉妒。如果我们使我们的心愿意赞美上帝，因为我们不得不承认这是来自他的，他将在他的时间里准备更清楚地向我们展示自己。我们以许多方式品尝到他的恩慈，罗马书 2:4，并且它伴随着许多耐心；这些本质不仅引导我们悔改，而且引导我们感恩的承认；我们应该跟随上帝引导我们的道路，即使他还没有向我们透露他的秘密。

It is good in this case to help the soul with a firm resolution, and to back resolution with a vow, not only in general that we will praise, but particularly of something within our own power, provided it prove no snare to us. For by this means the heart is perfectly gained, and the thing is as good as done in regard of God's acceptance and our comfort; because strong resolutions discover sincerity without any hypocritical reservation and hollowness. Always so much sincerity as a man hath, so much will his inward peace be. Resolution as a strong stream bears down all before it. Little good is done in religion without this, and with it, all is as good as done.
在这种情况下，用坚定的决心来帮助灵魂是好的，并且用誓言来支持决心，不仅是一般性的赞美，而且是特别针对我们自己能力范围内的事情，前提是它不会成为我们的陷阱。因为通过这种方式，心灵完全被获得，事情在上帝的接受和我们的安慰方面就像已经完成了一样；因为坚定的决心显示出真诚，没有虚伪的保留和虚假。一个人拥有多少真诚，他的内心平安就有多少。坚定的决心就像一股强大的洪流，能够冲垮一切。在宗教方面，没有这种决心就很难做出什么好事，而有了这种决心，一切都像已经完成了一样。

So soon as we set upon this work we shall feel our spirits to rise higher and higher, as the waters in the sanctuary, Ezek. 47, as the soul grows more and more heated. See how David riseth by degrees. Be glad in the Lord, Ps. 32:11, and then, rejoice, ye righteous, and then, shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart. The Spirit of God will delight to carry us along in this duty, until it leaves our spirits in heaven, praising God with the saints and glorious angels there. To him that hath and useth it shall be given, Mat. 25:29. He that knoweth God aright will honour him by trusting of him; he that honours him by trusting him, will honour him by praying; and he that honours him by prayer, shall honour him by praises; he that honours him by praises here, shall perfect his praises in heaven; and this will quit the labour of setting and keeping the soul in tune. This trading with God is the richest trade in the world. When we return praises to him, he returns new favours to us, and so an everlasting, ever increasing intercourse betwixt God and the soul is maintained. David here resolved to praise God, because he had assurance of such a deliverance as would yield him a ground of praising him.
我们一旦开始这项工作，我们的精神就会越来越高涨，就像圣所中的水一样（以西结书 47 章），灵魂也会变得越来越炽热。看看大卫是如何逐渐崛起的。在主里面喜乐（诗篇 32:11），然后，义人们要欢喜，正直的人们要欢呼。上帝的灵将喜欢引导我们在这个责任中前进，直到我们的灵魂在天堂中赞美上帝，与圣徒和荣耀的天使一起。给予的人将得到并使用它（马太福音 25:29）。认识上帝的人会通过信靠他来尊重他；通过信靠他来尊重他的人，会通过祈祷来尊重他；通过祈祷来尊重他的人，将通过赞美来尊重他；在这里通过赞美尊重他的人，将在天堂中完善他的赞美；这将解脱我们将灵魂调整到正确状态的劳动。与上帝交易是世界上最丰富的交易。当我们向他回报赞美时，他会给我们回报新的恩惠，因此上帝与灵魂之间将保持永恒、不断增长的交流。 大卫决定赞美上帝，因为他确信会得到这样一种拯救，使他有理由赞美上帝。

Praising of God may well be called incense, because, as it is sweet in itself, and sweet to God, so it sweetens all that comes from us. Love and joy are sweet in themselves, though those whom we love and joy in should not know of our affection, nor return the like; but we cannot love and joy in God but he will delight in us. When we neglect the praising of God, we lose both the comfort of God's love and our own too. It is a spiritual judgment to want or lose the sight or sense of God's favours, for it is a sign of want of spiritual life, or at least liveliness; it shews we are not yet in the state of those whom God hath chosen to set forth the riches of his glory upon.
赞美上帝可以称为香，因为它本身甜美，对上帝也是甜美的，它使我们所做的一切都变得甜美。爱和喜乐本身就是甜美的，即使我们所爱和喜乐的人不知道我们的情感，也不回应同样的情感；但我们不能爱和喜乐上帝而他不会喜悦我们。当我们忽视赞美上帝时，我们失去了上帝的爱和我们自己的安慰。失去看到或感受到上帝的恩惠是一种属灵的审判，因为这是属灵生命的缺乏的迹象，或者至少是活力的缺乏；这表明我们还不处于上帝选择展示他荣耀丰富的人的状态中。

When we consider that, if we answer not kindness and favour shewed unto us by men, we are esteemed unworthy of respect, as having sinned against the bond of human society and love, we cannot but much more take shame to ourselves, when we consider the disproportion of our carriage, and unkind behaviour towards God, when, instead of being temples of his praise, we become graves of his benefits. What a vanity is this in our nature, to stand upon exactness of justice, in answering petty courtesies of men, and yet to pass by the substantial favours of God, without scarce taking notice of them! The best breeding is to acknowledge greatest respects where they are most due, and to think, that if unkindness and rudeness be a sin in civility, it is much more in religion. The greatest danger of unthankfulness is in the greatest matter of all. If we arrogate any spiritual strength to ourselves in spiritual actions, we commit either sacrilege, in robbing God of his due, or mockery, by praising him for that which we hold to be of ourselves. If injustice be to be condemned in man, much more in denying God his due, religion being the first due. It takes much from thankfulness, when we have common conceits of peculiar favours. Praise is not comely in the mouth of fools; God loves no 'blind sacrifice,' Mal. 1:8.
考虑到，如果我们不回应人们对我们的善意和恩惠，我们会被认为是不值得尊重的，因为我们犯了违背人类社会和爱的纽带的罪，当我们考虑到我们对上帝的态度和不友善的行为时，我们不禁感到羞愧，我们不再成为赞美他的殿堂，而成为他恩惠的坟墓。我们的本性是多么虚荣，我们在回应人们微不足道的礼遇时坚持公正，却对上帝实质性的恩惠视而不见！最好的教养是在最应该的地方承认最大的尊重，并且认为，如果不友善和粗鲁在礼貌中是一种罪过，那么在宗教中就更是如此。最大的忘恩负义的危险在于最重要的事情上。如果我们在属灵行动中自负任何属灵的力量，我们要么犯了亵渎罪，剥夺了上帝应得的，要么是嘲弄，因为我们赞美他的事情我们认为是我们自己的。如果不公正在人中应该受到谴责，那么在剥夺上帝他应得的地位上就更应该受到谴责，因为宗教是第一个应得的。 当我们对特殊的恩惠有共同的观念时，感激之情会减少很多。愚人口中的赞美是不合适的；上帝不喜欢“盲目的牺牲”，玛拉基书 1:8。

We should, therefore, have wisdom and judgment, not only to know upon what grounds to be thankful, but in what order, by discerning what be the best and first favours whence the rest proceed, and which add a worthiness to all the rest. It is good to see blessings, as they issue from grace and mercy. It much commends any blessing, to see the love and favour of God in it, which is more to be valued than the blessing itself, as it much commends anything that comes from us, when we put a respect of thankfulness, and love to God upon it; and if we observe, we shall find the unkindness of others to us, is but a correction of our unkindness to God.
因此，我们应该有智慧和判断力，不仅要知道应该感恩的理由，还要知道感恩的顺序，通过辨别最好和最重要的恩惠，以及哪些恩惠给其他一切增添了价值。从恩典和怜悯中看到祝福是好的。看到神的爱和恩惠在其中，比祝福本身更有价值，这样的祝福更加可取，就像我们把感恩和对神的爱放在其中时，任何来自我们的东西都更加可取一样；如果我们观察，我们会发现别人对我们的冷漠只是对我们对神的冷漠的一种纠正。

In praising God it is not good to delay, but take advantage of the freshness of the blessing. What we add to delay, we take from thankfulness; and withal lose the prime and first-fruits of our affections. It is a wise redeeming of time to observe the best seasons of thankfulness. A cheerful heart will best close with a cheerful duty, and therefore it is not good to waste so fit a temper in frivolous things; but after some contentment given to nature, let God have the fruit of his own planting, otherwise it is even no better than the refreshing of him that standeth by a good fire and crieth, 'Ah, ah, I am warm,' Isa. 44:16.
赞美上帝时，拖延是不好的，应该抓住祝福的新鲜感。我们拖延的时间，就是减少感恩的时间；同时也失去了我们情感的最初和最重要的部分。明智的利用时间是观察感恩的最佳时机。一个愉快的心灵会更好地完成愉快的任务，因此浪费这样一个合适的心情在琐碎的事情上是不好的；在满足了一些自然需求后，让上帝得到他自己种植的果实，否则就不过是站在火旁边喊着“啊，啊，我暖和”（以赛亚书 44:16）的人的一种消遣。

David doth not say, 'I will thank God,' but 'I shall praise him,' though he intends that. Thanks is then best when it tends to praising, and there ends; for thanks alone shew respect to our own good only, praises to God's glory; and in particular to the glory of such excellencies whence the benefit comes; and from thence the soul is enlarged to think highly of all God's excellencies.
大卫并没有说：“我要感谢上帝”，而是说：“我要赞美他”，尽管他的意图是感谢。感谢最好是当它倾向于赞美并在此结束；因为感谢只表达对我们自己的好处的尊重，而赞美则归于上帝的荣耀；特别是归于那些带来好处的卓越之处的荣耀；从那里，灵魂会扩大思考上帝所有的卓越之处。

Hannah, upon particular thanks for her hearing about a child, 1 Sam. 2:1, takes occasion to set out God's other excellencies, and riseth higher and higher, from one to many, from the present time to that which was to come; from particular favours to herself, she stirs up others to praise God for his mercy to them. So David: 'Deliver me, O God, and my tongue shall sing of thy praises,' Ps. 51:14. He propounds this as an engagement of the Lord to help him, because it should tend to the enlargement of his glory; he was resolved to improve God's favour this way.
汉娜听说有一个孩子后，特别感谢上帝。她借此机会表达上帝的其他卓越之处，并从一个到多个，从现在到未来不断上升；从对她自己的特别恩惠，她激励其他人为上帝对他们的怜悯而赞美上帝。大卫也是如此：“神啊，求你救我，我的舌头就要歌颂你的公义。”他提出这个作为上帝帮助他的承诺，因为这将有助于扩大上帝的荣耀；他决心以这种方式提高上帝的恩惠。

The Spirit of God works like new wine, enlarging the spirit from one degree of praising God to another; and because it foresees the eternity of God's love, as far as it can, it endeavours an eternity of God's praise. A gracious heart upon taste of favour shewed to itself, is presently warmed to spread the praise of God to others; and the more it sees the fruit of trusting God, and his truth in performing promise, the more it still honours that trusting, as knowing that it lies upon God's honour to honour those that honour him, 1 Sam. 2. Blessing will procure blessing. The soul hath never such freedom from sin as when it is in a thankful frame; for thankfulness issues from a heart truly humbled and emptied of itself, truly loving and rejoicing in God; and upon any sin the spirit is grieved and straitened, and the lips sealed up in such a heart; for the conscience upon any sin looks upon it not only as disobedience against God's will and authority, but as unthankfulness to his goodness; and this melteth a godly heart most of all. When Nathan told David God had done this and this for him, and was ready to do more, he could not hold in the confession of his sin, but relented and gave in presently, 2 Sam. 12:8.
上帝的灵就像新酒一样运行，将赞美上帝的精神从一个层次扩大到另一个层次；并且因为它预见到上帝的爱是永恒的，它尽力让上帝的赞美成为永恒。一个蒙恩的心一旦尝到上帝对自己的恩惠，就会立刻被温暖，将上帝的赞美传播给他人；而且它越是看到信靠上帝的果实，以及上帝在履行应许方面的真实性，它就越是尊重这种信靠，因为它知道尊重上帝的人，上帝也会尊重他们（撒上 2）。祝福会带来祝福。灵魂在感恩的状态下从未如此自由，因为感恩源于一个真正谦卑并且虚空自己的心，真正爱着并喜乐于上帝；而在任何罪恶面前，灵魂都感到悲伤和受限，嘴唇在这样的心中被封闭；因为在任何罪恶面前，良心不仅将其视为违背上帝的旨意和权威，而且视为对上帝的恩惠的不感激；而这最让虔诚的心融化。 When Nathan told David God had done this and this for him, and was ready to do more, he could not hold in the confession of his sin, but relented and gave in presently, 2 Sam. 12:8.

We ought not only to give thanks, but to be thankful, to meditate and study the praises of God. Our whole life should be nothing else but a continual blessing of his holy name, endeavouring to bring in all we have, and to lay it out for God and his people, to see where he hath any receivers. Our goodness is nothing to God. We need bring no water to the fountain nor light to the sun. Thankfulness is full of invention, it deviseth liberal things. Though it be our duty to be good stewards of our talents, yet thankfulness adds a lustre, and a more gracious acceptance, as having more of that which God calls for.
我们不仅应该感恩，还应该心存感激，沉思和研究上帝的赞美。我们的整个生活应该是对他圣名的不断祝福，努力将我们所拥有的一切带给上帝和他的子民，看看他是否有接受者。我们的善行对上帝来说毫无意义。我们不需要给泉水带来水，也不需要给太阳带来光。感恩充满了创造力，它设计出慷慨的事情。虽然我们有责任善用我们的才能，但感恩之心增添了光彩和更加亲切的接受，因为它更符合上帝的要求。

Our praising God should not be as sparks out of a flint, but as water out of a spring, natural, ready, free, as God's love to us is. Mercy pleases him, so should praise please us. It is our happiness when the best part in us is exercised about the best and highest work. It was a good speech of him that said, If God had made me a nightingale, I would have sung as a nightingale, but now God hath made me a man, I will sing forth the praises of God, which is the work of a saint only. 'All thy works bless thee, and thy saints praise thee,' Ps. 145:10. All things are either blessings in their nature, or so blessed, as they are made blessings to us by the overruling command of him, who maketh all things serviceable to his. Even the worst things in this sense are made spiritual to God's people against their own nature. How great is that goodness which makes even the worst things good!
我们赞美上帝不应该像火花从燧石中迸发出来，而应该像泉水从泉眼中涌出来，自然、随时、自由，就像上帝对我们的爱一样。怜悯使他喜悦，赞美也应该使我们喜悦。当我们最好的一面投入到最好、最高的工作中时，这是我们的幸福。有人说得好，如果上帝让我成为一只夜莺，我会像夜莺一样歌唱，但现在上帝让我成为一个人，我将歌颂上帝，这是圣徒的工作。诗篇 145:10 说：“你的一切作品都要称谢你，耶和华！你的圣民也要称颂你。”一切事物要么本质上是祝福，要么通过上帝的命令使我们成为祝福，上帝使一切事物为他的子民服务。即使是最糟糕的事物在这个意义上也被赋予了属灵的意义，对上帝的子民来说，违背了它们自身的本性。多么伟大的善良，使最糟糕的事物变得美好！

Little favours come from no small love, but even from the same love that God intends the greatest things to us; and are pledges of it. The godly are more thankful for the least favours than worldly men for the greatest. The affection of the giver enhances the gift.
小小的恩惠并非来自微不足道的爱，而是来自上帝赐予我们的同样伟大的爱；它们是这爱的保证。虔诚的人对最小的恩惠比世俗人对最大的恩惠更感激。施与者的情感增加了礼物的价值。

O then let us labour to improve both what we have, and what we are, to his glory. It discovers that we love God, not only with all our understanding, heart, and affection, but, when with all our might and power, so far as we have advantage by any part, relation, or calling whatsoever, we endeavour to do him service. We cannot have a greater honour in the world, than to be honoured of God, to be abundant in this kind.
让我们努力改善我们所拥有的和我们自己，以荣耀他。这表明我们不仅用我们的理解、心灵和感情来爱神，而且当我们尽我们所能、尽我们的力量，尽我们所能从任何部分、关系或职责中获得优势时，我们努力为他服务。在世界上，我们没有比被神尊重更大的荣誉，成为这种人是丰富的。

Our time here is short, and we shall all ere long be called to a reckoning; therefore let us study real praises. God's blessing of us is in deed, and so should ours be of him. Thanks in words is good, but in deeds is better; leaves are good, but fruit is better; and of fruit, that which costs us most. True praise requires our whole man, the judgment to esteem, the memory to treasure up, the will to resolve, the affections to delight, the tongue to speak of, and the life to express the rich favours of God. What can we think of! what can we call to mind! What can we resolve upon! what can we speak! What can we express in our whole course better than the praises of him, 'of whom, and through whom, and to whom we and all things are!' Rom. 11:36.
我们在这里的时间很短，不久我们都将被召唤来算账；因此让我们学习真正的赞美。上帝对我们的祝福是实实在在的，我们对他的赞美也应如此。言谢是好的，但行谢更好；叶子是好的，但果实更好；而且是那些花费我们最多的果实。真正的赞美需要我们全人，判断力去珍视，记忆力去铭记，意志力去决心，情感去喜悦，舌头去说出，生活去表达上帝丰盛的恩典。我们能想到什么！我们能回忆起什么！我们能决定什么！我们能说什么！我们能在整个人生中表达什么，比上帝的赞美更好呢，'我们和万物都是由他，借着他，归于他'（罗马书 11:36）。

Our whole life should speak nothing but thankfulness; every condition and place we are in should be a witness of our thankfulness. This will make the times and places we live in the better for us. When we ourselves are monuments of God's mercy, it is fit we should be patterns of his praises, and leave monuments to others. We should think life is given us, to do something better than live in. We live not to live. Our life is not the end of itself, but the praise of the giver. God hath joined his glory and our happiness together. It is fit that we should refer all that is good to his glory, that hath joined his glory to our best good, in being glorified in our salvation.
我们整个生命中应该只说感恩的话；我们所处的每个环境和地方都应该成为我们感恩的见证。这将使我们所生活的时代和地方对我们来说更好。当我们自己成为上帝怜悯的见证时，我们应该成为他赞美的榜样，并给他人留下纪念。我们应该认为生命是给予我们的，是为了做一些比生活更好的事情。我们活着不是为了活着。我们的生命不是自身的终点，而是赞美赐予者。上帝将他的荣耀与我们的幸福联系在一起。我们应该将一切美好的事物归功于他的荣耀，他将他的荣耀与我们最好的利益联系在一起，即在我们的救赎中得到荣耀。

David concludes, that he should certainly praise God, because he had prayed unto him. Prayers be the seeds of praises. I have sown, therefore I will reap. What we receive as a fruit of our prayers, is more sweet than what we have by a general providence.
大卫得出结论，他应该肯定赞美上帝，因为他曾向他祈祷。祈祷是赞美的种子。我已经播种，所以我将收获。我们通过祈祷所得到的果实，比我们通过一般的供应所得到的更甜美。

Obj. But how do we know that God hears our prayers?
但是我们如何知道上帝听到了我们的祈祷呢？

Ans. 1. If we regard them ourselves, and expect an issue. Prayer is a sure adventure. We may well look for a return.
答案 1：如果我们自己关注它们，并期待一个结果。祈祷是一次确定的冒险。我们可以期待回报。

2. It is a sign that God hath heard our prayers, when he stirs up thankfulness aforehand upon assurance. Thankfulness cannot be without either the grace of God, by which we are thankful, or some taste of the things we are thankful for. God often accepts the prayer, when he doth not grant the thing, and will give us thereby occasion of thanksgiving for his wise care in changing one blessing for another fitter for us. God regards my prayers, when by prayer my heart is wrought to that frame which he requires, that is, an humble subjection to him, from an acknowledgment of my wants, and his fulness. There is nothing stirred up in our hearts by the Spirit, no, not so much as a gracious desire, but God will answer it, if we have a spirit to wait.
这是上帝已经听到我们的祷告的迹象，当他在保证之前激起感恩之情。感恩离不开上帝的恩典，使我们感恩，或者对我们感恩的事物有所体验。上帝经常接受祷告，即使他不给予我们所求的东西，他也会给我们感恩的机会，因为他明智地将一种祝福换成另一种更适合我们的。当我通过祷告使我的心灵达到上帝所要求的状态时，上帝关注我的祷告，即承认我需要他，他是丰满的。我们心中被圣灵激发的一切，甚至是一种恩慈的愿望，上帝都会回应，只要我们有等待的心灵。

3. We may know God hath accepted our prayer, when he makes the way easy and plain after prayer, by a gracious providence; when the course of things begin to change, and we meet with comforts instead of former crosses, and find our hearts quieted and encouraged against what we most feared.
当我们祈祷后，上帝通过慈悲的安排使道路变得轻松明了，我们可能会知道他已经接受了我们的祈祷；当事物的进程开始改变，我们遇到的是安慰而不是以前的困扰，我们的心灵得到安抚并鼓励，克服了我们最担心的事情。

4. Likewise earnestness in prayer is a sign God hears our prayers, as fire kindled from heaven sheweth God accepts the sacrifice. The ground of prevailing by our prayer, is, that they are put up in a gracious name, and for persons in favour, and dictated by God's own Spirit. They work in the strength of the blessed Trinity, not their own, giving God the glory of all his excellencies.
同样，祷告的真诚是上帝听到我们的祷告的迹象，就像从天上点燃的火表明上帝接受了祭品一样。我们祷告能够得到应允的原因是，它们是以恩典的名义提出的，为蒙恩宠的人祈求，并由上帝的圣灵指导。它们以三位一体的神圣力量工作，而不是自己的力量，将所有上帝的美德归荣耀给他。

It is God's direction 'to call upon him in trouble,' Ps. 50:15, and it is his promise to deliver; and then both his direction and promise that we shall glorify him. When troubles stir up prayer, God's answer to them will stir up praises. David when he saith, I shall praise God, presupposes God would deliver him, that he might have ground of praising his name. And he knew God would deliver him, because as from faith he had prayed for deliverance, so he knew it was the order of God's dealing, to revive after drooping, and refresh after fainting. God knows otherwise that our spirits would fail before him.
在困境中呼求上帝是他的指引，诗篇 50:15，他应许要拯救；然后他的指引和应许使我们能够荣耀他。当困难激起祈祷时，上帝对祈祷的回应将激起赞美。大卫说他要赞美上帝，就是预设上帝会拯救他，这样他就有了赞美他名字的理由。他知道上帝会拯救他，因为他从信心中祈求拯救，他知道这是上帝的处理方式，让人在低落之后复兴，在昏厥之后得到恢复。上帝知道，否则我们的精神会在他面前消沉。

A thankful disposition is a special help in an afflicted condition, for thankfulness springs from love, and 'love rejoiceth in suffering,' Acts 15:21. Thankfulness raises the soul higher than itself. It is trading with God, whereby, as we by him, so he gains by us. Therefore the saints used this as a motive to God, that he would grant their desires, because the living praise him, and not the dead, Isa. 38:19. If God expect praise from us, sure he will put us into a condition of praise.
感激的态度在困境中是一种特殊的帮助，因为感激源于爱，而“爱在苦难中欢乐”，使徒行传 15:21。感激使灵魂超越自身。这是与上帝交易，我们通过他得到，他也通过我们得到。因此，圣徒们用这个作为向上帝的动机，希望他满足他们的愿望，因为活人赞美他，而不是死人，以赛亚书 38:19。如果上帝期望我们赞美他，那么他肯定会让我们处于赞美的状态。

Unthankfulness is a sin detestable both to God and men, and the less punishment it receives from human laws, the more it is punished inwardly by secret shame, and outwardly by public hatred, if once it prove notorious. When God's arrests come forth for denying him his tribute, he chiefly eyes an unthankful heart, and hates all sin the worse, as there is more unthankfulness in it. The neglect of kindness is taken most unkindly. Why should we load God with injuries, that loadeth us with his blessings? Who would requite good with evil? Such men's mercies will prove at last so many indictments against them.
不感恩是上帝和人类都憎恶的罪恶，如果人类法律对其处罚越少，那么它在内心会受到秘密的羞耻惩罚，在外面会受到公众的憎恶，一旦它变得臭名昭著。当上帝因为被拒绝给予他应得的敬意而发出警告时，他主要关注的是一个不感恩的心，对所有的罪恶都更加憎恶，因为其中包含更多的不感恩之情。对善意的忽视是最不友善的行为。我们为什么要给上帝带来伤害，而他却给予我们祝福？谁会以恶报善？这样的人的恩惠最终将成为对他们的起诉。

Use. I beseech you therefore labour to be men of praises. If in any duty we may expect assistance, we may in this, that altogether concerns God's glory. The more we praise God, the more we shall praise him. When God by grace enlarges the will, he intends to give the deed. God's children, wherein their wills are conformable to God's will, are sure to have them fulfilled. In a fruitful ground, a man will sow his best seed. God intends his own glory in every mercy, and he that 'praises him, glorifies him,' Ps. 50:23. When our wills therefore carry us to that which God wills above all, we may well expect he will satisfy our desires. The living God is a living fountain, never drawn dry. He hath never done so much for us, but he can and will do more. If there be no end of our praises, there shall be no end of his goodness; no way of thriving like to this. By this means we are sure never to be very miserable. How can he be dejected, that by a sweet communion with God sets himself in heaven? nay, maketh his heart a kind of heaven, 'a temple, a holy of holies,' 2 Cor. 6:16, wherein incense is offered unto God. It is the sweetest branch of our priestly office, to offer up these daily sacrifices. It is not only the beginning, but a further entrance of our heaven upon earth, and shall be one day our whole employment for ever.
请努力成为赞美之人。如果在任何任务中我们可以期望得到帮助，那么我们可以期望在一切关乎上帝荣耀的事上得到帮助。我们越是赞美上帝，就越会赞美他。当上帝凭着恩典扩大我们的意愿时，他的意图是给予行动。上帝的儿女，只要他们的意愿与上帝的意愿一致，就一定会得到满足。在一个肥沃的土地上，人会播种最好的种子。上帝在每一次怜悯中都意图彰显自己的荣耀，而那些“赞美他的人，就是荣耀他的人”（诗篇 50:23）。因此，当我们的意愿与上帝最看重的一致时，我们可以期望他会满足我们的愿望。永活的上帝是一股永不干涸的活水泉源。他为我们所做的从未有过极限，而他能够并且愿意做更多。如果我们的赞美没有尽头，他的恩慈也将没有尽头；没有比这更能茁壮成长的方式。通过这种方式，我们可以确保自己永远不会非常悲惨。那些通过与上帝甜蜜的交流将自己置于天堂的人，又怎么能够沮丧呢？不仅如此，他们还使自己的心灵成为一种天堂，“一个圣殿，一个至圣所”（哥林多后书 6:16），在其中向上帝献上香气。 这是我们神职的最甜蜜的一部分，每天献上这些祭品。这不仅是开始，而且是我们天堂进一步降临到地上的一种方式，将来将成为我们永远的全部工作。

Praise is a just and due tribute for all God's blessings; for what else especially do the best favours of God call for at our hands? How do all creatures praise God, but by our mouths? It is a debt always owing, and always paying; and the more we pay, the more we shall owe. Upon the due discharge of this debt, the soul will find much peace. A thankful heart to God for his blessings, is the greatest blessing of all. Were it not for a few gracious souls, what honour should God have of the rest of the unthankful world? Which should stir us up the more to be trumpets of God's praises in the midst of his enemies, because this, in some sort, hath a prerogative above our praising God in heaven; for there God hath no enemies to dishonour him.
赞美是对上帝一切祝福的公正和应得的致敬；因为除此之外，上帝最好的恩典还能引起我们做什么呢？所有的生物如何赞美上帝，难道不是通过我们的口吗？这是一种永远欠着的债务，也是一直在偿还的债务；我们付出得越多，欠下的就越多。在适当履行这个债务的时候，灵魂会找到很多平安。对上帝的祝福心存感激，是最大的祝福。如果没有一些有恩典的灵魂，上帝对其他不感激的世界会有什么荣耀呢？这应该更激励我们在敌人中间成为上帝赞美的号角，因为在某种程度上，这比我们在天堂赞美上帝还有特权；因为在那里，上帝没有敌人来亵渎他。

