A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

—AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 277to nothing for the present, but groans,to do as God would have us.desires, and longingsFor instance :Thou art much afflicted, because thou feelest the spirit ofprayer not to stir and work in thee with that life and vigouras it was wont ; but beginnest to languish in the inward manfor lack of that vital heat and feeling in the mutual intercourseand commerce between God and thine own soul,which heretofore many times warned thine heart with manysweet refreshings, springing from a comfortable correspondencebetween thy holy ejaculations and his heavenly inspirations; between thine humble complaints at the throneof grace and his gracious answers; nay, it maybe, thouthrowest down thyself before his seat of mercy in muchbitterness of spirit ; and for the time can say little ornothing ; the present dulness and indisposition of thineheart stopping all passages to thy wonted prayers, anddamming up, as it were, the ordinary course of thy mostblessed heart-ravishing conference with thy God in secret.But tell me true, poor soul, though at such a time, and insuch an uncomfortable damp and spiritual deadness, thoufeelest not thine heart enabled and enlarged for the pre ent,to pour out itself with accustomed fervency and freedom ;yet doth not that heart of thine with an unutterable thirstand desire long to offer up unto his throne of grace thysuits and sacrifices of prayer and praises with that heartinessand feeling, with all those broken and bleeding affections,which a grieved sense of sin that hangs so l^ast on,and a holy greediness after pardon, grace, and nearer communionwith his heavenly highness, are wont to beget intruly humbled souls 1 If so, assure thyself this very desireis a prayer of extraordinary strength, dearness, and acceptationwith thy God ;—I say, with that thy merciful LordGod, who is as far more compassionately and lovingly affectedto his child, than the kindest father to his dearliestbeloved Son ; as the infinite love of a tender-hearted Goddoth surpass the faint affection of a frail and mortal man.Suppose thy dearest child were in great extremity, andshould at last grow so low and weak, that it were not ableto speak, but only groan and sigh, and cast its eye uponthee, as one from whom alone it looked for help. Wouldnot thine heart melt over thy child a great deal more inthat misery than ever before when it was able to express itsmind? I am sure it would. It is just so in the presentpoint : for " like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lordpitieth them that fear him." Nay, and much more, if weconsider the amount and quantity. For look how far God2 B