A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

!AFFLICTED CONSCIENCI':S. 267blood, and arraign a lustful thought as guilty of adulteryand actual pollution ; his arms of mercy will most certainlyembrace and accept of a sincere desire of the deed done, ofhearty affections for the actions, and of a grieved spirit forthe grace it groans for.Yea, but, may some say, if mercy be so fair a flower inthe garland of God's incomprehensible greatness, if it sofar excel his other attributes in amiableness amongst hiscreatures, how comes it to pass that the number of his electis so small, and the sway of the multitude sink down uriderthe burthen of their iniquities, transgressions, and sins, intothe pit of endless perdition? How comes it to pass, thatout of the great heap and mass of all mankind, there aremade but so few vessels of mercy ; and that so many vesselsof wrath are justly for their sins filled brini full with thevials of everlasting vengeance? See Matt, vii, 13, 14 ; andXX, 16.Some matter of answer to this point (would ye think it?)may be taken even from the schoolmen.If we consider, first, the inconceivable eminency and invaluableworth of the crown of glory, which doth so far anddisproporlionabiy surpass and transcend the common slateand condition of our nature. Secondly, the preciousness ofthe effusion of the blood of the dear and only Son of Godfor the purchasing of that so glorious a crown. Thirdly, thenecessary and inevitable defectibility of the creature.Fourthly, the most free and wilful apostasy of Adam, andin him of all his posterity. Fifthly, the abominable andvillanous nature and stain of sin. Why should we^not,therefore, rather wonder at the unsearchableness of God'smercy for advancing one soul to that endless bliss in heaven,than repine at the equity of his justice, if he should havesuffered all the polluted and sini'ul sons of Adam to passfrom the mass of corruption into which they freely fell oftheir own accord and cursed choice, through a rebelliouslife, into the endless miseries of their deserved confusion ?Would it not have been a greater marvel to have seen anyone clearly convinced and found guilty of that rnost horriblevillany that ever was bred in hell, or heard of in the world(I mean the Popish powder treason), pardoned, than allthose desperate assassins to have justly perished in their soabhorred and execrable rebellion? And it is utterly unimaginable,either by man or angel, what a deal of mercy dothflow out of the bowels of God's dearest compassions, throughthe heart's blood of his only Son, to the washing and salvationbut of one soul