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

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13.07.2015 Views

18 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTINGthat he shall be able then to say with David, Psalm xlvi, 1,2, " Ihe Lord is my refuge and ray strength, &c. Thereforewill i not fear though the earth be removed, and thoughthe mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." Butthey shall cry out of the bitterness of their spirits with thehypocrites, Isa. xxxiii, 14, "Who among us shall dwellwith the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell witheverlasting burnings 1" God is nmch honoured, and histruth glorified, when it appears in the face of men that apoor neglected Christian (or, in the world's language, aprecise fool) is able by the power of grace and influence ofhis favour to affront and outface all the frowns and malignantaspects of the proud giants of the world : and he isthe Lord's noblest champion, and a professor of the truestand heavenliest dye, that holds out in the wetting, andshrinks not in the day of adversity. Chrysostom speaks tothe people of Antioch like himself, a man of an invinciblespirit, against the tyrannies of his times :" In this," hesays, " should a gracious differ from a graceless man, thathe should bear his cross courageously, and as it were withthe wings of faith outsoar the height of all human miseries.He should be like a rock, being incorporated into JesusChrist, impregnable and unshaken with the most furious incursionsof the waves and storms of worldly troubles, pressures,and persecutions " and, blessed be God, ; that evenhere upon earth, in this vale of tears, there is such a visibleand vast difference between a wicked and godly man. Theone is like the raging sea that cannot rest : the other standsfast like a rock which shall never be removed. An unregenerateheart is ever restless ; commonly in these threeregards at the least: 1. By reason of an endless and insatiableappetite after pleasures, riches, honours, revenge, orwhat other darling delight it hath singled out and madespecial choice of, to follow and feed upon with greatestcontentment and sensual sweetness. God hath justly putthat property, or rather poison, into all earthly things doatedupon and desired immoderately, that they shall plague theheart which so pursues them, by filling it still with a furiousand fresh supply of more greediness, jealousies, and manymiserable discontentments, so that they become unto it asdrink unto a man in a dropsy or burning fever, serve onlyto inflame it with new heat and fiery additions of insatiablethirst and inordinate longings. 2. Because of the manysecret grumblings and stinging reclamations of a galledconscience against its present guilty courses and forbiddenpleasures. 3. In respect of a continual ebullition, as itwere, of confused and contrary lusts out of the poisoned

AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 19fountain of original corruption, which fill it with many distractionsand tumultuations of hell. But now, if besidesthis inward boiling it be also tossed with outward troubles,what a miserable creature is a carnal man 1 Even as thesea, if besides its internal agitations by the restless motionsof estualion, dissension, revolution, and reflection, it bealso outwardly troubled with storms and tempestuous winds,how rageful and roaring will it be 1 But the other is like astrong immovable mountain that stands impregnable againstthe rage of wind and weather ; and all the cruel incursionsand ungodly oppositions made against it, either by men ordevils, are but like so many proud and swelling waves whichdash themselves against a mighty rock, — the more boisterouslythey beat against it, the more are they broken andturned into a vain foam and froth. Come what will, hisheart is still in his breast, and his resolution as high asheaven.Pestilent then is that principle of Machiavei (one notto be named but by way of detestation), and savoursrankly of cursed atheism, whereby he leaches in sense andsum ; that " heathenish religion did inspire her worthies ofold with invincible and victorious spirits ;but Christian religionbegets effeminacy, dejections, and fears." He speaksto this purpose, which to me seems strange, that such aprofound professor of the depths, or rather devilishness ofpolicy, should doat so sottishly :—and yet it is no suchstrange thing, for many times we may observe, that deepestpolicy, by the curse of God upon it for opposition to goodness,turns into extremest folly : and all counsels and politic constitutionsagainst Christ are but the brainless infatuationsof Ahithophel.For that which he holds is strongly contradictory both tocommon sense and a thousand experiences to the contrary.For the first, and in a word, let that great master of mischiefand of most abhorred atheistical principles of state tell me,whether a real assurance of a crown of life and endless joysin another world be not more powerful to raise a n,an'sspirit to the highest pitch of undaunted nobleness of spiritand unconquerable resolution, than a vain breath of immortalfame among miserable men after this life 1 and in thislies the sinew of his proof. For the second, let the acts ofthe ancient Jews be impartially v/eighed, from whose magnanimityin causes of most extreme hazard those strangeand unwonted resolutions have grown, which for all circumstances,says a great divine, no people under the roof ofheaven did ever hitherto match : and that which did alwaysanimate them was their mere religion. Let the chronicles

18 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTINGthat he shall be able then to say with David, Psalm xlvi, 1,2, " Ihe Lord is my refuge and ray strength, &c. <strong>The</strong>reforewill i not fear though the earth be removed, and thoughthe mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." Butthey shall cry out of the bitterness of their spirits with thehypocrites, Isa. xxxiii, 14, "Who am<strong>on</strong>g us shall dwellwith the devouring fire? who am<strong>on</strong>g us shall dwell witheverlasting burnings 1" God is nmch h<strong>on</strong>oured, and histruth glorified, when it appears in the face of men that apoor neglected Christian (or, in the world's language, aprecise fool) is able by the power of grace and influence ofhis favour to affr<strong>on</strong>t and outface all the frowns and malignantaspects of the proud giants of the world : and he isthe Lord's noblest champi<strong>on</strong>, and a professor of the truestand heavenliest dye, that holds out in the wetting, andshrinks not in the day of adversity. Chrysostom speaks tothe people of Antioch like himself, a man of an invinciblespirit, against the tyrannies of his times :" In this," hesays, " should a gracious differ from a graceless man, thathe should bear his cross courageously, and as it were withthe wings of faith outsoar the height of all human miseries.He should be like a rock, being incorporated into JesusChrist, impregnable and unshaken with the most furious incursi<strong>on</strong>sof the waves and storms of worldly troubles, pressures,and persecuti<strong>on</strong>s " and, blessed be God, ; that evenhere up<strong>on</strong> earth, in this vale of tears, there is such a visibleand vast difference between a wicked and godly man. <strong>The</strong><strong>on</strong>e is like the raging sea that cannot rest : the other standsfast like a rock which shall never be removed. An unregenerateheart is ever restless ; comm<strong>on</strong>ly in these threeregards at the least: 1. By reas<strong>on</strong> of an endless and insatiableappetite after pleasures, riches, h<strong>on</strong>ours, revenge, orwhat other darling delight it hath singled out and madespecial choice of, to follow and feed up<strong>on</strong> with greatestc<strong>on</strong>tentment and sensual sweetness. God hath justly putthat property, or rather pois<strong>on</strong>, into all earthly things doatedup<strong>on</strong> and desired immoderately, that they shall plague theheart which so pursues them, by filling it still with a furiousand fresh supply of more greediness, jealousies, and manymiserable disc<strong>on</strong>tentments, so that they become unto it asdrink unto a man in a dropsy or burning fever, serve <strong>on</strong>lyto inflame it with new heat and fiery additi<strong>on</strong>s of insatiablethirst and inordinate l<strong>on</strong>gings. 2. Because of the manysecret grumblings and stinging reclamati<strong>on</strong>s of a galledc<strong>on</strong>science against its present guilty courses and forbiddenpleasures. 3. In respect of a c<strong>on</strong>tinual ebulliti<strong>on</strong>, as itwere, of c<strong>on</strong>fused and c<strong>on</strong>trary lusts out of the pois<strong>on</strong>ed

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