This is a duty that none can except against, because it is especially a work of the heart. All cannot shew their thankfulness in giving, or doing, great matters, but all may express the willingness of their hearts. All within us may praise his holy name, Ps. 103:1, though we have little or nothing without us; and that within us is the thing God chiefly requires. Our heart is the altar on which we offer this incense. God looks not to quantity, but to proportion. He accepts a mite where there is no more to be had.
这是一项没有人可以反对的职责，因为它特别是一项内心的工作。并非所有人都能通过给予或做出伟大的事情来表达感激之情，但所有人都可以表达内心的愿意。我们内心的一切都可以赞美他的圣名，诗篇 103:1，尽管我们在外面几乎没有或一无所有；而我们内心的这一切正是上帝最看重的。我们的心是我们献上这香气的祭坛。上帝不看重数量，而是看重比例。在没有更多可得之处，他接受一文钱。

Quest. But how shall we be enabled to this great duty?
但是我们如何能够履行这个伟大的责任呢？

Ans. 1. Enter into a deep consideration of God's favours, past, present, and to come; think of the greatness and suitableness of them to our condition, the seasonableness and necessity of them every way unto us. Consider how miserable our life were without them, even without common favours; but as for spiritual favours, that make both our natural and civil condition comfortable, our very life were death, our light were darkness without these. In all favours think not of them so much, as God's mercy and love in Christ, which sweetens them. Think of the freeness of this love, and the smallness of thy own deserts. How many blessings doth God bestow upon us, above our deserts, yea, above our desires, nay, above our very thoughts! He had thoughts of love to us when we had no thoughts ourselves. What had we been if God had not been good unto us! How many blessings hath God bestowed upon us, that we never prayed for! and yet we are not so ready to praise God, as to pray unto him. This more desire of what we want than esteeming of what we have, shews too much prevailing of self-love. But,
1. 深思熟虑上帝的恩惠，过去、现在和未来的恩惠；思考这些恩惠对我们的状况来说是多么伟大和合适，对我们来说是多么及时和必要。考虑一下，如果没有这些恩惠，即使没有普通的恩惠，我们的生活将是多么悲惨；但是对于属灵的恩惠来说，它们使我们的自然和社会状况都变得舒适，没有这些恩惠，我们的生命就是死亡，我们的光明就是黑暗。在所有的恩惠中，不要过多地考虑它们，而要考虑上帝在基督里的怜悯和爱，这使它们变得更加甜美。想想这爱的自由，以及你自己的功德的微小。上帝在我们身上赐予了多少祝福，超过了我们的功德，甚至超过了我们的愿望，甚至超过了我们的思想！当我们还没有想法的时候，他就对我们怀有爱意。如果上帝没有对我们慈善，我们会成为什么样子！上帝赐予我们多少祝福，我们从未为之祈祷！然而，我们并不像祈求上帝一样愿意赞美他。对我们所缺乏的东西的渴望超过对我们所拥有的东西的评估，显示出自我爱的过于盛行。但是，

2. Secondly, comparing also ourselves with others, will add a great lustre to God's favour, considering we are all hewed out of one rock, and differ nothing from the meanest, but in God's free love. Who are we, that God should single us out for the glory of his rich mercy?
其次，与他人相比，将为上帝的恩典增添巨大的光彩，考虑到我们都是从同一块岩石上凿出来的，与最卑微的人没有任何区别，只是在上帝的自由之爱中有所不同。我们是谁，上帝为何要选择我们来彰显他丰富的怜悯之荣耀？

3. Considering, likewise, that the blessings of God to us are such as if none but we had them, and God cares for us as if he had none else to care for in the world besides. These things well pondered should set the greater price upon God's blessings. What are we in nature and grace but God's blessings?—what is in us, about us, above us? What see we, taste we, enjoy we, but blessings? All we have, or hope to have, are but dead favours to us, unless we put life into them by a spirit of thankfulness. And shall we be as dead as the earth, as the stones we tread on? Shall we live as if we were resolved God should have no praise by us? Shall we make ourselves gods, ascribing all to ourselves? Nay, shall we, as many do, fight against God with his own favours, and turn God's blessings against himself? Shall we abuse peace to security? plenty to ease, promises to presumption, gifts to pride? How can we please the devil better than thus doing? Oh, the wonderful patience of God, to continue life to those whose life is nothing else but a warring against him, the giver of life!
考虑到上帝对我们的祝福是如此之大，好像只有我们一个人拥有，上帝对我们的关怀也好像世界上没有其他人需要他关心一样。深思熟虑这些事情应该让我们更加珍惜上帝的祝福。在本质和恩典上，我们不过是上帝的祝福。我们身上、周围、上方的一切不过是祝福。我们看到什么、尝到什么、享受什么，都是祝福。除非我们以感恩的心灵赋予它们生命，否则我们所拥有或希望拥有的一切都只是对我们而言的死亡恩惠。我们会像大地一样死气沉沉吗？我们会像我们踩踏的石头一样生活吗？我们会像下定决心不赞美上帝一样生活吗？我们会把自己当作神，把一切归功于自己吗？不，我们会像许多人一样，用上帝的恩惠与上帝争斗，把上帝的祝福反过来对付他吗？我们会滥用和平以求安全吗？滥用丰富以求安逸，滥用承诺以求傲慢，滥用礼物以求骄傲吗？我们怎么能比这样做更让魔鬼高兴呢？哦，上帝的奇妙耐心，将生命延续给那些与他作对的人，他是生命的赐予者！

As God hath thoughts of love to us, so should our thoughts be of praises to him, and of doing good in our places to others for his sake. Think with thyself, Is there any I may honour God by relieving, comforting, counsel ling? Is there any of Jonathan's race? 2 Sam. 9:1. Is there any of Christ's dear ones? I will do good to them, that they together with me, and for me, may praise God, Psalm 118:1. As David here checks himself for the failing and disquietness of his spirit, and, as a cure thereof, thinks of praising God, so let us, in the like case, stir up our souls as he did, and say, 'Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, set forth his holy name,' Psalm 103:1. We never use our spirits to better purpose, than when by that light we have from God, we stir them up to look back again to him.
上帝对我们有爱的思念，我们的思想也应该是对他的赞美，为了他的缘故在我们的位置上对他人行善。思考一下，有没有人我可以通过帮助、安慰、劝导来荣耀上帝？有没有约拿单的后裔？撒母耳记下 9:1。有没有基督的亲爱之人？我要善待他们，他们与我一起，为我一起赞美上帝，诗篇 118:1。正如大卫在这里为自己的灵魂的失败和不安感到自责，并且以赞美上帝来治愈，所以让我们在类似的情况下，像他一样激励我们的灵魂，并说：“我的灵魂啊，你要赞美耶和华，凡在我里面的，都要赞美他的圣名”，诗篇 103:1。我们从上帝那里得到的光照，最好的用途就是激励我们的灵魂再次回顾他。

By this it will appear to what good purposes we had a being here in the world, and were brought into communion with Christ by the gospel. The carriage of all things to the right end shews whose we are, and whither we tend. It abundantly appears by God's revealing of himself many ways to us, as by promises, sacraments, sabbaths, &c., that he intended to raise up our hearts to this heavenly duty. The whole gracious dispensation of God in Christ tends to this, that our carriage should be nothing else but an expression of thankfulness to him; that by a free, cheerful, and gracious disposition, we might shew we are the people of God's free grace, set at liberty from the spirit of bondage, to serve him without fear, Luke 1:74, with a voluntary, child-like service, all the days of our lives.
通过这一点，我们将看到我们在世界上存在的好目的，以及通过福音与基督交通的好处。所有事物的正确目的的进行表明了我们属于谁，以及我们的目标在哪里。上帝以许诺、圣礼、安息日等多种方式向我们显现，充分表明他意图将我们的心引向这个天上的职责。上帝在基督里的整个恩典安排都旨在使我们的行为除了表达对他的感恩之外，别无他意；通过自由、欢乐和恩慈的态度，我们可以显示我们是上帝自由恩典的子民，从奴役的心灵中得到释放，一生都无所畏惧地侍奉他，路加福音 1:74，以自愿、孩子般的服侍。

CHAPTER XXIX.—Of God's manifold salvation for his people, and why open, or expressed in the countenance
第二十九章 - 关于上帝对他的子民的多样化拯救，以及为什么要在面容中公开或表达

I proceed.
我继续。

He is the salvation of my countenance.
他是我容颜的救赎。

As David strengthens his trust in God, by reason fetched from the future goodness of God, apprehended by faith, so he strengthens that reason with another reason fetched from God, whom he apprehends here as the salvation of his countenance. We need reason against reason, and reason upon reason, to steel and strengthen the soul against the onset of contrary reasons.
随着大卫通过从上帝未来的恩慈中获得的理由来加强对上帝的信任，他通过信仰来理解这一点，因此他用另一个从上帝那里获得的理由来加强这个理由，他在这里理解上帝是他面容的拯救。我们需要理由对抗理由，以及理由上的理由，来坚定和加强灵魂对抗相反理由的冲击。

He is the salvation of my countenance; that is, he will so save as I to shall see, and my enemies shall see it; and upon seeing, my countenance shall he cheered and lifted up; God's saving kindness shall be read in my countenance, so that all who look on me shall say, God hath spoken peace to my soul, as well as brought peace to my condition.
他是我面容的救赎；也就是说，他会以我能看见的方式拯救我，我的敌人也会看见；看到这一切，我的面容会变得欢快和振奋；上帝的拯救仁慈会在我的面容中显现，所以所有看着我的人都会说，上帝已经对我的灵魂说了和平的话，也给我的处境带来了和平。

He saith not salvation, but salvations (j); because as our life is subject to many miseries, in soul, body, and state, public and private, &c., so God hath many salvations. If we have a thousand troubles, he hath a thousand ways of help, Mille mali species, mille salutis erunt. As he hath more blessings than one, so he hath more salvations than one. He saves our souls from sin, our bodies from danger, and our estates from trouble. He is the Redeemer of his people; and not only so, but 'with him is plenteous redemption,' Ps. 130:7, of all persons, of all parts both of body and soul, from all ill, both of sin and misery, for all times, both now and hereafter. He is an everlasting salvation.
他不说救赎，而是救赎（j）；因为正如我们的生活受到许多痛苦的困扰，无论是在灵魂、身体、公共和私人状态等方面，上帝也有许多种救赎。如果我们有一千个困扰，他有一千种帮助的方式，Mille mali species, mille salutis erunt。正如他有多种祝福，他也有多种救赎。他拯救我们的灵魂脱离罪恶，拯救我们的身体脱离危险，拯救我们的财产脱离困扰。他是他子民的救赎者；不仅如此，但“在他那里有丰盛的救赎”，诗篇 130:7，适用于所有人，适用于身体和灵魂的所有部分，适用于所有的罪恶和痛苦，适用于现在和将来的所有时刻。他是永恒的救赎。

David doth not say, God will save me; but God is salvation itself, and nothing but salvation. Our sins only stop the current of his mercy, but it being above all our sins, will soon scatter that cloud, remove that stop, and then we shall see and feel nothing but salvation from the Lord. 'All his ways are mercy and peace,' Ps. 25:10, to a repentant soul that casts itself upon him.
大卫并未说上帝会拯救我；而是上帝本身就是拯救，除了拯救别无他物。我们的罪只是阻碍了他的怜悯之流，但它高于我们所有的罪，很快就会驱散那片云，消除那个阻碍，然后我们将只看到和感受到来自主的拯救。对于一个投身于他的悔改的灵魂来说，他的一切道路都是怜悯和平安。

Christ himself is nothing else but salvation clothed in our flesh. So old Simeon conceived of him, when he had him in his arms, Luke 2:29, and was willing thereupon to yield up his spirit to God, having seen Christ, the Salvation of God. When we embrace Christ in the arms of our faith, we embrace nothing but salvation. He makes up that sweet name given him by his Father, and brought from heaven by an angel to the full, Luke 2:14; a name in the faith of which it is impossible for any believing soul to sink.
基督本身无非是救恩穿上我们的肉体。所以，当老西面抱着他时，他就这样想到他，路加福音 2:29，并且愿意将自己的灵魂归还给上帝，因为他看见了基督，上帝的救恩。当我们以信心之臂拥抱基督时，我们所拥抱的无非是救恩。他成就了他父亲给他的那个甜美的名字，并由天使带来，路加福音 2:14；任何相信的灵魂在这个信仰中是不可能沉沦的。

The devil, in trouble, presents God to us as a revenging destroyer, and unbelief presents him under a false vizard; but the skill of faith is, to present him as a Saviour clothed with salvation. We should not so much look what destruction the devil and his threaten, as what salvation God promiseth. To God belong 'the issues of death,' Ps. 68:20; and of all other troubles, which are lesser deaths. Cannot he that hath vouchsafed an issue in Christ from eternal death, vouchsafe an issue from all temporal evils? If he will raise our bodies, cannot he raise our conditions? He that brought us into trouble can easily make a way out of it when he pleaseth. This should be a ground of resolute and absolute obedience, even in our greatest extremities, considering God will either deliver us from death, or by death, and at length out of death.
魔鬼在困境中，将上帝呈现给我们作为复仇的毁灭者，而不信仰则以虚假的面具呈现他；但信仰的技巧是将他呈现为一个披着救恩的救主。我们不应该太关注魔鬼及其威胁的毁灭，而应该关注上帝所应许的救恩。死亡的结局属于上帝（诗篇 68:20），以及其他较小的困扰。既然他在基督里赐予我们从永恒死亡的出路，难道他不能赐予我们从一切暂时的祸患中的出路吗？如果他能使我们的身体复活，难道他不能使我们的处境复活吗？那将我们带入困境的他，当他愿意时，可以轻易地为我们找到出路。这应该是坚决和绝对服从的基础，即使在我们最极端的境地中，要考虑到上帝要么会拯救我们脱离死亡，要么会通过死亡，最终使我们脱离死亡。

So then, when we are in any danger, we see whither to go for salvation, even to him that is nothing else but salvation; but then we must trust in him, as David doth, and conceive of him as salvation, that we may trust in him. If we will not trust in salvation, what will we trust in? and if salvation itself cannot save us, what can? Out of salvation there is nothing but destruction, which those that seek it anywhere out of God, are sure to meet with. How pitiful then is their case, who go to a destroyer for salvation! that seek for help from hell!
所以，当我们面临危险时，我们知道去哪里寻求拯救，即使他只是拯救；但是我们必须像大卫一样信靠他，并将他看作拯救，这样我们才能信靠他。如果我们不信靠拯救，我们还能信靠什么呢？如果拯救本身不能拯救我们，还有什么能拯救我们呢？除了拯救之外，只有毁灭，那些在上帝之外寻求拯救的人注定会遭遇毁灭。那些去找毁灭者寻求拯救的人是多么可怜啊！他们从地狱寻求帮助！

Here also we see to whom to return praise in all our deliverances, even to the God of our salvation. The Virgin Mary was stirred up to magnify the Lord; but why? 'Her spirit rejoiced in God her Saviour,' Luke 1:47. Whosoever is the instrument of any good, yet salvation is of the Lord; whatsoever brings it, he sends it. Hence in their holy feasts for any deliverance, the cup they drank was called the cup of salvation; and therefore David when he summons his thoughts, what to render unto God, he resolves upon this, to take 'the cup of salvation,' Ps. 116:13. But always remember this, that when we think of God as salvation, we must think of him as he is in Christ to his. For so everything in God is saving, even his most terrible attributes of justice and power. Out of Christ, the sweetest things in God are terrible. Salvation itself will not save out of Christ, who is the only way of salvation, called the way, the truth, and the life, John 14:6.
在我们所有的拯救中，我们也看到应该归功于谁，即我们的救主上帝。圣母玛利亚被激励着赞美主，但为什么呢？路加福音 1:47 说：“我的灵以神我的救主为乐。”无论谁是任何善事的工具，救恩都来自主；无论是什么带来了救恩，都是他派遣的。因此，在他们为任何拯救而举行的圣洁节日中，他们所喝的杯子被称为救恩之杯；因此，当大卫在思考如何回报上帝时，他决定拿起“救恩之杯”，诗篇 116:13。但要始终记住，当我们将上帝看作救恩时，我们必须将他看作是在基督里对待他的样子。因为在上帝身上，一切都是拯救的，即使是他最可怕的公义和权能属性。在基督之外，上帝最甜美的事物也是可怕的。救恩本身不能使人脱离基督，他是唯一的救恩之道，称为道路、真理和生命，约翰福音 14:6。

David addeth, 'He is the salvation of my countenance,' that is, he will first speak salvation to my soul, and say, I am thy salvation; and when the heart is cheered, which is as it were the sun of this little world, the beams of that joy will shine in the countenance. True joy begins at the centre, and so passeth to the circumference, the outward man. The countenance is as the glass of the soul, wherein you may see the naked face of the soul, according as the several affections thereof stand. In the countenance of an understanding creature, you may see more than a bare countenance. The spirit of one man may see the countenance of another's inner man in his outward countenance; which hath a speech of its own, and declares what the heart saith, and how it is affected.
大卫说：“他是我面容的救恩”，即他首先会对我的灵魂说出救恩，说我是你的救恩；当心灵得到鼓舞时，它就像这个小世界的太阳，那份喜悦的光辉将照耀在面容上。真正的喜悦从中心开始，然后传递到外围，即外在的人。面容就像是灵魂的镜子，你可以看到灵魂的真实面貌，根据不同的情感状态。在一个有理解力的生物的面容上，你可以看到更多的东西。一个人的灵魂可以通过他外在的面容看到另一个人内在的面容；它有自己的语言，表达心灵的话语和情感状态。

Quest. But how comes God to be the salvation of our countenance?
但是上帝如何成为我们面容的救赎？

Ans. I answer, God only graciously shines in the face of Jesus Christ, which we with the eye of faith beholding, receive those beams of his grace, and reflect them back again. God shineth upon us first, and we shine in that light of his countenance upon us. 'The joy of salvation,' Ps. 51:12, especially of spiritual and eternal salvation, is the only true joy: all other salvations end at last in destruction, and are no further comfortable than they issue from God's saving love.
答：我回答，只有上帝在耶稣基督的面上慈悲地照耀，我们以信心的眼睛观看，接受他恩典的光芒，并将其反射回去。上帝先照耀我们，我们在他脸上的光芒中闪耀。"拯救的喜乐"，诗篇 51:12，尤其是属灵和永恒的拯救，是唯一真正的喜乐：所有其他的拯救最终都会毁灭，只有从上帝的拯救之爱中发出的拯救才能带来舒适。

God will have the body partake with the soul. As in matter of grief, so in matter of joy, the lantern shines in the light of the candle within.
上帝将使身体与灵魂共同参与。就像悲伤一样，喜悦的事情也是如此，灯笼在内部蜡烛的光芒中闪耀。

2. Again, God brings forth the joy of the heart into the countenance, for the further spreading and multiplying of joy to others.
再次，上帝将心中的喜悦带到面容上，以进一步传播和增加他人的喜悦。

Next unto the sight of the sweet countenance of God, is the beholding of the cheerful countenance of a Christian friend, rejoicing from true grounds. Whence it is that the joy of one becomes the joy of many, and the joys of many meet in one; by which means, as many lights together make the greater light, so many lightsome spirits make the greater light of spirit: and God receiveth the more praise, which makes him so much to delight in the prosperity of his children. Hence it is, that in any deliverance of God's people, 'the righteous do compass them about,' Ps. 142:7, to know 'what God hath done for their souls;' and keep a spiritual feast with them in partaking of their joy. And the godly have cause to joy in the deliverance of other Christians, because they suffered in their afflictions, and it may be in their sins the cause of them, which made them somewhat ashamed. Whence it is, that David's great desire was, that 'those who feared God might not be ashamed because of him,' Ps. 69:6: insinuating that those who fear God's name are ashamed of the falls of God's people. Now when God delivers them, this reproach is removed, and those that had part in their sorrow have part in their joy.
在看到上帝甜美的面容之后，看到一个快乐的基督徒朋友的愉悦面容是最令人愉悦的，这种愉悦源于真实的理由。因此，一个人的喜悦成为众人的喜悦，众人的喜悦汇聚成一个；通过这种方式，就像许多灯光汇聚成更大的光明一样，许多愉悦的灵魂汇聚成更大的灵性之光：上帝因此得到更多的赞美，这使他更加喜悦他的子民的繁荣。因此，在上帝的子民得到拯救时，“义人环绕着他们”，诗篇 142:7，以了解“上帝为他们的灵魂所做的事情”；并且在分享他们的喜悦中与他们一起举行属灵的盛宴。虔诚的人有理由为其他基督徒的拯救而喜悦，因为他们在苦难中受苦，也许是因为他们的罪过导致了这些苦难，这使他们有些羞愧。因此，大卫非常希望“敬畏上帝的人因他而不再羞愧”，诗篇 69:6：这暗示了那些敬畏上帝之名的人对上帝的子民的跌倒感到羞愧。 现在当上帝拯救他们时，这种耻辱被消除了，那些曾经参与他们悲伤的人也分享他们的喜悦。

3. Again, God will have salvation so open, that it shall appear in the countenance of his people, the more to daunt and vex the enemies. Cainish hypocrites hang down their heads, when God lifts up the countenance of their brethren. When the countenance of God's children clears up, then their enemies' hearts and looks are cloudy. Jerusalem's joy is Babylon's sorrow. It is with the church and her enemies as it is with a balance, the scales whereof, when one is up, the other is down. Whilst God's people are under a cloud, carnal people insult over them, as if they were men deserted of God. Whereupon they hang down their heads, and the rather, because they think that by reason of their sin, Christ and his religion will suffer with them. Hence David's care was, that the miseries of God's people 'should not be told in Gath,' 2 Sam. 1:20. The chief reason why the enemies of the church gnash their teeth at the sight of God's gracious dealing, is, that they take the rising of the church to be a presage of their ruin: a lesson which Haman's wife had learned, Esther 6:13.
再次，上帝的救恩将是如此明显，以至于会在他的子民的面容上显现出来，更加使敌人感到沮丧和困扰。当上帝抬起他们弟兄的面容时，该隐式的伪君子会低下头。当上帝的子民的面容明朗起来时，他们的敌人的心灵和目光就会变得阴沉。耶路撒冷的喜乐是巴比伦的悲伤。教会与她的敌人就像天平一样，当一个上升时，另一个就下降。当上帝的子民处于困境之中时，肉体的人就会嘲笑他们，仿佛他们被上帝抛弃了一样。因此，他们低下头，而且更加如此，因为他们认为由于自己的罪过，基督和他的宗教也会与他们一同受苦。所以大卫关心的是，上帝子民的苦难“不要在迦特传扬”，撒母耳记下 1:20。教会的敌人为什么对上帝的恩待咬牙切齿，主要原因是他们认为教会的兴起预示着他们的毁灭：这是哈曼的妻子学到的一课，以斯帖记 6:13。

This is a comfort to us in these times of Jacob's trouble and Zion's sorrow. The captivity of the church shall return, 'as rivers in the south,' Ps. 126:1. Therefore the church may say, 'Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; though I am fallen, I shall rise again,' Mic. 7:8. Though Christ's spouse be now as black as the pots, yet she shall be as white as the dove, Ps. 68:13. If there were not great dangers, where were the glory of God's great deliverance? The church at length will be as 'a cup of trembling,' and as 'a burdensome stone,' Zech. 12:2. The blood of the saints cry, their enemies' violence cries, the prayers of the church cry, for deliverance and vengeance upon the enemies of the church; and as that 'importunate widow,' Luke 11:5, will at length prevail. Shall the importunity of one poor woman prevail with an unrighteous judge, and shall not the prayers of many that cry unto the righteous God take effect? If there were armies of prayers, as there are armies of men, we should see the stream of things turned another way. A few Moseses in the mount would do more good than many soldiers in the valley. If we would lift up our hearts and hands to God, he would lift up our countenance. But alas! we either pray not, or cross our own prayers, for want of love to the truth of God and his people.
这对我们来说是一种安慰，在雅各遭难和锡安忧伤的时刻。教会的囚禁将会结束，如同南方的河流一样，诗篇 126:1。因此，教会可以说：“我的仇敌啊，不要因我跌倒而欢喜；我虽然跌倒，却要再起来。”弥迦书 7:8。虽然基督的新娘现在像锅一样黑，但她将会像鸽子一样洁白，诗篇 68:13。如果没有巨大的危险，神的伟大拯救在哪里显现？教会最终将成为“使人战栗的杯子”和“沉重的石头”，撒迦利亚书 12:2。圣徒的血在呼喊，他们的敌人的暴力在呼喊，教会的祈祷在呼喊，要求拯救和对教会的敌人进行报复；就像那个“缠扰不休的寡妇”，路加福音 11:5，最终会得胜。一个贫穷妇人的坚持能够打动一个不公正的法官，难道许多人向公义的神呼求的祷告不会奏效吗？如果有一支由祷告组成的军队，就像有一支由人组成的军队一样，我们将看到事物的走向发生改变。山上的几个摩西比山谷中的许多士兵更有益处。 如果我们将心和手举向上帝，他会让我们的面容振奋起来。但唉！我们要么不祈祷，要么因为对上帝的真理和他的子民缺乏爱而阻碍了自己的祈祷。

It is we that keep antichrist and his faction alive, to plague the unthankful world. The strength he hath is not from his own cause, but from our want of zeal. We hinder those hallelujahs by private brabbles,* coldness and indifferency in religion. The church begins at this time a little to lift up her head again. Now is the time to follow God with prayers, that he would perfect his work, and plead his own cause; that he would be revenged not only of ours, but his enemies; that he would wholly free his church from that miserable bondage. These beginnings give our faith some hold to be encouraged to go to God, for the fulfilling of his gracious promise, that the church may rejoice in the salvation of the Lord. God doth but look for some to seek unto him; Christ doth but stay until he is awaked by our prayers. But it is to be feared that God hath not yet perfected his work in Zion. The church is not yet fully prepared for a full and glorious deliverance. If God had once his ends in the humiliation of the church for sins past, with resolution of reformation for the time to come, then this age, perhaps, might 'see the salvation of the Lord,' which the generations to come shall be witness of, 'we should see Zion in her perfect beauty,' Ps. 50:2. The generations of those that came out of Egypt saw and enjoyed the pleasant land which their progenitors were shut out of; who by reason of their murmuring and looking back to Egypt, and forgetfulness of the wonders which God had done for and before them, perished in the wilderness.
正是我们让敌基督及其派系继续存在，以折磨这个忘恩负义的世界。他所拥有的力量并非来自他自身的原因，而是来自我们缺乏热忱。我们通过私人争吵、冷漠和对宗教的漠不关心阻碍了那些哈利路亚。教会开始重新抬起头来。现在是时候跟随上帝祈求，他会完成他的工作，为自己辩护；他不仅会向我们的敌人复仇，还会完全解救他的教会，使其摆脱那种可怜的奴役。这些开端给我们的信心一些依据，鼓励我们去寻求上帝，实现他慈爱的应许，使教会因主的救恩而欢欣。上帝只是等待有人寻求他；基督只是等待我们的祈祷唤醒他。但令人担忧的是，上帝在锡安尚未完成他的工作。教会尚未完全准备好迎接完全而辉煌的拯救。 如果上帝曾经以教会的屈辱来实现他的目的，为过去的罪行而决心进行改革，那么这个时代也许可以“看见主的救恩”，而后代将成为见证，“我们应该看见锡安的完美之美”，诗篇 50:2。那些从埃及出来的一代人看到并享受了他们的祖先被排斥的美地；而那些因为抱怨、回望埃及、忘记上帝为他们所做的奇迹而在旷野中灭亡的人。

