Body: | A Discourse Concerning Trouble of Mind and the Disease of Melancholly
Timothy Rogers
1691 AD
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Introduction:
In 1691 AD, Timothy Rogers, a minister for a church, describes
depression (melancholy) as caused by a sin problem: "A sense of Sin, and
great sorrow for it", "a sense of the Wrath of God, and a fear of Hell",
"terrors of the soul", "trouble of Conscience", "terrors of Conscience",
"Anxieties of Soul", "sinking and guilty Fears", "sense of Tormenting",
"Racking Pain, the immediate prospect of Death, and together with this, an
apprehension of God's Displeasure, and the fear of being cast out of his
Glorious Presence for ever", "anguish and vexation", "Raging Fever", "want
of sleep", "Real Misery that they are tormented with", "fears and terrors
that overwhelm our Souls", "fills them with anguish and tribulation". He
describes how the mind can make the body sick: "If a Man, saith he, that is
troubled in Conscience, come to a Minister, it may be, he will look all to
the Soul, and nothing to the Body; if he come to a Physician, he
considereth the Body, and neglecteth the Soul: for my part, I would never
have the Physician's Counsel despised, nor the Labour of the Minister
neglected; because the Soul and Body dwelling together, it is convenient,
that as the Soul should be cured, by the Word, by Prayer, by Fasting, or by
Comforting; so the Body must be brought into some temperature, by Physick,
and Diet, by harmless Diversions, and such like ways." Rogers cautions not
to blame the devil for this depression: "Do not attribute the effects of
mere Disease, to the Devil". (A Discourse Concerning Trouble of Mind and
the Disease of Melancholly, Timothy Rogers, 1691 AD)
"Timothy Rogers (1658-1728) A Discourse Concerning Trouble of Mind
and the Disease of Melancholly, In Three Parts. Written for the Use of such
as are, or have been Exercised by the same. By Timothy Rogers, M.A. who was
long afflicted with both (1691), A: Epistle Dedicatory, B: pp. i-iii, C:
pp. xi-xii, D: pp. 1-4. Rogers' Discourse is a classic statement of
melancholy in its religious framework. From his opening dedication to Lady
Mary Lane, through the preface of advice `to the Relations and Friends of
Melancholly People', and throughout its 31 chapters, the context and
explanation for suffering is humankind's fall from paradise and consequent
distance from the grace of God, an awareness that is present behind even
some of the apparently less religious accounts of melancholy that follow
from the eighteenth century. As a Nonconformist minister, [Timothy] Rogers
(1658-1728) was clearly alert to this framework, but what makes his account
and advice more than just doctrinal is the fact that they are rooted in
personal experience. His ministry was in London, but continuing `trouble of
mind' forced his removal to a more rural area, Wantage in Berkshire. Even
the gratitude for recovery expressed in the Discourse proved to be
ill-founded, for Rogers' periods of melancholy persisted throughout his
life. The experience of suffering, however, not only authenticates his
descriptions and informs his sympathy. It actually makes his advice
resolutely practical, indicating a clear-sighted capacity for observation
and analysis even while undergoing the sufferings he recalls. The first
extract is from the dedication to Lady Mary, who stands for Rogers as a
model both of proper compassion and of proper patience in the face of
trial. The second and third are examples from his series of 'Advices',
while the fourth is from the introduction to part one, which deals, over 13
chapters, with God's anger against humankind and with suffering in a fallen
world." (Patterns of Madness in the Eighteenth Century, A Reader, Allan
Ingram, 1998 AD, p 36)
"Rogers's detailed instructions on how to care for patients
suffering from `trouble of mind', especially from `melancholly' of the
religious kind, are particularly valuable because they were written from
personal experience; as the extract shows much of his advice can still be
usefully applied by the psychiatrist and the psychiatric nurse today. It
appears from his biography prefixed to the third edition of his book
(London 1808; a second edition appeared in 1706) that he came from a family
in which several near relatives were similarly affected 'so that his case
might properly be called natural or hereditary'. In his late twenties he
had his first breakdown, 'a deep and settled melancholy' lasting two years.
