A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

:judiINTRODUCTION.proportion to the incomparable superiority of theobject, are the emotions with which we contemplateHim, whose being and character comprehend the unionof all possible excellence. The consciousness that wehave been enabled to perform a virtuous action, or topersevere in the imitation of excellence without anallowed deviation, administers a feeling of the samedelightful nature. The feelings produced by a longperseverance in such a course, fill us with a pleasure,to which the exulting consciousness of perfect healthin early youth perhaps aflfords the nearest, though stillan imperfect similitude. It is, in that expressive languageof Solomon, health to the bones. While, on theother hand, the horror of remembered guiltafflicts uslike the recollection of some intolerably loathsome object.In the sacred scriptures it is described by everycomparison which can express detestation, faintness,and horror. The most expressive metaphor of all, perhaps,is that of a wounded spirit. The hopeless, sickeningagony produced by a wound in some vital organ,approaches in some degree, but can never adequatelyrepresent the pangs of an accusing conscience. Themind cankers with what it deems an inmedicablewound. Unlike a bodily infirmity, the anguish of thespirit does not grow more tolerable the longer it isendured ; but, like the vitals of the fabled Prometheus,the mind presents an everlasting material to the lacerationsof remorse.All other painful topics which arecontemplated by the mind gradually lose their impression; but the tale told by an angry conscience is evernew. The mind becomes day by day even more sensibleto the pangs of its scorpion scourge. Other causesof mental distress are alleviated by change of scene