Use. There is little cause, therefore, of envying the present flourishing of the enemies of the church, and of joining and colluding* with them; for it will prove the wisest resolution to resolve to fall and rise with the church of Christ, considering the enemies themselves shall say, God hath done great things for them; kings shall lay their crowns at 'Christ's feet,' and 'bring all their glory to the church,' Rev. 21:24.
使用。因此，没有什么理由去嫉妒教会的敌人目前的繁荣，并与他们联合和勾结；因为决定与基督教会一同崛起和倒下将被证明是最明智的决定，考虑到敌人自己将会说，上帝为他们行了大事；君王将把他们的王冠放在“基督的脚下”，并将“他们所有的荣耀带到教会”，启示录 21:24。

And for every Christian this may be a comfort, that though their light for a time may be eclipsed, yet it shall break forth. David at this time was accounted an enemy of the state, and had a world of false imputations laid upon him, which he was very sensible of; yet we see here, he knew at length God would be 'the salvation of his countenance.'
对于每一个基督徒来说，这可能是一种安慰，尽管他们的光芒暂时被遮蔽，但它将会再次闪耀。此时，大卫被视为国家的敌人，并且被加上了许多虚假的指责，他对此非常清楚；然而我们在这里看到，他知道最终上帝将会是他“面容的拯救”。

Obj. But some, as Gideon, may object, 'If God intend to be so gracious, why is it thus with us?' Judges 6:13.
但是有些人，比如基甸，可能会反对说：“如果上帝打算如此慈悲，为什么我们会这样呢？”士师记 6:13。

Ans. The answer is, salvation is God's own work, humbling and casting down is his strange work, whereby he comes to his own work. For, when he intends to save, he will seem to destroy first; and when he will justify, he will condemn first; whom he will revive, he will kill first. Grace and goodness countenanced by God, have a native inbred majesty in them, which maketh the face to shine, and borroweth not its lustre from without, which God at length will have to appear in its own likeness, howsoever malice may cast a veil thereon, and disguise it for a time. And though wickedness, as it is base born, and a child of darkness, may shelter itself under authority a while, yet it shall hide itself and run into corners. The comfort of comforts is, that at that great day, the day of all days, that day 'of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God,' the righteous shall then shine as the sun in the firmament, Dan. 12:3; then Christ will come to be glorious in his saints, and will be the salvation of the countenance of all his. Then all the works of darkness shall be driven out of countenance, and adjudged to the place from whence they came. In the mean time, let us, with David, support ourselves with the hopes of these times.
答案是，救赎是上帝自己的工作，谦卑和摧毁是他奇特的工作，通过这些工作，他来到了自己的工作中。因为，当他打算拯救时，他首先会看起来要毁灭；当他要称义时，他首先会定罪；他要复活的人，他首先会杀死。上帝所赐的恩典和善良，具有与生俱来的威严，使脸庞发光，并不从外部借用光彩，上帝最终会让它以自己的样子出现，无论恶意如何将其掩盖，并暂时伪装起来。虽然邪恶，作为卑劣的出身和黑暗的孩子，可能会在一段时间内以权威为庇护，但它将隐藏自己并躲进角落。最令人欣慰的是，在那个伟大的日子，众日之日，上帝公义审判的启示之日，义人将如同天空中的太阳一样发光，但那时基督将在他的圣徒中显得荣耀，并成为他们所有人的救恩。那时，所有黑暗的行为都将被驱逐出场面，并被判定回到它们来的地方。 与此同时，让我们与大卫一起，以这个时代的希望来支撑自己。

CHAPTER XXX.—Of God, our God, and of particular application
第 XXX 章 - 关于上帝，我们的上帝，以及特定的应用

My God.
我的天。

These words imply a special interest that the holy man had in God, as his God, being the ground of all which was said before; both of the duty of trusting, and of praising, and of the salvation that he expected from God. He is my God, therefore be not disquieted, but trust him. He is my God, therefore he will give me matter to praise him, and will be the salvation of my countenance. God hath some special ones in the world, to whom he doth as it were pass over himself, and whose God he is by virtue of a more special covenant; whence we have these excellent expressions, 'I will be your God, and you shall be my people,' Jer. 31:33; 'I will be your Father, and you shall be my sons and daughters,' 2 Cor. 6:18. Since the fall, we having lost our communion with God the chief good, our happiness stands in recovering again fellowship with him. For this end we were created, and for this redeemed, and for effecting of this the word and sacraments are sanctified to us; yea, and for this end God himself, out of the bowels of his compassion, vouchsafed to enter into a gracious covenant with us, founded upon Jesus Christ, and his satisfaction to divine justice; so that by faith we become one with him, and receive him as offered of his Father to 'be all in all to us,' Col. 3:11.
这些话暗示了圣人对上帝的特殊兴趣，因为上帝是他的上帝，是之前所说的一切的根源；既是信靠的责任，也是赞美的责任，也是他期待从上帝那里得到的救恩。他是我的上帝，所以不要不安，要信靠他。他是我的上帝，所以他会给我赞美他的理由，并且他将是我面容的救恩。上帝在世界上有一些特殊的人，他们对上帝来说就像是超越自己的存在，他们是通过更特殊的约定成为他的上帝；因此我们有这些卓越的表达：“我要作你们的上帝，你们要作我的子民”（耶利米书 31:33）；“我要作你们的父，你们要作我的儿女”（哥林多后书 6:18）。自从堕落以来，我们失去了与上帝这位至善之神的交流，我们的幸福在于重新与他建立交通。 为了这个目的，我们被创造，为了这个目的被救赎，为了实现这个目的，道和圣礼被祝圣给我们；是的，为了这个目的，上帝自己出于他的怜悯之心，宠幸与我们建立了一份恩典的约定，以耶稣基督为基础，以他对神的公义所作的赎罪作为基础；因此，我们通过信仰与他合而为一，并接受他作为他的父亲所提供给我们的“一切的一切”，哥罗西书 3:11。

Hence it is that Christ hath his name Immanuel, God with us. Not only because he is God and man too, both natures meeting in one person, but because being God in our nature, he hath undertook this office to bring God and us together. The main end of Christ's coming and suffering was to reconcile, and to gather together in one; and, as Peter expresseth it, 'to bring man again to God,' 1 Pet. 3:18. Immanuel is the bond of this happy agreement, and appears for ever in heaven to make it good. As the comfort hereof is great, so the foundation of it is sure and everlasting. God will be our God so long as he is Christ's God, and because he is Christ's God, John 20:10. Thus the father of the faithful, and all other holy men before Christ, apprehended God to be their God in the Messiah to come. Christ was the ground of their interest. He was yesterday to them as well as to-day to us, Heb. 13. Hence it is that God is called the portion, Psalm 73:26, of his people, and they his jewels, Mal. 3:2–5; he is their only rock and strong tower, Psalm 71:3, and they his peculiar ones.
因此，基督被称为以马内利，即上帝与我们同在。不仅因为他既是上帝又是人，两种本质在一个人中相遇，而且因为他作为上帝在我们的本性中，他承担了这个职责，将上帝和我们联系在一起。基督来临和受苦的主要目的是调和并使众人聚集为一体；正如彼得所表达的，“为要把人带到上帝面前”，彼得前书 3:18。以马内利是这个幸福协议的纽带，并永远在天堂中证明其有效。这种安慰的基础坚实而永恒。上帝将永远是我们的上帝，因为他是基督的上帝，约翰福音 20:10。因此，信心之父和基督以前的所有圣人都认为上帝是他们在未来的弥赛亚中的上帝。基督是他们利益的根基。他对他们来说昨天就是今天对我们来说的，希伯来书 13。因此，上帝被称为他的子民的福分，诗篇 73:26，并且他们是他的宝贝，玛拉基书 3:2-5；他是他们唯一的磐石和坚固的堡垒，诗篇 71:3，而他们是他的特殊之人。

Use. Well may we wonder that the great God should stoop so low, to enter into such a covenant of grace and peace, founded upon such a mediator, with such utter enemies, base creatures, sinful dust and ashes as we are. This is the wonderment of angels, a torment of devils, and glory of our nature and persons; and will be matter of admiration and praising God unto us for all eternity.
使用。我们不禁惊讶于伟大的上帝竟然如此谦卑，进入这样一个基于这样一个调解者、与如此彻底的敌人、卑贱的生物、罪恶的尘土和灰烬的和平与恩典的契约。这是天使的奇迹，魔鬼的折磨，我们人类和个人的荣耀；对我们来说，这将成为永恒中赞美上帝的令人惊叹的事情。

As God offereth himself to be ours in Christ, else durst we lay no claim to him, so there must be in us an appropriating grace of faith, to lay hold of this offer. David saith here, My God. But by what spirit? By a spirit of faith which, looking to God's offer, maketh it his own whatsoever it lays hold of. God offereth himself in covenant, and faith catcheth hold thereon presently. With a gracious offer of God there goeth a gracious touch of his Spirit to the soul, giving it sight and strength, whereby, being aided by the same Spirit, it layeth hold on God shewing himself in love. God saith to the soul, I am thy salvation; and the soul saith again, Thou art my God. Faith is nothing else but a spiritual echo, returning that voice back again, which God first speaks to the soul. For what acquaintance could the soul claim with so glorious a Majesty, if he should not first condescend so low as to speak peace and whisper secretly to the soul, that he is our loving God and Father, and we his peculiar ones in Christ; that our sins are all pardoned, his justice fully satisfied, and our persons freely accepted in his dear Son?
当上帝在基督里将自己奉献给我们时，否则我们就不敢要求他，所以我们必须有一种适用的信心的恩典，来抓住这个奉献。大卫在这里说，我的上帝。但是通过什么灵？通过一种信心的灵，它注视着上帝的奉献，无论它抓住什么，都会使它成为自己的。上帝在盟约中奉献自己，信心立即抓住这一点。上帝的恩慈奉献与他的灵对灵魂的恩慈接触相伴而行，给予它视力和力量，借助同一灵的帮助，它抓住上帝以爱示人。上帝对灵魂说，我是你的拯救；灵魂又说，你是我的上帝。信心不过是一种属灵的回声，将上帝首先对灵魂说的话回响回去。因为灵魂如何能与如此荣耀的尊严交往，如果他不首先降卑到如此低的地步，与灵魂说和平，并私下告诉灵魂，他是我们慈爱的上帝和父亲，我们是他在基督里特别的子民；我们的罪已经得到赦免，他的公义已经完全满足，我们的人被他亲爱的儿子自由地接纳了？

But to come more particularly to the words, My God. The words are pregnant. In the womb of them, all that is graciously and comfortably good is contained. They are the spring-head of all particular blessings. All particular relations and titles that it pleaseth God to take upon him, have their strength from hence, that God is our God. More cannot be said, and less will not serve the turn. Whatsoever else we have, if we have not God, it will prove but an empty cistern at last. He is our proper element. Everything desires to live in its own element: fishes in the sea, birds in the air; in this they are best preserved.
但是更具体地说到这些话，我的上帝。这些话是含蓄的。在它们的子宫里，包含了一切仁慈和舒适的善良。它们是所有特定祝福的源头。上帝愿意承担的所有特定关系和称号，都源自上帝是我们的上帝。不能再说更多，也不能再少。无论我们拥有什么，如果没有上帝，最终都将证明是一个空的水池。他是我们适合的元素。一切都渴望生活在自己的元素中：鱼在海中，鸟在空中；在这里它们得到最好的保护。

There is a greater strength in this 'My God,' than in any other title. It is more than if he had said, My King, or My Lord. These are words of sovereignty and wisdom; but this implies not only infinite power, sovereignty, and wisdom, but likewise infinite bounty and provident care; so that when we are said to be God's people, the meaning is, that we are not only such over whom God hath a power and command, but such as toward whom he shews a loving and peculiar respect.
这个“我的上帝”中有着更大的力量，胜过任何其他称号。这不仅仅是说“我的国王”或“我的主”。这些词语表达了统治和智慧，但这不仅仅意味着无限的力量、统治和智慧，还意味着无限的慷慨和关怀；所以当我们被称为上帝的子民时，意思是，我们不仅仅是上帝有权力和命令的对象，而且是他对我们表现出特别的爱和尊重。

In the words is implied: 1. A propriety and interest in God. 2. An improvement of the same for the quieting of the soul.
在这些话中暗含着：1. 对上帝的所有权和兴趣。2. 为了安抚灵魂而对此进行的改善。

David here lays a particular claim, by a particular faith, unto God. The reason is: 1. The virtue of faith is, as to lay hold, so to appropriate to itself, and make its own, whatever it lays hold on; and it doth no more in this than God gives it leave by his gracious promises to do.
大卫在这里对上帝提出了一个特定的要求，基于特定的信仰。原因是：1. 信仰的美德在于它不仅能够抓住，而且能够将其抓住的一切都归为自己，并使其成为自己的。在这方面，它所做的不过是上帝凭借他慈悲的应许允许它做的。

2. As God offers, so faith receives; but God offers himself in particular to the believing soul by his Spirit, therefore our faith must be particular. That which the sacraments seal, is a peculiar interest in Christ. This is that which hath always upheld the saints of God, and that which is ever joined with the life of Christ in us. 'The life that I live,' saith Paul, 'is by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me,' Gal. 2:20. The spirit of faith is a spirit of application.
2. 神所提供的，信仰就接受；但神通过他的圣灵特别向信靠的灵魂提供自己，因此我们的信仰必须是特定的。圣礼所印证的是对基督的特殊利益。这是一直支撑着神的圣徒的东西，也是与基督在我们里面的生命永远相连的东西。保罗说：“我所活着的生命，是因信神的儿子而活，他爱我，为我舍己。”（加拉太书 2:20）信仰的灵魂是一种应用的灵魂。

This is implied in all the articles of our faith. We believe God to be our Father, and Christ to be born for us; that he died for us, and rose again for our good, and now sits at the right hand of God, making requests for us in particular.
这在我们信仰的所有文章中都隐含着。我们相信上帝是我们的父亲，基督为我们而生；他为我们而死，为我们的利益而复活，现在坐在上帝的右边，特别为我们代求。

3. This is that which distinguisheth the faith of a true Christian from all hypocrites and castaways whatsoever. Were it not for this word of possession, mine, the devil might say the Creed to as good purpose as we. He believes there is a God and a Christ; but that which torments him is this, he can say my to never an article of faith.
这是区分真正基督徒与所有伪君子和被遗弃者的信仰的特点。如果没有这个占有的词语，撒旦可能会像我们一样有目的地背诵信经。他相信有上帝和基督，但折磨他的是，他无法对任何信仰的要素说出“我的”。

4. A general apprehension of God's goodness and mercy may stand with desperation. Take away my from God, and take away God himself in regard of comfort. Tolle meum, tolle Deum. What comfort was it for Adam, when he was shut out of Paradise, to look upon it after he had lost it? The more excellencies are in God, the more our grief if we have not our part in them. The very life-blood of the gospel lies in a special application of particular mercy to ourselves. All relations that God and Christ have taken upon them imply a necessity of application. What if God be a rock of salvation, if we do not rest upon him? What if he be a foundation, and we do not build on him? What if he offers himself as a husband, if we will not accept of him, what avails it us? How can we rejoice in the salvation of our souls, unless we can in particular say, 'I rejoice in God my Saviour.'
4. 对上帝的善良和怜悯的一般理解可能与绝望并存。从上帝那里带走我的安慰，就等于从上帝那里带走了上帝本身。当亚当被赶出伊甸园后，他再看伊甸园又有什么安慰呢？上帝的卓越性越多，如果我们没有分享其中的一部分，我们的悲伤就越多。福音的生命之血在于将特定的怜悯特别应用于我们自己。上帝和基督所承担的所有关系都意味着必须应用。如果上帝是拯救的磐石，我们却不依靠他，那又有什么用呢？如果他是根基，我们却不在他上面建造，那又有什么用呢？如果他自己愿意成为我们的丈夫，我们却不接受他，那对我们有什么益处呢？如果我们不能特别说：“我因上帝我的救主而欢喜”，我们如何能为我们灵魂的救赎而欢喜呢？

5. Without particular application, we can neither entertain the love of God, nor return love again, by which means we lose all the comfort God intends us in his word, which of purpose was written for our solace and refreshment. Take away particular faith, and we let out all the spirits of cheerful and thankful obedience.
没有特定的应用，我们既不能享受上帝的爱，也不能回报爱，这样我们就失去了上帝在他的话语中给予我们的所有安慰，而这些话语本来是为了我们的慰藉和滋养而写的。去掉特定的信仰，我们就放走了所有愉快和感恩的顺服的精神。

This possessive particle, my, hath place in all the golden chain of our salvation. The first spring of all God's claim to us as his, is in his election of us. We were by grace his, before we were. Those that are his from that eternal love, he gives to Christ. This is hid in the breast of God, till he calls us out of the rest of the world into communion with Christ. In answering of which call, by faith, we become one with Christ, and so one with him. Afterwards, in justification, we feel God experimentally to be reconciled unto us, whence arises joy and inward peace. And then, upon further sanctification, God delights in us as his, bearing his own image, and we from a likeness to God delight in him as ours in his Christ, and so this mutual interest betwixt God and us continues, until at last God becomes all in all unto us.
这个所有格助词“我的”在我们救赎的黄金链条中占有一席之地。上帝对我们的所有权的第一个源泉是他选中我们。在我们存在之前，我们就是他的恩典。那些从永恒的爱中属于他的人，他赐给了基督。这个事实被隐藏在上帝的怀中，直到他将我们从世界的其余部分召唤到与基督的交通中。通过信仰回应这个呼召，我们与基督合而为一，与他成为一体。随后，在称义中，我们实验性地感受到上帝与我们和好，从而产生喜乐和内心的平安。然后，在更进一步的成圣中，上帝喜悦我们作为他的子民，因为我们承载着他自己的形象，而我们也从对上帝的喜悦中发现他是我们的，是我们在基督里的。因此，上帝与我们之间的这种相互关系将继续下去，直到最后上帝成为我们的一切。

Obj. But how can a man that is not yet in the state of grace say with any comfort, My God?
但是一个还没有得到恩典的人怎么能安心地说：“我的上帝”呢？

Ans. Whilst a man 'regards iniquity in his heart,' Ps. 66:18, without any remorse or dislike of the same, if he saith, My God, his heart will give his tongue the lie, however in an outward profession and opinion of others he may bear himself as if God were his, upon false grounds. For there can be no more in a conclusion, than it hath from the principle and premises out of which it is drawn. The principle here is, that God is the God of all that trust in him. Now if we can make it good, that we truly trust in God, we may safely conclude of comfort from him; for the more certain clearing of which, try yourselves by the signs of trust delivered.*
答：当一个人“心里存着罪孽”（诗篇 66:18），没有任何懊悔或厌恶，如果他说：“我的神”，他的心会让他的舌头撒谎，无论在外表上还是在别人的观点上，他可能表现得像是神是他的神，但这是建立在虚假的基础上。因为结论中不能有比原则和前提更多的东西。这里的原则是，神是所有信靠他的人的神。现在，如果我们能够证明我们真正信靠神，我们就可以安全地从他那里得到安慰；为了更确切地证明这一点，请通过所传达的信任迹象来自我检验。

It is no easy matter to say in truth of heart, My God; the flesh will Still labour for supremacy. God should be all in all unto us; but this will not be till these bodies of flesh, together with the body of sin, be laid aside. He that says, God is my God, and doth not yield up himself unto God, raiseth a building without a foundation, layeth a claim without a title, and claimeth a title without an evidence, reckoning upon a bargain, without consent of the party with whom he would contract.
说出真心的“我的上帝”并不容易，肉体仍然会争夺至高地位。上帝应该成为我们的一切，但在这些肉体和罪恶的肉体被抛弃之前，这是不可能的。那些说“上帝是我的上帝”，却不将自己交托给上帝的人，就像建造没有基础的建筑物，提出没有所有权的要求，要求没有证据的所有权，企图在没有对方同意的情况下达成交易。

But if a man shall, out of the sight and sense of sin, thirst after mercy in Christ, and call unto God for pardon, then God, who is a God 'hearing prayer,' Ps. 65:2, and delighteth to be known by the name of merciful, will be ready to close and meet with the desire of such a soul, so far as to give it leave to rely upon him for mercy, and that without presumption, until he further discovers himself graciously unto it; upon sense of which grace the soul may be encouraged to lay a further claim unto God, having further acquaintance with him. Hence are those exhortations so oft in the prophets, to 'turn unto the Lord our God,' Zech. 1:3, because upon our first resolution to turn unto God, we shall find him always ready to answer those desires that he stirs up by his own Spirit in us.
但是，如果一个人在看不见和感受到罪恶的情况下，渴望基督的怜悯，并呼求上帝的宽恕，那么上帝，他是一个“垂听祷告的上帝”（诗篇 65:2），并且喜欢被称为仁慈的名字，将准备好满足这样一个灵魂的渴望，让它依靠他的怜悯，而不是妄自尊大，直到他进一步恩待它；在感受到这种恩典之后，灵魂可以被鼓励进一步向上帝提出要求，与他有更进一步的交往。因此，先知们经常劝告我们“归向我们的上帝”（撒迦利亚书 1:3），因为当我们第一次决定归向上帝时，我们会发现他总是准备好回应他在我们内心中激发起来的渴望。

We are not therefore to stay our turning unto God, till we feel him saying to our hearts, 'I am thy God,' Isa. 41:10; but when he prevents us by his grace, enabling us to desire grace, let us follow the work begun in the strength of what grace we have, and then God will further manifest himself in mercy to us.
我们因此不应该等到感受到上帝对我们的心说：“我是你的上帝”（以赛亚书 41:10），才转向上帝；而是当他的恩典预先感动我们，使我们渴望恩典时，让我们在拥有的恩典力量的支持下，跟随已经开始的工作，然后上帝将进一步以怜悯向我们显现。

Yet God, before we can make anything towards him, lets into our hearts some few beams of mercy, thereby drawing us unto him, and reaching us out a hint to lay hold upon.
然而，上帝在我们向他迈出任何一步之前，会在我们的心中注入一些怜悯的光芒，从而吸引我们走向他，并给我们一个提示去抓住。

And as sin causeth a distance betwixt God and us, so the guilt of sin in the conscience, causeth further strangeness, insomuch that we dare not look up to heaven, till God open a little crevice to let in a little light of comfort at least into our souls, whereby we are by little and little drawn nearer to him. But this light at the first is so little, that in regard of the greater sense of sin, and a larger desire of grace, the soul reckons the same as no light at all, in comparison of what it desires and seeks after. Yet the comfort is, that this dawning light will at length clear up to a perfect day.
罪使上帝与我们之间产生距离，而罪在良心中的罪恶感进一步加深了这种疏远，以至于我们不敢抬头仰望天堂，直到上帝打开一个小缝隙，至少让一点安慰的光线进入我们的灵魂，从而使我们逐渐靠近他。但是，这种光线起初是如此微小，以至于在罪的更大感受和对恩典更大的渴望面前，灵魂认为它根本不算是光，与其所渴望和追求的相比，微不足道。然而，令人欣慰的是，这个黎明的光线最终会变得明亮，直至成为完美的白昼。

Thus we see how this claim of God to be our God, is still in growth until full assurance, and that there is a great distance betwixt the first act of faith in cleaving to God, offering himself in Christ to be ours, and between the last fruit, of faith the clear and comfortable feeling, that God is our God indeed. We first by faith apply ourselves to God, and then apply God to us, to be ours; the first is the conflicting exercise of faith, the last is the triumph of faith; therefore faith properly is not assurance. And to comfort us the more, the promises are specially made to the act of faith; fuller assurance is the reward of faith.
因此，我们看到，上帝宣称自己是我们的上帝，这种宣称仍在不断增长，直到完全确信，而在我们初次信仰上帝、将自己奉献给基督成为我们的一部分，以及最后的信仰果实——明确而舒适地感受到上帝确实是我们的上帝之间，存在着很大的距离。我们首先通过信仰将自己应用于上帝，然后将上帝应用于我们，成为我们的一部分；前者是信仰的斗争性锻炼，后者是信仰的胜利；因此，信仰本质上并不是确信。为了更加安慰我们，应许特别是给予信仰的行动；更充分的确信是信仰的回报。

Obj. If God hath not chosen me in Christ to be his, what ground have I to trust in him? I may cast away myself upon a vain confidence.
如果上帝没有在基督里选择我作为他的人，我有什么理由去信任他呢？我可能会把自己投入到虚假的信心中。

Ans. We have no ground at first to trouble ourselves about God's election. Secret things belong to God, Deut. 29:29. God's revealed will is, 'that all that believe in Christ shall not perish,' John 3:15. It is my duty therefore, knowing this, to believe, by doing whereof, I put that question, whether God be mine or no? out of all question; for all that believe in Christ are Christ's, and all that are Christ's are God's. It is not my duty to look to God's secret counsel, but to his open offer, invitation, and command, and thereupon to adventure my soul. And this adventure of faith will bring at length a rich return unto us. In war men will adventure their lives, because they think some will escape, and why not they? In traffic beyond the seas many adventure great estates, because some grow rich by a good return, though many miscarry. The husbandman adventures his seed, though sometime the year proves so bad, that he never sees it more.* And shall not we make a spiritual adventure in casting ourselves upon God, when we have so good a warrant as his command, and so good an encouragement as his promise, that he will not fail those that rely on him? God bids us 'draw near to him, and he will draw near to us,' Deut. 29:29. Whilst we in God's own ways draw near to him, and labour to entertain good thoughts of him, he will delight to shew himself favourable unto us. Whilst we are striving against an unbelieving heart, he will come in and help us, and so fresh light will come in.
首先，我们没有理由为上帝的选民而烦恼。秘密的事情属于上帝，申命记 29:29。上帝的启示意愿是，“凡信他的，不至灭亡，反得永生。”约翰福音 3:15。因此，我有责任相信这一点，通过这样做，我将把“上帝是否属于我？”这个问题彻底排除在外；因为所有信靠基督的人都属于基督，而所有属于基督的人都属于上帝。我的责任不是去关注上帝的秘密计划，而是他公开的提供、邀请和命令，并因此冒险拯救我的灵魂。这种信仰的冒险最终会给我们带来丰厚的回报。在战争中，人们会冒险生命，因为他们认为有些人会逃脱，为什么他们不能呢？在海外贸易中，许多人冒险投资巨额财产，因为有些人通过良好的回报变得富有，尽管许多人失败。农夫冒险播种，尽管有时年景不好，他再也看不到收成。当我们有上帝的命令和他的应许作为鼓励时，难道我们不应该在将自己托付给上帝的精神冒险中冒险吗？ 上帝吩咐我们“亲近他，他就会亲近我们”（申命记 29:29）。当我们按照上帝的方式亲近他，并努力保持对他的良好思考时，他将喜欢向我们展示他的恩惠。当我们与不信的心斗争时，他会来帮助我们，这样新的光明就会进入。