On his recovery he wrote this book as an offering 'for his wonderful
restoration', to discharge 'the Duty of those Persons whom God hath
delivered from Melancholy, and from the anguish of their Consciences' and
to show `What is to be thought of those that are distracted with Trouble
for their sins'. However he continued ever after subject to 'a very unhappy
dejection of mind . . . a prey to gloomy fears and apprehensions', so that
he was forced to retire into the country where he continued to manifest
'though in a more contracted sphere, the same zeal for the honour of God,
and for the salvation of the souls of men'." (300 years of Psychiatry,
Richard Hunter, 1963, p248)
Timothy Rogers (1658-1728)
M A Glasgow, nonconformist minister of London and Wantage, Berkshire
A discourse concerning trouble of mind, and the disease of melancholly . .
. By Timothy Rogers, M.A. who was long afflicted with both, 1691 London,
Parkhurst & Cockerill (pp. x +lxxviii +434) pp. i-iv, vii, ix, xi-xiii,
xiv-xv, xvii-xxviii
To the very much HONOURED and RESPECTED LADY, The Lady Mary Lane.
A Discourse Concerning Trouble of Mind and the Disease of Melancholly
Timothy Rogers, Church minister
1691 AD
MADAM, YOUR LADYSHIP has a very full claim to this DEDICATION; and under
your Patronage this BOOK can with good assurance venture abroad: You, more
than any other, have enquired of me concerning the following Treatise, and
more frequently urged me to Print it. You were pleased to Honour me, during
my long Affliction, with your kind Visits; and though I was greatly
afflicted, and in degrees beyond what are very common to Men, yet you did
not a little revive me by your Compassionate and Gentle words, and by the
'Charitable hopes that you had of my deliverance, though you have often
heard me say, That I should never be delivered. I thought that I should
never have any more ease in my pained Body, nor ever any more hope or quiet
in my troubled Soul: But that God who is Omnipotent, and who heard your
Prayers, and the Prayers of many others in my behalf, hath wrought a double
Salvation for me. He who is the Lord of Nature, has healed my Body; and He
who is the Father of Mercies, and the God of all Grace, has given rest to
my weary Soul. None have any Cause to presume, when they consider what
miseries I felt for a long time, and how I was overwhelmed with the deepest
sorrows, for many doleful Months together; neither have any cause to
despair, they cannot be more low, more near to Death and Hell than I
thought my self to be, and yet I live, and am not without some refreshing
hope of God's acceptance, and can say with the Prophet, Let Israel hope in
the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy: And with him is plenteous
redemption.
Your LADYSHIP has never, indeed, been afflicted with that Distemper and
those Anxieties of Soul whereof I treat in the following Book, and I
heartily pray you never may: For MELANCHOLLY is the worst of all
Distempers; and those sinking and guilty Fears which it brings along with
it, are inexpressibly dreadful. But I know that you have been in manifold
Afflictions, and you have had several very great Losses: You lost some
years ago a Father, who was, indeed, in all respects, for his Holiness, his
Even temper, and his Publick and Charitable Spirit, worthy to be loved; and
I am sure you greatly loved him, as he you, to the very last. You lost a
Mother, whom all that knew her, greatly valued for the skill and experience
that she had in matters of Religion, and especially for her admirable
acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures; and tho in the latter part of her
Life, she saw not the Light of this World, yet her Soul was recreated with
a Light Spiritual and Divine; and the loss of her sight was abundantly
recompenced to her, by the clearer views which she had of God, and of a
Life to come. And not to mention other Losses, you have lost several
Children, in whom there was all the sweetness of youth, all that good
temper, and those blooming appearances of hopefulness which could make such
little Plants desirable; but you have born even so great a Loss with a
submissive and a Christian Patience, as knowing that you have not so much
cause to mourn for those that are gone as to rejoyce in those that are
left; and who are a very great Comfort to you; and may they long be so ....
