A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

94 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTINGhim in crowds ": And the people asked him, saying, Whatshall we do then 1 Then came also publicans to be baptized,and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? And thesoldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shallwe do " 1 (Luke iii, 10, 12, 14.)—Of Peter, who being nowfreshly inspired and illuminated from above with large andextraordinary effusions of the Holy Ghost, shadowed by" cloven fiery tongues " (Acts ii), in the very prime andflower of his ministerial wisdom, bends himself to break thehearts of his hearers. Amongst other piercing passages ofhis searching sermon, he tells them to their faces (theystanding before him stained with the horrible guilt of thedearest blood that ever was shed upon earth, most worthyto have been gathered up by the most glorious angels invessels of gold), that they had crucified and slain that justand holy One, the Lord of life, Jesus of Nazareth (ver.23).And again at the conclusion (ver. 36) leaves the same tormentingsting in their consciences, vi'hich restlessly wroughtand boiled within them until it begot a great deal of compunction,terror, and tearing of their hearts with extremeamazement and anguish. " Now when they heard this,they were pricked in their hearts " (ver. 37). Whereuponthey came crying " unto Peter, and the rest of the apostles.Men and brethren, what shall v\e do? " And so, being seasonablyled by the counsel of the apostles to believe on thename of Jesus Christ, to lay hold upon the promise, torepent evangelically, they had the reniission of sins sealedunto them by baptism, and were happily received into thenumber of the saints of God, whose Son they had so latelyslaughtered. — Of Paul, who though he stood as a prisonerat the bar, and might perhaps by a general plausible discourse,without piercing or paTticularizing,'have insinuatedinto the affections and won the favour of his hearers, whowere to be his judges, and so made way for his enlargementand particular welfare ;yet he, for all this, very resolutelyand unreservedly crosseth and opposeth their greedy, lustful,and careless humours with a right searching, terrifying sermonof " righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come "(Acts xxiv, 24, 25). That unhappy Felix was a fellowpolluted with abominable adultery, and very infamous forhis cruel and covetous oppressions, and consequently unapprehensiveand fearless of that dreadful tribunal, and theterrors to come. Whereupon Paul, having learned in theschool of Christ not to fear any mortal man in the dischargeof his ministry, draws the sword of the Spirit with undauntednessof spirit, and strikes presently at the very faceof those fearful sins, which reigned in his principal and