BV 4831. B69 T7 1831 
 Bolton, Robert, 1572-1631 
 A treatise on comforting 
 afflicted consciences 
 
THE 
 
 CUZtlSTZAM 'S CABXNST ZiZBILAItY, 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 THE MOST APPROVED RELIGIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 SELECTED BY 
 
 THE REV. JOSHUA F. DENHAM, M. A. 
 
 Lecturer of St. Bride's, Fleet Street. 
 
 ALREADY PUBLISHED, NEATLY DONE UP IN BOARDS. 
 
 s. d. 
 BOLTON on COMFORTING AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES, 
 with an Introduction, and a Memoir of the Author, by the 
 Rev. J. F. Dknham 5 
 
 ROMAINE'S LIFE, WALK, and TRIUMPH of FAITH 4 
 
 NEWTON'S (Rev. John) CARDIPHONIA, or the Utterance 
 of the Heart, in the course of a real Correspondence 2 6 
 
 NEWTON'S (Rev. John) OMICRON, Containing Forty-one 
 Letters on Religious Subjects. 1 6 
 
 CECIL'S LIFE ofthe Rev. JOHN NEWTON 1 6 
 
 DODDRIDGE'S RISE AND PROGRESS OF RELIGION IN 
 THE SOUL, a Complete Edition, with the Sermon on the Care 
 ofUieSoul 1 6 
 
 BOGATZKY'S GOLDEN TREASURY, consisting of devotional 
 and practical Observations on Passages of Scripture, for every 
 day in the year 1 6 
 
 ADAM'S PRIVATE THOUGHTS ON RELIGION, with 
 Stillingfleet's Life of tl\e Author 1 6 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 s.d, 
 HENRY (Matthew) on MEEKNESS and QUIETNESS of 
 SPIRIT, with a Sketch of the Author's Life, by the Rev. 
 J. F. Denham 1 
 
 HENRY (Matthew) on DAILY COMMUNION with GOD 
 (sewed 6d.) 9 
 
 The Two preceding in one vol. bound 2 
 
 SCOUGAL'S LIFE OF GOD in THE SOUL OF MAN, with 
 Bishop Burnet's Preface (sewed 6d.) 9 
 
 OWEN (Dr. John) on the NATURE and POWER of TEMP- 
 TATION (sewed 6d.) 9 
 
 FLETCHER'S ADDRESS to such as inquire "What must we 
 do to be saved ? " sewed 3 
 
 ORTON'S THREE DISCOURSES on ETERNITY, sewed. ... 3 
 
 DODDRIDGE'S ONE THING NEEDFUL, sewed 2 
 
 THE ABOVE STANDARD WORKS 
 
 Will be followed by others of equally high character and importance, 
 and at the same moderate prices. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Reading has been aptly designated *' the food of 
 thought ; " because, whatever may be the strength or 
 activity of the mental powers of any individual, or 
 however great his vigilance of observation, he must 
 still greatly depend for the substance of his knowledge 
 on the accumulated researches of past generations. 
 If these were to be overlooked, it is evident that the 
 mind of man would be perpetually in a state of infancy. 
 In order, however, to reap the full advantages from 
 reading, we need direction peculiarly as to our choice 
 of books. Upon any subject whatever there are 
 a few volumes, which contain the substance of a multi- 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 tude of others of subordinate value : to be able to 
 apply to these immediately is truly desirable. Next, 
 however, in importance is the ability to procure them, 
 which is impossible to many, owing to the scarceness 
 of the copies or the high price at which they are 
 frequently sold. 
 
 The present age is remarkable for the attempts 
 which have been made to meet these difficulties in 
 almost every species of literature. Individuals of the 
 greatest talents and endowments have employed them- 
 selves to render knowledge accessible to those classes 
 of society which have been hitherto considered as ex- 
 cluded from the attainment of it by their circumstances. 
 The necessity of furnishing instruction of a religious 
 nature commensurately with the demand for general 
 information, has occurred to every reflecting person, in 
 order to communicate a proper bias to the public mind, 
 under that vast accession of knowledge which marks 
 the present era of its history. It is scarcely needful 
 to remark, that the cause of religion has been strength- 
 ened by the publication of numerous valuable works, 
 having in view to explain its truths and to defend its 
 evidences. 
 
 The Proprietors of the Christian's Cabinet Library 
 partake in the gratification arising from this fact, in 
 common with every friend of religion. It has however 
 appeared to them, that there is still both an opportunity 
 and a demand for their design, which they now beg 
 permission to describe. Their object is to publish 
 such standard works as illustrate the practice and irt- 
 fluence of religious truth, with the occasional introduc- 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 tion of such books of an elementary nature as relate to 
 the evidences of revelation ; and thus> in reprinting the 
 best pieces of the most eminent writers, both of the 
 past and present times, to form a complete Library of 
 Religious Works, comprising all which it would be 
 desirable to the young student in divinity, to the 
 newly-ordained clergyman, and to the Christian in 
 general to possess. It is hoped that the design will be 
 found peculiarly useful to the young, as supplying what 
 they so often feel themselves to need — a guide to the 
 selection of the most valuable books, and as at the 
 same time placing them within their reach. 
 
 The series will be printed in a style of superior neat- 
 ness, and at so very low a rate as to be particularly 
 worthy the attention of Book Societies, or of those 
 benevolent individuals who attempt to supply the spi- 
 ritual wants of the poor by the gift of valuable books. 
 
 To Purchasers of this class a Reduction of One-Fourth 
 from the published prices will be made, and Thirteen 
 Copies allowed as Twelve. 
 
 The different volumes will be uniformly printed in 
 18mo. on a fine wove demy paper, hot-pressed. Each 
 Work will be complete in itself, and may be had sepa- 
 rately. 
 
 Orders from the Country., containing a reference for pay- 
 ment in London, promptly attended to. 
 
 LONDON : 
 O.WOOD AND SON, POPPIN'S COURT, FLEET STREET. 
 
A TREATISE 
 
 ON COMFORTING 
 
 AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES: 
 
 WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1G20, 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERTBOLTON, B. D. 
 
 MINISTER OF BROUGHTON IN NORTHAMPTONSHIRE ; 
 AVITK 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION AND MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. J. F. DENHAM. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG AND SON, 
 
 73, CHEAPSIDE; 
 
 R. GRIFFIN AND CO. GLASGOW; AND TEGG, WISE, AND CO. 
 
 DUBLIN. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The following definition of Conscience seems to be 
 sanctioned by an eminent writer* : — A native tendency 
 in the mind of man to contemplate the actions of him- 
 self and others, united to a susceptibility of deriving 
 pleasure or dissatisfaction from the perception of them 
 as moral or immoral. 
 
 This definition, although so framed as to include 
 every thing which seems to be known with certainty 
 on the subject, is nevertheless considered by many as 
 liable to controversy. Some would object to conscience 
 being called a native tendency of the mind, and main- 
 tain that it should be considered as an acquired capa- 
 bility. Others allow, that man really possesses such 
 an original capability, but contend that it approves or 
 condemns actions, not according as they are right or 
 wrong in themselves, but according as mankind are 
 taught by education so to consider them. It is evident 
 that each of these several opinions cannot be correct, 
 and no less so, that it is highly desirable to ascertain 
 which of them is so ; not only upon the general prin- 
 ciple that correct ideas on all topics are to be preferred, 
 
 * Dr. Thomas Browa. 
 
iv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 but also because of the difference in the jiractical con- 
 sequences which attend each of these theories. 
 
 If the theory stated in the definition be admitted, 
 our \'iews of the moral nature of man will be greatly 
 elevated. We must thenceforward regard him as 
 showing from his construction, that he was intended 
 by his Creator for the highest species of moral 
 agency ; that he was designed to act not merely ac- 
 cording to the supposed effect of his conduct upon so- 
 ciety, but agreeably to the intrinsic and immutable 
 nature of truth. His responsibility would at the same 
 time seem to be greatly enhanced by the possession of 
 a susceptibility, which enables him to discern whether 
 an action be right or wrong with as much precision 
 as the palate of his mouth enables him to distinguish 
 sweetness from bitterness. It would also follow, that 
 moral instruction should be greatly conducted with a 
 view to it ; and that instead of the modern mode of 
 estimating the qualities of an action by forming an 
 estimate of its expediency, we should with ancient 
 moralists make our appeal to the preference or dislike 
 of our inward emotions. 
 
 They who adopt the opinion that conscience is an 
 acquired capabihty, must admit the conclusion, that 
 the moral part of our constitution is comparatively 
 destitute of guidance. 
 
 The reception of the third theory, that the suscepti- 
 bility is original, but depends for its application on 
 accidental circumstances, will conduct to consequences 
 nearly similar, since the difference is but little between 
 not possessing an instinct and possessing an instinct 
 not determined to its object. 
 
 It may be allowed to examine and reply to the oh- 
 
INTRODUCTION. v 
 
 jections brought to show that the principle called con- 
 science is an acquired property of the mind, to offer 
 some considerations which would render the opposite 
 opinion the most probable, and then to urge the direct 
 arguments by which it seems to be supported. This 
 endeavour may the more readily be admitted, since the 
 ensuing treatise contains no information upon the na- 
 ture of conscience, but simply describes its emotions 
 when distressed, and the method of assuaging them by 
 applying the truths of the gospel. 
 
 1. The objections urged to show that conscience is not 
 an original faculty of the human mind communicated 
 to it by the Creator, but acquired by our circumstances, 
 are of the following nature : — 
 
 That if it were so, its effects would be uniform ; that 
 we should consequently observe all mankind entertain- 
 ing the same feelings towards the same actions, and 
 therefore pursuing the same conduct. Instead how- 
 ever of this similarity, we may learn from histories 
 and travels that there is not a single crime, which has 
 not been publicly countenanced in some age or coun- 
 try. Theft, which is considered as dishonourable and 
 worthy of punishment by most nations, was not only, 
 tolerated but even encouraged at Sparta. In this 
 country it is deemed meritorious to maintain aged and 
 indigent parents, and no less so in North America to 
 kill them out of the way. Suicide itself, which is 
 usually thought in Christian countries to be so hope- 
 less and atrocious a crime, has had its advocates among 
 the ancient philosophers. Humane treatment of cap- 
 tives is regarded as honourable and virtuous in this 
 quarter of the globe, and not less so by a wild Ame- 
 
vi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 rican to destroy them by the slowest and most in- 
 human tortures. 
 
 That even among ourselves we m.ay hear the same 
 act applauded or censured, tolerated or disallowed, ac- 
 cording to the circle of the society in which we may 
 move. 
 
 That this variety and even opposition observable in 
 the sentiments of mankind, seem little to favour the 
 supposition that we possess a native perception of the 
 difference of actions *. 
 
 The validity of these instances is acknowledged, and 
 also that they might be indefinitely multiplied. Upon 
 a more minute investigation, however, they will be 
 found less applicable to the purpose for which they are 
 adduced than might at first be expected. It is replied, 
 that these contrarieties are to be ascribed not to the 
 absence of a moral instinct in the mind of man, but 
 to some peculiar advantage supposed to attend them, 
 which attracts the mind aside from its natural action. 
 Thus when a Spartan considered theft in the abstract, 
 as the possession of another's property against his 
 will, and as attended with no other consequence than 
 the production of so much evil, it might suggest ex- 
 actly the same emotions in his mind as it would do in 
 the mind of a respectable Englishman. Let the Spar- 
 tans, however, be induced to believe, that, owing to 
 the character and power of their oppressors, to se- 
 crete and carry off property with agility would be a 
 useful qualification, and we can understand how theft 
 itself for the sake of this supposed advantage might 
 
 * Paley's IMoral Philosophy, chapter v. 
 
INTRODUCTION. vii 
 
 seem allowable, and even become a branch of education 
 among the Lacedemonians. The same distinction will 
 reconcile the conduct of the American savages con- 
 sistently with the existence of a moral sense. The 
 general accounts given of this custom represent it as 
 a religious ceremony. The power of superstition is well 
 known to be in proportion to the ignorance of the hu- 
 man mind. In the mind of these savages adherence to 
 ancient customs or the imitation of their deities might 
 possibly operate so strongly as to overcome the sugges- 
 tion of natural conscience. Suicide also may falla- 
 ciously seem to be palliated or even rendered allowable 
 by the peculiarity of circumstances. The impulse of 
 revenge may overcome the suggestions of conscience 
 so far as to permit the horrible treatment of their ene- 
 mies by the New Zealanders, who nevertheless would 
 feel as we should in reference to killing and devouring 
 a friend or fellow-countryman. In these, and perhaps 
 all similar instances, it is easy to discover some ad- 
 vantage which is supposed to attend the action, and 
 for the sake of which the mind becomes (improperly) 
 reconciled to it, whereas it would have ins^^^antly re- 
 jected it if contemplated without it. If instances could 
 be adduced in which mankind have acted in opposition 
 to the obvious dictates of morality uninfluenced by 
 some such consideration, then the existence of con- 
 science as an original sense would be opposed by an 
 unanswerable objection. But where was it ever known 
 that nations or individuals allowed or abetted theft as 
 an act unconnected with the supposed advantage of 
 themselves or others ? Where is the tribe who destroy 
 their aged parents as an action indiflFerent in its con- 
 sequence upon their own happiness.' Where is the 
 
viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 writer that ever advocated suicide as allowable, when 
 considered in itself ? 
 
 These, then, and similar cases fail, when urged as 
 objections against the doctrine, that conscience is an 
 original principle, because they do not result from the 
 simple action of our emotions, but from them when 
 perturbed and biassed by adequate causes. 
 
 The consideration of these perturbing causes has 
 given rise however to another objection, urged by no 
 less an authority than Mr. Locke. The substance of it 
 is, that it is highly unreasonable to suppose that any 
 law of nature, for such this representation of con- 
 science would render it, should thus become liable to 
 interruption. 
 
 It is replied, that this objection does not include 
 sufficient regard to the nature of man as a moral agent. 
 The laws which relate to the moral part of man's 
 nature are different from those by which the material 
 world is governed. The latter are probably no less 
 efficient now than at the creation, but the character 
 of man as a free agent renders it likely that his powers 
 both of body and of mind should be liable to be affected 
 by his own voluntary conduct. It is further urged, 
 that the objection overlooks the fact, that other unques- 
 tionable instincts of our nature may be similarly af- 
 fected. Self-preservation will surely be ranked among 
 them ; and yet it is evident that it is liable to become 
 altogether counteracted, " Whatever cheapens life 
 abates the fear of death*." Unhappy persons under 
 the consciousness of sin, and ignorant of the character 
 of God as a Father, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, evi- 
 
 * Dr. Youug'. 
 
INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 dently balance between the agonies of remorse, the 
 dread of punishment, the pains of death, and the pos- 
 sibility of future anguish ; and as the least of evils, 
 desperately lift their hands against theniselves, and 
 violate the tabernacle of their own life. If one sus- 
 ceptibility so powerful as that of self-love may thus 
 become obviated, why may not another ? 
 
 The just idea of conscience admits this possibility. 
 It has regard to the acknowledged law of the human 
 mind, that the suggestions of one set of feelings may 
 be affected and even overcome by the greater force of 
 those of another. Thus the murderer, who has long 
 cherished his revenge, and ultimately sees his victim 
 within his grasp, may probably destroy him without 
 repugnance. He may draw the poignard from his 
 quivering breast with no other feelings than the satis- 
 faction arising from the achievement of a long-intended 
 project. It is afterwards, when this revenge has been 
 gratified, and the natural action of his feelings is 
 restored, that he awakens to the witherings of re- 
 morse. He was at the time of the deed insusceptible 
 of them, for the same reason that he was also incapa- 
 ble of telling at that moment the cube of nine or the 
 square of sixteen. The return of the degree of quies- 
 cence necessary for the performance of an arithmetical 
 process, would witness the returning action of the 
 moral sense. 
 
 It has been beautifully said, that " the heart of man 
 may be allegorically represented by an island level with 
 the water which bathes it. On the pure white marble 
 of the island are engraved the precepts of the law of 
 nature. Near them is one who bends his eyes upon 
 the inscription, and reads it aloud. This is the genius 
 
 b 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of the island, the lover of virtue. The water is in 
 perpetual agitation. The slightest zeph}'T wafts it 
 into billows. It then covers the inscription : we no 
 longer see the characters : we no longer hear con- 
 science read them. But the calm soon rises from the 
 bosom of the ocean. The island reappears as before, 
 and conscience resumes its employment*." It seems 
 therefore no valid objection against the existence of the 
 moral instinct to urge that it is liable to counter- 
 action. 
 
 A further objection is derived from the fact, that it 
 scarcely operates at all in infancy, and from its gra- 
 dually becoming stronger with advancing age, a cir- 
 cumstance which would seem to favour the idea of its 
 being an acquired rather than an original principle. 
 
 It may however be replied, that this is nothing more 
 than is true respecting other of our susceptibilities, 
 which have ever been deemed to be instinctive. The 
 instinct of self-preservation, for instance, which causes 
 the eye to close upon the near approach to it of a dan- 
 gerous object, and the hands to be raised when we are 
 in danger of falling, scarcely operates at all in infancy. 
 It begins to operate when it is needed, when the aug- 
 mented strength of the child renders it less dependent 
 upon the parents, and when therefore it is more ex- 
 posed to personal danger. So the moral instinct may 
 be imagined to remain dormant, without inducing any 
 doubt as to its existence, till the maturity of our 
 powers generally may have prepared us to enter upon 
 the period of our responsibility. 
 
 It has been further oljected, that if there had been 
 
INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 such an original power in the mind, there must also 
 have been implanted within us an idea of the object to 
 which it was to be directed. The possession of the 
 instinct supposes the possession of ideas of the actions 
 to be approved or disapproved by it : but we possess no 
 sucli ideas, and therefore have no such instinct *. 
 
 The same objection, however, would lie against the 
 existence of every power of the human mind, as 
 original. It is acknowledged upon all hands that we 
 possess a capacity of intuitively perceiving the relation 
 of numbers, as soon as we understand the terms in 
 which the proposition is stated. There is no nation in 
 which it could not be true, and perceived to be so by 
 the inhabitants, that four are to twenty as twenty to a 
 hundred. Yet though all mankind perceive this truth 
 intuitively, no one contends as necessary to intuition 
 that we should also possess an idea of all the possible 
 propositions in numbers to which it is to be directed. 
 In this respect the human eye and the natural con- 
 science are similar. The human eye is adapted to the 
 perception of objects. It is so equally whether these 
 objects may or may not have been presented to it : it 
 would perceive and distinguish them if they were. So 
 the susceptibility of conscience to derive pleasure or 
 pain from good or evil actions may exist independently 
 of being exercised. It is however ready to operate, 
 true to its office, whenever they may be presented by 
 experience or observation. 
 
 It has also been objected against the doctrine that 
 conscience is a native and original faculty, that our 
 perceptions of right and wrong, upon this supposition, 
 
 * Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, book i, ch.iv, 5 19. 
 
xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 are mere impressions : that our minds are adapted to be 
 affected by them in the same involuntary manner as our 
 bodily senses ai'e by the qualities of the different objects 
 presented to them : that in consequence, we are no more 
 culpable or praiseworthy for our good or evil conduct, 
 than we are for our ideas of sweet and bitter, pleasure 
 and pain : that, in a word, the existence of natural 
 conscience militates against the perfect responsibility 
 of man. 
 
 To this it is replied, that the suggestions of con- 
 science are neither so powerful as to constrain the volun- 
 tary powers of man, nor so weak or transient as to allow 
 of any excuse derived from want of sufficient direction. 
 
 2. There are several considerations derived from the 
 nature of circumstances, which would seem to render 
 it probable that such an original faculty as conscience 
 would have been imparted to mankind. 
 
 It is conceded, that owing to the limitation of our 
 powers we should be exceedingly cautious how far we 
 speculate concerning what might or might not be ex- 
 pected in the intricate, multiform, immense government 
 of God, That which might seem likely at one stage of 
 our attainments, may seem to be much less so at 
 another. Still it is submitted, that the circumstances 
 of man as a moral agent admit of one presumption, 
 which seems as much as any other to be well founded : 
 it is, that man would be endowed by the Creator with 
 the faculty of natural conscience. The mind of man 
 is the source of all his actions, and consequently of all 
 their immediate and remote effects upon himself and 
 others, not only throughout the limits of time, but 
 throughout eternity itself, it would hence seem likely 
 in the highest degree, that it should be furnished with 
 
INTRODUCTION. xiii 
 
 some presiding- principle. This expectation is con- 
 firmed by observing the universal provision made, in 
 the laws which regulate material worlds, for the at- 
 tainment of the purposes they were intended to answer. 
 This is no less true respecting the intellectual powers 
 of man ; for though the operations of the laws which 
 regulate mind are exceedingly complex in their opera- 
 tion, and traced with much difficulty, yet there is rea- 
 son to believe that the minutest modifications of our 
 perceptions are the consequences of the operation of 
 fixed laws, equally as the form of a crystal. It 
 would seem therefore most unlikely, that the pre- 
 cision of purpose provided for in every other portion 
 of the Creator's works, should be wanting in refer- 
 ence to the conduct of the highest race of beings in- 
 habiting the earth. 
 
 If we reflect, that God intended the happiness of his 
 creatures when he formed them, and that he has indis- 
 solubly connected their happiness with their conduct, 
 we shall gain an additional probability that some prin- 
 ciple would have been communicated to his mind, cal- 
 culated to direct his conduct. The extreme desirable- 
 ness of such a constitution would seem to render it 
 very likely that it would obtain in the government of a 
 being of perfect wisdom and perfect benevolence. 
 
 An additional probability that man would be endued 
 with natural conscience is derived from the fact, that 
 in its absence he would be thrown for his guidance 
 upon the resources of his mere reasoning powers. But 
 the obvious disadvantages of such a state of things 
 render it unlikely that it should exist. The life of man 
 is exceedingly brief. Some questions in morals are so 
 intricate, that even supposing man to be earnestly 
 
 b 3 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 addicted to the investigation, his whole life would be 
 nearly consumed in adjusting his principles. As soon 
 almost as he began to act, he would be summoned out of 
 the world. These disadvantages would be unavoidable, 
 supposing that all mankind were devoted to the study 
 of morals, and anxiously bent upon discovering their 
 duty. But in the state of things which actually exists, 
 wherein mankind are compelled from the very nature 
 of their circumstances to devote so much attention to 
 the cares of subsistence, and so few even of those who 
 are exempt from them seem inclined to habits of 
 serious thought of any kind, it is clear, that, upon 
 this supposition, acting right would be the privilege 
 only of the contemplative few. 
 
 The doctrine which we are now labouring to esta- 
 blish is attended with all the advantages which man- 
 kind so eminently need. It supposes man to be 
 furnished with a faculty that enables him to discrimi- 
 nate the nature of actions, attended with a susceptibi- 
 lity so vivid and acute as to render regard to its dic- 
 tates essential to his happiness : that to obey it 
 converts existence into a pleasure and a blessing, and 
 to have violated it entails upon him the severest 
 wretchedness he can endure. At the same time the 
 operation of this faculty is directed to almost every 
 duty upon which the social happiness of mankind de- 
 pends. It reaches a multitude of cases which the 
 wisest human laws cannot include in their enactments. 
 Human laws may prevent the grosser forms of fraud 
 and violence, by setting against them penalties so 
 severe as to render them no longer desirable to the 
 depraved. But there ai'e ten thousand acts of cruelty, 
 iinkindness, and dishonesty, which they cannot check. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xv 
 
 Much unkindness and neglect and insolence may be 
 shown to servants, tenants, and to helpless dependents, 
 and yet the individual remain exempt from the punish- 
 ment of the laws. The base arts with which the 
 seducer steals the assent of confiding innocence, as 
 literally as if he abstracted property from a dwelling 
 house, cannot be checked by human law. There are 
 unnumbered devices by which the villain may entangle 
 and circumvent and withhold the property of the widow 
 and the orphan, which evade the cognizance of human 
 laws. Against these and ten thousand other acts of 
 oppression, the great Father of all has interposed by 
 transfusing into our nature a few simple feelings. A 
 horror lowers upon the heart of the unprincipled man, 
 when he contemplates an act of cruelty or of injury, 
 which preserves him so far guiltless, and his intended 
 victim safe. He feels within him a preparation for his 
 punishment before he becomes guilty : he hears a voice, 
 heard by none but himself, but which will be heard by 
 him, telling him that his own soul shall become his 
 accuser; assuring him also, that there is a voice in 
 every other human bosom ready to join its reproaches 
 with his own, and to render his life one continued 
 scene of agony from within and of execration from 
 without. The immense utility of such a principle 
 renders it highly probable that it would be bestowed. 
 
 3. It may now be permitted to state the direct proofs 
 which establish the opinion that conscience is an origi- 
 nal faculty. 
 
 An eminent writer* asserts, that in all languages 
 there are words which signify duty and interest : that 
 although these terms coincide in their application, 
 
 * Dugald Stewart. 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 since whatever is our duty is also our interest, yet that 
 we never confound them, either in the use we make of 
 them, or in the feelings which they severally excite 
 within our minds. By duty we mean something that 
 ought to be done : by interest something which it 
 would conduce to our well-being to perform. The per- 
 ception of duty is prompt and unreasoning, and excites 
 a degree of mental uneasiness till it be complied with. 
 Interest, on the other hand, is always discerned by us 
 as the result of a calculation to some intent or other. 
 It is however as vain and useless to attempt to distin- 
 guish between these terms by words, as it would 
 be by the same method to distinguish between the 
 odour of a violet and of a rose. The names them- 
 selves of duty and interest are sufficient to suggest 
 the distinction. It has been attempted by some phi- 
 losophers to resolve the one into the other, but our 
 consciousness rejects the amalgamation. When we act 
 spontaneously, and therefore naturally, we never even 
 think of the connection between them. The mind ac- 
 knowledges it upon reflection, but it requires a train of 
 reasoning to make it plain. It may indeed be useful 
 often to trace the connection, because the principle of 
 virtue thus becomes stronger, and its exercise more 
 delightful. But the emotions with which we contem- 
 plate actions do not result from perceiving it. It is not 
 the suggestions of interest which render us happy in 
 the unexpected welfare of a neighbour or a friend. It 
 is not interest which originates the feelings which 
 thi'ill our hearts when innocence and honesty have 
 escaped an intended oppression. It is not the principle 
 of interest which fills us with such satisfaction when 
 we behold a village through which we may pass, busy 
 and happy in securing the fruits of harvest. It is not 
 
INTRODUCTION. xvii 
 
 interest which ministers the gratification which we 
 feel upon having fulfilled an engagement, or upon 
 being enabled to gratify the reasonable expectations 
 which we had excited. It is not self-interest which fills 
 the heart of the traveller with such indescribable emo- 
 tions upon the plain of Marathon or in the pass of 
 Thermopylae. If we imagine ourselves threading that 
 avenue to Greece where Leonidas and his three hundred 
 held at bay for five days the invader of their country 
 and his five millions, we may form some idea of the 
 surprise we should experience were some advocate of 
 the selfish system to disturb our emotions by the ques- 
 tion, whether we did not think they originated in the 
 perception, that acts of fortitude and patriotism in 
 general were connected, though remotely, with our 
 own well-being ? 
 
 The emotion comes first : the possible connection of 
 the action with our welfare comes afterwards. It 
 strikes the heart as an object strikes the eye : we ap- 
 prove it because it is lovely, and we are so constructed 
 as to approve it. In a similar manner the loathing and 
 abhorrence with which we contemplate cruelty or 
 fraud is instantaneous, and is excited by a view of the 
 object as it is in itself, and not by a perception of what 
 it may become to us. This quality of our moral emo- 
 tions, their independence upon our own interest, seems 
 to intimate that they originate in the action of an ori- 
 ginal and different faculty of the soul. 
 
 Another argument to the same eflfect is, that our 
 moral emotions are the same, whether the action, 
 good or evil, be known only to ourselves, or disclosed 
 to others : they are even independent of the considera- 
 tion that they are known to the Deity himself 
 
 " The first and greatest punishment of guilt," says 
 
xviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Seneca*, "is to have been guilty. Nor can any crime, 
 though fortune should adorn it with her most lavish 
 bounty, as if protecting and consecrating it, pass by 
 unpunished ; because the punishment of the base and 
 atrocious deed lies in the baseness or atrocity of the 
 deed itself." 
 
 " Think not," says Cicero f, " that any one needs the 
 burning torches of the furies to agitate and torment him : 
 their own hands, their own crimes, their own remem- 
 brance of the past , and their terrors for the future, these 
 are the domestic furies which are ever present to the 
 mind of the impious." It is superfluous to state, yet 
 useful to remember, that these are quotations from the 
 works of persons who lived before the Christian era, 
 and who, from their being uninfluenced by the truths 
 of revelation, may be justly regarded as describing the 
 natural emotions of the human mind. The numerous 
 passages in which they delineate the pangs of a 
 wounded conscience, and the unmixed satisfactions 
 attending virtue, are among the most celebrated speci- 
 mens of their eloquence. So much indeed do the an- 
 cients refer the character of our actions to our internal 
 emotions, that their usual definitions of virtue and of 
 vice make them to consist in deviation from nature or 
 conformity to it. They also represent the emotions 
 derived from a good or evil action as arising simply 
 from the nature of the action in itself, and independently 
 of any other cause. Our own observation demonstrates 
 the accuracy of their statements. Instances have been 
 very numerous, in which crimes would probably for 
 ever have remained unknown to mankind, but the per- 
 petrators of them, unable to bear the solitary reproaches 
 
 * Epistle 9/. 
 
 t Orat. pro Sex, Roscio Araerino, sec. 24. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xix 
 
 of their own hearts, have even many years afterwards 
 sought the melancholy relief to be derived from con- 
 fession and submission to justice. 
 
 " Fortune," says Seneca*, " may free men from ven- 
 geance, but it cannot free them from fear : it cannot 
 free them from the knowledge of that general scorn 
 and disgust which nature has so deeply fixed in all 
 mankind against the crimes which they have perpe- 
 trated. Amid the security of a thousand concealments, 
 they cannot think themselves secure from that hatred 
 which seems ever ready to burst upon them ; for con- 
 science is still with them, like a treacherous informer, 
 pointing them out to themselves." 
 
 To these may be added the testimony of a modern 
 writer f, who was scarcely less under the influence of 
 Christianity. 
 
 *' The wicked man fears and flies himself. He endea- 
 vours to be gay by wandering out of himself. He turns 
 around his unquiet eyes in search of some object of 
 amusement, that may make him forget what he really is. 
 Even then his pleasure is only a bitter raillery ; with- 
 out some sneer or contemptuous sarcasm he would for 
 ever be sad. On the contrary, the serenity of a good 
 man is internal. His smile is not a smile of malignity 
 but of joy. He bears the source of it within himself. 
 He is as gay when in the midst of the gay as when 
 alone. He does not derive his contentment from those 
 who approach him, he communicates it to them." 
 
 But these emotions, so prompt, so vivid, so inde- 
 pendent, seem to render it probable that they arise, 
 not from any acquired, but from an original suscepti- 
 
 * Epistle 97. t Hoiisseaii. 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 bility of the mind ; not from its habits, but from its 
 construction. 
 
 Another argument on the same side is derived from 
 the circumstance, that the same actions have been 
 regarded as virtuous or vicious in all ages. The details 
 of history are but little more than an account of 
 mutations. Perpetual mutations have taken place 
 in governments and literature. Similar alterations 
 are observable in the history of the various systems of 
 religion that have prevailed at different periods : the 
 objects of worship, and the modes by which they have 
 been adored, have all in their turn disappeared, and 
 given place to new deities and new rites. Amid this 
 perpetual alteration by which almost every thing has 
 been attended, it is remarkable that the general prin- 
 ciples of morality have been permanently acknow- 
 ledged. The same actions which were deemed vicious 
 or virtuous thousands of years ago, continue in the 
 same estimation. Generosity, gratitude, fidelity, in- 
 tegrity, justice, and kindness, have had a universal and 
 perpetual empire over the veneration of mankind. 
 Their opposite vices have never ascended from their 
 degradation. They have been recommended or con- 
 demned, not as the result of the adjudicature of their 
 tendencies on the social happiness of man, but as 
 exciting emotions of pleasure or disgust. This identity 
 of the virtues and vices in all ages, can only be 
 ascribed to the fixed laws, by which they are recog- 
 nized as such, implanted in the human heart. 
 
 " Cast your eyes," says Rousseau, " over all the na- 
 tions of the world, and all the histories of the nations. 
 Amid so many inhuman and absurd superstitions, amid 
 that prodigious diversity of opinions and characters. 
 
INTRODUCTION, xxi 
 
 you will find everywhere the same principles and dis- 
 tinctions of moral good and evil. The paganism of the 
 ancient world produced indeed abominable gods, who 
 on earth would have been shunned or punished as 
 monsters; and who oflfered, as a picture of supreme 
 happiness, only vices to commit and passions to satiate. 
 But vice armed with this sacred authority, descended 
 in vain from the eternal abode : she found in the heart 
 of man a moral sentiment to repel her. The continence 
 of Xenocrates was admired by those who celebrated 
 the amours of Jupiter. The chaste Lucretia adored 
 the unchaste Venus. The intrepid warrior sacrificed to 
 Fear. The most contemptible divinities were served by 
 the gi'eatest men. The holy voice of nature, however, 
 stronger than that of the gods, made itself heard and 
 respected and obeyed on earth, and seemed to banish 
 as it were to the confinement of heaven both guilt and 
 the guilty." 
 
 A final argument may be drawn from the nature of 
 those emotions which we denominate a gratified or 
 wounded conscience. 
 
 It has been justly said, that the happiness derived from 
 the contemplation and especially from the conscious- 
 ness of virtue, is not capable, either in respect of its 
 nature or permanency, of being compared with any 
 other of our pleasures. Even the contemplation of 
 virtuous actions is peculiarly satisfactory' and refresh- 
 ing : the mind feels conscious that its attention is 
 worthily bestowed ; that it is gaining additional ability 
 for the purest enjoyments. Of this nature also are the 
 feelings with which we contemplate the scenes of great 
 actions, or the persons of those who are eminent for 
 excellence. Of the same nature, only raised in some 
 
 c 
 
judi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 proportion to the incomparable superiority of the 
 object, are the emotions with which we contemplate 
 Him, whose being and character comprehend the union 
 of all possible excellence. The consciousness that we 
 have been enabled to perform a virtuous action, or to 
 persevere in the imitation of excellence without an 
 allowed deviation, administers a feeling of the same 
 delightful nature. The feelings produced by a long 
 perseverance in such a course, fill us with a pleasure, 
 to which the exulting consciousness of perfect health 
 in early youth perhaps aflfords the nearest, though still 
 an imperfect similitude. It is, in that expressive lan- 
 guage of Solomon, health to the bones. While, on the 
 other hand, the horror of remembered guilt afflicts us 
 like the recollection of some intolerably loathsome ob- 
 ject. In the sacred scriptures it is described by every 
 comparison which can express detestation, faintness, 
 and horror. The most expressive metaphor of all, per- 
 haps, is that of a wounded spirit. The hopeless, sick- 
 ening agony produced by a wound in some vital organ, 
 approaches in some degree, but can never adequately 
 represent the pangs of an accusing conscience. The 
 mind cankers with what it deems an inmedicable 
 wound. Unlike a bodily infirmity, the anguish of the 
 spirit does not grow more tolerable the longer it is 
 endured ; but, like the vitals of the fabled Prometheus, 
 the mind presents an everlasting material to the lace- 
 rations of remorse. All other painful topics which are 
 contemplated by the mind gradually lose their impres- 
 sion ; but the tale told by an angry conscience is ever 
 new. The mind becomes day by day even more sensi- 
 ble to the pangs of its scorpion scourge. Other causes 
 of mental distress are alleviated by change of scene : 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxiii 
 
 but this follows the wretched creature everywhere. 
 Nature's loveliness appears scathed and tasteless to his 
 parched and agonizing heart. The wilderness offers no 
 solitude. Conscience pursues him through wilds never 
 trod by the camel : its hand is upon him though he 
 hide him in the lair of the crocodile amid the reeds 
 of Nilus. Now this incurable anguish, this acute 
 sense of degradation, this withering consciousness of 
 ill desert, admitting of no alleviation even from the soft- 
 ening hand of time, would seem to demonstrate that it 
 consists in a mischief far greater than the violation of 
 an acquired principle, however strong, but would seem 
 to be more like an oifence committed against an ori- 
 ginal law of human nature. 
 
 It is the design of the following treatise to describe 
 these emotions, and to explain the only method by 
 which they can be allayed. It will be found upon pe- 
 rusal to justify the sentiment of Dr. Doddridge * re- 
 specting it, that " it exhibits the traces of a soul most 
 intimately acquainted with God." The excellency of 
 the work consists in the use of language throughout 
 which most plainly and most accurately conveys the 
 author's meaning, in the communication of abundant 
 knowledge and experience, and in the natural employ- 
 ment of the most vivid and powerful descriptions. 
 
 The ensuing volume is a faithful transcript of the 
 original edition, with the exception of a few words, 
 which have been altered or omitted in order to render 
 it more intelligible and suitable to modern taste. 
 
 • Lectures on Preaching. 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 OF 
 
 THE REV. ROBERT BOLTON. 
 
 It may be interesting to the reader to be furnished 
 with a few particulars respecting a man so truly emi- 
 nent for learning, talent, and godliness. This was the 
 ■wish of the writer upon perusing the treatise, and he 
 would now endeavour to gratify a similar feeling in the 
 mind of others. 
 
 It seems that the Rev. Robert Bolton was born at 
 Blackbourne in Lancashire, on Whitsunday, in the year 
 1572. His parents were far from affluent, but yet upon 
 perceiving in him the signs of great natural abilities 
 in early life resolved to afford him a learned educa- 
 tion. Tills design was materially aided by the resi- 
 dence at that period of an eminent schoolmaster in 
 the grammar school. The progress made by him 
 appears to have been so great, that in the course of 
 comparatively a short time he rose to be the first boy. 
 The memoir of him written by a contemporary states 
 that he had the prerequisites for a scholar demanded 
 by Isocrates. He had excellent natural abilities ; a 
 sound constitution of bodyj a quick apprehension; 
 
 c 3 
 
xxvi MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 great inquisitiveness, which led him to seek clear ap- 
 prehensions of every thing that was taught him ; a great 
 attachment to the pursuits of literature ; the capahility 
 of enduring great exertion with patience ; and was an 
 attentive and silent auditor to the conversations of 
 others, observing, and even noting down whatever 
 new ideas he collected from the observations of his 
 elders. 
 
 He continued at school till he was nearly twenty 
 years of age, and then removed to Lincoln College, 
 Oxford. The same success attended his studies at the 
 University. He acquired the notice of his superiors, 
 and was rapidly rising in general respect in the xmi- 
 versity, when his father, who was of course his de- 
 pendence, died, and his property seems for some un- 
 assigned reason to have entirely devolved to the 
 elder brother of our author. 
 
 It has been truly remarked, that difficulties which 
 overwhelm inferior minds serve but to exercise the 
 courage and to elicit the resources of those of an op- 
 posite character. There are few situations, perhaps, 
 in which these qualities would be more needed than in 
 the case of a young man at the university, whose 
 finances are either confined or doubtful. To be able 
 under these circumstances to sustain his mind from 
 depression, and especially to devote himself steadily to 
 the studies of the place, shows him to be possessed of 
 that consciousness of integrity, and of those mental 
 resources, which will inevitably lead to future emi- 
 nence. 
 
 The conduct of this author exhibits also his singular 
 conscientiousness in avoiding debt at a period of life 
 when the mind does not always so fully recognize the 
 
REV. ROBERT BOLTON. xxvii 
 
 nature and importance of that obligation. The subject 
 of this account evinced his accurate sense of it by- 
 avoiding expenses, which others would have thought 
 allowable. He borrowed from his tutor and others, 
 says my authority, the best books on natural and 
 moral philosophy, and read them over with the utmost 
 diligence, wrote abridgments of them, and returned 
 them. 
 
 His industry appears at this time to have been very 
 praiseworthy. In order that he might attain an exact 
 knowledge of Homer, a book at that time of consider- 
 able importance at Oxford, he wrote out the whole of 
 the Iliad. The result of such perseverance and assiduity 
 was to enable him to converse or discourse in the 
 Greek language in the public schools with as much 
 facility as he possessed in his native tongue. Thus his 
 confined resources, which denied him access to ma7iy 
 books, conduced to his more perfect acquaintance with 
 a few, and by compelling him to transcribe them, his 
 mind became stored with a most comprehensive and 
 accurate knowledge of their contents. 
 
 In the course of a short time, however, he removed 
 from Lincoln College to Brazen-nose, with a view to a 
 fellowship ; because, by the statutes of that so- 
 ciety, Lancashire or Cheshire are entitled to election 
 in preference to others. He, however, resided there 
 for some time without the attainment of his object, 
 and amid the same straitened circumstances. His 
 merit as a scholar and as a man of integrity became 
 ultimately known, and through the timely and generous 
 aid of a resident fellow, he was probably appointed 
 one of the college lecturers. By the stipends arising 
 from this source he was upheld till he was about thirty 
 
xxviii MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 years old, when he obtained a fellowship. He at the same 
 time proceeded to the degree of master of arts, and by 
 the exercises he pei'formed on the occasion obtained 
 so much celebrity as to be appointed reader of lectures 
 in logic and moral and natural philosophy in his own 
 college. He is said to have discharged the duties of 
 his office with such skill and diligence as to have ob- 
 tained the admiration of all who approved the con- 
 scientious fulfilment of engagements, as well as the 
 dislike of certain contemporary lecturers, who were 
 compelled, say my authorities, to " a more frequent and 
 painful reading of their lectures, which were seldom 
 and slightly performed before." As another proof of 
 the estimation in which he was held, he was chosen to 
 be one of the disputants before King James, in natural 
 philosophy, when that learned monarch first visited the 
 University of Oxford. 
 
 To his other attainments it is said that he added 
 eminence in metaphysics, mathematics, and the divinity 
 of the schoolmen. 
 
 Yet during this career of literary eminence, he re- 
 mained unaflFected by the truths of revealed religion. 
 He exhibited in his disposition and habits a convinc- 
 ing proof of the utter inadequacy of human attain- 
 ments to aflfect the corrupt bias of the human heart. 
 He appears to have even added to the number of in- 
 stances in which the greatest mental attainments are 
 associated with the greater inclination to sin ; as 
 if the Creator would demonstrate by such cases, that 
 the only source of rectitude is the influence of his 
 Holy Spirit, and that moral weakness and degrada- 
 tion may exist in inverse proportion to intellectual 
 strength. 
 
REV. ROBERT BOLTON. xxix 
 
 He was, according to his own confession, at this pe- 
 riod much addicted to the amusements of the theatre 
 and of gaming ; practices, which although not con- 
 demned by any explicit declaration of scripture, are 
 yet infallibly renounced by the regenerated mind as 
 inconsistent with its sympathies and desires. He 
 also discloses, for the purposes no doubt of glorify- 
 ing the mercy and favour of God in his conver- 
 sion, that he had been addicted to the sins of pro- 
 fane swearing and sabbath-breaking; that he hailed 
 the festivals of the church as occasions on which he 
 might run into excesses, and derive a miserable ano- 
 dyne to his conscience from the fact that they were 
 instituted as seasons of joy. He describes in terms of 
 genuine humiliation his regret when they ended, and 
 he could no longer mingle with society, and derive 
 from the occasion a plea of unrestrained sensual en- 
 joyments. Along with this absence of goodness in 
 himself he evinced the utmost disdain and contempt 
 for those who illustrated in their character the conduct 
 of the sincere Christian. He expressed his spleen by 
 the usual method of calling names, and says, that he 
 considered when he could include a person within the 
 appellation of Puritan, that he had succeeded in divest- 
 ing him of all claim to sincerity, talent, or learning. 
 He describes himself to have peculiarly illustrated this 
 disposition upon a commencement Sunday at Cam- 
 bridge. An eminent minister of that day, of the name 
 of Perkins, was to preach. His remaining works show 
 that the estimation in which he was held was truly 
 deserved. He appears to have been regarded with 
 much veneration by several prelates of the church, and 
 
XXX MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 especially by the Bishop of Salisbury of that time. 
 The plain, scriptural discourse delivered by him ex- 
 tremely displeased Mr. Bolton. He pronounced him, 
 he says, a barren, empty fellow, and a passing mean 
 scholar. He evidently expected to hear a learned dis- 
 course. His understanding would have been flattered 
 by those self-same truths which were uttered as the 
 oracles of God, being propounded to him in the shape 
 of argument. The conscious pride of intellectual 
 ability would have reconciled him to the sentiments, 
 if they had been thus offered to him ; but a simple state- 
 ment of truth as it is in itself had no charms for him, 
 because he neither recognized the supreme authority 
 of its great author, nor felt its suitableness to his own 
 necessities. It is, however, interesting to remark, that 
 after his conversion Mr. Bolton himself altered his 
 opinion respecting him, and considered him one of the 
 most godly and learned men the church of England 
 had ever enjoyed. He could then perceive another and 
 far superior excellence in his sermons, as consisting 
 in their being an exact impress of the truth of scrip- 
 ture, and as affording accurate descriptions of the 
 agency of spiritual truth upon the human mind. 
 
 While he remained at Brazen -nose college he con- 
 tracted an intimate acquaintance with a gentlemein of 
 the name of Anderton, who had been his schoolfellow. 
 He is represented as having been a Roman Catholic at 
 this period, and as having subsequently become an 
 eminent priest. This person seems to have earnestly 
 persuaded Mr. Bolton to enter the Roman Catholic 
 church, promising that his temporal interests also 
 should be greatly advanced by his conversion. 
 
REV. ROBERT BOLTON. xxxi 
 
 He made a proposal that they should repair to an 
 English seminary on the Continent ; and Mr. Bolton so 
 far acceded as to appoint a place and day in Lancashire 
 in which they were to meet, embark, and be gone. 
 Mr. Bolton himself was faithful to his engagement, 
 but some unforeseen accident delayed the arrival of 
 Mr. Anderton : he therefore escaped from his under- 
 taking, and returned to Oxford. He soon after became 
 introduced to an eminent clergyman at Oxford of the 
 name of Peacock ; and through conversation with him 
 God was pleased to afford to him the knowledge of the 
 value and method of obtaining eternal life. The pro- 
 cess, however, was in his case different from that in 
 most others : it perhaps corresponded to his qualities 
 and habits of mind, and to the purposes which God had 
 intended him to answer in after-life. Instead of the 
 affections yielding under the attractive influence of the 
 love of Christ to mankind, and of his being thus gra- 
 dually brought to acknowledge the error and danger of 
 his ways, he appears to have been reclaimed with the 
 most appalling terrors. Often did he rise from his bed 
 in the night and pace his chamber under the deepest 
 agitation, upon beholding himself obnoxious to the 
 wrath of a just and holy God. The sins of his past 
 life, which he had either forgotten or not estimated as 
 such, appeared to his distracted conscience in all their 
 multitude and odiousness. He experienced also the 
 greatest augmentation of his misery from the assaults 
 of Satan, his mind being harassed with the most blas- 
 phemous and revolting ideas respecting the blessed 
 God. His biographer compares the strength of his 
 convictions of sin to those felt by Luther, who in his 
 epistle to Melancthon describes himself as being ren- 
 
xxxii MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 dered by them destitute of speech or sight. This, how- 
 ever, seems in the case of the Reformer to have conti- 
 nued but one day, while the anguisli endm-ed by the sub- 
 ject of this sketch lasted for many months. He ultimately 
 however found p^ace with God, tlirough faith in the effi- 
 cacy of the atonement, and sufficiency of the righteous- 
 ness of the Mediator ; and then the wisdom of God in 
 this dispensation appeared by the fervent love of his de- 
 livered spirit, by his invincible resolution in the work 
 of God, and by an unequalled ability to comprehend and 
 to comfort the distresses of afflicted consciences. 
 
 The spontaneous wish of his mind seems to have 
 been, as in many similar instances, to devote himself 
 to the service and honour of that Redeemer, who had 
 thus enabled him to understand and love his character. 
 About the thirty-fifth year of his age, therefore, he 
 was ordained, and applied himself wholly to the en- 
 gagements of the ministry, devoting all the varied and 
 great resources of his understanding to that most ardu- 
 ous and yet most delightful of all occupations. 
 
 Soon after his entrance upon the ministry, he became 
 known to Mr. Justice Nicholls, at that time sergeant at 
 law, who within about two years afterwards presented 
 him to the living of Broughton in Northamptonshire. 
 When his patron announced to him his intention, 
 Dr. King, the bishop of London, happened to be pre- 
 sent ; and while he thanked him for Mr. Bolton, he 
 assured him that he had by his gift deprived the uni- 
 versity of one of its greatest ornaments. 
 
 He improved his retirement to a country village by 
 writing his first work, " A Discourse on True Happi- 
 ness." This he dedicated to his patron. It was soon 
 entirely bought up ; and many who were attracted to 
 
REV. ROBERT BOLTON. xxxiii 
 
 the perusal of it by the eloquence of its style, were 
 led again to peruse it out of admiration of the instruc- 
 tion which it contained. 
 
 About the fortieth year of his age he married a lady 
 of the name of Royse, and-thenceforward devoted him- 
 self to the duties of his office with unremitting atten- 
 tion. He preached twice every Sunday during upwards 
 of twenty years, and catechized the children of the 
 parish every Sunday afternoon. Upon every holyday, 
 and on every Friday before the sacrament, he expounded 
 some chapter to his assembled parishioners ; and thus 
 in the course of his ministry he went over nearly every 
 chapter of the Old and New Testament. In these 
 exercises, as well as in his sermons, it was remarked 
 by the clergyman who preached his funeral sermon, 
 that he uttered nothing which might not have been 
 delivered before a learned auditory ; for though plain 
 enough to be understood by a husbandman, all he said 
 was so truly accurate and scriptural, as that the most 
 enlightened hearer might have listened with satisfac- 
 tion. His entire aim in his preaching seemed to be to 
 convert the souls of his auditors. This simplicity of 
 intention was peculiarly approved and honoured of God, 
 who by his ministry convinced many hundreds of their 
 spiritual need, and of the ability and willingness of the 
 Saviour to sanctify and to redeem. 
 
 He was especially eminent in his addresses to the 
 consciences of his hearers, whether his object was to 
 awaken or to console. He was consequently applied to 
 for his advice by great numbers. Many persons on the 
 Continent proposed cases for his solution. After having 
 been rendered eminently useful in this mode, he pub- 
 lished the following invaluable treatise, which may be 
 
 d 
 
xxxiv MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 considered as the summary of his long experience and 
 profound observations upon one of the most interesting^ 
 branches in theology. 
 
 His mode of preaching seems to have been a combi- 
 nation of earnestness and aflPection. Thus those who 
 were wounded by his appeals became healed by his 
 consolations. He appears to have been remarkable for 
 his bold and uncompromising exposure of sin in all ita 
 destructive and polluting influence upon the sinner; 
 and not less so in his fervent exhortations to all that 
 have believed in God, that for the sake of the gospel, 
 for their present comfort and future reward, they should 
 be careful to maintain good works. Like Luther, he 
 seems to have been prepared to sustain the hatred and 
 violence of the whole world. This led to his consum- 
 mate impartiality. Totally forgetful of every other 
 distinction among mankind than sin or holiness, he 
 delivered the will of God with an entire disregard of the 
 accidental or acquired distinctions of those present. 
 Still his zeal seems to have been tempered with dis- 
 cretion. He studiously avoids as highly dangerous the 
 minute description of his hearers, which might have 
 excited the mere displeasure of the sinner, not against 
 himself, but against the preacher. He appears to have 
 been anxious, at every step of his discourse, to adduce 
 the authority of the scriptures for his assertions ; and 
 to this very ready and appropriate usage of the word of 
 God, much of the success of his ministry, as a means 
 subordinate to the influences of the Spirit, may be 
 ascribed. May not one great reason why the discourses 
 of many able and excellent clergymen have not been 
 attended with similar advantage, be sought for in the 
 absence of that marked and even formal appeal to the 
 
REV. ROBERT BOLTON. xxxv 
 
 word of God, which arms their discourses throughout 
 with a divine authority, while the utmost clearness of 
 statement without it, insensibly aflfects the hearer as 
 the mere excellent advice of a human being? The 
 practice may possibly be objected to, as producing a 
 roughness of style inconsistent with the finished charac- 
 ter of an elaborate sermon ; but experience has demon- 
 strated, that the absence of these comparatively trifling 
 qualities has been compensated by the achievement of 
 the great end of the ministry, the conversion of souls. 
 
 Another excellence of his ministry appears to have 
 consisted in his free and full offers of salvation to man- 
 kind through Christ, and in his thorough and perpetual 
 explanation of the nature and oflSces of the Mediator. 
 Often would he declare to his people, that it grieved 
 him to preach against their sins, to trouble and annoy 
 their consciences ; that he would be happy indeed to 
 preach the riches of the love and power of Christ all 
 bis days ; but that he knew no other mode of disen- 
 gaging them from the dominion of Satan, than by 
 urging upon them the consciousness of their unwor- 
 thiness and liability to perdition. 
 
 His piety towards God appears to have been so ge- 
 nuine and full of love, that his entire character, from 
 his conversion to his death, was unmarred by any de- 
 viation from the spirit of devotion. 
 
 His other excellent volume, " Directions for comfort- 
 ably walking with God," is said to have been composed 
 by him as a guide for himself, and was not originally 
 intended for publication. 
 
 His eminent attainments seem to have originated in 
 his extraordinary habits of devotion. His constant 
 habit was to pray six times in the day. He also kept 
 
xxxvi MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 days for humiliation, especially before the communion, 
 which he performed with such ardour of spirit, that 
 one of his biographers says, " he used such humility, 
 and such fervency and faith with God, as if he had 
 been a child talking with his parent." So indefatigable 
 were the pains he took, both in preaching and in pri- 
 vate devotion, that when his physician advised him to 
 remit his diligence, he rejected his counsel, asserting, 
 that he chose rather to enjoy a sense of communion 
 with Christ, than the utmost strength and serenity of 
 health. As a proof of the simplicity and integrity of 
 his motive, it is said, that he refused to accept of 
 worldly advancement, though frequently offered him 
 from various quarters, simply because he would not be 
 separated from that scene in which his labours had 
 been so useful ; estimating, after the correct manner, 
 his respectability as a minister, not by the possession 
 of lucrative offices, but by the extent of his usefulness. 
 Amid all these singular qualifications, his wisdom 
 shone pre-eminent, insomuch that although he preached 
 twenty-two years with the greatest success and cele- 
 brity, no man even in those captious times could im- 
 pugn his doctrines, — another result of his habit of in- 
 cessantly proving the ti'uth of his assertions by the 
 declarations of scripture. 
 
