A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

158 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTINGhe will never utterly and finally forsake any of his. Thusdied thoseblessed servants of God, Mrs. Brettergh, Mr. Peacock,&c. Mrs. Brettergh in the heat of temptation" wished that she had never been born, or that she hadbeen made any other creature rather than a woman." Butwhen that hellish storm was overblown by the return of theglorious beams of the sun of righteousness into her soul, sheturned her tune and triumphed thus : "Oh happy am i , thatever I was born to see this blessed day ! I confess beforethe Lord his loving-kindness, and his wonderful works beforethe sons of men. For he hath satisfied my soul, and filledmy hungry soul with goodness."Mr. Peacock, in the height of his dreadful desertion toldthose about him, that he " conversed with hell-hounds ;that the Lord had cursed him ; that he had no grace ; thatit was against the course of God's proceeding to save him,"&c. But when that horrible tempest of spiritual terrorswas happily dispersed, and the light of God's comfortablecountenance began to shine again upon his most heavy andafflicted spirit, he disavowed all " inconsiderate speeches,"as he called them, in his temptation, and did humbly andheartily ask mercy of God for them all, and did thus triumph": What ! should I extol the magnificence of God,which is unspeakable, and more than any heart can conceive1 Nay, rather let us with humble reverence acknowledgehis great mercy. V/hat great cause have I to magnifythe great goodness of God, that hath humbled, nay ratherexalted such a wretched miscreant of so base conditionto an estate so glorious and stately ! The Lord hathhonoured me with his goodness. I am sure he hath provideda glorious kingdom for me. The joy which I feel inmy heart is incredible."(4.) Some of God's worthiest champions and most zealous-servantsdo not answer the irreprovable sanctity oftheir life and unspotted current of their former conversationwith those proportionable extraordinary comforts and gloriouspassages upon their beds of death, which in ordinarycongruity might be expected, as a convenient conclusion tothe rare and remarkable Christian carriages of such blessedsaints. So bottomless and infinitely unfathomable by theutmost of all created understandings are the depths ofGod's most holy ways and his inscrutable counsels ;quitecontrary many times to the probable conclusions of man'sbest wisdom. But every one of his, since he certainlypasses through those pangs into pleasures and joys endlessand unspeakable, must be content to glorify God and to beserviceable to his secret ends with what kind of death he