Pretend not thy unworthiness and inability, to keep thee off from God, for this is the way to keep thee so still. If anything help us, it must be God, and if ever he help us, it must be by casting ourselves upon him; for then he will reach out himself unto us in the promise of mercy to pardon our sin, and in the promise of grace to sanctify our natures. It was a good resolution of the lepers, 'If we enter into the city, the famine is there, and we shall die, say they; if we sit still, we shall die also: let us therefore fall into the host of Assyrians, if they save us, we shall live; if they kill us, we shall but die,' 2 Kings 7:4. Omnia in rebus humanis spes futurorum agunt. So we should reason: if we sit still under the load of our sin, we shall die; if we put ourselves into the hands of Christ, if he save us, we shall live; if he save us not, we shall but die. Nay, surely he will not suffer us to die. Did ever Christ thrust any back from him, that put themselves upon him? unless it were by that means to draw them the nearer unto him, as we see in the 'woman of Canaan,' Mat. 15:27. His denial was but to increase her importunity. We should therefore do as she did, gather all arguments to help our faith. Suppose I am a dog, saith she, yet I am one of the family, and therefore have right to the crumbs that fall. So, Lord, I have been a sinner, yet I am thy creature; and not only so, but such a creature as thou has set over the rest of the works of thy hands; and not only so, but one whom thou hast admitted into thy church by baptism, whereby thou wouldst bind me to give myself unto thee beforehand; and more than this, thou hast brought me under the means, and therein hast shewed thy will concerning my turning towards thee. Thou hast not only offered me conditions of peace, but wooed me by thy ministers to give up myself unto thee, as thine in thy Christ. Therefore I dare not suspect thy good meaning towards me, or question thy intendment,* but resolve to take thy counsel, and put myself upon thy mercy. I cannot think, if thou hadst meant to cast me away, and not to own me for thine, thou wouldst ever have kindled these desires in me. But it is not this state I rest in, my purpose is to wait upon thee, until thou dost manifest thyself farther unto me. It is not common favours that will content me, though I be unworthy of these; because I hear of choice blessings towards thy chosen people, that thou enterest into a peculiar covenant withal, sure mercies, Isa. 55:3; and such as accompany salvation. These be the favours I wait for at thy hand. 'O visit me with the salvation of thy chosen,' Ps. 106:4, 5. O remember me with the favour of thy people, that I may see 'the good of thy chosen.' Whilst the soul is thus exercised, more sweetness falls upon the will and affections, whereby they are drawn still nearer unto God; the soul is in a getting and thriving condition. For God delights to shew himself gracious to those that strive to be well persuaded of him, concerning his readiness to shew mercy to all that look towards him in Christ. In worldly things, how do we cherish hopes upon little grounds! if there shineth never so little hope of gain or preferment, we make after it: why then should we forsake our own mercy, which God offers to be our own, if we will embrace it, having such certain grounds for our hope to rest on?
假装你不配和无能，以免远离上帝，因为这样只会让你更加远离。如果有什么帮助我们，那一定是上帝，如果他帮助我们，那一定是我们投身于他；因为那时他会在怜悯的应许中伸出援手，宽恕我们的罪恶，并在恩典的应许中使我们的本性得以圣洁。这是麻风病人的一个好决定：“我们若进城，城里有饥荒，我们必死；若在这里坐着不动，我们也必死。我们不如投降亚述人的军队，他们若存活我们，我们就活着；他们若杀死我们，我们也只是死而已。”（列王记下 7:4）人类的一切希望都在未来。所以我们应该这样推理：如果我们在罪恶的重担下坐以待毙，我们必死；如果我们把自己交托给基督，如果他拯救我们，我们就活着；如果他不拯救我们，我们也只是死而已。不，他肯定不会让我们死。基督曾经拒绝过任何投身于他的人吗？除非那是为了让他们更加亲近他，就像我们在《马太福音》15:27 中看到的迦南妇人一样。他的拒绝只是为了增加她的坚持。 因此，我们应该像她一样，收集所有的论据来帮助我们的信仰。她说，假设我是一只狗，但我是家庭的一员，因此有权利享受掉下来的面包屑。所以，主啊，我曾经是一个罪人，但我是你的创造物；不仅如此，而且是你安排在你手中其他作品之上的一个创造物；不仅如此，而且是你通过洗礼使我进入你的教会的一个人，你希望我事先把自己献给你；而且，你把我带到了这些方式下，并在其中显示了你关于我转向你的意愿。你不仅向我提供了和平的条件，而且通过你的仆人劝诱我把自己献给你，成为你在基督里的人。因此，我不敢怀疑你对我的善意，或者质疑你的意图，而是决心接受你的建议，将自己交托给你的怜悯。我不能想象，如果你打算抛弃我，不承认我是你的，你会在我心中点燃这些渴望。但我并不满足于这种状态，我的目的是等待你进一步向我显明。 虽然我不配得到这些，但寻常的恩惠并不能满足我，因为我听说你对你所拣选的子民有特别的约定，有确实的怜悯，以及与救恩同行的祝福。这些是我期待着从你手中得到的恩惠。“求你眷顾我，使我享见你选民的福乐。”当灵魂如此锻炼时，甜蜜更多地降临在意愿和情感上，使它们更加亲近上帝；灵魂处于获取和兴盛的状态。因为上帝喜悦向那些努力相信他，相信他愿意向所有仰望基督的人施怜悯的人显示他的恩慈。在世俗的事物中，我们如何在一点点希望的基础上滋养希望！如果有一丝获利或晋升的希望，我们就会追求它：那么，为什么我们要放弃上帝所提供的属于我们自己的怜悯呢？如果我们愿意接受它，我们对希望有如此确凿的依据，为什么要放弃呢？

It was the policy of the servants of Benhadad to watch if any word of comfort fell from the king of Israel, and when he named Benhadad his brother, they catched presently at that, and cheered themselves, 1 Kings 20:33. Faith hath a catching quality at whatsoever is near to lay hold on. Like the branches of the vine, it windeth about that which is next, and stays itself upon it, spreading further and further still. If nature taught Benhadad's servants to lay hold upon any word of comfort that fell from the mouth of a cruel king, shall not grace teach God's children to lie in wait for a token that he will shew for good to them? How should we stretch forth the arms of our faith to him, that 'stretcheth out his arms all the day long to a rebellious people!' Isa. 65:2. God will never shut his bosom against those, that in an humble obedience fly unto him. We cannot conceive too graciously of God. Can we have a fairer offer, than for God in Christ to make over himself unto us? which is more than if he should make over a thousand worlds. Therefore our chief care should be first by faith to make this good, and then to make it useful unto us, by living upon it as our chiefest portion, which we shall do: 1, By proving God to be our God in particular; 2, By improving of it in all the passages of our lives.
这是侍从们的政策，他们会留意以色列王口中是否有任何安慰的话语，当他提到本哈达弟弟时，他们立即抓住这一点，并为此而高兴，列王记上 20:33。信仰具有一种能够抓住任何接近的品质。就像葡萄藤的枝条一样，它缠绕着最近的东西，并依靠它，不断地扩展。如果本哈达的仆人们天性使他们抓住了残忍国王口中的任何安慰的话语，难道恩典不会教导上帝的儿女们等待他向他们显好的迹象吗？我们应该怎样伸出信心的双臂向他，他“整天向悖逆的百姓伸出手臂！”以赛亚书 65:2。上帝永远不会对那些以谦卑顺服之心飞向他的人关闭怀抱。我们对上帝的恩典不能有太高的期望。我们能有比上帝在基督里将自己交给我们更好的提议吗？这比他将一千个世界交给我们还要多。 因此，我们的首要关注应该是首先通过信仰使这件事变得好，并且通过将其作为我们最重要的部分来利用它，我们将通过以下方式实现：1、通过证明上帝是我们个人的上帝；2、通过在我们生活的各个方面加以利用。

CHAPTER XXXI.—Means of proving and evidencing to our souls that God is our God
第三十一章 - 向我们的灵魂证明上帝是我们的上帝的方法和证据

1. Now we prove it to our souls, that God is ours, when we take him at his offer, when we bring nothing but a sense of our own emptiness with us, and a good conceit of his faithfulness and ability to do us good, when we answer God in the particular passages of salvation, which we cannot do, till he begins unto us. Therefore if we be God's, it is a certain sign that God is ours. If we choose him, we may conclude he hath chosen us first: 'if we love him, we may know that he hath loved us first,' 1 John 4:19. If we apprehend him, it is because he hath apprehended us first. Whatsoever affection we shew to God, it is a reflection of his first to us. If cold and dark bodies have light and heat in them, it is because the sun hath shined upon them first. Mary answers not Rabboni till Christ said Mary to her, John 20:16. If we say to God, I am thine, it is because he hath first said unto us, Thou art mine; after which, the voice of the faithful soul is, 'I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine,' Cant. 6:3.* We may know God's mind to us in heaven, by the return of our hearts upwards again to him; only as the reflected beams are weaker than the direct, so our affections, in their return to God, are far weaker than his love falling upon us. God will be to us whatsoever we make him by our faith to be. When by grace we answer his condition of trusting, then he becomes ours to use for our good.
现在我们向自己的灵魂证明，当我们接受上帝的恩典时，上帝就是我们的。当我们带着自己的空虚感和对上帝信实和能力的良好信念来到他面前时，我们才能回应上帝在救赎中的特定经文，而这只有在他开始对我们施行时才能做到。因此，如果我们属于上帝，那就是上帝属于我们的确凿迹象。如果我们选择了他，我们可以得出结论他先选择了我们：“我们爱他，是因为他先爱我们。”（约翰一书 4:19）如果我们理解了他，那是因为他先理解了我们。我们对上帝表达的任何感情都是他对我们的首次回应。如果冷漠和黑暗的物体拥有光明和热量，那是因为太阳先照耀它们。玛丽在基督对她说“马利亚”之前没有回答“拉波尼”（约翰福音 20:16）。如果我们对上帝说“我是你的”，那是因为他先对我们说“你是我的”；之后，虔诚的灵魂会回应：“我是我所爱的，我所爱的是我的”（雅歌 6:3）。我们可以通过我们的心再次回到上帝那里，了解他在天堂对我们的心意；只是反射的光束比直接的光束要弱，所以我们的感情在回归上帝时远远不及他对我们的爱。上帝将成为我们所相信的那个样子。当我们凭着恩典回应他对我们的信任条件时，他就成为我们可以利用的东西，为我们的利益所用。

2. We may know God to be our God when we pitch and plant all our happiness in him, when the desires of our souls are towards him, and we place all our contentment in him. As this word my is a term of appropriation springing from a special faith, so it is a word of love and peculiar affection, shewing that the soul doth repose and rest itself quietly and securely upon God. Thus David proves God to be his God, by early seeking of him, by thirsting, and longing after his presence, and that upon good reason, 'because God's lovingkindness was better to him than life,' Ps. 63:1, 2, 3, &c. This he knew would 'satisfy his soul as with marrow and fatness.' So St Paul proved Christ to be his Lord, by 'accounting all else as dung and dross in comparison of him,' Phil. 3:8.
当我们将所有的幸福都寄托在上帝身上，当我们的灵魂渴望他，将所有的满足都放在他身上时，我们就能认识上帝是我们的上帝。像“我的”这个词是一种特殊信仰的归属，也是一种爱和特殊的情感，表明灵魂安静而安全地依靠上帝。大卫通过早早地寻求上帝，渴望并渴望他的同在来证明上帝是他的上帝，这是有充分理由的，因为上帝的慈爱对他来说比生命更好（诗篇 63:1, 2, 3 等）。他知道这会“使他的灵魂得到满足，如同骨髓和肥脂一样”。所以保罗通过“将一切都视为粪土和垃圾，只为了认识基督”来证明基督是他的主（腓立比书 3:8）。

Then we make God our God, and set a crown of majesty upon his head, when we set up a throne for him in our hearts, where self-love before had set up the creature above him; when the heart is so unloosed from the world, that it is ready to part with anything for God's sake, giving him now the supremacy in our hearts, and bringing down every high thought, in captivity to him; making him our trust, our love, our joy, our delight, our fear, our all; and whatsoever we esteem or affect else, to esteem and affect it under him, in him, and for him; when we cleave to him above all, depending upon him as our chief good, and contenting ourselves in him, as all-sufficient to give our souls fit and full satisfaction; when we resign up ourselves to his gracious government, to do and suffer what he will, offering ourselves and all our spiritual services as sacrifices to him; when faith brings God into the soul as ours, we not only love him, but love him dearly, making it appear that we are at good terms with God, we are at a point for other things. How many are there that will adventure the loss of the love of God for a thing of nothing, and redeem the favour of men with the loss of God's! Certain it is, whatsoever we esteem, or affect most, that, whatsoever it be in itself, yet we make it our god—Amor tuus, Deus tuus. The best of us all may take shame to ourselves herein in that we do not give God his due place in us, but set up some idol or other in our hearts above him.
然后我们让上帝成为我们的上帝，在我们的心中为他建立一个宝座，给他戴上威严的王冠，当自我爱把创造物置于他之上时；当心灵从世界解脱出来，为了上帝的缘故，愿意放弃一切，把他置于我们的心中至高无上的位置，使每一个高傲的思想都屈服于他；使他成为我们的信任、爱、喜悦、快乐、恐惧和一切；无论我们还珍视或喜爱什么，都要在他之下、在他里面、为了他而珍视和喜爱；当我们超越一切依附于他，将他视为我们的至善，并满足于他，因为他足以给予我们的灵魂合适而充分的满足；当我们将自己完全交托给他的恩慈统治，愿意为他做任何事情和承受任何苦难，将自己和我们所有的属灵事奉都献给他；当信仰将上帝带入我们的灵魂中，我们不仅爱他，而且深爱他，表明我们与上帝和好，对其他事物毫不在乎。有多少人愿意为了一无是处的东西而冒失去上帝的爱的风险，用失去上帝的恩宠来赎回人的喜爱！ 无论我们最看重或最喜欢什么，无论它本身是什么，我们都把它当作我们的神——你的爱，你的神。我们中最好的人都应该为此感到羞愧，因为我们没有给予上帝他在我们内心中应有的位置，而是在我们心中树立了一些偶像。

When the soul can without hypocrisy say, My God, it engageth us to universal and unlimited obedience. We shall be ambitious of doing that which may be acceptable and well pleasing to him; and, therefore, this is prefixed as a ground before the commandments, enforcing obedience. 'I am the Lord thy God,' therefore 'thou shalt have no other gods before me,' Exod. 20:3, whomsoever else we obey, it must be in the Lord, because we see a beam of God's authority in them; and it is no prejudice to any inferior authority, to prefer God's authority before it, in case of difference one from the other. Nemini fit injuria cui praponitur Deus.
当灵魂能够毫无虚伪地说：“我的上帝”，它就会使我们全心全意地顺从。我们将渴望做那些对他来说是可接受和令人喜悦的事情；因此，在命令之前，这被作为一种基础来强调顺从。“我是耶和华你的上帝”，因此“在我面前不可有别的神”，出埃及记 20:3，无论我们服从谁，都必须是出于主的缘故，因为我们在他们身上看到了上帝权威的一丝；在不同的情况下，将上帝的权威置于其他较低的权威之上，并不会对任何较低的权威造成伤害。

When we know we are a peculiar people, we cannot but be 'zealous of good works,' Tit. 2:14. 'If I be a Father, where is mine honour?' Mal. 1:6. Special relations are special enforcements to duty.
当我们知道自己是一个特殊的群体时，我们不得不对善行充满热情，提多书 2:14。"我既是父亲，我的尊荣在哪里呢？"玛拉基书 1:6。特殊的关系对责任有特殊的强化作用。

4. The Spirit of God, which knows the deep things of God and the depths of our hearts, doth reveal this mutual interest betwixt God and those that are his, it being a principal work of the Spirit to seal this unto the soul, by discovering such a clear and particular light in the use of means, as swayeth the soul to yield up itself wholly to God. When we truly trust, we may say with St Paul, 'I know whom I have trusted,' 2 Tim. 1:12; he knew both that he trusted, and whom he trusted. The Spirit of God, that reveals God to be ours, and stirs up faith in him, both reveals this trust to our souls, and the interest we have in God thereby. 'The Lord is my portion, saith my soul,' Lam. 3:24; but God said so to it first. If instinct of nature teaches dams to know their young ones, and their young ones them, in the midst of those that are alike, shall not the Spirit of God much more teach the soul to know its own father? As none knows what is in man, but the spirit of man, so none knows what love God bears to those that are his, but the Spirit of God in his. All the light in the world cannot discover the sun unto us, only it discovers itself by its own beams. So all the angels and saints in heaven cannot discover to our souls the love that is in the breast of God towards us, but only the Spirit of God, which 'sheds it into our hearts,' Rom. 5:5. The Spirit only teaches this language, My God. It is infused only into sanctified hearts; and, therefore, ofttimes mean men enjoy it, when great, wise, and learned persons are strangers to it, Mat. 11:25.
神的灵知道神的深奥和我们心灵的深处，揭示了神与属于他的人之间的相互关系，这是圣灵的主要工作之一，通过在使用手段时揭示如此明确和具体的光亮，使灵魂完全归附于神。当我们真正信靠时，我们可以像保罗一样说：“我知道我所信的是谁”（提摩太后书 1:12），他既知道自己信靠，也知道自己信靠的是谁。神的灵将神启示为我们的神，并激发我们对他的信心，同时也向我们的灵魂启示了我们在神里面的利益。“耶和华是我的福分，我的心说”（耶利米哀歌 3:24），但是神首先对它这样说。如果本能教导母亲认识自己的孩子，孩子也认识母亲，在相似的环境中，难道神的灵不更能教导灵魂认识自己的父亲吗？除了人的灵，没有人知道人内心的事情，同样，除了神的灵在他里面，没有人知道神对属于他的人的爱。全世界的光亮都不能向我们揭示太阳，只有太阳自己通过自己的光辉揭示自己。 所以，天堂中的所有天使和圣徒都无法向我们的灵魂揭示上帝对我们的胸怀之爱，只有上帝的圣灵才能将其“倾注在我们的心中”，罗马书 5:5。只有圣灵才能教导这种语言，我的上帝。它只能注入被圣化的心灵中；因此，常常是卑微的人享受到它，而伟大、智慧和博学的人却对此陌生，马太福音 11:25。

5. The Spirit when it witnesseth this to us is called 'the Spirit of adoption,' Rom. 8:15, and hath always accompanying of it a spirit of supplication, whereby with a familiar, yet reverend* boldness, we lay open our hearts to God as a dear father. All others are strangers to this heavenly intercourse. In straits they run to their friends and carnal shifts, whereas an heir of heaven runs to his Father, and tells him of all.
当圣灵向我们作证时，被称为“领养的灵”，罗马书 8:15，并且总是伴随着一种祈求的灵，凭借一种熟悉而又敬畏的大胆，我们向上帝敞开我们的心灵，如同亲爱的父亲。其他人对这种天上的交流都是陌生的。在困境中，他们求助于朋友和世俗的手段，而天国的继承人则求助于他的父亲，并向他述说一切。

6. Those that are God's, are known to be his by special love-tokens that he bestows upon them, as,
那些属于上帝的人，通过他赐予的特殊爱的象征来被认定为他的人，比如，

(1.) The special graces of his Spirit. Princes' children are known by their costly jewels, and rich ornaments. It is not common gifts, and glorious parts that set a character upon us to be God's, but grace to use those gifts, in humility and love, to the glory of the giver.
(1.) 他的圣灵特别的恩典。王子的孩子以他们昂贵的珠宝和华丽的装饰品而闻名。使我们成为上帝的人的不是普通的恩赐和辉煌的才能，而是以谦卑和爱的恩典来运用这些恩赐，以荣耀赐予者。

(2.) There is in them a suitableness and connaturalness of heart to all that is spiritual, to whatsover hath God's stamp upon it, as his truth and his children, and that because they are his. By this likeness of disposition, we are fashioned to a communion with him. Can two walk together and not be agreed? It is a certain evidence that we are God's in Christ, if the Spirit of God hath wrought in us any impression like unto Christ, who is the image of his Father. Both Christ looking upon us, and our looking upon Christ by faith, as ours, hath a transforming and conforming power.
（2）其中有一种适应性和与一切属灵事物的天然联系，与上帝的印记相符，如他的真理和他的子民，这是因为他们是他的。通过这种性情的相似，我们被塑造成与他的交流。两个人能同行而不意见一致吗？如果上帝的灵在我们身上产生了与基督相似的印象，这就是我们在基督里属于上帝的确凿证据，因为基督是他父亲的形象。基督看着我们，我们凭信心看着基督，作为我们的，具有转化和符合的力量。

(3.) Spiritual comforts in distress, such as the world can neither give, nor take away, shew that God looks upon the souls of his with another eye, than he beholdeth others. He sends a secret messenger that reports his peculiar love to their hearts. He knows their souls, and feeds them with his 'hidden manna,' Rev. 2:17. The inward peace they feel is not in freedom from trouble, but in freeness with God in the midst of trouble.
在困厄中的灵性安慰，世界既不能给予，也不能夺走，表明上帝对他的子民的眼光与对其他人不同。他派遣一位秘密使者向他们的心报告他特殊的爱。他了解他们的灵魂，并以他的“隐密的吗哪”滋养他们，启示录 2:17。他们感受到的内心平安不是来自没有困扰，而是来自在困扰中与上帝的自由。

(4.) Seasonable and sanctified corrections, whereby we are kept from being led away by the error of the wicked, shew God's fatherly care over us as his. Who will trouble himself in correcting another man's child? yet we oftener complain of the smart we feel, than think of the tender heart and hand that smites us, until our spirits be subdued; and then we reap the quiet fruit of righteousness. Where crosses work together for the best, we may know that we love God, Rom. 8:28, and are loved of him. Thriving in a sinful course is a black mark of one that is not God's.
(4.) 适时而神圣的纠正，使我们不被邪恶的错误所引导，显示了上帝对我们的父爱关怀。谁会费心去纠正别人的孩子呢？然而，我们经常抱怨我们所感受到的痛苦，而不去想那温柔的心和手是如何击打我们的，直到我们的精神被征服；然后我们才能收获到公义的宁静果实。当十字架共同为最好的事情而工作时，我们可以知道我们爱上帝（罗马书 8:28），并且被他所爱。在罪恶的道路上繁荣是一个不属于上帝的人的黑色标记。

7. Then we make it appear that God is our God, when we side with him, and are for him and his cause in ill times. When God seems to cry out unto us, 'Who is on my side, who?' 2 Kings 9:32; then if we can say as those in Isaiah, whereof one says, 'I am the Lord's, and another calls himself by the name of Jacob, and another subscribes with his hand unto the Lord,' Isa. 44:6, it is a blessed sign. Thus the patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs, were not ashamed of God, and God was not ashamed to own them. Provided that this boldness from God proceed not only from a conviction of the judgment, but from spiritual experience of the goodness of the cause, whereby we can justify in heart what we justify in words. Otherwise men may contend for that with others, which they have no interest in themselves. The life must witness for God as well as the tongue. It is oft easier for corrupt nature to part with life rather than with lust.
然后我们让它看起来像上帝是我们的上帝，当我们站在他这一边，在困难时期支持他和他的事业。当上帝似乎向我们呼喊：“谁是在我这一边的人？”（列王记下 9:32）；如果我们能像以赛亚书中的人那样说：“我是主的”，另一个人称自己为雅各的名字，另一个人亲手签署给主（以赛亚书 44:6），那是一个有福的迹象。因此，祖先、先知、使徒和殉道者都不以上帝为耻，上帝也不以他们为耻。只要这种来自上帝的大胆不仅仅是来自判断的确信，而是来自对事业的善良的属灵经历，使我们能够在心中证明我们在言语中证明的。否则，人们可能为自己对他人争辩的事情而没有兴趣。生命必须为上帝作证，舌头也必须如此。对于腐败的本性来说，放弃欲望往往比放弃生命更容易。

This siding with God, is with a separation from whatsoever is contrary. God useth this as an argument to come out of Babylon, because we are his people: 'Come out of her, my people,' Rev. 18:4. Religion is nothing else but a gathering and a binding of the soul close to God. That fire which gathers together the gold, separates the dross. Nature draws out that which is wholesome in meats, and severs the contrary. The good that is to be had by God, is by cleaving to him, and him only. God loves an ingenuous and full protestation, if called to it. It shews the coldness of the times when there is not heat enough of zeal to separate from a contrary faith. God is a jealous God, and so we shall find him at last. When the day of severing comes, then they that have stood for him, shall not only be his, but his treasure, and his jewels, Mal. 3:17.
这与上帝站在一起，与任何相反的东西分离。上帝用这个作为一个理由来离开巴比伦，因为我们是他的子民：“我的子民啊，你们要从她出来。”启示录 18:4。宗教无非是将灵魂紧紧地聚集和绑定在上帝身边。那将黄金聚集在一起的火，将杂质分离开来。自然会将食物中有益的部分提取出来，将相反的部分分离开来。与上帝在一起，唯有紧紧依附他，才能得到美好。如果被召唤，上帝喜欢真诚而充分的声明。当没有足够的热情来与相反的信仰分离时，这显示了时代的冷漠。上帝是一个嫉妒的上帝，我们最终会发现这一点。当分离的日子来临时，那些为他站立的人不仅将属于他，而且将成为他的宝藏和珠宝，玛拉基书 3:17。

There is none of us all but may some time or other fall into such a great extremity, that when we look about us, we shall find none to help us: at which time we shall throughly know, what it is to have comfort from heaven, and a God to go unto. If there be anything in the world worth labouring for, it is the getting sound evidence to our souls that God is ours. What madness is it to spend all our labour to possess ourselves of the cistern, when the fountain is offered to us? O beloved, the whole world cannot weigh against this one comfort, that God is ours. All things laid in the other balance, would be too light. A moth may corrupt, a thief may take away that we have here, but who can take our God away? Though God doth convey some comfort to us by these things, yet when they are gone, he reserves the comfort in himself still, and can convey that, and more, in a purer and sweeter way, where he plants the grace of faith to fetch it from him. Why then should we weaken our interest in God, for any thing this earth affords? What unworthy wretches are those, that to please a sinful man, or to feed a base lust, or to yield to a wicked custom will, as much as in them lieth, lose their interest in God? Such, little consider what an excellent privilege it is to have a sure refuge to fly unto in time of trouble. God wants not ways to maintain his, without being beholden to the devil. He hath all help hid in himself, and will then most shew it, when it shall make most for his own glory. If God be ours, it is a shame to be beholden to the devil, that ever it should be said, Satan by base courses hath made us rich. God thinks any outward thing too mean for his children, severed from himself, therefore he gives his Son, the express image of himself, 2 Cor. 4:4, unto them. For which cause David, when he had even studied to reckon up the number of God's choice blessings, concludes with advancing of this above all, 'yea rather happy are they whose God is the Lord,' Ps. 44:15. If this will not satisfy the soul, what can? Labour therefore to bring thy soul to this point with God, 'Lord, if thou seest it fit, take away all from me, so thou leavest me thyself: whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none on earth that I desire in comparison of thee?' Ps. 73:25.
我们中没有人能避免在某个时候陷入如此困境，当我们四处寻找帮助时，我们会发现没有人能帮助我们：这时我们将彻底知道，从天上得到安慰和一个可以求助的上帝是什么感觉。如果世界上有什么值得我们努力争取的东西，那就是为我们的灵魂获得确凿的证据，证明上帝是我们的。当我们把所有的努力都用来拥有一个水池时，而有人向我们提供了一个泉源，这是多么疯狂啊！亲爱的，整个世界都无法与上帝是我们这个安慰相比。放在另一边的所有事物都太轻了。虫子可能会腐蚀，小偷可能会拿走我们在这里拥有的东西，但谁能夺走我们的上帝呢？虽然上帝通过这些事物给我们带来一些安慰，但当它们消失时，他仍然在自己身上保留着安慰，并且可以以更纯净、更甜美的方式传递出来，只要我们种植信仰的恩典从他那里取回。那么，为什么我们要因为这个世界提供的任何东西而削弱我们对上帝的利益呢？ 那些为了取悦一个罪恶的人，满足低级的欲望，或者顺从邪恶的习俗而放弃与上帝的联系的人是多么不值得怜悯啊！这样的人很少考虑到，在困难时刻拥有一个可靠的避难所是多么卓越的特权。上帝并不需要依赖魔鬼来保护自己的子民。他拥有所有的帮助都隐藏在自己身上，而且当这些帮助对他自己的荣耀最有利时，他会最大程度地展示出来。如果上帝是我们的，那就是一种耻辱去依赖魔鬼，从来没有人会说，撒旦通过卑鄙的手段使我们富有。上帝认为任何外在的东西对他的子民来说都太低贱了，因此他将他自己的儿子，就是他自己的真身，赐给他们。因此，大卫在详细列举了上帝所选择的祝福之后，得出结论，将这个祝福高于一切，“是的，那些以耶和华为他们的上帝的人是多么幸福啊！”（诗篇 44:15）。如果这不能满足灵魂，还有什么能满足呢？ 努力使你的灵魂与上帝达到这一点：“主啊，如果你认为合适，把一切都从我身上拿走，只要你留下你自己给我：我在天上有谁呢？除了你以外，地上也没有我所渴望的人。”诗篇 73:25。