 His singular charity must also be enumerated. From 
 the time he first possessed his living till his death, he 
 spent its entire revenues in the decent maintenance of 
 his family and in charity : he forbore to accumulate. 
 The poor of the village found in him a wise and ready 
 friend. Real distress made known its necessities with 
 the confidence of obtaining relief; while fictitious 
 wants, or those induced by dissipation, were seldom 
 
REV. ROBERT BOLTON. xxxvii 
 
 obtruded upon his attention, owing to the penetration 
 with which he ascertained the real nature of an appli- 
 cation. Upon occasion of a very destructive fire, he 
 so interested the neighbouring gentry in the necessities 
 of his poor parishioners who had suffered, that without 
 aid from the government he caused their habitations to 
 be rebuilt, and their present wants to be supplied. 
 
 The time, however, of his departure drew nigh soon 
 after this event. A quartan ague attacked him in the 
 month of September before his death. The violence 
 of the paroxysms, and the weakness which it occa- 
 sioned, rendered it evident that it was attended with 
 the greatest danger. At a very early period of his ill- 
 ness he finally adjusted his worldly concerns, and then 
 gave himself up to preparation for death. He 
 had announced to his people his intention of preach- 
 ing to them upon the four last things, Death, Judg- 
 ment, Hell, and Heaven; a favourite division in his 
 days of the most solemn truths of the scriptures. He 
 proceeded through his course as far as the last ; but on 
 the preceding Saturday he became more seriously in- 
 disposed, and never again ascended his pulpit. His 
 illness however was greatly protracted, and often very 
 painful. 
 
 It is said, that during the intermissions of his dis- 
 order he was often heard to exclaim, " Oh, when will 
 this good hour come .'* when shall I be dissolved ? 
 when shall I be with Christ ? " Being told that it 
 would be better for him to depart and to be with 
 Christ ; but that it would be more profitable to his 
 people that he should remain, he i-eplied in the lan- 
 guage of David, " If I shall find favour in the eyes of 
 the Lord, he will bring me again, and show me both it 
 
 d 3 
 
xxxviii MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 and his habitation : but if otherwise ; lo, here I am, 
 let him do what seemeth him good unto me" (2 Sam. 
 XV, 25, 26). He was asked by some one else, if he 
 would not be content to live, if God should grant hira 
 life : he replied in language which demonstrates the 
 strength and sincerity of his religious principles, " I 
 grant that this life is a blessing from God ; neither will I 
 neglect any means that may preserve it, and do greatly 
 desire to submit to the will of God ; but of the two, I 
 infinitely desire to depart and to be with Christ." 
 
 Great numbers of persons came to see him during 
 his last illness. He admitted but few however, urging 
 as his reason, that he might have the more time for 
 preparation to meet his God. To those who were ad- 
 mitted, he gave earnest and affectionate advice, agree - 
 ably to their respective occupations in life. In these 
 conversations with them the powers of his mind seemed 
 to exhibit their former vigour. He exhorted the minis- 
 ters who came with the greatest love, that they would 
 bear courageously the afflictions that might come upon 
 them. He admonished others that they should with- 
 out delay seek the Saviour, and devote themselves 
 to his service. About a week before his death he en- 
 treated his wife to bear his dissolution, which he per- 
 ceived to be at hand, with Christian fortitude. He 
 then addressed his children, and admonished them that 
 he had instructed them during their whole life, and 
 " was persuaded that none of them durst think to 
 meet him at the great tribunal in an unregenerate 
 state." 
 
 About two days before his death some of his pa- 
 rishioners coming to watch with him, one of them re- 
 quested, that as he had discovered to them by doctrine 
 
REV. ROBERT BOLTON. xxxix 
 
 the excellency of Christ, he would now describe to 
 them for their encouragement what comforts he found 
 in trusting to the Redeemer. " Alas ! " said he, " do 
 you look for that of me now, that want breath and 
 power to speak. I have told you enough in my life- 
 time : but to give you satisfaction, I am by the won- 
 derful mercies of God as full of comfort as my heart 
 can hold, and feel nothing in my soul but Christ, with 
 ■whom I heartily desire to be." 
 
 The night before he died, he was informed that some 
 of his dearest friends were around him to take their last 
 farewell : he rose up in his bed, and shaking them all by 
 the hand, prayed heartily for them, and desired them to 
 make sure of heaven ; to bear in mind what he had told 
 them in his ministry, and assured them that the doctrine 
 which he had preached to them by the space of twenty 
 years was the truth of God. Desiring to be laid down 
 again he spoke no more till the next morning, when he 
 took the last leave of his wife and children, and blessed 
 them all ; and that day in the afternoon about five 
 o'clock, the 17th day of December 1631, in the sixtieth 
 year of his age, he entered into his heavenly rest. 
 
 Thus terminated the career of this truly valuable 
 man. It seems to have been his happiness to pass his 
 time in rest and quietness, although England generally 
 was the scene of religious contention. This exemption 
 from annoyance and reproach he owed not to a neu- 
 trality which complies with, or to a timidity which 
 evades commotions. He sustained a prominent and 
 decided part in the contentions of his times, but passed 
 through them invulnerable to the attacks of calumny, 
 owing to the eminent pureness of his motives, and the 
 direction of all his conduct by a sanctified and enligh- 
 
xl MEMOIR OF THE REV. ROBERT BOLTON. 
 
 tened conscience. He was a man in whom his friends 
 had nothing to regret, except that his exertions in the 
 cause of God probably shortened his days ; and whom 
 his greatest enemies could accuse with nothing but that 
 he preached too often and lived too precisely. His 
 works contain accurate and extraordinarily compre- 
 hensive views of the truths of revelation, and his de- 
 scription of their influence upon the affections of the 
 human heart are profound and correct. They possess also 
 an additional excellency, which did not always attend 
 the religious writings of his age, or even of our own, 
 they are expressed in language devoid of technical or 
 peculiar phrases. He has written in the same style 
 that an enlightened contemporary would have done 
 upon a subject of English literature. He has thus 
 evinced among many other valuable writers since his 
 time, that every truth and every doctrine mat/ be ex- 
 pressed in the ordinary language of mankind : his writ- 
 ings are consequently free from those peculiarities of 
 style which are sometimes so used as to render ob- 
 scure what is plain, and to darken still more what is 
 really mysterious. 
 
 Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, 
 September, 1831. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SECT. I, PART I. 
 
 Page 
 Chap. I. The Introduction. The contents of the Text. 
 
 The first doctrine raised and proved by two reasons 1 
 
 Chap. II. Three other reasons proving the former doclrijie 4 
 Chap. III. Three pair of instances confirming the former 
 doctrine : David and Saul, Job and Ahithophel, Luther 
 
 and Spira » 9 
 
 Chap. IV. A first use of the former Doctrine, for exhor- 
 tation to store up heavenly comforts in our hearts. Two 
 considerations which press this exhortation upon us ... . 14 
 Chap. V. A third consideration, pressing the former ex- 
 hortation, defended against MachiaveV s position 17 
 
 Chap. VI. A second use of the former doctrine, for reproof 
 to several sorts of people. The first whereof are the 
 careless, with a first consideration to admonish them. ... 22 
 Chap. VII. A second and third consideration for the 
 
 admonition of those who are careless 26 
 
 Chap. VIII. The second sort of people to be reproved, which 
 
 are sensualists. The first consideration to reform them. . 30 
 Chap. IX. The second and third consideration for the 
 
 reformation of the sensualist 32 
 
 Chap. X. The third sort of people to be reproved, which 
 are the opposers of a powerful ministry. Three reasons 
 
 dissuading men from that si7i 38 
 
 Chap. XI. Four other reasons dissuading from the former sin 41 
 Chap. XII. Six other reasons dissuading from the former sin 43 
 Chap. Xill. J. Who are meant by persecutors. II. What 
 is meant by persecution. III. An objection against the 
 
 doctrine answered 46 
 
 Chap. XIV. Five false grounds of confident enduring misery 48 
 Chap. XV. A sixth false ground of confident enduring 
 miseries. A conclusion of the first doctrine 51 
 
 SECT. I, PART II. 
 
 Chap. I. The doctrine of the intolerableness of a wounded 
 conscience proved 55 
 
 Chap. II. Use of the former doctrine for the unconverted 
 to take out the sting of sin by repentance. One reason 
 why every sinner doth r}ot always feel that sting ...... 62 
 
xlii CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Chap. III. Five other reasons why a sinner doth not al- 
 ways feel the sting of sin 69 
 
 Chap. IV. The second use of the former doctrine for the 
 converted, that they sin no more ; and to keep them from 
 sin, seven cojisiderations are given them 75 
 
 Chap. V. Thirteen other coiisiderations to keep men from sin 83 
 
 SECT. II, PART I. 
 
 Chap. I. The first error in curing consciences is the unsea- 
 sonable applying of comfort to them that sorrow not at all 92 
 
 Chap. II. Daubers reprehended. Faithfulness in preach- 
 ing and daubing compared 103 
 
 Chap. III. A general direction for avoiding the former error 112 
 
 Chap. IV. Four particular directions for the avoiding 
 this error. I. How the Law is to be pressed. II. How 
 the Gospel to he preached. III. How Christ to be pro- 
 posed. IV. How pardon to be asstired. And ways to 
 be used for the putting of these directions in practice. . 119 
 
 Chap. V. The second error is the indiscreet applying of 
 comfort to them that are not grieved aright. Two cases 
 wherein men grieved are not to be presently comforted. . 133 
 
 Chap. VI. Two other cases wherein spiritual physicians 
 must take heed of the second error 143 
 
 Chap. VII. A fifth case wherein spiritual physicians mtist 
 take heed of that second error. The divers kinds of death 
 in godly men 152 
 
 Chap. VIII. The divers kinds of death in wicked men .. . 159 
 
 Chap. IX. The remedy in this fifth case. 1. Admonition 
 to the juinisters, to be careful in comforting at that time. 
 2. To the people, not to defer repentance till that time. . 165 
 
 Chap. X. The third error of applying comfort, which is 
 indiscreet application. The first case wherein it hap- 
 pens, which is too sudden application ; and the demon- 
 stration of that error 170 
 
 Chap. XI. Objection against the former doctrine. Dif- 
 ferences between legal terrors in the elect and others. . . . 178 
 
 Chap. XII. Instructions for the avoiding this fault of 
 applyhig comfort too soon 183 
 
 Chap. XIII. The second case wherein the former error is 
 committed, which is in applying too much. Two things 
 concerning which the afflicted is to be advised for avoid- 
 ing this error 187 
 
 Chap. XIV. Two things more concerning which the af- 
 flicted is to be advised, and two things which the minister 
 is to heed for avoiding that error , , 196 
 
CONTENTS. xliii 
 
 Page 
 
 Chap. XV. The fifth advice to the afflicted. Two direc- 
 tions to the minister, to be observed towards his patient . . 202 
 
 Chap. XVI, Two cases wherein pangs of conscience are 
 not healed, whatever they seem 207 
 
 Chap. XVII. A third case, wherein panes of conscience 
 may seem to be healed, and are not ; with the discovery 
 of men's errors in that kind 212 
 
 Chap. XVIII. Three cases more, wherein the pangs of 
 conscience are not healed 218 
 
 SECT. II, PART 11. 
 
 Chap. I. Theright method of curing an afflicted conscience. 
 
 Four things required in the right metliod of curing. . . . 222 
 Chap. II. Three thijigs more required in those who are 
 
 rightly cured 226 
 
 SECT. Ill, PART I. 
 
 Chap. I. Three principles of comfort from without us, to 
 be applied to afflicted consciences 230 
 
 Chap. II. Two principles of comfort more 236 
 
 Chap. III. Five other principles of comfort 240 
 
 Chap. IV. Four conclusions of comfort, drawn from those 
 places of Scripture which set forth the Lord's dealing 
 with us as a father with his children 247 
 
 Chap. V. Eight conclusions more drawn from the afore- 
 mentioned places 253 
 
 Chap. VI. A principle of comfort from something within 
 us, confirmed from several testimonies and instances of 
 Scripture, and by one reason 258 
 
 Chap. VII. One reason more, confirming the truth of the 
 former principle 264 
 
 Chap. VIII. The former principle confirmed by two more 
 reasons, and by authority 268 
 
 Chap. IX. By what marks true desires of grace in us may 
 he known 271 
 
 Chap. X. Two especial times wherein the former principle 
 is to be applied 273 
 
 Chap. XI. Two other especial times wherein use is to be 
 made of the former principle 276 
 
 SECT. Ill, PART II. 
 
 Chap. I. '1 he first particular malady set down, with a 
 general principle for the cure of it 281 
 
 Chap. II. The first particular argument to be applied for 
 the cure of the formev malady 285 
 
xliv CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 Chap. III. The second particular argument to be used for 
 the cure of the former malady. Five parts of that ar- 
 gument laid open. The first branch of the fifth part. . 290 
 Chap. IV. Tivo branches more of the fifth part of the 
 former argument, and the several particles which belong 
 
 to the second of them 295 
 
 Chap. V. The second malady of conscience. Three con- 
 siderations against inisoundyiess, proposed for the cure 
 of this malady ; arid three more against unadvisedness.» 299 
 Chap. VI. Tivo considerations more against unadvised- 
 
 ness, for the cure of the former malady 304 
 
 Chap. VII. The third malady of conscience, The danger 
 
 of it. The causes of it. Two things proposed for its cure . 307 
 Chap. VIII. The third loay of curi^ig the former malady. 
 
 One thing to be considered to that purpose 314 
 
 Chap. IX. A second and third thing to be considered for 
 
 the cure of the former malady 321 
 
 Chap. X. The fourth and fifth considerations which be- 
 long to the third way of curing the former malady. 
 
 Also the fifth help for it by advice 325 
 
 Chap. XI. The fourth malady . Two causes of this malady 328 
 Chap. XII. Four causes more of the foi-mer malady .... 334 
 Chap. XIII. Two more causes of the former malady .... 341 
 Chap. XIV. The ninth and tenth causes of this malady . . 348 
 Chap. XV. Two helps for the curing of a man troubled 
 
 with the former malady 352 
 
 Chap. XVI. Two other helps 357 
 
 Chap. XVII. Two more helps 362 
 
 Chap. XVIII. Thelasthelp 367 
 
 Chap. XIX. The fifth malady of an afflicted conscience. 
 The first way of curing it, which is speculative, and the 
 
 first part of that way, which is by consideration 371 
 
 Chap. XX. The second part of the speculative way of 
 curing the former malady, which is by counsel. Two 
 
 things lohich men must he counselled to practise 378 
 
 Chap. XXI. Three other things which men must he coun- 
 selled to practise for the cure of the former malady . . . 382 
 Chap. XXII. The experimental way of curing the for- 
 mer malady 387 
 
INSTRUCTIONS 
 
 FOR 
 
 COMFORTING AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 
 
 " The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity ; but a wounded 
 spirit who can hear ? " — Prov. xviii, 14. 
 
 SECT. I, PART I. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 The Introduction. The Contents of the Text. The First Doctrine 
 raised and proved by Two Reasons. 
 
 My text lies, as you see, in a sacred cabinet of richest 
 jewels; I mean the most select and wisest aphorisms, or 
 proverbs, that ever issused out of a mortal brain. Every- 
 one of them for the most part, especially from the tenth 
 chapter, independent, entire, and absolute in themselves; 
 clear and manifest by their own native brightness ; not 
 needing such reciprocal light and lustre for each other's 
 mutual discovery and interpretation ; and therefore they 
 are naturally not capable of any coherent logical analysis, 
 and other circumstantial expositions, ordinarily incident to 
 other parts of scripture. Whence it is that this book of 
 Proverbs is compared to a great heap of gold rings, rich and 
 orient severally, and every one shining with a distinct 
 lustre by itself ; but other texts of Holy Writ to gold chains, 
 so interwoven and enlinked together, that they must upon 
 necessity, for the rendering unto us aright and fully their 
 several senses, be enlightened and receive mutual illustra- 
 tion one from another. 
 
 This present proverb doth represent unto us the ex- 
 tremest hell upon earth, the greatest misery and most in- 
 
 15 
 
^2 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 supportable that can possibly befal a man in this life ; I 
 mean the horror of a guilty and enraged conscience : which 
 is set out. 
 
 First, by the excellency of its opposite : the invincible 
 ability and mighty strength of that truly stout and heroical 
 heart, which is happily upholden with the heavenly re- 
 freshing influence of grace, God's favour, and a good con- 
 science : " The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity." 
 
 Secondly, by the heaviness of its attribute, the intoler- 
 ableness of it : " But a wounded spirit who can bear 1 " 
 
 From the former, the courage of a heart upholden with 
 grace, take this first note : — 
 
 Doctr. The spirit of a man, furnished with grace and for- 
 tified with the sense of God's favour, is able to pass through 
 the pikes and conquer all comers. 
 
 I. For what, and why should that man fear or faint, on 
 whose side the mighty Lord of heaven and earth doth stand ? 
 " If God be for us, who can be ac;ainst us?" Rom. viii,3i. 
 Whose mercy to his is without all stint and limit, like him- 
 self, infinite ; so immeasurable, that itreacheth " from ever- 
 lasting to everlasting" (Psalm ciii, 17 ) ; so tender, that it 
 surpasseth incomprehensibly the compassionate m.eltings of 
 the most loving mother (Isa. xlix, 15 ) ; and spared not the 
 dearest blood of his only Son (Rom. viii, 32) ; who hath 
 ever in readiness for the recovery of his children out of the 
 most desperate danger, and to rescue them out of the hands 
 of the deadliest enemy (besides his own omnipotent arm, 
 the least finger whereof can beat the greatest mountain to 
 powder and rend the hardest rock in pieces), innumerable 
 hosts of angels, one of which killed an hundred fourscore 
 and five thousand in one night (2 Kings xix, 35) ; chariots 
 of fire, even a thousand chariots in the whirlwind ; that 
 fair glorious giant which with incredible swiftness runs post- 
 as it were through the sky. to stand still, or retire ; the im- 
 petuous current of the raging sea to recoil ; the merciless 
 flames of the hungry fire to become a soft and refieshing air ; 
 the implacable fury of the most enraged lions to couch at 
 the first word for his servant's sake and safety. — Nay, if 
 need be, he hath caterpillars and frogs, worms and lice, 
 even the most impotent and vilest vermin to fetch blood 
 and take down the heart of the proudest tyrant upon earth, 
 carry he his head never so high ; to eat out the bov.'els of the 
 bloodiest Nimrod or mightiest monarch ;.hat wears a crown 
 upon his head, if he oppose his people. He hath the very 
 hearts and consciences (Matt, xxvii, 5 ; 2 Sam. xvii, 23) of 
 all that rise up against them, to bring their own blood upon 
 their own heads, and even hell and extremest horror upon 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 3 
 
 their hearts iu this life. What then so dreadful a face of 
 present confusions or fore-imagined forms of future troubles 
 are able or ought slavislily to deject and terrify that holy 
 heart, which with a sweet and safe repose is happily and 
 everlastingly hid under the wings of that mighty God 
 (Ruth ii, 12; Psalm xci, 4), who for the deliverance of 
 his can work, 
 
 1. By weak means ; see Jud^. vii ; 1 Sam. xiv ; Gen. xiv ; 
 
 1 Sam. xvii ; Judg. IV, 21, and ix, 53. 
 
 2. Without means ; see 2 Chron. xx ; Exod. xiv ; Josh, vi ; 
 
 2 Kings xix ; 2 Chron. xiv. 
 
 3. Contrary to means; see Dan, vi, 22; Josh, iii, 16; 
 Dan. iii, 25, 26; Jonah ii,6; Joih. x, 12, 13, 14. 
 
 II. U hen the heavenly beams of God's pleased counte- 
 nance begin to break out upon a man through the dark and 
 hellish mist of his manifold and heinous sins, the unquench- 
 able heat of his everlasting love through Christ dissolving 
 them into nothing, and fairly shine with a comfortable as- 
 spect upon his humbled soul, fpso facto, heaven and earth, 
 and all the hosts of both, are everlastingly reconciled unto 
 him and become his friends : the storms and tempests raised 
 by all the powers of hell are presently calmed for ever doing 
 him any deadly hurt. All the creatures then pull in their 
 horns, withdraw iheir stings, bite in their poison, checked 
 and awed by those divine impressions of their Creator's 
 blessed image stamped upon them by the Spirit of grace ; 
 and dare no more offer any violence or vexation to him (ex- 
 cept upon particular dispensation for his spiritual good and. 
 quickening) than to the apple ot God's own eye. Hear the 
 promise from God's own mouth: " And in that day will I 
 make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and 
 with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of 
 the ground : and 1 will break the bow and the sword and 
 the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down 
 safely" (Hos. ii, 18). Nay, they are so far from charging 
 their several stings upon the saints, that they will change 
 their very natures to do them service. They will rather be- 
 come an astonishment and horror to the whole creation than 
 they be hurt. How often have they suspended and put off 
 their native power and properties for the protection and 
 good of God's people 1 The very sea, that most raging and 
 roaring creature, must stay his course and current to give 
 passage and preservation to a true Israelite ; the stars must 
 fight and the sun stand still for the aid and advantage of God's 
 armies; the lions must leave their savage rage and trade of 
 blood, and become lambs and loving unto a Daniel ; the 
 lavens will feed an Elijah ; the flames of fire must hold in 
 iheir heat from burning a Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed- 
 
4 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 nego ; the devouring belly of a dreadful fish must be turned 
 into a sanctuary of safety to a Jonah ; a popish furnace 
 heated with the very malice of hell shall become a bed of 
 down and roses to a martyr of Jesus * ; the very dead lines of 
 an ordinary letter, must represent to a royal mind a mean- 
 ing quite contrary to the natural sense and all grammatical 
 construction, before a b'essed parliament be blown up with 
 popish gunpowder t ; a brittle glass must rebound unbroken 
 from the hardest stone, to help to bind up a broken heart 
 bleeding with grief for absence of her spouse and want of 
 the assurance of his love t. Nay, the devil himself, though he 
 walks about like a roaring lion, seeking with restless rage 
 and desiring infinitely to devour the Lord's inheritance, yet 
 cannot possibly add one link to the chain in which by the 
 merciful and mighty hand of God he is hampered, nor go an 
 hair's breadth beyond his commission : and though it be 
 utterly irnpossible that that damned angel should so far 
 change his devilish nature as to do any of God's chosen 
 directly any true good, yet he is everlastingly muzzled by 
 an Almighty arm from ever doing them any deadly hurt. 
 He may be suffered sometimes to shake his chain at them, 
 and roar upon them hideously, to drive them nearer unto 
 God and fright them from sin ; but he shall never, either 
 in this world or the world to come, have his full swing 
 at them, or fasten his hellish fangs upon their redeemed 
 souls. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Three other Reasons prorUig the former Doctrine. 
 
 HI. Besides all that other excellent, complete, impene- 
 trable armour of proof, mentioned Eiphes. vi, which is able to 
 beat back victoriously all earthly oppositions, and the very 
 ordnance of hell, every one of God's favourites is also 
 blessedly furnished with a mighty spiritual engine, which is 
 able to batter down all the bulwarks of the devil, to shake 
 the whole kingdom of darkness and all hellish powers ; nay, 
 to offer an holy violence to the very throne of God himself; 
 witness his most mercifully entreating Moses to let him 
 alone (Exod. xxxii, 10), as though the mediation of a man 
 could bind as it were (I speak it with lowliest reverence to 
 that Highest Majesty) the hands of his omnipotency from 
 doing his people any hurt, and were able to extinguish that 
 
 • The declaration of Baiuham. while burning. 
 + Kinji^ James's interpretation of the anonymons letter by which the 
 ("iunpowder Plot was discovered. 
 X See Yates's God's arraignment of Hypocrites, p. 357. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 5 
 
 unquenchable wrath in the conception, which once on foot 
 would " burn unto the lowest hell, and set on fire the foun- 
 dations of the mountains,''— I mean that most precious, and 
 almost, if not altogether, omnipotent grace of Prayer. This 
 great master of miracles hath wrought from time to time 
 many and very remarkable wonders, both in heaven and 
 earth. It made the sun, that mighty creatuie. the prince 
 of all the lights in heaven, to stay and stand still upun the 
 sudden in the heat of his swiftest course (Josh, x, 12, 13) ; 
 it landed Jonah safely upon the shore out of the belly of the 
 whale and bowels of the sea (Jonah ii, 1, 10); it drew 
 refreshing streams out of a dry bone ibr the saving of 
 Samson's life (Judges xv, 18, 19) ; it turned the heaven into 
 brass for three years and a half, and afterward turned the 
 self-same brass into fruitful clouds and fountains of rain 
 (James v, 17, 18) ; it killed a hundred fourscore and five 
 thousand of the enemies of God's people in one night 
 (2 Kings xix, 15—35) ; for the freeing of Elisha from a 
 strait and dangerous siege it filled a mountain in a moment, 
 as it were, "full of horses and chariots of fire" (2 Kings 
 vi, 17) ; it turned the swords of a mighty army into the 
 bowels of one another, when Jehoshaphat knew not which 
 way to turn himself, but was so helpless and hopeless that 
 he cried unto the Lord, " We know not what to do, only 
 our eyes are upon tliee (2 Chron. xx, 5 — 23); it loosed 
 Peter out of prison, shook his chains off from his hands, 
 and made an iron gate to open of its own accord (Acts xii, 
 5, 7, 10) ; it enraged and enlarged the P^nglish seas to 
 swallow up the Spanish invincible armada ; and, which is 
 none of the least wonders, it brought prince Charles out of 
 Spain. 
 
 But you instance, may some say, in extraordinary exam- 
 ples of extraordinary men, endowed with an extraordinary 
 spirit. 
 
 Yet sure I am they are registered by the Holy Ghost to 
 represent unto us and to all generations of the church to 
 the world's end the almighty and wonder-working power of 
 prayer ; and I am as sure that the petitioners were men 
 " subject to like passions as we are " (James v. 17). Per- 
 haps if thou be a true hearted Nathanael, since thy new 
 birth ihou wast never so extraordinarily passionate as Jonah 
 was, when out of a pang of strange distemper he thus 
 answered the mighty Lord of heaven and earth, " I do well 
 to be angry, even unto death " (Jonah iv, 9). 
 
 IV. God's favourite is further furnished with another 
 spiritual weapon of impregnable temper and incredible 
 might : I mean faith, the very power and arm of God for 
 
 J3 3 
 
INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 all true joy, sound comfort, and lightsonieness at the heart- 
 root in this life. This crowned empress of all those heavenly 
 graces that dwell in the soul of a sanctified man, and which 
 in a right sense may be said virtually to comprehend all the 
 beauty, strength, excellency, and power of Christ himself, 
 is truly victorious and triumphant over all the world (1 John 
 V, 4) ; over the very gates of hell and all the powers of 
 darkness (Malt, xvi, 18); over the devil's most fiery darts 
 (Eph. vi, 16) ; over the devouring flames of the raging fire ; 
 over the roaring fury of the most hungry lions •, over the 
 variety and extremity of the most exquisite tortures, temp- 
 tations, persecutions ; all outward miseries, even over cruel 
 mockings : it irresistibly beats down or blows up the 
 strongest bulwarks and thickest walls, puts to flight the 
 migfitiest armies, and conquers the most invincible king- 
 doms (Heb. xi, 30, 33—37); and when all is done, O 
 blessed faith, at the very last and deadliest lift, she trium- 
 phantly sets her foot upon the neck of the prince of terrors, 
 1 mean death, the last and worst, the end and sum of all 
 feared evils (Psalm xxiii, 4) ; and even in the midst of those 
 dying and dreadful pangs bears a glorious part with Jesus 
 Christ the conqueror in that sweetest song of victory, "O 
 death, where is thy sting 1" In a word, it can do all 
 things : "All things are possible to him that belie veth " 
 (Mark ix, 23). 
 
 V. In a word, grace in its own nature being the most 
 glorious creature of the Father of lights, and flowing as it 
 were more immediately and sweetly from his blessed face, 
 is of such a divine, invincible, and lightsome temper, and 
 hath such an antipathy, such vigour and ability against all 
 spiritual darkness and damps, whether of afHiction, temp- 
 tation, troublesome confusions of the times, " the valley of 
 the shadow of death," the grave, hell itself; that it is ever 
 able either to dispel it or dissolve it, or support itself strongly 
 and triumphantly even in the midst of it. Suppose a soul 
 beautified with grace to be seated, if it were possible, in 
 the very centre of that hellish kingdom, yet would it by its 
 heavenly strength and glory, in despite of all infernal 
 powers, keep off at some distance all the darkness, torments, 
 and horror of that damned place. Whence it is that it is so 
 often in the holy scriptures compared to light. Now what 
 power and prevalent antipathy our ordinary light doth exer- 
 cise against his most abhorred opposite, darkness, you well 
 know; and it is elegantly and punctually for my purpose 
 expressed by one in this manner : *' We see and prove," 
 saith he, " by daily experience how powerful and dreadful 
 a thing the darkness of the night is. For when it falleth it 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 7 
 
 covereth and muffleth up the face of the whole world. It 
 obscureth and hidelh the hue and the fashion of all crea- 
 tures ; It bindeth up all hands and breaketh off all employ- 
 ments. The night cometh, saith our Saviour, wherein we 
 cannot work. It arresteth and keepeth captive all living 
 creatures, men and beasts, that they must be still and rest 
 where it arresteth them ; yea it maketh them fearful and 
 faint-hearted, full of fancies, and much subject to frights. 
 It is of all others such a powerful and unconquerable tyrant 
 as no man is able to witlistand ; and yet nevertheless it is 
 not of that might that it is able to overwhelm or to quench 
 the least light in the world. For we see the darker the 
 night is, the clearer the stars shine ; yea the least candle's 
 light that is lighted withstandeth the whole night, and not 
 only suffereth not the darkness to cover, or to smother and 
 oppress it, but it giveih light also, even in the midst of the 
 darkness, and beateth it back for some space and distance 
 on every side of it ; so that which way soever it is borne, or 
 wheresoever it cometh, there must darkness depart and give 
 place unto the light ; all the power and dreadfulness of it 
 cannot help or prevail aught against it. And though the 
 light be so weak that it cannot cast light far about, or drive 
 the darkness far from it, as in the spark of a hot coal, yet 
 cannot the darkness cover or conceal, and much less quench 
 It, but it giveth light to itself alone at least, so that it may 
 be seen afar off in the dark, and it remaineth unconquered 
 ot the dark, though it cannot help other things nor give light 
 unto them. Yea, that which is yet more wonderful, a 
 rotten shining piece of wood, which hath the faintest light 
 that can be found, yet remaineth invincible of all the power 
 of darkness, and the more it is compassed about with 
 darkness the clearer light it giveth. So little is darkness 
 able to overcome or keep down any light, but that it ruleth 
 and vanquisheth and expelleth the darkness, which else 
 overwhelmeth and snareth, and fettereth, and putteth all 
 things in fear. Now if this natural light be so powerful 
 and so able to prevail against the darkness of the night, 
 why should not that spiritual light that God's Spirit doth 
 kindle and set up in the hearts of God's children be able to 
 afford them light in darkness, and to minister sound joy and 
 sweet comfort unto them in the very midst of their heaviest 
 and most hideous afflictions." Assuredly it must needs be 
 unconquerably able, with far greater power and in an 
 higher proportion. For our visible light doth spring but 
 from a finite and material fountain, the sun, itself a crea- 
 ture ; but the spiritual light I speak of, flows immediately 
 from the glorious face of the only true, incomprehensible 
 
8 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 and eternal Light (1 John i, 5), the sun's creator, "who 
 dwelleth in the light that no man can approach unto," and 
 is an everlasting well- spring of all life and light, which it 
 doth so far represent and resemble in Divine excellency and 
 mightiness, that it thence receives by a secret and sacred 
 influence fresh successions still of an infinite triumphant 
 power, and prevaileth against all spiritual darkness for 
 ever. Suppose all the men that dwell within the compass of 
 our hemisphere should address themselves with all their wit 
 and v.'eapons, with all their power and policy, to keep back 
 that universal darkness which is wont to seize upon the face 
 of the earth at the setting of the sun, yet by all this strong 
 and combined opposition they should but beat the air. But 
 now upon the very Mist approach of that ];rincely light but 
 peeping up in the east, it would all fly away in a moment 
 and vanish into nothing. In a similar manner, if all the 
 understandings upon earth, and all the angels in heaven, 
 should contribute all their abilities and excellences to en- 
 lighten with cheerfulness and joy a guilty conscience, sur- 
 prised sometimes with hellish darkness and clouds of horror 
 upon sight of sin and sense of Divine wrath, yet all would 
 not do ; they should all the while but wash a Blackmoor. 
 But now let but the least glimpse of the light of grace 
 shine into that sad and heavy soul, and it would far more 
 easily and irresistibly chase away the very darkest mid- 
 nights of any spiritual misery, than the strongest summer's 
 sun would dispel the thinnest morning's mist. Give me, if 
 you will, Judas's heart, or Spira's horror, or a vexed spirit 
 torn and rent in pieces with the raging guilt of both those 
 woful men, and let that supposed rueful soul, weary of its 
 hellish burthen, and thirsting sincerely for the " water of 
 life," but cast itself upon the mercy, truth, and power of 
 the Lord Jesus, so sweetly offering himself in that precious 
 promise (jNIatt. xi, 28), resolving to take him for an ever- 
 lasting husband ; and, ipso facto, it might be put into a very 
 heaven upon earth. For this glorious grace of faith, the 
 prince of all spiritual light and lightsomeness in the truly 
 humbled soul, thus shed into such a dark and grieved spirit, 
 doth enkindle and set on shining all those gracious heavenly 
 stars that are wont to beautify the hearts of holy men; 
 hope, love, zeal, son-like fear, humility, patience, self- 
 denial, universal obedience, fruitfulness in all good works, 
 &:c., which make them light itself to walk in the light 
 towards the infinite and unapproachable Light ; and there- 
 fore they never need to want lightsomeness, but have per- 
 petual matter of spiritual mirth and mightiness of spirit. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 
 
 CHAP III. 
 
 Three pair of instances confirming the former doctrine ; David and 
 Saul, Job and Aliithophel, Luther and .Spira. 
 
 The point appears and is further proved by manifest and 
 manifold experience. David having been formerly wo- 
 fully wasted with great variety and extremity of dangers 
 and distresses, was at last plunged into a most desperate 
 perplexity (1 Sam. xxx, 6), which had been able to have 
 swallowed up into despair the manliest vigour of the 
 greatest spirit upon earth not supported with grace (the 
 like, or a less, caused king Saul to fall upon his own sword, 
 1 Sam. xxxi, 4); yet he, blessed man, by the power of 
 his spiritual peace, and the beams of God's pleased face 
 shining upon his soul, did patiently and sweetly comfort 
 himself in the Lord his God, and stood like an impregnable 
 rock, unshaken with the raging assaults of any tempestuous 
 surges. He was at this time hunted by Saul like a partridge 
 in the mountains ; cashiered by the princes of the Philistines 
 as a fellow of suspected fidelity ; robbed by the Amalekites 
 of his wives, his sons, and his daughters ; the town to which 
 he returned for safety was burnt with fire ; and, to make 
 his calamity complete and most cutting, even his own men 
 were ready to stone him. Now in this great distress, upon 
 the first apprehension whereof he wept, as the stoiy saith, 
 " until he had no more power to weep," yet coming to 
 himself, and recollecting his spiritual forces, his heavy 
 heart, ready to sink and fall asunder in his bosom, did fetch, 
 by the hand of faith, comfortably fortified by sense and 
 experience of former favours, such heavenly strength from 
 Jehovah, whom he had made his portion, that thereupon 
 his courage was revived and raised to that height, that he 
 presently pursued his enemies with extraordinary valour 
 and resolution, cut them off and recovered all. " And 
 David," saith the text, " was greatly distressed ; for the 
 people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the 
 people was grieved, eveiy man for his sons and for his 
 daughters : but David encouraged himself in the Lord his 
 God," &c. 
 
 What a bitter sea of unmatched miseries did break out 
 upon blessed Job, which with a sudden unexpected violence 
 bearing down that hedge of protection which God had set 
 about him (the rains purposely let loose by Divine dispen- 
 sation to Satan's malice in the mean time), did fearfully 
 overflow him to that height and horror, that he stands re- 
 
10 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 gistered in God's book as an unparalleled instance of ex- 
 tiaordinarj^ sufferings and sorrows, calamities and conflicts, 
 to all succeeding ages, no story being able to afford the like. 
 The natural death of one dear child strikes sometimes so 
 heavy to a man's heart, that for grief he falls into a con- 
 sumption ; but all Job's were suddenly taken away at once 
 by a violent stroke. Some petty cross upon his outward 
 state, and cutting off but part of his goods, causes some- 
 times a covetous worldling to cut his own throat ; but Job 
 was robbed of all, so that it is a proverb to this day, " as 
 poor as Job." Many wives are passionate and peevish in 
 time of prosperity, whose hearts notwithstanding will melt 
 in compassion and kindness over their husbands in any 
 kind of misery ; but Job's wife, though dearly entreated by 
 her most distressed husband even for their children's sake, 
 the mutual common pledges of sweetest love, yet would i ot 
 come near him. " My breath," saith he, " is strange to my 
 wife, though 1 entreated for the children's sake of mine own 
 body" f chap, xix, 17). Satan, 1 confess, is wont to roar 
 and rage fiercely enough about God's blessed ones, to do 
 them ail the mischief he can possibly ; but rarely hath he 
 so large a reach and his chain so lengthened as he had 
 aga.nst Job. 'J he painful anguish of some one part would 
 not only deprive a man of the pleasure of the world's mo- 
 narchy if he had it in possession, but also make him weary 
 of his life. In what a taking then was Job, who from the 
 sole of his foot unto his crown had no part free from sore 
 biles and horribly inflauied ulcers, exasperated and enraged 
 with the stinging smart of Satan's extremest malice, who 
 had power given him to inflict them. God himself frowns 
 many times, and withdraws the beams of his pleased face 
 from the souls of his servants to their great grief, though for 
 their spiritual good ; but seldom doth he set them up for 
 his mark, hunt them as a fierce lion, set his tenors in array 
 against them, and command the poison of his arrows to 
 drink up their spirit, as Job complains, chap, xix, 13 ; x, 
 16; vi, 4. 
 
 It is no strange thing, neither should it much move, but 
 only make us walk more watchfully, to hear men of the 
 world and drunken Belials to belch out from their rotten 
 hearts upon the ale-bench such base slanders as these : 
 " These professors, for all their fair shows, are certainly all 
 of them notorious hypocrites. Though they look never so 
 demurely, they are not the men they are taken for," &c. 
 But to have a man's nearest, familiar, understanding 
 Christian friends to charge him with hypocrisy, is a most 
 cruel cut to a troubled conscience : and this was Job's case. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 11 
 
 Thus as Job was singular in the universality of his afflic- 
 tions, so there was a singularity of bitterness above ordi- 
 nary in every particular affliction. And what of all this? 
 And yet for all this, this holy man, by the help of that pre- 
 cious hoard of grace which his heavenly heart had treasured 
 up in the time of prosperity, out of that spiritual strength 
 which he had gotten into his soul by his former humble ac- 
 quaintance and conversation with his God, and knowing 
 full well that though all was gone, yet he still possessed 
 Jesus Christ as fully, if not more feelingly, as ever before, 
 he becomes hereupon as rare and admirable a pattern of 
 patience to all posterity, as he was an extraordinary, as- 
 tonishing spectacle of adversity and woe. Consciousness 
 of his forespent righteous life, which he peruseth chap.xxxi ; 
 the clearness of a good conscience, chap, xvi, 19 ; " Behold 
 my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high ; " and 
 his invincible faith, chap, xix, 23, 24, 25, "Oh that my words 
 were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! 
 that they were graven with an iron pen, and lead in the 
 rock for ever! For I know that my Redeemer liveth," 
 &c. ; chap, xiii, 15; " Though he slay me, yet will I trust 
 in him ;" — did so strengthen and stay his spirit with a di- 
 vine might, that he bore valiantly and stood upright under 
 the heaviest weight and greatest variety of extreme afflic- 
 tions that ever were laid upon any mere man. But now, 
 on the other side, the tithe, nay the ten hundredth part of 
 Job's troubles, caused graceless Ahithophel to saddle his 
 ass, get himself home, put his household in order, and hang 
 himself. So true is that which the blessed prophet tells us, 
 Jer. xvii, 5—8, " Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, 
 and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from 
 the Lord. Por he shall be like the heath in the desert, and 
 shall not see when good comeih, but shall inhabit the 
 parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not in- 
 habited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and 
 whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted 
 by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the 
 river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf 
 shall be green ; and shall not be careful in the year of 
 drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." 
 
 This impregnable comfort springing from grace and a 
 good conscience, even in evil times, did steel the spirit of 
 blessed Luther with such spiritual stoutness, and so hard- 
 ened his forehead against a world, nay a horrible hell of 
 most reproachful and raging oppositions, that he became a 
 spectacle, a miracle of rarest Christian fortitude and in- 
 vincible courage to the whole world and to all posterity. I 
 
12 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 am persuaded, that holy truth of God which he so gloriously 
 professed, and that power of godliness which he so faith- 
 fully practised, did infuse into the heart of that man as 
 much unconquerableness of resolution and fearlessness of 
 the face of man, as ever dwelt in any mortal breast since 
 the time of the apostles. Witness among the rest that one 
 extraordinary expression of his incomparable magnanimity, 
 when his friends were earnest and eager upon him not to 
 venture himself among a number of perfidious papists and 
 bloodthirsty tigers, he replied thus: "As touching me,'* 
 saith he, " since I am sent for, I am resolved, and certainly 
 determined to enter Worms in the name of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ ; yea, though 1 knew there were as many devils to 
 resist me as there are tiles to cover the houses in W^orms." 
 This man of God did upon the two pillars of his heroical 
 heart, courage and patience, most nobly sustain the malice 
 and hatred almost of the whole world. The devil and the 
 pope did concurrently countermine with all their cruelty 
 and cunning against this victorious champion of heaven and 
 mighty underminer of their dark and damned kingdoms. 
 Almost all the princes, priests, and people of Christendom 
 did breed and breathe out nothing but thoughts of indigna- 
 tion and threats of death against him. Millions of lazy and 
 lustful monks, having like so many pestilent locusts of the 
 infernal pit, seized upon the face of Europe with their en- 
 venomed swarms, and lying at ease, encloistered in the 
 vilest crimes, gnashed their teeth at him with hellish fury, 
 and like true fiends spat fire in his face ; and yet for all 
 this, this holy saint Twhich I admire more and prize higher 
 than the victories of a thousaiid Cesars, or the most re- 
 nowned valour of the greatest Alexander) having so many 
 incarnate devils continually roaring about him with open 
 mouth, ready every hour, and enraged with implacable 
 thirst to drink up his blood, and swallow him up quick, yet, 
 I say, enjoyed such a triumphant tranquillity of mind and 
 unshaken presence of spirit, that like a mighty son of 
 thunder, by his constant and powerful preaching for the 
 space of nine and twenty yearsso shook the pillars of popery, 
 that I am persuaded the beast will never stand upon his 
 four legs any more ; and wrote eloquently and excellently 
 almost if not as many volumes as Austin did, that great 
 glory of the Christian world in former times. A petty cross 
 will frequently so emasculate and weaken the elevation of 
 the greatest wit, that his conceit, invention, and style will 
 fall to a far lower strain than ordinary, which contentment 
 and calmness would raise to their highest pitch and possi- 
 bility. But the terrible earthquake as it were of all Europe, 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 13 
 
 and contrary commotions of Christendom, did never a whit 
 disanimate or shake the heart of this heavenly man, fitly 
 honoured by the name of a third Elias. 
 
 But now Francis Spira on the other side, having out of 
 his inordinate love to the things of this life wofully wounded 
 his conscience by that infamous abjuration of the blessed 
 truth which he formerly professed, became a spectacle of 
 such spiritual misery and woe to the whole world, that 
 there is not any thing left unto the memory of man more 
 remarkable. 
 
 Upon the very first revisal of his recantation, and serious 
 consideration in cold blood what he had done, he acknow- 
 ledged himself utterly undone and for ever. His spirit 
 suddenly smitten with the dreadful sense of Divine wrath for 
 his apostacy, and split in pieces as it were with so grievous a 
 bruise, fainted fearfully, failed him quite, and fell asunder 
 in his breast like drops of water. Hear some rueful expres- 
 sions of his desperate state from his own mouth : " Oh that 
 I were gone from hence, that somebody would let out this 
 weary soul ! I tell you there was never such a monster as 
 I am ; never was man alive a spectacle of such exceeding 
 misery. I now feel God's heavy wrath, that burns like the 
 torments of hell within me, and afflicts my soul with pangs 
 unutterable. Verily desperation is hell itself. The gnaw- 
 ing worm of unquenchable fire, horror, confusion, and, 
 which is worst of all, desperation itself, continually tortures 
 me. And now I count my present estate worse than if my 
 soul separated from my body were with Judas, and there- 
 fore I desire rather to be there than thus to live in my body. 
 The truth is, never had mortal man such experience of 
 God's anger and hatred against him as I have. If I could 
 conceive but the least spark of hope in my heart of a better 
 state hereafter, I would not refuse to endure the most heavy 
 wrath of the great God, yea for two thousand years, so that 
 at length I might emerge out of misery." He professed that 
 his pangs were such as that the damned souls in hell endure 
 not the like misery ; that his state was worse than that of 
 Cain or Judas, and therefore desired to die. " Oh that 
 God would let loose his hand from me, and that it were 
 with me now as in times past : I would scorn the threats of 
 the most cruel tyrants, bear torments with invincible reso- 
 lution, and glory in the outward profession of Christ, till I 
 were choked in the flame and my body turned into ashes." 
 
14 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 A first use of the former doctrine, for exhortation to store up heavenly 
 comforts in our hearts. Two considerations which press this exhor- 
 tation upon us. 
 
 If it be so, then, that a heavenly hoard of grace, good 
 coiiscience, God's favour, &c., happily treasured up while 
 it is called to-day, hatli the sole and sacred property and 
 privilege to hold up our hearts in times of horror, enabling 
 us in the mean time patiently and profitably to master all 
 miseries, pass through all persecutions, conquer all comers, 
 and at length, by the help of God, to pull the very heart, 
 as it were, out of hell ; with confidence and triumph to 
 look even death and the devil in the face, and to stand with 
 boldness before the terror of the last day like an immova- 
 ble rock, when the sons and daughters of confusion, who 
 have slept in harvest and mispent the gracious day of their 
 visitation, shall entreat the mountains and rocks to fall upon 
 them ; — 1 say, it being thus, let every one of us, like sons 
 and daughters of wisdom, in this short summer's day of our 
 abode upon earth, and in this glorious sun-shine of the 
 gospel and precious seasons of grace, employ all means, 
 improve all opportunities to gather in with all holy greedi- 
 ness and treasure up abundantly much spiritual strength 
 and lasting comfort against the evil day. To which let us 
 be quickened by such considerations as these : — 
 
 1. This wise and happy treasuring up of heavenly hoards 
 and comforts of holiness beforehand, will sweetly mollily 
 and allay the bitterness and smart of that heavine s ai.d 
 sorrow, of those fearful amazements and oppressions of 
 spirit, naturally incident to times of trouble and fear, which 
 ordinarily do very grievously sting and strike through the 
 heart of carnal and secure worldlings with full rage and 
 the very flashes and foretastes of hell. Of all other passions 
 of the soul, sadness and grief grates most upon tlie vital 
 spirits, dries up soonest the freshest marrow in the bones, 
 and most sensibly sucks out the purest and most refined blood 
 in the heart. All the objects of lightsomeness and joy are 
 drowned in a heavy heart, even as the beauty of a pearl is 
 dissolved in vinegar. Now the only cordial and counter- 
 poison against this damp of light-heartedness and destroyer 
 of life, is the secret sweetness and shining pleasure of that 
 "one pearl of great price" (Matt, xiii, 46), three orient 
 rays whereof are " righteousness, and peace, and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost " (Rom. xiv, 17), treasured up in the cabinet of 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 15 
 
 a good conscience. The glory, preciousness, and power of 
 which hidden treasure, purchased with the sale of all sin, 
 doth many times shine most fairly upon the soul in the 
 saddest times, inspires for the most part into the hearts of 
 the owners the greatest courage and constancy of spiiit, even 
 ill the days of adversity and vexation, and enables them to 
 digest and bear without any great wound or passion those 
 crosses and cruelties which would break the back, and crush 
 the heart of the stoutest temporizer. Was there not a great 
 deal of difference think you betwixt the heart of Hezekiah, 
 who had walked before God " in truth and with a perfect 
 heart" (Isa. xxxviii, 3) when he heard the news of death 
 from the mouth of the prophet, and the heart of Belshazzar 
 when he saw the handwriting upon the wall t (Dan.v, 5,6.) 
 Give me a great man who carries away the credit and 
 current of the times, with all bravery and triumph wallows 
 and tumbles himself in the glory and pleasures of the pre- 
 sent ; throw him from the transitory top of his heaven upon 
 earth upon his last bed, present unto his eye at once the 
 terrible pangs of approaching death, the rageful rnalice of 
 the powers of hell, the crying wounds of his bleeding con- 
 science, the hideous forms of his innumerable sins, his final 
 farewell with all worldly delights, the pit of fire and brim- 
 stone into which he is ready to fall, and I tell you true, I 
 would not endure an hour's horror of his woful heart, for his 
 present paradise to the world's end. But on the other side, 
 let me be the man whom the corruptions of the time confine 
 to obscurity, who mourns in secret for the horrible abomi- 
 nations and ci-ying sins that reign among us, who thinks 
 tliat day best spent wherein he hath gathered most spiritual 
 strength against that last and sorest combat; and by the 
 mercies of God and humble dependence upon his omnipo- 
 tent arm, I will look in the face the cruellest concurrence of 
 all those former terrors with confidence and peace. 
 
 2. By this spiritual hoarding of comfortable provision 
 against the evil day, we may prevent a great deal of inipa- 
 tience, dependence upon the arm of flesh, base fears, sink- 
 ings of heart, unmanly dejections of spirit, desperate reso- 
 lutions, and many passionate distempers of such raging and 
 distracted nature, which are wont to seize upon and sur- 
 prise unholy and unprepared hearts when the hand of God 
 is heavy upon them. How bravely and heroically did patient 
 .Tob bear and break through a matchless variety and extre- 
 mity of calamities and conflicts, the softest of whose suffer* 
 ings would have struck full cold to the heart of many a 
 carnalist, and made it to die vvithin him like a stone, as 
 Nabal's did ! One of the least, the loss of his goods, I am 
 
16 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 persuaded would have caused many covetous v?orldlings to 
 have laid violent hands upon themselves ; for instance, 
 Ahithophel, only because the glory of his state wisdom was 
 obscured and overtopped at the council board, saddled his 
 ass, gat him home, put his household in order, and hanged 
 himself. The only cause of his fainting in the day of dis- 
 grace and non-acceptation was his false and rotten heart in 
 matters of religion. While the crown sat with security and 
 safety upon David's head, he walked with him as a com- 
 panion unto the house of God. But when the wind began to 
 blow a little another way, and upon Absalom's side, like a 
 true timeserver, he follows the blast, and turns his sails 
 according to the weather ; and therefore his hollow heart, 
 having made the arm of flesh his anchor, and a vanishing 
 blaze of honour his chiefest blessedness, shrinks at the very 
 first sight and suspicion of a tempest, and sinks this misera- 
 ble man into a sea of horror. Now, on the contrary, what 
 was the cause that Job's heart was not crushed in pieces 
 under the bitter concurrence of such a world of crosses, of 
 which any one severally was sufiicient to have made a man 
 extremely miserable 1 The true reason of his patient reso- 
 lution amid so many pressures v/as the spiritual riches he 
 had hoarded up in the time of his happiness ; amongst 
 which the divinest and dearest jewel lay nearest unto hie 
 heart, as a counterpoison to the venom and sting of the 
 devil's deadliest malice ; 1 mean a sound and strong faith 
 in Jesus Christ, " the Lamb slain from the beginning of the 
 world," which now began to shine the fairest in the darkest 
 midnight of his miseries, and sweetly to dart out many 
 heavenly sparks of comfort, and such glorious ejaculations 
 as these : "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him" 
 (chap, xiii, 15) ; and that, chap, xix, 23, et seq., ** Oh that 
 my words were now written ! oh that they were printed in 
 a book ! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead 
 in the rock for ever. For I know that my Redeemer liveth," 
 &c. There were two cutting and cruel circumstances 
 largely insinuated, chap, xxix and xxx, which did keenly 
 sharpen the edge and mightily aggravate the weight of Job's 
 miseries. The one was this, he had been happy. Now, as 
 that man's happiness is holden the greatest who hath been 
 in a m.iserable condition, for he tasteth the double sweet, of 
 remembering his forepast misery and enjoying his present 
 felicity ; so, on the contrary, it is accounted the greatest 
 misery to have been happy. The other was that which 
 most nettles a generous nature, he being a man of so great 
 honour and worth, whose rare and incomparable wisdom 
 even the princes and nobles adored, with a secret and silent 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 17 
 
 admiration, as appears chap, xxix, 9, 10, was now con- 
 temned of the most contemptible. " 'J he children of fools 
 and the children of base men," that were " viler than the 
 earth," make him their song and their bye-word (chap. 
 XXX, 8, 9). For when true nobleness and worth is down, 
 and any one of the Lord's champions dejected, it is ordi- 
 nary with all those cowardly dispositions, to whom his 
 sincerity was an eye-sore, his power and authority a re- 
 straint to their lewdness, the glory of his virtues fuel to their 
 envy, to run as a raven to the fallen sheep to pick out his 
 eyes ; I mean (which yet tastes of a truly cowardly and 
 merciless constitution), to wound his very wounds, and to 
 vex his vexations. This was J ob's case. 
 
 But what now ministers comfort to Job's heart against 
 these corrosives ? Even consciousness of his graces and 
 integrities, treasured up and exercised in the days of his 
 peace. He reckons up fourteen of them, chap. xxxi. From 
 consideration hereof he gathers towards the end this trium- 
 phant resolution against the sorest of his sufferings, " I 
 would even crown mine head with the bitterest invective of 
 my greatest adversary." Whence it is clear, that the two 
 potent pillars of Job's strong and strange patience, which 
 generations will admire to the world's end, were a sound 
 faith and the sanctified fruits thereof, prepared and prac- 
 tised in the time of his prosperity. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 A third consideration, pressine the former exhortation, defended 
 against Machiavel's position. 
 
