A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

•of312 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTINGappi-eciative, when the will doth more esteem the detestationof sin, than the attainment of any good, or escapingany ill ;" and so by consequence (for, as I intimated, atroubled conscience in such a case is very curious andinquisitive, and will not stay only upon confused and generalnotions of good and ill, but easily descend to particulars,to know its state more perfectly, especially in a point of sogreat importance) a man must find his heart first to prizethe hatred of sin before the happiness of heavenly joys oravoiding hellish pains, before he can come to comfort ofthe remission of his sins. What a torture were it to atroubled spiiit to fall into the hands of such true pharisees,who lay heavy burthens upon others, but will not touchthem themselves with the least of their fingers. But,blessed be God ! we truly teach that it is not so much themeasure and amount, as the truth and heartiness of oursorrow, which fits for the promises of life and pardon ofsin. Yet I must say this also, he that thinks he hath sorrowedsufficiently, never sorrowed truly. And I like Bellarmine'slast proposition well, in the fore-cited place, if itbe thus understood, that we must desire, aim, and endeavourafter the highest pitch of godly sorrow which canpossibly be attained. But it is one thing to £ay, either justso much measure of sorrow or no mercy— such a quantitycontrition or no remission—another thing to say we ntiustlong and labour to bring our naughty hearts to this, even tobe willing rather to lie in hell than to live in sin. Perfectionsof grace are aimed at in this life, not attained.4. I confess some of them sometimes, by reason of freedomin their schools, over-ruled like Caiaphas, or over-masteredby the clearness and invincibleness of the truth, speaksomething more orthodoxically *;but you see them stilllike the four winds blow in one another's faces. Hereupon1 have many times marvelled, that understanding papistslooking into the point are not plunged into desperate perplexities,considering the variety of opinions and uncertaintyof the degree of sorrow required to their contrition :but when I reflected upon another rotten daubing trick oftheirs, 1 rather wonder at the depths of their antichristiancraft in so politicly and plausibly patching together theirpopish paradoxes, that they may still keep their deludeddisciples in contentment, and please them still at least withsome palliatives instead of cures. It is this 1 mean : they* See on this point, Vega, lib. ili, cap. xxiv, art. " Ad que accedit;"Ibid art. " Et Sacerdotes ;" Tolet. Instruct. Sacerd. lih. ii, cap. v, art."Quartani dubium "; Navar. cap. i, num. xviii; Estius, in iv, sent,dist. xvi, sect, vii, art. " Adde qu«jd si sumnius." &c.