CHAPTER XXXII.—Of improving our evidences for comfort in several passages of our lives
第三十二章 - 在我们生活中的几个时刻提升我们的安慰证据

That we lose not any measure of comfort in this so sweet a privilege, we must labour for skill to improve and implead the same in the several passages and occasions of our lives, and let it appear in the retail, that whatsoever is in God is mine. If I am in a perplexed condition, his wisdom is mine; if in great danger, his power is mine; if I lie sighing under the burden of sin, his grace is mine; if in any want, his all-sufficiency is mine. 'My God,' saith St Paul, 'will supply all your wants,' Philip. 4:19. If in any danger, I am thine. Lord, save me, I am thine, the price of thy Son's blood; let me not be lost, thou hast given me the earnest of thy Spirit, and set thy seal upon me for thy own, let me neither lose my bargain nor thou thine. What is religion itself but a spiritual bond? whereby the soul is tied to God as its own, and then singles out of God whatsoever is needful for any occasion: and so binds God with his own covenant and promise. Lord, thou hast made thyself to be mine, therefore now shew thyself so, and be exalted in thy wisdom, goodness, and power, for my defence. To walk comfortably in my Christian course, I need much grace, supply me out of thy rich store. I need wisdom to go in and out inoffensively before others, furnish me with thy Spirit. I need patience and comfort, thou that art the God of all consolation, bestow it on me.
为了不失去这么甜蜜的特权中的任何安慰，我们必须努力提高和运用我们生活中各种情况和场合的技能，并让它在细节中显现出来，无论上帝的一切都是我的。如果我处于困惑的状态，他的智慧就是我的；如果处于巨大的危险中，他的力量就是我的；如果我在罪恶的重负下叹息，他的恩典就是我的；如果有任何需要，他的无所不备就是我的。保罗说：“我的神必照他的丰富，使你们一切所需的都充足有余。”（腓立比书 4:19）如果处于任何危险中，我是你的。主啊，救我，我是你的，是你儿子的血所赎回的；不要让我迷失，你已经给了我你的圣灵作为保证，并在我身上盖上了你自己的印记，不要让我失去我的交易，也不要让你失去你的。宗教本身不就是一种灵性的纽带吗？通过这种纽带，灵魂与上帝紧密相连，并从上帝中挑选出任何需要的东西，然后用上帝自己的约定和应许将上帝与自己绑在一起。主啊，你已经使自己成为我的，所以现在请显现你自己，并在智慧、善良和力量上被高举起来，为我的防御。在我作为基督徒的道路上舒适地行走，我需要很多恩典，请从你丰富的库存中供应我。 我需要智慧在他人面前无冲突地进出，请赐予我你的圣灵。我需要耐心和安慰，作为众慰藉之神，请赐予我。

In time of desertion put Christ betwixt God and thy soul, and learn to appeal, from God out of Christ, to God in Christ. Lord, look upon my Saviour, that is near unto thee as thy son, near to me as my brother, and now intercedes at thy right hand for me. Though I have sinned, yet he hath suffered, and shed his precious blood to make my peace. When we are in any trouble, let us still wait on him, and lie at his feet, and never let him go till he casts a gracious look upon us.
在背弃的时候，将基督置于上帝和你的灵魂之间，并学会向基督之外的上帝呼求，向基督之中的上帝祈求。主啊，看着我的救主，他离你如同儿子，离我如同兄弟，现在在你的右手边为我代求。虽然我犯了罪，但他已经受苦，流下宝血为我和解。当我们遇到困难时，让我们仍然等候他，躺在他的脚下，直到他向我们施恩的目光投来，永不放手。

So if we be to deal with God, for the church abroad, we may allege unto him that whatsoever provocations are therein, and deformity in regard of abuses and scandals; yet it is his church, his people, his inheritance, his name is called upon, in it, and the enemies of it are his enemies. God hath engaged himself to the friends of the church, that 'they shall prosper that love it,' Ps. 122:6; and therefore we may with a holy boldness press him for a blessing upon the same.
所以，如果我们要与上帝打交道，为了教会的利益，我们可以向他提出，无论其中存在什么挑衅和滥用以及丑闻，它仍然是他的教会，他的子民，他的产业，他的名字被称呼在其中，而反对它的人就是他的敌人。上帝已经向教会的朋友们保证，“爱它的人必然得福”，诗篇 122:6；因此，我们可以以一种圣洁的大胆来恳求他对教会的祝福。

So for our children and posterity, we may incline God to respect them, because they are under his covenant, who hath promised to be our God, and the God of our seed. 'Thine they were, thou gavest them me: all that I have is thine; these are those children which thou of thy rich grace hast given me. They are thine more than mine; I am but a means under thee to bring them into the world, and to be a nurse unto thy children; take care therefore of thine own children, I beseech thee, especially, when I can take no care of them myself; thou slumberest not, thou diest not, I must,' John 17.
为了我们的子孙后代，我们可以使上帝倾向于尊重他们，因为他们在他的约束下，他已经承诺成为我们的上帝和我们后代的上帝。“他们本是你的，你把他们赐给了我；我所有的都是你的；这些孩子是你凭借你丰富的恩典赐给我的。他们属于你，比属于我更多；我只是你的工具，将他们带到这个世界上，并成为你孩子的保姆；因此，请你特别照顾你自己的孩子，当我无法照顾他们时；你不会打盹，你不会死去，我必须。”（约翰福音 17 章）

Flesh and blood think nothing is cared for, but what it seeth cared for by itself. It hath no eyes to see a guard of providence, a guard of angels. It takes no knowledge that that is best cared for, that God cares for. Those that have God for their God, have enlarged hearts as they have enlarged comforts. They have an everlasting spring that supplies them in all wants, refreshes them in all troubles, and then runs most clearly and freshly, when all other streams in the world are dried and stopped up. Were we skilful in the art of faith, to improve so great an interest, what in the world could much dismay us? Faith will set God against all.
血肉之躯认为只有它自己关心的事情才受到关注。它没有眼睛看到上帝的保护和天使的守护。它不知道上帝最关心什么。那些把上帝作为他们的神的人，心胸开阔，享受丰盛的安慰。他们有一个永恒的泉源，在一切需要中供应他们，在一切困扰中给他们带来安慰，当世界上所有其他的溪流都干涸和堵塞时，它仍然清澈而新鲜地流淌。如果我们在信仰的艺术上熟练，能够充分利用这么大的利益，世界上还有什么能使我们沮丧呢？信仰会让上帝与一切对立。

It should fill our hearts with an holy indignation against ourselves, if either we rest in a condition wherein we cannot truly say, God is our God, or if, when we can in some sincerity of heart say this, that we make no better advantage thereby, and maintain not ourselves answerable to such a condition. What a shame is it for a nobleman's son to live like a beggar! for a great rich man to live like a poor peasant; to famish at a banquet; to fall when we have so many stays to lay hold on! Whereas if we could make this clear to our souls, that God is ours, and then take up our thoughts with the great riches we have in him, laid open in Christ, and in the promises, we need trouble ourselves about nothing, but only get a large vessel of faith, to receive what is offered, nay, enforced upon us.
如果我们停留在一个无法真实地说上帝是我们的上帝的状态中，或者当我们能够以某种真诚的心态说出这句话时，我们没有更好地利用这一点，并且没有使自己与这样的状态相称，那么我们应该对自己感到愤慨。一个贵族的儿子像乞丐一样生活是多么可耻！一个富人像穷农一样生活；在宴会上挨饿；在我们有这么多支持的情况下跌倒！然而，如果我们能够让我们的灵魂明白，上帝是我们的，然后用基督和应许中揭示的丰富来思考，我们就不需要为任何事情烦恼，只需要一个大的信心容器，来接受所提供的，甚至是强制给予我们的东西。

When we can say, God is our God, it is more than if we could say, heaven is mine; or whatever good the creature affords is mine. Alas! what is all this, to be able to say, God is mine, who hath in him the sweetness of all these things, and infinitely more? If God be ours, goodness itself is ours. If he be not ours, though we had all things else, yet ere long nothing would be ours. What a wondrous comfort is this, that God hath put himself over to be ours! that a believing soul may say with as great confidence, and greater too, that God is his, than he can say his house is his, his treasure is his, his friends are his! Nothing is so much ours as God is ours, because by his being ours in covenant, all other things become ours; and if God be once ours, well may we trust in him. God and ours joined together make up the full comfort of a Christian. God! there is all to be had; but what is that to me unless he be my God? All-sufficiency with propriety* fully stayeth the soul.
当我们能说上帝是我们的上帝时，这比我们能说天堂是我的，或者无论创造物提供了什么好处都是我的更重要。唉！所有这些对我来说意味着什么，能够说上帝是我的，他拥有所有这些事物的甜美，甚至更多？如果上帝是我们的，善良本身就是我们的。如果他不是我们的，即使我们拥有其他一切，很快也不会再有什么是我们的了。这是多么奇妙的安慰，上帝已经将自己交给我们！一个有信仰的灵魂可以毫不犹豫地说，上帝是他的，比他能说他的房子是他的，他的财富是他的，他的朋友是他的还要更大胆！没有什么比上帝更属于我们，因为通过他在约定中属于我们，所有其他事物都成为我们的；如果上帝一旦属于我们，我们就可以信靠他。上帝和我们的结合构成了基督徒的完全安慰。上帝！一切都可以得到；但如果他不是我的上帝，那对我有什么意义呢？充足的满足灵魂。

David was now banished from the sanctuary, from his friends, habitation, and former comforts; but was he banished from his God? No; God was his God still. When riches, and friends, and life itself cease to be ours, yet God never looseth his right in us, nor we our interest in him. This comfort that God is ours, reacheth unto the resurrection of our bodies and to life everlasting. God is the God of Abraham, and so of every true believer, even when his body is turned into dust. Hence it is that 'the lovingkindness of the Lord is better than life,' Ps. 63:3, because when life departs, yet we live for ever in him. When Moses saw the people drop away so fast in the wilderness, and wither like grass, 'Thou art our foundation,' saith he, 'from one generation to another; thou art God from everlasting to everlasting,' Ps. 90:2. When we leave the world, and are no more seen here, yet we have a dwelling-place in God for ever. God is ours from everlasting in election, and to everlasting in glory, protecting us here and glorifying us hereafter. David, that claimed God to be his God, is gone, but David's God is alive. And David himself, 'though his flesh see corruption,' Acts 2:27, yet is alive in his God still.
大卫现在被驱逐出圣所，离开了他的朋友、住所和以前的舒适；但他是否被上帝驱逐了呢？不，上帝仍然是他的上帝。当财富、朋友甚至生命本身不再属于我们时，上帝从未失去对我们的权利，我们也从未失去对他的兴趣。这种上帝是我们的安慰，延伸到我们身体的复活和永恒的生命。上帝是亚伯拉罕的上帝，也是每一个真正的信徒的上帝，即使他的身体已经变成尘土。这就是为什么诗篇 63:3 说，“你的慈爱比生命更好”，因为当生命离去时，我们仍然在他里面永远活着。当摩西看到人民在旷野中迅速消失，像草一样枯萎时，他说：“你是我们的根基，世世代代；你是从亘古到亘古的上帝”，诗篇 90:2。当我们离开这个世界，在这里不再被看见时，我们在上帝那里有一个永久的居所。上帝从永远中选中我们，到永远中荣耀我们，在这里保护我们，在来世荣耀我们。大卫声称上帝是他的上帝，他已经离去，但大卫的上帝仍然活着。 大卫本人，“虽然他的肉体会腐朽”，使徒行传 2:27，但他仍然在他的上帝里活着。

That which is said of wily persons that are full of fetches* and windings, and turnings in the world, that such will never break, may much more truly be said of a right godly man, that hath but one grand policy to secure him in all dangers, which is to run to his God as to his tower of offence and defence; such a one will never be at a desperate loss so long as God hath any credit, because he never faileth those that fly unto him; and that because his mercy and truth never fails. The very lame and the blind, the most shiftless† creatures, when they had gotten the strong hold of Zion, thought then they might securely 'scorn David and his host,' 2 Sam. 5:6, 7, because though they were weak in themselves, yet their hold was strong; but we see their hold failed them at length, which a Christian's will never do.
那些被称为狡猾的人，充满诡计、曲折和转折的人，在世界上永远不会崩溃，这样的说法更适用于一个真正虔诚的人，他只有一个伟大的策略来保护自己免受危险，那就是将自己的神视为他的攻守之塔；只要上帝还有信用，这样的人永远不会陷入绝望的困境，因为他从不辜负那些投奔他的人；这是因为他的慈爱和真实永不止息。即使是跛脚和瞎眼的人，最没有能力的生物，当他们占领了锡安的堡垒时，他们认为他们可以安全地嘲笑大卫和他的军队，因为虽然他们自己很弱，但他们的掌握很强大；但我们看到他们的掌握最终失败了，而一个基督徒的掌握永远不会失败。

Obj. But God seems to have small care of those that are his in the world; those who believe themselves to be his jewels, are counted the offscouring of the world, and most despised.
但是上帝似乎对世界上属于他的人并不关心；那些认为自己是他的宝贝的人，却被视为世界的渣滓，最被蔑视。

Ans. We must know that such have a glorious life in God, but it is 'hidden with Christ in God,' Col. 3:3, from the eyes of the world, and sometimes from their own. Here they are hidden under infirmities, afflictions, and disgraces, but yet never so hidden but that God sometimes lets down a beam of comfort and strength, which they would not lose, to be freed from their present condition, though never so grievous. God comes more immediately to them now than formerly he was used; nay, even when God seems to forsake them and to be their enemy; yet they are supported with such inward strength that they are able to make good their claim with Christ their head, and cry 'My God' still. God never so departs but he always leaves somewhat behind him which draws and keeps the heart to him. We are like poor Hagar, who, when the bottle of water was spent, fell a crying, Gen. 21:17, when there was a fountain close by, but her tears hindered her from seeing it. When things go ill with us in our trades and callings, and all is spent, then our spirits droop, and we are at our wits' end, as if God were not where he was. Oh, consider, if we had all and had not God, we had nothing. If we have nothing, and have God, we have enough, for we have him that hath all, and more than all, at his command. If we had all other comforts that our hearts can desire, yet if God withdraw himself, what remains but a curse and emptiness? What makes heaven but the presence of God? and what makes hell but the absence of God? Let God be in any condition, though never so ill, yet it is comfortable; and usually we find more of God in trouble than when we are out of trouble. The comforts of religion never come till others fail. Cordials are kept for faintings. When a curtain and a veil is drawn betwixt us and the creature, then our eyes are only upward to God, and he is more clearly seen of us.
我们必须知道，在上帝里面，这样的人有着荣耀的生活，但它是“与基督一同隐藏在上帝里面”的（歌罗西书 3:3），对于世界的眼睛来说有时也对他们自己来说是隐藏的。在这里，他们被疾病、苦难和耻辱所隐藏，但从来没有被隐藏得如此之深，以至于上帝有时会放下安慰和力量的光芒，他们不愿失去，以摆脱他们目前的状况，即使再痛苦也是如此。上帝现在比以前更直接地接近他们；甚至当上帝似乎抛弃他们并成为他们的敌人时，他们仍然得到内在的力量支持，能够坚定地与基督他们的头领主张，并且仍然呼喊“我的上帝”。上帝从未离开，但他总是留下一些东西，吸引并保持心灵与他的联系。我们就像可怜的夏甲一样，当水瓶用尽时，她哭泣着（创世记 21:17），而附近却有一口泉水，但她的眼泪妨碍了她看到它。当我们在工作和事业中遇到困难时，当一切都用尽时，我们的精神低落，我们陷入绝望，好像上帝不在原来的地方。哦，想想看，如果我们拥有一切却没有上帝，我们一无所有。 如果我们一无所有，但有上帝，那就足够了，因为我们拥有那位拥有一切，甚至更多的人。如果我们拥有我们心灵所渴望的一切安慰，但上帝离开了我们，那还剩下什么，除了诅咒和空虚？是什么构成了天堂？是上帝的存在。是什么构成了地狱？是上帝的缺席。无论上帝处于何种境况，即使再糟糕，都是令人安慰的；通常我们在困境中比在无忧无虑时更能感受到上帝的存在。宗教的安慰只有在其他安慰消失后才会到来。兴奋剂是为了昏厥而保留的。当我们与创造物之间拉上帷幕和面纱时，我们的目光只会向上看，看到上帝更加清晰。

In the division of things, God bequeaths himself to those that are his for their portion as the best portion he can give them. There are many goodly things in the world, but none of these are a Christian's portion. There is in him to supply all good and remove all ill, until the time come that we stand in need of no other good. It is our chief wisdom to know him, our holiness to love him, our happiness to enjoy him. There is in him to be had whatsoever can truly make us happy. We go to our treasure and our portion in all our wants; we live by it and value ourselves by it. God is such a portion, that the more we spend on him the more we may. 'Our strength may fail, and our heart may fail, but God is our portion for ever,' Ps. 73:26. Everything else teaches us, by the vanity and vexation we find in them, that our happiness is not in them. They send us to God; they may make us worse, but better they cannot. Our nature is above them, and ordained for a greater good; they can go but along with us for a while, and their end swallows up all the comfort of their beginning, as Pharaoh's lean kine swallowed up the fat, Gen. 41:20. If we have no better portion here than these things, we are like to have hell for our portion hereafter. What a shame will it be hereafter, when we are stript of all, that it should be said, Lo, this is the man that took not God for his portion. If God be once ours, he goes for ever along with us, and when earth will hold us no longer, heaven shall. Who that hath his senses about him would perish for want of water when there is a fountain by him? or for hunger, that is at a feast? God alone is a rich portion. O, then, let us labour for a large faith, as we have a large object. If we had a thousand times more faith, we should have a thousand times more increase of God's blessings. When the prophet came to the widow's house, as many vessels as she had were filled with oil, 1 Kings 17:14. We are straitened in our own faith, but not straitened in our God. It falls out oft in this world that God's people are like Israel at the Red Sea, environed with dangers on all sides. What course have we, then, to take, but only to look up and wait for the salvation of our God? This is a breast full of consolation; let us teach our hearts to suck and draw comfort from hence.
在事物的分配中，上帝将自己留给那些属于他的人作为他们最好的份额。世界上有许多美好的事物，但这些都不是基督徒的份额。他内在有能力供应一切善事并消除一切不善，直到我们不再需要其他善事的时候。我们最大的智慧是认识他，我们的圣洁是爱他，我们的幸福是享受他。他内在有一切能真正使我们幸福的东西。在我们一切需求中，我们去寻找我们的宝藏和份额；我们靠它生活并以它为荣。上帝是这样一个份额，我们在他身上花费得越多，我们就能得到越多。“我的肉体和我的心肠衰残，但神是我心里的力量，又是我的福分，直到永远。”（诗篇 73:26）其他一切事物通过其中的虚空和烦恼告诉我们，我们的幸福不在于它们。它们引导我们去寻找上帝；它们可能使我们变得更糟，但不能使我们变得更好。我们的本性超越了它们，并为更大的善事而设立；它们只能陪伴我们一段时间，它们的结局吞噬了它们开始时的一切安慰，就像法老的瘦牛吞噬了肥牛一样。（创世记 41:20） 如果我们在这里没有比这些东西更好的份额，那么我们将来的份额就像是地狱。当我们被剥夺一切时，将来会是多么可耻，人们会说，看，这就是那个没有把上帝作为他的份额的人。如果上帝一旦属于我们，他将永远与我们同在，当地球不能再容纳我们时，天堂将容纳我们。当一个人身边有一口泉水时，谁会因为没有水而灭亡呢？或者因为饥饿而在宴会上灭亡呢？只有上帝才是丰富的份额。哦，让我们为一个广大的信仰而努力，就像我们有一个广大的对象一样。如果我们有一千倍的信仰，我们将获得上帝祝福的一千倍增长。当先知来到寡妇的家时，她所有的器皿都装满了油，列王纪上 17:14。我们在自己的信仰中受限，但在上帝面前并不受限。在这个世界上，上帝的子民经常像以色列人在红海那样，四面受到危险的包围。那么我们应该采取什么措施呢，除了仰望并等待我们上帝的拯救？这是一个充满安慰的怀抱；让我们教导我们的心灵从中吸取和获得安慰。

Is God our God, and will he suffer anything to befall us for our hurt? Will he lay any more upon us than he gives us strength to bear? Will he suffer any wind to blow upon us but for good? Doth he not set us before his face? Will a father or mother suffer a child to be wronged in their presence if they can help it? Will a friend suffer his friend to be injured if he may redress him? And will God, that hath put these affections into parents and friends, neglect the care of those he hath taken so near unto himself? No, surely. His eyes are open to look upon their condition; his ears are open to their prayers; a 'book of remembrance,' Mal. 3:16, is written of all their good desires, speeches, and actions; he hath bottles for all their tears, Ps. 56:8; their very sighs are not hid from him, Ps. 79:11; he hath written them upon the 'palms of his hands,' Isa. 49:16, and cannot but continually look upon them. Oh, let us prize the favour of so good a God, who, though he dwells on high, yet will regard things so low, and not neglect the mean estate of any; nay, especially delights to be called the 'comforter of his elect,' John 14:16, and the God of those that are in misery, and have none to fly unto but himself.
上帝是我们的上帝，他会容许任何伤害我们的事情发生吗？他会给我们承受的力量之外再加重负担吗？他会容许任何风吹袭我们，除非是为了好处？他不是把我们放在他的面前吗？如果父母在场，他们会容许孩子受到伤害吗？如果朋友可以帮助，他会容许朋友受到伤害吗？那么，上帝会忽视他们，这些他亲近的人的照顾吗？当然不会。他的眼睛睁开看着他们的处境；他的耳朵听着他们的祈祷；有一本“记念册”（玛拉基书 3:16）记载着他们的善意、言语和行动；他有瓶子收集他们的眼泪（诗篇 56:8）；他们的叹息也不会被他隐藏（诗篇 79:11）；他把他们写在他的手掌上（以赛亚书 49:16），不会停止地关注他们。 哦，让我们珍视如此善良的上帝的恩惠，尽管他居住在高处，却会关注如此低微的事物，不会忽视任何人的平凡状态；不仅如此，他尤其喜欢被称为他所选之人的“安慰者”，约翰福音 14:16，并且是那些处于困境中、没有其他人可以依靠的人的上帝。

But we must know that God only thus graciously visits his own children; he visits with his choicest favours those only that fear his name, Ps. 25:14. As for those that either secretly undermine or openly oppose the cause and church of God and join with his enemies, such as savour not the things of God, but commit spiritual idolatry and adultery with God's enemies, the world and the devil, God will answer these as once he did the Israelites, when in their necessity they would have forced acquaintance upon him, 'Go to the gods whom ye have served,' Judges 10:14, to the great men whose persons you have obeyed for advantage, to your riches, to your pleasures, which you have loved more than God or goodness. You would not lose a base custom, an oath, a superfluity, a thing of nothing, for me; therefore, I will not own you now. Such men are more impudent than the devil himself, that will claim acquaintance with God at last when they have carried themselves as his enemies all their days. Satan could tell Paul and Silas they were 'the servants of the living God,' Acts 16:17, but he would not make that plea for himself, knowing that he was a cursed creature.
但我们必须知道，上帝只会恩待他自己的儿女；他只会赐予他的恩宠给那些敬畏他名的人，诗篇 25:14。至于那些暗中破坏或公开反对上帝的事业和教会，并与他的敌人联合的人，他们不喜爱上帝的事物，却与上帝的敌人世界和魔鬼进行属灵的拜偶像和通奸，上帝会像他曾经对待以色列人一样对待他们，当他们在困境中试图强迫与他交往时，他回答说：“你们去求告你们所选择的神吧！”（士师记 10:14），去找你们为了利益而服从的伟大人物，去找你们所爱胜过上帝和善良的财富和享乐。你们不愿意为了我而放弃一种卑鄙的习俗、一种誓言、一种多余的东西、一种微不足道的东西；因此，现在我不会承认你们。这样的人比魔鬼本身还要厚颜无耻，他们在一生中表现得像上帝的敌人，最后却要声称与上帝有交往。撒旦曾告诉保罗和西拉他们是“永生神的仆人”（使徒行传 16:17），但他不会为自己提出这样的辩护，因为他知道自己是被诅咒的生物。

Miserable, then, is their condition who live in the world, nay, in the church, without God, Eph. 2:12. Such are in a worse estate than pagans and Jews; for, living in the house of God, they are strangers from God and from the covenant of grace; usurping the name of Christians, having, indeed, nothing to do with Christ.
生活在世界上，甚至在教会中，没有上帝的人的境况是可悲的，弗 2:12。这样的人比异教徒和犹太人的处境更糟糕；因为他们生活在上帝的家中，却与上帝和恩典的约束疏远；他们冒用基督徒的名字，实际上与基督无关。

Some of these, like spiritual vagabonds, as Cain, excommunicate themselves from God's presence in the use of the means, or rather like devils, that will have nothing to do with God, because they are loath to be tormented before their time. They think every good sermon an arraigning of them, and therefore keep out of reach.
有些人，像是灵魂的流浪者，如同该隐一样，通过使用手段自我排斥于上帝的面前，或者更像是魔鬼，他们不愿与上帝有任何关系，因为他们不愿在时机未到之前受到折磨。他们认为每一篇好的布道都是在指责他们，因此远离它们的触及范围。

Others will present themselves under the means, and carry some savour away with them of what they hear, but it is only till they meet with the next temptation, unto which they yield themselves presently slaves. These shewed themselves under a general profession, as they did, who called themselves Jews and were nothing less. But, alas! an empty title will bring an empty comfort at last. It was cold comfort to the rich man in flames, Luke 16:25, that Abraham called him son; or to Judas, that Christ called him friend, Mat. 26:50; or to the rebellious Jews, that God styles them his people, Isa. 50:2. Such as our profession is, such will our comfort be. True profession of religion is another thing than most men take it to be. It is made up of the outward duty, and the inward man too, which is, indeed, the life and soul of all. What the heart doth not in religion is not done. Quod cor non facit non fit.
其他人会以某种方式呈现自己，并带走一些他们听到的味道，但只是在他们遇到下一个诱惑时，他们立即成为奴隶。这些人以一种普遍的信仰表现出自己，就像那些自称为犹太人却一点也不是的人一样。但是，唉！一个空洞的头衔最终只会带来空洞的安慰。对于在火焰中的富人来说，亚伯拉罕称他为儿子是冷冰冰的安慰（路加福音 16:25），对于犹大来说，基督称他为朋友是冷冰冰的安慰（马太福音 26:50），对于背叛的犹太人来说，上帝称他们为自己的子民是冷冰冰的安慰（以赛亚书 50:2）。我们的信仰如何，我们的安慰就会如何。真正的宗教信仰与大多数人所理解的不同。它由外在的责任和内在的人构成，而内在的人实际上是一切的生命和灵魂。心灵在宗教中所不做的事情就没有完成。

