A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 151before thou hast done, Avith penitent anguish and true remorsefor all thy other sinful corruptions also. When horrorfor some one heinous sin hath seized upon thy heart, followGod's blessed hand leading thee to conversion, and throughthe pangs of the new birth to unspeakable and glorious joy,by giving way to all the rest to bring in their several indictmentsagainst thy soul. And be not afraid thus to arraign,cast, and condemn thyself as guilty of innumerable sins,and -worthy ten thousand hells before God's just tribunal.For then shalt thou there most certainly find a gracious advocateat his right hand ; to whom if thou make suit andseek in truth, he will by the plea and price of his ownprecious blood, sue out a pardon for thine everlasting peace.When the guilty rage of thy reigning corruption begins topress upon thy conscience, lay on more weight still by apenitent addition and painful apprehension of all thy othersins, that growing very sensible of thy spiritual slavery,weary of the dungeon of lewdness and lust, sensuality anddeath, wherein the devil hath kept thee long; and thineheart being happily broken and bruised to the bottom, andscorched as it were in some measure with hellish flames ofguilty horror, thou mayest see and feel the greater necessityof Jesus Christ, set him at a higher price, with more eagernessand impatience thirst for his righteousness and blood ;long for spiritual enlargement more than for worlds of pleasures,glory, or wealth ; relish the hidden manna of thepromises more eagerly, and cast thy wounded and bleedingsoul with more delight and sweetness into iiis blessed armsof mercy and love. For, " O how acceptable is the fountainof living waters," saith a worthy divine, " to thechased and panting hart! the blood of Christ to theweary and tired soul ! to the thirsty conscience scorchedwith "the sense of God's wrath ! He that presents him withit, how welcome is he ! Even as a special choice man ; oneof a thousand. The deeper the sense of misery, the sweeteris the sense of mercy. The traitor laid dov/n upon the blockis more sensible of his sovereign's mercy in pardoning, thanhe who is not yet seized. In our dead security before conversion,God is fain to let the law, sin, conscience, Satan, adeep sense of our abominable and cursed state, loose uponus, and to kindle the very tire of hell in our souls, that sowe might be roused, and afterward more sweetly andsoundly raised and refreshed. For after the most toilsomelabour is the swetest sleep ; after the greatest tempests thestillest calms. Sanctified troubles and terrors establish thesurest peace ;and the shaking of these winds makes thetrees of God's Eden take the deeper rooting."