A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

:36 INSTRUCTIOT^fS FOR COMFORTINGthou art yet alive, and with desperate rage and unspeakableauguish will feed upon thy soul and flesh ; the least twitch•whereof, not all the pleasures often thousand worlds wouldever be able to countervail. For as the peace of a good, sothe pangs of a guilty conscience are unspeakable. So thatat that time thou mayest justly take unto thyself Pashur'sterrible name, Magor Missubih, Fear round about. Thouwilt be a terror to thyself and to all thy friends. And thatwhich in this woful case will sting extremely, no friends,nor physic ; no gold, nor silver ; no height of place, nor favourof prince ; not the glory and pleasures of the wholeworld ; not the crowns and command of all earthly kingdoms,can possibly give any comfort, deliverance, or ease !For when that time and terror hath overtaken thee, whichis threatened Prov. i, 24—31 ;" Because I have called andye refused ; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and wouldnone of my reproof : I also will laugh at your calamity ; I willmock when your fear cometh ; when your feai' cometh as desolation,and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind ; when distressand anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call uponme, but 1 will not answer, they shall seek me early, but theyshall not find me : for that they hated knowledge, and did notchoose the fear of the Lord : they would none of my counselthey despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat ofthe fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices— :" I say, when this terrible time is come upon thee,then will the mighty Lord of heaven and earth come againstthee " as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and willrend the caul of thy heart, and will devour thee like a lion"(Hos. xiii, 8). " lie will come with fire and with hischariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, andhis rebuke with flames of fire" (Isa. ixvi, 15). All histerrors at that hour will fight against thee, and that unquenchableanger that burns to the very bottom of hell,and " sets on fire the foundations of the mountains " (Deut.xxxii, 22). The empoisoned arrows of his fiercest indignationshall be " drunk with the blood " of thy soul, and stickfast in it for ever. In a word, the fearful armies of all theplagues and curses, sorrows and insuflFerable pains denouncedin God's book against final impenitents, shall withirresistible violence take hold upon thee at once, and pursuethee with that fury, which thou shalt never be able eitherto avoid or abide ; and " Who is able to stand before thisholy Lord God ? who can abide in his sight when he isangry? who can deliver out of his hand?" What man orangel, what arm of flesh, or force of arms, what creature, or