A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

64 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTINGwhole world offers or affords to comfort in such a case ; itia word, makes a man so extremely miserable, that he wouldmake away with himself, wishes with unspeakable griefthat he had never been, that he might return into theabhorred state of annihilation, that he were any other creature,that he might lie hid world without end under someeverlasting rock from the face of God ; nay, that he wereratlier in hell than in his present horror ;— 1 say, it beingthus, what unquencliable wrath, what streams of brimstone,what restless anguish, what gnashing of teeth, what gnawingof conscience, what despairful roarings, what horribletorments, what fiery hells feeding upon his soul and fleshfor ever, may every impenitent wretch expect, when tliewhole black and bloody catalogue oi' all his sins shall bemarshalled and mustered up together at once against him levery one being sharpened with as much torturing fury asthe infinite anger of Almighty God can put into it, afterthat he hath accursedly with much incorrigible stubbornnessoutstood the day of his gracious visitation under thisglorious sunshine of the gospel, wherein he either hath, orif he had been as provident for his immortal soul as anxiousin caring for his rotten carcass might have enjoyed verypowerful means all his life long: and yet all the whileneglected so great salvation, foisook his own mercy, and so.iudged himself unworthy of everlasting life !If a lesser sin many times press so heavy when the conscienceis enlightened, how will thy poor soul tremble underthe terrible and intolerable weight" of all thy sins together?When all thy lies, all thy oaths, all thy filthy speeches andrailings, all thy mad passions and impure thoughts, all thygood-fellow meetings, ale-house hauntings, and scoffings ofGod's people, all the wrongs thou hast done, all the goodsthou hast got ill, all the time thou hast mispent; thy profanationof every sabbath, thy killing of Christ at every sacrament,thy non-proficiency at every sermon, thy ignorance,thy unbelief, thy worldliness, thy covetousness, thypride, thy malice, thy lust, thy lukewarmness, impatience,discontentment, vain-glory, self-love, the innumerableswarms of vain, idle, wandering, and wicked imaginations ;in a word, all the pollutions, distempers, and estrangednessfroiri God in thine heart; all the villanies, vanities, and rebellionsof thy whole life ;—I say, when all these shall becharged upon thy graceless soul by the implacable indignationof that highest Majesty, whose mercy, ministry, andlong-suffering thou hast shamefully abused ; whose anger,patience, and pure eye thou hast villanously provoked allthy life long, alas ! what wilt thou do then l What " wings