I thought, when I came to describe my inward Troubles, I should have
described them much more largely; but I durst not review them too
particularly, lest the very thoughts of them, should again, in some
measure, overwhelm me: And, indeed, Inward Tenors, are things that may he
sadly felt; but they cannot be fully express'd. To have the sense of
Tormenting, Racking Pain, the immediate prospect of Death, and together
with this, an apprehension of God's Displeasure, and the fear of being cast
out of his Glorious Presence for ever, this was a part of my Case; And who
can describe that Anguish and Tribulation, which such apprehensions cause
in a desolate and a mourning Soul! I have in the following Treatise said as
much as will, I suppose, be believed by those who have never been in such a
woeful state; and if I had said more, it might perhaps sink some poor
souls, who are already low enough; and if I cannot help them, which I
design, yet I will be sure, as far as in me lies, not to make them worse.
THERE is a very great difference between such as are only under trouble of
Conscience, and such whose Bodies are greatly diseased at the same time: A
sense of Sin, and great sorrow for it, may in some persons not change at
all their former state of health; and the mercy of God may so speedily
relieve them, that they suffer no visible decays in their Constitution, but
are so happy as to have a sound Mind and Body both at once. 'Tis not with
relation to such that I write this Preface; but for such as are under a
deep, and a rooted Melancholly: And to the Friends of such I think it is
very necessary to give the following Advices.
THE PREFACE: CONTAINING Several Advices to the Relations and Friends of
Melancholly People.
First, Look upon your distressed Friends, as under one of the worst
Distempers to which this Miserable Life is obnoxious. Melancholly seizes on
the Brain and Spirits, and incapacitates them for Thought or Action; it
confounds and disturbs all their thoughts, and unavoidably fills them with
anguish and vexation; of which there is no resemblance in any other
Distemper, unless it be that of a Raging Fever. I take it for granted, and
I verily believe, I say nothing but what is true; When this ugly Humour is
deeply fixed, and path spread its Malignant Influence over every part, 'tis
as vain a thing to strive against it, as to strive against a Fever, or a
Phtrisie, the Gout, or the Stone, which are very grievous to Nature, but
which a man by resolution, and the force of briskness and courage cannot
help. One would be glad to be rid of such oppressing things, but all our
strivings will not make them go away. And of all the Inconveniences of
Melancholy, The want of sleep, which it usually brings along with it, is
one of the worst. It is very reviving to a man that is in pain all the day,
to think that he shall sleep at night; but when he has no prospect nor hope
of that for several nights together, oh, what confusion does then seize
upon him! he is then like one upon a rack, whose anguish will not suffer
him to rest; by this means the Faculties of the Soul are weakned, and all
its Operations disturbed and clouded, and the poor Body languishes and
pines away at the same time. Arid this Disease is more formidable than any
other, because it commonly lasts very long. . . . I pretend not to tell you
what Medicines are proper to remove it, and I know of none; I leave you to
advise with such as are learned in the Profession of Physick, and
especially to have recourse to such Doctors as have themselves felt it; for
it is impossible fully to understand the nature of it any other way than by
Experience . . . And as old Mr. Greenham says (In his Comfort for Afflicted
Consciences, P. 137); There is a great deal of wisdom requisite to consider
both the state of the Body, and of the Soul. If a Man, saith he, that is
troubled in Conscience, come to a Minister, it may be, he will look all to
the Soul, and nothing to the Body; if he come to a Physician, he
considereth the Body, and neglecteth the Soul: for my part, I would never
have the Physician's Counsel despised, nor the Labour of the Minister
neglected; because the Soul and Body dwelling together, it is convenient,
that as the Soul should be cured, by the Word, by Prayer, by Fasting, or by
Comforting; so the Body must be brought into some temperature, by Physick,
and Diet, by harmless Diversions, and such like ways .. .
Secondly, Look upon those that are under this woful Disease of
Melancholly with great pity and compassion .. .
Thirdly, Do not use harsh Speeches to your Friends when they are
under the disease of Melancholly . . . They may fret and perplex, and
enrage them more, but they will never do them the least good . . . If you
be severe in your speeches, they'll never be persuaded that it is in
kindness, and so not regard at all what you say ...
