A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

362 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTINGCHAP. XVII.Two more helps for the Cure of the former Malady.5. Nay, hear the Spirit of all truth and comfort himselfimmediately. " Who is amoog you that feareth the Lord,that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darknessand hath no light! Let him trust in the name of theLord, and stay upon his God." "Whence we may draw adouble comfort in time of desertion: — First. Because inthy present apprehension thou findest and feelest thyselfin darkness, and to have no light ; thou art ready thereuponto conceive and conclude unnecessarily against thy ownsoul, that God's favour, Jesus Christ, grace, salvation, andall are gone for ever. And this is the most cutting stingand sorest pang which grievously afflicts and rends theheart in pieces with restless anguish in such cases. Outof what depth of horror do you think did these heavy groans,and almost, if not altogether for the time, despairingspeeches spring in those blessed saints mentioned before?" Will the Lord cast oft' for ever 1 and will he be favourableno morel Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth hispromise fail for evermore?" While I suffer thy terrorsI am distracted. I am amazed, confounded, and almostmad with fear, lest my soul should be swallowed up withthe horrors of eternal death. "1 am afraid lest the Lordhath utterly withdrawn his wonted favour from me ! Woe,woe, &c. A weak, a woful, a wretched, a forsaken woman,I have no more sense of grace than these curtains. Oh !how woful and miserable is my estate, that must thus conversewith hell-hounds ! It is against the course of God'sproceedings to save me," &c. But now herein the desertedin the sense I have said are much deceived, and extremelywrong ; their own souls in such extremity not consideringthat their walking in darkness and having no light maymost certainly consist with a saving estate and a being inGod's favour, though for the present not perceived, whichappears plainly by the quoted place, wherein he that walkethin darkness and hath no light is such a one as feareththe Lord and obeyeth tlie voice of his servant. Now thefear of God and obedience to the ministry are evident marksof a gracious man. Hence it is thai when the servants ofGod are something come again unto themselves, they seeand censure their own unadvisedness in that respect, disavowand disclaim all terms tending that way, which they