A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

^282INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTINGcom-person, sufferings, promises, and all the rich purchases ofhis dearest blood as thine own for ever ; to take him asthy " wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, andredemption " ; that so " unspeakable joy, and full of glory,"" peace which passeth all understanding," evangelicalpleasures, which " neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, neitherhave entered into the heart of man," might abundantlyflow into thine heart from the " fountain of allfort." But yet so it is, alledging that thou art the unworthiestupon earth, the vilest of men ; no heart so hard asthine ; thy sins far above ordinary ; of an abominable andmost abhorred strain ; of a scarlet and crimson dye; forthou hast done so and so ; sinned many and many a timeagainst that divine, nay and even natural light, which stoodin thy conscience like an armed man ;persecuted thesaints ; lived in Sodom ; and that which troubles thee mostof all, for all these sins thy sorrow is very poor and scant,in no proportion to thy former heinous provocations: — Isay upon these, and the like mistaken grounds, thou veryunadvisedly professest, but against thine own soul, that asyet thou canst not, thou darest not, thou wilt not meddlewith any mercy, apply any promise, or be persuaded thatJesus Christ belongs unto thee. What! such a vile, unworthy,abominable wreicli as thou, to expect such gloriousthings, to come near so pure a God, to lay violent handsupon the Lord of life, and look for everlasting bliss ! Alas !say what you will, sayest thou, as yet 1 cannot, I darenot, I will not. Whereupon thou wilfully, as it were,liest still jupon the rack of much spiritual terror and troubleof mind ; and, which is a miserable addition and mischief,for which thou mayest thank thyself, art all thewhile far more liable and liest much more open to Satan'smost horrible injections, and cruellest temptations to selfdestruction,despair, plunging again into former pleasuresof good-fellowship, and the like.It grieves me to consider how fearfully and falsely thoudeceivest thine own heart in a point of so great importance,to thy much spiritual hurt and further horror. Why, this itis which maketh thee most welcome to Jesus Christ; becausethou art so sensible of thy spiritual misery and beggary; because thou art so vile, so abominable, so unworthyand wretched in thine own conceit. " Those that bewhole, need not a physician, but they that are sick. Christcame not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mat. ix,12,13). And in this respect he is said to " justify the ungodly" (Rom. iv, 5) ; and to " die for the unjust" (1 Pet.iii, 10) ; and to seek those that find themselves lost : and