A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

INTRODUCTION.xxiiibut this follows the wretched creature everywhere.Nature's loveliness appears scathed and tasteless to hisparched and agonizing heart. The wilderness offers nosolitude.Conscience pursues him through wilds nevertrod by the camel : its hand is upon him though hehide him in the lair of the crocodile amid the reedsof Nilus. Now this incurable anguish, this acutesense of degradation, this withering consciousness ofill desert, admitting of no alleviation even from the softeninghand of time, would seem to demonstrate that itconsists in a mischief far greater than the violation ofan acquired principle, however strong, but would seemto be more like an oifence committed against an originallaw of human nature.It is the design of the following <strong>treatise</strong> to describethese emotions, and to explain the only method bywhich they can be allayed. It will be found upon perusalto justify the sentiment of Dr. Doddridge * respectingit, that " it exhibits the traces of a soul mostintimately acquainted with God." The excellency ofthe work consists in the use of language throughoutwhich most plainly and most accurately conveys theauthor's meaning, in the communication of abundantknowledge and experience, and in the natural employmentof the most vivid and powerful descriptions.The ensuing volume is a faithful transcript of theoriginal edition, with the exception of a few words,which have been altered or omitted in order to renderit more intelligible and suitable to modern taste.• Lectures on Preaching.