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A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

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—192 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTINGindustriously and fruitfully with thy }>est endeavour andutmost ability those three glorious works of Christianity,preservati<strong>on</strong> of purity in thine own soul and body, righteousdealing with all thou hast to do with, holy carriage towardsGod in all religious duties ; in a word, by " denying ungodlinessand worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously,and godlily in this present world," of which the " grace ofGod teacheih " every true c<strong>on</strong>vert to make c<strong>on</strong>science (Tit.ii, 11, 12) —; I say, if up<strong>on</strong> thy recovery this be thy course,thou art certainly new-created. Such blessed behaviour asthis will infallibly evidence these present terrors to havebeen the pangs of thy new-birth, and thy happy translati<strong>on</strong>from death to life, from the vanity and folly of sin into thelight and liberty of God's children.II. Sec<strong>on</strong>dly, say unto him : When <strong>on</strong>ce that blessedfountain of soul-saving blood is opened up<strong>on</strong> thy soul inthe side of the S<strong>on</strong> of God by the hand of faith for " sinand for uncleanness ;" then also must a counter-spring, asIt were, of repentant tears be opened in thine humbledheart, which must not be dried up until thy dying day.This is my meaning (for every Christian hath not tears atcommand : the heart sometimes may bleed when the eyesare dry). Thou must be c<strong>on</strong>tent to c<strong>on</strong>tinue the currentof thy godly sorrow up<strong>on</strong> that abominable sink of all thelusts, vanities, and villanies of thy dark and carnal time ;and also up<strong>on</strong> those frailties, infinnities, imperfecti<strong>on</strong>s, defects,relapses, backslidings, which may accompany thyregenerate state, even until that body of sin which thoucarriest about thee be dissolved by the stroke of death. Asc<strong>on</strong>cerning thine old sins, and those that are past, it is notenough that now the fresh horror of them, and those grislyaffrighting forms wherein they have appeared to the eye ofthy wounded c<strong>on</strong>science, have wrought up<strong>on</strong> thy heart, byGod's blessing, some softness, heart-rising, remorse, andhatred : but thou must many and many a time hereafter,in the extraordinary exercises of renewed repentance, pressthy penitent spirit to bleed afresh within thee, and drawwater again out of the bottom of thy broken heart withthose Israelites (1 Sam. vii, 6), and pour it out before theLord in abundance of bitter tears for thy never -sufficientlysorrowed-forabominati<strong>on</strong>s and rebelli<strong>on</strong>s against so blessedand bountiful a God.Now the solemn times and occasi<strong>on</strong>s when we are calledto this renewed repentance are such as these :1. When we are to perform some special services untoGod; because then out of a godly jealousy we may fearlest the face and favour of God, the love and light of his

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