God cares for no retainers that will only wear his livery, but serve themselves. 'What hast thou to do to take his name into thy mouth, and hatest to be reformed? Ps. 50:16. Saul lived in the bosom of the church, yet, being a cruel tyrant, when he was in a desperate plunge, his outward profession did him no good; and, therefore, when he was environed with his enemies he uttered this doleful complaint, 'God hath forsaken me, and the Philistines are upon me,' 1 Sam. 28:15. A pitiful case! Yet so will it be with all those that rest in an outward profession, thinking it enough to compliment* with God when their hearts are not right within them. Such will at length be forced to cry, sickness is upon me, death is upon me, hell is before me, and God hath forsaken me. I would have none of God heretofore, now God will have none of me. When David himself had offended God by numbering the people, then God counted him but plain David, 'Go and say to David,' &c., 2 Sam. 24:12; whereas before, when he purposed to build a temple, then, 'Go, tell my servant David,' 2 Sam. 7:5. When the Israelites had set up an idol, then God fathers them on Moses, 'Thy people which thou hast brought out of Egypt.' He would not own them as at other times then. They are my people still whilst they keep covenant. No care, no present comfort, in this near relation.
上帝不关心那些只穿着他的制服却只为自己服务的侍从。"你为什么拿他的名字说话，却厌恶被改变呢？"（诗篇 50:16）扫罗生活在教会的怀抱中，然而，作为一个残忍的暴君，当他陷入绝望时，他的外表信仰对他没有好处；因此，当他被敌人包围时，他发出了这个悲惨的抱怨："上帝已经离弃我，非利士人已经来到我身上"（撒母耳记上 28:15）。可怜的情况！然而，所有那些只满足于外表信仰的人，认为与上帝客套一下就足够了，他们的内心并不正直。这样的人最终将被迫呼喊：疾病降临在我身上，死亡降临在我身上，地狱在我面前，上帝已经离弃我。我以前不愿意接受上帝，现在上帝也不愿意接受我。当大卫自己因为统计人口而得罪上帝时，上帝只称呼他为普通的大卫，"去告诉大卫"（撒母耳记下 24:12）；而在此之前，当他打算建造圣殿时，上帝称呼他为"去告诉我的仆人大卫"（撒母耳记下 7:5）。当以色列人设立偶像时，上帝却将他们归咎于摩西，"你从埃及带出来的百姓"。他那时不会像其他时候那样拥有他们。只要他们遵守契约，他们仍然是我的人。在这种亲近的关系中，没有关心，没有现在的安慰。

The price of the pearl is not known till all else be sold, and we see the necessary use of it. So the worth of God in Christ is never discerned till we see our lost and undone condition without him, till conscience flies in our faces, and drags us to the brink of hell; then, if ever we taste how good the Lord is, we will say, 'Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.' Heretofore I have heard of his lovingkindness, but that is not a thousandth part of what I see and feel. The joy I now apprehend is unutterable, unconceivable.
珍珠的价格直到其他一切都被卖掉，我们看到了它的必要用途才能知道。同样，只有当我们看到没有基督我们是失落和无助的状态，直到良心在我们面前飞扑，将我们拖向地狱的边缘，我们才能真正认识到上帝在基督里的价值；那时，如果我们尝到了主的恩惠，我们会说：“有上帝作耶和华的百姓是有福的。”以前我听说过他的慈爱，但那只是我所看到和感受到的一小部分。我现在所体会到的喜乐是无法言喻、无法想象的。

Oh then, when we have gotten our souls possessed of God, let our study be to preserve ourselves in his love, to walk close with him, that he may delight to abide with us and never forsake us! How basely doth the Scripture speak of whatsoever stands in our way! It makes nothing of them. What is man but vanity, and less than vanity! All nations but as 'a drop of the bucket,' as the 'dust of the balance,' Isa. 40:15, things not at all considerable. Flesh looks upon them as through a multiplying glass, making them greater than they are; but faith, as God doth, sees them as nothing.
哦，当我们的灵魂被上帝所拥有时，让我们的努力是保持在他的爱中，与他亲近，让他喜悦地与我们同在，永不离弃！圣经是多么卑微地谈论我们所面临的一切障碍！它对它们毫不在意。人算什么，虚空而又虚空！所有的国家只是“桶中的一滴水”，“天平上的灰尘”，以赛亚书 40:15，根本不值一提。肉眼通过放大镜看待它们，使它们变得比实际更大；但是信仰，就像上帝一样，将它们视为无物。

This is such a blessed condition, as may well challenge all our diligence in labouring to be assured of it; neither is it to be attained or maintained without the strength and prime of our care. I speak especially of, and in regard of, the sense and comfort of it. For the sense of God's favour will not be kept without keeping him in our best affections above all things in the world, without keeping of our hearts always close and near to him, which cannot be, without keeping a most narrow watch over our loose and unsettled hearts, that are ready to stray from God and fall to the creature. It cannot be kept without exact and circumspect walking, without constant self-denial, without a continual preparation of spirit, to want and forsake anything that God seeth fit to take from us.
这是一种如此有福的状态，以至于我们必须竭尽全力努力确保它；而且，如果没有我们关心的力量和关键，是无法达到或保持这种状态的。我特别指的是对这种感觉和安慰的关注和考虑。因为如果不将上帝放在我们最好的感情之上，不将他保持在世界上的一切之上，我们就无法保持上帝的恩宠的感觉。而要将我们的心始终紧密靠近他，就需要对我们那些松散和不稳定的心灵保持最严密的监视，因为它们随时准备迷失于上帝并转向受造物。如果没有精确而谨慎的行走，没有持续的自我否定，没有不断准备好放弃和舍弃上帝认为适合从我们身上拿走的任何东西，就无法保持这种感觉。

But what of all this? Can we cross ourselves, or spend our labours to better purpose? One sweet beam of God's countenance will requite all this. We beat not the air, we plough not in the sand, neither sow in a barren soil; God is no barren wilderness. Nay, he never shews so much of himself as in suffering, and parting with anything for him, and denying ourselves of that which we think stands not with his will. Great persons require great observance. We can deny ourselves, and have men's persons in great admiration, for hope of some advantage; and is any more willing and more able to advance us than the great all-sufficient God? A Christian, indeed, undergoes more troubles, takes more pains, especially with his own heart, than others do. But what are these to his gains? What return so rich as trading with God? What comfort so great as these that are fetched from the fountain? One day spent in enjoying the light of God's countenance is sweeter than a thousand without it. We see here, when David was not only shut out from all comforts, but lay under many grievances, what a fruitful use he makes of this, that God was his God. It upholdeth his dejected, it stilleth his unquiet, soul; it leadeth him to the rock that was higher than he, and there stayeth him. It filleth him with comfortable hopes of better times to come. It sets him above himself, and all troubles and fears whatsoever.
但是这一切又如何呢？我们能否自我安慰，或者将我们的努力用于更有意义的事情上？上帝慈爱的一束光芒将会回报这一切。我们不是在空中打击，也不是在沙滩上耕种，更不是在贫瘠的土地上播种；上帝不是贫瘠的荒野。不，他从未像在受苦、为他舍弃某物、拒绝我们认为与他的旨意不符的事物时那样展示自己。伟大的人需要伟大的尊重。我们可以为了某种利益而拒绝自己，并对人们的人格表示极大的钦佩；还有谁比伟大而全能的上帝更愿意、更有能力提升我们呢？一个真正的基督徒所经历的困难、所付出的努力，尤其是对自己的内心，比其他人更多。但是这些对他的收获来说又算得了什么呢？有什么回报比与上帝交易更丰厚呢？有什么安慰比从源头获取的安慰更伟大呢？享受上帝慈爱的一天比没有这种慈爱的一千天更甜蜜。我们在这里看到，当大卫不仅被剥夺了所有的安慰，而且还承受了许多苦难时，他如何充分利用上帝是他的上帝这一事实。 它支撑着他沮丧的心灵，平静了他不安的心灵；它引领他到比他更高的岩石上，并在那里停留。它充满了他对未来更美好时光的舒适希望。它使他超越自己，超越一切困扰和恐惧。

Therefore wait still in the use of means till God shine upon thee; yea, though we know our sins in Christ are pardoned, yet there is something more that a gracious heart waits for us;* that is, a good look from God, a further enlargement of heart, and an establishing in grace. It was not enough for David to have his sins pardoned, but to 'recover the joy of salvation,' and 'freedom of spirit,' Ps. 51:12. Therefore the soul should always be in a waiting condition, even until it be filled with the fulness of God, as much as it is capable of. Neither is it quiet alone, or comfort alone, that the soul longs after, no, nor the favour of God alone, but a gracious heart to walk worthy of God. It rests not whilst anything remains that may breed the least strangeness betwixt God and us.
因此，在神照耀你之前，仍然要等待使用手段；是的，虽然我们知道我们在基督里的罪已经得到赦免，但还有更多的事情，一个恩典的心等待着我们；那就是，神的眷顾，心灵的进一步扩张，和在恩典中的确立。对于大卫来说，仅仅得到罪的赦免是不够的，还要“恢复救恩的喜乐”和“自由的灵”，诗篇 51:12。因此，灵魂应该始终处于等待的状态，直到它被充满神的丰满，尽可能地。灵魂渴望的不仅仅是安静或安慰，也不仅仅是神的恩惠，而是一个恩典的心，以行走与神相称。只要还有任何可能导致神与我们之间最微小疏远的事物存在，它就不会安息。

CHAPTER XXXIII.—Of experience and faith, and how to wait on God comfortably. Helps thereto
第三十三章 - 关于经验和信仰，以及如何舒适地等候上帝。辅助方法。

My God. These words further imply a special experience, that David's soul had felt of the goodness of God. He had found God distilling the comfort of his goodness and truth through the promises, and he knew he should find God again the same as he was, if he put him in mind of his former gracious dealing. His soul knew right well, how good God was, and he could seal to those truths he had found comfort by, therefore he thus speaks to his soul: My soul, what, my soul, that hast found God so good, so oft, so many ways, thou my soul to be discouraged, having God, and my God, with whom I have taken so much sweet counsel, and felt so much comfort from, and found always heretofore to stick so close unto me! Why shouldst thou now be in such a case, as if God and thou had been strangers one to another? If we could treasure up experiments,* the former part of our life would come in to help the latter; and the longer we live the richer in faith we should be; even as in victories, every former overthrow of an enemy helps to obtain a succeeding victory. The use of a sanctified memory is to lose nothing that may help in time of need. He had need be a well-tried and a known friend upon whom we lay all our salvation and comfort.
我的天啊。这些话进一步暗示了一种特殊的经历，即大卫的灵魂感受到了上帝的恩慈。他发现上帝通过应许滋养了他的善良和真理的安慰，他知道如果他提醒上帝他以前的恩慈待遇，他将再次找到上帝，就像他以前一样。他的灵魂非常清楚上帝是多么的善良，他可以为那些给他带来安慰的真理作证，因此他这样对自己的灵魂说：我的灵魂啊，你已经发现上帝是如此善良，如此频繁，如此多种方式，你为什么要灰心丧气呢？我有上帝，我的上帝，我与他一起度过了如此甜蜜的交谈，感受到了如此多的安慰，而且以前总是发现他与我如此亲近！为什么现在你要像上帝和你是陌生人一样？如果我们能珍藏经历的话，我们过去的生活将有助于我们未来的生活；而且我们活得越久，我们的信仰就会越丰富；就像在战胜中，每一次以前的敌人的失败都有助于获得下一次的胜利。一个被圣化的记忆的用途是在需要时不失去任何有助益的东西。 他必须是一个经过充分考验和被认可的朋友，我们将所有的救赎和安慰都寄托在他身上。

We ought to trust God upon other grounds, though we had never tried him; but when he helps our faith by former experience, this should strengthen our confidence, and shore up† our spirits, and put us on to go more cheerfully to God, as to a tried friend. If we were well read in the story of our own lives, we might have a divinity of our own, drawn out of the observation of God's particular dealing towards us; we might say, this and this truth I dare venture upon, I have found it true, I dare build all my happiness upon it. As Paul, 'I know whom I have trusted,' 2 Tim. 1:12, I have tried him, he never yet failed me, I am not now to learn how faithful he is to those that are his. Every new experience is a new knowledge of God, and should fit us for new encounters. If we have been good in former times, God remembers the 'kindness of our youth,' Jer. 2:2; we should therefore remember the kindness of God even from our youth. Evidence of what we have felt, helps our faith in that which for the present we feel not.
我们应该相信上帝，尽管我们从未尝试过他；但当他通过以往的经历帮助我们的信仰时，这应该加强我们的信心，支撑我们的精神，并使我们更加愉快地去寻求上帝，就像对待一个经过考验的朋友一样。如果我们对自己的生活经历有很好的了解，我们就可以从上帝对我们的特殊待遇中得出自己的神性；我们可以说，这个真理和那个真理我敢冒险相信，因为我发现它是真实的，我敢把我的所有幸福都建立在它之上。就像保罗说的，“我知道我所信靠的是谁”，提摩太后书 1:12，我已经尝试过他，他从未让我失望，我现在不需要再了解他对自己的忠诚。每一次新的经历都是对上帝的新认识，应该使我们为新的挑战做好准备。如果我们在过去的时候表现得好，上帝会记得我们的“青年时代的恩惠”，耶利米书 2:2；因此，我们应该记住上帝从我们年轻时起的恩惠。我们所感受到的证据有助于我们对目前我们所感受不到的事物的信仰。

Though it be one thing to live by faith, and another thing to live by sight, yet the more we see, and feel, and taste of God, the more we shall be led to rely on him, for that which as yet we neither see nor feel. 'Because thou hast been my helper,' saith David, 'therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice,' Ps. 63:7. The time was, Lord, when thou shewedst thyself a gracious Father to me, and thou art unchangeable in thy nature, in thy love, and in thy gifts.
虽然凭信心生活与凭眼见生活是两回事，但我们越是看到、感受到、品味到上帝，我们就越会依靠他，依靠我们尚未看到、尚未感受到的事物。大卫说：“因为你曾帮助我，我就在你翅膀的荫下欢呼。”（诗篇 63:7）主啊，曾经有一段时间，你向我显露了慈爱的父亲形象，而你的本性、你的爱和你的恩赐是永恒不变的。

Yea, when there is no present evidence, but God shews himself as contrary to us, yet a former taste of God's goodness will enable to lay claim unto him still. God's concealing of himself is but a wise discipline for a time, until we be enabled to bear the full revealing of himself unto us for ever. In the mean time, though we have some sight and feeling in God, yet our constant living is not by it; the evidence of that we see not, is that which more constantly upholds the soul, than the evidence of anything we see or feel.
是的，当没有现有的证据时，但上帝向我们显现出与我们相反的一面时，对上帝善良的先前体验仍然使我们能够要求他。上帝隐藏自己只是一个明智的纪律，暂时地，直到我们能够永远承受他完全显现给我们的时候。与此同时，虽然我们在上帝中有一些视觉和感觉，但我们的持续生活并不依赖于它；我们看不见的东西的证据比我们看到或感受到的任何东西的证据更能持续地支撑灵魂。

Yea, though our experience, by reason of our not minding of it in trouble, seems many times to stand us in no stead, but we fare as if God had never looked in mercy upon us; yet even here, some virtue remains of former sense, which with the present spirit of faith, helps us to look upon God as ours, as we have a present strength from food received and digested before. Vessels are something the better for that liquor they keep not, but runs through them.
是的，尽管由于我们在困境中不关注经验，它似乎很多时候对我们没有帮助，我们好像上帝从未怜悯过我们；然而即使在这里，一些以前的感觉的美德仍然存在，它与现在的信仰之灵一起，帮助我们将上帝视为我们的，就像我们从之前接受和消化的食物中获得了现在的力量一样。容器并不因为它们不保留液体而更好，而是让液体流过它们。

But if experience should wholly fail, there is such a divine power in faith, as a very little beam of it, having no other help than a naked promise, will uphold the soul. Howsoever, we must neglect no help, for God oft suspends his comfort till we have searched all our helps. Though we see no light, yet we ought to search all crevices for light, and rejoice in the least beam of light, that we may see day by. It is the nature of true faith to search and pry into every corner, and if after all nothing appears, then it casts itself upon God as in the first conversion, when it had nothing to look upon but the offer of free mercy.* If at that time without former experience we did trust God, why not now, when we have forgotten our experience? The chief grounds of trusting God are always the same, whether we feel or feel not; nay, though for the present we feel the contrary, faith will never leave wrestling till it hath gotten a blessing. When faith is driven to work alone, having nothing but God, and his bare promise to rely upon, then God thinks it lies upon his credit to shew himself as a God unto us. God's power in creating light out of darkness is never more exalted, than when a guilty soul is lifted up by God to look for mercy, even when he seems armed with justice, to execute vengeance upon him; then the soul is brought to a near conformity unto Christ, who, 1, when he had the guilt of the sins of the whole world upon him; 2, when he was forsaken, and that after he had enjoyed the sweetest communion with his Father that ever creature could do; and not only so, but, 3, felt the weight of God's just displeasure against sin; and, 4, was abased lower than ever any creature was; yet still he held fast God as his God.
但是如果经验完全失败，信仰中有一种神圣的力量，即使只有一点点光芒，没有其他帮助，也能支撑住灵魂。无论如何，我们不能忽视任何帮助，因为上帝常常暂时悬挂他的安慰，直到我们搜索了所有的帮助。虽然我们看不到光明，但我们应该在所有的缝隙中寻找光明，并为最微小的光芒而欢喜，这样我们才能看到白天。真正的信仰的本质是搜索和探究每一个角落，即使在所有的事情都没有出现之后，它也会将自己托付给上帝，就像在第一次转变时一样，当时它只有免费怜悯的提议可以依靠。如果在那个时候，没有先前的经验，我们仍然相信上帝，为什么现在不相信呢？相信上帝的主要依据始终是相同的，无论我们感觉到还是感觉不到；甚至，尽管我们目前感觉相反，信仰也永远不会停止奋斗，直到获得祝福。当信仰被迫独自工作，只能依靠上帝和他的光秃秃的承诺时，上帝认为他有责任向我们展示自己作为一个上帝。 上帝在黑暗中创造光的能力从未如此崇高，当一个有罪的灵魂被上帝抬起来寻求怜悯时，即使他似乎带着正义来执行报复；那时，灵魂被带到与基督相近的地步，他，1，当他背负着全世界的罪孽时；2，当他被遗弃时，而在此之前他曾与父亲有过最甜蜜的交流，任何创造物都无法比拟；而且不仅如此，3，他感受到上帝对罪的公正不满；4，他比任何创造物都更加卑微；然而他仍然坚守上帝作为他的上帝。

In earthly matters, if we have a title to anything by gift, contract, inheritance, or howsoever, we will not be wrangled out of our right. And shall we not maintain our right in God, against all the tricks and cavils of Satan and our own hearts? We must labour to have something, that we may shew that we are within the covenant. If we be never so little entered into the covenant, we are safe. And herein lies the special comfort of sincerity, that though our grace be little, yet it is of the right stamp, and shews us, that we are servants, and sons, though unworthy to be so. Here a little truth will go far. Hence it is that the saints in all their extremities still allege something, that shews that they are within the covenant; we are thy children, thy people, and thy servants, &c. God is mindful of his covenant, but is well pleased, that we should mind him of it too; and mind it ourselves to make use of it, as David doth here. He knew if he could bring his soul to his God, all would be quiet.
在尘世的事务中，如果我们通过赠与、合同、继承或其他方式拥有某物的所有权，我们不会被争论剥夺我们的权利。那么，在上帝面前，我们难道不应该坚守我们的权利，抵抗撒旦和我们自己内心的诡计和辩解吗？我们必须努力拥有一些东西，以证明我们在盟约之内。即使我们只是稍微进入了盟约，我们也是安全的。这就是真诚的特殊安慰之处，即使我们的恩典很少，但它是正确的印记，并向我们展示，尽管不配，我们仍然是仆人和儿子。一点点真理就足够了。因此，圣徒们在极端困境中仍然会提到一些东西，以显示他们在盟约之内；我们是你的儿女、你的子民和你的仆人等。上帝记得他的盟约，但他也很高兴我们提醒他；我们自己也要记住并利用它，就像大卫在这里所做的一样。他知道，如果他能将自己的灵魂带到上帝面前，一切都会平静下来。

God is so ready to mercy, that he delighteth in it, and delighteth in Christ, through whom he may shew mercy, notwithstanding his justice, as being fully satisfied in Christ. Mercy is his name that he will be known by. It is his glory which we behold in the face of Christ, who is nothing but grace and mercy itself. Nay, he pleads reasons for mercy, even from the sinfulness and misery of his creature, and maintains his own mercy against all the wrangling cavils of flesh and blood, that would put mercy from them; and hearken more willingly to Satan's objections, than God's arguments, till at length God subdues their spirits so far, as they become ashamed for standing out so long against him. How ready will God be to shew mercy to us when we seek it, that thus presseth upon us, when we seem to refuse it! If God should take advantage of our waywardness, what would become of us? Satan's course is to discourage those that God would have encouraged, and to encourage those whom God never speaks peace unto; and he thinks to gain both ways. Our care therefore should be, when we resolve upon God's ways, to labour that no discouragement fasten upon us, seeing God and his word speak all comfort to us.
上帝是如此渴望怜悯，以至于他喜欢它，并且喜欢基督，通过基督他可以显示怜悯，尽管他的公正，因为他在基督里得到了充分的满足。怜悯是他的名字，他将以此为人所知。这是他的荣耀，我们在基督的面容中看到的，基督本身就是恩典和怜悯。不仅如此，他还为怜悯辩护，甚至从他的受造物的罪恶和痛苦中寻求怜悯的理由，并且坚持自己的怜悯，抵制一切肉体和血气的争辩，他们想要摆脱怜悯，更愿意听从撒旦的异议，而不是上帝的论据，直到最后上帝征服了他们的心灵，他们为长时间对抗他感到羞愧。当我们寻求怜悯时，上帝将会多么乐意向我们显露怜悯，即使我们似乎拒绝它！如果上帝利用我们的任性，我们将会怎样呢？撒旦的做法是打击那些上帝想要鼓励的人，并鼓励那些上帝从未向他们传达平安的人；他认为他可以两全其美。 我们的关注应该是，当我们决定追随上帝的道路时，要努力避免受到任何挫折，因为上帝和他的话语给予我们所有的安慰。

And because the best of a Christian is to come, we should raise up our spirits to wait upon God, for that mercy which is yet to come. All inferior waitings for good things here, do but train us up in the comfortable expectation of the main.
因为基督徒最好的还在未来，所以我们应该提起精神等待上帝的怜悯，因为那是尚未到来的。在这里对于好事的次要等待，只是让我们在对主要事物的舒适期待中得到训练。

This waiting on God requires a great strength of grace, by reason not only, 1, of the excellency of the things waited for, which are far beyond anything we can hope for in the world; but, 2, in regard of the long day which God takes before he performeth his promise; and, 3, from thence the tediousness of delay; 4, the many troubles of life in our way; 5, the great opposition we meet with in the world; 6, and scandals* ofttimes even from them that are in great esteem for religion; 7, together with the untowardness of our nature in being ready to be put off by the least discouragement. In these respects there must be more than a human spirit to hold up the soul, and carry it along to the end of that which we wait for.
这等待上帝需要极大的恩典之力，原因不仅在于所等待的事物的卓越性，这些事物远远超出了我们在世界上所能期望的任何事物；而且还在于上帝在实现他的应许之前所花费的漫长时间；以及由此产生的拖延的烦恼；生活中的许多困扰；我们在世界上遇到的巨大阻力；以及有时甚至来自那些在宗教上备受尊重的人的丑闻。在这些方面，必须有超越人类精神的力量来支撑灵魂，并将其带到我们等待的终点。

But if God be our God, that love which engaged him to bind himself to us in precious promises, will furnish us likewise with grace needful, till we be possessed of them. He will give us leave to depend upon him both for happiness, and all sanctifying and quieting graces, which may support the soul, till it come to its perfect rest in God. For God so quiets the hearts of his children, as withal he makes them better and fitter for that which he provides for them. Grace and peace together. Our God is the God of grace and peace, of such graces as breed peace.
但如果上帝是我们的上帝，那种使他承诺与我们联系在一起的爱，也将为我们提供所需的恩典，直到我们拥有它们。他将让我们依靠他，无论是为了幸福，还是为了所有使灵魂得到支持的圣化和安抚的恩典，直到灵魂在上帝那里得到完全的安息。因为上帝如此安抚他的儿女的心灵，同时也使他们变得更好、更适合他们所提供的事物。恩典和平安一起。我们的上帝是恩典和平安的上帝，是那些培育和平的恩典的上帝。

1. As he is a God of love, nay, love itself to us, so a taste of his love, raising up our love, is better than wine, full of nothing but encouragement. It will fetch up a soul from the deepest discouragement. This grace quickeneth all other graces. It hath so much spirits in it as will sweeten all conditions. Love enables to wait, as Jacob for Leah, seven years, Gen. 39. Nothing is hard to love; it carries all the powers of the soul with it.
因为他是爱的神，不，对我们来说他就是爱本身，所以尝到他的爱，激发我们的爱，比葡萄酒更美好，充满鼓励。它能从最深的沮丧中拯救灵魂。这种恩典使其他一切恩典复活。它有足够的力量，能使一切境况变得甜美。爱使人能够等待，就像雅各为利亚等了七年一样，创世记 39 章。对于爱来说，没有什么是困难的；它带动了灵魂的所有力量。

2. As he is a God of hope, so by this grace, as an anchor fastened in heaven within the vail, he stayeth the soul; that though as a ship at anchor it may be tossed and moved, yet not removed from its station. This hope, as cork, will keep the soul, though in some heaviness, from sinking, and, as a helmet, bear off the blows, that they endanger not our life, Eph. 6:17.
他是希望之神，因此凭借这种恩典，就像一个系在天堂帷幕内的锚，他稳住了灵魂；尽管像停泊的船一样被摇摆和移动，但不会离开它的位置。这种希望，像软木一样，会保护灵魂，使其不至于沉没，又像头盔一样，抵挡攻击，以免危及我们的生命，弗 6:17。

3. As God is a God of hope, so by hope, of patience, which is a grace whereby the soul resigneth up itself to God in humble submission to his will, because he is our God, as David in extremity comforted himself 'in the Lord his God,' Ps. 86:17. Patience breeds comfort, because it brings experience with it of God's owning of us to be his, Rom. 5:4. The soul, shod and fenced with this, is prepared against all rubs and thorns in our way, so as we are kept from taking offence. All troubles we suffer, do but help patience to its perfect work, Rom. 5:3; by subduing the unbroken sturdiness of our spirits, when we feel by experience, we get but more blows, by standing out against God.
3. 神是希望之神，因此，凭借希望，得到忍耐，这是一种恩典，通过这种恩典，灵魂以谦卑顺服的心态将自己归附给神，因为他是我们的神，正如大卫在极度困境中安慰自己“在他的神里”，诗篇 86:17。忍耐带来安慰，因为它带来了对神拥有我们的经验，罗马书 5:4。灵魂穿着这种忍耐，装备好了，可以抵挡我们道路上的所有阻碍和荆棘，使我们免于被冒犯。我们所遭受的一切困扰，只是帮助忍耐完全成就其工作，罗马书 5:3；通过征服我们的灵魂的顽固不化，当我们通过经验感受到，我们只是因为与神对抗而受到更多的打击。