 3. By previous provision of God's favour, grace, good con- 
 science, and such spiritual store, we shall be able worthily 
 to adorn and honour our profession, truly to ennoble and 
 win a great deal of glory and reputation to the state of 
 Christianity, when the ambitious rufflers and boisterous 
 Nirarods of the world shall see and observe that there is a 
 gracious invisible vigour and strength of heaven, which 
 mightily supports the heart of the true Christian in those 
 times of confusion and fear, when theirs shall be like the 
 heart of a woman in her pangs, and fall asunder in their 
 breast>, even like drops of water. That he is as bold as a 
 lion, and immovable like Mount Zion in the day of distress 
 and visitations of God, when they shall tremble at the shak- 
 ing of a leaf, and call upon the mountains to cover them ; 
 
 C 3 
 
18 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 that he shall be able then to say with David, Psalm xlvi, 1, 
 2, " Ihe Lord is my refuge and ray strength, &c. Therefore 
 will i not fear though the earth be removed, and though 
 the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." But 
 they shall cry out of the bitterness of their spirits with the 
 hypocrites, Isa. xxxiii, 14, "Who among us shall dwell 
 with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with 
 everlasting burnings 1" God is nmch honoured, and his 
 truth glorified, when it appears in the face of men that a 
 poor neglected Christian (or, in the world's language, a 
 precise fool) is able by the power of grace and influence of 
 his favour to affront and outface all the frowns and malig- 
 nant aspects of the proud giants of the world : and he is 
 the Lord's noblest champion, and a professor of the truest 
 and heavenliest dye, that holds out in the wetting, and 
 shrinks not in the day of adversity. Chrysostom speaks to 
 the people of Antioch like himself, a man of an invincible 
 spirit, against the tyrannies of his times : " In this," he 
 says, " should a gracious differ from a graceless man, that 
 he should bear his cross courageously, and as it were with 
 the wings of faith outsoar the height of all human miseries. 
 He should be like a rock, being incorporated into Jesus 
 Christ, impregnable and unshaken with the most furious in- 
 cursions of the waves and storms of worldly troubles, pres- 
 sures, and persecutions ; " and, blessed be God, that even 
 here upon earth, in this vale of tears, there is such a visible 
 and vast difference between a wicked and godly man. The 
 one is like the raging sea that cannot rest : the other stands 
 fast like a rock which shall never be removed. An unre- 
 generate heart is ever restless ; commonly in these three 
 regards at the least: 1. By reason of an endless and insa- 
 tiable appetite after pleasures, riches, honours, revenge, or 
 what other darling delight it hath singled out and made 
 special choice of, to follow and feed upon with greatest 
 contentment and sensual sweetness. God hath justly put 
 that property, or rather poison, into all earthly things doated 
 upon and desired immoderately, that they shall plague the 
 heart which so pursues them, by filling it still with a furious 
 and fresh supply of more greediness, jealousies, and many 
 miserable discontentments, so that they become unto it as 
 drink unto a man in a dropsy or burning fever, serve only 
 to inflame it with new heat and fiery additions of insatiable 
 thirst and inordinate longings. 2. Because of the many 
 secret grumblings and stinging reclamations of a galled 
 conscience against its present guilty courses and forbidden 
 pleasures. 3. In respect of a continual ebullition, as it 
 were, of confused and contrary lusts out of the poisoned 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 19 
 
 fountain of original corruption, which fill it with many dis- 
 tractions and tumultuations of hell. But now, if besides 
 this inward boiling it be also tossed with outward troubles, 
 what a miserable creature is a carnal man 1 Even as the 
 sea, if besides its internal agitations by the restless motions 
 of estualion, dissension, revolution, and reflection, it be 
 also outwardly troubled with storms and tempestuous winds, 
 how rageful and roaring will it be 1 But the other is like a 
 strong immovable mountain that stands impregnable against 
 the rage of wind and weather ; and all the cruel incursions 
 and ungodly oppositions made against it, either by men or 
 devils, are but like so many proud and swelling waves which 
 dash themselves against a mighty rock, — the more bois- 
 terously they beat against it, the more are they broken and 
 turned into a vain foam and froth. Come what will, his 
 heart is still in his breast, and his resolution as high as 
 heaven. 
 
 Pestilent then is that principle of Machiavei (one not 
 to be named but by way of detestation), and savours 
 rankly of cursed atheism, whereby he leaches in sense and 
 sum ; that " heathenish religion did inspire her worthies of 
 old with invincible and victorious spirits ; but Christian re- 
 ligion begets effeminacy, dejections, and fears." He speaks 
 to this purpose, which to me seems strange, that such a 
 profound professor of the depths, or rather devilishness of 
 policy, should doat so sottishly : — and yet it is no such 
 strange thing, for many times we may observe, that deepest 
 policy, by the curse of God upon it for opposition to goodness, 
 turns into extremest folly : and all counsels and politic con- 
 stitutions against Christ are but the brainless infatuations 
 of Ahithophel. 
 
 For that which he holds is strongly contradictory both to 
 common sense and a thousand experiences to the contrary. 
 For the first, and in a word, let that great master of mischief 
 and of most abhorred atheistical principles of state tell me, 
 whether a real assurance of a crown of life and endless joys 
 in another world be not more powerful to raise a n,an's 
 spirit to the highest pitch of undaunted nobleness of spirit 
 and unconquerable resolution, than a vain breath of immor- 
 tal fame among miserable men after this life 1 and in this 
 lies the sinew of his proof. For the second, let the acts of 
 the ancient Jews be impartially v/eighed, from whose mag- 
 nanimity in causes of most extreme hazard those strange 
 and unwonted resolutions have grown, which for all circum- 
 stances, says a great divine, no people under the roof of 
 heaven did ever hitherto match : and that which did always 
 animate them was their mere religion. Let the chronicles 
 
20 INSTRUCTIONS FOll COMFORTING 
 
 also of later times be searched, and we shall find from time 
 to time many renowned worthies to have for ever ennobled 
 the matchless and incomparabiCjCourage of Christianity with 
 inimitable impressions oi valour and visible transcendency, 
 above all human boldness and alTected audacities of the 
 most valiant pagans. To begin with great Constantine, 
 the first mighty commander of a Christian army, with what 
 victorious glory did he confound and cut off many potent 
 heads of Paganism ! Thrice was the whole world most fa- 
 mously fougbt for ; between Alexander and Xerxes ; Cesar 
 and Pompey ; Constantine and Licinius. This last was 
 most illustrious, wherein Constantine the Great did mightily 
 conquer and triumphantly carry all before him ; the hero- 
 ical and royal spirit of Christianity trampling victoriously 
 upon the desperate rage of the most furious fool-hardy 
 pagan tyrants. 
 
 1 might here pass on to Theodosius and his miraculous 
 conque^.ts, and so on ; but the digression would be unsea- 
 sonable ; therefore 1 leave you for the prosecution of this 
 point to Anti-Machiavel. Even in later times, wofully 
 plagued under the reign of Antichrist with a vast degene- 
 ration from primitive purity and power, the Christian re- 
 ligion, though poisoned with popish superstition, yet did 
 so far inspire its warlike professors with extraordinary 
 spirits, that in point of manhood they did wonders, to the 
 astonishment of the whole world and all succeeding ages, 
 Godfrey of Bulloigne, that famous warrior, with his followers, 
 conquered in less than four years all the goodliest provinces 
 of Asia, and drove out the Turks. In that dreadful and 
 cruel conflict in Solomon's temple, as himself reports, in a 
 letter to Bohemund king of Antioch, their men, "by the 
 great slaughter of the enemy, stood in blood above the 
 ancles." At that terrible and bloody battle at Ascalon, it 
 is credibly reported, they slew a hundred thousand infidels, 
 &c. 
 
 The valour and victories of Huniades, whose mighty spirit 
 and incredible courage have no parallel in any preceding 
 story, were so great, and did like a violent tempest and im- 
 petuous torrent so batter and beat down the enemies of 
 Christ, that he was rightly reputed *' the bulwark of Europe 
 and thundering terror of the Turks," amongst whom his 
 name became so dreadful, it is said they used the same to 
 frighten their crying children withal. He fought five times 
 with the Turks upon one day, and five times foiled and put 
 them to flight with the loss of three thousand. He killed 
 that valiant viceroy of Asia, Mesites Bassa, with his son 
 and twenty thousand Turks ; at that famous battle of Vas- 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 21 
 
 cape, wherein he got the greatest victory that ever any 
 Christian prince betore that time obtained against the Turk- 
 ish kings, with fifteen thousand soldiers he overthrew 
 Abedin Bassa, sent against him most lagingly by reason of 
 a late shameful loss, according to Amurath's instructions, 
 by " the slaughter of the flungarians to sacrifice unto the 
 manes of their dead friends and companions," with an army 
 of fourscore thousand fighting men. 
 
 ^canderbeg also was such a mirror of manhood, and so 
 terrible to the lurks, that nine years after his death, pass- 
 ing througli Lyssa where his body lay buried, *' they dug up 
 his bones with great devotion, reckoning it some part of 
 their happiness if they might but see or touch the same ; 
 and such as could get any part thereof, were it never so 
 little, caused the same to be set, some in silver, some in 
 gold, to hang about their necks or wear upon their bodies," 
 thinking the very dead bones of that late invincible cham- 
 pion would animate their spirits with strange and extraor- 
 dinary elevation and vigour. Besides an admirable variety 
 of other rare exploits, at one time with the loss of sixty 
 Christians he slew Arnesa, with thirty, as some say, but at 
 least twenty thousand Turks : he killed with his own hand 
 above two thousand enemies. When he entered into fight, 
 the spirit of valour did so work within him, and the fierce- 
 ness of his courage so boiled in his breast, that it was wont 
 to make blood burst out at his lips, and did so steel his arm 
 that he cut many of his enemies asunder in the midst. 
 
 But take notice, by the way, as the profession of the 
 Christian religion inspired these renowned worthies with a 
 matchless height of courage and might of spirit, so the 
 mixture with popish idolatry did then, and dotn to this day 
 unhappily hinder all thorough success and constant pre- 
 vailing against that most mighty blood-thirsty Turkish ty- 
 rant, the terror of Christendom ; who, drunk with the wine 
 of perpetual felicity, holds all the rest of the world in scorn, 
 and is the greatest and most cruel scourge of it that ever 
 the earth bore. And besides that the idolatry of the Romish 
 church most principally and with special curse blasts and 
 brings to nought all undertakings of the Christian world 
 against that wicked empire, the practice also of some pes- 
 tilent principles, proper to that man of sin, hath plagued 
 the most hopeful enterprises in this kind. For instance, the 
 king of Hungary, by the help of Huniades was in a fair 
 course and forwardness to have tamed and taken down, 
 nay to have for ever crushed and confounded the insolency 
 and usurpation of that raging JNimrod ; but then comes in 
 the pope with a vile trick, and utterly dashes and undoes 
 
22 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 all. For he out of his Luciferian pride, by the power, or 
 rather poison of that antichristian cut-throat position, " Of 
 keeping no oath nor faith with infidels and heretics," un- 
 happily undertook to absolve Uladislaus the king, and the 
 rest whom it did concern, from that solemn oath for confir- 
 mation of a concluded peace taken of him upon the holy 
 evangelists, and of Amurath by his ambassadors upon their 
 Turkish Koran. Whereupon they resolutely break the 
 league, raise a great army presently, and against their oath 
 and promise set upon the Turk with perjury and perfidious- 
 ness, accompanied with God's curse, exposed the Christian 
 party to a most horrible overthrow in the bloody battle of 
 Varna, and cast upon the profession of Christ such an as- 
 persion and shame, that not all the blood of that succession 
 of popes which constitute antichrist could ever be able to 
 expiate. 
 
 Look upon the story, and consider what a reproach and inex- 
 piable stain doth rest upon the face of the Christian religion 
 by this wicked stratagem of popish treachery, and that even 
 upon record to all posterity ; for Amurath, the Turkish 
 emperor, in the heat of the fight plucked the writing out of 
 his bosom wherein the late league was comprised, and hold- 
 ing it up in his hand with his eyes cast up to heaven, said 
 thus, " Behold, thou crucified Christ, this is the league thy 
 Christians in tliy name made with me, which they have 
 without cause violated. Now, it thou be a god, as they say 
 thou art, and as we dream, revenge the wrong now done 
 unto thy name and me, and show thy power upon thy 
 perjured people, who in their deeds deny thee, their God." 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 A second use of the former doctrine, for reproof to several sorts of peo- 
 ple. The first whereof are the careless, vdth a first consideration to 
 admonish them. 
 
 Since a stock of grace and the comforts of a sound con- 
 science are only able to crush all crosses, outface all adver- 
 saries, take the sting out of all sorrows and sufferings, and 
 serve in the evil day as a sovereign antidote to save the 
 soul from sinking into the mouth of despair and extremest 
 horror ; then three sorts of people here offer themselves to 
 be censured, and are to be frighted out of tiieir security and 
 cruel ease. 
 I. Those fools, sons and daughters of confusion and sloth, 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 23 
 
 who having a price in their hands to get wisdom, yet want 
 hearts to lay it out for spiritual provision beforehand. 
 They enjoy by God's rare and extraordinary indulgence and 
 favour, life, strength, wit, health, and many other outward 
 blessings, nay the most glorious day of a gracious visitation 
 that did ever shine upon earth, many solden and goodly 
 opportunities, many blessed seasons and sermons to enrich 
 their souls abundantly with ail heavenly treasures ; and 
 yet they are so far from spending their abilities, entertain- 
 ing those merciful offers, and apprehending such happy 
 advantages for their true and eternal go^d, that they most 
 unworthily and unthankfully abuse, mispend, and misemploy 
 all their means, time, and manifold mercies to serve their 
 own turns, attain their sensual ends, and possess the pre- 
 sent with all the carnal contentment they can possibly de- 
 vise. These vassals of self-love, and slaves of lust, are so 
 lulled upon the lap of pleasure by the syren songs of Satan's 
 solicitors, and so drunk with worldly prosperity by swim- 
 ming down the current of these corrupt times with full sail 
 of sensuality and ease, that they fall asleep all the time of 
 the happy harvest in this life for bringing grace into the 
 soul under the sunshine of the gospel, wasting their precious 
 time of gathering spiritual manna in grasping gold, clasping 
 about the arm of flesh, screwing themselves by all ways 
 and means into high rooms, " crowning themselves with 
 rosebuds," and tumbling voluptuously in the pleasures and 
 glory of this false and flattering world. But alas ! poor 
 souls, what will they do in the evil day? When after the 
 hot gleam of earthly glory, and a short calm and cut over 
 the sea of this world, they are come into the port of death, 
 to which all winds drive them ; and having there let fall 
 that last anchor which can never be weighed again, shall 
 be set in the land of darkness, the dust whereof is brim- 
 stone, and the rivers burning pitch , where they shall meet 
 with whole armies of tempestuous and fiery plagues ; and 
 the envenomed arrows of God's unquenchable anger shall 
 stick fast for ever in their soul and flesh ; wheie they shall 
 never more see the light nor the land of the living, but be 
 drowned in everlasting perdition in the lake, even a boiling 
 sea of fire and brimstone, where they can see no bank, nor 
 feel no bottom. What will these " sleepers in harvest" 
 say when they shall be awakened at that dreadful hour out 
 of their golden dreams, and in their hands shall find nothing 
 but the judgment of God growing upon their thoughts as 
 an impetuous storm, death standing befoie them irresistible 
 like an armed man, sin lying nt the door like a bloodhound, 
 and a guilty conscience gnav.'i-\g at the heart like a vulture 'i 
 
24 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 when they shall lie upon their last beds like " wild bulls in 
 a net," as the prophet speaks, " full of the wrath of God ; 
 saying in the morning, Would God it were even ; and at 
 even, Would God it were morning, for the fear of their 
 heart wherewith they shall fear, and for the sight of their 
 eyes which they shall seel" I say, in what case will they 
 
 be then ? Then but my words do fail me here, and 
 
 so doth my imagination. For as none knows the sweet- 
 ness of the spouse's kiss but the soul that receives it, so 
 neither can any one conceive this honor, but he that suffers 
 it. The Lord of heaven in mercy awaken them in the mean 
 time with the piercing thunder of his sacred and saving word, 
 that they may be happily frighted out of their amazed soul- 
 murdering sloth, before they feel in hell those fearful things 
 we so faithfully forewarn them of ! 
 
 To rouse them out of this cruel carnal security, let them 
 entertain in their most serious thoughts such considerations 
 as these : Consider, 
 
 1. Why thou camest into this world. There is not so 
 much as one age past since thou layest hid in the loathed 
 state of being nothing. Above five thousand years were 
 gone after the creation before there was any news of thee at 
 all ; and thou mightest never have been. God hath no 
 need of thee : he gave thee a being only out of his own 
 mere bounty. Infinite millions shall never be, which might 
 have been as well as thou. God's omnipotency is equally 
 able and active to have produced them as thee ; and no 
 parts of that vast abyss of nothing can possibly make any 
 resistance to al mightiness. And besides being so, that thou 
 must needs have a being, there is not any creature that ever 
 issued out of the hands of God, but thou mightest have 
 been that, either for the kind or for the particular. All is 
 one to him, to make an angel or an ant ; to create the 
 brightest cherub or the most contemptible fly ; for in every 
 creation no less than omnipotency must needs be the efficient, 
 and no more than nothius: is ever the object. Now what a 
 miraculous mercy was this, that passing by such an unnum- 
 bered variety of incomparably inferior creatures, he should 
 make thee an everlasting soul like an angel of God, capable 
 of grace and immortality, of incorporation into Christ, and 
 fruition of Jehovah himself, blessed for ever ! 
 
 Nay, and yet further, though thou wast to have the 
 being of a reasonable creature, yet there was not an hour 
 from the first moment of time unto the world's end, hut God 
 might have allotted that to thee for thy coming into this 
 world ; and therefore thy time might have been within the 
 compass of all those four thousand years, or thereabouts. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 25 
 
 from the creation until the coming of Christ in the flesh, 
 when all without the pale and partition wall were with- 
 out the oracles and ordinances of God, and all ordinary 
 means of salvation : or, since the gospel revealed under the 
 reign of Antichrist, and then a thousand to one thou hadst 
 been choked and for ever perished in the mists of his devil- 
 ish doctrines. What a high honour was this, to have thy 
 birth and abode here upon earth appointed from all eternity 
 in the very best and most blessed time, upon the fairest day 
 of peace, and, which is infinitely more, in the most glorious 
 light of grace that ever shone from heaven upon the children 
 of men ! 
 
 And so of the place : be it so, that thou must needs be in 
 this golden age of the gospel and gracious day ; yet thy lot of 
 living in the world at this time might have lighted ( for any part 
 of the earth might have received thee where thou couldst 
 have set but thy two feet) amongst Turks, Pagans, Infidels; 
 a whole world to Christendom. Or if thine appearing upon 
 earth must necessarily be within the confines of Christen- 
 dom, yet thou mightest have sprung up in the popish parts 
 of it, or in the schismatical or persecuted places of the true 
 church in it. It was a very singular favour that thou 
 shouldst be born and bred and brought up in this little 
 neglected nook of the world, yet very illustrious by the pre- 
 sence of Christ in a mighty ministry, where thou hast or 
 mightest have enjoyed in many parts thereof the glorious 
 gospel of our blessed God, and all saving truth, with much 
 purity and power. 
 
 Now put all these together and tell me coolly, and after a 
 sensible and serious pondering thereon, dost thou think that 
 all this ado was about thee, all this honour done unto thee ; 
 and, when all is done, thou art to do nothing but seek thy- 
 self, serve thine own turn, and live sensually ? Camest 
 thou out of nothing into this world to do just nothing but 
 eat and drink and sleep ; to game, walk in the fashion, 
 and play the good-fellow ; to laugh and be merry ; to grow 
 rich and leave tokens of thy pleasure in every place ? If 
 any, after so much enlightening, be so prodigiously mad as 
 to continue in such a conceit, I have nothing to say to him, 
 but leave him as an everlasting madman abandoned to that 
 folly which wants a name to express it. Turn then thy 
 course for shame ; nay, as thou hast any care to be saved 
 and to see the glory of the New Jerusalem, as thou desirest 
 to look the Lord Jesus in the face with comfort at that great 
 day, as thou fearest to receive thy portion in hell fire with 
 the devil and his angels, even most intolerable and bitter 
 torments for ever and ever, — at least in this thv dav, in this 
 
 D 
 
26 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 heat and height of thy spiritual harvest, awalce out of thy 
 sensual sleep, come to thyself with the prodigal, strike upon 
 thy thigh, and for the poor remainder of a few and evil 
 days address thyself with resolution and constancy to pur- 
 sue the one necessary thing, and to treasure up much hea- 
 venly strength and store against thine ending hour. Get 
 thee under the most likely means and a quickening ministry, 
 and there gather grace as greedily as the most griping 
 usurer graspeih gold ; contend with a holy ambition as ear- 
 nestly for the keeping of (iod's favour, and a humble fa- 
 miliarity with his heavenly highness by keeping faith and a 
 good conscience, as the proudest Haman for a high place 
 and pleased face of an earthly prince. And why not in- 
 finitely more"? This was the end for which thou wast sent 
 into this world, this only is the way to endless bliss, and 
 this alone will help us and hold out in the evil day. 
 
 CHAP. Vll. 
 
 A second and third consideration for the admonition of those 
 who are careless. 
 
 2. That upon the little inch of time in this life depends 
 the length and breadth of all eternity in the world to come. 
 As we behave ourselves here, we shall lare everlastingly 
 hereafter. And therefore how ought we to ply this moment 
 and prize that eternity 1 To decline all entanglement in 
 those inordinate affections to the possessions and pleasures 
 of the present, which hinder a fruitful improvement of it to 
 the best advantage for the spiritual good of our souls, let us 
 be moved with such reasons as these, which may be col- 
 lected from the words of a worthy writer, which run thus 
 with very little variation ; — 1. If we could afford ourselves 
 but so much leisure as to consider that he which hath most 
 in the world, hath in respect of the world nothing in it, 
 and that he which hath the longest time lent him to live in 
 it, hath yet no proportion at all therein ; setting it either by 
 that which is past when we were not, or by that time in 
 which we shall abide for ever ; I say. if both our propor- 
 tion in the world, and our time in the world, differ not 
 much from that which is nothing, it is not out of any ex- 
 cellency of understanding, saith he, but out of depth of 
 folly, say I, that we so much prize the one, which hath 
 in effect no being, and so much neglect the other, which 
 hath no ending ; coveting the mortal tilings of the world as 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 27 
 
 if our souls were therein immortal, and neglecting those 
 things which are immortal, as if ourselves after the world 
 were but mortal. 2. Let adversity seem what it will ; to 
 happy men ridiculous, who make themselves merry with 
 other men's miseries, and to those under the cross, grievous; 
 yet this is true, that for all that is past to the very instant 
 the portions remaining are equal to either. For be it that 
 we have lived many years, and, according to Solomon, in 
 them all we have rejoiced ; or be it that we have measured 
 the same length of time, and therein have evermore sor- 
 rowed ; yet looking back from our present being, we find 
 both the one and the other, to wit, the joy and the wo, 
 sailed out of sight, and death, which doth pursue us and 
 hold us in chase from our infancy, hath gathered it. What- 
 soever of our age is past, death holds it : so as whosoever he 
 be to whom prosperity hath been a servant, and the time a 
 friend, let him but take the account of his memory (for we 
 have no other keeper of our pleasures past), and truly ex- 
 amine what it hath reserved either of beauty arid youth or 
 foregone delights, what it hath saved that it might last of 
 his dearest affections, or of whatever else the jovial spring- 
 time gave his thoughts contentment, then invaluable ; and 
 he shall find that all the art, which his elder years have, 
 can draw no other vapour out of these dissolutioris than 
 heavy, secret, and sad sighs. He shall find nothing re- 
 maining but those sorrows which grow up after our fast- 
 springing youth, overtake it when it is at a stand, and 
 utterly overtop it when it begins to wither ; insomuch as 
 looking back from the present time and from our now being, 
 the poor diseased and captive creature hath as little sense 
 of all his former miseries and pains, as he that is most 
 blessed in common opinion hath of his fore-past pleasiires 
 and delights ; for whatsoever is cast behind us is just 
 nothing. 3. To ponder also profitably upon eternity, that 
 we " may apply our hearts unto wisdom," and so improve 
 this short moment upon earth that it may go well with us 
 for ever, let us take notice of and lay to heart this one 
 quickening passage, confidently averred by a great writer. 
 " If God," saith he, " should speak thus to a damned soul, 
 ' Let the whole world be filled with sand from the earth to 
 the empyrean heaven, and then let an angel come every 
 thousandth year, and fetch only one grain from that mighty 
 sandy mountain ; when that immeasurable heap is so spent, 
 and so many thousand years expired, I will deliver thee out 
 of hell and those extremest horrors;' that most miserable 
 forlorn wretch, notwithstandin,^- that he were to lie through 
 that inconceivable length of time in those intolerable tor- 
 
28 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 ments, yet upon such a promise would infinitely lejoice, and 
 deem himself not to be damned. But, alas ! when all those 
 years are gone, there are thousands upon thousands more to 
 be endured, even through all eternity and beyond." How 
 heavy and horrible is the weight of everlastingness in that 
 burning lake, and those tormenting flames, when a damned 
 man would think himself in heaven in the mean time if he 
 might have but hope of coming out of them after so many 
 infinite millions of years in them ! 
 
 3. That it would not profit a man though he should gain 
 the whole world, if he lose his own soul ; and that a man 
 can give nothing in exchange for his soul. Christ himself 
 said so. Suppose thyself crowned with the confluence of 
 all worldly felicity, to have purchased a monopoly of all 
 pleasures, honours, and riches upon the whole earth, to be 
 attended with all the pomp and state thy heart could desire : 
 yet what were this momentary golden dream unto a real 
 glorious eternity 1 Kow stinging would be the most exqui- 
 site delight, curiously extracted out of them all, accom- 
 panied with this one thought — the soul is lost everlastingly 1 
 All these painted vanities might seem perhaps a gaudy 
 paradise to a spiritual fool, who hath his portion in this 
 life ; but what true pleasure can a man in his right wits, 
 but morally enlightened no further than with philosophy, 
 take in them, since, setting other respects aside, they are so 
 fading and he so frain For the first, God hath purposely 
 put a transitory and mortal nature into all things here be- 
 low ; they spring, and flourish, and die. Even the greatest 
 kingdoms and strongest monarchies that ever were, have 
 had their infancy, youthful strength, man's state, old 
 age, and at last the grave. See the end of the mightiest 
 states that ever the sun saw shadowed by Nebuchadnezzar's 
 great image (Dan. ii, 35). There was never empire upon 
 earth, were it never so flourishing or great, was ever yet so 
 assured, but that in revolution of time, after the manner of 
 other vvorldly things, it hatli as a sick body been subject to 
 many innovations and changes, and at length come to 
 nothing. Much more, then, the pride and pomp of all 
 other inferior earthly glory hath fallen at last into the dust, 
 and lies now buried in the grave of endless forgetful ness. 
 For the second ; imagine there were constancy and eternity 
 in the forenamed earthly Babels, yet what man of sense 
 would in the least prize them, since his life is but a bubble, 
 and the very next hour or day to come he may utterly be 
 cut off from them all for ever? " To-day he is set up, and 
 to-morrow he shall not be found ; for he is turned into dust 
 and his purpose perisheth." Take them both together thus. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 29 
 
 Set upon ihe head of the worthiest man that the earth bears, 
 yet wanting grace in his soul, all the brightest imperial 
 crowns that ever highest ambition aimed at or attained 
 unto ; put upon him all the royal robes that ever enclosed 
 the body of the proudest Lucifer, fill him with all the 
 •wisdom and largest comprehensions which fall within the 
 wide compass and capacity of any depths of policy or mys- 
 teries of state ; furnish him to the full with the exactness 
 and excellency of ail natural, moral, and metaphysical 
 learning ; put him into the sole possession and command of 
 this and the other golden world ; in a word, crown him 
 with the concurrence of all created earthly excellencies to 
 the utmost and highest strain ; and lay this man thus quali- 
 fied and endowed upon the one scale of the balance, and 
 vanity upon the other, and vanity will outweigh him quite. 
 *' Men of high degree are a lie : to be laid in the balance 
 they are altogether lighter than vanity " (Psalm Ixii, 9). 
 The rich fool in the gospel teacheth us that there is no man 
 so assured of his honour, of hi>s riches, health, or life, but 
 that he may be deprived of either or all the very next 
 night. Besides, by a thousand other causes, means, and 
 ways, he may always be snatched away from the face of the 
 earth in anger, for setting his heart and rest upon such rotten 
 staves of reed, transitory shadows, and indeed that which 
 is nothing. " Wilt thou cast thine eyes upon that which is 
 not ] for riches (conceive the same of all other wofdly com- 
 forts) certainly make themselves wings: they flyaway as 
 an eagle toward heaven " (Prov. xxiii, 5). How truly then 
 is that mad and miserable man a son of confusion, who 
 spends the short span of his mortal life in wooing the world, 
 who was never true to those that trusted in her, ever false- 
 hearted to ail her favourites, and at length most certainly 
 undoes spiritually and everlastingly every wretch that is 
 wedded unto her, who passeth through a few and evil days 
 in this vale of tears, in following feathers, pursuing shadows, 
 raising bubbles and balls like those blown up by boys in 
 their pastimes, which ere they be tossed three times burst of 
 themselves ; 1 mean worldly vanities ; but in the mean 
 time suffers his immortal soul, more worth than many mate- 
 rial worlds, and for which he can give nothing in exchange, 
 to abide all naked, destitute, and empty, utterly unfurnished 
 of that comfortable provision and gracious strength, which 
 should support it in the day of sorrow, and leaves it at last 
 to the tempestuous winter night of death, and all those des- 
 perate terrors that attend it like a scorched heath, without 
 so much as any drop of comfort either from heaven or 
 earth ! 
 
 1) 3 
 
30 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 The second sort of people to be reproved, which are sensualists. The 
 first consideration to reform tliem. 
 
 II. A second sort, worse than the former, are such as are so 
 far from treasuring up in this time of light and merciful 
 visitation, soundness of knowledge, strength of faith, purity 
 of heart, clearness of conscience, holiness of life, assurance 
 of God's favour, contempt of the world, many sanctified 
 sabbaths, fervent prayers, holy conferences, heavenly medi- 
 tations, days of humiliation, righteous dealings with their 
 brethren, compassionate contributions to the necessities of 
 the saints, works of justice, mercy, and truth, a sincere re- 
 spect to all God's commandments, a careful performance 
 of all spiritual duties, a conscientious partaking of all 
 God's ordinances, a seasonable exercise of every grace, 
 hatred of all false ways, a hearty and invincible love unto 
 God and all things that he loves, or that belong unto him, 
 his word, sacraments, sabbaths, ministers, services, child- 
 ren, presence, corrections, comings, &c. which are the or- 
 dinary provisions of God's people against the evil day ; — 
 I say, they are so far from prizing and preparing such spiri- 
 tual store, that they hoard up stings, scourges, and scor- 
 pions for their naked souls and guilty consciences against 
 the day of the Lord's visitation ; 1 mean lies, oaths, blas- 
 plemies, adulteries, whoredoms, self-pollutions, variety of 
 strange fashions, gamings, revellings, drunken matches, 
 good -i'ellow meetings, wanton dancings, usuries, falsehoods, 
 hypocrisies ; plurality of ill-gotten goods, benefices, offices, 
 honours ; filthy jests, much idle talk, slanderous tales, 
 scoffs, railings, oppositions to the holy way, &c. and that 
 with greediness and delight. For they cry one unto another 
 out of a boisterous combination of good-fellowship, with 
 much eagerness and roaring, '* Come on, therefore, let us 
 fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments, and let no 
 flower of the spring pass by us. Let us crown ourselves 
 with rose-buds before they be withered. Let none of us go 
 without his part of our voluptuousness. Let us leave 
 tokens of our pleasure in every place , for this is our por- 
 tion, and our lot is this. Let us lie in wait for the righteous, 
 because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to 
 our doings, &c." But alas ! what will be the conclusion 
 of all this, or rather the horrible confusion 1 Even all their 
 jovial revellings, roarings, outrages, and sinful pleasures, 
 which are so sweet in their mouths, and they swallow 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 31 
 
 down so insatiably, shall turn to gravel and the " gall of 
 asps in their bowels," to fiery enraged scorpions in their 
 consciences; where, lurking in the mean time in the mud 
 of sensuality and lust, breed such a never-dying worm, 
 which if God think fit to awake upon their last bed, is able 
 to put them into hell upon earth, to damn them above 
 ground, to gnaw upon their soul and flesh with that unheard- 
 of horror which seized upon Spira's woful heart, who pro- 
 tested, being fully in his right mind, that he would rather 
 be in Cain or Jiidas's place in hell than endure the present 
 unspeakable torment of his afflicted spirit. 
 
 To beat them from this desperate course of greedy hoard- 
 ing up such horrible things unto themselves against their 
 ending hour, let them consider : — 
 
 1. Besides the eternity of joys for the one, and of torments 
 to the other, hereafter, the vast and invaluable difference 
 in the mean time, in respect of true sweetness and sound 
 contentment, between the life of a saint and a sensualist : 
 a puritan, as the world calls him, and a good-fellow, as he 
 terms himself; — let us for the purpose peruse the different 
 passages of one day, as Chrysystom excellently delineates 
 them and represents to the life. " Let us produce two men," 
 saith he, "the one drowned in carnal looseness, sensualities, 
 and riotous excess; the other crucified and dead to such 
 sinful courses and worldly delights. Let us go to their 
 houses and behold their behaviour. We shall find the one 
 reading the scriptures and other good books, taking time 
 for holy duties and the service of God ; sober, temperate, 
 abstemious, diligent also in the necessary duties of his call- 
 ing, having holy conference with God, discoursing of heavenly 
 things, bearing himself more like an angel than a man. 
 The other, jovial, a vassal of luxury and ease, swaggering 
 up and down ale-houses, taverns, or other such conventicles 
 of good-fellowship, hunting after all the ways, means, and 
 men to pass the time merrily, plying his pleasures with 
 what variety he possibly can all the day long, railing and 
 roaring as though he were enraged with a devil, though he 
 be really dead while he is alive : which is accompanied 
 with murmurings of the family, discontent of the wife, 
 chiding of friends, laughing to scorn of enemies," &c. 
 Whether of these courses now do you think were the more 
 comfortable! I know full well the former would be cried 
 down by the greatest part as too precise, and the latter 
 would carry it by a world of men. But hear the puritan 
 father's impartial holy censure, quite cross to the common 
 conceit and humour of flesh and blood. It is excellent and 
 emphatical, arguing his resolute abomination of the ways of 
 
32 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 good-fellowship, and infinite love and admiration of the 
 holy path. Having given to the good-feilovv his heart's 
 desire all the day long in all kinds of voluptuousness and 
 delight, yet for all this, " Who is he," saith he, " that is in 
 h s right mind, that would not choose rather to die a thou- 
 sand deaths, than spend one day sol" This peremptory 
 passage would be held a strange paradox from the mouth 
 of any modern minister, and so appears to the carnal ap- 
 prehension of all those miserable men who are blindfolded 
 aad baffled by the devil to the eternal loss of their souls. 
 But besides that it might be made good many other ways, 
 it is more than manifest by comparing that three-fold sting 
 that follows at the heels of every sinful delight, &c. (see 
 my Book of Walking with God), with the com.ortable con- 
 tentment and secret sweetness which might and should 
 attend all weil-doing and every holy duty done with up- 
 rightness of heart. The very philosophers do tell us of a 
 congratulation, a pleased contentedness and satisfaction in 
 doing virtuously according to their moral rules. W^hat 
 true, solid, and singular comfort then, do you think, may 
 be lound in those godly actions v\hich spring from faith, 
 are guided by God's word, directed to his glory, and whose 
 bewailed defects and failings are most certainly pardoned 
 by the blood of his Son? Now what an extreme madness 
 is this, for a man to sell his salvation for a life of pleasures j 
 abhorring the ways of God's children as too piecise and 
 painful ; whereas, besides hell for the one, and heaven for 
 the ether hereafter, in the mean time every day spent so 
 sensually is a true purgatory, and every day passed in the 
 contrary Christian course is an earthly paradise ! 
 
 C^AP. IX. 
 
 The second and third cousiieration for the reformation of the 
 sensualist. 
 
 2. Let them mark well the different ends of these men. 
 Though the one now carries away the credit and current of 
 the times, and with all bravery and triumph rolls himself in 
 the pleasures, riches, and glory of the world, and the other 
 is kept under hatches, neglected and contemptible to carnal 
 eyes, trampled upon with the feet of pride and malice by 
 the prouder Pharisees, and hunted with much cruelty and 
 hate by men of this world : yet watch but a while, and you 
 shall see the end of this upright man, whatsoever his sorrows 
 and sutierings, troubles and temptations have been in this 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 33 
 
 life, to be most certainly peace at the last. " Mark the 
 perfect man, and behold the upright ; for the end of that 
 man is peace." (Psalm xxxvii, 37). He either passeth 
 fairly and calmly through the port of death to the land ot 
 everlasting rest and rejoicing; or else, if a tempest of ex- 
 traordinary temptation seize upon him in the haven, whea 
 he is ready to set foot into heaven, which is the lot of many 
 of God's dearest ones, for ends seeming best to the ever- 
 blessed r\Iajesty, as perhaps to harden those about him that 
 hate to be reformed ; yet all the hurt he hath thereby is, 
 besides serving God's secret holy pleasure, an addition to 
 his happiness ; for an immediate translation from the depth 
 of temporary horror, as in the case of Mr. Peacock and Mrs. 
 Brettergh, to the height of endless joy, makes even the joys 
 of heaven something more joyful. He feels those neveij 
 ending pleasures at the first entrance more delicious and 
 ravi:,hing, by reason of the sudden change from that bitter- 
 ness of spirit in the last combat to the excellency and 
 eternity of heavenly bliss. His soul, in this case, after a 
 short eclipse of spiritual darkness upon his bed of death, 
 enters more lightsomely into the full sun of immortal glory. 
 But what do you think shall be the end of the other man ? 
 He is in the mean time, it may be, " in great power, and 
 spreading himself like a green bay tree," revelling in the 
 abundance of all worldly jollity and wealth; wallowing 
 dissolutely in the ciioicest delights and vainest pleasures; 
 yet wait but a while, and you shall see him quickly "cut 
 down like grass, and wither as the gieen herb." For God 
 shall suddenly shoot at hiro with a swift arrow. It is 
 already in the bow, even a bow of steel shall send forth an 
 arrow that shall strike him through, and shall shine on his 
 gall. His power aod his pride shall be overthrown in the 
 turn of a hand. All his imperious boisterousness shall melt 
 away as a vain foam. "The eye which saw him shall see 
 him no more ; neither shall his place any more behold him." 
 He must descend into the grave, naked and stripped of all 
 power and pomp, all beauty and strength ; a weaker and 
 poorer worm than when he first came out of the womb. 
 Hear further for this purpose, and fuller expression of my 
 meaning in this point, how a worthy friend of mine, in- 
 stanciag in the exemplary and dreadful downfalsof Haman, 
 Shebna, and others, labours to fright graceless great ones 
 out of their luxury and pride, security and smful pleasures, 
 by consideration of their ends. " Oh then," saith he, " ye 
 rich and great, ye proud and cruel, ambitious and honour- 
 able, take from their woful examples the true estimate of 
 your riches and your power, your pleasure and your honour. 
 
34 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 wherein ye trust, and whereof ye boast, but as Israel in 
 Egypt, of a broken reed. Consider that like sins will have 
 like ends ; that God is to-day, and yesterday, and the same 
 for ever ; that the pride and cruelty, oppression and luxury 
 of these times, have no greater privilege than those of the 
 former. But when for a while you have domineered far and 
 near, had wha.t you would, and done what you pleased ; 
 dispeOi,led parishes and plains for your orchards and walks ; 
 pulled down many houses to set one up, from between 
 whose battlements and turrets at the top you can see no end of 
 your meadows, your fields, and your lands, the measuring 
 whereof, as the poet speaks, would weary the very wings of 
 the kite ; when the train of your dependents hath been too 
 long for the street, and your bare respect hath shook the hat 
 from the head, and bent the knee afar off; when you have 
 clapped whole manors on your backs, or turned them down 
 your throats ; when you have scoured the plains with your 
 horses, the fields and woods with your hounds, and the hea- 
 ven with your hawks; when with pheasants' tongues you 
 have furnished whole feasts, and with the queen of Egypt 
 drunk dissolved pearls, even fifty thousand pounds at a 
 draught, and then laid your head in Dalilah's lap ; when, if 
 it were possible, you have spent your whole lives in all that 
 royal pomp and pleasure which that most magnificent king 
 and queen did (Esther i) for a hundred and fourscore days ; 
 in a word, when you wallowed in all delights and stood in 
 pleasures up to the chin; — then, even then, the pit is 
 digged, and death, of whom you dream not, stands at the 
 door. Where are you now, or what is to be done? Come 
 down, saith Death, from your pleasant prospects; alight 
 from your jades ; hoed your kites ; couple up your curs ; bid 
 adieu to pleasure ; out of your beds of lust ; come naked 
 forth, and descend with me to the chambers of death. 
 Make your beds in the dust, and lay down your cold car- 
 casses among the stones of the pit at the roots of the rocks. 
 And you, great and delicate dames, who are so wearied 
 with pleasure that you cannot rise time enough to dress 
 your heads and do all your tricks against dinner ; to wash 
 your bodies with musk, and daub your faces with vermilion 
 and chalk ; to make ready your pleasant baits to poison 
 men's eyes and their souls; you painted Jezebels, think you 
 now you are fit company for men? Nay, come headlong 
 down to the dogs. If not suddenly so, yet dispatch, and 
 put off your cauls, ear-rings, and round tires ; your chains, 
 bra^-^elets, and mufflers ; your rings, wimples, and crisping 
 pins ; your hoods, veils, and changeable suits ; your glasses, 
 fine linen, with all your mundits muliebris (Isa, iii, 16) ; and 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 35 
 
 put on stench instead of sweet smell ; baldness instead of 
 well-set hair ; burning instead of beauty. Worms shall 
 make their nests ia your breasts, and shall eat out those 
 wanton windovvs and messengers of lust; yea, rottenness 
 and stench, slime and filth shall ascend and sit down in the 
 very throne of beauty, and shall dwell between your eye- 
 brows." 
 
 All this is very woful ; and yet there is a thousand times 
 worse. Besides all this, thou that now layest about thee for 
 the world and wealth ; for transitory pelf and rotten plea- 
 sures, that liest soaking in luxury and pride, and vanity, 
 and all kind of voluptuousness, shall most certainly very 
 shortly lie upon thy bed of death, like " a wild bull in a net, 
 tuU of the fury of the Lord ;" either sealing thee up finally in 
 the desperate senselessness of thine own dead heart, with the 
 spirit of slumber for everlasting vengeance even at the door, 
 or else exemplarily enragiag the guilty conscience upon that 
 thy last bed with hellish horror even beforehand. For ordi- 
 narily the more notorious servants of Satan and slaves of 
 lust depart this life either like Nabal or Judas ; though more 
 by many thousands die like hard-hearted sots in security, 
 than in despair of conscience. If it be so with thee, then, 
 that thine heart when th .u shalt have received the sentence 
 of death against thyself die within thee, as Nabal's ; " and 
 most commonly," saith a worthy divine, " conscience in 
 many is secure at the time of death, God in his justice so 
 plaguing an affected security in life with an inflicted se- 
 curity at death ; — 1 say, then, thou wilt become as a stone, 
 most prodigiously blockish ; as though there were no immor- 
 tality of the soui ; no loss of eternal bliss ; no tribunal in 
 heaven ; no account to be made after this life ; no bsming in 
 hell for ever. Which will make the never dying fire more 
 scorching, and the ever-living worm more stinging, by how 
 much thou wast more senseless and fearless of that fiery 
 lake into which thou wast ready to fall. " Death itself," 
 saith the same man, " cannot awake some consciences ; but 
 no sooner come they into hell but conscience is avvakened to 
 the full, never to sleep more ; and then she teareth with, im- 
 placable fury, and teacheth forlorn wretches to know that 
 forbearance was no payment." But if it please God to take 
 the other course v/ith thee, and to let loose the cord of thy 
 conscience upon thy dying bed ; thou wilt be strangled even 
 with hellish horror upon earth, and damned above ground. 
 That worm of hell which is a continual remorse and furious 
 reflection of the soul upon its own wilful folly, whereby it 
 hath lost everlasting joys, and must now lie in endless, 
 easeless, and remediless torments, is set on work whilst 
 
36 INSTRUCTIOT^fS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 thou art yet alive, and with desperate rage and unspeakable 
 auguish will feed upon thy soul and flesh ; the least twitch 
 •whereof, not all the pleasures often thousand worlds would 
 ever be able to countervail. For as the peace of a good, so 
 the pangs of a guilty conscience are unspeakable. So that 
 at that time thou mayest justly take unto thyself Pashur's 
 terrible name, Magor Missubih, Fear round about. Thou 
 ■wilt be a terror to thyself and to all thy friends. And that 
 which in this woful case will sting extremely, no friends, 
 nor physic ; no gold, nor silver ; no height of place, nor fa- 
 vour of prince ; not the glory and pleasures of the whole 
 world ; not the crowns and command of all earthly king- 
 doms, can possibly give any comfort, deliverance, or ease ! 
 For when that time and terror hath overtaken thee, which 
 is threatened Prov. i, 24—31 ; " Because I have called and 
 ye refused ; I have stretched out my hand, and no man re- 
 garded ; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would 
 none of my reproof : I also will laugh at your calamity ; I will 
 mock when your fear cometh ; when your feai' cometh as deso- 
 lation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind ; when dis- 
 tress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon 
 me, but 1 will not answer, they shall seek me early, but they 
 shall not find me : for that they hated knowledge, and did not 
 choose the fear of the Lord : they would none of my counsel : 
 they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of 
 the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own de- 
 vices :" — I say, when this terrible time is come upon thee, 
 then will the mighty Lord of heaven and earth come against 
 thee " as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will 
 rend the caul of thy heart, and will devour thee like a lion" 
 (Hos. xiii, 8). " lie will come with fire and with his 
 chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and 
 his rebuke with flames of fire" (Isa. ixvi, 15). All his 
 terrors at that hour will fight against thee, and that un- 
 quenchable anger 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 indigna- 
 tion shall be " drunk with the blood " of thy soul, and stick 
 fast in it for ever. In a word, the fearful armies of all the 
 plagues and curses, sorrows and insuflFerable pains de- 
 nounced in God's book against final impenitents, shall with 
 irresistible violence take hold upon thee at once, and pursue 
 thee with that fury, which thou shalt never be able either 
 to avoid or abide ; and " Who is able to stand before this 
 holy Lord God ? who can abide in his sight when he is 
 angry? who can deliver out of his hand?" What man or 
 angel, what arm of flesh, or force of arms, what creature, or 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 37 
 
 created power, what cherub, or which of the seraphim is 
 able to free a guilty conscience from the ever-gnawing 
 worm, and an impenitent wretch from eternal flames 1 Oh ! 
 methinks a sensible forethought of these horrible things 
 even at hand should make the hardest heart of the most 
 aborninable Belial to tremble at the root, and fall asunder 
 in his breast like drops of water! To have his end in his 
 eye, and seriously to remember the tribulation and anguish 
 that shall shortly come upon his soul, the aiflict'on, the 
 wormwood, and the gall, sb.ould instantly frighten him out 
 of his filthy, graceless, good-fellow courses. 
 
 3. Let thein consider what horror it will be in evil times : 
 I mean not only at death and the last day, which are the 
 most terrible of all ; but also in times of disgrace and con- 
 tempt ; of common fear and confusions of the state, of sick- 
 ness, crosses, restraint, banishment, temptations, or any 
 other days of sorrow. At such times to find, instead of 
 peace, fiery scorpions in their consciences, innumerable sins 
 graven there with an iron pen unrepented of! Hear how 
 excellently Austin foretels and forewarns them, into what a 
 forlorn and fearful state they shall most certainly fall, when, 
 after a short gleam of worldly glory, they fall into tempes- 
 tuous and troublesome times : " Ot all afflictions incident to 
 the soul of man, there is none more grievous and transcend- 
 ent than to have the conscience enraged with the guilt of 
 sin. If there be no wound there, if all be safe and sound 
 within, if that bird of the bosom sing sweetly in a man's 
 breast, it is no matter what miseries be abroad in the world, 
 what storms or stirs be raised against him, what arm of 
 flesh or rage of foes beset him round ; for he in this case 
 hath presently recourse unto his conscience, the safest 
 sanctuary and paradise of sweetest repose ; and finding that 
 sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb, filled with abundance 
 of peace, and God himself there reconciled unto him in the 
 face of Christ, he is courageously fearless of all, both mortal 
 and immortal, adversaries and oppositions. ' Though the 
 earth be removed and the mountains carried into the midst 
 of the sea ;' though all the creatures in the world should be 
 turned into bears or devils about him, yet his conscience 
 being comfortable he is undaunted and confident, and more 
 than conqueror over the whole world and ten thousand 
 hells. But on the other side, if by reason of tlie reign of 
 sin, there be no rest there ; if God be not there because of 
 the abounding of iniquity, what shall a man do then] 
 Whither shall he fly when the hand of God hath found him 
 out, and the swift -arrow of the Almighty sticks fast in his 
 side? He will fly," saith that ancient father, " out of the 
 
 E 
 
38 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 country into the city, out of the streets into his house, out 
 of his house into his chamber, horror still following him 
 closely. From his chamber whither will he go but into the 
 inmost cabinet of his bosom, where his conscience dwelleth'? 
 and if he find there nothing but tumult and terror, but guilti- 
 ness, confusion, and ciies of despair, which way will he 
 then turn himself, or whither will he fly then ? He must 
 then either fly from himself, which is utterly impossible, 
 or else abide that torment, which is beyond all compass of 
 thought or expression of tongue." For "all the racks," 
 saith another, " wheels, wild horses, hot pincers, scalding 
 lead poured into the most tender and sensible parts of the 
 body ; yea, all the merciless, barbarous, and inhuman 
 cruelties of the holy house, are but mere toys and May 
 games, compared with the torments that an evil conscience 
 will put a man to when it is awakened." 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The third sort of people to be reproved, which are the Opposers of a 
 powerful Ministry. Three reasons dissuading men from that sin. 
 
 3. A THIRD sort, the worst of all and the most pestilent, are 
 those who do not only not labour in the time of harvest to 
 treasure up comfortable provision against days ot dread, 
 and mispend the day of their visitation wickedly, but also, 
 out of a transcendent strain of impiety, labour might and 
 main to put out and utterly extinguish the heavenly sun 
 that creates this blessed day, and makes the season of our 
 spiritual harvest most glorious and incomparable ; I mean 
 to suppress and quench the saving light of a powerful mi- 
 nistry wheresoever planted and prevailing ; under the sa- 
 cred influence and sovereign heat whereof all God's hidden 
 ones are wont to gather that heavenly stock of grace, com- 
 fort of godliness and good conscience, which is able to hold 
 up their heads invincibly in heavy times. These are the 
 vilest of men and of the most forlorn hope ; for they are un- 
 happily transported with extremest malice, and storm 
 against the very means which should sanctify them, and 
 men which should save them. They do not only make 
 their own souls sure for damnation, but also hinder the 
 power of the word all they can, lest others should be saved. 
 Whatsoever thou dost, do not become one of this reprobate 
 crew, who heartily desire that the sun of sincere preaching 
 were quenched and put out, though it were with the blood of 
 God's most faithful messengers, as did the men of Anathotli 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 39 
 
 m Jeremiah's time; Herodias in John Baptist's time ; and 
 that other Herodias, improperly called Eudoxia, in .lolm 
 Chrysostom's time ; and many thousands even within the 
 pale of the church at all times. Above all, I say, beware 
 of that crying sin of persecuting the power of godliness, 
 without which never any heart knew what true comfort 
 meant ; profession of the truth, without which Christ will 
 not own us at the last day ; conscientious ministers, under 
 whose unceasing labours we gather our spiritual and hea- 
 venly store against evil times in this harvest of grace ; and 
 that either with thine heart, by hatred, malice, heart-burn- 
 ing ; with thy tongue, by slanders, scoffs, rash censures ; 
 with thine hand, by supplanting, oppression, wrong ; with 
 thy purse, policy, power, misinforming, or any other way 
 of vexing or violence. If thou wilt needs be wicked, be so 
 more moderately. If there be no help, but thou will go to 
 hell, post not so furiously. If nothing will work, but thou 
 art wilfully bent on destruction, seek at least a iriore tole- 
 rable doom ; for persecutors are transcendents in sin, and 
 shall hereafter be paid home proportionably. Be none of 
 them, for such reasons as these : — 
 
 (1.) All their malice and rancour, all their bitter words 
 and scornful jests, all their bloody, merciless mischiefs and 
 machinations against the power of preaching and God's 
 people, strike immediately at the face of Jesus Christ. 
 "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou meV (Actsix, 4.) 
 and at the precious ball and apple of God's own eye. 
 " For he that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye " 
 (Zech. ii, 8). God is our shield (Psalm Ixxxiv, 11). Now 
 the shield takes all the blows. 
 
 (2.) They are hunted many times with furies of con- 
 science and extreme horror even in this life. J^ashur put 
 blessed Jeremiah in the slocks, but thereupon he had a new 
 name given him, Magor-missabib, Fear round about, lie be- 
 came a terror to himself and to all his friends (Jer. 
 XX, 2, 3, 4). Zedekiah smote faithful Micaiah upon the 
 face ; but afterwards, according to that prophetical commu- 
 nication, he was fain to run from chamber to chamber to 
 hide himself (1 Kings xxii, 24, 25). John Baptist's head, 
 which Herod cut off, sate in the eye of the tyrant's con- 
 science with such grisly forms of guilt and blood, that 
 when he heard of the great things done by (Jhrist, he was 
 perplexed, and no doubt afraid that John Baptist was risen 
 from the dead to be revenged upon him. 1 have heard of a 
 man, who for a time did furiously and desperately set him- 
 self against a minister of God ; laboured by all means to 
 disgrace and vex him, both by power and policy ; by slan- 
 
40 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 ders, oppressions, malice, contempt. But at length the 
 word so got within him and hampered him, and the terrors 
 of the Almighty took hold upon him with such irresistible 
 rage, that he came trembling and quaking unto that man of 
 God whom he had so wickedly wronged, and dared not stir 
 a foot from him, for fear the devil should take him away 
 alive, or the earth open her mouth and swallow him up 
 quick, or some other strange remarkable judgment seize 
 upon him suddenly, and brand him for a notorious beast 
 and cursed castaway. So, or to such sense he spoke. 
 
 (3.) Many of them come to very horrible, exemplary, and 
 woful ends. Pharaoh long since, by a dreadful confusion at 
 the Red Sea, was, as it were, hanged up in chains, a spec- 
 tacle of terror for persecutors to all posterity, Antiochus 
 swelling with anger, and breathing out fire in his rage 
 against the people of God, did proudly protest, that " he 
 would come to Jerusalen, and make it a common burying 
 place of the Jews. But the Lord Almighty, the God of 
 Israel, smote him with an incuiable and invisible plague. 
 For as soon as he had spoken these words, a pain of the 
 bowels that was remediless came upon him, and sore tor- 
 ments of the inner parts. So that the worms rose up out of 
 the body of this wicked man, and while he lived in sorrow 
 and pain, his flesh fell avvay, and the filthiness of his smell 
 was noisome to all his army " (2 M<*ccab. ix, 4). Herod in 
 the height of his haired against the gospel, and pride in 
 imprisoning and persecuting the apostles, was eaten up of 
 worms in a mo^t fearful and prodigious manner (Acts xii, 
 23)- Gardiner gaping for news of the dispatch of those 
 two blessed martyrs of Jesus, Latimer and Ridley, at Ox- 
 ford, deferred his dinner until three or four o'clock in the 
 afternoon, delighting more in drinking the blood of the 
 saints than in his ordinary food ; but upon the return of 
 his post, he fell merrily to his meat, and mark what 
 followed : " The bloody tyrant," saith the story, " had not 
 eaten a few bits, but the sudden stroke of God's terrible 
 hand fell upon him in such a sort, as immediately he was 
 taken from the table, and so brought to his bed, where he 
 continued the space of fifteen days in such intolerable an- 
 guish and torments, that during the whole of those fifteen 
 days he could not void in any manner the food that he 
 received : whereby his body being miserably inflamed 
 within (who had inflamed so many good martyrs before) 
 was brou.ht to a wretched end." For further enlargement 
 of this point, see the Stories of the Primitive Church, Acts 
 and Monuments, Theatre of God's Judgments, 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 41 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 Four other Reasons dissaading ftoni the former Sin. 
 