Fourthly, You must be so kind to your Friends under this Disease, as
to believe what they say. Or however, that their apprehensions are such as
they tell you they are; do not you think that they are at ease when they
say they are in pain. It is a foolish course which some take with their
melancholly Friends, to answer all their Complaints and Moans with this,
That it's nothing but Fancy; nothing but Imagination and Whimsey. It is a
Real Disease, a Real Misery that they are tormented with: and if it be
Fancy, yet a diseased Fancy is as great a Disease as any other; it fills
them with anguish and tribulation: But this so disordered Fancy is the
consequent of a greater Evil, and one of the sad effects that are produced
by that black Humour that has vitiated all the natural spirits. These
afflicted persons can never possibly believe that you pity them, or that
you are heartily concerned for them, if you do not credit what they say;
and truly it often falls out, that because Melancholly persons do not
always look very ill, or have pretty good stomachs, and do not at first
very much decline in their Bodies, other persons that know nothing of the
Distemper, are apt to think that they make them-selves worse than they are:
whereas, alas, they are so grieved, that they need not, neither will they
counterfeit any more grief. In all other Evils people take for granted what
others say, and accordingly sympathise with them; but in this they are apt
to contradict and oppose such as are distressed; and as long as they do so,
cannot pity them as they ought: This makes the grief of such to overwhelm
and strangle them within, because when they disclose it, they find it is to
no purpose; and do but in this case as you would have others do to you;
suppose when you haze the Toothach, or Headach, and people, when you
complain, should tell you 'tis nothing but Fancy, would not you think their
carriage to be full of cruelty? and would it not vex you to find that you
cannot be believed?
Fifthly, Do not urge your Friends under the Disease of Melancholly,
to things which they cannot do. They are as persons whose bones are broken,
and that are in great pain and anguish, and consequently under an
incapacity for action : their Disease is full of perplexed tormenting
thoughts ; if it were possible by any means innocently to divert them, you
would do them a great kindness .. .
Sixthly, Do not attribute the effects of mere Disease, to the Devil;
though I deny not that the Devil has an hand in the causing of several
Diseases . . . But notwithstanding all this, it is a very overwhelming
thing, to attribute every action almost of a Melancholly man to the Devil,
when there are some unavoidable Expressions of sorrow which are purely
natural, and which he cannot help .. .
Seventhly, Do not much wonder at any thing that they say or do. What
will not people do that are in Despair! What will they not say, that think
themselves lost for ever! What strange extravagant Actions do you see those
do that are under the power of fear! And none are so much afraid as these
poor people are; they are afraid of God, of Hell, and of their own sorrows
. . . Let no carriage of theirs provoke you to passion; let no sharp words
of theirs make you to talk sharply .. .
Eighthly, Do not mention to them any formidable Things, nor tell, in
their hearing, any sad Stories; because they do already Meditate Terror;
and by every sad thing that they hear of, are much more terrisied; their
troubled Imagination is prepared to six upon any mournful thing; and by
that means, will multiply its own sorrows . . . Studiously avoid all
Discourse of what is grievous to them; and yet you must not be too merry
before them neither; for then they think you slight their Ailiseries, and
have no pity for them. A mixture of affableness and gravity will suit their
Condition best .. .
Ninthly, Do not think it altogether needless to talk with them; only
when you do so, do not speak as if their Troubles would be very long : It
is the length of their Trouble that amazes them, when after one Week, or
Month, without Sleep, or Rest, or Hope, still the next Week and Month is as
painful and as terrible to them as the former was; and this many times
pushes them forward to seek to destroy themselves, because they see no
period of their Miseries, and their Anguish is both Tedious and
insupportable . . . Revive them therefore, by telling them, that God can
create deliverance for them in a moment; That he has often done so with
others; That he can quickly cure their Disease, and shew them his
Reconciled, Amiable Face, tho it has been hid from them for a long season.
You will convey to them some little support by such discourse as this . . .
Tenthly, Tell them of others who have been in such Anguish, and
under such a terrible Distemper, and yet have been delivered. It is very
hard indeed to persuade a person under great pain and anguish, and a sense
of the Wrath of God, and a fear of Hell, that ever any has heretofore been
so perplext as he . . . I could send you to some now alive, that were long
asflicted with Trouble of Mind, and Melancholly, as Mr. Rosewell, and Mr.
