A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 243you true, say sometimes to myself, Is it possible that thisshould be so ? That so glorious things should belong lo sucha wretch and worm as 1 am 1 But turning thine eye froma distrustful and too much dejected dwelling upon thineown desert, to what Christ hath done for thee, and to thealmightiness and all mercifulness of him that promiseth,consider withal, that God is also " abundant in truth."Every promise in his book is as sure as himself, sealed withhis Son's blood, and confirmed with his own oath. Hemust sooner cease to be God and deny himself, which ismore than infinitely impossible, and prodigious blasphemyto imagine, than fail in the least circumstance or syllableof his immeasurable love and promises of life to any onethat heartily loves him and is true of heart : and thereforewhen thy thirsty soul makes towards the well of life, byvirtue of that promise, Rev. xxi, 6, " I will give to him"that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely ;and upon survey of the overflowing rivers of pleasures andbliss, which everlastingly spring thence, begins to retirefrom it, as too good news to be true: I say then steel thyfaith and comfort thyself gloriously by consideration ofthat " abundant truth " with which he hath crowned everyword of his, stronger than a rock of brass, far surer thanthe pillars of the earth or poles of heaven. Nay, I speakan admirable thing, and of unutterable consolation, whichcannot be violated without destruction of the Deity, mostblessed and glorious for evermore ; and let this ever banishand beat back all scruples, doubts, fears, which at any timeoffer themselves, and oppose thy unspeakable joy and peacein believing."(6.) Well, saith another, I easily acknowledge the incomprehensiblegoodness in this name of God ; and hold themmost blessed who have their part and portion therein. Butfor my part 1 am afraid I come too late : for I have observedthe course of the ministry amongst us, and the dispensationof God's mercy in it. At first coming, our town beingfull of ignorance, profaneness, and much superstitious follies,having never before enjoyed the word with any life orpower, we all stood amazed a good while at the majestyand mystery of this new heavenly light. The first messagesof the ministry sounded in our ears " as the voice ofmany waters," m.ighty and great, but confused ; not workingin us either joy or terror, but only an extraordinarywonder, and secret acknowledgment of a strange force andmore than human power. But afterwards, when our watchmanwas better acquainted with our ways, and had morefully discovered the state of our souls, the word was unto