 (4.) A cry far louder than the noise of many waters or 
 voice of greatest thunder, knocks continually with strong 
 importunity at God's just tribunal for a shower of " fire and 
 brimstone and a horrible tempest" to be rained down upon 
 their heads ; I mean, a cry of blood, wrongs, disgraces, and 
 slanders, wherewith they have loaded the saints of God. 
 " And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O 
 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our 
 blood on them that dwell on the earth T' (Rev. vi, 10.) 
 
 (5.) They are the principal provokers of God's wrath 
 against a nation. Their hateful heat, overflowing gall, and 
 scornful carriage against God's people doth ripen apace his 
 fiercest indignation, fill up full the vials of his vengeance, 
 and draw down upon a kingdom a desperate and final ruin 
 without all remedy. " But they mocked the messengers of 
 God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, 
 until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till 
 there was no remedy " (2 Chron. xxxvi, 16). 
 
 (6.) Their spiteful spirits being once thoroughly set on 
 heat with this fire of hell, and infernal rage against the 
 grace of God and his people, commonly continue in flame 
 and fury until their fearful and flnal confusion. And they 
 being once fleshed, as it were, with the blood of the saints, 
 at least by scoft's and slanders (for even lewd and lying 
 tongues are keen razors and sharp swords, scourges and 
 scorpions that fietch blood), they feed insatiably upon the 
 sweetness of such supposed cursed revenge, until they be 
 seized upon with their irrecoverable ruin, and fall amongst 
 the inflamers of their malice, and arch persecutors of all 
 professors, the fiends of hell. I'his is my meaning : this 
 pestilent and crying sin of persecution is like the gulf of 
 drunkenness, which Augustine compares to the pit of hell, 
 into which when a man is once fallen there is no redemption 
 or return. A persecutor is rarely or never reclaimed, either by 
 miracle or ministry, mercy or misery. Fire from heaven fall- 
 ing upon the first captain and his fifty did not frighten the 
 second captain and his fifty from pressing upon Elijah to ap- 
 prehend him (2 Kings i, 10, 11). The soldiers who came 
 to take Jesus, as soon as he said " I am he," were strangely 
 upon the sudden struck down to the ground (John xviii, 6) ; 
 and yet this miracle did never a whit mollify and abate the 
 malice of the priests and pharisees against him. Not even 
 
 E 3 
 
42 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 the ministry of Christ himself, though he spoke as never 
 man spake ; not that of Stephen, whose face appeared to his 
 hearers as it had been the face of an angel ; not that of the 
 apostles freshly filled with the Holy Ghost from heaven, did 
 at all tame or abate the rage of those who were possessed 
 with this toul spirit of scornful contradiction ; see Luke 
 iv, 28, 29 ; and xyi, 14 ; Acts vii, 64 ; and ii, 13. Not all 
 those horrible miraculous plagues of Egypt were able to 
 quench Pharaoh's fury against the people of God, until he 
 was choked in the Red Sea. No kindness from David, 
 though extraordinary and matchless (I Sam. xxiv, 11 ; and 
 xxvi, 9), could turn Saul's heart from hunting him, "as 
 when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains." And 
 no marvel though they be not moved by all or any of these 
 means; for they scorn, persecute, and contemn the very 
 means which should amend them, and the only men who 
 should convert them. Whether of the two think you is 
 likelier to recover 1 That man who being dangerously sick, 
 yet entertains the physician kindly and takes patiently 
 Avhat is prescribed ; or he, who having a potion presented 
 unto him very efficacious for his recovery, throws the glass 
 against, the wall, spills that precious receipt, and drives the 
 physician out at doors ? Conceive proportionably between 
 the persecutor and the less pestilent sinner, who meddles 
 not maliciously against the ministry. 
 
 (7.) They are already in the pestilent path and very high- 
 way that leads to sin against the Holy Ghost ; the horrible- 
 ness and height of which dreadful villany may bring upon 
 them even in this life impossibility of pardon (Matt, xii, 
 31, 32), and liability to that flaming judgment and fiery in- 
 dignation, threatened Heb. x, 26, 6cc. And that they are 
 growing towards this sin, if they be not quite gone that way, 
 appeals because they despitefuUy traduce, with much 
 malice and mischief persecute the very works of grace and 
 graces of God's spirit, shed into the hearts and shining in 
 the lives of the children of light (1 John iii, 12; Psalm 
 xxxviii, 20; 1 Pet. iv,4). If a man would drink, swear, 
 swagger, revel, and roar with them ; if he durst be ignorant, 
 a usurer, a sabbath-breaker, a worldling, a doater upon 
 and defender of heathenish superstitious customs, a prac- 
 tiser or patron of old anniversary fooleries and rotten vani- 
 ties ; an encloser, gamester, good-fellow, &c., oh ! then he 
 should be the only man with them ; entertained into their 
 hearts and houses with all affectionate welcome of kindness 
 and acceptation. But if the same man, by the liiercies of 
 God, once begin to break from them and out of the snares 
 of the devil, to disrelish and detest his former ways of na- 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 43 
 
 lure and naughtiness ; to love and reverence the most 
 searching ministry ; to read the scriptures ;ind best books ; 
 to sanctify the Lord's day ; to pray in his family •, to renounce 
 resolutely his running with them to the same excess of riot ; 
 to abandon and abominate their lewd and licentious courses ; 
 in a word, to turn Christian; oh! then he is an arrant puri- 
 tan, a precisian, a humourist, a hypocrite, and all that is 
 naught ; even as bad as the false tongues of the devil's 
 limbs can make a blessed man. He was a good-fellow, 
 ■will they say, but he is now quite gone ; a proper man, and 
 of good parts, but his puritanism hath marred all. WhUe 
 Paul humoured the Piiarisees in persecuting and plaguing 
 the disciples of the Lord, he was a principal and much- 
 honoured man amongst them ; but when he turned on 
 Christ's side, he was accounted a pestilent fellow, the very 
 plague. So that it is plain and palpable, whatsoever 
 may be pretended to the contrary, that those cursed Cains, 
 implacable Doegs, and scoffing Ishmaels, that set them- 
 selves and spend their malice against the ministers and 
 people of God, hate, slander, and persecute the very works 
 of grace and graces ot God's spirit in them. Even their 
 zeal, holiness, hatred of sin, reformation, &c. are an eye- 
 sore and heart-sore to such hateful wretches and owls of the 
 kingdom of darkness, who cannot endure any heavenly 
 light. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 Six other Reasons dissuading from the former Sin. 
 
 (8). As stigmatical rogues burnt in the hand, curtailed of 
 their ears, branded in the forehead, are in the common- 
 wealth ; so are persecutors in the church. By mutual in- 
 telligence and information of God's people, or some more 
 public lasting record and monument of the church, they 
 have many times such a mark set upon them, that they 
 carry it to their graves, yea to the judgment seat of God ; 
 that it may be known beforehand to that glorious tribunal 
 and all the triumphant church, what beastly men, stinging 
 scorpions, and pricking thorns they have been among God's 
 children, and in the sides of the saints. Such a brand had 
 Alexander the coppersmith set upon him by Paul (2 Tim. 
 iv, 14, 15; ; and such a bro.nd was set upon Uiotrephes, 
 that malicious prating companion, by St. John (3 John 9, 
 10). So are those blood-thirsty tigers, Gardiner, Bonner, and 
 the rest of that cruel litter and persecuting pack branded, 
 
44 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 that th.eir names shall rot and their memories be hateful to' 
 the world's end. So too, many in these times, though they 
 be vejy jolly fellows in their own conceit, adored as idols 
 by their flattering dependents, applauded generally as the 
 principal patrons of revelling and good fellowship, yet in 
 the censure of the saints and by the doom of Divine wisdom, 
 they are clearly known and justly reputed "enemies of all 
 righteousness," and Satan's special agents to do mischief 
 against the ministry. 
 
 (9.) It is to be feared they will find no mercy upon their 
 beds of death, and in their last extremity, cry they never 
 so loud, or promise they never so fair. God in his just in- 
 dignation is wont to deal so witli those who drink up ini- 
 quity like water, without all sense or fear of a glorious 
 dreadful majesty above (Ezek. viii, 18) ; with those who 
 refuse to stoop to God's ordinance and submit to the sceptre 
 of Christ, when they are fairly invited by the ministry 
 (Prov. i, 24, 28; Jer. vii, 13, 16; and xi, 11) ; with great 
 ones who grind the faces of tl>e poor (Micah iii, 4) ; with 
 abusers of the riches of his goodness and long suffering 
 (Rom. ii, 4,5). How much more do you think shall im- 
 penitent persecutors be paid home in this kindl That great 
 and cruel persecutor Antiochus (2 Maccab. ix, 13, 17), 
 being seized upon by a horrible sickness, promiseth very 
 gloriously upon that his last bed, besides many other strange 
 reformations, even that he also would become a. lew him- 
 self, and go through all the world that was inhabited, and 
 declare the power of God. But for all this, hear what the 
 writer of that story saith of his spiritual state and of God's 
 resolution towards him, verse 13: "This wicked person 
 prayed also unto the Lord, who would now have no mercy 
 on him." 
 
 (10.) All their spiteful speeches, scurrilous scoffs, pesti- 
 lent lies, insolent insuUlngs, &c. are as so many crowns of 
 glory and joy unto the heads and hearts of all persecuted 
 patient professors (1 Pet. iv, 14 ; Acts v, 41 ; Job xxxi, 36). 
 So that they entirely rniss tlie malicious mark their revenge- 
 ful humours would gladly hit, the hurt ami heart-breaking 
 of those they so cruelly and cunningly hurt with mucii 
 rancour and hate. And not only so, but most certainly 
 hereafter, if they die not like drunken Nabal, and their 
 hearts become as stunes in their breasts, upon their beds of 
 death they will all, though now passing from them with 
 much bitterness of spirit and without all remorse, turn into 
 so many envenomed stings and biting scorpions unto their 
 own consciences, and gnaw upon their hearts with ex- 
 tremest horror. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 45 
 
 (11.) The whole body of the militant church, join all as 
 one man with strong concurrent importunity at the throne 
 of grace, and with one heart and spirit constantly continue 
 there such piercing prayers against all stubborn impenitent 
 scorners, all incurable, implacable persecutors, as the 
 people of God have been wont to pour out in such cases ; 
 as Lament, iii, 59, ice. " O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong : 
 judge thou my cause. Thou hast seen all their vengeance 
 and all their imaginations against me. Thou hast heard 
 their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginations against 
 me ; the lips of those that rose up against me, and their 
 device against me all the day. Behold their sitting down, 
 and their rising up : I am their music. Render unto them 
 a recompence, U Lord, according to the work of their 
 hands. Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. 
 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the 
 heavens of the Lord." ]Sow I would not be in that man's 
 case, against whom God's people complain upon good 
 ground at that just and nighest tribunal one half hour, for 
 the imperial crown and command of all the kingdoms of the 
 earth ; for who knows whether just at that time the righteous 
 Lord for his children's sake and safety may rain upon such 
 a man's head "snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible 
 tempest 1" 
 
 (12.) And the prayers of the saints poured out in the 
 bitterness of their souls, vexed continually with their mali- 
 cious cruelties and cruel mockings, are means many times to 
 bring persecutors to an untimely end, to knock them down 
 before their time. Do not you think that the faithful Jews 
 at Jerusalem, hearing of Antiochus marching towards them 
 like an evening wolf to drink up their blood, had presently 
 recourse unto God's righteous throne with strong cries to 
 stay his rage'? And do you not think that those very prayers 
 drew down upon him that hoirible and incurable plague, 
 whereupon " he died a miserable death in a strange country 
 in the mountains? " Herod, for any thing we know, might 
 have lived many a fair day longer if he had dealt fairly with 
 the apostles of Christ ; but putting one to the sword, and 
 another in prison, he put the church to their prayers (Acts 
 xii, 2 — 5), vvhich prayers (for " there is a certain oranipo- 
 tency of prayer," as Luther was wont to say) did soon 
 create those vermin that ate him up horribly in the height 
 of his pride (ver. 23). The ecclesiastical story reports, 
 that the loathsome and dreadful end of Arrius, that execra- 
 ble enemy to Jesus Christ, v/as hastened by the prayers of 
 the good and orthodox r>ishop, Alexander, who wrestled 
 with God in earnest deprecations against him all the night 
 
46 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 before. Do you not think tliat Gardiner went sooner into 
 his grave for dis cruelty towards professors of the truth by 
 their groans against him, and by the cry of the blood of 
 that glorious pair of martyrs at Oxford which he so insa- 
 tiably tiiirsted after? Let all those, then, that tread in 
 these men's paths, tremble at their ends; and if no better 
 motive will soften their malicious hearts, yet at least let 
 their love unto the world, themselves, and sensual ways, 
 take them off and restrain them from this persecuting rage, 
 lest it set on woik the prayers of God's people, and so they 
 be taken away before their time, and cut off from a tempo- 
 rary supposed heaven of earthly pleasures, to a true ever- 
 lasting hell of unspeakable torments, sooner than otherwise 
 they should. 
 
 (13.) The hearts and tongues of all good men and friends 
 to the gospel are filled with much glorious joy and heartiest 
 songs of thanksgiving at the downfal of every raging incu- 
 rable opposer, when the revenging hand of God hath at 
 length to the singular advancement of the glory of his 
 justice singled out and paid home remarkably any impeni- 
 tent persecutor and implacable enemy. See for this pur- 
 pose the song of Mo>es, Exod. xv ; of Deborah, Judges v ; 
 the Jews feasting after the hanging of Haman, Esther ix, 17 ; 
 Psalm lii, 6, 9; Iviii, 10; and Ixxix, 13; 1 Maccab. xiii, 
 51. Only let the heart of God's child be Avatchful over 
 itself with a godly jealousy in this point ; that his rejoicing 
 be, because God's justice is glorified, his church delivered, 
 Satan's kingdom weakened, &c. ; not only for his own ease 
 and end, for any personal or particular bye-resj ect. Now it 
 is a heavy case, a man in his short abode upon earth to 
 behave himself so like a surly cur and incarnate devil, that 
 all good men are and ought to be truly glad when he is 
 gone. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 I. Wlio are iiieaiit by Persecutors. II. What is meant by Perseculioii. 
 III. An Objection against tlie l>octrine answered. 
 
 1. In this point I comprise and include all sorts of persecutors, 
 of which some are professed and open, as Bonner and Gar- 
 diner, and many such morning wolves ; some politic and re- 
 served, who many times are the more pernicious. For of 
 all manner of malice and ill-will, that is most execrable, 
 deadly, and doth the most hurt, which like a serpent in the 
 fair green grass lies lurking in the flatterings and fawnings 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 47 
 
 of a hypocritical countenance ; which kisses with Judas 
 and kills with Joab ; entertains a man witli outward forms 
 A)f (•ompliment and courtesy, but would, if it dare or might, 
 stab him in at the fifth rib that he should never rise again : 
 when a man's words to thy face are as soft as oil or butter,. 
 but his thoughts toward thee are composed all of blood 
 and bitterness, of gall and gunpowder. Some are notorious 
 villains, as many times in many places the most desperate 
 blasphemers, stigmatic.il drunkairds, unclean sensualists, 
 cruel usurers, and fellows of such intairious rank, are as so 
 many goads in the sides of God's servants, and the only 
 men to pursue all advantages against the inost faithful 
 ministers. Some are of more sober carriage, fair conditions, 
 and seeming devotion (Acts, xiii, 50). Some are the basest 
 fellows, the most abject and contemptible vagabonds, and 
 the very refuse of all the rogues in a country. This we 
 may see by Job's complaint, chap, xxx, "But now," saith 
 he, " they that are younger tlian I, have me in derision, 
 v,'hose fathers 1 would have disdained to have set with the 
 dogs of myf]ock. — They were children of fools, yea, children 
 of base men : they were viler than the earth. And now 
 am I their song, yea, 1 am their byeword." And in David's 
 Psalm XXXV, 15, " Yea, the abjects gathered themselves 
 together against me," ice, " and I was the song of the 
 drunkards" (Psalm Ixix. 12). And in the persecutors of 
 Paul (Acts xvii, 5) : " But the Jews which believed not, 
 moved witii envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of 
 the baser sort," !kc. Some again are men of place and 
 parts, as the same David complains in the same place: 
 *' They that sit in the gate speak against me ; " that is, men 
 in high rooms and of great authority. 
 
 11. And as all sorts of persecutors, so I comprehend all 
 kinds of persecution. 1. By hand, as did Herod (Acts xii), 
 Julian, Bonner, &c. 2, With tongue, by mocking (Galat. 
 iv, 24, compared with Gen. xxi, 9 ; see also Psalm Ixix, 20 ; 
 lleb. xi, 36). By slandering, even in reporting true things 
 maliciously to the prejudice of God's children (Psalm Hi). 
 By reproaching and reviling (Zeph. ii, 8). By insulting 
 with insolent speeches (Ezek. xxvi, 2, and xxxvi, 2). 3. In 
 heart ; by hatred (Ezek. xxxv, 5) ; by rejoicing in the 
 downfal or disgrace of the saints (Ezek. xxxv, 6). 4. In 
 gesture (Ezek. xxv, 6, 7), "Because thou hast clapped 
 thy hands, and stamped with the feet," 6ic. " Behold, 
 therefore, I will stretch cut mine hand upon thee," 6er. 
 Take heed of so much as looking sour upon or brow-beating 
 a servant of Christ, lest thou smart for it. Look upon the 
 quoted places, and you shall see offenders in any of these 
 
48 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 kinds, plagued and justly rewarded as, persecutors of God's 
 people, and thus let such extremely wicked men be fright- 
 ened from persecuting in any way those men or means 
 ^yhich are appointed and sanctified to furnish us with spi- 
 ritual store and strength against the days of evil. 
 
 111. Obj. But against that which hath been said on this 
 point for the singularity and sovereignty of grace and good 
 conscience to support the spirit of a man in evil times, to 
 keep it calm in the most tempestuous assaults, and con- 
 quering over all comers, it may be objected, and some may 
 thus cavil : — 
 
 Men who never were or ever did desire to be acquainted 
 with God's grace or good men, express sometimes and re- 
 present to by-standers an invincible stoutness, much bold- 
 ness and braveness of mind in times of greatest extremity, 
 and under most exquisite tortures ; and therefore it seems 
 not to be peculiar to the saints, and the privilege of God's 
 favourites alone to stand unshaken in stormy times, un- 
 daunted in distress, and comfortable amidst the most de>- 
 perate confusions. 
 
 Ans. I answer: such confidence is only in the face, not 
 in the heart; enforced, not kindly; affected, not eflectual ; 
 not springing from the sole fountain of all sound and lasting 
 comfort in human souls, sense of our reconciliation to God 
 in Christ ; l)ut from some other odd accidental motives ; 
 from weak and unworthy grounds. 
 
 CHAP. XIV, 
 
 Five false Grounds of confident enduring Mi?ery. 
 
 1. In some, from an ambitious desire of admiration and 
 applause for extraordinary undauntedness of spirit and 
 high resolution. It is reported of an Irish traitor, that lying 
 in horrible anguish upon the wheel, an engine of cruellest 
 torture, with his body bruised and his bones broken, he asked 
 his friend standing by, whether he changed countenance at 
 all, or no. Affecting more, as it seems, an opinion of pro- 
 digious manliness and unconquerableness in torment, than 
 affected with the raging pains of a most terrible execution. 
 
 2. In others, from a strong stirring persuasion and con- 
 sciousness of the honesty and honour of some civil cause 
 for which they suffer. But fortitude in this case doth not 
 arise from any inspired religious vigour or heavenly infu- 
 sions, but from the severer instigations of natural conscience 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 49 
 
 and acquired manhood of a mere moral puritan. Many 
 such moral martyrs have been found amongst the more ge- 
 nerous and well-bred heathen. It is related of a brave and 
 valiant captain, who had long manfully and with incre- 
 dible courage withstood Dionysius the l.lder, in defence of 
 a city, that he sustained with strange patience and height 
 of spirit the merciless fury of the tyrant and all his barba- 
 rous cruelties, most unworthy of him that suffered them, 
 but most worthy him that inflicted the same. " First, the 
 tyrant told him that the day before he had caused his son 
 and all his kinsfolks to be drowned. To whom the captain 
 stoutly facing him answered nothing, but that they were 
 more happy than himself by the space of one day. After- 
 ward he caused him to be stripped, and by his executioners 
 to be taken and dragged through the city most ignorai- 
 niously, cruelly whipping him, and charging him besides 
 with outrageous and contumelious speeches. Notwith- 
 standing all which, as one no whit dismayed, he ever showed 
 a constant and resolute heart: and with a cheerful and 
 bold countenance went on, still loudly recounting the ho- 
 nourable and glorious cause of his death, which was, that 
 he would never consent to yield his country into the hands 
 of a cruel tyrant." U ith such stoutness did even mere 
 moral virtue steel the ancient Roman spirits, that in worthy 
 defence of their liberty, for preservation of their country, 
 or other such noble ends, they indifferently contemned gold, 
 silver, death, torture, and whatsoever else miserable world- 
 lings hold either dear or dismal. 
 
 3. In some, from an extreme hardness of heart, which 
 makes thern senseless and fearless of shame, misery, or any 
 terrible thing. This we may sometimes observe in noto- 
 rious malefactors. A long, rebellious, and remorseless con- 
 tinuance and custom in sin, raging infections from their 
 roaring companions, a furious pursuit of outrages and 
 blood ; Satan's hot iron searing their consciences, and God's 
 just curse upon their fearful and forlorn courses ; so fill 
 them with fool-hardiness, and with such a deadly dispo- 
 sition, that they are desperately hardened against all 
 affronts and disasters : so that though such savage-minded 
 and marble-hearted men be to pass through the streets as 
 spectacles of abhorredness and scorn, as hateful monsters 
 and the reproach of mankind ; to be thrown into a dungeon 
 of darkness and discomfort, and there to be laden with cold 
 irons, coldness, and want ; from thence to be hurried to that 
 loathed place of execution, and there to die a dog's death ; 
 and finally to fall imn-'.ediately and irrecoveiably into a 
 lake of fire ; yet, I say, for all this, out of a desperate hard 
 
 F 
 
50 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 heartedness they seem still to be in heart, and to represent 
 to the beholders a great deal of undauntedness and neglect 
 of danger in their carriage and countenances. Oh the pro- 
 digious rock into whicli the stone in a graceless heart may 
 grow, both in respect of desperateness in sinning and sense- 
 lessness in ?.uft'ering ! 
 
 4. In others, from an enraged thirst after human praise 
 and immortal fame, as it is called ; which may be so preva- 
 lent in them, and transport them vvith such a vain-glorious 
 ambition this way, that it may carry them with much seem- 
 ing insensibility, affected patience, and artificial courage, 
 through the terrors and tortures of a very violent and mar- 
 tyr-like death. Hear what Austin saith to this point; 
 " Think ye there never were any catholics, or that now 
 there may not be some, that would suffer only for the praise 
 of men 1 If there were not such kind of men, the apostle 
 would not have said, ' Though 1 give my body to be burned 
 and have not charity, I am nothing.' He did know right 
 well that there might be some which would do it out of 
 vain-glory and self-love, not for Divine love and the glory 
 of God." Oh the bottomless depths of hellish hypocrisy, 
 which lie hid in our corrupt hearts ! Oh the blind and per- 
 verse thoughts of foolish men ! Oh the murderous malice of 
 that. old red dragon, which exerciseth such horrible cruelty 
 both upon our bodies and souls ! 
 
 5. In some, from false grounds of a supposed good estate 
 to God-ward, from an unsound persuasion of their present 
 spiritual well-being and future welfare. Such Pharisees, 
 foolish virgins, and forma! professois are to be found in a!i 
 ages of the church, especially in the fairest and most 
 flourishing days thereof, and when the gospel hath the freest 
 passage, who thus many times in the greatest of all earthly 
 extremities, even upon their beds of death, represent to all 
 about them, from a groundless presumption of being re- 
 conciled unto God, a great deal of confidence, resolution, 
 and many glorious expectations. Upon a partial survey 
 and perusal of their time past, not stained perhaps with any 
 great enormities, notoriousness, or infamous sin ; out of a 
 vain-glorious consciousness to themselves of their many good 
 parts, general graces, good deeds and plausibleuess with the 
 most, by reason of a former obstinate distaste and prejudice 
 against sincerity and the power of godliness, as though it 
 v/ere unnecessary singularity and peevishness ; and it may 
 be confirmed also unhappily in their spiritual self-cozenage, 
 by the unskilful and unseasonable palliations, I mean mis- 
 applications of some abused promises unto their unhumbled 
 souls from some daubing ministers, a generation of vilest 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 51 
 
 men, plausible idiots in the mystery of Christ, and merciful 
 assassins of many miserable deluded souls, to whom they 
 promise life and peace when there is no peace, but terrible 
 things even at hand (Ezek. iii, 10), tumbling of "garments 
 in blood" (Isa. ix, 5), noise of damned souls and tormenting 
 in hell for ever ;— I say from such false and failing grounds 
 as these they many times in that last extremity (the Lord 
 not revealing unto them the unsoundness of their spiritual 
 estate and rottenness of their hopes) demean themselves 
 cheerfully and comfortably, as though they were presently 
 to set foot into heaven, and to lay hold upon eternal life ; 
 but God knows without any just cause or true ground. 
 For immediately upon the departure of the soul from the 
 body shall they hear that woful doom from Christ's own 
 mouth, as himself hath told us beforehand, " Depart from 
 me, 1 never knew you" (Matt, vii, 23). Such men as these, 
 having been formerly acquainted with and exercised in the 
 outward forms and ceremonies of religion, are wont at such 
 times to entertain their visitants and bystanders with many 
 goodly speeches and scripture phrases, representing their 
 contempt of the world, willingness to die, readiness to for- 
 give all the world, hope to be saved, desire to be dissolved 
 and be in heaven, ^:c. 'J hey may cry aloud with much for- 
 mal confidence, " Lord, Lord, open to us ; mercy, mercy, in 
 the name of Christ ; Lord Jesus, receive our spirits," ^c. ; 
 which last ejaculations, did they spring from a truly broken, 
 penitent, and heavenly heart, and were they the periods and 
 conclusions of a well-spent life, might blessedly break open 
 with irresistible power the gates of heaven, unlock the rich 
 treasures of immortality, and fill the departing soul with the 
 shining beams of God's glorious presence : but unto them 
 such goodly and glorious speeches are but as so many catch- 
 ings and scrabblings of a man overhead in water : he 
 struggles and strives for hold to save himself, but he grasps 
 nothing but water ; it is still water which he catches, and 
 therefore sinks and drowns. 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 A sixth false Ground of confident enduring- Miseries. A conclusion of 
 the first Doctrine. 
 
 6. In others from a misguided Jieadstrong zeal in will- 
 worship, an impotent peremptory conceit that they suffer in 
 the cause of God, and for the glory of religion. This un- 
 
52 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 hallowed fury possessed many heretics of old. Upon this 
 false ground the Don utists in the fourth century after Christ 
 offered themselves willingly, and suffered death most cou- 
 rageously. And so did the JEuphemites, who for the multi- 
 tude of their supposed martyrs, would needs be called Mar- 
 tyrians. We also learn from history that Turks, Tartars, 
 and Moors both fight and die most bravely for the blasphe- 
 mous opinions of Mahomet; and that the Assassins*, a 
 company of blood-thirsty villains and desperate cut-throats, 
 who would without all scruple or fear undertake to dispatch 
 any man whom their general commanded them to murder, 
 died oftentimes with great constancy and undismayedness ; 
 and this they accounted a special point of religion. But 
 especially at this day the Popish pseudo-martyrs (indeed 
 true traitors) are stark mad with this superstitious rage. 
 First, they drink full deep of the golden cup of abominable 
 " fornication in the hand of the great whore ;" immediately 
 whereupon they grow into an insatiable and outrageous 
 thirst alter the blood of souls, poisoning them with the doc- 
 trine of devils, and also after the blood of whomsoever 
 withstands their accursed superstitions, even though they 
 wear imperial crowns upon their heads ; by plotting and 
 practising treasons, patricides, assassinations, poisonings, 
 ruins of whole nations, barbarous massacres, blowing up of 
 parliaments, and a world of mischiefs, which cast an inex- 
 piable stain and obloquy upon the innocency of the Chris- 
 tian religion^ At last they come to Tyburn, or some other 
 pkce of just execution, and then they will needs persuade 
 the world that they are going towards heaven to receive a 
 crown of martyrdom. They seem there already to triumph 
 extraordinarily, and to contemn tortures. With an affected 
 bravery they trample upon the tribunals of justice ; kiss the 
 instruments of death in sign of happiness at hand ; and 
 throw many resolute and rejoicing speeches amongst the 
 people, as though they liad one foot in heaven already : 
 when, alas! poor blind, misguided souls, while they thus 
 wilfully and desperately abandon their lives upon a ground- 
 less and graceless conceit that they shall become crowned 
 martyrs, they are like a man, who lying asleep upon a high 
 arid steep rock, dreams that he is created a king, guarded 
 with a goodly train of ancient nobles, furnished with many 
 princely houses and stately palaces, enriched with the re- 
 venues, majesty, and magnificence of a mighty kingdom, 
 attended with all the pleasures his heart could desire ; but 
 starting up suddenly and leaping for joy, falls headlong and 
 
 • A sect of Mahometan enthusiasts. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 53 
 
 irrecoverably into the raging sea ; and so in lieu ot" that 
 imaginary happiness he vainly grasped in a dream, he de- 
 stroys himself and loses that little real comfort he had in 
 this miserable life. That pair of incarnate devils, the Eng- 
 lish Fawkes and French Ravaillac ; the one, after that in 
 the pope's cause he had embrued his hands in the royal 
 blood of a mighty king and the greatest warrior upon earth ; 
 the other having done his utmost to blow up at once the 
 glory, power, wisdom, the religion, peace, and prosperity of 
 the most renowned state under the heavens, were both pro- 
 digiously bold, confident, peremptory. But was this courage 
 think you inspired into t!iem by the " lion of the tribe of 
 Judah," already triumphant in the heavens, or by that 
 roaring dragon of the bottomless pit 1 A man of an under- 
 standing, impartial, discerning spirit would scarcely wish a 
 clearer demonstration of the truth and orthodoxy of our 
 religion than to mark the different ends of our blessed mar- 
 tyrs in Queen Mary's time, and those popish traitors Vr-hich 
 are sometimes executed among us. They both ordinarily 
 at their end express a great deal of confidence. But in the 
 pseudo-catholic antichristian martyrs, it is so enforced, arti- 
 iicial, ambitious, affected ; their speeches so cunning, and 
 composed on purpose to seduce the simple ; their last be- 
 haviour so plotted beforehand and formally acted ; their 
 prayers so unhearty, plodding, and slight ; their whole car- 
 riage so unspiritual and unlike the saints of God ; discover- 
 ing neither former acquaintances with the mysteries of true 
 sanctification, Dor those present feeling elevations of spirit 
 which are wont to fill the souls which are ready to enter 
 into the joys of heaven, that to a spiritual eye, to a man 
 versed in the purity and power of godliness, it is most clear 
 that their comfort in such cases is of no higher strain nor 
 stronger temper than the moral resolution of a heathen, 
 and headstrong conceit of heresy can represent or reach 
 unto. It is otherwise with the true martyrs of Jesus, slain 
 most cruelly by that " great whore, the mother of harlots," 
 drunken with a world of innocent blood as with sweet 
 wine; as we may see and feel in that glorious martyrology 
 of our saints, in tlie merciless times of Queen Mary. The 
 constant profession .:nd power of our most true and ever- 
 blessed religion did create such a holy and humble majesty 
 in their carriages, so much of heaven and sober undaunted- 
 ness in their countenances, such joyful springings and 
 spiritual ravishments in their hearts ; such grace and power- 
 ful piercings in their speeches ; such zeal and hearty melt- 
 ings in their jMayers ; such triumpiiant and heavenly exul- 
 tations amid the flames, that it was more than manifest 
 
 F 3 
 
54 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 both to heaven and earth, to men and angels, that their 
 cause was the cause of God ; their murderer, that man of 
 sin; their blood, the seed of the church; their souls, the 
 jewels of heaven ; and their present passage, the right and 
 ready way to that unfading and most glorious crown of mar- 
 tyrdom. That which in fiction was fathered upon Father 
 Campion was most true of every one of our true martyrs : 
 
 That everyone iiii;^lit say, with heavy heart that slood : 
 
 Here speaks a saint, here dies a lamb, here flows the guiltless blood. 
 
 Thus you have heard upon what weak props and sandy 
 foundations that confidence stands and is built which carnal 
 men seem to lay hold upon with great bravery in times of 
 trouble and distress. But the comfort which sweetly springs 
 from that spirit 1 speak of, supported out of special favour 
 and interest by the hand of God all-sufficient, and the un- 
 conquerable calmness of a good conscience, is grounded 
 upon a reck, upon which though the rain descends, the 
 floods come, the winds blow, the tempests beat, yet it stands 
 like Mount Zion, sure, sober, strong, lasting, impregnable. 
 Nay, it is of that heavenly metal and divine temper, that it 
 ordinarily gathers vigiur and power from the world's rage ; 
 and grows in strength and resolution together with the in- 
 crease of all unjust oppositions. Persecutions and resist- 
 ance serve as a provocation and seasoning to its sweetness. 
 It is not enforced, formal, artificial, affected, furious, despe- 
 rate, misgrounded, ambitious, upon a humour in the face 
 only ; only in hot blood, out of a vain-glorious pang, 6lc. 
 Such may be found in aliens and resolute reprobates. It 
 were nothing worthy if strangers might meddle with it; if 
 men or devils, or the whole world could take it from us ; if 
 it were sustained only by any created power or arm of flesh. 
 This pearl that I praise, and persuade unto, is of a higher 
 price and more transcendent power than any unregenerate 
 man can possibly compass or comprehend. It hath for its 
 seat, a sanctified soul ; for the fountain of its refreshing, the 
 Spirit of all comfort ; for its foundation, the favour of God ; 
 for its warrant, the promises of the "Amen, the faithful and 
 true witness ;" for its object, an immortal crown ; lor its 
 continuance, the prayers of all the saints ; for its com- 
 paniens, inward peace, invincible courage, a holy security 
 of mind; for its end and perfection, " fulness of joy and 
 pleasures at God's right hand for evermore ;" in a word, 
 this courageous comfort and true nobleness of spirit, which 
 dwells in the heart of the true-liearted Christian, doth differ 
 as much from, and as far surpasses all the groundless con- 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 55 
 
 fidences of every carnal man or religious counterfeit, as the 
 real possession of gold surpasses an imaginary dream of 
 gold ; as the true natural lively grape which glads the heart, 
 excels a painted juiceless grape, which only feeds the eye ; 
 or as a strong and mighty oak rooted deeply in the earth, 
 which no storm or tempest can displant or overthrow, is su- 
 perior to ^ stake in a dead hedge, or staff stuck lightly into 
 the ground, which every hand may snatch away, or blast of 
 wind supplant and overthrow. 
 
 SECT. I. PART 11. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Tlie doctrine of the Intolerableness of a Wounded Conscience proved. 
 
 Secondly, the trouble of a wounded conscience is farther 
 amplifiefl by its attribute, intolerableness. " But a wounded 
 spirit who can bear 1 " Whence note, 
 
 Doctr. That the torture of a troubled conseience is in- 
 tolerable. 
 
 Keas. 1. In all other afflictions, only the arm of flesh is 
 our adversary : we contend but with creatures at most ; we 
 have to do but with man, or at worst with devils ; but in 
 this transcendent misery, we conflict immediately with God 
 himself. Frail man with Almighty God : sinful man with 
 that most holy God, whose eyes are purer than to behold 
 evil, and who cannot look upon iniquity (Habak. i, 13). 
 " Who, then, can stand before his indignation'? who can 
 ibide in the fierceness of his anger, when his fury is poured 
 o<it like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him?" 
 ( Nahum i, 6.) V\ hen he comes against a man " as a bear 
 that is bereaved of her whelps, to rend the very caul of his 
 heart, and to devour him like a lion" (Hos. xiii, 8). J\'o 
 more than the driest stubble can resist the most fiery flame ; 
 the ripe corn, the mower's sharpest scythe ; or a garment, 
 the moth : no more, nay infinitely less, can any power of 
 man or angel withstand the mighty Lord of heaven and 
 earth when he is angry for sin. " When thou" (saith David, 
 Psalm xxxix, 11) "with rebukes dost correct man for ini- 
 quity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a 
 moth." Alas ! when a poor, polluted wretch, upon some 
 special illumination by the word, or extraordinary stroke 
 from the rod, doth once begin to behold God's frowning face 
 against him in the pui^ glass of his most holy law, and to 
 feel Divine justice, by an invisible hand, taking secret ven- 
 
56 INSTRUCTIONS TO 11 COMFORTING 
 
 geance upon his conscience, his heavy heart immediately 
 melts away in his breast and becomes as water. He faints 
 and fails, both in the strength of his body and stoutness of 
 his mind. His bones, the pillars and master-timbers of his 
 earthly tabernacle, are presently broken in pieces and 
 turned into rottenness. His spirit, the eye and excellency 
 of his soul, which should enlighten and make lightsome the 
 whole man, is quite put out and utterly overwhelmed with 
 excess of horror and flashes of despair. Oh ! this is it 
 which would not only crush the courage of the stoutest son 
 of Adam that ever breathed upon eaith, but even break the 
 back of the most glorious angel that ever shone in heaven, 
 should he lift up but one rebellious thought against his 
 Creator ! This alone is able to make the tallest cedar in 
 Lebanon, the strongest oak in Bashan (I mean the highest 
 look and the proudest heart), the most boisterous Nimrod, 
 or swaggering Belshazzar, to bow and bend, to stoop and 
 tremble, as the leaves of the forest that are shaken with the 
 wind. 
 
 2. In all other adversities a man is still a friend unto 
 himself, favours himself, and reaches out his best conside- 
 rations to bring in comfort to his heavy heart. But in this 
 he is a scourge to himself; at war with himself ; an enemy to 
 himself. He doth greedily and industriously fetch in as 
 much matter as he can possibly, both imaginary and true, 
 to enlarge the rent and aggravate his horror. He gazes 
 willingly in that false glass which Seitan is wont in such 
 cases to set before him, wherein by his hellish malice he 
 makes an infinite addition both to the already unnumbered 
 multitude and to the too true heinousness of his sins, and 
 would fain, if he will be led by his lying cruelty, misrepre- 
 sent to his affrighted imagination every gnat as a camel, 
 every moat as a mole hill, every mole hill as a mountain ; 
 every lustful thought as the most unclean act, every idle 
 word as a desperate blasphemy, every angry look as an 
 actual murder, every intemperate passion as an inex}>iable 
 provocation, every distraction in holy duties as an absolute 
 rebellion, every transgression against light of conscience as 
 a sin against the Holy Ghost. Nay, in this amazedness of 
 spirit and disposition to despair he is apt, even of his own 
 accord, and with great eagerness, to arm every several sin 
 as it comes into his mind with a particular sting, that it 
 may strike deep enough and stick fast enough in his already 
 grieved soul. He employs and improves the excellency and 
 utmost of his learning, understanding, wit, memory, to argue 
 with all subtlety, with mucli sophistry, against the pardon- 
 ableness of his sins and possibility of salvation. He wounds 
 even his wounds with a conceit that they they are incurable, 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 57 
 
 and vexes his very vexations with refusing to be comforted. 
 Not only crosses, afflictions, temptations, and all matter of 
 discontentment ; but even the most desirable things also in 
 this life, and those which minister most outward comfort ; 
 wife, children, friends; gold, goods, great men's favours j 
 preferments, honours, otiices, even pleasures themselves, 
 every thing: whatsoever is within him, or without him, or 
 about him ; whatsoever he thinks upon, remembers, hears, 
 sees, turn all to his torment. No marvel, then, though the 
 terror of a wounded conscience be so intolerable. 
 
 3. As the exultations of the soul and spiritual refreshments 
 do incomparably surpass both in excellency of object and 
 sweetness of apprehension all pleasures of sense and bodily 
 delighis, so atHictions of the soul and spiritual pangs do infi- 
 nitely exceed both in bitterness of sense and intenseness of sor- 
 row the most exquisite tortures that can possibly be inflicted 
 upon the body. Fur the soul is a spirit, very subtle, quick, 
 active, stirring ; all life, motion, sense, feeling, and therefore 
 far more capable and apprehensive of all kinds of impressions, 
 whether passions of pleasure or inflictions of pain. 
 
 4. This extremest of miseries, " a wounded spirit," is 
 tempered with such strong and strange ingredients of ex- 
 traordinary fears, that it makes a man a terror to himself 
 and to all his friends ( Jer. xx, 4) ; to flee when none pur- 
 sues, at the sound of a shaken leaf (Prov. xxviii, 1 ; Levit. 
 xxvi, 37); to tremble at his own shadow ; to be in great 
 fear where no fear is (Psalm liii, 5) : Besides the insup- 
 portable burthen of too many true and causeful terrors, it 
 fills his dark and dreadful fancy with a world of feigned 
 horrois, ghastly apparitions, and imaginary hells, which 
 notwithstanding have real stings, and impress tme tortures 
 upon his trembling and woful heart. It is poisoned with 
 such restless anguish and desperate pain, that though life 
 be most sweet and hell most horrible, yet it makes a man 
 wilfully to abandon the one and willingly to embrace the 
 other that he may be rid of its rage. Hence it was that 
 Judas preferred a halter and hell before his present horror — 
 that Spira said often (what heart quakes not to hear it ?) 
 that he envied Cain, Saul, and Judas ; wishing rather any 
 of their rooms in the dungeon of the damned than to have 
 his poor heart so rent in pieces with such raging terrors and 
 fiery desperations upon his bed of death. Whereupon at 
 another time, being asked whether he feared more fearful 
 torments after this life ! -'Yes," said he ; "but 1 desire 
 nothing more than to be in that place, where I shall expect 
 no more." Expectation as it seems of future did infinitely 
 aggravate and enrage his already intolerable torture. 
 
 5. The heathens, who had no fuller sight of the foulness of 
 
58 Ix^JSTRUCJ'IONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 sin, or more smarting sense of Divine vengeance for it than 
 the light of natural conscience was able to afford and repre- 
 sent unto them ; yet were wont in fiction to shadow out in 
 some sort, and intimate unto us the insufferable extremities 
 ot a mind troubled in this kind, by hellish furies following 
 malefactors with burning hie- brands and flames of torture. 
 What understanding then is able to conceive, or tongue to 
 report, in what case that sinful conscience must needs be, 
 when it is once awakened, which besides the notions of 
 natural light, hath also the full sun of God's sacred word, 
 and that pure eye which is ten thousand times brighter than 
 the sun, and cannot look upon iniquity, to irradiate and 
 enrage it to the height of guiltiness and depth of horror 1 
 Both heart and tongue, man and angel, must let that alone 
 for ever. For none can take the true estimate of this im- 
 measurable spiritual misery, but he that can comprehend 
 the length and breadth of that infinite irresistible wrath, 
 which once implacably enkindled in the bosom of God, 
 burns to the very bottom of hell, and there creates the ex- 
 tremity and endlessness of all those inexpressible torments 
 and fiery plagues, which afflict the devils and damned souls 
 in that horrible pit. 
 
 6. JNot only the desperate cries of Cain, Judas, and many 
 other such miserable men of forlorn hope, but also the 
 woful complaints even of God's own dear children, discover 
 the truth of this point, to wit, the terrors and intolerable- 
 ness of a wounded conscience. Hear how ruefully three 
 ancient worthies in their times wrestled with the wrath of 
 God in this kind. " i reckoned till morning," saith Heze- 
 kiah, " that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones," 
 (Isa. xxxviii, 13). Even as the weak and trembling limbs 
 of some lesser neglected beast are crushed and torn in 
 pieces by the irresistible paw of an unconquerable lion ; so 
 was his troubled soul terrified and broken with the anger of 
 the Almighty. He could not speak for bitterness of grief 
 and anguish of heart, " but chattered like a crane or 
 a swallow, and mourned like a dove." " Thou writest 
 bitter things against me," saith Job, " and makest me to 
 possess the iniquities of my youth. The arrows of the 
 Almighty are within rne, the poison whereof drinketh up 
 my spirit : the terrors of God do set themselves in array 
 against me. Oh that I might have my request ; and that 
 God would grant me the thing that I long for ! Even that 
 it would please God to destroy me, that he would let loose 
 his hand and cut me off." Nay, yet worse : " Thou scarest 
 me with dreams and terrifiest me through visions. So that 
 my soul chooseth strangling and death rather than mv life " 
 (Job xiii, 26 ; vi, 4, 8, 9 ; vii, 14, 15). Though God in 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 59 
 
 mercy preserves his servants from the monstrous and most 
 abhorred act of self-murder, yet in some melancholy mood, 
 horror of mind, and bitterness of spirit, they are not quite 
 freed from all impatient wishes that way, and sudden sug- 
 gestions thereunto. " My bones waxed old," saith David, 
 " through my roaring all the day long. Day and night thy 
 hand was heavy upon me ; my moisture is turned into the 
 drought of summer. Thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy 
 hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh, 
 because of thine anger: neither is there any rest in my 
 bones, because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone 
 over my head : as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for 
 me. I am troubled, I am bowed down gi eatly ; I go mourn- 
 ing all the day long. I am feeble and sore broken, 1 have 
 roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart " (Psalm. 
 xxxii,3, 4; xxxviii, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8). Hear also into what a depih 
 of spiritual distress three worthy servants of God in these 
 later times were plunged and pressed down under the sense 
 of God's anger for sin. Blessed Mrs. Brettergh upon her last 
 bed was horribly hemmed in with the sorrows of death ; 
 the very grief of hell laid hold upon her soul ; " a roaring 
 wilderness of woe was within her," as she confessed of 
 herself. She said, her sins had made her a prey to Satan, 
 and wished that she had never been born, or that she had 
 been made any other creature rather than a Avoman. She 
 cried out many times, " Woe, woe, woe, &c. A weak, a 
 woful, a wretched, a forsaken woman ;" with tears con- 
 tinually trickling from her eyes. Mr. Peacock, that man 
 of God, in that his dreadful visitation and desertion, re- 
 counting some smaller sins, burst out into these words. 
 " And for these," saith he, " 1 feel now a hell in my 
 conscience." Upon other occasions he cried out, groaning 
 most pitifully. " Oh me, wretch ! Oh mine heart is mise- 
 rable ! Oh, "oh, miserable and woful ! The burthen of my 
 sin lieth so heavy upon me, I doubt< it will break my heart. 
 Oh how woful and miserable is my state, that thus must 
 converse with hell-hounds ! " When by-stanuers asked if 
 he would pray, he answered, I cannot. Suffer us, say they, 
 to pray for you. "'Jake not," replied he, "the name of 
 God in vain, by praying for a reprobate." 
 
 " What grievous pangs, what sorrowful torments, what 
 boiling heats of the tire of hell that blessed saint of God, 
 John Glover, felt inwardly in his spirit," saith Fox, in his 
 Acts and Monuments, " no speech outwardly is able to ex- 
 press. Being young," saith he, " 1 remember i was once 
 or twice with him, v/hen partly by his talk I perceived, and 
 partly by mine own eyes saw to be so worn and consumed 
 
60 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 by the space of five years, that neither almost any brookinc: 
 of meat, quietness of sleep, pleasure of life ; yea, antl 
 almost no kind of senses, was left in him. Upon appre- 
 hension of some backsliding he was so perplexed, that if he 
 had been in the deepest pit of hell, he could almost have 
 despaired no more of his salvation,'' saith the same author. 
 " In which intolerable griefs of mind," saith he, " although 
 he neither had, nor could have any joy of his meat ; yet 
 was he compelled to eat against his appetite, to the end to 
 defer the time of his damnation so long as he might, thinking 
 with himself no less, but that he must needs be thrown into 
 hell, the breath being once out of his body." 
 
 I dare not pass out of this point, lest some child of God 
 should be here discouraged, before I tell you that every one 
 of these three last named was at length blessedly recovered, 
 and did rise most gloriously out of their several depths of 
 extremest spiritual misery, before their end. Hear, there- 
 fore, also ]NIrs. Brettergh's triumphant songs and raptures of 
 spirit after the return of her weli-beloved: " O l-ord Jesu, 
 dost thou pray for mel O blessed and sweet Saviour, how 
 wonderful, how wonderful, how wonderful are thy mercies ! 
 Oh, thy love is unspeakable, that hast dealt so graciously 
 with me. Oh my Lord and my God. blessed be thy name 
 for evermore, which hast showed me the path of life. Thou 
 didst, O Lord, hide thy face from me for a little season, but 
 with everlasting mercy thou hast had compassion on me. 
 And now, blessed Lord, thy comfortable presence is come ; 
 yea, Lord, thou hast had respect unto thy handmaid, and 
 art come with fulness of joy and abundance of consolations. 
 Oh blessed be thy name, my Lord and my God. Oh, the 
 joys, the joys, the joys that I feel in my soul ! Oh, they be 
 wonderful, they be wonderful, they be wonderful ! O 
 Father, how merciful and marvellous gracious art thou unto 
 me ! Yea, Lord, I ieel thy mercy and I am assured of thy 
 love ; and so certain am I thereof, as thou art the God of 
 truth, even so sure do I know myself to be thine, () Lord 
 my God : and this my soul knoweth right well. Oh blessed 
 be the Lord : oh blessed be the Lord that hath thus com- 
 forted me, and hath brought me now to a place, more sweet 
 unto me than the garden of Eden. Oh the joy, the joy, the 
 delightsome joy that 1 feel! — Oh praise the Lord for his 
 mercies, and for this joy which my soul feeleth full well ; 
 praise his name for evermore." 
 
 Hear with v.hat heavenly calmness and sweet comforts 
 Mr, Peacock's heart was refreshed and ravished when the 
 storm was over. "Truly, my heart and soul (saith he, 
 when the tempest was something allayed) have been far led 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 61 
 
 and deeply troubled with temptations arid stings of con- 
 science ; but I thank God they are eased in good measure. 
 Wherefore I desire that 1 be not branded with the note of a 
 castaway or reprobate. Such questions, oppositions, and all 
 tending thereto, I renounce. Concerning my inconsiderate 
 speeches in my temptation, I humbly and heartily ask 
 mercy of God for them all." Afterward by little and little 
 more light did arise in his heart, and he brake out into such 
 speeches as these : " 1 do, God be praised, feel such com- 
 fort from that — what shall I call it? Agony, said one 
 that stood by. May, quoth he, that is too little ; that had 1 
 five hundred worlds, i could not make satisfaction for such 
 an issue, Oh the sea is not more full of water, nor the sun 
 of light, than the Lord of mercy ; yea, his mercies are ten 
 thousand times more. What great cause have I to magnify 
 the great goodness of God that hath humbled, nay rather 
 exalted such a wretched miscreant, and of so base condi- 
 tion, to an estate so glorious and stately ! The Lord hath 
 honoured me with his goodness : 1 am sure he hath pro- 
 vided a glorious kingdom for me. The joy that I feel in my 
 heart is incredible." 
 
 For the third, hear Mr. Fox : " Though that good servant 
 of God suffered many years so sharp temptations and strong 
 buffetings of Satan, yet the Lord, who graciously preserved 
 him all the while, not only at last did rid him out of all 
 discomfort, but also framed him thereby to sucu mortifica- 
 tion of life, as the like hath not been seen ; in such sort, as 
 he being like one placed in heaven already, and dead in 
 this world, both in word and meditation, led a life altoge- 
 ther celestial, abhorring in his mind all profane things." 
 
 7. No arm of flesh, or art of man ; no earthly comfort or 
 created power, can possibly heal or help in this heaviest case 
 and extremest horror. Heaven and earth, men and angels, 
 friends and physic, gold and silver, pleasures and prefer- 
 ments, favour of princes, nay, the utmost possibility of the 
 whole creation must let this alone for ever. An Almighty 
 hand and infinite skill must take this in hand, oi else never 
 any cure or recovery in this world or the world to come. 
 Bodily diseases may be eased and mollified by medicines. 
 Surgery, as they say, hath a salve for every sore ; poverty 
 may be repaired and relieved by friends ; there is no im- 
 prisonment without some hope of enlargement ; suit and 
 favour may help home out of banishment ; innocency and 
 neglect may wear out disgrace ; grief for loss of a wife, a 
 child, or other dearest friend, if not by arguments from 
 reason, that death is unavoidable, necessary, an end of all 
 earthly miseries, the common way of all mankind, &c. yet 
 
 G 
 
62 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 at last is lessened and utterly lost by length of time ; cor- 
 dials of pearl, sapphires, and rubies, with such like, may 
 recomfort the heart possessed with melancholy and drowned 
 in the darkness of that sad and irksome humour. But now 
 not the most exquisite concurrence of all these, nor ail the 
 united abilities which lie within the strength and sinews of 
 the arm of flesh, can help any whit at all in this case. Not 
 the exactest quintessence extracted from all the joys, glory, 
 and pleasures that ever the world enjoyed, can procure or 
 minister one jot of ease to a soul afflicted in this kind, and 
 tiius trembling under the terrors of God. In such an agony 
 and extremity, hadst thou the utmost aid, and an universal 
 attendance from angels and men ; couldst thou reach the 
 top of the most aspiring human ambition, alter the ex- 
 cellency <and variety of all worldly felicity ; were thy pos- 
 sessions as large as East and West ; were thy meat con- 
 tinually manna from heaven ; every day like the day of 
 Christ's resurrection; were thy apparel as costly and 
 glittering as Aaron's ephod ; nay, thy body clothed with the 
 beauty of the sun, and crowned with stars ; yet for all this, 
 and a thousand times more, thy heart within thee would be 
 as cold as a stone, and tremble inhnitely above the " heart 
 of a woman, entering into travail of her first child." For, 
 alas! who can stand before the mighty Lord God ? Who 
 dare plead with him when he is angry ? What spirit of man 
 hath might to wrestle with his Maker 1. W' ho is able to 
 make agreement with the hell of conscience, or to put to 
 silence the voice of desperation ? Oh ! in this conflict alone, 
 and woful wound of conscience, no electuary of pearl or 
 precious balm; no Bezoar's stone or unicorn's horn, Para- 
 celsian quintessence or potable gold ; no new device of the 
 " knights of the rosy cross," nor the most exquisite extrac- 
 tion which alchemy or art itself can create, is able any 
 whit, or at all, to revive, ease, or assuage. It is only the 
 hand of the Holy Ghost by the blood of that blessed lamb, 
 " Jesus Christ, the holy and the righteous," which can bind 
 up such a bruise. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Use of the former Doctrine for the Unconverted, to take out the sting 
 of sin by Repentance. One Reason why every Sinner doth not al- 
 ways feel that sting. 
 
