A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 235fastened upon thee. Contemn thou therefore for ever, andtrample upon with a humble and triumphant patience, alltheir contumelies and contempts. Pass by nobly, withouttouch or trouble, without wound or passion, the utmostmalice of the most scurrilous tongues, the basest taunts ofthe most impure drunkard.(9.) Doth the world, carnal men, thine own friends, formalteachers, suppose and declare thee to be a dissemblerin thy profession, and will needs concurrently and confidently,yet falsely, fasten upon thee the imputation of hypocrisy?A heavy charge ! Yet for all this, let thy trulyhumbledheart, conscious to itself of its own sincerity inholy services, like a strong pillar of brass, beat back alltheir poisoned arrows of malice and mistake, without anydirection or discouragement ; only take occasion hereby tosearch more thoroughly, and walk more warily. Job maybe a right noble pattern to thee in this point also. He hadagainst him not only the devil, his enemy, pushing at himwith his poisoned weapons ; but even his own friends scourginghim with their tongues ; his own wife a thorn prickinghim in the eye : yea, his own God " running upon him likea giant, and his terrors setting themselves in array againsthim;" powerful motives to make him suspect himself offormer halting and hollow-heartedness in the ways of God ;yet notwithstanding his good and honest heart having beenlong before aquainted with, and knit unto his God in truth,makes him break out boldly, and resolutely protest — " Till1 die I will not remove my integrity from me. My righteousnessI hold fast, and will not let it go. Behold, mywitness is in heaven, and my record is on high" (Job xxvii,5,6; xvi, 19).(TO.) Art thou a loving and tender-hearted mother untothy children, and hast thou lost the dearest? The greatestoutward cross, 1 confess, that ever the sons and daughters ofAdam tasted, and goeth nearest to the heart. Yet thy sorrowis not singular, but outgone m this also : for the blessedmother of Christ stood by, and saw her own only, dear, innocentSon, the Lord of life, most cruelly and villanouslymurdered upon the cross before her eyes (John xix, 25).Hast thou lost thy goods or children? Doth thy wife thatlies in thy bosom set herself against thee ? Do thy nearestfriends charge thee falsely? Art thou pained extremelyfrom top to toe? Do the arrows of the Almighty stick fastin thy soul ? Thy affliction is grievous enough, if thou tasteany of these severally ; but do they all in greatest extremityconcur upon thee at once ? Hast thou lost all thy children