4. The Spirit of God, likewise, is a spirit of meekness, whereby, though the soul be sensible of evil, yet it moderates such distempers, as would otherwise rob a man of himself; and together with patience, keepeth the soul in possession of itself. It stays murmurings and frettings against God or man. It sets and keeps the soul in tune. It is that which God, as he works, so he much delights in, and sets a price upon it, as the chief ornament of the soul. The 'meek of the earth seek God, and are hid in the day of his wrath,' Zeph. 2:3; whereas, high spirits that compass themselves with pride as with a chain, Ps. 73:6, thinking to set out themselves by that which is their shame, are looked upon by God afar off. Meek persons will bow when others break; they are raised when others are plucked down, and stand when others that mount upon the wings of vanity, fall, Mat. 5:5; these prevail by yielding, and are lords of themselves, and other things else, more than other unquiet-spirited men: the blessings of heaven and earth attend on these.
神的灵同样是温柔的灵，虽然灵魂能感受到邪恶，但它调节了那些本会使人失去自我控制的不适，同时与耐心一起，使灵魂保持自我控制。它制止了对上帝或人的抱怨和不满。它使灵魂保持和谐。这是上帝所喜悦的，他也把它看作是灵魂的主要装饰。"地上的温柔人寻求上帝，在他发怒的日子里藏身"（西番雅书 2:3）；而那些自负自大的人，以骄傲束缚自己（诗篇 73:6），以为以此来彰显自己的耻辱，却被上帝远远地看着。温柔的人会在别人崩溃时屈服；他们在别人被拉下时被提升，当那些依仗虚荣的人跌倒时，他们站立不倒（马太福音 5:5）；他们通过屈服而取胜，是自己和其他事物的主宰，比其他不安宁的人更胜一筹：天地的祝福都降临在他们身上。

5. So, likewise, contentedness with our estate is needful for a waiting condition, and this we have in our God, being able to give the soul full satisfaction. For outward things God knows how to diet us. If our condition be not to our mind, he will bring our mind to our condition. If the spirit be too big for the condition, it is never quieted, therefore God will level both. Those wants be well supplied, that are made up with contentedness, and with riches of a higher kind. If the Lord be our Shepherd, we can want nothing, Ps. 23:1. This lifteth the 'weary hands and feeble knees,' even under 'chastisement,' Heb. 12:12, wherein though the soul mourneth in the sense of God's displeasure, yet it rejoiceth in his fatherly care.
所以，同样地，对我们的境况满足是等待的条件所必需的，而我们在上帝那里得到了这种满足，能够使灵魂得到充分的满足。对于外在的事物，上帝知道如何给予我们适量的供应。如果我们的境况不符合我们的心意，他会使我们的心意适应我们的境况。如果精神过于高傲，无法平静，那么上帝会使两者平衡。那些通过满足感和更高层次的财富来弥补的需求得到了很好的满足。如果主是我们的牧者，我们什么都不缺，诗篇 23:1。这使得“疲倦的手和软弱的膝盖”在“惩罚”下得到了抬起，希伯来书 12:12，在其中，虽然灵魂因感受到上帝的不悦而悲伤，但它也因为感受到他慈父般的关怀而欢喜。

6. But patience and contentment are too low a condition for the soul to rest in, therefore the Spirit of God raiseth it up to a spiritual enlargement of joy. So much joy, so much light; and so much light, so much scattering of darkness of spirit. We see in nature how a little light will prevail over the thickest clouds of darkness; a little fire wastes a great deal of dross. The knowledge of God to be our God, brings such a light of joy into the soul, as driveth out dark uncomfortable conceits; this light makes lightsome. If the light of knowledge alone makes bold, much more the light of joy arising from our communion and interest in God. How can we enjoy God, and not joy in him? a soul truly cheerful rejoiceth that God whom it loveth, should think it worthy to endure anything for him. This joy often ariseth to a spirit of glory, even in matter of outward abasement. If the trouble accompanied with disgrace continue, the Spirit of glory rests upon us, and it will rest so long until it make us more than conquerors, even then when we seem conquered; for not only the cause, but the spirit riseth higher, the more the enemies labour to keep it under, as we see in Stephen, Acts 7.
但是耐心和满足对于灵魂来说是太低的状态，因此上帝的灵将其提升到一种精神上的喜悦扩展。喜悦越多，光就越多；光越多，心灵的黑暗就越少。我们在自然界中看到，一点点光亮就能战胜最浓密的黑暗云彩；一点点火焰就能燃烧掉很多杂质。知道上帝是我们的上帝，给灵魂带来了如此光明的喜悦，驱散了黑暗和不舒服的想法；这种光使人心情愉快。如果只有知识的光使人大胆，那么从与上帝的交流和利益中产生的喜悦之光就更加如此。我们怎么能享受上帝而不在他身上感到喜悦呢？一个真正快乐的灵魂会为上帝认为它值得忍受任何事情而欢欣鼓舞。这种喜悦经常在外在卑微的事情中升华为荣耀的精神。如果伴随着耻辱的困扰持续下去，荣耀的灵就会降临在我们身上，它会一直停留，直到使我们成为超越者，即使在我们似乎被征服的时候；因为不仅原因，而且精神也会更高升，敌人越努力压制它，它就会越高升，就像我们在使徒行传第七章中看到的司提反一样。

With this joy goeth a spirit of courage and confidence. What can daunt that soul, which in the greatest troubles hath made the great God to be its own? Such a spirit dares bid defiance to all opposite power, setting the soul above the world, having a spirit larger and higher than the world, and seeing all but God beneath it, as being in heaven already in its head. After Moses and Micah had seen God in his favour to them, how little did they regard the angry countenances of those mighty princes, that were in their times the terrors of the world! The courage of a Christian is not only against sensible danger, and of flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of darkness, against the whole kingdom of Satan, the god of the world, whom he knows shortly shall be trodden under his feet, Rom. 16:20. Satan and his may for a time exercise us, but they cannot hurt us. True believers are so many kings and queens, so many conquerors over that which others are slaves to. They can overcome themselves in revenge, they can despise those things that the world admires, and see an excellency in that which the world sets light by; they can set upon spiritual duties, which the world cannot tell how to go about, and endure that which others tremble to think of, and that upon wise reasons, and a sound foundation; they can put off themselves, and be content to be nothing, so their God may appear the greater, and dare undertake and undergo anything for the glory of their God. This courage of Christians among the heathens was counted obstinacy, but they knew not the power of the Spirit of Christ in his, which is ever strongest when they are weakest in themselves; they knew not the privy armour of proof that Christians had about their hearts, and thereupon counted their courage to be obstinacy.*
带着这份喜悦，还有一种勇气和自信的精神。什么能使那灵魂畏惧，当它在最大的困境中已经让伟大的上帝成为自己的依靠？这样的精神敢于对抗所有相反的力量，将灵魂置于世界之上，拥有一个比世界更广阔、更高尚的精神，并将除了上帝之外的一切视为自己的脚下，因为它已经在天堂中，与上帝同在。当摩西和米迦见到上帝对他们的恩宠后，他们对那些在他们时代是世界恐怖的强大王子的愤怒表情毫不在意！一个基督徒的勇气不仅仅是对抗明显的危险，对抗血肉之躯，而且还对抗黑暗的权势和势力，对抗撒旦的整个王国，世界之神，他知道不久之后撒旦将被踏在脚下（罗马书 16:20）。撒旦和他的势力可能会暂时困扰我们，但他们无法伤害我们。真正的信徒是如此之多的国王和皇后，是那些其他人所奴役的征服者。 他们可以在复仇中战胜自己，他们可以蔑视世人所崇拜的事物，并在世人轻视的事物中看到卓越之处；他们可以从事世人无法理解的属灵职责，并忍受其他人一想到就颤抖的事情，而且这一切都有着明智的理由和坚实的基础；他们可以放下自我，甘愿成为无足轻重的存在，只为了让他们的上帝显得更伟大，并敢于承担和经历任何事情，以荣耀他们的上帝。这种基督徒在异教徒中的勇气被视为顽固不化，但他们不了解基督的灵在他们身上的力量，当他们自己最软弱的时候，这种力量是最强大的；他们不了解基督徒在心中拥有的隐秘的护甲，因此将他们的勇气视为顽固不化。*

Some think the martyrs were too prodigal of their blood, and that they might have been better advised; but such are unacquainted with the force of the love of God kindled in the heart of his child, which makes him set such a price upon Christ and his truth, that he counts not 'his life dear unto him,' Acts 20:24; he knows he is not his own, but hath given up himself to Christ, and therefore all that is his, yea, if he had more lives to give for Christ, he should have them. He knows he shall be no loser by it. He knows it is not a loss of his life, but an exchange for a better.
有人认为殉道者过于挥霍自己的鲜血，他们本可以更明智地选择；但这些人不了解上帝的爱在他的子民心中燃起的力量，这使他们对基督和真理看得如此重要，以至于他们不计较自己的生命（使徒行传 20:24）；他们知道自己不再属于自己，而是已经将自己献给了基督，因此他们所有的一切，甚至如果他们还有更多的生命可以为基督奉献，他们也会毫不犹豫地奉献出来。他们知道自己不会因此而吃亏。他们知道这不是失去生命，而是换取更好的生命。

We see the creatures that are under us will be courageous in the eye of their masters, that are of a superior nature above them; and shall not a Christian be courageous in the presence of his great Lord and Master, who is present with him, about him, and in him? Undoubtedly, he that hath seen God once in the face of Christ, dares look the grimmest creature in the face, yea, death itself under any shape. The fear of all things flies before such a soul. Only a Christian is not ashamed of his confidence. Why should not a Christian be as bold for his God, as others are for the base gods they make to themselves?
我们看到在我们下面的生物在他们的主人面前会勇敢，而这些主人的本质高于它们；难道一个基督徒在他伟大的主和主人面前不应该勇敢吗？他的主与他同在，环绕着他，存在于他之中。毫无疑问，曾经在基督的面容中见过上帝的人，敢于直视最可怕的生物，甚至是以任何形式出现的死亡。一切事物的恐惧在这样的灵魂面前消失。只有基督徒不会为自己的信心感到羞愧。为什么基督徒不应该像其他人为他们自己所造的卑劣的神那样为他的上帝勇敢呢？

7. Besides a spirit of courage, for establishing the soul, is required a spirit of constancy, whereby the soul is steeled and preserved immoveable in all conditions, whether present or to come, and is not changed in changes. And why? but because the spirit knows that God, on whom it rests, is unchangeable. We ourselves are as quicksilver, unsettled and moveable, till the spirit of constancy fix us. We see David sets out God in glorious terms, borrowed from all that is strong in the creature, to shew that he had great reason to be constant, and cleaving to him. 'He is my rock, my buckler, the horn of my salvation, my strong tower,' &c., Ps. 18. God is a rock so deep, that no floods can undermine; so high, that no waves can reach, though they rise never so high, and rage never so much. When we stand upon this rock that is higher than we, we may overlook all waves, swelling, and foaming, and breaking themselves, but not hurting us. And thereupon may triumphantly conclude with the apostle, that 'neither height, nor depth, shall ever separate us from the love of God,' Rom. 8:39. Whatsoever is in the creature he found in his God, and more abundant. The soul cannot with an eye of faith look upon God in Christ, but it will be in its degree, as God is, quiet and constant. The spirit aimeth at such a condition as it beholdeth in God towards itself.
除了勇气的精神外，建立灵魂还需要坚定的精神，使灵魂在任何情况下都能坚定不移，无论是现在还是将来，不会因变化而改变。为什么呢？因为精神知道它所依靠的上帝是不变的。我们自己像水银一样不稳定和可移动，直到坚定的精神使我们稳定下来。我们看到大卫用从所有强大的创造物中借来的辉煌词语来描述上帝，以表明他有充分的理由保持坚定，依附于他。“他是我的磐石，我的盾牌，我的拯救之角，我的坚固堡垒”等等，诗篇 18。上帝是一块深不可测的岩石，没有洪水能够侵蚀；他是如此高，以至于没有波浪能够触及，即使它们升得再高，愤怒得再厉害。当我们站在这比我们更高的岩石上时，我们可以俯瞰所有的波浪，它们膨胀、起泡、破裂，但不会伤害我们。因此，我们可以和使徒一起得意洋洋地得出结论，即“无论是高处还是深处，都不能使我们与上帝的爱隔绝”，罗马书 8:39。他在创造物中找到的一切，在他的上帝身上都找到了，而且更加丰盛。 灵魂不能以信心之眼看到基督中的上帝，但它会在某种程度上，如同上帝一样，安静而恒定。灵魂的目标是追求在上帝对待自己时所看到的那种状态。

This constancy is upheld by endeavouring to keep a constant sight of God, for want of which it oft fares with us, like men, that having a city or tower in their eye, passing through uneven grounds, hills, and dales, sometimes get the sight thereof, sometimes lose it, and sometimes recover it again, though the tower be still where it was, and they nearer to it than they were at first. So it is oft with our uneven spirits: when once we have a sight of God, upon any present discouragement, we let fall our spirits, and lose the sight of him, until by an eye of faith we recover it again, and see him still to be where he was at first. The cherishing of passions take away the sight of God, as clouds take away the sight of the sun; though the sun be still where it was, and shineth as much as ever it did. We use to say, when the body of the moon is betwixt the sun and us, that the sun is eclipsed, when indeed not the sun but the earth is darkened: the sun loseth not one of its glorious beams. God is oft near us, as he was unto Jacob, and we are 'not aware of it,' Gen. 28:17. God was near the holy man Asaph, when he thought him afar off. 'I am continually with thee,' saith he; 'thou holdest me by my right hand,' Ps. 73:27. Mary in her weeping passion could not see Christ before her; he seemed a stranger unto her. So long as we can keep our eye upon God, we are above the reach of sin or any spiritual danger.
这种恒定性是通过努力保持对上帝的持续关注来维持的。如果我们缺乏这种关注，我们往往会像人们一样，在通过不平坦的地面、山丘和山谷时，有时能看到他们眼中的城市或塔楼，有时失去视线，有时又重新找回，尽管塔楼仍在原地，而且他们离它比起初更近。所以我们的心灵常常是不平衡的：一旦我们看到上帝，任何一点挫折都会让我们的精神消沉，失去对他的视线，直到我们通过信仰的眼睛重新找回，并看到他仍然在原地。培养激情会让我们看不到上帝，就像云朵遮住了太阳一样；尽管太阳仍在原地，照耀的光芒一样明亮。我们常说，当月亮的本体位于太阳和我们之间时，太阳被蚀去了，但实际上不是太阳被蚀去了，而是地球变暗了：太阳并没有失去一丝光辉。上帝常常靠近我们，就像他对雅各布一样，而我们却“没有意识到”（创世记 28:17）。当圣人亚萨认为上帝离他很远时，上帝其实是靠近他的。 他说：“我时常与你同在，你用右手扶持着我。”（诗篇 73:27）玛丽在她哭泣的激情中无法看见基督；他对她来说像个陌生人。只要我们能将目光投向上帝，我们就能超越罪恶和任何属灵的危险。

CHAPTER XXXIV.—Of confirming this trust in God: seek it of God himself. Sins hinder not: nor Satan. Conclusion and Soliloquy
第三十四章——坚定对上帝的信任：向上帝自己寻求。罪恶不会阻碍：撒旦也不会。结论和独白。

§ I. But to return to the drawing out of our trust by waiting. Our estate in this world is still to wait, and happy it is that we have so great things to wait for; but our comfort is, that we have not only a 'furniture of graces,' 2 Pet. 1:5, one strengthening another as stones in an arch, but likewise God vouchsafeth some drops of the sweetness of the things we wait for, both to increase our desire of those good things, as likewise to enable us more comfortably to wait for them. And though we should die waiting, only cleaving to the promise, with little or no taste of the good promised; yet this might comfort us, that there is a life to come, that is, a life of sight and sense, and not only of taste but of fulness, and that for 'evermore' Ps. 16:11. Our condition here is to live by faith and not by sight; only to make our living by faith more lively, it pleaseth God when he sees fit, to increase our earnest of that we look for. Even here God waits 'to be gracious to those that wait for him,' Isa. 30:18. And in heaven Christ waits for us, we are part of his 'fulness,' Eph. 1:23; it is part of his joy that 'we shall be where he is,' John 17:24; he will not therefore be long without us. The blessed angels and saints in heaven wait for us. Therefore let us be content as strangers to wait a while till we come home, and then we 'shall be for ever with the Lord,' Rev. 22:5; there is our eternal rest, where we shall enjoy both our God and ourselves in perfect happiness, being, as without need, so without desire, of the least change. When the time of our departure thither comes, then we may say as David, 'Enter now, my soul, into thy rest,' Ps. 116:7. This is the 'rest which remaineth for God's people,' Heb. 4:9, that is worth the waiting for, when we shall rest from all labour of sin and sorrow, and lay our heads in the bosom of Christ for ever.
I. 但是回到我们等待中的信任的提取。我们在这个世界上的财产仍然是等待，我们有如此伟大的事情等待着，这是幸福的；但我们的安慰是，我们不仅有“恩典的装备”，彼得后书 1:5，一个加强另一个的恩典，就像拱门中的石头一样，而且上帝也赐予我们一些等待的事物的甜蜜滴落，既增加了我们对这些美好事物的渴望，也使我们能够更舒适地等待它们。即使我们在等待中死去，只是紧紧依靠应许，几乎没有尝到所应许的美好；然而这可以安慰我们，有一个未来的生命，即视觉和感觉的生命，不仅是品尝的生命，而且是充满的生命，而且是“永远”的诗篇 16:11。我们在这里的状况是凭信心而不是凭眼见；只有当上帝认为合适时，他喜欢增加我们对所期待之物的认真态度，以使我们凭信心的生活更加活跃。即使在这里，上帝也等待“恩待那些等候他的人”，以赛亚书 30:18。在天堂里，基督也在等待我们，我们是他的“丰满”，以弗所书 1:23；他的喜悦之一是“我们将与他同在”，约翰福音 17:24；因此，他不会长时间没有我们。天堂中的祝福天使和圣徒在等待我们。因此，让我们满足于作为陌生人等待一段时间，直到我们回家，然后我们将与主永远在一起，启示录 22:5；那里是我们永恒的安息之地，在那里我们将在完美的幸福中享受上帝和自己，既没有需要，也没有对最小变化的渴望。当我们离开这里的时候，我们可以像大卫一样说：“我的灵啊，现在进入你的安息”，诗篇 116:7。这是“为上帝的子民所存留的安息”，希伯来书 4:9，这是值得等待的，当我们从一切罪恶和悲伤的劳苦中休息，并永远将我们的头靠在基督的怀抱中。

It stands us therefore upon to get this great charter more and more confirmed to us, that God is our God, for it is of everlasting use unto us. It first begins at our entering into covenant with God, and continues not only unto death, but entereth into heaven with us. As it is our heaven upon earth to enjoy God as ours, so it is the very heaven of heaven, that there we shall for ever behold him, and have communion with him.
因此，我们应该努力使这个伟大的章程对我们更加确认，因为上帝是我们的上帝，这对我们来说是永恒的好处。它首先开始于我们与上帝立约的时候，不仅持续到死亡，而且与我们一同进入天堂。就像在地上享受上帝作为我们的天堂一样，那里我们将永远看到他，并与他交流。

The degrees of manifesting this propriety* in God are divers, rising one upon another, as 'the light clears up by little and little till it comes to a perfect day,' Prov. 4:18. 1. As the ground of all the rest, we apprehend God to be a God of some peculiar persons, as favourites above others. 2. From hence is stirred up in the soul a restless desire, that God would discover himself so to it, as he doth to those that are his, that he would 'visit our souls with the salvation of his chosen,' Ps. 106:4. 3. Hence follows a putting of the soul upon God, an adventuring itself on his mercy. 4. Upon this, God, when he seeth fit, discovers by his Spirit that he is ours. 5. Whence followeth a dependence on him as ours, for all things that may carry us on in the way to heaven. 6. Courage and boldness in setting ourselves against whatsoever may oppose us in the way, as the three young men in Daniel, 'Our God can deliver us if he will,' Dan. 3:17. 'Our God is in heaven,' &c., Ps. 115:3. 7. After which springs a sweet spiritual security, whereby the soul is freed from slavish fears, and glorieth in God as ours in all conditions. And this is termed by the apostle, not only assurance, but the 'riches of assurance,' Col. 2:2. Yet this is not so clear and full as it shall be in heaven, because some clouds may after arise out of the remainder of corruption, which may something overcast this assurance, until the light of God's countenance in heaven for ever scatters all.
在上帝中展现这种恰当性的程度是多样的，一层又一层地上升，就像箴言 4:18 所说的“光明渐渐明亮，直到完全的白昼”。1.作为其他一切的基础，我们认识到上帝是一些特殊的人的上帝，比其他人更受宠爱。2.由此在灵魂中激起了一种不安的渴望，希望上帝向它展示自己，就像他向那些属于他的人展示一样，他会“以拯救他所拣选的人来看顾我们的灵魂”，诗篇 106:4。3.因此，灵魂被推向上帝，冒险地依靠他的怜悯。4.在这之后，上帝在他认为合适的时候，通过他的圣灵向我们显明他是我们的。5.由此产生了对他的依赖，他是我们的，为了一切可能使我们在通向天堂的道路上前进的事物。6.勇气和大胆，敢于对抗在道路上阻碍我们的任何事物，就像但以理书中的三个年轻人说的，“我们的神能救我们，即使他不愿意”，但以理书 3:17。“我们的神在天上”，诗篇 115:3。7.在这之后，灵魂会产生一种甜蜜的属灵安全感，从奴隶般的恐惧中解脱出来，在各种情况下因上帝是我们的而夸耀。 这被使徒称为“确信”，不仅如此，还是“确信的丰富”，歌罗西书 2:2。然而，这在天堂中还不如此明确和充分，因为一些云可能会因为残存的腐败而产生，这可能会在一定程度上遮蔽这种确信，直到上帝的光容永远驱散一切。

There being so great happiness in this nearness betwixt God and us, no wonder if Satan labour to hinder the same, by interposing the guilt and heinousness of our sins, which he knows of themselves will work a separation; but these, upon our first serious thought of returning, will be removed. As they could not hinder our meeting with God, so they may cause a strangeness for a time, but not a parting, a hiding of God's countenance, but not a banishing of us from it. Peter had denied Christ, and the rest of the apostles had left him all alone; yet our Saviour, after his resurrection, forgets all former unkindnesses; he did not so much as object it to them, but sends Mary, who herself had been a great sinner, as an apostle to the apostles, and that presently, to tell them that he was risen, Mat. 28:7; his care would have no delay. He knew they were in great heaviness for their unkindness. Though he was now entered into the first degree of his glory, yet we see his glory made him not forget his poor disciples. Above all, he was most careful of Peter, as deeper in sin than the rest, and therefore deeper in sorrow. 'Go tell Peter,' he needs most comfort. But what is the message? that 'I ascend not to my Father alone, but to your Father; not to my God only, but to your God,' John 20:17.
在上帝与我们之间有如此巨大的幸福之际，撒旦努力阻止这种亲近，通过插入我们罪孽的罪恶和严重性，他知道这些罪孽本身会导致分离；但是，当我们第一次认真考虑回归时，这些罪孽将被消除。它们不能阻止我们与上帝的相遇，但可能会暂时造成疏远，而不是分离，隐藏上帝的面容，而不是将我们驱逐出去。彼得曾经否认过基督，其他的使徒也都离开了他；然而，我们的救主在复活后忘记了所有以前的不友善；他甚至没有向他们提起过这件事，而是派遣曾经是一个大罪人的马利亚作为使徒，立即告诉他们他已经复活了，马太福音 28:7；他的关怀没有延迟。他知道他们因为自己的不友善而非常沮丧。尽管他现在已经进入了他的荣耀的第一阶段，但我们看到他的荣耀并没有让他忘记他那些可怜的门徒。最重要的是，他对彼得最为关心，因为他的罪比其他人更深，所以他的悲伤也更深。'去告诉彼得'，他最需要安慰。但是这个消息是什么呢？ 我不仅升到我的父那里，也升到你们的父那里；不仅升到我的神那里，也升到你们的神那里。 约翰福音 20:17。

And shall not we be bold to say so after Christ hath taught us, and put this claim into our mouths? If once we let this hold go, then Satan hath us where he would; every little cross then dejects us. Satan may darken the joy of our salvation, but not take away the God of our salvation. David, after his crying sin of murder, prays, 'Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,' Ps. 51:12; this he had lost; but yet in the same psalm he prays, 'Deliver me from blood, O God, thou God of my salvation,' Ps. 51:14; therefore, whatsoever sense, reason, temptation, the law, or guilt upon conscience shall say, may, however God himself, by his strange carriage to us may seem to be, yet let us cast ourselves upon him, and not suffer this plea to be wrung from us, but shut our eyes to all, and look upon God 'all-gracious and all-sufficient, who is the Father, the begetter of comfort,' 2 Cor. 1:3; the God, the creator of consolation, not only of things that may comfort, but of the comfort itself conveyed through these unto us. 'Who is a God like unto our God, that passeth by the sins of the remnant of his people?' Micah 7:18. This should not be thought on without admiration; and indeed there is nothing so much deserves our wonderment as such mercy, of such a God, to such as we.
基督教导我们如此说，我们难道不应该大胆地这样说吗？如果我们放弃这个信念，撒旦就会得到我们想要的；每一个小小的十字架都会使我们沮丧。撒旦可能会使我们的救恩之乐变暗，但不能夺走我们的救恩之神。大卫在犯下谋杀罪后祈求：“求你使我仍得救恩之乐”，诗篇 51:12；他失去了这个乐趣；但在同一篇诗篇中，他祈求：“神啊，求你救我脱离流人血的罪”，诗篇 51:14；因此，无论感觉、理性、诱惑、律法或良心上的罪恶说什么，无论上帝自己如何以他奇特的行为对待我们，让我们投身于他，不要让这个辩护词被逼出来，而是闭上我们的眼睛，看着上帝“全恩慈、全能力的父，安慰的源头”，哥林多后书 1:3；上帝，安慰的创造者，不仅是能够安慰的事物的创造者，而且是通过这些事物传递给我们的安慰本身的创造者。“有何神能像你这样，赦免罪孽，饶恕你产业之余民的罪过？”弥迦书 7:18。 这不应该被想象成没有令人钦佩的事情；事实上，没有什么比这样的怜悯更值得我们惊叹，这是来自这样一个上帝，赐予我们这样的人。

Since God hath 'avouched us to be his peculiar people,' Deut. 26:18, let us avouch him, and since he hath passed his word for us, let us pass our words for him that we will be his, and stand for him, and to our power advance his cause. Thus David out of an enlarged spirit saith, 'Thou art my God, and I will praise thee; thou art my God, and I will exalt thee,' Ps. 119:28. Whatsoever we engage for God, we are sure to be gainers by. The true Christian is the wisest merchant, and makes the best adventure. He may stay long, but is sure of a safe and a rich return. A godly man is most wise for himself. We enter on religion, upon these terms, to part with ourselves, and all, when God shall call for it.
既然上帝已经宣告我们是他特别的子民（申命记 26:18），让我们也宣告他；既然他为我们作了保证，让我们也为他作出承诺，我们将属于他，为他站立，尽力推动他的事业。大卫出于一颗宽广的心灵说：“你是我的神，我要赞美你；你是我的神，我要尊崇你”（诗篇 119:28）。无论我们为上帝承诺什么，我们都能从中获益。真正的基督徒是最聪明的商人，也是最好的冒险家。他可能需要等待很久，但一定会得到安全和丰富的回报。虔诚的人对自己最明智。我们接受宗教，是在这样的条件下，当上帝要求时，我们要放弃自己和一切。

§ II. God much rejoiceth in sinners converted, as monuments of his mercy, and because the remembrance of their former sins whets them on to be more earnest in his service, especially after they have felt the sense of God's love. They even burn with a holy desire of honouring him, whom before they dishonoured, and stand not upon doing or suffering anything for him, but cheerfully embrace all occasions of expressing obedience.* God hath more work from them than from others; why then should any be discouraged?
§ II. 上帝非常喜悦被转化的罪人，因为他们是他怜悯的见证，并且因为对他们以前的罪行的记忆激励他们更加热切地侍奉他，尤其是在他们感受到上帝的爱之后。他们甚至燃烧着一种神圣的渴望，要尊重他们以前亵渎过的那位，并且不计较为他做或忍受任何事情，而是愉快地接受表达顺从的一切机会。* 上帝从他们身上得到的工作比其他人多，那么为什么还会有人感到气馁呢？