 The first use of the former doctrine is for counsel to the un- 
 converted, that they would take the sting out of their sins, 
 and prevent the desperateness and incurableness of this 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 63 
 
 horrible wound by a humble, sincere, ' universal turning 
 unto the Lord " while it is called to-day." For assuredly 
 in the mean time, all the sins they have heretofore com- 
 mitted in thought, word, or deed ; at any time, in any 
 place, with any company ; or to which they have been any 
 ways accessary, are already upon record before the pure 
 eye of that high and everlasting Judge, written exactly by 
 the hand of Divine justice in the book, of their consciences 
 with a pen of iron, with a claw of adamant, with the point 
 of a diamond ; or, if you can name any thing which makes 
 a stronger, deeper, and more lasting impression : and there 
 they lie like so many lions asleep, and giants refreshing 
 with wine, gathering much desperate poison and stinging 
 points, that whensoever hereafter they shall be effectually 
 and finally awakened by God's angry hand, they may torment 
 most ragingly, and tear their woful souls in pieces everlast- 
 ingly when there is none to help. 
 
 JN'ow we may see and observe many times one little sin 
 (at least in the world's account, and conceit of carnal men) 
 to plunge a guilty conscience into the depth of extremest 
 horror, and a very hell upon earth ; as I have heard of and 
 known in many. One, for a sudden unadvised imprecation 
 against her own soul, in case she did so or so ; another, for 
 a thought conceived of God, unworthy so great a majesty; 
 another, for covetously keeping a thing found, and not 
 restoring it, or not inquiring after the owner ; another, for 
 an adulterous project without any actual pollution ; another, 
 by concurring with a company of scoffing Ishmaels only 
 once, and ere he was aware, by lifting up the hands and 
 casting up the eyes in scorn of God's people. Yet after- 
 wards, they sadly revising these miscarriages in cool blood, 
 some of them, some five or six years after, God being 
 then pleased to represent them with terror, and their native 
 slings, were cast into that affliction of conscience and cori- 
 fusion of spirit that their very bones were broken, their 
 faces filled with ghastliness and fear, their bodies possessed 
 with strange tremblings and languishing distempers, their 
 very vital moisture turned into the drought of summer. In 
 which dreadful perplexity they were in great danger of des- 
 troying themselves and of being swallowed up of despair. 
 If the guilty sense then of one sin, when God sets it on 
 and says unto it " Torment," draws so many fiery points of 
 stinging scorpions after it, charges upon the excellency of 
 the understanding with sucli hideous darkness, rends the 
 heart in pieces with such desperate rage, grinds into powder 
 the arm and sinews of ail earthly succour, melts, like dew 
 before the sun, all those delights and pleasures which the 
 
64 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 whole world offers or affords to comfort in such a case ; iti 
 a word, makes a man so extremely miserable, that he would 
 make away with himself, wishes with unspeakable grief 
 that he had never been, that he might return into the 
 abhorred state of annihilation, that he were any other crea- 
 ture, that he might lie hid world without end under some 
 everlasting rock from the face of God ; nay, that he were 
 ratlier in hell than in his present horror ; — 1 say, it being 
 thus, what unquencliable wrath, what streams of brimstone, 
 what restless anguish, what gnashing of teeth, what gnaw- 
 ing of conscience, what despairful roarings, what horrible 
 torments, what fiery hells feeding upon his soul and flesh 
 for ever, may every impenitent wretch expect, when tlie 
 whole black and bloody catalogue oi' all his sins shall be 
 marshalled and mustered up together at once against him l 
 every one being sharpened with as much torturing fury as 
 the infinite anger of Almighty God can put into it, after 
 that he hath accursedly with much incorrigible stubborn- 
 ness outstood the day of his gracious visitation under this 
 glorious sunshine of the gospel, wherein he either hath, or 
 if he had been as provident for his immortal soul as anxious 
 in caring for his rotten carcass might have enjoyed very 
 powerful means all his life long: and yet all the while 
 neglected so great salvation, foisook his own mercy, and so 
 .iudged himself unworthy of everlasting life ! 
 
 If a lesser sin many times press so heavy when the con- 
 science is enlightened, how will thy poor soul tremble under 
 the terrible and intolerable weight" of all thy sins together? 
 When all thy lies, all thy oaths, all thy filthy speeches and 
 railings, all thy mad passions and impure thoughts, all thy 
 good-fellow meetings, ale-house hauntings, and scoffings of 
 God's people, all the wrongs thou hast done, all the goods 
 thou hast got ill, all the time thou hast mispent; thy pro- 
 fanation of every sabbath, thy killing of Christ at every sa- 
 crament, thy non-proficiency at every sermon, thy igno- 
 rance, thy unbelief, thy worldliness, thy covetousness, thy 
 pride, thy malice, thy lust, thy lukewarmness, impatience, 
 discontentment, vain-glory, self-love, the innumerable 
 swarms of vain, idle, wandering, and wicked imaginations ; 
 in a word, all the pollutions, distempers, and estrangedness 
 froiri God in thine heart; all the villanies, vanities, and re- 
 bellions of thy whole life ; — I say, when all these shall be 
 charged upon thy graceless soul by the implacable indig- 
 nation of that highest Majesty, whose mercy, ministry, and 
 long-suffering thou hast shamefully abused ; whose anger, 
 patience, and pure eye thou hast villanously provoked all 
 thy life long, alas ! what wilt thou do then l What " wings 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 65 
 
 of the morning" will then carry thee out of the reach of 
 God's revenging hand? What cave shall receive thee? 
 What mountain canst thou get by entreaty to fall upon 
 thee? What darkest midnight or hellish dungeon shall 
 hide thee from that wrath which thou shalt be neither able 
 to abide nor to avoid 1 In this case I would not have thy 
 heart in my breast one hour, for the riches, glory, and plea- 
 sures of ten thousand worlds. 
 
 Neither bless thyself in the mean time because thou hast 
 neither fear, foretaste, nor feeling of the wrath which is to 
 come, tlie vengeance which hangs over thine head, and the 
 horror which follows thee at the heels, for that is the very 
 complement of thy misery and perfection of thy madness. 
 To be sick, and senseless of it, is the sorest sickness. To 
 have Satan pierce thy soul with so many sins one after 
 another and to I'eel no smart, is a most desperate security. 
 To have all this misery hanging over thee, and to be con- 
 fident and fearless, is the " misery of miseries." 
 
 The reasons why thou art at rest from their guilty rage 
 in the mean time, and that so many sleeping lions, I mean 
 ail thine unpardoned sins, do not yet awake and stir, terrify 
 and tear in pieces, are such as these : 
 
 1. Satan is subtle, so that he will not meddle much or 
 molest thee extremely, until he be able to do thee an irre- 
 coverable mischief. He is wont not to appear in his true 
 likeness, and so terribly ; not so much to disquiet and 
 trouble any of his own, before he have them at some dead 
 lift and desperate advantage, as under some extraordinary 
 cross, great disgrace, grievous sickness ; in time of some 
 deep melancholy, unavoidable danger, universal confusion, 
 when he conceives in all probability that they have outstood 
 the day of their visitation, hardened their hearts that they 
 cannot repent, received the sentence of death against them- 
 selves ; and at such other like times, when he hopes he 
 shall be able to crush and confound them suddenly, utterly, 
 and for ever. And then he appears the devil indeed, and 
 shows himself in his own colours. For he then infinitely 
 endeavours with all cunning and cruel industry, after he 
 hath wafted them awhile down the current of the times 
 with as much carnal peace and pleasure as he could pos- 
 sibly, to cast them upon the rock of a most dreadful ruin, 
 and swallow them up quick in the gulph of calamity and 
 woe, of despair, self-destruction, everlasting perdition of 
 body and soul. But you must know that in the mean time, 
 until he can espy such an opportunity, he labours might 
 and main to keep them in as merry a mood as may be. 
 He lays about him by all ways and means he can, devise to 
 
 G 3 
 
66 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 plot and provide for them, and that with great variety and 
 curiosity, fresh successions and supplies continually of plea- 
 sures, contentments, the countenance and favours of the 
 times, serisual satisfactions, all earthly prosperities. If he 
 can help it, and have h.'s will, they shall wallow still in all 
 worldly felicity, and be attended upon with all the delights 
 their hearts can desire. And all this to continue them 
 with more easiness and irresistance in the broad way ; and 
 lest otherwise they should grow weary of his slavery, sen- 
 sible of their gilded fetters, and so labour after liberty and 
 enlargement from his hellish bondage ; for he knows full 
 well, that if they endured much hardship in his service, 
 they might perhaps think of seeking after a new master ; 
 that want of comfort in the world, might draw their hearts 
 to delight in the word ; not finding happiness upon earth, 
 might make them inquire after that which is in heaven ; 
 that crosses and crossing their courses being sanctified for 
 that purpose, may haply help to break their heaits and 
 bring them to remorse for sin, which he mainly fears, and 
 opposeth with all the craft and power he can possibly, lest 
 thereupon they break out of his fool's paradise into the 
 garden of grace ; out of the warm sun into God's blessing. 
 
 In managing this main policy for the more secure detain- 
 ment of his vassals in the invisible chains of darkness and 
 damnation, and in an everlasting distaste and disaffection 
 to the good way ; by holding up their hearts in his sinful 
 service, and wooing them to go on quietly towards hell with- 
 out any grumbling, he works many ways : — 
 
 (1.) He plots all he can to procure them success in their 
 wicked enterprises and unlawful attempts, especially against 
 the faithful ministers and people of God ; for that doth in- 
 finitely confirm, harden, and encourage them in their pro- 
 fane courses and opposition to grace. Herein he doth many 
 times mightily prevail by improving the opportunities and 
 pressing the advantages which he gains by the executions 
 of God's justice and rebellions of his children. The sins 
 even of his own people do many times provoke God's just 
 indignation against them, and enforce him to raise up their 
 adversaries as scourges, and to give them success for the 
 humiliation and chastisement of his chosen. See Psalm 
 Ixxxi, 12 — 15; Isa. x, 5, 6 ; Ezek. xxii, 19, 20. Whereupon 
 Satan fills the hearts of the wicked so prevailing and con- 
 quering with a great deal of pride, self-applause, insolence, 
 contempt of godliness, self-conceitedness of their own right- 
 eousness and worth, and so hardens them extraordinarily, 
 and holds them with much obstinate resolution in the ways 
 of death, and prejudice against the holy path. He helps 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 67 
 
 all he can to have them thrive and prosper by oppression, 
 usury, simony, sacrilege, bribery, covetousness, cozening, 
 Machiavelian tricks, 6cc., that so his service may seern 
 more sweet and gainful unto them. To the effecting whereof 
 he receives notable assistance and special advantage from 
 the corruptions of the times and conscientious simplicity of 
 the saints. For the first, these worst and ulcerous times, 
 .wherein so many vines, olive trees, and fig trees wither 
 away in obscurity, and so many brambles brave it abroad 
 in the world, tumbling themselves in the pleasures, splen- 
 dour, and glory of the present; wherein so many brave 
 ''princes are walking as servants upon the earth;" and 
 too many servants of luxury and pride are mounted on 
 horseback ; 1 say, they are the only season for Satan to 
 gratify all his graceless ones, and to hoist them up by the 
 common but accursed stairs and stirrups of bribing, base- 
 ness, temporizing, ill offices to humour greatness, and other 
 such vile means and accommodations, into eminency in 
 the world, and high rooms, where he keeps them in a 
 golden captivity with great contentment, and locks them 
 full fast in the scorner's chair, with much security to their 
 own sensual hearts, and notorious service to himself. 
 Whereas, in deed and truth, to men that have eyes in their 
 heads, the ascent is slippery, the top shaking, the downfal 
 desperate. For the second, it is incredible to consider what 
 a deal of advantage in worldly dealings the covetous devil, 
 in a cruel and crafty worldling, doth suck out of the single- 
 heartedness, plain dealing, and unsuspiciousness of con- 
 scientious men, for their rising and enriching, if God cross 
 it not. 
 
 (2.) He draws them, by all the baits he can devise, to 
 all the incentives and preservatives of carnal contentment, 
 as to taverns, ale-houses, play-houses, brothels, gaming 
 houses, to May- games, morrice dances, to cards, to dice, 
 to dancing, to feasts, wakes, misrules, drinking matches, 
 revellings, and a world of such sinful haunts, bedlam fool- 
 eries, and good-fellow meetings, wherein he is mightily 
 furthered by wicked men's impatience of solitariness, and 
 their enraged eagerness of carrying with them to hell as 
 many as may be. For the first, " Though a good man," 
 as Solomon saith, " be satisfied from himself," dare full 
 well, and desires full often to be alone, because the bird of 
 the bosom sings sweetly to his soul in solitariness, yet all 
 the sons and daughters of pleasure have no pleasure at all, 
 nay ordinarily are most loth to be by themselves. Soli 
 tariness puts them in gloomy fear, makes them extremely 
 melancholy and weary of themselves. They would rather 
 be anywhere, in any company,^ any ways employed 
 
68 INSTRUCTIONS FOLl COMFORTING 
 
 than aione. Mistake me rot, they can walk by them- 
 selves ta feed upon contemplative filth, speculative wan- 
 tonness, and adulteries of the heart ; to plot revenge, 
 preferment, enlargement of their estate ; to renew upon 
 their sensual hearts their youthful pleasures ; but to be 
 alone purposely to deal with God and their own consciences 
 about their spiritual state they abhor, they cannot endure ; 
 it is to them a torture, a rack, the very beginning of hell j 
 and that is the reason, to decline the stings of guiltiness 
 and torment before their tim.e, why they have so often re- 
 course unto the arm cf flesh for refreshing, to the mirth and 
 madness of wine, pleasures, and many other fugitive follies ; 
 that they cast themselves into such knots of c ood-fellowship, 
 appoint so many set matches of jovial meetings, and hunt 
 after such variety of the times' entertainment (as they call 
 it), which they account the very life of their life, and with- 
 out which they would rather be underground than above 
 it. For the second, hear how swaggeringly they cry unto 
 their companions in iniquity, to make haste with them 
 towards hell. "Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, 
 let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause ; let us 
 swallow them up alive, as the grave, and whole, as those 
 that go down into the pit ; we shall find all precious sub- 
 stance, ue shall fill our houses with spoil. Cast in thy lot 
 among us, let us all have one purse." (Prov. i, 11 — 14.) 
 *' Come on, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are 
 present, and let us speedily use the creatures as in youth. 
 Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments, and 
 let no flower of the spring pass by us. Let us crown our- 
 selves with rose-buds belore they be withered. Let none 
 of us go without his part of our voluptuousness. Let us 
 leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place ; for this is 
 our portion, and our lot is this." And in all these cursed 
 conventicles of good-fellowship, and furious combinations 
 for profaneness and against piety, the devil himself is ever 
 present amongst them as their chief director ; and there 
 disposeth, inclines, manageth and accommodates all oppor- 
 tunities, circumstances, occurrents, men's several corrup- 
 tions, and pregnancy of tlieir wicked wits, to make their 
 n actings as merry as may be, and to put all possible sensual 
 sweetness into their carnal delights. 
 
 (3.) Lastly, that which is principally for my purpose, 
 besides that like acrafty juggler he casts a mist before the eyes 
 of his slaves, and like a false merchant puts a counterfeit gloss 
 upon the face of sin, he also hides away the sting from them, 
 and withholds the horror until afterward. Every sin in its 
 own nature ever looks fouler than the devil himself. Oh 
 that the ugly, fearful, and filthy shape of it could be seen 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 69 
 
 with bodily eyes, that thereby it might provoke all men to 
 a mortal and immortal hate and detestation of it ! The 
 sting is pointed with the keen unquenchable wrath of God ; 
 the horror is heated with the very fire of hell ; and yet 
 ordinarily Satan takes care by his craft and industry that 
 these never appear, until he thinks that in all probability 
 the sight of them will sink their souls into irrecoverable 
 woe. 
 
 The not feeling then of their spiritual misery is so far 
 from making thern not miserable, that it ministers occasion 
 to the devil's malice, mightily to aggravate their misery 
 both present and future. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Five other Reasons why a Sinner doth not always feel the Sting of Siu. 
 
 2. ANOTnEK reason why many are not troubled in a course 
 of sin, though there be infinite cause, and a world of woe to 
 come, is because their consciences, by reason of surfeit in 
 sin, and being drunk with worldly delights as with sweet 
 wine, are cast into a dead sleep, and there lulled still, and 
 locked fast in an imaginary paradise of golden dreams and 
 transitory fancies, by the charms and enchantments of 
 earthly pleasures. And if at any time any noise of terror 
 sound in tlieir ears from the Lord's trumpeters in the 
 ministry of the word, so that they begin to stir, then the 
 devil begins to bestir himself, and to rock them fast again 
 with his syren- songs in the cradle of security. Here, there- 
 fore, we may take notice of a fourfold conscience: (L) 
 That which is both good and quiet, when it hath peace with 
 God and with itself; so that the happy soul may sweetly 
 sing in its own bosom, " My beloved is mine and I am his." 
 (2.) That which is neither good nor quiet, when it lies for- 
 lorn under the sense of God's wrath and full of horror in 
 itself, as that of Judas, 6cc. (3.) That which is good but 
 not quiet, when the pleased face of God doth shine upon it 
 through the blood of Christ, and yet it feels not the comfort 
 of that blessed reconciliation, as in many new converts, 
 who being truly humbled for all sin, cast themselves upon 
 the Lord Jesus and his sure promises for spiritual and 
 eternal life, and yet are not as yet sensible of any assurance. 
 (4.) That which is quiet but not good, when it is as full of 
 sin as a toad of venom, as hell of darkness ; and all those 
 innumerable sins unrepented of, unpardoned, like so many 
 mad ban-dogs and fell mastiffs, though asleep for the 
 present, will in the evil day, especially of sickness, death. 
 
70 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 judgment, fly in the face of the proudest Nimrod, ready to 
 pluck out his very heait, and to torment him with unspeak- 
 able horror ; and yet for all this it is untroubled, senseless, 
 and secure, i his kind ot conscience is to be found, I fear, 
 in the most that hear me this day, and so generally over 
 the kingdom. It doth not yet trouble and terrify,— 
 
 [l.J A great number, by reason of their ignorance in the 
 book of God, and by consequent unacquaintedness with 
 the sinfulness and cursedness of the spiritual state revealed 
 thereby, ihis is the very case of a world of poor ignorant, 
 besotted souls amongst us, more is the pity, especially nowr 
 when the glorious sun of Christ's gospel shines so fair and 
 fully in many places. For want of light in God's law they 
 look upon their sins as we do upon the stars in a cloudy 
 night, see only the great ones of the hrst magnitude, and 
 here one -and there one. But if they were further en- 
 lightened and intornied aright, they might behold them as 
 those infinite orbs in the fairest frosty winter's midnight. 
 A worthy divine sets out excellently the quietness of this ig- 
 norant conscience by a very fit resemblance, thus: " Men 
 judge of their ignorant consciences," saith he, '* as they do 
 of their blind, dumb, and ignorant ministers. Such neither 
 do nor can preach, can neither tell men of their sins nor of 
 their duties. Ask such a blind-guide's people what their 
 opinion is of him, and what kind of man their minister is, 
 and you shall have him magnified for a passing honest, harm- 
 less man ; wondrous quiet among his neighbours. They 
 may do what they will for him, he is none of those trouble- 
 some I'ellows that will he reproving their faults or complain- 
 ing of their disorders in the pulpit. Oh, such an one is a 
 quiet good man indeed! Thus judge many of their con- 
 sciences. 1( their consciences be quiet and lie not grating 
 upon them, and telling them that their courses are sinful 
 and damnable, and that their persons are in a dangerous 
 condition: but rather by their silence, ignorance, and vain 
 pretences do justify them, and tell them all will be well 
 enough ; oh, then what excellent consciences have these 
 men ! They make no conscience of family duties ; once in 
 the year to come to the sacrament serves their turn ; they 
 are common swearers in their ordinary communication ; 
 make no conscience of sanctifying sabbaths ; and their 
 consciences let them alone in all these, do not give them 
 one syllable of ill language. Oh, what gentle and good- 
 natured consciences think these men they have ! But, alas I 
 what evil consciences have they ! " 
 
 [2.] Nor others, by reason of a covenant with death and 
 an agreement with hell. Such as those, Isa. xxviii, 15, who 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 71 
 
 negotiate by their plausible agents, ease, pleasures, prospe- 
 rity ; and conclude some kind of concord and composition 
 for a time with Satan, sin, and their own consciences. But 
 to tell you the truth, it is no true peace, but a politic truce. 
 For these implacable, desperate spiritual enemies of theirs 
 are ever in tiie mean time preparing arms, ordnance, and 
 many fiery darts • still levying of fresh force^;, whole armies 
 of fiery scorpions and flaming terrors, with which as soon as 
 the truce is ended they will set upon them with more vio- 
 lence, fury, and fierceness than ever before. 
 
 [3.J Nor others, by reason of an insensible hardness grown 
 over, and a desperate searedness impressed upon their con- 
 sciences by extraordinary villany and variety in sin. Such 
 as those, Isa. v, 18, by " drawing iniquity a long time with 
 cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope ; " by 
 waving the glorious light of the word under which they sit 
 and which shines in their faces, as a " foolish thing ; " by 
 villanousiy trampling under foot the power of it v.ith des- 
 pite and scorn many times against that light, which stands 
 in their consciences like an armed man ; nay, and by tread- 
 ing out through custom in sin the very notions that nature 
 hath engraven in their hearts, as men do the engravings of 
 tomb-stones which they walk upon with foul shoes : 1 say 
 thus, at length, their con^,ciences become so utterly re- 
 morseless and past all feeling ; so hardened, so seared, so 
 sealed up with a reprobate sense, that with an audacious 
 and giantlike insoleacy they challenge even God Almighty 
 himself to draw his swoid of vengeance against them. 
 " Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, 
 and sin as it were with a cart rope : that say, Let him make 
 speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it : and let 
 the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, 
 that we may know it ! " These roarers and swaggering 
 Belials in this respect have consciences worse than the devil 
 himself j for he "believes and trembles." Eve i those 
 already desperate and damned spirits, tremble at the fore- 
 thought of that fuller wrath which is to come, and yet 
 further deserved damnation. 
 
 [4.] Noi- others, who, when it begins ever and anon to 
 grumble, mutter, and make a noise, lull it asleep again with 
 songs of pleasure, and still the cries of it with outward 
 mirth, as Saul was wont to lay the evil spirit with music. 
 These men's consciences are quiet, not because they are 
 savingly appeased ; but because they are sensually pleased : 
 not because they want matter to trouble and terrify ; but 
 because they will give them no leisure to set their sins in 
 order before them. For this purpose, and to keep these 
 
72 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 furious mastiffs muzzled for the present, they have recourse 
 unto and improve both variety of delights and multiplicity 
 of employments. For the first: "This is the reason," as 
 one saith wittily, " that many are so eager in the pursuit 
 of their pleasures, because they would make God's sergeant, 
 their own conscience, that pursues thera, drunk with these 
 pleasures ; just as many men use to do, getting the sergeant 
 that comes to arrest them into the tavern, and there making 
 him drunk that so they may escape." For the second. How 
 was it possible that Ahithophel should hold out so long from 
 hanging himself and horrible confusion of spirit, especially 
 since he harboured in his bosom such a false, rotten, abomi- 
 nable heart, as appeared by that villanous counsel he gave 
 Absalom, to lie with his father's concubines " in the sight of 
 all Israel ; " except he had been a counsellor of state, and 
 so necessarily taken up continually with extraordinary 
 variety, vicissitude, and succession of most weighty and 
 important affairs, which would wholly possess his mind 
 with an uninterrupted attention, agitation, and exercise, 
 and not give it any leave to reflect upon itself with those 
 severer cogitations in cold blood which are wont to correct 
 and condemn the enormity of exorbitant courses 1 And 
 thus in all ages, many great men of great wisdom, bemg 
 great offenders, purposely put and plunge themselves into 
 multitude of business, that they may have no leisure to 
 listen unto that which their consciences would secretly tel) 
 them in their ear of their JNIachiavelian plots, prodigious 
 lusts, and plausible cruelties. The noise of attendants, vi- 
 sitants, dependents, and great employments, drown the voice 
 of conscience in such cases, as the drums in the sacrifices 
 to Moloch drowned the cry of the infants. But while the 
 men of the world are thus wholly detained, and do so 
 greedily and purposely pass away the time with cares of tliis 
 life and dealings in the v/orld, their consciences deal with 
 them as creditors with their debtors ; while they have any 
 doings, and are in trading, in policy they let them alone 
 and say nothing ; but if once down the wind, in sickness, 
 poverty, disgrace, then conies sergeant after sergeant, arrest 
 upon arrest, action upon action. All their sins are set in 
 order before them and fall full foul upon the now di>tressed 
 soul, as ravens upon the fallen sheep to pick out the very 
 eyes and heart of il, and to keep it down in the dungeon of 
 despair for ever. 
 
 [5.J Nor others, because they cozen themselves with a 
 formal false conceit of a comfortable spiritual state, as did 
 the pharisee, Luke xv, 11 ; with a groundless presumption 
 that they are in God's favour, as did those, Matt, vii, 22 ; 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 73 
 
 and the five foolish virgins, Matt, xxv ; when, as God knows, 
 they are mere strangers to the mystery of Christ, and far 
 enough from any sound humiliation. 
 
 Thus the blindness, security, searedness, slumber, self- 
 deceit, or some other such distemper of the conscience, 
 conceals and keeps in the stings of those sins in sensual 
 men, which, witiiout turning unto the Lord in truth, "while 
 it is called to-day," will hereafter torment with intolerable 
 and restless terror through all eternity. 
 
 3. A third reason why thy unlamented and unpardoned 
 sins, though every one of them be armed with a separate 
 fiery sting, and of their own nature so heavy with horror 
 that they are able to sink thee into the bottom of hell, do 
 not as yet stir nor press upon thy soul with the insupport- 
 able weight of Divine vengeance, is this: they are in their 
 native soil, where tliey were born, bred, and brought up in 
 their own element ; i mean in a carnal heart, soaking iu 
 sensuality and not resolved to be reformed. We say in 
 philosophy, an element is not heavy in its own place. One 
 bucket full of water upon the earth would be burthensome 
 to the back of that man, who, weie he in the bottom of the 
 sea, would feel no weight at all from all the water there, 
 though it weie three miles high over his head. A sensual 
 heart, settled upon its lees, can bear without sense or com- 
 plaint a world of wickedness, which out of its element and 
 humour would be crushed into powder, and tiemble with 
 horror upon the sad apprehension of the least sin, especially 
 set out by God's just indisnation. While Belshazzar was 
 in_ his element, revelling and rioting amongst his lords, his 
 wives, and his concubines, drinking wine swaggeringly and 
 contemptuously in the golden and silver vessels of the 
 temple, he felt no touch in point of conscience, or terror at 
 all : but, put out of his humour by " the hand writing 
 upon the plaister of the wall, his countenance was presently 
 changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints 
 of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against 
 another." 
 
 4. The never-dying worm that naturally breeds and grows 
 big in every unregenerale conscience, which beats back 
 still the searching power of the word and secret warnings of 
 the Spirit, is like a wolf in the foot; feed it continually 
 with fresh supply of raw flesh, and it will let the body 
 alone; but withdraw that, and it devours upward. While 
 the sons and daughters of pleasure, and ail those who have 
 their portion and paradise in this lite, stop the mouth of 
 this hellish worm with variety of carnal delights, they do 
 well enough, and find somewhat of ease and exemption for 
 
 H 
 
74 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 a time from the rage and bitings thereof: but they may 
 assure themselves, in evil times, when the days are come 
 upon them wherein there is no pleasure, when the play is 
 done, when all worldly comforts and comforteis, like run- 
 away servants and drunken serving men, are to seek when 
 they have most use and need of them, — I say, that then the 
 time and turn is come that the worm of conscience, desti- 
 tute now for ever of any further satisfaction from sensual 
 sweetness, will ragingly turn upon the soul, devour like a 
 lion, gnaw like a vulture, vex eternally. 
 
 5. If the weight of the whole world were now laid upon 
 any of these bodies here lately buried, it would not stir or 
 groan. And why ! Because it is naturally dead. Propor- 
 tionably, though the burthen of sin, far heavier than a moun- 
 tain of lead, than this mighty and massive earth under our 
 feet, lies upon every impenitent soul, ready every hour to 
 press and plunge it into the lowest pit; yet, wretched and 
 bewitched thing, it neither feels any smart, nor fears any 
 hurt ; it is neither sensible of the present weight, nor 
 troubled for future wrath. And what is the reason ? It is 
 spiritually dead : it is stark " dead in trespasses and sins." 
 The strong man is gone away with all ; and there is no 
 stirring nor sense of this cursed burthen, until either a 
 "stronger than he" lay harids upon this hellish tyrant, 
 disarm him and throw down his holds ; and a mightier voice 
 of the Son of God than that which made Lazarus come out 
 of the grave, put lil'e into it ; or else that the dreadful 
 thunder of God's fierce and final wrath, the day of visita- 
 tion being expired, awake it to everlasting woe. 
 
 6. Though in the mean time thou be extremely misera- 
 ble, and if thou diest in thine impenitent state this day, 
 thou must most certainly lodge this night in the lake of fire 
 and brimstone among the damned ; yet thy sins for the pre- 
 sent do not represent to the eye of thy conscience those 
 forms of foulness and terror, of which they are naturally 
 full, and which without timely repentance thou wilt here- 
 after find and feel in them to thine endless grief; because 
 thou lookest upon them in the false glass of vain-glory, 
 ignorance, self-love, self-conceitedness, painted over by 
 the devil's daubing, with lewd enticing colours of pleasure, 
 profit, preferment, worldly applause, and other such goodly 
 and golden outsides. Whereas a true and efli'ectual beholding 
 them in the clear crystal of God's pure law, hunted con- 
 tinually at the heels with Divine vengeance, all the curses 
 in this book, and plagues innumerable, internal, external, 
 eternal, and in the bitter passion of Jesus Christ, without 
 whose heart's blood not the least sin that ever was com- 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 75 
 
 mitted could ever have been remitted, were able to fright a 
 very blackmoor out of his black skin, and a leopard from 
 his spots (Jer. xiii, 23). And thou something easest thine 
 heart also against the terror of the Lord for thy sins, by 
 looking upon God's mercy with false spectacles, and so en- 
 larging it beyond the limits of his truth. But hear what 
 an excellent discoverer of the depths of our self-cozening 
 hearts tells thee in such a case : "Asa man passing over a 
 bridge, which his false spectacles make to seem broader 
 than indeed it is, being thereby deceived, goes beside the 
 bridge and so is drowned ; so is it with those whose de- 
 ceitful hearts make the bridge of God's mercy larger than 
 it is ; they are in danger of falling beside it into the waters 
 of eternal destruction. For though God's mercy be of the 
 largest extent, yet it is bounded with his truth ; and there- 
 fore usually in the scriptures we find these two coupled to- 
 gether, God's mercy and his truth." Now his truth tells 
 us, that the good tidings of the gospel belong only to the 
 poor, to the broken-hearted, to the captives, to the blind, 
 to the bruised (Luke iv, 18) ; that he only, who " confesseth 
 and forsaketh his sins, shall have mercy " (Prov. xxviii, 13) ; 
 that " except we repent we shall all perish" (Luke xiii, 3) ; 
 that " except we be born again we cannot see the king- 
 dom of God" (John iii, 3) ; that "God will wound 
 the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such 
 a one as goeth on still in his trespasses" (Psalm Ixviii, 
 21); that "if we regard iniquity in our hearts the Lord 
 will not hear us" (Psalm Ixvi, 18) : that " no fornicator, 
 nor idolater, nor adulterer, nor effeminate, nor abuser 
 of himself with mankind, nor thief, nor covetous man, nor 
 drunkard, nor reviler, nor extortioner, shall inherit the 
 kingdom of God" (1 Cor. vi, 9, 10) ; that "without holi- 
 ness no man shall see the Lord" (Heb.xii, 14) ; that "every 
 one that calleth on the name of Christ savingly must depart 
 from iniquity" (2 Tim. ii, 19). Compare now these and the 
 like places with thine heart, life, and present impenitent 
 state, and tell me in cool blood and impartially, whether 
 any mercy at all as yet belongs unto thee upon good ground, 
 yet lying in thy sins. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 The second use of the former Doctrine for the Converted, that they sin 
 no more; and to keep them from sin, Seven Considerations are given 
 Ihem. 
 ly theT second place, the point may serve for warning to 
 those who are already washed from their sins, that they 
 defile their souls no more, who having been cured by cast- 
 
78 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 Yet those few enlightened souls whose eyes have been hap- 
 pily opened by spiritual eye-salve to " turn from darkness 
 to light, and from the power of Satan unto God," behold a 
 double deformity and ugliness in so foul a monster, deceii- 
 fully dressed in the devil's counterfeit colours, and gilded 
 over garishly in his personated angelical glory. 
 
 3. it is most filihy : far filthier than the most offensive 
 collection of all the most filthy, fulsome, and loathsome 
 things in the world. And it must needs be so ; for what- 
 ever a man can conceive to be most contrary, distant, and 
 opposite to the infinite clearness, purity, sweetness, beauty, 
 and goodness of God ; all that and much more is sin in the 
 highest degree. Hence it is, that in the scriptures it is 
 compared to the filthiest mire, in which a sow will lie down 
 to cool and cover herself ; to the loathsome vomit, not of a 
 man, but of a dog (2 Pet. ii, 22) ; to the unsavoury poison- 
 ous damp which rotten carcasses exhale out of opened 
 graves ( Horn, iii, 13); to menstruous filth (Ezek. xxxvi, 17) ; 
 to the dirt under the nails, or the offensive exudations of the 
 body, or the putrified matter of some pestilent ulcer ; to the 
 very refuse which nature having severed from the purer 
 part of the meat, thrusts out of the stomach and casts into 
 the draught ; to the filthiness, pollutions, and impurities of 
 I he world, so called by a singularity, for sin is the tran- 
 scendent filth of the woild (2 Pet. ii,20); to all the un- 
 cleannesses for which the purifications, cleansings, washings, 
 and sprinklings were appointed in the Levitical law ; to 
 abomination itself ( Ezek. xxii, 2). Nay, and yet further, 
 which makes for the further detestation of sin, whereas all 
 outward filth defiles only the body, this of sin, by the 
 strength and contagion of its insinuating poison, soaks 
 through the flesh and the bone, and enters and eats into 
 the very "mind and conscience" (Tit. i, 16), defiles the 
 pure and immortal soul of man. IIov/ long might we cast 
 dirt into the air before we were able to infect the bright 
 shining beams of the sun ! Yet so filthy is sin, that at 
 once with a touch it infects the soul, a clearer and purer 
 essence than it, and that with such a crimson and double- 
 dyed stain, that the flood of Noah, when all the world was 
 water, could not wash it off. Neither at that last and dread- 
 ful day, when this great universe shall be turned into a ball 
 of fire for the purifying and renewing of the heaven and the 
 earth, yet shall it have no power to purge or cleanse the 
 lea^t sin out of the impenitent soul ; nay, the fire of hell, 
 which burns night and day even through all eternity, shall 
 never be able to raze it out. 
 4. It is most infectious, spits venom on all sides far and 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 79 
 
 wide ; corrupts every thing it comes near. By reason 
 whereof it is fitly resembled to leaven (Matt, xvi, 12; 
 1 Cor. V, G); to a canker (2 Tim, ii, 17); tothe leprosy, which 
 filthy disease quickly overspreads the whole body (Numb, 
 xii, 10), infects the clothes, the very walls of the house 
 (Levit. xiv, 37), and their posterity (2 Kings v, 27). The 
 first sin that ever the sun saw was so pregnant with soul- 
 killing poison, that It hath polluted all the sons and daughters 
 of Adam that were ever since, and will still by the irre- 
 sistible strength of the same contagion poison all their na- 
 tures to the world's end. Nay, at the very first breaking 
 out it suddenly blasted, as it were, both heaven and earth, 
 and so stained the beauty of the one, the brightness of the 
 other, and the original orient newly burnished glory of the 
 whole creation, that from that hour it hath groaned under 
 the burtheij of that vanity and deformity to which this first 
 sin hath made it subject ; and will travail in pain under 
 the bondage of the same corruption (Rom. viii, 19 — 22), 
 until it be purged bv fire in the great day of the Lord 
 (2 Pet. iii, 10, 11). if but one sin be doated upon delight- 
 fully and impenitently, like a lump of leaven it sours all 
 the soul ; defiles the whole man, and every thing that pro- 
 ceeds from him ; his thoughts, desires, afliections, words, 
 actions, and that of all sorts, natural, civil, recreative, 
 religious. It doth not only unhallow his meat, drink, 
 carriage ; his buying, selling, giving, lending, and all 
 his other dealings in the world, even his ploughing, "the 
 ploughing of the wicked is sin" (Prov. xxi, 4) ; but also 
 turns all his spiritual services and holiest duties, his 
 prayer, hearing, reading, receiving the sacrament, i^c. into 
 abomination. If but one raging corruption in a minister, 
 magistrate, master of a family (as lying, swearing, filthy 
 talking, scoffing at religion, opposition to godliness, sabbath- 
 breaking, a humour of good-fellowship, or the like) repre- 
 sent itself to the eye of the world in his ordinary carriage, 
 and hang out as a rotten fiuit in the sight of the sun, it is 
 wont fearfully to infect or offend by a contagious insinua- 
 tion and ill example all about hira ; to difl^use its venom to 
 his family, amongst his sons and servants, over the parish 
 where he lives, all companies where he comes, yea, the 
 whole country round about, especially if he be a man of 
 eminence and place. 
 
 5. It is extremely evil*. A far greater evil than the eternal 
 damnation of a man ; for when he hath laid maiiy millions 
 of years in the lake of fire and under the dominion of the 
 
 * I luiderstaiid evil in a general sense, and not as restrained unto, 
 or resident in any species. 
 
78 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 Yet those few enlightened souls whose eyes have been hap- 
 pily opened by spiritual eye-salve to " turn from darkness 
 to light, and from the power of Satan unto God," behold a 
 double deformity and ugliness in so foul a monster, deceit- 
 fully dressed in the devil's counterfeit colours, and gilded 
 over garishly in his personated angelical glory. 
 
 3. It is most filthy : far filthier than the most offensive 
 collection of all the most filthy, fulsome, and loathsome 
 things in the world. And it must needs be so ; for what- 
 ever a man can conceive to be most contrary, distant, and 
 opposite to the infinite clearness, purity, sweetness, beauty, 
 and goodness of God ; all that and much more is sin in the 
 highest degree. Hence it is, that in the scriptures it is 
 compared to the filthiest mire, in which a sow will lie down 
 to cool and cover herself ; to the loathsome vomit, not of a 
 man, but of a dog (2 Pet. ii, 22) ; to the unsavoury poison- 
 ous damp which rotten carcasses exhale out of opened 
 graves ( Kom. iii, 13) ; tomenstruousfilth (Ezek. xxxvi, 17) ; 
 to the dirt under the nails, or the offensive exudations of the 
 body, or the putrified matter of some pestilent ulcer ; to the 
 very refuse which nature having severed from the purer 
 part of the meat, thrusts out of the stomach and casts into 
 the draught ; to the filthiness, ptdlutions, and impurities of 
 the world, so called by a singularity, for sin is the tran- 
 scendent filth of the woild (2 Pet. ii, 20); to all the un- 
 cleannesses for which the purifications, cleansings, washings, 
 and sprinklings were appointed in the Levitical law ; to 
 abomination itself ( Ezek. xxii, 2). Nay, and yet further, 
 which makes for the further detestation of sin, whereas all 
 outward filth defiles only the body, this of sin, by the 
 strength and contagion of its insinuating poison, soaks 
 through the flesh and the bone, and enters and eats into 
 the very "mind and conscience" (Tit. i, 16), defiles the 
 pure and immortal soul of man. Hov/ long might we cast 
 dirt into the air before we were able to infect the bright 
 shining beams of the sun ! Yet so filthy is sin, that at 
 once with a touch it infects the soul, a clearer and purer 
 essence than it, and that with such a crimson and double- 
 dyed stain, that the flood of Noah, when all the world was 
 water, could not wash it oft'. Neither at that last and dread- 
 ful day, when this great universe shall be turned into a ball 
 of fire for the purifying and lenewing of the heaven and the 
 earth, yet shall it have no power to purge or cleanse the 
 iea'^t sin out of the impenitent soul ; nay, the fire of hell, 
 which burns night and day even through all eternity, shall 
 never be able to raze it out. 
 
 4. It is most infectious, spits venom on all sides far and 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 79 
 
 wide ; corrupts every thing it comes near. By reason 
 wliereof it is fitly resembled to leaven (Matt, xvi, 12; 
 1 Cor. v, G); to a canker (2 Tim, ii, 17); to the leprosy, v/hich 
 filthy disease quickly overspreads the whole body (jSumb. 
 xii, 10), infects the clothes, the very walls of the house 
 (Levit. xiv, 37), and their posterity (2 Kings v, 27). The 
 first sin that ever the sun saw was so pregnant with soul- 
 kiliing poison, that it hath polluted all the sons and daughters 
 of Adam that were ever since, and will still by the irre- 
 sistible strength of the same contagion poison all their na- 
 tures to the world's end. Nay, at the very first breaking 
 out it suddenly blasted, as it were, both heaven and earth, 
 and so stained the beauty of the one, the brightness of the 
 other, and the original orient newly burnished glory of the 
 whole creation, that from that hour it hath groaned under 
 the burtheij of that vanity and deformity to vvhich this first 
 sin hath made it subject ; and will travail in pain under 
 the bondage of the same corruption (Kom. viii, 19 — 22), 
 until it be purged by fire in the great day of the Lord 
 (2 Pet. iii, 10, 11). if but one sin be doated upon delight- 
 fully and impenitently, like a lump of leaven it sours all 
 the soul ; defiles the whole man, and every thing that pro- 
 ceeds from him ; his thoughts, desires, affections, words, 
 actions, and that of all sorts, natural, civil, recreative, 
 religious. It doth not only unhallow his meat, drink, 
 carriage ; his buying, selling, giving, lending, and all 
 his other dealings in the world, even his ploughing, "the 
 ploughing of the wicked is sin" (Prov. xxi, 4) ; but also 
 turns all his spiritual services and holiest duties, his 
 prayer, hearing, reading, receiving the sacrament, &c. into 
 abomination. If but one raging corruption in a minister, 
 magistrate, master of a family (as lying, swearing, filthy 
 talking, scofHng at religion, opposition to godliness, sabbath- 
 breaking, a humour of good-fellowship, or the like) repre- 
 sent itself to the eye of the world in his ordinary carriage, 
 and hang out as a rotten fiuit in the sight of the sun, it is 
 wont fearfully to infect or offend by a contagious insinua- 
 tion and ill example all about him ; to difl^use its venom to 
 his family, amongst his sons and servants, over the parish 
 where he lives, all companies where he comes, yea, the 
 whole country round about, especially if he be a man of 
 eminence and place. 
 
 5. It is extremely evil*. A far greater evil than the eternal 
 danmation of a man ; for when he hath laid many millions 
 of years in the lake of fire and under the dominion of the 
 
 * I miderstaiid evil in a geiieial sen^e, and not as restrained unto, 
 or resident ia any species. 
 
80 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 second death, he is never the nearer to satisfaction for sin. 
 Not all those hellish flames through all eternity can possibly 
 expiate the stain or extinguish the sting of the least sin : 
 nay, the very destruction of all the creatures in the world, 
 of men and angels, heaven and earth, is a great deal less ill 
 than to offend (Jod with the least transgression of his laws. 
 For all the creatures of ten thousand worlds, were they all 
 extant, come infinitely short in excellency of worth of the 
 heart's blood of Jesus Christ ; and yet without the effusion 
 of it, no sin could ever have been pardoned, nor any soul 
 saved. A man would think it a lesser evil to tell a lie than 
 to lie in hell ; but hear Chrysostom : "Although many think 
 hell to be the supreme and sorest of all evils, yet I think 
 thus, and thus will I daily preach, that it is far more bitter 
 and more grievous to offend Christ than to be tormented 
 with the pains of hell. 
 
 6. It is full of most fearful effects. 
 
 First; it deprives every impenitent (1.) Of the favour 
 and love of God, the only fountain of all comfort, peace, 
 and happiness, which is incomparably the most invaluable 
 loss that can be imagined. (2.) Of his portion in Christ's 
 blood, of which though the drops, weight, and quantity be 
 numbered, finite, and measurable, yet the person that shed 
 it hatb stamped upon it such height of price, excellency of 
 merit, invaluableness of worth, that he hnd infinitely better 
 have his portion in that sweetest well-spring of life and im- 
 mortality, than enjoy the riches, pleasures, and glory of 
 the whole world everlastingly ; for a bitter-sweet taste of 
 which for an inch of time, he villanously trampleth under 
 foot, as it were, that blessed blood, by wilfully cleaving to 
 his own ways, and furiously following the swing of his own 
 sensual heart, even against the check and contradiction of 
 his grumbling conscience. (3.) Of the most blissful pre- 
 sence, freedom, and communication of the Holy Ghost, and 
 all those divine illuminations, spiritual feastings, sudden 
 and secret glimpses and glances of heavenly light, sweeter 
 than sweetness itself, wherewith that good Spirit is wont to 
 visit and refresh the humbled hearts of holy men. (4.) 
 Of the fatherly providence and protection of the blessed 
 Trinity, the glorious guards of angels, the comfortable com- 
 munion with the people of God, and all the happy con- 
 sequents of safety, deliverance, and delight that flov/eth 
 thence. (5.) Of the unknown pleasures of an appeased 
 conscience, a jewel of dearest price, to which all human 
 glory is but dust in the balance. Not the most exquisite 
 extraction of all manner of music, vocal or instrumental, 
 can possibly convey so delicious a touch and taste to the 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. ' 81 
 
 outward ear of a man as the sound and sense of acertiiicate 
 brought from the throne of mercy by the blessed Spirit, 
 sealed with Christ's blood, to the ear of the soul, even amidst 
 the most desperate confusions in the evil day, when comfort 
 will be worth a world, and a good conscience more valuable 
 than ten thousand earthly crowns. (6.) Of all true con- 
 tentment in this life ; of all Christian right and religious 
 interest to any of the creatures. For never was any sound 
 joy or sanct hed enjoynieni of any thing in the world found 
 in that man's heart which gives allowance to any lust, or 
 lies delightfully in any sin. (7.) Of an immortal crown, 
 the unsp^^akable joys of heaven, that immeasurable and 
 endless comfort wliich there shall be fully and for ever en- 
 joyed with all the children of God, patriarchs, prophets, 
 apostles, martyrs. Christian friends, yea, with the Lord him- 
 self, and all his angels ; with Christ our Saviour, that Lamb 
 slain for us, the Piince of glory, the glory of heaven and 
 earth, the brightness of the everlasting light ; in a word, of 
 all those inexplicable, nay, inconceivable excellences, plea- 
 sures, perfections, felicities, sweetnesses, beauties, glories, 
 eternities above. 
 
 Secondly. It doth every hour expose him to all those evils 
 which a man destitute of divine grace may commit, and, 
 unprotected from above, endure. It brings all plagues, 
 (1.) Internal . blindness of mind, hardness of heart, deadness 
 of affection, searedness of conscience, a reprobate sense, 
 strong delusions, the spirit of slumber, slavery to lust, es- 
 trangedness from God, bondage under the devil, desperate 
 thoughts, horror of heart, confusion of spirit, <i«:c. and spiritual 
 mischiefs in this kind more and more dreadful than either 
 tongue can tell or heart can think ; the least of which is 
 far worse than the plagues of Egypt. (2.) External. See 
 Deut. xxviii, 15. (3.) Eternal. See my sermon on the Four 
 Last Things. 
 
 Thirdly. By its pestilent damning property and poison, it 
 turns heaven into hell, angels into devils, life into death, 
 light into darkness, sight into blindness, faith into distrust, 
 hope into despair, love into hate, humility into pride, mercy 
 into cruelty, security into fear, liberty into bondage, health 
 into sickness, plenty into scarceness, a garden ot Eden into 
 a desolate wilderness, a fruitful land into barrenness, peace 
 into war, quietness into contention, obedience into rebellion, 
 order into confusion, virtues into vices, blessings into curses ; 
 in a word, all kind of temporal and eternal felicities and 
 bliss, into all kinds of miseiies and woe. 
 
 7; What heart, except it be all adamant and turned into a 
 rock of flint, but possessing itself with feeling thoughts, and 
 
82 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 a sensible apprehension of the incomprehensible greatness, 
 excellency, and dreadfulness of the mighty Lord of heaven 
 and earth, would not tremble and be strangely confounded 
 to transgress and break any one branch of his blessed laws, 
 especially purposely and with pleasure, or to sin against 
 him willingly but in the least ungodly thought ? For, alas ! 
 who art thou that liftest up thy proud heart, or whettest thy 
 profane tongue, or bendest thy rebellious course against such 
 a majesty ? Thou art the vilest wretch that ever God made, 
 next to the devil and his damned angels ; a base and an un- 
 worthy worm of the earth, not worthy to lick the dust that 
 lieth under his feet : a most weak and frail creature, earth, 
 ashes, or any thing that is nought, the dream of a shadow, 
 the very picture of change, worse than vanity, less than 
 nothing : who, when thy breath is gone, which may fall out 
 many times in a moment, thou turnest into dust, nay, rotten- 
 ness and filth much more loathsome than the dung of the 
 earth, and all thy thoughts perish. But now, on the other 
 side, if thou cast thine eyes seriously and with intention 
 upon that thrice glorious and highest Majesty, the eyes of 
 whose glory thou so provokest with thy filth and folly, thou 
 mayest most justly upon the commission of every sin cry out 
 with the prophet, "O heavens be astonished at this, be 
 afraid and utterly confounded ! " Nay, thou niightest 
 marvel, and it is God's unspeakable mercy, that the whole 
 frame of heaven and earth is not for one sin fearfully and 
 finally dissolved and brought to nought! For he against 
 vyhomthou sinnesf inhabiteth eternity, and unapproachable 
 light. The heaven is his throne and the earth his footstool ; 
 he is the everlasting God, mighty and terrible, the Creator 
 of the ends of the earth," &c. The infinite splendor of his 
 glory and majesty so dazzles the eyes of the most glorious 
 serapliim, that they are glad to adore him with covered faces 
 (Isaiah vi). The devil and all the damned spirits, those 
 stubborn fiends, tremble at the terror of his countenance. 
 " All the nations before him are but as the drop of a bucket, 
 but as the small dust of the balance;" nay "they are no- 
 thing to him," saith the prophet, "yea less than nothing." 
 " He sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants 
 thereof are as grasshoppers : the judges, and princes, when 
 he blows upon them are but as stubble before the whirlwind : 
 and he taketh up the isles as a very little thing" (Isa. xl). 
 At his rebuke the pillars of heaven do shake ; the earth 
 trembleth, and the foundations of the hills are moved 
 (Psalm xviii, 7); his presence melts the mountains 
 (Nahum i, 5) ; his voice tears the rocks in pieces •, the blast 
 of the breath of his nostrils discovers the channels of waters, 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIEMCES. 83 
 
 and foundations of the world (Psalm xviii, 15) ; when lie is 
 angry, his arrows drink blood, his sword devours ilesh, and 
 the fire of his wrath burns unto the lowest hell (Deut. xxxii, 
 22, 42) ; the heaven is but his span ; the sea his handful 
 (Isa. xl, 12) ; the wings of the wind his walk ; his garments 
 are light (Psalm civ, 3, 2) ; his pavilion darkness (Psalm 
 xviii, 11) ; his way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, 
 and the clouds are the dust t)f his feet (Nahum i, 3). The 
 Lord of Hosts is his name (Jar. li, 19), whose power and 
 punishments are so infinitely irresistible, that he is able with 
 one word to turn all the creatures in the world into hell ; 
 nay, even with the breath of his mouth to turn heaven, and 
 hell, and earth, and all things into nothing. How darest thou 
 then, so base and vile a wretch, provoke so great a God 1 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Thirteen other Cou'^iderations to keep Men from Sin. 
 
 8. Let the consideration and compassion upon the immor- 
 tality and dearness of that precious soul that lies in thy 
 bosom, curb thy corruptions at the very first sight of sin, and 
 make thee step back as though thou wert ready to tread 
 upon a serpent. Not all the wicked men upon earth, nor all 
 the devils in hell, can possibly kill and extinguish the soul 
 of any man : it must needs live as long as God himself, and 
 run parallel with the longest line of eternity. Only sin 
 wounds mortally that immortal spirit, and brings it into that 
 cursed case, that it had infinitely better never have been, 
 than be for ever. For by this means, going on impenitently 
 to that last tribunal, it becomes "immortally mortal, and 
 mortally immortal," as one of the ancients speaks. "]t 
 lives to death, and dies to life ; " never in state of life or 
 death, yet ever in the pains of death and the perpetuity of 
 life ; its death is ever living and its end is ever in beginning ; 
 death without death ; end without end." Ever in the pangs 
 of death, and never dead ; not able to die, nor endure the 
 pain ; pain exceeding not only all patience, but all resist- 
 ance. No strength to sustain, nor ability to bear that, 
 which hereafter, whilst God is God, for ever must be borne. 
 What a prodigiously mad cruelty is it then for a man, by 
 listening to the syren songs of this false world, the lewd 
 motions of his own treacherous heart, or the devil's desperate 
 counsels, to embrue his hands in the blood of his own ever- 
 lasting soul, and to make it to die eternally ! For a little 
 paltry pleasure of some base and rotten lust, and fleeting 
 
84 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 vanity, which passeth away in the act, as tlie taste of pleasant 
 drink dieth in the drauijht, to bring upon it in the other 
 world torments without end and beyond all ct)mpass of 
 thought ! And his madness is the more ; because, besides its 
 im.moitality, his soul is incomparably more worth than the 
 whole world, i'he very sensitive soul of a little fly, saith 
 Austin traly, "is more excellent than the sun." How 
 ought we then to prize and preserve from sin our under- 
 standing, reasonable souls, which make us in that respect 
 like unto the angels of God ! 
 
