A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan
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A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

digitalpuritan.net
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13.07.2015 Views

298 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING[4.] In such an extremity of helplessness and hopelessness,in this trembling and terror of thy heart, thoushouldst call to mind for thy comfort, that " he who establishethall the ends of the earth " (Prov. xxx, 4) and hath"hung" that mighty and massive body " upon nothing "(Job xxvi, 7), can most easily stay and stablish the mostforlorn and forsaken soul, even sinking into the mouth ofdespair. He that said at first to the earth, Stand still uponnothing, and it never stirred out of its place since thecreation, can easily uphold, fortify, and refresh thine heartin the depth of the most grievous spiritual misery ; evenwhen in the bitterness of thy spirit thou criest, " Mystrength and my hope is perished from the Lord" (Lament,iii, 18).4th. Even his justice. Christ's blood is already paid asa price for the pardon of the sins of thine humbled soul,and thou wilt needs pay it over again, or else thou wilt notenter upon the purchase: as though God did expect andexact the discharge of the same debt twice, which to imagine,were a monstrous intolerable indignity to the mostjust God. You know full well what we should think ofthat man, who having a debt fully discharged by the surety,should press upon the principal for the payment of thesame again. We should indeed think him to be a verycruel, hard-hearted, and merciless man ; we should callhim a Turk, a cut-throat, a cannibal, far fitter to lodge ina den of tigers than to live in the society of men. What afearful dishonour then is it to the merciful and mightyLord of heaven and earth, to the righteous Judge of all theworld, to conceive, that having received an exact and fullsatisfaction for all our sins, by the heart's blood of his owndear Son, he should ever require them again at our hands !Far be it then from every one, who would not offer extraordinarydisparagement even to God's glorious justice, toentertain any such thought, especially since we have hisword, his oath, and the seal of his Son's blood for security.And assuredly we may build upon it, as upon a rock ofeternal truth ; that when we come unto Christ, weary ofall our sins, thii sting sincerely for him, and throwing ourselvesupon him, as salvation itself, resolved to take uponus his sweet and easy yoke for the time to come, he doihpresently, as he hath promised, take off the burthen, andfree us everlastingly from the guilt and stain, condemnationand reign of all our sins.But now if thou wilt cast thyself upon Jesus Christ, rollthyself upon the promises, being so humbled, spirituallythirsty, and resolved, as thou hast said and I supposed at

;AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 299the first (for we who are God's messengers, comfort andassure of pardon in sucli cases, only upon supposition, thatthe heart and speeches, all the promises and protestationsof the party and patient we deal with, be sincere everyway) ; I say, if thou thus cast thyself upon the Lord Jesusand the promises of lil'e, having a well-grounded, strong,and seasonable calling thereunto, being, as appears before,invited, entreated, commanded, &c. the case will be blessedlyaltered. Thou shalt now do as God would have thee ;and mightily honour the invaluable and infinite dignity ofhis Son's passion and blood, the precious freeness of allthe promises, his free love, sweet name, truth, mercy, power,justice,

;AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 299the first (for we who are God's messengers, comfort andassure of pard<strong>on</strong> in sucli cases, <strong>on</strong>ly up<strong>on</strong> suppositi<strong>on</strong>, thatthe heart and speeches, all the promises and protestati<strong>on</strong>sof the party and patient we deal with, be sincere everyway) ; I say, if thou thus cast thyself up<strong>on</strong> the Lord Jesusand the promises of lil'e, having a well-grounded, str<strong>on</strong>g,and seas<strong>on</strong>able calling thereunto, being, as appears before,invited, entreated, commanded, &c. the case will be blessedlyaltered. Thou shalt now do as God would have thee ;and mightily h<strong>on</strong>our the invaluable and infinite dignity ofhis S<strong>on</strong>'s passi<strong>on</strong> and blood, the precious freeness of allthe promises, his free love, sweet name, truth, mercy, power,justice,

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