A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 283therefore that which thou makest thy greatest discouragementto come unto ("hrist, should be, and in truth is thegreatest encouragement to cast thyself with confidence intotiie bosom of his love.But before 1 come to speak more fully tome premise this principle —:the point, letWhen a man is once sincerely humbled under God'smighty hand, with sight of sin and sense of divine wrath ;so that now all his former wicked ways, pollutions, and provocationsof God's pure eye, lie so heavy upon his heart,that he is truly weary, willing to be rid of them all, unfeignedlythirsting after the blood and righteousness ofChrist ; and therefore as well content to take upon him hissweet and easy yoke, to please him in new obediencefor the time to come, as to partake of the merit of his passionfor the present pardon of his sins : — I say then hemust conceive that he hath a sound, seasonable, and comfortablecalling to lay fast hold upon Jesus Christ, and tobe undoubtedly persuaded that he hath his part and portionin him. And besides that God's blessed word determinesit, he may the rather assent unto it and the moreboldly believe it, because he hath now found and feels byhis own expeiience the practice of that double policy ofthe devil, so often discovered unto him heretofore by God'sfaithful messengers ; to wit, that whereas he was a longtime uiOit industrious to keep his heart resolutely stubbornand unstirred against the might and piercing of the mostpowerful ministry, and when at any time he once perceivedit to begin to work upon him, raised all possible oppositionagainst his yielding ; so now, when he is truly touched indeedand resolute to abandon his hellish slavery for ever,he labours might and main, with all restless cruelty andmalice, to keep his conscience continually upon the rack.To this purpose he objects and urges to the utmost theheinousness of his former sins, the fierceness of God'swrath (vyhich he cunningly concealed before), the littlenessof his sorrow, his unworthiness to meddle with anyprouiise, and the like. And what is the reason, think you,that he who was so daubing before is now so downright ?he that was so indulgent before is now so desperate, and fornothing but despair and damnation] It is easy to tell : fortliat foul fiend knows full well, if a poor soul in the supposedcase and such a truly humbled state, shall but comenow, when Christ calls him, and " set to his seal that Godis true " (which not to do shall ever be an unmannerly madness,and wilful cruelty to a man's own conscience), he isthen quite gone out of his kingdom of darkness, and an immortalsoul is pulled out of his hellish paw for ever. This