 9. What a horrible thing is sin, whose weight an omni- 
 potent strength, which doth sustain the whole frame of the 
 world, is not able to bear ! Almighty God complains even 
 of the sacrifices and other services of his own people, when 
 they were performed with polluted hearts ; and professes 
 that "he was weary to bear them" (Isa. i, 14). And how 
 vile is it, that stirs up in the dearest and most compassionate 
 bowels of the all-merciful God such implacable anger ; that 
 threw down so many glorious angelical spirits, who might 
 have done him so high honour for ever in the highest hea- 
 vens, into the bottom of hell, there most justly to continue 
 devils, and in extremest torment everlastingly ! (Jast all 
 rnankind out uf his favour, and from all felicity, for Adam's 
 sin ! Caused him who delighteth in mercy (Micah vii, 18) 
 to create all the afflicting miseries in hell ; eternal flames, 
 streams of brimstone, chains of darkness, gnashing of teeth, 
 a lake of fire, the bottomless pit, and all those horr.ble tor- 
 ments there ! And that which doth argue, and yet further 
 amplify the impbcableness and depth ot J3ivine indignation, 
 the infiniteness of sin's provocation and desert, " Tophet is 
 said to be ordained of old " (Isa. xxx, 33), "everlasting fire 
 to be prepared for the devil and his angels " ( Matt, xxv, 41 ) ; 
 as if the all-powerful Wisdom did deliberate, and as it 
 were sit down and devise all stinging terrible ingredients, 
 a temper of greatest torture, to make that dreadful fire, 
 hellish pains, most fierce and raging, and a fit instrument 
 for the justice of so great and niighty a God to torment 
 eternally all impenitent reprobate rebels. God is the 
 " Father of spirits ; " our souls are the immediate creation of 
 his almighty hand ; and yet to every one that goeth on im- 
 penitently in his trespasses, he hath appointed, as it were, 
 a threefold hell. There are three things considerable in 
 sin. (1.) Aversion from an infinite, sovereign, unchangeable 
 good. (2.) Conversion to a finite, mutable, momentary 
 good. (3.) Continuance in the same. To these three 
 several things in sin, there are answering three singular 
 stings of extremest punishment. To aversion from the chiefest 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 85 
 
 good, which is objectively infinite, there answeieth pain of 
 loss, privation of God's glorious presence, and separation 
 from those endless joys above, which is an infinite loss, 
 'J'o the inordinate conversion to transitory things, there an- 
 swereth pain of sens.', which is intensively finite, as is the 
 pleasure of sin ; and yet so extreme, that none can conceive 
 the bitterness tlieveof but the soul that suffers it ; nor that 
 neither, except it could comprehend the almighty wisdom 
 of him that did create it. To the eternity of sin, remaining 
 for ever in stain and guilt, answereth the eternity of pu- 
 nishment. 7oT we must know, that " every impenitent 
 sinner would sin ever, if he might live ever, and casteth 
 himself by sinning into an impossibility of ever ceasing to 
 sin of himself; as a man that casteth himself into a deep 
 pit can never of himself rise out of it again : and therefore 
 naturally eternity of punishment is due to sin." fiow pro- 
 digious a thing then is sin, and how infinitely to be ab- 
 horied and avoided, that by a malignant meritorious poison 
 and provocation doth violently wrest out of the iiands of 
 the '' Father of mercies and God of all comfort " the full 
 vials of that unquenchable wrath, which brings easeless, 
 endless, and remediless torments upon his own creatures, 
 and those originally most excellent ! 
 
 10. The height and inestimableuess of the price that was 
 paid for the expiation of it, doth clearly manifest, nay in- 
 finitely aggravate the execrable misery of sin, and extreme 
 madness of all that meddle with it. 1 mean the heart's 
 blood of Jesus Christ, blessed for ever, which was of such 
 preciousness and power, that being let out by a spear, it 
 convulsed the whole frame of nature, darkened the sun 
 miraculously (for at that time it stood in direct opposition 
 to the moon), shook the earth, which shrunk and trembled 
 under it, opened the graves, clave the stones, rent the vail 
 of the temple from the bottom to the top, &c. Now it was 
 this alone, and nothing but this could possibly cleanse the 
 filth of sin. Had all the dust of the earth been turned into 
 silver, and the stones into pearls : should the main and 
 boundless ocean have streamed nothing but purest gold ; 
 would the whole uorld and all the creatures in heaven and 
 earth have offered themselves to be annihilated before his 
 angry face ; had all the blessed angels prostrated them- 
 selves at the foot of their Creator : yet in the point of re- 
 demption of mankind and purgation of sin, not any, nor 
 all of these could have done any good at all. iXoy, if the 
 Son of God himself, which lay in his bosom, should have 
 supplicated and solicited (1 mean without suffering and 
 shedding his blood) the Father of all mercies, he could not 
 
 1 
 
as INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 have been heard in this case. Either the Son of God must 
 die, or all mankind be eternally lost. Then, -wjien^thou 
 art provoked to sin, think seriously and sensibly of the price 
 that upon necessity must be paid for it before it be par- 
 doned. 
 
 11. Sinful pleasures are attended with a threefold bitter 
 sting (whereof see my Directions for Walking with God), 
 which though the devil hides from them in the heat of tempt- 
 ation ; yet in his seasons, to serve his own turn, he sets them 
 on with a vengeance. 
 
 12. Compare the vast and invaluable difference between 
 yielding to the enticement, and conquering the temptation 
 to sin. For which purpose look upon Joseph and David, 
 two of God's dearest servants, and consider the results. 
 What a deal of honour and comfort did afterward crown 
 the head and the heart of the one, and what horrible mis- 
 chiefs and miseries fell upon the family, and grisly horrors 
 upon the conscience of the other. Survey also the distinct 
 stories of Galeacius Caracciolus and Francis Spira, than 
 which in their several kinds there is nothing left to the me- 
 mory of the latter times more remarkable ; and you shall 
 find in them as great a difference as between a heaven and 
 hell upon earth. The one withstanding unconquerably va- 
 riety of mighty enticements to renounce the gospel of Jesus 
 Christ and return to popery ; besides the sweet peace of his 
 soul, attained that honour in the church of God that he is 
 in some measure paralleled even with Moses, and recom- 
 mended to the admiration of posterity by the pen of that 
 great and incomparable glory of the Christian world, 
 blessed Calvin*. The other, conquered by an unhappy 
 temptation to turn from the truth of God and our true re- 
 ligion to the synagogue of Satan and abominations of the 
 ** scarlet whore," besides the raging and desperate confu- 
 sion he brought upon his ov.n spirit, became such a spec- 
 tacle to the eye of Christendom as hath been hardly heard 
 of. 
 
 13. Compare the poor, short, vanishing delight of the 
 choicest sensual, worldly contentment, if thou wilt, of thy 
 sweetest sin, with the exquisiteness and eternity of hellish 
 torments. Out of which might an impenitent reprobate 
 wretch be assured of enlargement after he had endured 
 them so many thousand, thousand years as there are sands 
 on the sea-shore, hairs upon his head, stars in the firma- 
 ment, grass piles upon the ground, creatures both in heaven 
 and earth, he would think himself happy, and as it were 
 
 * See Crashaw's Life of Caracciolus. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 87 
 
 in heaven already. But when all that time is past, and 
 infinite millions of years besides, they are no nearer the 
 end than when they began, nor he nearer out than when he 
 came in. The torments of hell are most horrible ; yet I 
 know not whether this incessant, desperate cry in the con- 
 science of a damned soul, " I must never come out," doth 
 not outgo them all in horror. What an height of madness 
 is it then to purchase a moment of fugitive follies and fad- 
 ing pleasures with extremity of never-ending pains. 
 
 14. VVhen thou art stepping over the threshold towards 
 any vile act, lewd house, dissolute company, or to do the 
 devil service in any kind (which God forbid) ; suppose thou 
 seest Jesus Christ coming towards thee as he lay in the 
 arms of Joseph of Arirnathea, newly taken down from the 
 cross, wofully wounded, wan and pale; his body all gore, 
 the beauty of his blessed and heavenly face darkened and 
 disfigured by the stroke of death, speaking thus unto thee, 
 " Oh ! go not forward upon any terms; commit not this siix 
 by any means. It was this and the like that drew me down 
 out of the arms of my Father, from the fulness of joy and 
 fountain of all bliss, to put on this corruptible and misera- 
 ble flesh ; to hunger and thirst, to watch and pray, ta 
 groan and sigh, to offer up strong cries and tears to the Fa- 
 ther in the days of my flesh, to drink off the dregs of the 
 bitter cup of his fierce wrath, to wrestle with all the forces 
 of infernal powers, to lay down my life in the gates of hell 
 with intolerable, and, save by myself, unconquerable pain ; 
 and thus now to lie in the arms of this mortal man all torn 
 arid rent in pieces with cruelty and spite, as thou seest." 
 What a heart hast thou, that darest go on against this dear 
 entreaty of Jesus Christ ! 
 
 15. When thou art unhappily moved to break any branch 
 of Cod's blessed law, let the excellency and variety of his 
 incomparable mercies come presently into thy mind ; a 
 most ingenuous, sweet, and mighty motive to hinder and 
 hold off all gracious hearts from sin. How is it possible but 
 a serious survey of the "riches of God's goodness, for- 
 bearance, and long-suffering, leading thee to repentance," 
 to more forwardness and fruitfulness in the good way ; the 
 public miracles of mercy which God hath done in our days 
 for the preservation of the gospel, this kingdom, ourselves 
 and our posterity, especially drowning the Spanish invin- 
 cible armada, discovering and defeating the powder-plot, 
 shielding Queen Elizabeth, the most glorious princess of 
 the world, from a world of antichristian cruelties, saving us 
 from the papists' bloody expectations at her death, &c. ; the 
 particular and private catalogue of thine own personal fa- 
 
88 INSTRLCTIOiNS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 vours from God's bountiful hand, which thine own con- 
 science can easily lead thee unto, and readily run over, from 
 thine infancy to the present, wonderful protections in thine 
 unregenerate time ; that miracle of mercies, thy conversion, 
 if thou be already in that happy state ; all the motions of 
 God's holy Spirit in thine heart ; many checks of conscience, 
 fatherly corrections ; excellent means of sanctification, as 
 worthy a ministry in many places as ever the world en- 
 joyed ; sermon upon sermon, sabbath after sabbath ; bear 
 ing with thee after so many times breaking thy covenants ; 
 opportunities to attain the highest degree of godliness that 
 ever was; — Isay, how can it be, but that the review of 
 these and innumerable mercies more should so soften thy 
 heart, that thou shouldst have no heart at all ; nay, infinitely 
 abhor to displease or any way dishonour that high and dread- 
 ful Majesty, whose free- grace was the well-head and first 
 lountain of them all. 
 
 Let this meditation of God's mercies to keep from sin be 
 ■ quickened by considering : (1.) That thou art far worthier 
 to be now burning with the most abominable wretch in the 
 bottom of hell, than to be crowned with any of these loving 
 kindnesses ; that if thou wert able to do him all the honour, 
 service, and worship, which all the saints both militant and 
 triumphant do, it would come infinitely short of the merit of 
 the least of all his mercies unto thee in Jesus Christ. 
 (2.) How unkindly God takes the neglect of his extraordi- 
 nary kindnesses unto us. 2 Sam. xii, 7 — 9; 1 Sam. ii, 
 27 — 30; i.zekxvi. 
 
 16. Mark well, and be amazed at thine own fearful and 
 desperate folly. When thou fallest deliberately into any sin, 
 thou layest as it were in the one scale of the balance the 
 glory of Almighty God, the endless joys of heaven, the loss 
 of thine immortal soul, the precious blood of Christ, &c.; 
 and in the other, some rotten pleasure, earthly pelf, worldly 
 preferment, fleshly lust, sensual vanity ; and sufferest this 
 (prodigious mad i;es5! " Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, 
 and be horribly afraid ! " j to outweigh all those. 
 
 17. Upon the first assault of every sin, say thus unto thy- 
 self. If I now yield and commit this sin, 1 shall either re- 
 pe.it or not repent. If I do not repent, 1 am undone : if I do 
 repent, it will cost me incomparably more heart's grief than 
 the pleasure of the sin is worth. 
 
 l^. Consider, that for that very sin to which thou art now 
 tempted (suppose lying, lust, over- reaching thy brother, 
 tec), many millions are already damned, and even now- 
 burning in hell. And when thy foot is upon the brink, stay 
 and think upon the wages, and know for a truth, that if 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 89 
 
 thou fallest into that sin, thou art fallen into hell, if God 
 lielp not out. 
 
 19. Never be the bolder to give way unto any wickedness, 
 to exercise thy heart with covetousness, cruelty, ambition, 
 revenge, adulteries, speculative wantonness, undeanness, 
 or any other solitary sinfulness, because thou art alone, 
 and no mortal eye looks upon thee. For " if thine heart 
 condemn thee, God is greater than thy heart, and knoweth 
 all things;" and will condemn thee much more. If thy 
 conscience be as a thousand witnesses ; God, who is the 
 Lord of thy conscience, will be more than a million of wit- 
 nesses; and thou mayest be assured, howsoever thou 
 blessest thyself in thy secrecy, that what sin soever is now 
 acted in the very retiredst corner of thine heart, or any 
 ways most solitarily by thyself ; though in the meantime 
 it be concealed and lie hid in as great darkness as it was 
 committed, until that last and great day, yet then it must 
 most certainly appear, and be as legible on thy forehead as 
 if it were written with the brightest sun-beam upon a wall 
 of crystal. Thou shalt then in the face of heaven and earth 
 be laid out in thy true colours, and without confessing and 
 forsaking while it is called to-day, be before angels, men, 
 and devils, utterly, universally, and everlastingly shamed 
 and confounded. 
 
 20. Consider the resolute resistance and mortified reso- 
 lutions against sin and all enticements thereunto of many, 
 upon whom the sun of the gospel did not shine with such 
 beauty and fulness as it doth upon us; neither were so 
 many heavenly discoveries in the kingdom of Christ made 
 known unto them as our days have seen. For upon our 
 times (which makes our sins a great deal more sinful) hath 
 happily fallen an admirable confluence of the saving light 
 and learning, experience and excellency of all former ages, 
 besides the extraordinary additions of the present, which 
 with a glorious noontide of united illuminations doth abun- 
 dantly serve our turn for a continued further and fuller 
 illustration of the great mystery of godliness and secrets of 
 sanctification. Hear Chrysostom : " But I think thus, and 
 this will I ever preach, that it is much more bitter to offend 
 Christ than to be tormented in the pains of hell." He that 
 writes the life of Anselm, saith thus of him ; "He feared 
 nothing in the world more than to sin. My conscience 
 bearing me witnes 1 lie not ; for we have often heard him 
 profess, that if on the one hand he should see corporally 
 the horror of sin, on the other the pains of hell, and must 
 necessarily be plunged into the one, he would choose hell 
 rather than sin. And another thing also no less perhaps 
 
 I 3 
 
90 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 woudevtul to some, he was wont to say, that he ** would rather 
 have hell, beiiifc innocent and free i'rom sin, than polluted 
 with the filth thereof, possess the kingdom of heaven." It 
 is reported of another ancient holy man, that he was wont 
 to say, " he would rather be torn in pieces with Avild horses, 
 than wittiigly and willingly commit any sin." Jerome, 
 also, in one of his epistles tells a story of a young man of 
 most invincible courage and constancy in the profession of 
 Christ uuder some of the bloody persecuting emperors, to 
 this pu pos!'. 1 hey had little hope, it seems, to conquer 
 him by torture, and therefore they take this course with 
 hiui. Th-y brought him into most fragrant gardens flowing 
 with all pleasure and delight ; there they laid him upon 
 a bed of down, softly enwrapped in a net of silk, amongst 
 the lilies and the roses, the delicious murmur of the streams, 
 and the sweet whistling of the leaves. They all depart, 
 and a beautiful strumpet enters, and useth all the abomi- 
 nable tricks of her impure art to ensnare him. Whereupon 
 the young man, fearing that he should now be conquered 
 by tolly, who was conqueror over fury, out of an infinite 
 (let( station of sin, bites ofl:' a piece of his tongue with his 
 own teeth, and spits it in her face, and so hinders the hurt 
 of sin by the smart of his wound. J might have began with 
 Joseph, who did so bravely and blessedly beat back and 
 trample under his feet the sensual solicitations of his wanton 
 and wicked mistress. He had pleasure and preferment in 
 his eye, which were strongly oflTered in the temptation ; but 
 he well knew that not all the offices and honours in Egypt 
 could take off the guilt of that filth ; and therefore he re- 
 solved rather to lie in the dust, than rise by sin. " How 
 can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" I 
 might pass along to the mother and seven brethren (2 Mac. 
 vii), who chose rather to pciss through horrible tortures and 
 a most cruel death, than to eat swine's flesh against the 
 law ; and so i might come down to that noble army of 
 martyrs in Queen Mary's time, who were contented with 
 much patience and resolution to part with all, wife, chil- 
 dren, liberty, livelihood, life itself ; even to lay it down in 
 the flames, rather than to submit to that man of sin, or to 
 subscribe to any one point of his devilish doctrine. 
 
 Thus, as you have heard, 1 have tendered many reasons 
 to restrain from sin, which by the help of God may serve 
 to take off the edge of the most eager temptation, to cool 
 the heat of the most furious enticement, to embitter the 
 sweetest bait that draws to any sensual delight. N*ow, my 
 most thirsty desire and earnest entreaty is, that every one 
 into whose hands, by God's providence, this book of mine 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 91 
 
 shall fall, aflei the perusal of them would pause awhile, 
 that he may more solemnly vow and resolve that ever here- 
 after, when he shall be set upon and assaulted by allure- 
 ment to any sin, he will first have recourse unto these 
 twenty considerations, which I have here recommended 
 unto him to help in such cases ; and with a punctual se- 
 riousness let them sink into his heart before he pioceed and 
 pollute himself. I could be content, if it were pleasing unto 
 God, that these lines which thou now readest were writ 
 with the warmest blood in mine heart, to represent unto 
 thine eye the dear aflectionateness of my soul for thy spi- 
 ritual and eternal good, so that thou wouldst be thoroughly 
 persuaded, and now, before thou pass any further, sincerely 
 promised so to do. 
 
 Thirdly. The point inay serve to set out the excellency of 
 that high and heavenly art of comfoiting afflicted con- 
 sciences. The more dangerous and desperate the wound 
 is, the more doth it magnify and make admirable the mys- 
 tery and method of the cure and recovery ; which, were it 
 well known and wisely practised, what a world of unne- 
 cessary slavish torture in troubled minds would it prevent '? 
 So many thousands of poor, abused, deluded souls should 
 not perish by the damning flatteries and cruel mercies of 
 unskilful daubers. \\ hat a heaven of spiritual lightsome- 
 ness and joy might shine in the hearts and show itself in 
 the faces of God's people ! Until it please the Lord to 
 move the hearts of my learned and holy brethren in popu- 
 lous cities and great congregations, who must needs have 
 much employment and variety of experience this way ; or 
 some special men extraordinarily endov/ed and exercised 
 herein, to put to their helping hands and furnish the church 
 with more large and exact discourses in this kind 3 — lake in 
 good part this essay of mine. 
 
SECT. IL PART I. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Tlie first Error iu curing Consciences is the nnseasonable applying of 
 Comfort to tlieni tliat sorrow not at all. 
 
 Wherein I first desire to discover and rectify some ordinary 
 aberrations about spiritual cures, which fall out when the 
 physician of the soul,— 
 
 First, Applies unseasonably the cordials of the gospel and 
 comforts of mercy, when the corrosives of the law and com- 
 minations of judgment are convenient and suitable. Were 
 it uol absurd in surgery to pour a most sovereign balsam of 
 exquisite composition and inestimable price upon a sound 
 part ? It is far more unseemly and senseless, and of an in- 
 finitely more pestilent consequence, in any ministerial 
 labours, to proffer the blood of Christ and promises of life to 
 an unwounded conscience, as belonging unto it at present. 
 It is the only right everlasting method " to turn men from 
 darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God ; " and 
 all the men of God and master-builders, who have ever set 
 themselves sincerely to serve God in their ministry and to 
 save souls, have followed the same course ; to wit, first to 
 wound by the law and then to heal by the gospel. We must 
 be humbled in the sight of the Lord, before he lift us up 
 (James iv, 10). We must be sensible of our spiritual blind- 
 ness and captivity, before we can heartily seek to be savingly 
 enlightened and enlarged from the devil's slavery, and en- 
 riched with grace. There must be sense of misery, before 
 showing of mercy ; crying, I am unclean, I am unclean, 
 before opening the fountain for uncleanness ; stinging, before 
 curing by the brazen serpent ; smart for sin, before a plaister 
 of Christ's blood ; brokenness of heart, before binding up. 
 God himself opened the eyes of our first parents to make 
 them see and be sensible of their sin and misery, nakedness 
 and shame (Gen.iii, 7), before he promised Christ (ver. 15). 
 Christ Jesus tells us that he was anointed by the Lord, " to 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 95 
 
 preach good tidings-, " but to whom 1 to the poor ; to the 
 broken liearted ; to the captives ; to the blind ; to the 
 bruised (isa. Ixi, 1 ; Luke iv, 18) : that " the whole need 
 not the physician, but they that are sick ; and he came not 
 to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance " (Matt, ix, 
 12, 13) ; that is, poor souls, sinners indeed, even in their 
 own estimation; and not self-conceited pharisees, wha 
 though they be mere strangers to any wound of conscience 
 for sin, yet they will not be persuaded that they shall be 
 damned ; but in the mean time contemn and condemn all 
 others in respect of themselves ; sinful publicans as too 
 gross, sincere professors as too godly ; whereas notwith- 
 standing, in true judgment, harlots are in a far happier case 
 than they (Matt, xxi", 31) : that " he will give rest ; " but 
 to whom! to those "that labour and are heavy laden" 
 (Matt, xi, 28) : that the spirit which he would send, should 
 convince the world, first of sin and then of righteousness ; 
 to wit, of Christ. It is ordinary with the prophets, first to 
 discover the sins of the people, and to denounce judgments ; 
 and then to promise Christ upon their coming in, to en- 
 lighten and make them lightsome, with raising their thoughts 
 to a fruitful contemplation of the glory, excellency, and 
 sweetness of his blessed kingdom. Isaiah in his first chapter, 
 from the mouth of God, doth in the first place behave him- 
 self like a " son of thunder,"' pressing upon the conscierices 
 of those to whom he was sent many heinous sins ; horrible 
 ingratitude, fearful falling away, ibrmality in God's wor- 
 ship, cruelty, and the like. Afterward (ver. 16, 17), he 
 invites to repentance, and tlien follows (verse 18), "Come 
 now, and let us reason together, salth the Lord : though 
 your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow ; though 
 they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Nathan, 
 to recover even a regenerate man, convinceth him first 
 soundly of his sin, with much aggravation and terror, and 
 then upon remorse assures hin, of pardon (2 Sam. xii, 13). 
 
 Consider further for this purpose the sermons of our blessed 
 Saviour himself, who " taught as one having authority, and 
 not as the Scribes." With what power and piercing did our 
 Lord and Master labour to open the eyes, search the hearts, 
 and wound the consciences of his hearers, to fit them for the 
 gospel and his own dear heart's blood ? See Matt, v, &c. 
 and xxiii and xxv, &:c. — Of John Baptist, who by the 
 mightiness of his ministerial spirit, accompanied with ex- 
 traordinary strength from heaven, did strike through the 
 hearts of those that heard him with such astonishment 
 about their spiritual state, with such horror for their former 
 ways, and fear of future vengeance, that they came unto 
 
94 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 him in crowds : " And the people asked him, saying, What 
 shall we do then 1 Then came also publicans to be baptized, 
 and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? And the 
 soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall 
 we do 1 " (Luke iii, 10, 12, 14.) — Of Peter, who being now 
 freshly inspired and illuminated from above with large and 
 extraordinary effusions of the Holy Ghost, shadowed by 
 " cloven fiery tongues " (Acts ii), in the very prime and 
 flower of his ministerial wisdom, bends himself to break the 
 hearts of his hearers. Amongst other piercing passages of 
 his searching sermon, he tells them to their faces (they 
 standing before him stained with the horrible guilt of the 
 dearest blood that ever was shed upon earth, most worthy 
 to have been gathered up by the most glorious angels in 
 vessels of gold), that they had crucified and slain that just 
 and holy One, the Lord of life, Jesus of Nazareth (ver.23). 
 And again at the conclusion (ver. 36) leaves the same tor- 
 menting sting in their consciences, vi'hich restlessly wrought 
 and boiled within them until it begot a great deal of com- 
 punction, terror, and tearing of their hearts with extreme 
 amazement and anguish. " Now when they heard this, 
 they were pricked in their hearts " (ver. 37). Whereupon 
 they came crying " unto Peter, and the rest of the apostles. 
 Men and brethren, what shall v\e do? " And so, being sea- 
 sonably led by the counsel of the apostles to believe on the 
 name of Jesus Christ, to lay hold upon the promise, to 
 repent evangelically, they had the reniission of sins sealed 
 unto them by baptism, and were happily received into the 
 number of the saints of God, whose Son they had so lately 
 slaughtered. — Of Paul, who though he stood as a prisoner 
 at the bar, and might perhaps by a general plausible dis- 
 course, without piercing or paTticularizing,'have insinuated 
 into the affections and won the favour of his hearers, who 
 were to be his judges, and so made way for his enlargement 
 and particular welfare ; yet he, for all this, very resolutely 
 and unreservedly crosseth and opposeth their greedy, lustful, 
 and careless humours with a right searching, terrifying ser- 
 mon of " righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come " 
 (Acts xxiv, 24, 25). That unhappy Felix was a fellow 
 polluted with abominable adultery, and very infamous for 
 his cruel and covetous oppressions, and consequently un- 
 apprehensive and fearless of that dreadful tribunal, and the 
 terrors to come. Whereupon Paul, having learned in the 
 school of Christ not to fear any mortal man in the discharge 
 of his ministry, draws the sword of the Spirit with un- 
 dauntedness of spirit, and strikes presently at the very face 
 of those fearful sins, which reigned in his principal and 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 95 
 
 most eminent hearers ; though he stood now before them in 
 bonds at their mercy. He shrewdly galls the conscience of 
 that great man, by opposing righteousness to his bribing 
 cruelties, temperance to his adulterous impurities, the dread- 
 fulness of judgment to come to his insolent lawless outrages 
 and desperate security. Had Paul endeavoured to have 
 satisfied their curiosities, as many a tempoiizing preacher 
 would have done very industriously, and to entertain the 
 time with a general discourse of the wonderful birth, life, 
 and death of Jesus Christ, now so much talked of abroad 
 in the world, with a pleasing discovery only of the many 
 mercies, pardons, and glorious things purchased to the sons 
 of men by his bloodshed : not meddling at all with their 
 beloved delights of filthy lust and other sins ; oh, then they 
 had listened unto him with much acceptation and delight ; 
 all things had been carried fair and favourably ; Paul had 
 not been interrupted and so suddenly silent ; nor Felix so 
 frighted and distempered. But this man of God knew full 
 well that that was not the way ; neither best for them, nor 
 for his Master's honour, nor for the comfort of his own con- 
 science ; and therefore he takes a course to cause the tyrant 
 to tremble, that thereby he might either be fitted for Christ, 
 which was best of all, or at least made inexcusable ; but 
 howsoever, that in so doing his duty might be discharged 
 and his soul delivered ; holding it far better that his body 
 should be in bonds than his soul guilty of blood. 
 
 Orthodox antiquity was of the same mind, and for the 
 same method. 
 
 Austin, that famous disputer in his time, counselleth to 
 this purpose in this point* ^I express the sense and sum, 
 and no more than may be collected and concluded from the 
 place. 1 will never confine myself grammatically and pedan- 
 tically to the words precisely, and render verbatim, save 
 only in some cases, as of controversy, or some other such- 
 like necessity of more punctual quotation). " The conscience 
 is not to be healed if it be not wounded. Thou preachest 
 and pressest the law, comminations, the judgment to come, 
 and that with much earnestness and importunity. He who 
 hears, if he be not terrified, if he be not troubled, is not to 
 be comforted. Another hears, is stirred, is stung, grieves 
 extremely: cure his contritions; because he is cast down 
 and confounded in himself." 
 
 "After that John Baptist," saith Chrysostomt, "had 
 thoroughly frighted the minds of his hearers with the terror 
 of judgment and expectation of torment ; and with the name 
 
 * On Psalm lix. ' t On Malt, iii, Honi. 11. 
 
96 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COxMFORTING 
 
 of an axe, and their rejection, and entertainment of other 
 children, and by doubling the punishment, to wit, of being 
 hewed down and cast into the fire: when he had thus 
 every way tamed and taken down their stubbornness, and 
 from fear of so many evils had stirred them up to a desire 
 of deliverance, then at length he makes mention of Christ." 
 " God pours not the oil of his mercy," saith Bernard, 
 " save into a broken vessel." 
 
 So also all our modern divines, who are iiiStmcted unto 
 the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 Peter Martyr* magnifies Nathan's method of preaching, 
 and commends it to all the ministers of God. He first pro- 
 poseth a parable, as we do doctrines, for the illumination 
 and conviction of the understanding. 1 hen he applies it 
 more particularly, and to the present case, where he doth 
 notably expose and aggravate the sin by recounting and 
 opposing God's extraordinary bounty and most merciful 
 dealing with David, by the cause of it, contempt of the 
 Lord's commandment, and dreadful things ensuing thence. 
 Afterward, that he might strike the heart through with 
 a.'^tonishmeat and dread, he threatens terribly. At last, 
 upon compunction, and crying " I have sinned," he sweetly 
 comforteth and raiseth to the assurance of God's favour 
 again. 
 
 If this course must be taken with relapsed Christians ; 
 why not much more with those who are " dead in trespasses 
 and sinsi " 
 
 " Christ is promised to them alone," saith Calvin t, " who 
 are humbled and confounded with a sense of their own 
 sins." 
 
 "Then is Christ seasonably revealed," saith Musculust, 
 •' when the hearts of men being soundly pierced by preach- 
 ing repentance, are possessed with a desire of his gracious 
 righteousness." 
 
 " The way to faith," saith Beza§, "is penitence (legal 
 compunction) ; because sickness enforceth men, however 
 unwilling, to fly unto the physician." 
 
 " Men are ever to be prepared for the gospel by the 
 preaching of the law 1|." 
 
 " A sermon of the law," said Tilenus, while he was yet 
 orthodox^, " must go before the doctrine of the gospel, that 
 the oil of mercy may be poured into a coritrite vessel." 
 
 " In our exhortations to follow Christ," saith Kolloc**, 
 " the minds of men are ever to be prepared with a sense of 
 
 * On 2 Sam. xii. 1 On Isa. Ixi. t On Matt. iii. 
 
 § On Matt, xxi, 32. || Ibid, on 2 Cor. iii, 11. 
 
 <f[ Svntag. Tlieol. p. 2, c. xlv. ** On John viii. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 97 
 
 misery and their dark estate : and afterward with a desire of 
 enlargement and light." 
 
 " It is the care of those ministers which divide God's 
 word aright," say our great divines of Great Britain *, first 
 fitly and wisely to wound the consciences of their hearers 
 with the terrors of the law, and after to raise them by the 
 promise of the gospel, <Sc'-."— "The Spirit first terrifies 
 those who are to be justified with the law; breaking and 
 humbling them with threats, scourges, and lashes of con- 
 science, that thereby despairing of themselves they may 
 fly unto Christ t." 
 
 " AVe cannot learn out of the gospel," saith Chemnitiust, 
 that V e are to be blessed in Christ, except by an antithesis, 
 as Luther speaks, we also acknowledge that we are accursed 
 by the law." 
 
 " I'he doctrine of the law," saith Davenant§, " is to be 
 propounded to the impious and impenitent, to strike terror 
 into their hearts, and to demonstrate their just damnation, 
 except they repent and fly to Jesus Christ." 
 
 Perkins, that great light of our church, both for soundness 
 of learning, sincerity of judgment, and insight into the mys- 
 tery of Christ, teaching how repentance is wrought, tells 
 usjl, that •' first of all a man must have knowledge of four 
 things. Of the law of God ; of sin against the law ; of the 
 guilt of sin ; and of the judgment of God against sin, which 
 is his eternal wrath. In the second place must follow an 
 application of the former knowledge to a man's self, by the 
 work of the conscience assisted by the Holy Ghost (which 
 for that cause is called the spirit of bondage, Rom. viii, 15), 
 in this manner : — 
 
 " The breaker of the law is guilty of eternal wrath, saith 
 the mind ; but I am a breaker of the law of God, saith the 
 conscience, as a witness and an accuser : therefore I am 
 guilty of eternal death, saith the same conscience as a 
 judge. 
 
 " Every liar shall have his part in the lake, which burneth 
 with fire and brimstone (Rev. xxi, 8) ; but 1 am a liar ; 
 therefore I shall have my part in that everlasting fiery 
 lake." 
 
 And so of other sins : Covetousness, cruelty, drunken- 
 ness, lewdness, swearing, defrauding, temporizing, usury, 
 filthiness, foolish talking, jesting ( Kphes. v, 4), revelling 
 (Gal. V, 21), profaning the Lord's day, stran!;e apparel, 
 (Zeph. i, 8), and innumerable sins more, which being all 
 
 * Theologoruni .Ma^. Britan., &c. t Paraphrase on Honi. viii. 
 t Harmo. Evang. cap. IxxiJi. 5 On Col. i. 
 
 !i Of the Nature and Practice of Repentance, cluip. iii. 
 
 K 
 
98 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 severally pressed upon the heart by a discourse of the guilty 
 conscience, as I have said, must needs full sorely crush it 
 with many cutting conclusions ; from which, set on by the 
 " spirit of bondage," is wont to arise much trouble of mind, 
 which, saith he, is commonly called '' the sting of the con- 
 science, or penitence, and the compunction of heart" 
 (Acts ii, 37); and then succeeds seasonably and comfort- 
 ably the v/ork of the gospel. The soul being thus sensible 
 of, and groaning under the burthen of all sin, is happily 
 fitted for all the glorious revelations of the abundant riches 
 of God's dearest mercies (See Isa. Ivii, 15 ; Matt, xi, 28; 
 and ix, 13); for all the comforts, graces, and favours which 
 shine from the face of Christ ; for all the expiations, re- 
 freshings, and exultations, which spring out of that blessed 
 "fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness " (Zech. 
 xiii, 1). 
 
 " Never any of God's children," saith Greenham*. 
 " were comforted thoroughly, but they were first humbled 
 for their sins." 
 
 '* The course warranted unto us by the Scriptures," saith 
 Hieront," is this: First, to endeavour the softening of our 
 hearers' hearts, by bringing them to the sight and sense of 
 their own wretchedness, before we adventure to apply the 
 riches of God's mercy in Christ Jesus. The preaching of 
 the gospel is compared by our Saviour himself unto the sow- 
 ing of seed (Matt, xiii) : as therefore the ground is first 
 torn up with the plough before the seed be committed unto 
 it ; so the fallow ground of our hearts must first be broken 
 up with the sharpness of the law (Jerem. iv, 3), and the 
 very terror of the Lord, before we can be fit to entertain the 
 sweet seed of the gospel. I would have a preacher to 
 preach peace, and to aim at nothing more than the com- 
 fort of the souls of God's people (2 Cor. v, 11); yet I 
 would have him withal frame his course to the manner of 
 God's appearing to Elijah. The text saith, that first a 
 mighty strong wind rent the mountains and brake the rocks, 
 then after that came an earthquake, and after the earth- 
 quake came fire ; and, after all these, then came a still 
 and a soft voice (2 Kings xix, 11, 12). After the same 
 manner 1 would not have the still and mild voice of the 
 gospel come, till the strong tempest of the law hath rent 
 the stony hearts of men and made them to tremble, and 
 rottenness to enter into their bones (Habak. iii, 16), or at 
 least, because our auditories are mixed, consisting of men 
 of divers humours, it will be good for him to deliver his 
 
 * Of Repentance, Sermon 7. t Tlic Preixlier's Plea. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 99 
 
 doctrine with such caution, that neither the humble souls 
 may be affrighted with the severity of God's judgments, 
 nor the profane and unrepentant grow presumptuous by the 
 abundance of God's mercy. The person that is full de- 
 spiseth the honeycomb, saith Solomon (Prov. xxvii, 7). And 
 what doth a proud Pharisee, or a churlish Nabal, or a po- 
 litic Gallio, or a scoffing Ishmael, care to hear of ihe 
 breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of 
 God in his son Jesus 1 (Ephes. iii, 1 8) except it be to set- 
 tle them faster upon their lees. Doctrine of that nature is 
 as unfiting such uncircumcised ears (Actsvii, 51) as the 
 snow the summer, and the rain the harvest. Unto the horse 
 belongs a whip, to the ass a bridle, and a rod to the fool's 
 back, &CC (Prov. xxvi, I, 3). He that intendeth to do any 
 good in this frozen generation, had need rather to be Boa- 
 nerges, one of the sons of thunder (Mark iii, 17), than Bar- 
 Jonah, the son of a dove." 
 
 " The word of God," saith Forbes*, " hath three degrees 
 of operation in the hearts of men. For, first, it falleth to men's 
 ears as the sound of many waters, a mighty, great, and 
 confused sound, and which commonly bringeth neither ter- 
 ror nor joy, but yet a wondering and acknowledgment, of 
 a strange force, and more than human power. This is that 
 effect which many felt on hearing Christ, when they were 
 astonished at his doctrine, as teaching with authority. 
 " What manner of doctrine is this ? " " Never man spake 
 like this man" (Mark i, 22, 27 ; Luke iv, 32 ; John vii, 46). 
 This effect falleth even to the reprobate (Habak. i, 5 ; Acts 
 xiii, 41). The next effect is the voice of thunder ; which 
 bringeth not only wonder but fear also ; not only filleth the 
 ears with sound and the heart with astonishment, but more- 
 over shaketh and terrifieth the conscience. And this se- 
 cond eff'ect may also befal a reprobate, as Felix (Acts 
 xxiv, 25). The third effect is proper to the elect, the sound 
 of harping, while the word not only ravisheth with admira- 
 tion and striketh the conscience with terror, but also, lastly, 
 filleth it with sweet peace and joy, &c. Now albeit the 
 first two degrees may be without the last ; yet none feel 
 the last, who have not in some degree felt both the first 
 two." 
 
 " God healeth none," saith Gouget, " but such as are 
 first wounded. The whole need not a physician, but they 
 that are sick ( Matt, ix, 12)- Christ was anointed to preach 
 the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, &c. 
 (Luke iv, 18)." 
 
 ^ In his Commentary upon Rev. xiv. t The whole Armour of God. 
 
100 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 Obj. Many have believed vi'ho never grieved for their 
 misery, as Lydia, &c (Acts xvi, 14). 
 
 Answ. Who can tell that these grieved not? It fol- 
 low^eth not that they had no grief, because none is recorded. 
 All particular actions and circumstances of actions are 
 not recorded. It is enough that the grief of some, as of the 
 .lews, of the jailor, of the woman that washed Christ's feet 
 witir her tears, and of others, is recorded (.Acts ii, 37; 
 xvi, 29; Luke vii, .38). Lydia might be prepared before 
 she heard Paul ; for she accompanied them which went out 
 to pray, and she worshipped God (Acts xvi, 13, 14); or 
 else her heart might be touched when she heard Paul 
 preach, i he like may be said of those who heard Peter 
 when he preached to Cornelius; and of others (Acts x, 
 44.45). Certain it is that a man must both see and feel 
 his wretchedness, and be wounded in soul for it, before 
 faiih can be wrought in him. Yet I deny not but there may 
 be great difference in the manner and measure of griev- 
 ing," &c. 
 
 " The heart is prepared for faith, and not by faith. Jus- 
 tification being the work of God is perfect in itself, but our 
 hearts are not fit to apply it until God have humbled us, 
 and brought us to despair in ourselves. The whole prepa- 
 ration being legal, wrought by the Spirit of bondage to 
 bring us to the spirit of adoption (Rom. viii, 15), leaves us 
 in despair of all help, either of ourselves or the whole world, 
 that so being in this woful plight we might now submit our- 
 selves to God, wlio, infusing a lively faith into our hearts, 
 gives us his Son, and our justification with him *." 
 
 " None ever had conscience truly pacified, that first felt 
 not conscience wounded t." 
 
 "The preparations to repentance" (evangelical) "are 
 those legal fits of fear and terror, which are, both in nature 
 and time too, before faith J." "As there can be no birth 
 without the pains of travail going before, so neither no true 
 repentance without some terrors of the law, and straits of 
 conscience. The reason is plain. None can have repent- 
 ance, but such as Christ calls to repentance. Now he 
 calls only sinners to repentance (INlat. ix, 13), even sinners 
 heavy laden with the sense of God's wrath against sin 
 (Mat. xi, 28). He comes only to save the lost sheep, that 
 is, such sheep as feel themselves lost in themselves, and 
 knovv not how to find the v,ay to the fold. It is said, 
 Rom. viii, 15, ' Ye have not received the spirit of bondage 
 
 * Yates. Of Mr. Montague's eiTor against the Simplicity of God's 
 Will, chap, i. sec. 5. 
 t Sclater, The sicli Soul's salve, t Dike on Repentance, chap. i. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. lOl 
 
 again to fear,' whicli shows that once they did receive it, 
 namely, in the very lirst preparation unto conversion ; that 
 then the Spirit of God in the law did so bear witness unto 
 theni of their bondage and miserable slavery, that it made 
 them to tremble. ISow there, under the person of the Ro- 
 mans, the apostle speaks to all believers, and so shows that 
 it is eveiy Christian's common case*." 
 
 " The law hath its use to work neraiseXeiav, peniteidiam ; 
 the gospel its force to work /jLeravo'iav, resipiscentiam ; and 
 both are needful for Christians even at this present, as for- 
 merly they have ever beent." 
 
 " God's mercy may not be such whereby his truth in any 
 sort should be impeached, as it should if it be prostituted 
 indifferently and promiscuously to all, as well the insolent 
 and impenitent, as the poor, humble, and broken-hearted 
 sinner. For unto these latter only is the promise of mercy 
 made. And if to others the gate of mercy should be set 
 open, God's mercies (as Solomon saith of the wicked's, that 
 they are cruel mercies) should be false and unjust mercies. 
 But God never yet learned so to be merciful as to make 
 himself false and unfaithful. The first thing that draws 
 unto Christ is to consider our miserable estate without him. 
 Therefore we see that the law drives men to Christ ; and 
 the law doth it by showing a man his sin, and the curse 
 due unto the same. We must know, that nothing per- 
 formed of us can give satisfaction in this matter of humi- 
 liation. Yet it is a thing without which we cannot come 
 to Christ : it is as much as if a man should say, the physi- 
 cian is ready to heal thee, but then it is required that thou 
 must have a sense of the disease, &c. No man will come 
 to Christ except he be hungry. Only those that are troubled 
 receive the Gospel. 
 
 " No man will take Christ for his husband, till he come 
 to know and feel the weight of Satan's yoke. Till that time 
 he will never come to take upon him the yoke of Christ. 
 
 "To all you 1 speak that are humbled. Others, that 
 mind not this doctrine, regard not the things of this nature ; 
 but you that mourn in Zion, that are broken-hearted ; you 
 that know the bitterness of sin, to you is this salvation 
 sent J." 
 
 " Under the causes I comprehend all that work of God 
 whereby he worketh faith in any, which standeth especially 
 in these three things :— 
 
 * Ibid, chap, ii. 
 
 i Hinde, of the Office and Use of the Moral Law of God in tiie Days 
 of the Tjospel. 
 X Dike, of the Deceitfulnesi of Man's Heart, chap. xv. 
 
 K 3 
 
102 INSTKUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 " 1. That God by his word and Spirit first enlighteneth 
 the understanding, truly to conceive the doctrine of man's 
 misery, and of his full recovery by Christ. 
 
 "2. By the same means he worketh in his heart both such 
 sound sorrow for his misery, and fervent desire after Christ 
 the remedy, that he can never be at quiet till he enjoy 
 Christ. 
 
 " 3. (iod so manifesteth his love in freely offering Christ 
 with all his benefits to him, a poor sinner, that thereby he 
 draws him so to give credit to God therein, that he gladly 
 accepts Christ offered unto him. 
 
 " These three works of God, whosoever findeth to have 
 been wrought in himself, he may thereby know certainly 
 he hath faith ; but without these, what change of life soever 
 may be conceived, there can be no certainty of faith*." 
 
 " The law first breaks us and kills us with the sight and 
 guilt of sin, before Christ cures us and binds us up. 
 
 " The Holy Ghost worketh and maketh faith effectual by 
 these three acts : — 
 
 " First, it puts an efficacy into the law, and makes that 
 powerful to work on the heart ; to make a man poor in 
 spirit, so that he may be fit to receive the gospel. The 
 spirit of bondage must make the law effectual, as the spirit 
 of adoption doth the gospel, Sec. 
 
 " The second work is to reveal Christ when the heart is 
 prepared by the Spirit in the first work ; then in the next 
 place he shows the unsearchable riches of Christ, what is 
 the hope of his calling and the glorious inheritance pre- 
 pared for the saints, what is the exceeding greatness of his 
 power in them that believe. I say we need the Spirit to 
 show these things, Ike. 
 
 " The third act of the Spirit is the testimony which he 
 gives to our spirit, in telling us that these things are ours. 
 When the heart is prepared by the law, and when these 
 things are so showed unto us that we prize them and long 
 after them, yet there must be a third thing : to take them 
 to ourselves, to believe they are ours : and there needs a 
 work of the Spirit for this. For though the promises be 
 never so clear, yet having nothing but the promises, you 
 will never be able to apply them to yourselves. But when 
 the Holy Ghost shall say, Christ is thine ; all these things 
 belong to thee, and God is thy Father ; when that shall 
 witness to our spirit by a work of his own, then shall we 
 believe, &c.+ " 
 
 "This is the order observed in our justification: First, 
 * Calverwell, in his Treatise of Faith. 
 t Throgmorton, in his Treatise of Faith. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 103 
 
 Iheie is a sight of our misery, to which we are brought by 
 the law. Secondly, there is by the gospel a holding forth 
 of Christ, as our redemption from sin and death. Thirdly, 
 there is a working of faith in the heart to rest on Christ as 
 the ransom from sin and death. Now when a man is come 
 hither, he is truly and really just*." 
 
 " We teach, that in true conversion a man must be 
 wounded in his conscience by the sense of Lis sins. His 
 contrition must be pungent and vehement, bruising, break- 
 ing, rending the heart, and feeling the pains (as a woman 
 labouring of child) before the new creature be brought 
 forth, or Christ truly formed in him. It is not done without 
 bitterness of the soul, without care, indignation, revenge 
 (2 Cor. vii, 11). But as some infants are born with less 
 pain to the mother, and some with more ; so may the new 
 man be regenerated in some with more, in some wiih less 
 anxiety of travail. But surely grace is not infused into the 
 heart of any sinner, except there be at least so great afflic- 
 tion of spirit for sin foregoing that he cannot but feel it," 
 &c.t 
 
 "This bruising is required before conversion. 1. That 
 so the Spirit may make way for itself into the heart by 
 levelling all proud high thoughts, &c. 2. To make us set 
 a high price upon Christ's death. — This is the cause of re- 
 lapses and apostasies, because men never smarted for sin 
 at the first. They were not long enough under the lash of 
 the law. Hence this inferior work of the Spirit in bringing 
 down high thoughts is necessary before conversion^." 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Danbers reprehended. Faithfulness in preaching and Daubing com- 
 pared. 
 
 By this time it doth most clearly and plentifully appear 
 what a foul and fearful fault it is, for men, either in the 
 managing of their public ministry, or in their more private 
 conferences, visitations of the sick, consultations about a 
 good estate to God-ward, and other occasions of like nature, 
 to apply Jesus Christ and the promises, to promise life and 
 safety in the evil day, to souls as yet not soundly enlight- 
 ened and afflicted with sight of sin and sense of God's 
 wrath ; to consciences never truly wounded and awakened. 
 
 * Baiue, in his Sermon upon John iii. 16. 
 
 t Cade, in his Justification of the Church of England, lib. i, cap. v 
 sec. 1. 
 
 t Sibbs, in his Bruised Reed. 
 
104 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 I insisted the longer upon this point, because I know it full 
 well to be a most universal and prevailing policy of the 
 devil, whereby he keeps many thousands in his cursed sla- 
 very, and from salvation, to confirm as many pastors as he 
 can possibly, willing enough to drive their flocks before 
 them to perdition iii an ignorant or affected prejudice, and 
 forbearance of that saving method of bringing souls out of 
 hell, mentioned before, and made good with much variety 
 of evidence ; and to nourish also in the hearts of natural 
 men a strong and sturdy dislike, opposition, and raging 
 against downright dealing and those men of God (sufficient, 
 as they say, but falsely and against their own souls, by 
 their terrible teaching to drive their hearers to distraction, 
 self-destruction, or despair) who take the only right course 
 to convert them and to bring them to Jesus Christ as he 
 himself invites them, to wit, " labouring and heavy laden" 
 with their sins (Matt, xi, 28). 
 
 Daubers, then, who serve Satan's craft in this kind, and 
 all those who dispense their ministry without all spiritual 
 discretion and good conscience, of whom there are too 
 many, as great strangers to the right way of working 
 grace in others as to the woik of grace in themselves ; 
 i say, they are a generation of dangerous men ; adepts 
 in an accursed art of conducting poor blinded souls 
 merrily towards everlasting misery, and setting them down 
 in the very midst of bell, before they be sensible of 
 any danger, or discovery of their perilous state. Great men 
 they are with the men of this world, with all those wise 
 fools and sensual great ones, who are not willing to be tor- 
 mented befoie their time, or rather who desire impossibly 
 to live the life of pleasures now, and yet at last to " die the 
 death of the righteous." They have still ready at hand 
 mercy and pardon, heaven and salvation for all comers, 
 and all that come near, without so much as a desire to put 
 any difference, or to divide the precious from the vile, wliich 
 is a prodigiously arrogant folly, pernicious in the highest 
 degree both to their own souls and those they delude. 
 Hear how they are branded in the Book of God, calling 
 them, "pillow-sewers" under men's elbows (Ezek.xiii, 18); 
 that being laid soft and locked fast in the cradle of security, 
 they may sink suddenly into the pit of destruction before 
 they be aware. "Criers of Peace, peace, when there is 
 no peace" (Jer.vi, 14), but horrible stirs ; tumbling of gar- 
 ments in blood ; burning and devouring of fire ; " men- 
 pleaseis" (Gal. i, 10), who choose rather to tickle the 
 itching ears of their carnal hearers with some frothy, friar- 
 like conceits, and so smooth great ones in their humours 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 105 
 
 by their cowardly flatteries (especially if they any ways 
 depend upon them for maintenance, rising, and preferment) ; 
 rather than conscientiously to discharge that trust laid upon 
 them by their great Lord and Master in heaven, upon 
 answerableness for the blood of those souls which shall 
 perish by their temporizing silence and flattering unfaith- 
 fulness. Healers of the hurt of their hearers with sweet 
 words (Jer. vi, 14), while their souls aie bleeding by the 
 wounds of sin unto eternal death. Preachers of smooth 
 things (Tsa. xxx, 10); which kind of men, the greatest part, 
 and all worldlings, wonderfully affect and applaud, though 
 to their own everlasting undoing. They swell under such 
 teachers with a pharisaical conceit that they are as safe 
 for salvation as the precisest of them all. But, alas ! their 
 hope is but like a hollow wall, which being put to any stress 
 when the tempest of God's searching wrath begins to shake 
 it, in the time of a final trial of its truth and soundness, it 
 shatters into pieces and comes to nought. Hear the pro- 
 phet : " Now go, write it before them in a table, and note 
 it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever 
 and ever : that this is a rebellious people, lying children, 
 children that will not hear the law of the Lord : which say 
 to the seers, See not ; and to the prophets. Prophesy not 
 unto us right things ; speak unto us smooth things ; pro- 
 phesy deceits : get you out of the way, turn aside out of 
 the path, cause the. Holy One of Israel to cease from before 
 us. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because 
 ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverse- 
 ness, and stay thereon ; therefore this iniquity shall be to 
 you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, 
 whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. And he 
 shall break it as the breaking of the potter's vessel that is 
 broken in pieces ; he shall not spare : so that there shall 
 not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from 
 the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit" (Is'a.xxx, 
 8—14). "Daubers with untempered mortar" (Ezek.xiii, 11), 
 who erect in the conceits of those who are willing to be de- 
 luded by them (pharisees ai the best) a rotten building of 
 false hope, like a " mud-wall without straw, or mortar made 
 only of sand without lime to bind it," which in fair weather 
 makes a fair show for a while ; but when abundance of rain 
 falls and winter comes, it moulders away and turns to mire 
 in the streets. Their vain-confidence in prosperous times, 
 before it come to the touchstone of the fiery trial by God's 
 searching truth, may seem current ; but in the tempest of 
 God's wrath, when the stormy winter's night of death ap- 
 proacheth, or at furthest at the judgment-seat of the just 
 
106 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 and highest God, it proves to be counterfeit ; when at the 
 last they shall cry " Lord, Lord," like the foolish virgins, 
 and those JNJat. vii, instead of imaginary comfort they shall 
 be crushed with horrible and everlasting confusion. Hear 
 the prophet : " Say unto them which daub it with untem- 
 pered mortar, that it shall fall : there shall be an overflow- 
 ing shower, and ye, O great hail-stones, shall fall, and a 
 stormy wind shall rend it. Lo, when the wall is fallen, 
 shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing where- 
 vvith ye have daubed it 1 Therefore thus saith the Lord 
 Crod, I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury j 
 and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, 
 and great hail-stones in my fury to consume it. So will 
 I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untera- 
 pered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that the 
 foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, 
 and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall 
 know that 1 am the Lord. Thus will I accomplish my 
 wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it 
 with untempered mortar, and will say unto you, The wall 
 is no more, neither they that daubed it ; to wit, the pro- 
 phets of Israel, which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, 
 and which see visions of peace for her, and there is no 
 peace, saith the Lord God" (Ezek. xiii, 11 — 16). Such as 
 "with lies make the heart of the righteous sad, whom God 
 hath not made sad ; and strengthen the hands of the wicked, 
 that he should not return from his wicked way, by promis- 
 ing him life" (ver. 22) ; these fellows hold, and would per- 
 suade mere civil men, that their estate is sound enough to 
 God-ward, whatsoever the purer and preciser brethren 
 prate to the contrary ; and yet the Holy Ghost tells us, 
 that " without holiness no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 
 xii, 14 : — That formal professors are very forward men; 
 whereas Jesus Christ professeth that he will " spew the 
 lukewarm out of his mouth :" — Nay, and if there be talk 
 even of a good fellow, especially of some more commen- 
 dable natural parts and plausible cariage ; if he be so but 
 moderately, if 1 may so speak, and not every day drunk ; 
 Well, well, will they say, we have all our faults, and that 
 is his. But as concerning the faithful servant of God, they 
 are wont to entertain the same thought of him which Ahab 
 did of Elijah, that " he was a troubler of Israel ;" which 
 one of the captains had of the prophet sent to anoint Jehu, 
 that he was a mad fellow ; which the false prophets had of 
 Micaiah, that he was a fellow of a singular and odd hu- 
 mour by himself, and guided by a private spirit of his own ; 
 which Tertullus had of Paul, that he was a pestilent fellow ;, 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 107 
 
 which the Pharisees had of Christ's followers, that they 
 were a contemptible and cursed generation, a company of 
 base, rude, illiterate underlings. Nay, sometimes when 
 the rnad fit is upon them, they will not stick to charge God's 
 people in some proportion most wickedly and falsely, as 
 the ancient heathens did the primitive Christians — with 
 conventicles and meetings of hateful impurities, faction, 
 disaffection to Cesar, and jnany other horrible things ; 
 vvhereas, poor souls, they were most innocent, and infi- 
 nitely abhorred all such villanies ; and they met in the 
 morning, even before day, not to do, God knows, any such 
 ill, but for the service of God (even their most ingenious 
 adversaries being witnesses), to sing praises to Christ. 
 God, to confirm their discipliae, forbidding all manner of 
 sin, (Sec; — with all the miscarriages, miseries, and calamities 
 that fell upon the state, as though they were the causes. 
 Whereas those few neglected ones which truly serve God 
 are the only men in all places where they live to make up 
 the hedge, and to stand in the gap against the threatened 
 inundations of God's di'eadful wrath ; and all the opposites 
 to their holy profession are the real enemies of kingdoms, 
 able by their dissoluteness and disgracing godliness to dis- 
 solve the sinews of the strongest state upon earth. Look 
 upon Amos iv, 1, 2, and there you shall find who they are 
 which cause God to enter a controversy with the inhabit- 
 ants of a land. 
 
