A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan
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A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

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13.07.2015 Views

SECT. Ill, PART I.CHAP. T.Three Principles of Comfort from without us, to be applied to AfHictedConsciences.Thus much of the theory, I come now to the practical part,to a particular application of some special sovereign anti^dotes to the most grievous ordinary maladies incident to thesouls of the saints.But first give me leave to premise some general well-heads,out of which do spring abundance of comfort, and overflowingrivers of refreshing for all intents and effects in pointof temptation and trouble of mind.And first take a fruitful cluster and heavenly heap of themtogether; those twelve heads of extraordinary, immeasurable,comfortable matter for spiritual medicines, vi'hich Ihave heretofore erected as so many invincible bulwarksagainst all assaults of despair, oppositions of Satan, exceptionsof distrust.1. The infiniteness of God's mercy, sweetly intimated inIsa. Iv, 6, 7, 8. The mercy of God is like himself, infinite.All our sins are finite, both in number and nature. Nowbetween finite and infinite there is no proportion, and so nopossibility of resistance. And therefore be thy sins neverso notorious and numberless, yet a truly broken heart,thirsting for and throwing itself upon Christ, unfeignedlyresolving upon new obedience and his glorious service forthe time to come, can no more withstand or stand beforeGod's mercies, than a little spark can withstand the boundlessand mighty ocean, thrown into the midst of it ; nay,infinitely less. If all the sins that all the sons and daughtersof Adam have committed since the creation to this timewere all upon one soul, yet so affected as 1 have said, andput into such a new penitent gracious temper, it should bemost certainly upon good ground and everlastingly safe. Ispeak not thus to make any secure ; for any one sin, pleasing

AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 231and reigning, will ruin a soul for ever ; but to assure ofmercy enough, how great or many soever the sins havebeen, if the heart be now truly humbled for them all, andwholly turned heavenward.2. The invaluableness of Christ's meritorious blood , whichis called " the blood of God," and therefore of inestimableprice. Understand me aright : it was " the blood of God ;"not of the Godhead, but of him who was both God and man.For the manhood of Christ was received into the union ofthe Second Person, and so it may be called " the blood ofGod," for so speaks St. Paul ( Acts xx, 28), "God purchasedhis church with his own blood ;" that is, Christ, God incarnate.Our divines express it thus ": It was the Son of Godand Lord of life that died for us upon the cross ; but it wasthe nature of man, not of God, wherein he died ; and it wasthe nature of God, and infinite excellency of the same,whence the price, value, and worth of his passion grew."This blessed blood then is of infinite efficacy ; and therefore,if thou be now turning to the Lord, assure thyself, whatsoeverthy sins have been, they have not outgone the pricethat hath been paid for them. This blood, upon repentance,did take oflf the transcendant scarlet guilt from the soulseven of those that shed it. (Acts ii, &c.)3. The riches of the word, in affording precedents of thesaints, and of the Son of God himself, who have surpassedthee, and that perhaps very far, in any kind of misery thoucanst name.(1.) Thou art perhaps consulting with the prodigal tocome in, but there comes terribly into thy mind the extraordinaryheinousness of thy former sins, and that hinders.Cast thine eye then upon Manasseh, a man of prodigiousimpiety and matchless villany. He " shed innocent bloodvery much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end toanother. He did that which was evil in the sight of theLord, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom theLord had cast out before the children of Israel. He causedhis children to pass through the fire in the valley of the sonof Hinnom. Also he observed times, and used enchantments,and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit,and with wizards. He wrought much evil in the sight of theLord, to provoke him to anger," &c. (2 Kings xxi, 16;2 Chron. xxxiii, 2 — b.) And yet this great sinner, " humblinghimself greatly before the God of his fathers," wasreceived to mercy (ver. 12, 13).(2.) Suppose (which yet were a horrible thing) that afterconversion, by extraordinary violence of temptation, strongensnarement of some sudden sensual offer and opportunity.

SECT. Ill, PART I.CHAP. T.Three Principles of Comfort from without us, to be applied to AfHictedC<strong>on</strong>sciences.Thus much of the theory, I come now to the practical part,to a particular applicati<strong>on</strong> of some special sovereign anti^dotes to the most grievous ordinary maladies incident to thesouls of the saints.But first give me leave to premise some general well-heads,out of which do spring abundance of comfort, and overflowingrivers of refreshing for all intents and effects in pointof temptati<strong>on</strong> and trouble of mind.And first take a fruitful cluster and heavenly heap of themtogether; those twelve heads of extraordinary, immeasurable,comfortable matter for spiritual medicines, vi'hich Ihave heretofore erected as so many invincible bulwarksagainst all assaults of despair, oppositi<strong>on</strong>s of Satan, excepti<strong>on</strong>sof distrust.1. <strong>The</strong> infiniteness of God's mercy, sweetly intimated inIsa. Iv, 6, 7, 8. <strong>The</strong> mercy of God is like himself, infinite.All our sins are finite, both in number and nature. Nowbetween finite and infinite there is no proporti<strong>on</strong>, and so nopossibility of resistance. And therefore be thy sins neverso notorious and numberless, yet a truly broken heart,thirsting for and throwing itself up<strong>on</strong> Christ, unfeignedlyresolving up<strong>on</strong> new obedience and his glorious service forthe time to come, can no more withstand or stand beforeGod's mercies, than a little spark can withstand the boundlessand mighty ocean, thrown into the midst of it ; nay,infinitely less. If all the sins that all the s<strong>on</strong>s and daughtersof Adam have committed since the creati<strong>on</strong> to this timewere all up<strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong>e soul, yet so affected as 1 have said, andput into such a new penitent gracious temper, it should bemost certainly up<strong>on</strong> good ground and everlastingly safe. Ispeak not thus to make any secure ; for any <strong>on</strong>e sin, pleasing

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