Neither is it sins after our conversion, that nullify this claim of God to be ours. For this is the grand difference betwixt the two covenants, that now God will be merciful to our sins, 'if our hearts by faith be sprinkled with the blood of Christ,' Heb. 10:22. Though one sin was enough to bring condemnation, yet the free gift of grace in Christ is of many offences unto justification. And we have a sure ground for this, for the righteousness of Christ is God's righteousness, and God will thus glorify it, that it shall stand good to those that by faith apply it against their daily sins, even till at once we cease both to live and sin. For this very end was the Son of God willingly 'made sin,' Gal. 3:13, that we might be freed from the same. And if all our sins laid upon Christ could not take away God's love from him, shall they take away God's love from us, when by Christ's blood our souls are purged from them?
我们归向神之后，也不是因为我们的罪而使神对我们的要求无效。这是两个约之间的重大区别，现在神将怜悯我们的罪，“只要我们的心蒙了基督的血，凭着信心来洁净”，希伯来书 10:22。虽然一个罪足以带来定罪，但基督中的恩典的自由恩赐是为了许多罪的称义。我们对此有确凿的根据，因为基督的义是神的义，神将以此荣耀它，使那些凭着信心将其应用于日常罪恶的人得以成立，直到我们同时停止生活和犯罪。因为神的儿子自愿地“成为罪”，加拉太书 3:13，使我们得以从罪中解脱出来。如果我们所有的罪都加在基督身上都不能使神的爱离开他，那么当我们的灵魂因基督的血而洁净时，它们会使神的爱离开我们吗？

O mercy of all mercies, that when we were once his, and gave away ourselves for nothing, and so became neither his nor our own, that then he would vouchsafe to become ours, and make us his by such a way, as all the angels in heaven stand wondering at; even his Son, not only taking our nature and miserable condition, but our sin upon him, that that being done away, we might through Christ have boldness with God as ours, who is now in heaven appearing there for us, until he bring us home to himself, and presents us to his Father for his for ever!
哦，所有怜悯的怜悯，当我们曾经属于他，并毫无代价地将自己奉献出去，从而既不属于他也不属于自己时，他愿意成为我们的，以一种让天堂中的所有天使都惊叹不已的方式，他的儿子不仅接受了我们的本性和可怜的状况，还背负了我们的罪孽，以便我们可以通过基督在上帝面前大胆地拥有自己的份额，他现在在天堂为我们出现，直到他将我们带回自己身边，并将我们永远地呈现给他的父亲！

Think not then only that we are God's and he ours, but from what love and by what glorious means this was brought to pass. What can possibly disable this claim, when God for this end hath founded a covenant of peace so strongly in Christ, that sin itself cannot disannul it? Christ was therefore manifest, 'that he might destroy this greatest work of the devil,' 1 John 3:5, 8. Forgiveness of sins now is one chief part of our portion in God. It is good therefore not to pore and plod so much upon sin and vileness by it, as to forget that mercy that rejoiceth over judgment. If we once be God's, though we 'drink this deadly poison, it shall not hurt us,' Mark 16:18. God will make a medicine, an antidote of it; and for all other evils, the fruit of them is by God's sanctifying the same, the taking away sin out of our natures; so that lesser evils are sent to take away the greater. If God could not over-rule evils to his own ends, he would never suffer them.
不要仅仅认为我们是上帝的，他是我们的，还要思考这是通过何种爱和何种荣耀的方式实现的。当上帝为此在基督里建立了一个坚固的和平约定，以至于罪恶本身也无法废除它，这个要求可能会被什么阻碍呢？基督显然是为了“毁灭魔鬼的最大工作”而显现的（约翰一书 3:5, 8）。现在，罪的赦免是我们在上帝中的主要部分之一。因此，最好不要过于沉迷于罪恶和卑劣，而忘记那欢喜胜过审判的怜悯。如果我们一旦属于上帝，即使“喝下这种致命毒药，也不会伤害我们”（马可福音 16:18）。上帝会制造一种药物，一种解毒剂；对于其他一切邪恶，通过上帝使其成圣，从我们的本性中除去罪恶；因此，较小的邪恶被派遣来消除更大的邪恶。如果上帝不能将邪恶引导到自己的目的中，他就不会容忍它们。

§ III. I have stood the longer upon this, because it is the one thing needful, Luke 10:42; the one thing we should desire, that this one God, in whom and from whom is all good, should be ours. All promises of all good in the new covenant, spring first from this, that God 'will be ours, and we shall be his,' Jer. 32:38. What can we have more? and what is in the world less that will content us long, or stand us in any stead, especially at that time when all must be taken from us? Let us put up all our desires for all things we stand in need of, in this right we have to God in Christ, who hath brought God and us together. He can deny us nothing, that hath not denied us himself. If he be moved from hence to do us good, that we are his, let us be moved to fetch all good from him, on the same right that he is ours.
第三节。我在这一点上多说了一些，因为这是唯一需要的事情，路加福音 10:42；这是我们应该渴望的唯一事情，就是这位唯一的上帝，他是一切善的源泉，应该属于我们。新约中所有善的应许，首先来自于这一点，上帝“将属于我们，我们将属于他”，耶利米书 32:38。我们还能有什么更多的呢？在世上还有什么更少的东西能够长久地满足我们，或者对我们有任何帮助，特别是在那个时候，当我们必须失去一切的时候？让我们把我们对所需之物的所有渴望都寄托在我们在基督里对上帝的这个权利上，他把上帝和我们联系在一起。他不会拒绝我们任何事情，因为他自己从未拒绝过我们。如果他因为我们属于他而被感动为我们行善，让我们也因为他属于我们而从他那里得到一切善。

The persuasion of this will free us from all pusillanimity, lowliness, and narrowness of spirit, when we shall think that nothing can hurt us, but it must break through God first. If God give quietness, who shall 'make trouble?' Job 34:29. If God be with us, who can be against us? This is that which puts comfort into all other comforts, that maketh any burden light; this is always ready for all purposes. Our God is a present and a seasonable help. All evils are at his command to be gone, and all comforts at his command to come. It is but, go comfort, go peace, to such a man's heart: cheer him, raise him; go salvation, rescue such and such a soul in distress. So said and so done presently. Nay, with reverence be it spoken, so far doth God pass over himself unto us, that he is content himself to be commanded by us. 'Concerning the work of my hands command you me,' Isa. 45:11; lay the care and charge of that upon me. He is content to be out-wrestled and overpowered by a spirit of faith, as in Jacob, and the woman of Canaan, to be as it were at our service. He would not have us want anything wherein he is able to help us. And what is there wherein God cannot help us? If Christians knew the power they have in heaven and earth, what were able to stand against them? What wonder is it if faith overcome the world, if it overcomes him that made the world? that faith should be almighty, that hath the Almighty himself ready to use all his power for the good of them to whom he hath given the power of himself unto? Having therefore such a living fountain to draw from, such a centre to rest in, having all in one, and that one ours, why should we knock at any other door? We may go boldly to God now, as made 'ours, being bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh.' We may go more comfortably to God, than to any angel or saint. God in the second person hath vouchsafed to take our nature upon him, but not that of angels. Our God and our man, our God-man is ascended unto the high court of heaven, to his and our God, clothed with our nature. Is there any more able and willing to plead our cause, or to whom we may trust business with, than he, who is in 'heaven for all things for us, appertaining to God?' Heb. 5:1.*
这种说服力将使我们摆脱所有的胆怯、卑微和心胸狭窄，当我们认为没有什么能伤害我们，除非先经过上帝。如果上帝给予宁静，谁能“制造麻烦”？约伯记 34:29。如果上帝与我们同在，谁能敌挡我们？这是使所有其他安慰变得舒适的因素，使任何负担变得轻松；这总是为各种目的准备好的。我们的上帝是一个及时的帮助。所有的邪恶都听从他的命令而消失，所有的安慰都听从他的命令而来。对于这样一个人的心灵来说，只需说一声“安慰，平安”：鼓励他，提升他；说一声“救恩”，拯救那些在困境中的灵魂。如此说，如此做，立即就会发生。不，恭敬地说，上帝如此超越自己，以至于他愿意受我们的指挥。“指挥我手所作的工作”，以赛亚书 45:11；把那份关心和责任交给我。他愿意被信心的灵魂压倒，如同雅各和迦南妇人一样，好像是为我们服务。他不愿意我们在他能帮助我们的事情上有所缺乏。而上帝有什么事情是他不能帮助我们的呢？ 如果基督徒知道他们在天上和地上所拥有的力量，有什么能够抵挡他们呢？如果信仰能够战胜世界，战胜创造世界的那个人，那又有什么奇迹呢？信仰应该是全能的，因为全能者自己愿意动用他所有的力量，为那些他赋予自己力量的人谋福利。因此，既然有这样一个活水源可供我们汲取，一个可以安息的中心，一切都在一个里面，而且那一个是属于我们的，为什么我们还要去敲其他的门呢？我们现在可以放心大胆地去找上帝，因为他已经成为“我们的”，成为我们的骨中之骨，肉中之肉。我们去找上帝比去找任何天使或圣人更加舒适。上帝在第二位上帝的人身上愿意承担我们的本性，但不是天使的本性。我们的上帝和我们的人，我们的神人已经升到了天堂的高庭，到他和我们的上帝那里，穿着我们的本性。还有谁比他更有能力和愿意为我们辩护，或者我们可以把事情托付给谁呢？他在“天上为我们办理与上帝有关的一切事情”（希伯来书 5:1）。*

It should therefore be the chief care of a Christian, upon knowledge of what he stands in need of, to know where to supply all. It should raise up a holy shame and indignation in us, that there should be so much in God, who is so near unto us in Christ, and we make so little use of him. What good can any thing do us if we use it not? God is ours to use, and yet men will rather use shifts and unhallowed policies, than be beholden to God, who thinks himself never more honoured by us than when we make use of him. If we believe anything will do us good, we naturally make out for the obtaining of it. If we believe anything will hurt us, we study to decline it. And certain it is, if we believed that so much good were in God, we would then apply ourselves to him, and him to ourselves. Whatsoever virtue is in anything, it is conveyed by application and touching of it; that whereby we touch God, is our faith, which never toucheth him, but it draws virtue from him. Upon the first touch of faith, spiritual life is begun. It is a bastard in nature, to believe anything can work upon another without spiritual or bodily touch. And it is a monster in religion to believe that any saving good will issue from God, if we turn from him, and shut him out, and our hearts be unwilling. Where unbelief is, it binds up his power. Where faith is, there it is between the soul and God, as betwixt the iron and the loadstone, a present closing and drawing of one to the other. This is the beginning of eternal life, so to 'know God the Father and his Son Christ,' John 17:4, as thereby to embrace him with the arms of faith and love as ours, by the best title he can make us, who is truth itself.
因此，对于一个基督徒来说，他应该首先关心的是，知道自己需要什么，然后知道在哪里得到所需。我们应该感到羞愧和愤怒，因为在基督里，上帝离我们如此之近，却我们却很少利用他。如果我们不使用某样东西，它能对我们有什么好处呢？上帝是我们可以利用的，然而人们宁愿使用各种手段和不神圣的策略，而不愿承认自己需要上帝。当我们利用上帝时，他认为我们对他的尊重从未如此之高。如果我们相信某样东西对我们有益，我们自然会努力去获得它。如果我们相信某样东西会伤害我们，我们会努力避免它。毫无疑问，如果我们相信上帝有如此多的好处，我们会向他靠拢，让他与我们亲近。任何事物中的美德都是通过应用和接触传递的；我们接触上帝的方式是通过我们的信仰，信仰从上帝那里汲取力量。在信仰的第一次触摸下，属灵的生命开始了。在自然界中，相信任何事物可以在没有属灵或肉体接触的情况下对另一个事物产生作用是不可能的。 在宗教中，相信如果我们背离上帝、拒绝他，并且我们的心不愿意，那么任何拯救的善良都不会来自上帝，这是一个怪物。不信仰束缚了他的力量。有信仰的地方，它就像铁和磁石之间一样，是灵魂与上帝之间的联系，是彼此紧密相连的。这是永生的开始，就像约翰福音 17:4 所说的，要“认识上帝父和他的儿子基督”，通过这样的认识，用信仰和爱的双臂拥抱他，因为他是真理本身，给予我们最好的称号。

Since then our happiness lies, out of ourselves, in God, we should go out of ourselves for it, and first get into Christ, and so unto God in him; and then labour, by the Spirit of the Father and the Son, to maintain acquaintance with both, that so God may be ours, not only in covenant, but in communion, hearkening what he will say to us, and opening our spirits, disclosing our wants, consulting and advising in all our distresses with him. By keeping this acquaintance with God, 'peace and all good is conveyed to us,' Job 22:21.
自那时起，我们的幸福不在于自己，而在于上帝，我们应该为此而走出自己，首先进入基督，然后通过父与子的圣灵努力与上帝保持亲近，这样上帝不仅在盟约中属于我们，而且在交流中属于我们，倾听他对我们的话语，打开我们的心灵，揭示我们的需求，在我们所有的困扰中与他商议和征求他的建议。通过与上帝保持这种亲近，"平安和一切美好都会传递给我们"（约伯记 22:21）。

Thereafter as we maintain this communion further with him, we out of love study to please him, by exact walking according to his commands; then we shall feel increase of peace as our care increaseth; then he will 'come and sup with us,' Rev. 3:20, and be free in his refreshing of us; then he will shew himself more and more to us, and manifest still a further degree of presence in joy and strength, until communion in grace ends in communion in glory.
此后，当我们与他进一步保持这种交流时，出于爱，我们努力学习按照他的命令行走以取悦他；然后我们将感受到平安的增加，随着我们的关心增加；然后他将“来与我们同坐”，启示录 3:20，并在他的恩慰中自由地滋养我们；然后他将越来越多地向我们显现，并在喜乐和力量中不断展示更高的同在程度，直到在恩典的交流中达到荣耀的交流。

But we must remember, as David doth here, to desire and delight in God himself more than in anything that is God's. It was a sign of St Paul's pure love to the Corinthians when he said, 'I seek not yours, but you,' 2 Cor. 12:14. We should seek for no blessing of God so much as for himself.
但我们必须记住，正如大卫在这里所做的，要比任何属神的事物更渴望和喜悦上帝自己。保罗对哥林多人的纯爱的标志是他说：“我不求你们的东西，而是求你们自己。”（哥林多后书 12:14）。我们应该追求的不是神的祝福，而是神自己。

What is there in the world of equal goodness to draw us away from our God? If to preserve the dearest thing we have in the world, we break with God, God will take away the comfort we look to have by it, and it will prove but a dead contentment, if not a torment to us. Whereas, if we care to preserve communion with God, we shall be sure to find in him whatsoever we deny for him, honour, riches, pleasures, friends, all; so much the sweeter, by how much we have the more immediately from the spring-head. We shall never find God to be our God more than when, for making of him to be so, we suffer anything for his sake. We enjoy never more of him than then.
在这个世界上，有什么与我们的上帝一样好的东西能够吸引我们远离他呢？如果为了保护我们在世上最珍贵的东西，我们与上帝决裂，上帝将会带走我们期望通过它获得的安慰，它将证明只是一种死寂的满足，如果不是一种折磨。然而，如果我们在乎与上帝的交流，我们将确保在他身上找到我们为他所否认的一切，荣誉、财富、快乐、朋友，一切；越是直接从源头获得，就越甜美。我们永远不会发现上帝比我们为了使他成为我们的上帝而为他忍受任何事情时更加成为我们的上帝。我们从未比那时更多地享受他。

At the first we may seek to him, as rich to supply our wants, as a physician to cure our souls and bodies; but here we must not rest till we come to rejoice in him as our friend, and from thence rise to an admiration of him for his own excellencies, that being so high in himself, out of his goodness would stoop low to us. And we should delight in the meditation of him, not only as good to us, but as good in himself; because goodness of bounty springs from goodness of disposition. He doth good, because he is good.
首先，我们可能寻求他的帮助，因为他富有，能满足我们的需求，就像医生能治愈我们的灵魂和身体一样；但我们不能止步于此，直到我们因他成为我们的朋友而感到欢喜，并从中对他自身的卓越感到钦佩，因为他自己如此崇高，却因他的善良而屈尊于我们。我们应该喜欢沉思他，不仅因为他对我们有益，而且因为他本身是善良的；因为慷慨的善良源于性情的善良。他行善，因为他本身就是善良的。

A natural man delights more in God's gifts than in his grace. If he desires grace, it is to grace himself, not as grace, making him like unto God, and issuing from the first grace, the free favour of God; by which means men come to have the gifts of God without God himself; dona Dei, sine Deo. But, alas! what are all other goods, without the chief good? They are but as flowers, which are long in planting, in cherishing, and growing, but short in enjoying the sweetness of them. David here joys in God himself; he cares for nothing in the world but what he may have with his favour; and whatever else he desires, he desires only that he may have the better ground from thence to praise his God.
一个自然的人更喜欢上帝的恩赐，而不是他的恩典。如果他渴望恩典，那是为了使自己得到恩典，而不是作为恩典，使他像上帝一样，并且源自上帝的第一恩典，上帝的自由恩惠；通过这种方式，人们可以拥有上帝的恩赐，却没有上帝本身；没有上帝的恩赐。但是，唉！除了主要的善之外，其他所有的善都是什么呢？它们只是花朵，种植、培育和成长的时间很长，但享受它们的甜美的时间很短。大卫在这里喜悦的是上帝自己；他对世界上的任何事物都不关心，只关心他是否能得到上帝的恩宠；而他所渴望的其他一切，只是为了从那里得到更好的基础来赞美他的上帝。

§ IV. The sum of all is this, the state of God's dear children in this world is to be cast into variety of conditions, wherein, they, consisting of nature, flesh, and spirit, every principle hath its own and proper working. They are sensible as flesh and blood; they are sensible to discouragements as sinful flesh and blood; but they recover themselves, as having a higher principle, God's Spirit, above flesh and blood in them.
§ IV. 所有的总结是，上帝亲爱的子民在这个世界上被投入各种境况中，他们由本性、肉体和灵性组成，每个原则都有自己的适当运作。他们像肉体和血液一样有感知能力；他们像有罪的肉体和血液一样容易受到挫折；但他们会恢复自己，因为他们内在有一个更高的原则，上帝的灵。

In this conflicting state, every principle labouring to maintain itself, at length by help of the Spirit, backing and strengthening his own work, grace gets the better, keeping nature within bounds, and suppressing corruption. And this the soul, so far as it is spiritual, doth by gathering itself, to itself, and by reasoning the case so far, till it concludes, and joins upon this issue, that the only way to attain sound peace is, when all other means fail, to trust in God. And thereupon he lays a charge upon his soul so to do, as being a course grounded upon the highest reason, even the unchangeable goodness of God; who, out of the riches of his mercy, having chosen a people in this world, which should be to the glory of his mercy, will give them matter of setting forth his praise, in shewing some token of good upon them, as being those on whom he hath fixed his love, and to whom he will appear not only a Saviour, but salvation itself; nothing but salvation. As the sun is nothing but light, so whatsoever proceeds from him to them tends to further salvation. All his ways towards them lead to that; which ways of his, though for a time they are secret, and not easily found out, yet at length God will be wonderful in them, to the admiration of his enemies themselves, who shall be forced to say, God hath done great things for them; and all from this ground, that God is our God in covenant; which words are a stern* that rule and guide the whole text.
在这个矛盾的状态中，每个原则都在努力维持自己，最终在圣灵的帮助下，支持和加强自己的工作，恩典取得了胜利，将本性控制在范围内，压制腐败。灵性的灵魂通过聚集自己，通过推理这个问题，直到得出结论，并加入到这个问题上，即当其他一切方法都失败时，唯一获得健全和平的方法是信靠上帝。因此，他命令他的灵魂这样做，因为这是建立在最高的理由上，即上帝的不变的善良；上帝出于他丰富的怜悯，在这个世界上选择了一个民族，他们将成为他怜悯的荣耀，他将给他们提供展示他的赞美的材料，向他们显示一些善的迹象，因为他们是他所爱的人，他将向他们显现不仅是一个救主，而且是救恩本身；只有救恩。正如太阳只是光明一样，所以从他到他们的一切都有助于进一步的救恩。 他对他们的一切方式都通向那个目标；虽然他的方式在一段时间内是秘密的，不容易被发现，但最终上帝会在其中显出奇妙，令他的敌人自己惊叹不已，他们将被迫承认，上帝为他们做了伟大的事情；而这一切都源于上帝是我们在盟约中的上帝这一基础，这些话是整个文本的统治和指导。

For why should we not be disquieted when we are disquieted? Why should we not be cast down when we are cast down? Why should we trust in God as a Saviour, but that he is our God, making himself so to us in his choicest favours? doing that for us which none else can do, and which he doth to none else that are not his in a gracious manner. This blessed interest and intercourse betwixt God's Spirit and our spirits, is the hinge upon which all turns; without this no comfort is comfortable; with this, no trouble can be very troublesome.
为什么我们在不安时不应该感到不安呢？为什么我们在沮丧时不应该沮丧呢？为什么我们应该信任上帝作为救主，因为他是我们的上帝，在他最宝贵的恩典中向我们显现？他为我们做了其他人无法做到的事情，而且对那些不属于他的人也没有以恩慈的方式这样做。上帝的灵与我们的灵之间的这种祝福的联系是一切的关键；没有这个，没有安慰是令人舒适的；有了这个，没有困扰会很麻烦。

Without this assurance there is little comfort in soliloquies; unless, when we speak to ourselves, we can speak to God as ours. For in desperate cases our soul can say nothing to itself to still itself, unless it be suggested by God. Discouragements will appear greater to the soul than any comfort, unless God comes in as ours.
没有这个保证，独白中就没有什么安慰；除非当我们对自己说话时，我们能把上帝当作我们的对话对象。因为在绝望的情况下，我们的灵魂除非得到上帝的启示，否则无法对自己说出任何能使自己安静下来的话。除非上帝以我们的身份介入，否则挫折对灵魂来说将比任何安慰都更加沉重。

See therefore David's art; he demands of himself why he was so cast down? The cause was apparent, because there were troubles without and terrors within, and none to comfort. Well, grant this, saith the Spirit of God in him, as the worst must be granted; yet, saith the Spirit, Trust in God. So I have.
看到大卫的艺术，他问自己为什么如此沮丧？原因显而易见，因为外部有困扰，内心有恐惧，没有人来安慰。好吧，神的灵在他内心说，就算最糟糕的情况都要承认；然而，神的灵说，要信靠上帝。所以我已经这样做了。

Why, then, wait in trusting; 'light is sown for the righteous,' Ps. 97:11; it comes not up on the sudden. We must not think to sow and reap both at once. If trouble be lengthened, lengthen thy patience.
为什么要等待并信任；“为义人撒下光明”，诗篇 97:11；它不会突然出现。我们不能指望一次种植和收获。如果困难持续存在，就要延长你的耐心。

What good will come of this?
这会有什么好处？

God will wait to do thee that good, for which thou shalt praise him; he will deal so graciously with thee, as he will deserve thy praise; he will shew thee his salvation. And new favours will stir thee up to sing new songs. Every new recovery of ourselves or friends is as it were a new life, and ministers new matter of praise. And upon offering this sacrifice of praise, the heart is further enlarged to pray for fresh blessings. We are never fitter to pray than after praise.
上帝将等待着给你带来好处，为此你将赞美他；他将如此慈悲地对待你，以至于他值得你的赞美；他将向你显示他的拯救。新的恩惠将激励你唱新的歌。每一次我们或朋友的新恢复，都像是一种新的生命，为赞美提供了新的素材。在献上这种赞美的祭品之后，心灵会进一步扩大，为新的祝福祈祷。在赞美之后，我们从未比此时更适合祈祷。

But in the mean time I hang down my head, whilst mine enemies carry themselves highly, and my friends stand aloof.
但与此同时，我低下头，而我的敌人高傲自大，我的朋友则远离我。

God in his own time, which is best for thee, will be the salvation of thy countenance; he will compass thee about with songs of deliverance, and make it appear at last that he hath care of thee.
上帝会在适当的时候，对你最好的时候，拯救你的面容；他会用解救之歌环绕着你，最终让你看到他对你的关怀。

But why then doth God appear as a stranger to me?
但是为什么上帝对我显得陌生呢？

That thou shouldst follow after him with the stronger faith and prayer; he withdraws himself, that thou shouldst be the more earnest in seeking after him. God speaks the sweetest comfort to the heart in the wilderness. Happily thou art not yet low enough, nor purged enough. Thy affections are not thoroughly crucified to the world, and therefore it will not yet appear that it is God's good will to deliver thee. Wert thou a fit subject of mercy, God would bestow it on thee.
你应该以更坚定的信仰和祈祷追随他；他会离开你，以便你更加努力地寻求他。上帝在荒野中对心灵说出最甜蜜的安慰。幸运的是，你还没有降到足够低的地步，也没有经历足够的净化。你的情感还没有完全被钉死在世界上，因此上帝的意愿还没有显现出来，即要拯救你。如果你是一个合适的怜悯对象，上帝会赐予你怜悯。

But what ground hast thou to build thyself so strongly upon God?
但你有什么根据可以如此坚定地依靠上帝呢？

He hath offered and made himself to be my God, and so hath shewed himself in former times; and I have made him my God, by yielding him his sovereignty in my heart; besides the present evidence of his blessed Spirit, clearing the same, and many peculiar tokens of his love which I daily do enjoy; though sometimes the beams of his favour are eclipsed. Those that are God's, besides their interest and right in him, have oft a sense of the same, even in this life, as a foretaste of that which is to come. To the seal of grace stamped upon their hearts, God superadds a fresh seal of joy and comfort, by the presence and witness of his Spirit; and shews likewise some outward token for good upon them, whereby he makes it appear that 'he hath set apart him that is godly for himself, as his own,' Ps. 4:3.
他曾经自愿并成为我的上帝，并在过去的时候展示了自己；我通过在我的内心中承认他的统治权，使他成为我的上帝；此外，他祝福的圣灵的现在证据，以及我每天享受到的他的许多特别的爱的迹象；尽管有时他的恩宠的光辉会被遮蔽。那些属于上帝的人，除了在他身上有权益和权利之外，通常在这个生命中也能感受到同样的东西，作为未来的一种预感。上帝在他们的心上盖上了恩典的印记，又通过他的圣灵的存在和见证，增添了新的喜乐和安慰的印记；他也向他们显现了一些外在的好的迹象，以此表明他已经将虔诚的人分别出来，作为他自己的，正如诗篇 4:3 所说的。

Thus we see that discussing of objections in the consistory of the soul settles the soul at last, faith at length silencing all risings to the contrary. All motion tends to rest, and ends in it. God is the centre and resting-place of the soul, and here David takes up his rest, and so let us. Then whatsoever times come, we are sure of a hiding-place and sanctuary.
因此，我们看到，在灵魂的议事厅中讨论异议最终使灵魂安定下来，信仰最终使所有反对声音消失。一切运动都趋向于休息，并最终停止。上帝是灵魂的中心和休息之所，在这里，大卫找到了他的安息之处，让我们也如此。然后，无论何时何地，我们都能确保有一个藏身之处和庇护所。

FINIS
结束

'Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, &c., yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation,' Hab. 3:17.
虽然无花果树不发旺，葡萄藤上没有果实，橄榄树的劳动失败，田地不再出产食物等等，然而我仍然要因耶和华而欢喜，因我的救恩之神而快乐。——哈巴谷书 3:17

'He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall lodge under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge, and my fortress; My God, in him will I trust,' Ps. 91:1, 2.
居住在至高者的隐密处的人，必住在全能者的荫下。我要说耶和华是我的避难所，是我的堡垒；我的神，我要倚靠他。

'My strength and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever,' Ps. 73:26.
我的力量和我的心衰竭，但上帝是我心中的力量，是我永远的福分，诗篇 73:26。

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The Soul's Conflict With Itself, by Richard Sibbes, Copyright © 2022
灵魂与自身的冲突，作者理查德·西布斯，版权所有 © 2022

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