 Hear how Austin describes some of these self-seeking and 
 soul-murdering daubers in his days : " Far be it from us," 
 saith he, " that we should say unto you, live as you list, do 
 not trouble yourselves, God will cast away none, only hold 
 the Christian faith. He will not destroy that which he 
 hath redeemed, he will not destroy those for whom he hath 
 shed his blood; and if you please to recreate yourselves at 
 plays, you may go ; what hurt is there in it 1 And you 
 may go to those feasts which are kept in all towns by jovial 
 companions, making themselves merry, as they suppose, at 
 these public meetings, but indeed rather making them- 
 selves most miserable ; I say you may go and be jovial, 
 God's mercy is great and may pardon all. Crown your- 
 selves with roses before they wither. You may fill your- 
 selves with good cheer and wine amongst your good-fellow 
 companions ; for the creature is given unto us for that pur- 
 pose, that we may enjoy it. — If we say these things, per- 
 adventure we shall have greater multitudes applaud and 
 adhere unto our doctrine. And if there be some, which 
 think, that speaking these things we are not well advised, 
 we offend but a few, and those precise ones ; but we win 
 
108 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 thereby a world of people. But if we shall thus do, speak- 
 ing not the words of God, not the words of Christ, but our 
 own ; we shall be pastors feeding ourselves, not our flock*.' 
 
 The author of the imperfect commentary in Chrysostomj. 
 sorted by somebody into homilies upon Matthew, seems to 
 intimate, that the cause of the overflowing and rankness oi 
 iniquity is the baseness of these self-preaching men-pleasers. 
 *' Take this fault from the clergy," saith he, " to wit, thai 
 they be not men-pleasers, and all sins are easily cut down ;' 
 but if they blunt the edge of the sword of the Spirit with 
 daubing, flattery, temporizing ; or strike with it in a scabbard 
 garishly and gaudily embroidered with variety of human 
 learning, tricks of wit, friar-like conceits, &c., it cannot 
 possibly cut to any purpose ; it kills the soul, but not the 
 sin. They are the only men, howsoever worldly wisdom 
 rave, and unsanctified learning be beside itself, to beat 
 down sin, batter the bulwarks of the devil, and build up 
 the kingdom of Christ, who, setting aside all private ends 
 and bye-respects, all vain- glorious, covetous, and ambitious 
 aims ; all serving the times, projects for preferment, hope 
 of rising, fear of the face of man, &c. address themselves 
 with faithfulness and zeal to the work of the Lord, seeking 
 sincerely to glorify him in converting men's souls " by the 
 foolishness of that preaching," which God hath sanctitied 
 "to save them that believe,'' in a word, who labour to 
 imitate their Lord and Master Jesus Christ and his blessed 
 apostles in teaching " as men having authority ;" in "de- 
 monstration of the Spirit and power, and not as the scribes." 
 By embroidered scabbard, I mean the very same which 
 King James not long before his death did most truly out 
 of his deep and excellent wisdom conceive to be the bane 
 of this kingdom; to wit, "a light, affected, and unprofit- 
 able kind of preaching, which hath been of late years taken 
 up in court, university, city, and country." Hear some- 
 thing more largely what reason led his royal judgment to 
 this resolution, and desire of reformation : — 
 
 " His Majesty being much troubled and grieved at the 
 heart to hear every day of so many defections from our 
 religion, both to popery and anabapiism, or other points of 
 separation, in some parts of this kingdom ; and considering 
 with much admiration what might be the cause thereof, 
 especially in the reign of such a king, who doth so con- 
 stantly profess himself an open adversary to the superstition 
 of the one, and madness of the other ; his princely wisdom 
 could fall upon no one greater probability, than the light- 
 
 ♦ Lib. de Pastoribus, toin. ix. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 109 
 
 ness, affected ness, and unprofitablene.ss of that kind of 
 preachini;, which hath been of late years too much taken 
 up in court, university, city, and country. The usual scope 
 of very many preachers is noted to be a soaring up in 
 points of divinity, too deep for the capacity of the people ; 
 or a mustering up of much reading, or a displaying of their 
 own wits, &c. Now the people bred up with this kind of 
 teaching, and never instructed in the catechism and funda- 
 mental grounds of religion, are for all this airy nourishment 
 no better than abrasa: tahulce, mere table books, ready to be 
 filled up, either with the manuals and catechisms of the 
 popish priests, or the papers and pamphlets of anabap- 
 tists*," &c. 
 
 In another place he resembles with admirable fitness the 
 unprofitable pomp and painting of such self-seeking dis- 
 courses, patched together, and stuffed with a vain-glorious 
 variety of human allegations, " to the red and blue floweis 
 that pester the corn, when it stands in the field ; where they 
 are more noisome to the growing crop than beautiful to the 
 beholding eye" — they are King James's own words t; 
 whereupon a little after he tells the Cardinal, that " it was 
 no decorum to enter the stage with a Pericles in his mouth, 
 but with the sacred name of God. Nor should his lordship," 
 saith his Majesty, " have marshalled the passage of a royal 
 prophet and poet, after the example of a heathen orator." 
 
 These things being so, how pestilent is the an of spiritual 
 daubing! What miserable men are men-pleasers, who 
 being appointed to help men's souls out of hell, carry them 
 headlong and hoodwinked by their unfaithfulness and 
 flatteries towards everlasting miseries? Oh, how much 
 better were it, and comfortable for every man that enters 
 upon and undertakes that most weighty and dreadful charge 
 of the ministry, a burthen, as some of the ancients elegantly 
 amplify it, able to make the shoulders of the most mighty 
 angel in heaven to shiink under it, to tread in the steps of 
 blessed Paul, by using " no flattering words, nor u cloak of co- 
 vetousness, nor seeking glory of men ; but preaching in season 
 and out of season ; not as the scribes, but in the demonstra- 
 tion of the Spirit and of power ; keeping nothing back that 
 is profitable, declaring unto their hearers all the counsel of 
 God ; " holding the spiritual children which God hath 
 given them, their " gloiy, joy, and crown of rejoicing ; still 
 watching for the souls of tlieir flock, as they that must give 
 
 * King James. The reasons of the I'ving's directions fur Preacliing 
 and Preitchers, as I received them from the ha.'id of a public register. 
 
 t In tiie Preface to his Remonstrance against an Oration of Car- 
 dinal Perron. 
 
 L 
 
no INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 account" (Heb. xiii, 17) ; the terror of which place, Chry- 
 sostom professeth, made his heart to tremble ; — I say, by 
 such holy and heavenly behaviour as this, in their ministry, 
 to be able at least to say with him in sincerity, not without 
 unspeakable comfort ; " I take you to record this day that 
 I am pure from the blood of all men ! " (Acts xx, 26.) Let 
 us be moved to this course and frighted from the contrary by 
 consideration of the different effects and consequences of 
 plain dealing and daubing, in respect of comfort or confu- 
 sion. Faithfulness this way, — 
 
 1. Begets those which belong unto God to grace and new 
 obedience. See Peter's piercing sermon, Acts ii, 14—36. 
 
 2. Recovers those Christians which are fallen, by remorse 
 and repentance, to their former forwardness and first love. 
 See Nathan's downright dealing with David, 2 Sam. xii, 
 7-13. 
 
 3. Makes those which will not be reformed inexcusable. 
 See Paul's Sermon to Felix, Acts xxiv, 25. How strangely 
 will this man be confounded, and more than utterly without 
 all excuse, when he shall meet Paul at that great day be- 
 fore the highest Judge ! 
 
 4. It is very pleasing and profitable to upright- hearted 
 men, and all such as happily hold on in a constant and com- 
 fortable course of Christianity. " Do not my words do 
 good to him that walketh uprightly!" (Micah ii, 7.) Jt 
 makes them still more humble, zealous, watchful, heavenly- 
 minded, &c. 
 
 5. Hardens the rebellious and contumacious. See Isa. vi. 
 In which faithful ministers are also "unto God a sweet 
 savour of Christ" (2 (^or. ii, 15). 
 
 6. And the man of God himself shall hereafter blessedly 
 " shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars 
 for ever and ever ; " and all those happy ones which he 
 hath pulled out of hell by his downright dealing, shall reign 
 and rejoice with him in unknown and unspeakable bliss 
 through all eternity. 
 
 But now on the other side, the effects of daubing and 
 men -pleasing are most accursed and pestilent in many 
 respects. 
 
 1. In respect of God's word and messages : First, not 
 dividing it and dispensing them aright. Secondly, dis- 
 honouring the majesty and weakening the power of them 
 many times with the unprofitable mixture of human allega- 
 tions, ostentations of wit, fine friar-like conceits, &c. Even 
 as we may see at harvest time a land of j;ood corn quite 
 choked up with red, blue, and yellow flowers, as Kintj 
 James doth excellently nllude in the forecited place. Thirdly, 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. Ill 
 
 iearful profaning ihem by misapplication against Cod's 
 will, "making the heart of the righteous sad, whom God 
 would not have made sad : and strengthening the hands of 
 the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, 
 by promising him life " (Ezek. xiii, 22). Fourthly, viilanous 
 perverting and abusing them to their own advantage, ap- 
 plause, rising, revenge, and such other private ends. 
 
 2. In respect of the flattering and unfaithful ministers 
 themselves. First, extreme vileness (Isa. ix, 15). Secondly, 
 guiltiness of spiritual bloodshed (Ezek. iii, 18). Thirdly, 
 liableness to the fierce wrath of God in the day of visitation 
 (Jer. xiv, 15 ; 1 Kings xxii, 25). 
 
 3. In respect of their hearers, who delight in their lies, 
 in their smooth and silken sermons; sudden, horrible, and 
 unavoidable confusion (Isa. xxx, 13, 14). 
 
 4. Burning both together in hell for ever without timely 
 and true repentance, cursing there each other continually, 
 and crying with mutual hideous yellings, " O thou destroyer 
 of our souls, hadst thou been faithful in thy ministry, we 
 had escaped these eternal flames ! " — " O miserable man 
 that I am ! Wo is me that ever I was minister ; for now, 
 besides the horror due unto the guiltiness of mine own un- 
 done soul, I have drawn upon me by my unfaithfsl dealing 
 the cry of the blood of all those souls who have perished 
 under my ministry, to the everlasting enraging of my already 
 intolerable torment," 
 
 Give me leave to conclude this point with that pathetical 
 and zealous passage of reverend and learned Greenham 
 against negligent pastors, amongst whom I may justly rank 
 and reckon all daubers and men-pleasers ; for self-preachers 
 are for the most part seldom-preachers. Hear his words : — 
 
 " Were there any love of God from their hearts in those, 
 who, instead of feeding to salvation, starve many thousands 
 to destruction ; I dare say, and say it boldly, that for all 
 the promotions under heaven they would notofl'er that injury 
 to one soul, that now they offer to many hundred souls. 
 But, Lord, how do they think to give up their reckoning to 
 thee, who in most strict account wilt take the answer of 
 every soul committed unto them one by one ! Or with what 
 concern do they often hear that vehement speech of our 
 Saviour Christ, Feed, feed, feed ! With what eyes do they 
 so often read that piercing speech of the apostle. Feed the 
 flock committed unto you ! But if none of these will move 
 them, then the Lord open their eyes to hear the grievous 
 groans of many souls lying under the grisly altars of de- 
 struction, and complaining against them ; * O Lord, the 
 revenger of blood, behold theso men whom thou hast set 
 
11-2 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 over us to give us the bread of life, but they have not given 
 it us. Our tongues and the tongues of our children have 
 stuck to the roof of our mouths for calling and crying, and 
 they would not take pity on us. We have given tbem the 
 tenths v^hich thou appointedst us, but they have not given 
 us thy truth which thou hast commanded them. Reward 
 them, O Lord, as they have rev/arded us. J>et the bread 
 between their teeth turn to rottenness in the boweh. Let 
 them be clothed with shame and confusion of face as with a 
 garment. Let their wealth, as the dung from the earth, be 
 swept away by their executors ; and upon their gold and 
 silver, which they have falsely treasured up, let continually 
 be written, The price of blood, the price of blood ; for it 
 is the value of our blood, O Lord. If thou didst hear the 
 blood of Abel, being but one man, forget not the blood of 
 many, when thou goest into judgment *.' " 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 A general Direction for avoiding the former Error. 
 
 I NOW leturn to rectify and tender a remedy against the first 
 aberration, which I told you was this : \Vhen mercy, Christ, 
 the promises, salvation, heaven, and all are applied hand 
 over head, and falsely appropriated to unhumbled sinners, 
 whose souls were never rightly enlightened with sight of sin 
 and weight of God's wrath, nor afflicted to any purpose 
 with any legal wound or hearty compunction by the spirit 
 of bondage ; in whose hearts a sense of their spiritual misery 
 and want hath not yet raised a restless and kindly thirst 
 after Jesus Christ ; in this case my advice is, that all those 
 who deal with others about their spiritual states, and under- 
 take to direct in that high and weighty affair of men's salva- 
 tion, cither publicly or privately, in their ministry, visita- 
 tions of the sick, or otherwise ; that they would follow that 
 course of which I largely discoursed a little before, taken 
 by God himself, his prophets, his Son, the apostles, and all 
 those men of God in all ages who have set themselves with 
 sincerity, faithfulness, and all good conscience to seek God's 
 glory in the salvation of men's souls, to discharge aright 
 their dreadful charge, and " to keep themselves pure from 
 the blood of all men ; " to wit, that they labour with all 
 earnestness, in the first place, by the knowledge, power, 
 and application of the law, to enlighten, convince, and 
 
 * Godly Observations, concerning divers Arguments and Commcit 
 Pliices ill Religion, chap. xiii. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. lU 
 
 lerrify those that they have to do with, concerning conver- 
 sion, with a sensible, particular apprehension and acknow- 
 ledgment of their wretcliedness and miserable estate, by 
 reason of their sinfulness and cursedness ; to break their 
 hearts, bruise their spirits, humble their souls, wound and 
 awake their consciences ; to bring them by all means to that 
 legal astonishment, trouble of mind, and melting temper, 
 whicli the ministry of John Baptist, Paul, and Peter 
 wrought upon the hearts of their hearers (Luke iii, 10, 12, 
 14; Acts ii, 37; xvi, 30), that they may come crying feel- 
 ingly and from the heart to those men of God who happily 
 fastened those keen arrows of compunction and remorse in 
 the sides of their consciences; and say, "Men and 
 brethren, what shall we dol Sirs, what must we do to be 
 saved { '' As if they sliould have said, Alas ! we see now 
 we have been in hell all this while ; and if we had gone on 
 a little longer, we had most certainly lain for ever in the 
 fiery lake. The devil and our own lusts were carrying us 
 hoodwinked and headlong towards endless perdition. Who 
 would have thought we had been such abominable beasts 
 and abhorred creatures as your ministry hath made us, and 
 in so forlorn and woful estate? Now, you blessed men of 
 God, help us out of this gulf of spiritual confusion, or we 
 are lost everlastingly. By your discovery of our present 
 sinful and cursed estate, we feel our hearts torn in pieces 
 with extreme and restless anguish, as though many fiery 
 scorpions' stings stuck fast in them. Either lead us to the 
 sight of that blessed antitype of the brazen serpent to cool 
 and allay the boiling rage of our guilty wounds, or we are 
 utterly undone. Either bring us to the blood of that just 
 and holy One, which with execrable villany we have spilt 
 as water upon the ground, that it may bind up our broken 
 hearts, or they will presently burst with despair and bleed 
 to eternal death. Give us to drink of that sovereign foun- 
 tain opened by the hand of mercy for all thirsty souls, or 
 else we die. There is nothing you can prescribe and appoint, 
 but we will most willingly do. We will with all our hearts 
 "pluck out our right eyes, cut off our right hands;" we 
 mean, part with our beloved lusts and dearest sinful plea- 
 sures ; abominate and abandon them all for ever, from the 
 heart root to the pit of hell. If we can be rid of the devil's 
 fetters, welcome shall be Christ's sweet and easy yoke. In 
 a word, we will sell all, even all our sins, to the last filthy 
 rag of our heretofore doted-upon and darling delight, so that 
 we may enjoy our blessed Jesus, whom you have told us, 
 and we now believe, "God hath made both Lord and 
 Christ." 
 
 L 3 
 
114 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 Now, when we shall see and find in some measure the 
 hearts of our hearers and spiritual patients thus prepared, 
 both by legal dejections and terrors from the spirit of bond- 
 age, and also possessed with such melting and eager affec- 
 tions, wrought by the light of the gospel and offer of Christ ; 
 when their souls once begin to feel ail sins, even their best 
 beloved one, heavy and burthensome ; to prize Jesus Christ 
 far before all the world ; to thirst for him infinitely more 
 than for riches, pleasures, honours, or any earthly thing .; 
 to resolve to take him as their husband, and to obey him as 
 their Lord for ever, and all this in truth ; — 1 say, then and 
 in this case we may have reason to minister comfort ; then 
 upon good ground we may go about our Master's command, 
 which man-pleasers many times pitifully abuse, " Comfort 
 ye, comfort ye my people : " I mean in respect of spiritual 
 bondage. "Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry 
 unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity 
 is pardoned " (Isa. xl, 1, 2). We may tell them with what 
 a compassionate and tender address God himself labours to 
 refresh them. " O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and 
 not comforted, behold, 1 will lay thy stones with fair 
 colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires" (Isa. liv, 
 11). We may assure them in the word of life and truth, 
 that Jesus Christ is theirs, and they are his ; and compel 
 them, as it were, by a holy violence, not without a great 
 deal of just indignation against their loathness to believe 
 and holding off in this case, to take his person, his merit, 
 his blood, all his spiritual riches, privileges, excellencies, 
 and with him possession of all things, even of the most 
 glorious Deity itself, blessed for ever. See 1 Cor. iii, 21, 22, 
 23; Johnxvii,21. 
 
 But now in the mean time, until sense of spiritual misery 
 and poverty raise an hunger and thirst after Jesus Christ, 
 before such like preparations and precedent affections as 
 have been spoken of be wrought in the hearts of men by 
 pressing the law and proclaiming the gospel, and that in 
 sinceiity (for the degree and measure we leave it to God, 
 as a most free agent, in some they may be stronger, in some 
 weaker), the preaching or promising of mercy, as already 
 belonging unto them, is far more unseasonable and unseemly 
 than snow in summer, rain in harvest, or honour for a fool. 
 It is, in short, the very sealing them up with the spirit of 
 delusion, that they may never so much as think of taking 
 the right course to be converted. What sottish and sacri- 
 legious audaciousness then is it in any dauber to thrust his 
 profane hand into the treasury of God's mercy, and there 
 carelessly, without any allowance from his highest ]-,ord, to 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 115 
 
 scatter his dearest and most orient pearls amongst swine! 
 To warrant salvation to any unhumbled sinner! "To 
 strengthen the hands of the wicked," who never yet took 
 sin to heart to any purpose ; and thirst far more (such true 
 Gadarenes are they) after gold, satisfying their own lusts 
 and perking above their brethren, than for the blood of 
 Christ, by promising them life ! To assure mere civil men, 
 and Pharisees, who are so far from the sense of any spiritual 
 poverty, that they are already swoln as full as the skin will 
 hold with a self-conceit of their own rotten righteousness, 
 that they shall be saved as well as the most strict disciple 
 of Christ I Especially since there is such a cloud of wit- 
 nesses to the contrary, as you have heard before. Besides 
 all which, upon this occasion take two or three more. Hear 
 a most faithful and fruitful workman in the Lord's harvest, 
 of great skill, experience, and success in the most glorious 
 art of converting souls, which makes me more willing to 
 urge his authority, and esteem his judgment in points of 
 this nature*. "None," saith he, "can prove or show 
 precedent, that faith was wrought in an instant at first, 
 without any preparation going before. Nor can it be con- 
 ceived how a man should believe in Christ for salvation, 
 that felt not himself before in a miserable estate, and 
 wearied with it, and desired to get out of it into a better. 
 As the needle goes before to pierce the cloth, and makes 
 way for the thread to sew it, so is it in this case." After- 
 ward he tells us how and in what inanner and order these 
 predispositions and preparative acts, required for the plan- 
 tation of faith and so securing us of the right season, and 
 a comfortable calling to assure men of spiritual safety, are 
 wrought in such as God is drawing unto Jesus Christ. He 
 requires from the law, first, illumination ; secondly, convic- 
 tion ; thirdly, legal terror. From the gospel, by the help of 
 the Spirit : first, revealing the remedy ; secondly, belief of it 
 in general ; thirdly, present support from sinking under the 
 burthen and falling into despair ; fourthly, contrition, which 
 is attended with some kind of, first, desire ; secondly, re- 
 quest ; thirdly, care ; fourthly, hope ; fifthly, joy ; sixthly, 
 hungering and thirsting after mercy and after Christ ; 
 seventhly, resolution to sell all, to wit, all sins, not to leave 
 a hoof behind, &c. " And thus," saith he, " God brings 
 along the man that he purposeth to make his ; and when he 
 is at this pass, God seals it up to him and enables him to 
 believe ; and saith. Since thou wilt have no nay, be it unto 
 thee according to thy desire ; and God seals him up by the 
 
 * Uogers of Deilhain, in his Doctrine of Faith. 
 
116 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 Spirit of promise, as surely as any writing is made sure by 
 sealing of it. Then he believes the word of God, and 
 rests and casts himself upon it. And thus he finds himself 
 discharged of all woe, made partaker of all good, at peace 
 in himself, and fitted and in tune to do God service. This 
 is to some sooner, to some later, according to the helps 
 and means they have, and wise handling they meet withal, 
 aiid as God gives power. It is hard to say at what instant 
 faith is wrought, whether not till a man feels that he appre- 
 hends tire promises, or even in his earnest desires, hunger- 
 ing and diirsting ; for even these are pronounced blessed." 
 
 But here (for 1 desire and endeavour as much as I can 
 possibly in every passage to prevent all matter both of 
 scruple in the upright-hearted, and of cavil in the contrary 
 minded) let no truly humbled sinner be discouraged, because 
 he cannot find in himself these several workings, or other 
 graces, in that degree and height, which he desires and hath 
 perhaps seen, heard, or read of in some others. If he have 
 them in truth, and truly thirsts and labours for their increase, 
 he may go on with comfort. Neither let any be disheart- 
 ened, though he did not observe so distinctly the order of 
 the precedent acts, nor could discern so punctually their 
 several operations in his soul ; yet, if in substance and ef- 
 fect they have been wrought in him, and made way for 
 Jesus Christ, he need not complain. 
 
 As this man of God in experimental divinity, so our re- 
 nowned and invincible champions in their polemical dis- 
 courses upon other occasions speak to the same purpose, 
 telling us also of some antecedent acts humbling and pre- 
 paring the soul for conversion. " There are," say they, 
 " certain internal effects going before conversion or regene- 
 ration, which by virtue of the word and Spirit are wrought 
 in the hearts of tliose which are not yet justified ; such as, 
 illumination of the mind and conscience with the know- 
 ledge of the word and will of God for that purpose ; sense of 
 sin ; fear of punishment, or legal terror ; advising and cast- 
 ing about for enlargement from such a miserable estate ; 
 some hope of pardon*," &c. Let me but add one other, 
 and he also of excellent learning, and then I have done. 
 " Such is the nature of man," saith het, " that before he 
 can receive a true justifying faith, he must, as it were, be 
 broken in pieces by the law (Jer. xxiii, 29). We are to be 
 led from the fear of slaves through the fear of penitents to 
 the fear of sons ; and indeed one of these makes way for 
 
 * Sutfrag. Colleg. Tlieologoruiii Magna' lUitamiiie. 
 + Yates, in his Model of L>iviuity, book ii, chap. xxvi. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 117 
 
 another, and the perfect love thrusts out fear; yet must 
 fear bring in that perfect love, as a needle or bristle draws 
 in the thread after it; or as the potion brings health. In 
 the preparation and fitting us for our being in Christ, he 
 requireth two things : First, the cutting us otl' as it were from 
 the wild olive-tree: by wfiich he meaneth two things: 1st, 
 a violent pulling of us out of the corruption of nature, or a 
 cutting, as it were, by the knife of the law, of an unregene- 
 rate man from his security, &c. : 2dly, a violent attrac- 
 tion to Christ for ease ; man at the first plainly refusing it. 
 The hunted beast flies to his den, the pursued malefactor to 
 the horns of the altar, or city of refuge. Paul's misery 
 drives him to God's mercy (Rom. vii, 24). The Israelites 
 •are driven into their chambers by the destroying angel ; 
 Balaam is made to lean back by the naked sword ; Agur to 
 run to Ithiel and Ucal, that is, Christ, when he is con- 
 founded with his own brutishness (Prov. xxx, 1, 2, 3). God 
 must let loose his law, sin, conscience, and Satan to bait us, 
 and kindle hell fire in our souls, before we shall be driven 
 to seek to Christ. Secondly, a paring and trimming of us 
 for our putting into Christ by our humiliation for sin, which 
 is thus wrought. God giveth the sinner to see by the law 
 his sin and the punishment of it, the detection whereof 
 drives him to compunction and a pricking of heart, which is 
 greater or lesser, and carries with it divers symptoms and 
 sensible passions of grief; and works a sequestration from 
 his former courses, and makes him loathe himself,'* &cc. 
 
 And yet by the way take this caution and forewarning : 
 If any should think of these precedent acts, these prepara- 
 tive workings of the law and gospel, which make way for 
 the infusion of faith, as any meritorious means to draw on 
 Christ, it were a m.ost false, rotten, foolish, execrable, po- 
 pish, absurd, Luciferian misconceit, and might justly merit 
 never to obtain mercy at God's bountiful hands, nor part 
 in the merits of Christ. I speak thus to fright every one 
 for ever from any such abhorred thought. God the Father 
 offers his Son most freely. " God so loved the world, that 
 he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on 
 him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John iii, 
 16). " Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given" 
 (Isa. ix, 6). " If thou knewest the gift of God," saith 
 Christ unto the woman of Samaria, " and who it is that 
 saith to thee, give me to drink." ( Jotin iv, 10). " Much 
 more they, which receive abundance of grace, and of the 
 gift of righteousness," &;c. (Rom. v, 17). Christ calleth 
 himself a " gift," and it is called the "gift of righteous- 
 ness ; " and nothing so free as gift. And therefore those di- 
 
118 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 vines speak not unfitly who say, "It is given unto us, as 
 fathers give lands and inheritance to their children; as 
 kings give pardons to their subjects, having merited death. 
 They give them, because they will, out of the freeness of 
 their minds.'' All those who would come unto Christ, and 
 desire to take him as their wisdom, rigliteousness, sanctifi- 
 cation, and redemption, must be utterly unbottomed of 
 themselves, and built only on the rich and free mercy of 
 God revealed in the gospel. They must be emptied first of 
 all conceit of any righteousness or worth in themselves at 
 all. Secondly, of all hope of any ability or possibility to 
 help themselves. Nay, tilled, thirdly, with sense of their 
 own unworthiness, naughtiness, nothingness. Fourthly, 
 and with such a thirst after that water of life, that they are 
 most willing to sell all for it, and cry heartily. Give me 
 drink, or else I die. And then when they are thus most no- 
 thing in themselves, and do so long for the " rivers ot living 
 water," they are certainly most welcome unto Jesus Christ, 
 and may take him most freely. Hear how sweetly he calls 
 them : " Ho ! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
 waters ; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy, and eat ; 
 yea come, buy wine and milk, without money, and without 
 price" (Isa. lv,l). "In the last day, that great day of 
 the feast, Jesus stood, and cried, saying. If any man thirst, 
 let him come unto me and drink. lie that believeth on me, 
 as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers 
 of living water" (John vii, 37, 38). "It is done: I am 
 Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give 
 unto him that is atliirst, of the fountain of the water of life 
 freely " ( Revel, xxi, 6). " And let him that is athirst come, 
 and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" 
 (Rev xxii, 17). We must therefore by no means conceive 
 of the forenamed preparative humiliations and precedent 
 works of the law and gospel as of any meritorious qualifi- 
 cations to draw on Christ (for he is given most freely), but 
 as of needful predispositions to drive us unto Christ. For 
 a man must feel himself in misery before he will go about 
 to find a remedy ; be sick before he will seek the physician ; 
 be in prison before he will sue for a pardon ; be wounded 
 before he will prize a plaister and precious balsam. A 
 sinner must be weary of iiis former wicked ways, and tired 
 with legal terror, before he will have recourse to Jesus 
 Christ for refreshing, and lay down his bleeding soul in his 
 blessed bosom. He must be sensible of his spiritual po- 
 verty, beggary, and slavery under the devil, before he 
 thirst for heavenly righteousness, and willingly take up 
 Christ's sweet and easy yoke. He must be cast down, con- 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 119 
 
 founded, condemned, a cast-away, and lost in himself, be- 
 fore lie will look about for a Saviour. He must cry hear- 
 tily, " 1 am unclean, 1 am unclean," before he will long 
 and labour to wash in that most sovereign and soul-saving 
 fountain, opened to the house of David and to the inhabi- 
 tants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness " (Zech. 
 xiii, 1). He must sell all, before he will be willing and 
 eager to buy the treasure hid in the field. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Four particnlar directions for the avoiding this error. I. How the 
 Law is to be pressed. II. How the Gospel to be preached. III. How 
 Christ to be proposed. IV. How pardon to be assured. Am! ways 
 to be used for the putting of these directions in practice. 
 
 Now thus to prepare, wound, afflict, and humble the soul 
 that it may be fitted for Jesus Christ, and so for comfort 
 upon good ground, let ministers, or whosoever meddle in 
 matters of this nature, publicly or privately, use all war- 
 rantable means, let them press the law, promise mercy, 
 propose Christ, &cc., do what they will seasonably and 
 wisely. Let them improve all their learning, wisdom, dis- 
 cretion, mercifulness, experience, wit, eloquence, sanctified 
 unto them for that purpose, so that the work be done. 
 
 I. In pressing the law, besides other dexterities and di- 
 rections for managing their ministry in this point success- 
 fully by God's blessing, let them take notice of this parti- 
 cular, which may prove very available to begin this legal 
 work. It is a principle attended with much success. 
 
 Pressing upon men's consciences with a zealous, discreet 
 powerfulness their special, principal, fresh bleeding sins, 
 is a notable means to break their hearts and bring them to 
 remorse. That most heinous and bloody sin of killing 
 Jesus Christ, in which they had newly imbrued their hands, 
 pressed upon the consciences of Peter's hearers, breaks and 
 tears their hearts in pieces (Acts ii, 23, 36, 37). So adul- 
 tery, secretly intimated by Christ's words unto the wo- 
 man of Samaria (John iv, 18), seems to have struck her to 
 the heart (ver. 19). So the Jews having idolatry pressed 
 upon their consciences by Samuel (1 Sam. vii, 6) ; the 
 sin of asking a king (1 Sam. xii, 19) ; usury by Nehemiah 
 (chap. V, 12) ; strange wives by Ezra (chap, x, 9), were 
 thereupon mightily moved and much softened in their 
 hearts, as appears in the cited places. Consider for this 
 purpose that work upon David's heart by Nathan's minis- 
 
120 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 try, and Felix trembling when Paul struck him on the 
 right vein. 
 
 The reasons why this more particular discovery and de- 
 nouncing of judgment against a man's principal sin is like 
 God assisting with the spirit of bondage to put such life into 
 the work of the law, are such as these : — 
 
 1. " The sword of the Spirit," which is the word of God, 
 being wielded by the hand of the Holy Ghost, and edged, 
 as it were, with the special power of God's blessing for the 
 cutting asunder of the iron sinews of a stubborn and stony 
 heart, doth crush and conquer, strike through and break m 
 pieces with an irresistible power, proportioned to the inso- 
 lency or easiness of resistance. My meaning is this, as 
 philosophers say of the lightning, that by reason of the 
 easiness of the passage, weakness of resistance, porosity of 
 the parts, it pierceth through the purse, scabbard, and bark, 
 without any such scorching and visible hurt ; but melts the 
 money, the sword, rends and shivers the tree, because their 
 substance and solidity doth more exercise and improve its 
 activeness and ability : so this spiritual sword, though it 
 strike at every sin, and passeth through " even to the di- 
 viding asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and 
 marrow," yet the hairy pate of the main corruption and 
 master sin it wounds with a witness ; it there tortures and 
 teais in pieces with extraordinary anguish and smart, 
 searching and sense ; for that opposeth with the most 
 flinty iron sinew, to blunt and deaden its edge if it were 
 possible. 
 
 2. In consciences regularly and rightly wounded and 
 awakened, sins are wont to bite and sting proportionably 
 to tlieir heinousness and the exorbitancy of their form.er 
 sensual impressions. Some like a mastiff, some like a scor- 
 pion, some like a wolf in the evening. But understand, 
 that spiritual anguish surpasseth immeasurably any corporal 
 pain, therefore conceive of them with a vast disproportion. 
 Now the darling delight or captain sin frighting the heart 
 with greatest horror, and stinging with extremity propor- 
 tionable to its former outrages upon conscience, doth by an 
 accidental power (God blessing the business) give a great 
 stroke to drive a man to deepest detestation of himself, to 
 throw him down to the lowest step of penitent dejection, to 
 render more eager his thirsty greediness after pardon and 
 grace, and at length to terrify him out of his natural 
 estate. 
 
 3. A man's principal and most prevailing sin is Satan's 
 strongest hold. When he is in danger to be dislodged and 
 driven by the power of the word out of the other parts of 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 121 
 
 the soul, as it were, and from possession of a man by all 
 other sins, he retires hither as to his castle and most impreg- 
 nable fort. And therefore if this be soundly beaten upon 
 by the hammer and horror of the law, and battered about 
 his ears, he will be quickly enforced to quit the place alto- 
 gether. 
 
 It may be good counsel then, and often seasonable, to 
 say unto those men of God who desire to drive the devil 
 out of others in some sort, as the king of Syria said to his 
 captains, " Fight neither with small nor great, save only 
 with the king of Igrael." My meaning is, let them address 
 the sharpest edge of their spiritual sword, yet as well with 
 a holy charitable discretion as with resolute downright 
 dealing, against those sins which bear greatest sway in 
 them they have to deal with. Be it their covetousness, 
 ambition, lust, drunkenness, lukewarmness, monstrousness 
 of the fashion, sacrilege, oppression, usury, backsliding, 
 murder, luxury, opposition to the good way, hatred of the 
 saints, or what other sin soever they discover in them to 
 minister greatest advantage to Satan, to keep them fastest 
 in his clutches. No sin must be spared, but let the reign- 
 ing sin be thrust at especially. 
 
 II. For opening of the most rich and orient mines of all 
 those sweetest mercies folded up within the bowels of God's 
 dearest compassions and of the mystery of his free grace 
 and love through the Son of his love ; upon purpose to in- 
 vite and allure those that are without to come in ; and to 
 stir up our hearers to bring broken hearts, bruised spirits, 
 bleeding souls unto the throne of grace, upon the same 
 ground, but infinitely more gracious, that encouraged the 
 servants of Benhadad to address them.selves towards the 
 king of Israel ; " And his servants said unto him, Behold 
 now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel 
 are merciful kings : let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth on 
 our loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king 
 of Israel : peradventure he will save thy life" (1 Kings xx, 
 31). The most desperate rebels heretofore, upon present 
 true remorse for their former rage in sin, resolving sincerely 
 to stand on God's side for ever hereafter, may safely and upon 
 good ground thus reason within themselves : Alas ! we liave 
 done very villanously ; we have served Satan along time ; we 
 walk up and down as condemned men, ripe fordestruclionlong 
 ago ; hell itself even groans for us ; we may justly look every 
 moment for a mittimus to cast us headlong into the dungeon 
 of brimstone and fire ; and yet we will try ; we will go and 
 throw down ourselves before the throne of grace in dust 
 and ashes, and cry as the publican did unto the great God 
 
 M 
 
122 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 of heaven ; for he is a " merciful God, gracious, long-sui- 
 fering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for 
 thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin." And 
 then, not only peradventure, but most certainly, they shall 
 be received to mercy, and he will save the life of their 
 souls ; for this point of preaching mercy only to hearten 
 men to come in, and to nourish in them a hope of pardon in 
 case of penitency, &c., see my Discourse of True Happi- 
 ness. And I will only add and advise at this time this one 
 thing of great importance in the point, that after a plenti- 
 ful magnifying and amplifying the merqy of God, by its 
 infiniteness, eternity, freeness, and incomparable excellency 
 every way, only upon purpose to assure the greatest sinneis 
 of most certain acceptation and pardon if they will presently 
 turn with truth of heart from Satan to the living God, 
 from all sin to his holy service ; I say, that we then take 
 heed and make sure as much as in us lies, that no impeni- 
 tent unbelieving wretch, none that goes on in his trespasses 
 and sins, willingly and delightfully in any one sin, receive 
 any comfort by any such discourse, as though as yet he had 
 any part or interest at all in any one drop of all that bound- 
 less and bottomless sea of mercy ; that were a means to 
 nail him fast to his natural estate for ever. But only thence 
 conceive, that if he will presently lay down arms against 
 the INJajesty of heaven, and come in with a truly penitent, 
 humbled soul, thirsting heartily for Jesus Clnist, and re- 
 solve unfeignedly to take his yoke upon him, there is no 
 number or notoriousness of sins that can possibly hinder his 
 gracious entertainment at God's mercy seat. For this end, 
 let us tell all such, that though the mercies of God be in- 
 finite, yet they are dispensed according to his truth. Now 
 the oracles of divine truth tell us, that those who shall find 
 mercy are such as confess and forsake their sins. " Whoso 
 confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy" (Prov. 
 xxviii, 13). Those men who do not confess and forsake 
 them shall have no mercy. That the parties to whom good 
 tidings of mercy and comfort are to be preached, are the 
 "poor, the broken- hearted, them that are bruised, those 
 that labour and are heavy laden, all that mourn," &c. 
 (Luke iv, 18 ; Matt, xi, 28 ; Isa. Ixi, 2, 3). J hat the man 
 to whom the Lord looks graciously, is " even he that is 
 poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at his word" 
 (Isa. Ixvi, 2). That whosoever by his free mercy through 
 Christ "is born of God, doth not commit sin" (1 John iii, 
 9) ; I mean with allowance, purpose, perseverance. No 
 sin reigns in such a one, &:c. And yet, alas ! how many 
 miserable men will needs most falsely persuade themselves 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 123 
 
 and others that they have a portion in the mercies of God, 
 and hug with extraordinary applause and embracement the 
 formal flatterinu; messages of men-pleasers and time- 
 servers, to daub over such rotten hopes, who yet notwith- 
 standing " go on still in their trespasses j who were never 
 yet sensible of the burthen of their corruptions and spi- 
 ritual beggary ; never wounded in conscience, or troubled 
 in mind to any purpose for their sins ; never mourned in 
 secret and sincerely for the abominations of their youth ; 
 could never yet find in their hearts to sell all for the buy- 
 ing of that one pearl of great price ; nor ever yet so prized 
 Jesus Christ as to leave their darling pleasures, though very 
 base and abominable, to enjoy the unspeakable and glorious 
 pleasures of his gracious kingdom 1 Nay, such as heartily 
 serve some captain and commanding sin in heart, or life, 
 or calling, as their own consciences, if they consult with 
 them impartially in cool blood, can easily tell them ; as lust, 
 the world, ambition, the times, the fashion, their pleasures, 
 their profits, their passions, their ease, self- love, pride, 
 revenge, the dunghill delight of good fellowship, or the 
 like. 
 
 And here then let me discover a notable depth of Satan, 
 whereby he doth batHe and blindfold his slaves most grossly. 
 You know full well and hear often the common cry of all 
 carnal men, especially under any conscientious ministry, 
 against preaching of judti;ment, and for preaching of mercy. 
 (See the causes why they cannot approve downright deal- 
 ings and powerful application of the law, in my Discourse 
 of True Happiness.) But what do you think is the reason 
 that they gape so greedily after preaching of mercy 1 Not 
 that they can endure the preaching of it, as I now have 
 taught, and as it only ought to those that are without ; to 
 wit, to have first the dearaess, the sweetness, the freeness, 
 the full glory of God's immeasurable mercy revealed unto 
 them, only as a motive and encouragement to come in, 
 but ever at the close and conclusion to be made to under- 
 stand and know certainly, that not so much as one drop of 
 all that bottomless depth of mercy and bounty in Jesus 
 Christ doth as yet belong unto them, lying in any state of 
 unregenerateness, or in in any kind of hypocrisy, whilst 
 they "regard any wickedness in their heart," and are not 
 willing to " pluck out their right eyes and cut off their right 
 hands ;" I mean, to make an everlasting divorce from their 
 former dearest sensual delights and sins of their bosom : 
 for only " they who confess and forsake their sins shall 
 have mercy" (Prov. xxviii, 13). This way of preaching 
 mercy would nettle and gall them a? much perhaps as 
 
124 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 pressing of judgment. Nay, why not more? Proportion- 
 ably to that which divines hold, that the privation and loss 
 of heavenly joys and the beatific presence of God is far more 
 bitter than the torments of sense and positive pains of hell. 
 But to tell you their true meaning and their very hearts : 
 their aim in so complaining and calling for mercy from our 
 ministry is to have it so and in such a manner proposed and 
 preached, that they may thence collect and conceive, that 
 they are in state good enough to go to heaven as they are, 
 though in truth they be mere strangers to the life of God 
 and holy strictness of the saints ; were never truly humbled 
 with sight of sin and sense of wrath, nor experimentally ac- 
 quainted at all with the mystery of the new birth ; that they 
 may conclude and say within themselves, Howsoever some 
 ministers of the purer and preciser strain fright us continually 
 with nothing but judgment, terror, damnation, and will not 
 suffer us to be quiet, no not so much as in one sin, yet it is 
 our good hap sometimes to meet with some merciful men 
 who will help us to heaven without so much ado, and upon 
 easier terms. In a word, they would if possible have just so 
 much mercy as might assure and warrant them to carry se- 
 curely their sins in their bosom to heaven with them ; to 
 live as they list in this life, and to die the death of the 
 righteous ; which is a conceit most ridiculous, absurd, and 
 more than utterly impossible. What a hateful trick then 
 is this, and horrible imposture, which they suffer Satan to 
 put upon them. 
 
 111. In proposing of Christ, let the man of God set out as 
 much as he can possibly the excellency of his person, the 
 invaludblepreciousness of his blood, the riches of his heavenly 
 purchases, the gracious sweetness of his invitations, the 
 generality and freeness of his offers (INI ark xvi, 16 ; Matt, 
 xi, 28 ; John vii,37; Revel, xxii, 17) ; the glorious privileges 
 he brings with him, reconciliation to God, adoption, forgive- 
 ness of sins, justification, righteousness, wisdom, sanctifica- 
 tion, redemption, 6cc. Possession of all things, " For all 
 things are yours ; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas ; or 
 the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to 
 come, all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's " 
 (1 Cor. iii, 22, 23). Let him tell his hearers that the blood 
 of Christ is called the " blood of God " (Acts xx, 28), and 
 therefore of infinite merit and invaluable price. It sprang 
 out of his human nature, and therefore finite in its own na- 
 ture, and lost upon the ground. But the person that shed 
 it being the Son of God, did set upon it such an excellency 
 and eternity of virtue and value, that the infiniteness of its 
 merit, andinestimablenessofitsworth,lastseverlasting]y. It 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 125 
 
 will be as fresh and effectual to wash away the sins of the 
 last man that shall be called upon earth, as it was those of 
 the penitent thief, wlio saw it with his bodily eyes gushing 
 out of his blessed side upon the cross, or the first man who 
 did first savingly apprehend that first promise, "The seed 
 of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Let him as- 
 sure them it is so sovereign, that in a truly broken, humbled, 
 and thirsty soul, it turneth the most scarlet and crimson sins 
 into snov^ and wool; that upon compunction and coming 
 in, it washed away that horrible and bloody guilt from the 
 souls of them that spilt it (Acts ii). Let them know also, 
 in how high a degree and heinously they offend from time 
 to time, who refuse to take Jesus Christ offered most freely, 
 and without exception of any person, every sabbath, every 
 sermon, either in plain and direct terms, or impliedly at the 
 least. Oh ! little do people think who sit under our ministry 
 unwrought upon by the word, what a grievous and fear- 
 ful sin they commit and carry home from the house of God, 
 day after day, in " neglecting so great salvation, in forsak- 
 ing their own mercy, and in judging themselves unworthy 
 of everlasting life ; " I mean, by choosing upon a free offer 
 of his soul-saving blood, to cleave rather to a lust (horrible 
 indignity!) than to Jesus Christ blessed for ever ; rather to 
 wallow in the mire and mud of earthly pelf, in the filth and 
 froth of swinish pleasures, in idleness, pride, worldliness, 
 uncleanness, drunkenness, strange fashions, scorning pro- 
 fessors, conteinpt of the power of godliness, railing against 
 religion, revelling, Cxc. than abandoning these filthy harlots 
 to take the Son of God for their dear and everlasting husband. 
 This not believing, this refusing Christ, this not taking him 
 in the manner and sense as I have said, is such a sin, though 
 not so thought upon and taken to heart, that divines speak 
 of it as of a most transcendent sin, the greatest sin, the sin 
 of sins, the only sin, as it were, from such places as these : — 
 "But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth, and he 
 sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and 
 burnt up their city'' ( Matt, xxii, 7). He means those who 
 were invited to the " Son's marriage, and made light of it." 
 " He that believeth not is condemned already, because he 
 hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of 
 God" (John iii, 18). When the Comforter is come "he 
 will convince the world of sin ; because they believe not on 
 me." He means this sin alone, saith Austin. As though not 
 believing on the Son of God were the only sin. It is indeed 
 the main and master sin, because, as the same father speaks 
 truly, " this remaining, the guilt of all other sins abides 
 upon the soul : this removed, alJ other sins are remitted." 
 
 M 3 
 
126 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 Nay, and besides the horribleness and heinousness of the 
 sin, what height and perlection of madness is it? That 
 whereas a man but renouncing his base, rotten, transitory, 
 sinful pleasures, followed continually at the heels with 
 vengeance and horror, and only taking Jesus Christ, in 
 whom are hidden and heaped up the fulness of grace and 
 treasures of all perfection, might have thereupon (to say 
 nothing of the excellency of his person, purchases of his 
 passioij, and possession of the most blessed Deity) a full 
 and free discharge thereby at the hands of so happy a hus- 
 band, from every moment of the everlastingness of hellish 
 torments, and a deed presently sealed with his own heart's 
 blood, for an undoubted right to every minute of the eternity 
 of heavenly joys -, yet should in cool blood most wickedly 
 and willingly, after so many entreaties, invitations, impor- 
 tunity only for the good of his poor immortal soul, refuse 
 the change! Heaven and earth may be astonished ; angels 
 and ail creatures may justly stand amazed at this prodigious 
 sottishness and monstrous madness of such miserable men ! 
 The world is wont to call God's people precise fools, because 
 they are willing to sell all they have for that one pearl of 
 great price ; to part with profits, or pleasures, preferments, 
 their right hand, their right eye, every thing, any thing, 
 rather than to leave Jesus Christ. But who do you think 
 now are the true and great fools of the world ; and who are 
 likeliest one day to groan for anguish of spirit, and say 
 within themselves, " This was he whom we had sometimes 
 in derision, and a proverb of reproach 1 We fools accounted 
 his life madness, and his end to be without honour. Now 
 is he numbered among the children of God, and his lot is 
 among the saints ; therefore have we erred from the way of 
 truth, andthelightof righteousness hath not shined unto us; 
 and the sun of righteousness hath not rose upon us. We 
 wearied ourselves in the way of wickedness and destruction. 
 Yea, we have gone through deserts where there lay no way. 
 But as for the way of the Lord, we have not known it. \\ hat 
 hath pride profited us, or what good hath riches with our 
 vaunting brought us 1 All these things are passed away like 
 a shadow, and as a post that hasteth by." 
 
 Nay, and yet further, besides the extraordinariness of the 
 iniquity and folly in refusing Christ freely offered, it shall 
 most certainly be hereafter plagued with extremest torment- 
 ing fury, and most desperate gnashing of teeth. For with 
 what infinite horror and restless anguish will this thought 
 rend a man's heart in pieces, and gnaw upon his conscience, 
 when he considers in hell, that he hath lost heaven for a 
 lust ; and whereas he might at every sermon had even tlie 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 127 
 
 Son of God to be his husband for the very taking ; and have 
 lived with him for ever in unspeakable bliss, yet neglecting 
 so great salvation, must now, crying out therefore continually 
 against himself as the most raging madman that ever 
 breathed, lie in unquenchal)le flames without remedy, ease, 
 or end ! It is the highest honour that can be imagined, 
 and a mystery of greatest amazement that ever was^ that 
 the Son of God should make suit unto sinful souls to be their 
 husband.^ And yet so it is; "he stands at the door and 
 knocks ; " if you will give him entrance, he will bring him- 
 self and heaven into your hearts. " VVe are Christ's am- 
 bassadors, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray 
 you in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God." We are 
 Christ's spokesmen, if I may so speak, to woo and win you 
 unto him. Now what can you say for yourselves that you 
 stand out? Why come you not in? If the devil would 
 give you leave to speak out and in plain terms, one would 
 say, I had rather be damned than leave my drunkenness ; 
 another, I love the world better than Jesus Christ ; a third' 
 I will not part with my easy and gainful trade of usury for 
 the " treasure hid in the field ;" and so on : so that in truth 
 you must needs all confess, that you hereby "judge your- 
 selves unworthy of everlasting life ; " that you are wilful 
 murderers of your own souls ; that you commit such a 
 wickedness, that all the creatures in heaven and earth cry 
 shame upon you for it. Nay, and if you go on without re- 
 pentance, you may expect that the gnawings of conscience 
 for this one sin of refusing Christ may perhaps be equal to 
 the united horrors of all the rest. 
 
 What is the matter, I wonder, that you will not entertain 
 the match 1 If we stand upon honour and noble family, he 
 that makes love and suit unto our souls " hath on his ves- 
 ture and on his thigh a name written, "King of kings, and 
 Lord of lords" (Rev. xix, 16). If upon beauty, hear 
 how he is described : " My beloved is white and ruddy, the 
 chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine 
 gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. His eyes 
 nre as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed 
 with milk, and fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, 
 as sweet flowers : his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smell- 
 ing myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl : 
 liis belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. His legs 
 are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold : his 
 countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His 
 mouth is most sweet : yea, he is altogether lovely " (Cant. 
 V, 10 — 16). Now you must understand, that the Spirit of 
 God, by these outward beauties and excellencies, labours in 
 
12B INSTRUCTIONS FOR COxMFORTING 
 
 some mcasuie to shadow out and represent unto us the m- 
 comparal)lo excellency of inward graces, the dignity, the 
 glory, the spiritual fairness of Jesus Christ, that we may 
 know that he is wholly and altogether lovely, delightful, and 
 precious. If our hearts are set upon ease and contentment, 
 he can lead us to " fulness of joy and pleasures at God's 
 right hand for evermore." If we desire honourable alliance, 
 he will bring us to " an innumerable company of angels, to 
 the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are 
 written in heaven ; and to God the judge of all, and to the 
 spirits of just men made perfect." If we stand upon wealth, 
 we shall have all things with him, which is a large pos- 
 session. If we respect love, "greater love hath no man 
 than thii, that a man lay down his life for his friends" 
 (John XV, 13): and he, " being the brightness of his Father's 
 glory, and the express image of his person," came down 
 from his bosom, the well-spring of immortality and bliss, 
 the fulness of joy and unapproachable light, into a house of 
 flesh upon this base and miserable earth. He passed through 
 a life lull of all manner of vexations, miseries, persecutions, 
 indignities, slanders, speaking against of sinners, iS:c. He 
 was so prodigiously slandered that they said he had a devil 
 (John viii, 48) ; whereas " tlie fulness of the Godhead 
 dweltin him bodily " (Col. ii, 9). He was cunningly hunted 
 long, and at last violently haled by a pack of hell-hounds to 
 a cruel and bloodly death, which for the extremity and 
 variety of pains, for the enraged spite of the executioners, 
 for the innocency and excellency of the person suffering, 
 the like never was, shall, or can be endured. His passions 
 were such, so bitter and insupportable, that they would 
 have made any mere creature to have sunk down under the 
 burthen of them to the bottom of hell. He was tortured 
 extremely, and suffered grievous things both in body and 
 soul, from heaven, earth, and hell. His blessed body was 
 given up as an anvil to be beaten upon by the violent and 
 villanous hands of wretched miscreants, without all measure 
 or mercy, until they had left no one part free from some 
 particular and special torment. His skin and flesh were 
 rent with scourges, his hands and feet pierced with nails, 
 his head with thorns, his very heart with a spear point. All 
 his senses, all his parts, indeed his whole sacred body, was 
 made a rueful spectacle to angels and to men, of all the 
 most base and barbarous usage which malice could devise 
 and cruelty execute. Yet all this was but a shadow of his 
 suti'ering ; the substance of his suffering was the agony of 
 his soul. Give me any affliction save the affliclion of the 
 mind; "for the spirit of a man," saith Solomon, "will 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 129 
 
 sustain all his other infirmities ; but a wounded spirit who 
 can bearl" Yet his soul, though he was the Prince of 
 glory, and Lord of heaven and earth, upon the cross was 
 even as a scorched heath, without so much as any drop of 
 comfort either from heaven or earth. The grievous weight 
 of all the sins of all his children, the least of which had been 
 enough to have pressed them down into the bottom of hell, 
 lay now heavy upon him. The powers of darkness were let 
 loose to afflict him. He wrestled even with the fierce wrath 
 of his Father, and all the forces of the infernal kingdom, 
 with such anguish of heart, that in the garden it wrung out 
 of his precious body a sweat " as it were great drops of 
 blood falling down to the ground, " with such agony of 
 spirit, that upon the cross he cried, "My God, my God, 
 why hast thou forsaken me 1 " And the measure of all 
 these sufferings and sorrows was so past all measure, that 
 all the creatures, save sinful men only, both in heaven and 
 earth, seemed to be amazed and moved with them. The 
 sun in the heavens drew in his beams, unwilling as it were 
 to see the spotless blood of the Son of God spilt as water 
 upon the ground. The earth itself shrunk and trembled 
 under it. The very rocks rent asunder, as if they had 
 sense and feeling of his intolerable, and, save by himself, 
 unconquerable pains. The whole frame of nature seemed 
 astonished at the mournful complaint of the Lord of the 
 whole world. These, and far more than these, or than can 
 be expressed, our blessed Saviour, being Son of the Most 
 high God, endured for no other end but to ransom us from 
 the bondage of Satan and of hell, in a thirsting desire of 
 saving all penitent sinners, and to offer himself freely a 
 most glorious and everlasting husband to all those who with 
 broken and believing hearts cast themselves into his bosom. 
 Such admirable and unutterable perfections, beauties, en- 
 dowments, sufferings, and inflamed affections as these in 
 the heavenly suitor unto our sinful souls, doth mightily 
 aggravate the heinous and horrible sin of refusing him. 
 