Porter, both Ministers, the latter whereof was six years oppressed with
this distemper; and now they both rejoyce in the Light of God's
Countenance. I my self was near two years in great pain of Body, and
greater pain of Soul, and without any prospect of peace, or help; and yet
God hath revived me in his Soveraign Grace and Mercy . . . Mr. Robert
Bruce, some time ago Minister of Edinburgh, was Twenty years in terrors of
Conscience, and yet delivered afterwards.
D The INTRODUCTION.
The Miseries under which the whole race of Men have now for a long time
groaned, and under which they still groan, are owing to the Fall of Man.
The day on which our first Parents complied with the temptation of the
Devil, was a mournful day to them, and in its effects no less sad to us. It
filled their once pure and quiet hearts with trouble and disorder, and made
them unable to think of their great Creator with delight. It intercepted
those chearful and comfortable beams of his Love, which were more
satisfying to them than all the glories of the lower Paradise: For tho' it
did, after the Fall, abound with all the same natural refreshments, with
the same Rivers, Herbs, Trees and Flowers; yet it was to them no more a
Paradise. No Musick could delight their sense, when they heard a terrible
voice from God, summoning them to answer for their Crime; no objects could
please their eyes, when they saw the Clouds thickning over their heads, and
dreadful frowns in the face of their mighty Judge: All the Creatures could
minister nothing to their ease or safety, when the great Creator was
against them. From their Apostacy we may derive all our miseries; both the
pains and sicknesses that afflict our Bodies, and the fears and terrors
that overwhelm our Souls. Our Bodies are liable to a Thousand calamities
that may be both long and sharp; but how long and how sharp soever they be,
they do not altogether give us such a sensible and such lively grief, as we
have when we are under distresses of Conscience, and when we are under a
sense of the Wrath of God, that is due to us for Sin. There are many
persons who endeavour by all the Rules of Art, to give relief and help
against the mischiefs that attend our Bodies, but which after all their Art
will go into the Grave; and there are as many, that by the Duty of their
Office, and the Character they bear, are obliged to imitate their Saviour,
To preach good tidings to the meek, and to hind up the broken hearted; to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them
that are bound, Isa. 61.1. But they are many times at a loss, to know what
Remedies to apply to these inward and spiritual Diseases; and always unable
to make their applications successful, unless God himself, by his Almighty
Power, Create Peace, and turn that Chaos, and those Confusions under which
a poor troubled Soul is buried, into the joy and light of day. It pleases
the Wise God, that may make us serve to what uses he thinks most convenient
for the good of the Universe, and the welfare of the Church, to suffer some
of his Servants to feel the bitterness of Sin, and the terrors of his
amazing-wrath; to be overwhelm'd with the fear of Hell, and to be for a
long season even as in Hell it self; that so when they are delivered, they
may warn those that are at ease, that they beware of Sin, lest it bring
them also into a state so dreadful and so terrible; and that from their own
experience, they may with tender-ness and compassion strive more earnestly
to assist and help those whose Consciences are in a flame, and who are full
of anguish and tribulation: That when they are escaped out of the snare of
the Fowler, they may strive to disintangle those who are yet in trouble;
and being themselves cured of their horror and amazement, they may lead
their yet wounded brethren to that kind Physician, to that loving Jesus,
with whose blood their Wounds were cleansed and healed.
As to my self, having been in Long affliction, and great distress of
Conscience for many Months, and under a continued fear and apprehension of
God's displeasure; and being now, through his inexpressible Grace, not
without some hope of his acceptance, being delivered from violent and
over-whelming sorrows, I would most readily give all the advice and help I
can to those that are yet mourning under desertions, and complaining that
God is departed from them, and that he remembers them no more. After the
many waves and billows that went over me, through the great goodness of God
I now enjoy a calm; and I pity, and would fain help those who are yet
laboring in the deep; and for them peculiarly I write this Treatise; in
which, tho' there be many things less exact than a Critical Reader may
expect; yet there are some in which, I hope, a distressed Soul may find
relief.
A discourse concerning trouble of mind, and the disease of melancholly,
Timothy Rogers, 1691 AD
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