 Thus, and in this manner, would I have the men of God 
 to magnify, enlarge, and represent to the hearts of their 
 hearers all the excellences of Jesus Christ, with the worth, 
 merit, and efficacy of his blood. To set out to the utmost 
 they can possibly, the glory of the gospel, with all the 
 riches of mercy, goodness, and free grace, revealed and 
 offered therein, &c. So that they tell them withal that 
 Jesus Christ takes none but such as are willing to take upon 
 them his yoke ; that he gives himself to none but such as 
 are ready to sell all, in the sense 1 have said, that they may 
 enjoy his blessed self. That the glorious grace of the gospel 
 
130 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 f^hines savingly to none but such as " deny uni^odliness and 
 worldly lusts ; and live soberly, righteously, and godly, in 
 this present world" Tlit. ii, 11,12). That those, whose 
 souls are cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ from all sin, 
 are only such as walk in the light, as God is in the light ; 
 who make conscience of detesting and declining all sins and 
 works of darkness discovered to them by the light of God's 
 holy book, and sincerely set their hearts and hands with 
 love and careful endeavour to every duty enjoined therein. 
 In a word, that as that fountain opened to the house of 
 David for sin and for uncleanness (1 mean the blood of that 
 immaculate lamb, Jesus Christ, the holy and the righteous) 
 doth turn all the sins, even the very scarlet and crimson, 
 of a truly broken heart, and every true mourner in Zion, 
 into snow and wool, so it will never wash away the 
 least sinful stain from the proud heart of any unhumbled 
 pharisee. 
 
 That hereby no strangers unto the love and life of godli- 
 ness may be deceived by appropriating unto themselves any 
 of these glorious things, which are only proper to the sealed 
 fountain, but only conceive of them as excellent motives to 
 cause them to come in, I would have the preaching of 
 Christ fill the soul of every true hearted Nathanael every 
 time with " unspeakable and glorious joy," with all those 
 evangelical pleasures, which neither "eye hath seen, nor 
 ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man." 
 But I would have it only make every unregenerate man sen- 
 sible of what infinite blessedness he bereaves himself by 
 continuing a rebel ; that thereupon he may be moved to 
 make liaste out of his present hell into this new heaven, so 
 fairly opened and freely offered unto him. 
 
 IV. Besides pressing the law, promising mercy, proposing 
 Christ, &c. to stir iiien in their natural states, to make them 
 entertain thoughts of coming in, to humble them in the 
 sight of the Lord under the heavy burthen of all their sins, 
 assure them also of pardon, in case they will leave Satan's 
 service, and so prepare them for Christ ; let God's ministers 
 lay hold upon all warrantable ways which they shall find 
 and feel out of their ministerial experience and holy wisdom 
 to be available and prevail for that purpose : so that the 
 work be done in truth, and that they do not, like the devil's 
 daubers, deceive them to the eternal ruin and damnation of 
 their souls, by telling them that they have Christ already, 
 and are safe enough for salvation, whereas indeed as yet 
 there is no such matter. 
 
 Such points as these are wont to make attentive natural 
 men to startle in their seats, to look about them something 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 131 
 
 moie than ordinarily, — to wit, to divide the precious from 
 the vile ; to distinguish that one true happy state of grace 
 from all states of unregenerateness, and all kinds of hypo- 
 crisy; to tell them out of the book of (Jod, how far a man 
 may go in general graces and doing many things, and yet 
 come short of heaven; to deliver marks of sincere professors, 
 of a saving faith, of true repentance, of a sound conversion. 
 But I would have this done with a great deal of spiritual 
 wisdom and heavenly understanding, with much godly dis- 
 cretion and caution ; lest thereby, either the formal pro- 
 fessor may be encouraged, or the weakest Christian dis- 
 heartened. To discourse of the fewness and scarcity of 
 those which shall be saved, and that even under tlie light 
 and within the sound of the gospel ; "many are called, but 
 few chosen " (Matt, xx, 16). Consider the parable of the 
 sower. Matt. xiii. There is but one good soil upon which 
 the word falls prosperously ; but three reprobate grounds, 
 as it were, upon which it is lost as water upon the ground. 
 Thus let the men of God acquaint tliemselves with such 
 points as they conceive the likeliest and most pregnant to 
 pierce their hearers' hearts, and come closest to their con- 
 sciences, that so by the help of God they may pull them 
 out of hell. 
 
 And there are some places also in the book of God, whicli 
 being rightly handled and powerfully applied, seem to have 
 a special keenness to strike at and cut asunder the iron 
 sinews of the most obstinate heart, and of more aptness to 
 serve for the rousing and awaking of mere civil men, formal 
 professors, pharisees, and foolish virgins out of their des- 
 perate slumber of spiritual self deceit. Such as these : 
 " And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this 
 curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, 1 shall 
 have peace, though 1 walk in the imagination of mine heart, 
 to add drunkenness to thirst : the Lord v/ill not spare him, 
 but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke 
 against that man, and all tiie curses that are written in this 
 book shall lie upon him, and tiie Lord shall blot out his 
 name from under heaven" (Deut. xxix, 19, 20). " God 
 shall wound the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still 
 in his trespasses" (Psalm Ixviii, 21). "Because 1 have 
 called and ye refused, 1 have stretched out my hand, and 
 no man regarded, ixc. Then shall they call upon me, but 
 I will not answer : they shall seek me early, but they shall 
 not find me " (Prov.'i, 24, 28). '-' He that being often 
 reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, 
 and that without remedy " (Prov. xxix, 1). " In thy fil- 
 thiness is lewdness ; because I have purged thee, and thou 
 
132 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy fil- 
 thiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon 
 thee" (Ezek, xxiv, 13). " If the righteous scarcely be saved, 
 where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear V (1 Pet. 
 iv, 18.) " Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin" 
 (1 John iii, 9). " Love the brotherhood" (1 Pet. ii, 17). 
 " Without holiness no man shall see the Lord" (lleb. 
 xii, 14). " The devils also believe and tremble " (James 
 ii, 19). " Strive to enter in at the strait gate ; for many, 
 I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able " 
 (I^uke xiii, 24). " And whosoever shall not receive you, 
 &c. Verily, I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for 
 the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment 
 than for that ciiy " (Matt, x, 14, 15). " And from the days 
 of John the Baptist, until now, the kingdom of heaven suf- 
 fereth violence, and the violent take it by force " (Matt, 
 xi, 12). " And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye 
 more than others 1 " (Matt, v, 47.) " 1 say unto you, that 
 except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of 
 the scribes and pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven" (Matt, v, 20). These fellows repre- 
 sented to the eye of the world a goodly and glorious show 
 of freedom from gross sins : " I am not," saith the phari- 
 see, Luke xviii, 11, "as other men are, extortioners, un- 
 just, adulterers," 6cc ; of works; first, of righteousness, 
 " 1 give tithes of all that I possess." Secondly, of piety, 
 " He went up to pray." Thirdly, of mercy, besides fasting 
 and prayer, they gave alms (Matt, vi); and yet Christ 
 speaks thus peremptorily to his hearers: " Except your 
 righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and 
 pharisees, &c. ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven." He saith not simply, ye shall not enter ; but ye 
 shall " in no case" enter. And yet how many who come 
 short of these will be very angry, if the ministers tell them 
 that they shall certainly come short of the kingdom of 
 heaven. 
 
 I have done with daubing and plaistering over rotten 
 hearts with plausible persuasions, that they shall not be 
 damned: I mean that most cruel and accursed trade of 
 " strengthening with lies the hands of the wicked, that he 
 should not return from his wicked way, by promising him 
 life" (Ezek. xiii, 22), whereby thousands are sent hood- 
 winked to hell (more is the pity!) even in this blessed 
 time of the gospel : and I come now to another error about 
 comforting afflicted consciences. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 133 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The Second Error is tlie indiscreet applying of Comfort to thcni that 
 are not jicrieved aright. Two Cases wherein Men grieved are not to 
 be presently comforted. 
 
 VVhkn the spiritual physician promiseth comfort, applies 
 the promises, assures of mercy, acceptation, and pardon, — 
 1. When the ground of grief is not in truth trouble for 
 sin, but some outward trouble. Some in such a case may 
 cast out by the way some faint and formal complaints of 
 their sins, and seem to seek direction and satisfaction about 
 the state of their souls, while the true root arid principal 
 spring of their present heaviness and heart's grief, is some 
 secret earthly discontentment, the biting and bitterness of 
 some worldly sting. It may be the loss or desperate course 
 of some overioved child ; decay and going backward in 
 their estate ; fear of falling into beggary ; some unexpected 
 discontents and disappointments after marriage ; some great 
 disgrace and shame fallen upon them in the eye of the 
 world ; some long and tedious sickness, pinching them ex- 
 tremely, for want of peace with God, and patience to pass 
 through it, or the like. 
 
 In this case, after the man of God by his best wisdom 
 and searching, experimental trials and interrogatories fitted 
 for that purpose, whereby he may give a strong conjecture, 
 if not a peremptory censure, hath discovered the imposture, 
 let his desire and endeavour be to turn the torrent of worldly 
 tears, and grief for transitory things, upon sin. When a 
 vein is broken and bleeds inward, or a man bleeds exces- 
 sively at the nose, the physician is wont to open a vein in 
 the arm, so to divert the current of the blood, that it may 
 be carried the right way, for the safety and preservation of 
 the party. Do proportionably in this point. 
 
 Let such know :— First, that " sorrow of the world work- 
 eth death " (2 Cor. vii, 10). It dries the bones, consumes 
 the marrow, chills the blood, wastes the spirits, eats up the 
 heart, shorteneth life, and cutteth off too soon from the 
 day of gracious visitation. It is a base thing for an immor- 
 tal soul to be put thus out of tune and temper with mortal 
 things, and most unworthy its heavenly birth, breeding un- 
 der the ministry, and everlasting abode. Secondly, that 
 sorrow spent upon the world is like a perfumed precious 
 water thrown into the channel or sink-hole, which would 
 make a sweet scent in a humbled soul, and help excellently 
 against the noisome savour of sin. Fire put into the thatch 
 M'ould turn all into combustion ; dung placed in your par- 
 
 N 
 
134 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 lour would poison all. But lay the one upon the hearth, 
 and it would warm and comfort ; the other upon the land, 
 and it fatteneth and makes fruitful, bo sorrow misplaced 
 upon earthly things, fills a man with swarms of gnawing 
 cares, and brings many devouring harpies into the heart ; 
 but being turned upon sin and former sinful courses, which 
 is the only right, proper, profitable use thereof, it may pio- 
 cure a great deal of ease and enlargement to the heavy 
 spirit, and help to " bring forth fruits meet for repentance." 
 Thirdly, that the tithe perhaps of grief, trouble of mind, 
 vexation ol spirit, sadness and sorrow about worldly things, 
 in respect of the bulk and quantity, if sincere, and set upon 
 the right object, might serve to drive us unto Christ, and 
 afterwards in God's gracious acceptation, for saving repent- 
 ance. Methinks it should be a very quickening motive to 
 make a man " be sorry for nothing but sin," and to turn all 
 his grief and groans, sighs and tears upon his transgressions 
 only ; to wit, to consider that an impenitent carnal world- 
 ling doth pass through even in this life (where he kath all 
 the heaven he is ever like to have) incomparably more com- 
 fortless heart's grief, slavish torments of mind, and heavi- 
 ness of spirit towards endless pains than the strictest Chris- 
 tian and most mortified saint doth endure in his passage to 
 everlasting pleasures. Fourthly, that besides many otlier 
 pestilent properties, worldly sorrow doth also double, nny 
 multiply and mightily enrage tlie venon), bitterness, and 
 sting of every cross accident, loss, disgrace, iS:c. When 
 Ahithophel was disgraced by neglect of his counsel, which 
 " was in those days as if a man had inquired at the oracle 
 of God," carnal grief so grew upon him, that " he gat him 
 home to his house, put his household in order, and hanged 
 himself." What was the disgrace to this desperate end ! 
 Haman being crossed by Ivlordecai's discourtesy and con- 
 tempt, did so grieve and trouble himself, that having " told 
 his wife and friends of the glory of his riches, and tue mul- 
 titude of his children, aud all the things wherein the king 
 had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above 
 the princes and servants of the king, &c. ; yet professeth 
 unto them, that all this availed him nothing so long as he 
 saAv Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." ( Esther 
 V, 11, 12, 13). Now whether do you think was the most 
 grievous thing to bear ; the bare omission of a mere com- 
 pliment, or an universal distaste, and disenjoyment of all 
 outward comforts heaped upon him to the height and in 
 excellency ? The hundredth part of Job's losses, and less, 
 hath m.any times since made many a covetous worldling to 
 cut his own throat. I have known some for the loss of an 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 135 
 
 overloved child to have languished, fallen into a consump- 
 tion, and lost their own lives. But now on the other side, 
 besides many other gracious effects, " sorrow according to 
 God is more delicious and sweeter than any worldly delight," 
 us Chrysostom truly tells us in many places. To whom 
 modern divines accord. " The very tears that a good con- 
 science sheds," saith one *, " have more joy and pleasure 
 in them than the world's greatest joys." " This is certain, 
 saith another t, " that there is more lightness of heart and 
 true delight in the sorrow of the saints, than in the loudest 
 laughter of the world. For unspeakable joy is mingled 
 with unutterable groans." 
 
 2. When it is not any kindly touch of conscience for sin 
 wrought by the ministry ; but terrors and affrighting dis- 
 tempers arising from the dark mists of a melancholic hu- 
 mour in the biain, which cause a man to complain. In this 
 black and sad humour, Satan, God suffering him (and of 
 itself also it is pregnant enough this way), hath great ad- 
 vantage to raise and represent to the fantasy many fearful 
 things, terrible objects, grisly thoughts, hideous injections, 
 and temptations to despair, self-destruction, &c. Where- 
 upon the party so affected and afflicted is wont, out of im- 
 patience of such uncouth horrors and heavmess, to address 
 himself and have recourse to some man of God, some noted 
 physician of the soul ; not from any purpose and resolution 
 to become a new man and alter his courses ; but only for 
 hope of ease, enlargement from the tyranny of that passion, 
 and recovery to wonted quietness of mind ; not expecting 
 or aiming at all at any other change, but fiom present me- 
 lancholy to former mirth, from this abhorred, irksome, in- 
 supportable state of sadness, to his accustomed sensual, or 
 civil contentment at least. 
 
 In this case, let the art and aid of physic be improved to 
 abate and take off the excess andfantasticaltiess of this hor- 
 rible humour, and then let the party be advised to employ 
 and spend tlie native and kindly sadness of that uncomfort- 
 able constitution in sorrowing for sin, in trembling at the 
 threats of God's judgments, in fearing to offend, and fly- 
 ing under the wings of Christ for sanctuary, that so he may 
 happily bring supernatural and heavenly lightsomeness into 
 his soul, by pardon from God, peace of conscience, and 
 evangelical pleasures. It is incredible to consider what 
 assistance and advantage a gracious man hath by his sweet 
 communion with Jesus Christ, and those refreshing beams 
 of comfort which shine from his face, to confine and con- 
 
 * Dike, of Conscience, cliap. iii. t Kolloc, on John xi. 
 
136 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 quer those many impertinent, irksome, and vexing vagaries 
 of this wild humour, which with much folly and fury tyran- 
 nize in the fearful fantasies of graceless men, and make 
 their life very disconsolate and abhorred. I am persuaded 
 the very same measure of melancholic matter, which raises 
 many times in the heads and hearts of worldlings (having 
 besides the guilt of their unforgiven sins staring with grisly 
 representations in the face of their consciences, and ac- 
 quainted with no comfort but that which coa-es from carnal 
 joys) continual clouds of many strange horrors and ghastly 
 fears, nay, and sometimes make them stark mad ; I say, the 
 very same in a sanctified man may be so mollified and mo- 
 derated by spiritual delight and sovereignty of grace, that 
 he is not only preserved irom the sting and venom of them, 
 but, by God's blessing, from any such desperate extremities, 
 violent distempers and distractions, which keep the other in 
 a kind of hell upon earth. If the very darkness of the 
 hellish dungeon were in the heart, yet reaching out the 
 hand of faith and receiving Christ, that blessed sun of 
 righteousness, would dispel and disperse it to nothing. 
 Much more methinks the light of grace and heavenly wis- 
 dom may in some good measure dissolve and master the 
 mists and miseries of this earthly humour. Religion then, 
 and religious courses and conformities, do not make me- 
 lancholic men mad, as the true madmen of this world 
 would persuade us. For you must know, that besides Be- 
 Jials and debauched companions, there are a generation of 
 worldly wise men also, right brave and jolly fellows in 
 their own conceits and in the opinion of some flattering 
 claw-backs ; but by testimony of the truth itself stark mad 
 about the service of God and their own salvation, who 
 cursedly sear their own consciences with the hottest irons 
 in the devil's forge, by breaking out into such blasphemies 
 as these, when they hear or see any extraordinary heavy- 
 heartedness, temptation, distraction, or spiritual distemper 
 to have seized upon any that desire to be saved : " You 
 see now what becomes of so much reading the scriptures, 
 of plying prayer and private duties with so much ado ; of 
 meddling with mysteries of religion ; of meditating so much 
 of heavenly things, of taking sin so deeply to heart, and 
 holding such strict conformity to God's word," &c. Blessed 
 God ! Is thine holy book become (execrable blasphemy ! ) 
 a perverter. distracter, and poisoner of men's souls ; which 
 being the glorious issue of thine own infinite understanding 
 was purposely created as a most precious panacea, an uni- 
 versal medicinal storehouse for the cure of all spiritual ma- 
 ladies ; an inexhausted treasury of all sound comfort, true 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 137 
 
 joy, peace, and refreshing? Now the Lord rebuke thee, 
 Satan, and return as dung upon thine own face this villan- 
 ous, base, and wicked slander, which by thy graceless in- 
 struments thou labourest to cast upon the glorious face of 
 Christianity, the incomparable sweetness of the ways of 
 grace, and that one necessary thing- 1 have known, when 
 the cnly wise God hath suffered, for ends seen and seeming 
 good to his heavenly wisdom, the hideous and raging hu- 
 mour of melancholy to darken the native clearness of the 
 animal spirits in the brain, requisite to a due discretion of 
 things apprehended, and to blunder and disorder the ob- 
 jects and operations of the imagination in ins dearest child, 
 even to distraction and breaking out into that inordinate 
 passion against reason; — 1 say, then, the concurrent cry 
 and clamour of the enemies of the power of godliness to be, 
 " This it is now to be so bookish, to follow preachers so 
 much, to be more holy than their neighbours, never to have 
 done in serving of God." " Her so much reading the 
 scriptures, and such poring upon precise books (so they call 
 those which most pierce the conscience, and guide the 
 clearest in the holy path) hath made her stark mad. The 
 puritan is now beside herself," 6lC. Now I say again, the 
 Lord rebuke thee, Satan, who sits vinth such extreme ma- 
 lice and soul-killing folly in the hearts and heads of such 
 miserable men, whom thou so sottishly hoodwinks, and 
 hardens to the height for a most desperate downfal and 
 horrible confusion at last. 
 
 Were now the glorified soul of that blessed saint consulted 
 with and asked, Didst thou ever receive hurt by reading 
 God's blessed book ; by searching sweetly into the great 
 mystery of Christ ciucified ; by meditation upon heavenly 
 tilings 1 Did th.e sacred sense of those divine oracles un- 
 settle thy noble faculties, or ever make sad thy heart 1 6cc. 
 Oh ! with what infinite indignation would it fly in the face 
 of such cursed cavillers and wranglers against the truth. 
 
 Is it possible for the sole and sovereign antidote sent from 
 heaven by God himself against the sting and venom of all 
 heart grief and horror, the sacred sun of saving truth, which 
 is only able to ennoble and glorify our understandings with 
 wisdom from the breast of the everlasting counsel of Jesus 
 Christ, should become the cause of discomfort and dissettle- 
 ment of the soul 1 No, no. There is such a quickening, 
 healing, and mighty efficacy and vigour shed into it from 
 the Father of lights, and shining in it from the face of Christ, 
 that by the heli of the blessed Spirit, it can turn darkness 
 into light, death into life, hell into heaven, the deepest 
 horroJ" into height of jov- 1 ell me of any misery upon the 
 
 N 3 
 
138 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 body, soul, outward slate, or good name : any calamity felt 
 or feared in this life, or the life to come ; and if thou wilt be 
 converted and counselled, 1 can send thee to some, both 
 promise and precedent in this boolc of God, which may 
 upon good ground lill thine heart as full with sound comfort, 
 as the sun is of light, and the sea of waters. Nay, give me 
 a wounded spirit with all its inexplicable terrois and bitter- 
 ness, which is the greatest misery and extremest affliction of 
 which an understanding soul is capable in this life ; and let 
 first all tlie physiciaiis in the world lay all their heads, 
 skill, and experience together for the cure : let all the highest 
 monarchs upon earth shine upon it with their imperial fa- 
 vours for comfort ; let the depth of all human wisdom and 
 the height of the most excellent oratory be improved to per- 
 suade it to peace ; let all the creatures in heaven and earth 
 contribute their several abilities and utmost to still its rage ; 
 and when all these have done, and have done just nothing, 
 I will fetch a cordial out of God's own book which shall 
 mollify the anguish, expel the venom, and bind it up with 
 everlasting peace which passeth all understanding ; that 
 the broken bones may rejoice, and the poor soul groaning 
 most grievously under the guilty horror of many foul abo- 
 minations, and ready to sink into the gulph of despair, be 
 sweetly bathed and refreshed in the fountain opened by the 
 hand of mercy for sin and foruncleanness, Christ's dearest 
 blood, the glorious well-spring of all lightsomeness and joy. 
 
 Plear how precisely for this purpose, and how punctually 
 against such pestdent cavillers, some of the ancient fathers 
 do puritanize : — 
 
 " There is no malady," saith Chrysostom *, " either of body 
 or soul, but may receive a medicine out of God's book. One 
 comes oppressed with sadness and anxiety of business, over- 
 whelmed with grief ; but presently hearing the prophet 
 saying, ' Why art thou cast down, O my soul 1 and why art 
 thou so disquieted within me 1 hope thou in God : for I shall 
 yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and 
 my God' (Psalm xlii, 11); he receives abundance of 
 comfort, and abandons all heaviness of heart. Another is 
 pinched with extreme poverty ; takes it heavily, and grieves, 
 seeing others flowing in riches, swelling with pride, attended 
 with great pomp and state ; but he also hears the same pro- 
 phet saying, ' Cast thy burthen upon the Lord, and he shall 
 sustain thee' (Psalm Iv, 22); and again, * Be not thou 
 afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is 
 increased : for when he dieth he shall carry nothing away : 
 
 * Clirvsost.on Gcii. Hoin.29. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 139 
 
 his glory shall not descend after him' (Psalm xlix, 16, 17). 
 There is another which, assaulted with insinuations and 
 calumnies, is much troubled, thinks his life uncomfortable, 
 findini:^ no help in man. He is also taught by the same pro- 
 phet, that in such perplexities we must not resort to the arm 
 of flesh. Hear what lie saith : They slandered, and I prayed. 
 * The mouth of the wicked, and the mouth of the deceitful 
 are opened against me : they have spoken against me with 
 a lying tongue. They compased me about also with words 
 of hatred ; and fought against me without a cause. For my 
 love ■ they are my adversaries ; but I give myself unto prayer ' 
 (Psalm cix, 2, 3, 4). Another is slighted and contemned by 
 some base contemptible underlings and forsaken of his 
 friends ; and that is it which most troubles his mind and 
 goes nearest to his heart. But he also, if he will come 
 hither, doth hear that blessed man saying, ' iMy lovers and 
 my friends stand aloof from my sore ; and ray kinsmen stand 
 afar off. They also that seek after my life lay snares for 
 me : and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, 
 and imagine deceits all the day long. But I. as a deaf 
 man, heard not ; and I was as a dumb man that openeth 
 not his mouth. Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and 
 in whose mouth are no reproofs. For in thee, O Lord, do I 
 hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God' (Psalm xxxviii, 
 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)." He concludes thus : — 
 
 " Thou hast seen, how that any misery pressing our mor- 
 tality, a convenient antidote may be taken out of scripture, 
 and all the gnawing cares of this life maybe cured ; neither 
 need we to be grieved for any thing which befals us : there- 
 fore, I beseech you, that henceforvvard you would come 
 hither, and listen diligently to the reading of divine writ. 
 And not only when you come hither, but also take the Bible 
 into your hands at home, and receive with great affection 
 the profit to be found in it : for from thence springs much 
 gain. First, that the tongue may be reformed by it : the 
 soul also takes wings, soars aloft, and is gloriously en- 
 lightened with the beams of the sun of righteousness, and 
 for a time is freed from the enticements of impure thoughts, 
 enjoying much calmness and contentment. Furthermore, 
 that which corporal food doth for increasing bodily strength, 
 the same doth reading perform to the soul." 
 
 " All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is pro- 
 fitable, and writ by the Spirit of God for this purpose," 
 saith the great Basil*, "that in it, as a common mart of 
 soul-medicines, every one of us may choose a medicine pro- 
 per and fit for his spiritual malady." 
 * Basil on Psalin i. 
 
140 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFOI.TING 
 
 Jerome, writing to many even of her sex whom as I told 
 you before much reading of scriptures and other good books 
 made mad, if the extremest malice of the most mortal ene- 
 mies to the ways of God may be credited, doth stir them 
 up with extraordinary earnestness to a diligent, industrious, 
 and fruitful reading of God's book, in many passages of his 
 epistles. 
 
 In that toGaudentius, about bringing up a young maiden, 
 " he would have her at seven years old, and when she be- 
 gins to blush, learn the Psalms of David without book ; and 
 until twelve make the books of Solomon, the gospels, the 
 apostles, and prophets, the treasure of her heart." 
 
 To one he speaks thus : " This one thing above all others 
 I would foreadvise thee ; and inculcating it I will admonish 
 again and again, that thou wouldst possess thy mind with 
 love of reading scriptures." 
 
 To another : " Let the book of God be ever in thy hands. 
 — And after the Holy Scriptures read also the treatises of 
 learned men." 
 
 To another : " Let the sacred scriptures be ever in thine 
 hands, and revolved continually in thy mind." 
 
 " Reading scripture," saith Origen, " daily prayers, the 
 word of doctrine, nourish the soul, even as the body is 
 stiengtliened by dainty fare. The spirit is nourished, grows 
 strong, and is made victorious by such food, which if you 
 use not, do not complain of the inhrmity of the flesh ; do 
 not say, we would, but cannot." ^cc. 
 
 Those reverend men that made the homilies seem to ap- 
 prehend themselves, and they commend to us the excellent 
 sweetness which may be sucked from the breasts of con- 
 solation in meditating upon the scriptures, by this their 
 emphatical and effectual expression : " Let us ruminate," 
 say they*, "and as it were chew the cud, that we may have 
 the sweet juice, spiritual effect, marrow, honey, kernel, 
 taste, comfort, and consolation of them." 
 
 I have said all this upon purpose, lest melancholic men 
 should be misled or disheartened by the cursed counsel of 
 carnal friends and wicked clamours of the world, from turn- 
 ing their sadness into sorrow for sin, and from using God's 
 blessed book and the powerful ministry thereof, the only 
 well-spring of all true lightsomeness and joy ; and able, as 
 I said before, if they will be converted and counselled, to 
 dispel the very darkness of hell out of their hearts. Me- 
 thinks they, above all others, should be encouraged here- 
 unto, (1.) Because they have a passive advantage, if I 
 
 * Homily for Readina^ of Scriptures. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 141 
 
 may so speak, when it pleasethGod to sanctify for that pur • 
 pose and set on work the spirit of bondage, by reason of 
 their sad dispositions and fearful spirits, to be sooner af- 
 frighted and dejected by comminations of judgment 
 against sin, more feelingly to take to heart the miseries 
 and dangers of their natural state ; more easily to tremble 
 and stoop under the mighty hand of God and hammer of 
 his law. Guiltiness and horror, damnation and hell, beget 
 in their timorous natures stronger impressions of fear : 
 whereupon they are wont to taste deeper of legal contrition 
 and remorse, and so proportionably to feel and acknowledge 
 a greater necessity of Jesus Christ ; to thirst after him 
 more greedily ; to prize him more highly, and at length to 
 throw their trembling souls into his blessed bosom with 
 more eagerness and importunity. And having once entered 
 into the holy path, their native fearfulness being rectified, 
 and turned the right way, they many times walk on after- 
 ward with more fear to offend (and " happy is the man that 
 feareth alway"), more watchfulness over their ways, ten- 
 derness of conscience, impatiency of losing spiritual peace, 
 sensibleness of infirmities and failings, reverence of God's 
 word, &c. (2.) And because of all others such men have 
 most need of lightsomeness and refreshing, which when 
 carnal counsellors and flattering mountebanks of the mi- 
 nistry labour to introduce into their dark heads and heavy 
 hearts by the arm of flesh, outward mirth, and such other 
 means, they only palliate and daub, and are so far from 
 doing any true good, that thereby they drown them many 
 times deeper and more desperately in the dungeon of me- 
 lancholy afterward. So that a melancholic man, let him 
 turn him which way he will, is likely, without the light of 
 grace, to live a very miserable life upon earth, and as it 
 were in some part of hellish darkness, to which also at 
 length shall be added the torment, if he die impenitently. 
 But now let them address themselves to the " book of life," 
 and thence only they may " suck and be satisfied with the 
 breasts of consolation." Let them lean their sorrowful 
 souls (improving natural sadness to mourn more heartily 
 for sin) upon the promises there, and every several one will 
 shine upon them with a particular heavenly and healing 
 light, with sound and lasting joy. All those then are stark 
 mad, either with ignorant or learned malice, who would 
 persuade the world that reading the scriptures, attending a 
 powerful ministry, taking sin to heart, ixc. will make me- 
 lancholic men mad. 
 
 If you desire to know before 1 pass out of this point, the 
 differences between the heaviness of a melancholic humour 
 
14-2 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 and affliction of conscience for sin, lake notice of such as 
 these : 
 
 [l.J Terror for sin springs out of the conscience, and from 
 the sn^art of a spiritual wound there. Melancholy dwells 
 and hath its chief residence in the imagination, and un- 
 comfortably overcasts and darkens the splendour and light- 
 someness of the animal spirits in the brain. 
 
 [2.] The melancholy man is extremely sad, and knows 
 nut wliy. He is full of fear, doubts, distrust, and heaviness, 
 without any true and just ground, arising only from the 
 darkness and dir^order of the imagination, the grisly fumes 
 of that black humour in the brain. But a broken heart, in 
 almost every case, can readily tell you the particular sins, 
 the crying abemination, the legal hammer, and ministerial 
 hand that made it bleed- His trouble is ever upon cause 
 clear and evident, and the greatest that ever brought mi- 
 sery upon mankind, weight of sin and the wrath of God. 
 A melancholic man will ride many miles, walk many hours, 
 and at length be able to give no account of the exercise 
 ' and discourse of his mind, or what his thoughts have been 
 all the while. But he that is troubled in mind for sin can, 
 for the most part, tell with certainty, and recount exactly 
 to his spiritual physician the several temptations, sugges- 
 tions, and injections; the hideous conflicts with Satan; his 
 objections, exceptions, replies, methods, devices, and 
 depths, which have afflicted his heavy spirit, since the 
 first enlightening, convincing, and affrighting his awaked 
 and working conscience. 
 
 [3.] The soul may be seized upon with terror of con- 
 science and spiritual distemper, the body being sound and 
 in good temper; in excellency of health, purity of blood, 
 symmetry of parts, vivacity of spirit, &c. But the horrors 
 of melancholy are wont to haunt corrupted constitutions ; 
 where obstructions hinder the free passage of the humours 
 and spirits, the blood is overgross and thick, &c. 
 
 [4.J Melancholy makes a man almost mad with imagi- 
 nary fears, and strange chimeras of horror which have no 
 being, but only in the monstrous compositions of a darkened 
 and distempered brain. He is many times, by the predo- 
 minancy of that cowardly humour, afraid of every man, of 
 every thing, of any thing; of a shadow, of the shaking of 
 a leaf, of his own hands, of his own heart. He fears where 
 no fear is, where there is no probability, no possibility, 
 even in the very midst of security. His fear sometimes is 
 so extremely foolish, that he can hear of no fearful thing 
 fallen upon others, but he thinks verily the very same thing 
 shall befal him ; so prodigious, that some of them, thinkinj.^ 
 
AFFLICTED C0NSCIENC1<:S. 113 
 
 iheir feet to be of glass, have been afraid to walk ; otiiers, 
 iraagiuing tliemselves to be noted for lepers, durst not come 
 into any company, 6ic. But now a troubled conscience is 
 ordinarily fearless of any tiling but the anger of God. 
 Bodily tortures, outward trouble, tyrant's threats, even the 
 prince of terror, death itself, in his apprehension and eye 
 would be as nothing to the guilty glance of one cursed lust. 
 He would not care or fear, though all the creatures in 
 Christendom were turned into bears or devils about him, 
 so that all were well at home. ]f he could get into his 
 bosom that sweet peace which passeth all unuerstanding, 
 oh ! tlien would he be more than conqueror over the whole 
 world and ten thousand hells. 
 
 [5.] Melancholy may be something abated, the Inain 
 cleared, the heart eased, by the aid and excellency of the 
 art of physic. But in the case of a wounded conscience, 
 there is no help under heaven to be had. Ao friends nor 
 physic ; no mirth nor music ; no princely favour nor dainty 
 fare, can possibly give any ease at all. Nay, they will al) 
 far rather enrage the wound than weaken the rage. It is 
 Christ, Christ, and nothing but Christ, which can comfort 
 in this confusion of spirit. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Two other cases whereiu Spuitual Physicians niast take heed of tl\e 
 Second Error. 
 
 3. When complaint of sin is confusedly only and in general. 
 "Many deal with God and his ministers in confession of 
 their sins," saith a >;;ood divine, " as jNebuchadnezzar with 
 his enchanters about his dream that he had dreamed ; he 
 told them and desired an interpretation ; but what his dream 
 was he could not tell." So many confess themselves sinners, 
 and cry out that they are grievous offenders, and desire 
 pardon ; but wherein they have sinned, and what their sins 
 are, they cannot or will not tell. And how is it possible the 
 physician should help him who only saith he is not well, 
 but will not tell him where? I have sometimes visited 
 those, who being pressed to a sight and sense of their sin- 
 fulness and cursedness, upon purpose to fit them for Christ, 
 have acknowledged in general that they were sinners, but 
 descending to the particulars of the law (which was hor- 
 rible to hear) justified themselves throughout. Of which 
 extreme spiritual misery and prodigious madness, ignorance 
 
144 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 (though I know Satan manageth that and all other advan- 
 tages with all the malice and cunning he can possibly, to 
 the overthrow of souls) is the principal ground ; the prime, 
 but pestilent occasion : I say ignorance, which though it 
 be not perhaps so much talked of, taxed, and taken to heart 
 as others, yet is a loud crying sin of the kingdom. For it is 
 a most incredible thing, and of infinite amazement, how 
 universally it reigns in this glorious noontide of the gospel ; 
 and therefore must needs provoke God mightily, and hasten 
 the " removing of our candlestick." And in the mean time, 
 besides many more, and that dreadful doom at last (2Thes. i, 
 7, 8) it brings upon most (more is the pity and shame, es- 
 pecially so glorious beams of a blessed ministry shining 
 about us) these two special mischiefs ; which at this time 1 
 only mention, because they serve fitliest for illustration of 
 the point. First, ignorant people sticking fast in his clutches, 
 stand all at the devil's mercy and devotion to do with them 
 what he will ; even as a poor helpless lamb in the paw of 
 a lion, or a silly wren in the ravenous claw of a kite ; to 
 slash and mangle their woTul souls at his pleasure, with a 
 cursed variety of innumerable sins ; they, in the mean time, 
 which is the perfection of their misery, neither fearing nor 
 feeling any hurt at all, by reason of the hellish mists and 
 miserable lethargy of spiiitual blindness, which makes them 
 sightless and senseless. Secondly, when times of sorrow 
 come upon them, when melancholy and old age grows on, 
 and they say unto the world upon which they have doated 
 all their life long, I have no pleasure in thee ; when losses, 
 crosses, and heavy accidents befal them ; when hideous 
 injections, temptations to self-murder, despair, &c. press 
 them full sore, and they thereupon begin to cast about se- 
 riously, and to conceive with great terror and anxiety of 
 spirit %vhat is likely to become of them in the other world ; 
 then, in such extremity, and forced by necessity, they are 
 wont to have recourse to ministers for ease and help ; and, 
 alas ! then we are at our wits' end, and in much perplexity 
 how to deal, and what to do with them. For upon the first 
 entrance into a discovery of their spiritual state, we see evi- 
 dently, with grief of heart, that their ignorance hath be- 
 trayed them to the devil, and now in the evil day exposed 
 them to merciless cruelty and cunning ; even as if a man 
 should commit a ship without sails, rudder, pilot, 6cc. to 
 the rage and roaring of the tempestuous devouring sea ; 
 or put a poor weak naked man into the field against an im- 
 placable mighty adversary, completely armed from top to 
 toe. We tell them truly, that the true way to comfort is 
 to repent and believe. But for the first, by reason of the 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 145 
 
 sottish disacquaintance with themselves, with their misera- 
 ble sinful uatural state, and their gross ignorance in the law 
 and word of God, they only cry out in the general they are 
 very grievous sinners ; but to descend to any competent 
 examination of the conscience, search of their souls by the 
 sight of the law, particular survey of their sins, and so to 
 special repentance, because of their spiritual blindness they 
 are utterly unable. Nay, many in this case are so desti- 
 tute of matter of humiliation for sin, that they can scarcely 
 tell you what sin is. At the most they have not learned, or 
 think that there is any other breach of the iei^^xi/i command- 
 ment, but the gross acts of uncleanness ; that there is any 
 sin against the nintli, but giving in false witness against 
 their neighbours in open court. They look no further into 
 the sixth commandment, but unto actual murder by the 
 hand ; into the third, but to blasphemy and swearing ; and 
 so proportionably in the other commandments. For the 
 other also, although they have heard much of Jesus Christ, 
 and if he be talked of, pretend a very foolish and false pre- 
 sumption of having pan in him ; yet to the knowledge of 
 his person, offices, excellency, sweetness, effectual ministry, 
 and of his whole mystery, they are mere strangers. And so, 
 when they should now upon this occasion of trouble -of 
 mind, be brought by knowledge and application of the law 
 and gospel, through the pangs of the new birth into the 
 holy path, they are to begin to learn the very first princi- 
 ples of religion ; in which they have not so much skill (1 
 speak a reproachful thing) as I could teach a child of five or 
 six years old in a few days. Now when the old red dragon 
 hath drawn them into the lists, armed with all the power 
 and policy of hell, and furnished with all his fiery darts, 
 they are so far from ability to put on and manage the whole 
 spiritual armour with dexterity and wisdom, that they are 
 stark idiots and infants in the very speculative knowledge 
 of the nature and. use of every piece thereof. They have 
 no skill at all at that excellent, invincible weapon, " the 
 sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God," by which 
 Jesus Christ foiled that foul fiend in the most hideous and 
 horrible temptations that were ever suggested to the mind 
 of man ; and therefore he doth bring them too often thus 
 bUndfolded and baffled to perish in a most desperate man- 
 ner, both temporally and eternally. 
 
 The Pharisees, papists, and our ordinary ignorants, are 
 all foully faulty this way. They love and labour to in- 
 quire and look no further into God's law than to the gross 
 acts and greatest transgressions only. If they find them- 
 selves free from these, they, out of a most absurd and sot- 
 
 O 
 
146 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 tish self-conceitedness, justify and applaud themselves as 
 no such enormous and dangerous delinquents. Hence it 
 ■was, that Christ teaches and tells the pharisees, that not 
 only the gross act of adultery was to be taken notice of, but 
 also that even a lascivious and lustful look after a w^oman 
 was a transgression of that law, and to be taken to heart 
 as adultery before God. That not only killing a man in the 
 literal sense, but also rash anger in the heart, railing, and 
 reviling speeches ; nay, even a frowning face, a contemp- 
 tuous gesture, discovering inward rancour and rage, kill 
 the soul, and cast into hell, &c. Hence it was that Bellar- 
 mine, as the grand impostor and poisoner, so the great pha- 
 risee of Christendom, upon his bed of death " could hardly 
 find what to confess, or any matter of absolution." Pro- 
 digious Pharisaism I Of which hear some passages from 
 the reporter of his death *. 
 
 " Suchwasthe innocency ofthisman(to wit, Bellarmine), 
 that albeit he was in his perfect sense, yet could he hardly 
 find what to confess ; insomuch as his ghostly father was in 
 some perplexity, as wanting matter of absolution, till by 
 recourse to his life past he found some small defects, of 
 which he absolved him." 
 
 " ' Now nothing troubles my conscience. For God (his 
 goodness be still thanked therefore) hath so preserved me 
 hitherto, as I do not remember in the whole course of my 
 life ever to have committed any scandalous action.' How 
 holy was his life ; not stained witli mortal sin ! How se- 
 cure a conscience, that had at his death no scruple ; but for 
 the exchange of one good work for another, &c. This holy 
 man began his prayers, snid the Paternoster and Ave Maria, 
 and began again the Paternoster ; which being ended he said 
 distinctly the psalm Miserere to the end : and being warned 
 to say also the Creed, &c. said it all through, and with the 
 end of the Creed ended his speech. His last words were. 
 * vitam aternam. Amen.' " 
 
 Hence it is, that carnal men are well enough content to 
 hear the commandments read, and perhaps will be angry if 
 at any time they be omitted. Would you know tlie reason ? 
 They go along with the minister, and applaud themselves 
 pharisaically all the while ; saying secretly and securely to 
 their own souls, We thank God we are no image worship- 
 pers, no murderers, no adulterers, bcc. ; and so depart home 
 from time to time as highly conceited of themselves, and yet 
 more horribly deceived, than that pharisee (Luke xviii, 
 11, 12), of whose outward religious, charitable, and righ- 
 
 * Bellarmine's Death, by C. J. a Jesuit. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 147 
 
 teous perfoj-mances they come far short. But they cannot 
 possibly with any patience endure a particular unfolding 
 and powerful application of God's law after Christ's man- 
 ner (Matt, v); a punctual survey of their sinful states and 
 special search into their lives and hearts. This cutting, 
 yet reasonable course, stirs up and raises in them the ill- 
 spirits of murmuring, cavilling, reviling, and perhaps per- 
 secuting the faithful messengers of God as a generation 
 of terrible teachers. To expositions, exercises, and con- 
 siderations of this nature they are drawn with very ill v/ill 
 and much ado, even as a bankrupt to his accompt book, a 
 foul face to the looking glass, and a traitor to the rack. 
 
 By reason of this affected ignorance in the law of God, 
 and lothness to descend to particulars, it comes to pass 
 that many in trouble of mind complain of sin only in gene- 
 ral and confusedly ; and thereupon, as though they were 
 competently cast down, expect comfort, and perhaps many 
 draw it from some daubers ; whereas particuiarizmg of our 
 sins is a necessary precedent and preparative to a sound 
 humiliation. And therefore in this case we must deal with 
 such as surgeons are wont to do with a tumour or swelling 
 in the body, who first apply to the affected place drawing 
 and ripening plaisters to bring the sore to a head, that the 
 corruption may have issue, and then heal. So a general 
 complaint of sin and confused grief must be reduced to par- 
 ticulars. It is a principle in the mystery of Christ, resolved 
 upon by the best divines rightly instructed to the kingdom 
 of heaven, " that a confused acknowledgment and general 
 repentance only for known sins is never sound and saving ; 
 but only common, formal, careless, and that of counterfeit 
 converts, not truly touched with sense of their sins, nor 
 heartily resolved to forsake their pleasures." If they can 
 be first brought to the sight, sense, and acknowledgment of 
 some one special notorious sin which hath most reigned in 
 their heart, life, or calling ; and be in some good measure 
 enlightened, convinced, and terrified about the heinousness 
 and horrible guilt of it, it may be a good means by God's 
 blessing to bring in the rest. For ordinarily true repent- 
 ance is first occasioned by some one special sin laid to 
 heart. The apostles ( Acts ii) do specially press the murder 
 of Christ upon the Jews ; Christ himself, adultery upon the 
 woman of Samaria (John iv) ; Samuel, idolatry upon the 
 Israelites (1 Sam. vii) ; the sin of asking a king (chap.xii) ; 
 Ezra, taking strange wives (Ezra x) ; Nehemiah, usury 
 (Neh. v). 
 
 To further the work of a more particular " setting their 
 sins in order before their eyes," it were much to be wished 
 
148 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 and a very happy thing if all the wounded consciences am? 
 troubled in mind we meet with, were furnished beforehand 
 Avith a competent speculative knowledge at the least of the 
 particulars in God's law, exorbitant passages of their life, 
 and gross corruptions of their hearts. \^ e might so, by 
 God's help, more easily bring them to particular remorse, 
 and fit them sooner and more seasonably for comfort. We 
 find it a most hard and heavy task to encounter the 
 devil's devices, wiles, and depths in a poor distressed, 
 tempted ignorant. 
 
 4. When the party is dejected for some notorious sin only. 
 It is sometimes seen in mere civil men, that having a long 
 time preserved their reputations entire and unstained in the 
 eye of the world from gross and notable enormities, and yet 
 after foully shaming themselves in the sight of men by some 
 infamous fall, seem, to grieve much, as though they were 
 truly troubled with remorse ; whereas, perhaps the pre- 
 sent heart's-grief ariseth rather from loss of credit than 
 wound of conscience, though to favour their credit they 
 cunningly father it upon conscience. Or let them be in- 
 deed affrighted very grievously for a time with the horror 
 of that one sin, yet stay the cry and abate the rage of that 
 one with some superficial comfort, and they are healed and 
 put into a happy case in their ov/n conceit, and in the opi- 
 nion also perhaps of their unskilful physician ; though they 
 search no further and dive no deeper into the loathsome 
 dunghill of those many abominable lusts and corruptions 
 in their heart and life, of which they are as full as the skin 
 will hold. 
 
 Now it is a foul and fearful oversight in a minister, nay, 
 it may prove an error stained with spiritual bloodshed, to 
 promise pardon to such partial penitents. 
 
 Suppose a man sick of the pleurisy should send to a phy- 
 sician, and tell him he is sore troubled with a cough, and 
 entreat his help, concealing other signs and symptoms which 
 ordinarily accompany that disease ; as his short and difficult 
 breathing, the stinging stitch in his side, &c. ; the physi- 
 cian may address himself to cure the cough, and yet the 
 patient die of an inflammation seized upon the menibrane 
 girding the ribs and sides. It is proportionably so in the 
 present point. A. man may complain and cry out, howl and 
 lament extremely for some one horrible heinous sin, and 
 that may be well ; but except he proceed to a further dis- 
 covery, and sorrow proportionably for his other known sins, 
 they will be the destruction and death of his soul. If a 
 dozen thieves be entered into thy house, it is not enough for 
 thee to lay hold on the captain thief only, and thrust him 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 149 
 
 out at doors ; if thou suffer but one of them to lurk in any 
 corner undiscovered and not turned out, he will suffice to 
 cut thy throat and take away thy treasure. Crying out of 
 one capital sin only is not sufficient, we must confess and 
 forsake all, if we look to find mercy (Prov. xxviii, 13). 
 
 And yet here I would have no true penitent dejected or 
 mistake ; the bare omission of some particular sins in this 
 case is not ever damnable. For we must know, that if a 
 man deal truly with his own heart in a sincere acknowledg- 
 ment, confession, and repentance for discovered and known 
 sins (and he ought to labour by clearing the eye of natural 
 conscience and industrious inspection into God's pure law, 
 to know as many as may be), and for all those that come 
 into his mind, when he sets himself apart solemnly to hum- 
 ble and afflict h's soul before God ( and he ought to remember 
 as many as he can possibly) ; 1 say, if so, then for secret 
 and unknown sins, which are committed in weakness and 
 ignorance, the Lord accepteth a general confession, as we 
 see in David's practice, " Who can understand his errors'? 
 Cleanse thou me from secret faults " (Psalm xix, 12). Sins 
 there are many, and that in the best men, which are not 
 only unnoted of others and free from the world's observa- 
 tion, but even unknown to a man's own self, and invisible 
 to the watchfullest eye of the most waking conscience ; 
 which notwithstanding are clearly subject to the search of 
 God's all-seeing eye, and to the censure of his pure majesty. 
 " For hell and destruction are before the Lord, how much 
 more the most secret ways of the sons of men ? " Sins there 
 are also, which even in the zealous exercise and holy work 
 of repentance may not come into the consideration and re- 
 membrance of one truly penitent, which if he could recover 
 into his memory, he would heartily and with much indigna- 
 tion acknowledge, bewail, and detest : so unnumbered are 
 the cursed bye-paths of men's crooked ways. But for both 
 these sorts of sins I must say thus much for the comfort of 
 the true convert ; that both those unknown sins which he 
 commits of ignorance, if he truly repent for all his known 
 sins, and labour with sincerity and zeal for further illumina- 
 tion of conscience and fuller revelation of every corrupt 
 passage both in heart and life, in judgment and practice ; 
 and those sins of knowledge also, which came not into his 
 mind, if with diligence and without dissimulation, with 
 hearty prayer and best intention of spirit, he endeavour to 
 recover them into his memory, that he might also mouru 
 for and mortify them with the rest, carrying ever in his 
 heart this resolution, that as any sin shall be discovered to 
 his conscience, or return into his mind, he will abominate 
 O 3 
 
150 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 and abandon it ; I say, both these kinds of sins (it is a pearl 
 for the true penitent ; let no stranget meddle with it) to 
 such an one, upon such conditions, are most certainly 
 washed away by Christ's blood, and God's free mercy, upon 
 his general confession and repentance. David's petition, 
 " O cleanse thou me from my secret faults," did assuredly 
 prevail with God for the forgiveness of all his unknown sins, 
 and shall be powerful for that end to the world's end, to all 
 those that so pray with David's spirit, and sincerely. 
 
 Besides these two cases ; first, want of knowledge ; and 
 secondly, want of remembrance in the sense I have said ; 
 there is also a third, and that is want of time, which if 
 truly so, doth also sometimes excuse the omission of some 
 particular sins. As we may see in the thief upon the cross. 
 For want of leisure, he could not possibly punctually revise 
 bis vile abominable life, nor peruse with remorse all the 
 particulars of his former wicked and abhorred courses ; but 
 he had infused into his soul by Jesus Christ an habitual 
 grace of true repentance, which, if he had lived, would 
 have carried him faithfully along over all the notorious 
 passages of his lewd and loathsome life, with a truly con- 
 trite, broken, and bleeding soul. So that if he had had 
 space, I doubt not but he would have proved a very emi- 
 nent, extraordinary, and exemplary penitent ; and therefore 
 the Lord in mercy did graciously accept the desire and pur- 
 pose, the inclination and preparation of his heart that way. 
 
 But to return to the point, and give my advice in the 
 case proposed : — 
 
 Let the party who so grieves for some notorious sin only, 
 and there takes up his rest, be told, that though he dwell 
 with deepest sighs, heaviest heart, and saltest tears upon 
 some of his greatest and most special sins, yet the rest must 
 by no means be neglected. That which is most crying and 
 crimson must serve as a crier, if I may so speak, to summon 
 the rest into the court of conscience ; and as a remem- 
 brancer to bring them to mind and remorse ; as David's 
 murder and adultery brought even his birth sin into his 
 memory (Psalm li) ; and that sin of strange wives, many 
 other sins to Ezra's mind (Ezra ix). When a father beats 
 his child for some one special fault, he is wont to remember 
 unto him and reckon with him for many former misdemea- 
 nors also. When a bankrupt is once shut up for one prin- 
 cipal debt, the rest of his creditors ordinarily come thick 
 and threefold upon him. When once thou beginnest to 
 reckon with thy conscience for some one extraordinary re- 
 bellion, never cease until thou hast searched thoroughly, 
 and ransacked it to the bottom, that it may smart soundly 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 151 
 
 before thou hast done, Avith penitent anguish and true re- 
 morse for all thy other sinful corruptions also. When horror 
 for some one heinous sin hath seized upon thy heart, follow 
 God's blessed hand leading thee to conversion, and through 
 the pangs of the new birth to unspeakable and glorious joy, 
 by giving way to all the rest to bring in their several indict- 
 ments against thy soul. And be not afraid thus to arraign, 
 cast, and condemn thyself as guilty of innumerable sins, 
 and -worthy ten thousand hells before God's just tribunal. 
 For then shalt thou there most certainly find a gracious ad- 
 vocate at his right hand ; to whom if thou make suit and 
 seek in truth, he will by the plea and price of his own 
 precious blood, sue out a pardon for thine everlasting peace. 
 When the guilty rage of thy reigning corruption begins to 
 press upon thy conscience, lay on more weight still by a 
 penitent addition and painful apprehension of all thy other 
 sins, that growing very sensible of thy spiritual slavery, 
 weary of the dungeon of lewdness and lust, sensuality and 
 death, wherein the devil hath kept thee long; and thine 
 heart being happily broken and bruised to the bottom, and 
 scorched as it were in some measure with hellish flames of 
 guilty horror, thou mayest see and feel the greater necessity 
 of Jesus Christ, set him at a higher price, with more eager- 
 ness and impatience thirst for his righteousness and blood ; 
 long for spiritual enlargement more than for worlds of plea- 
 sures, glory, or wealth ; relish the hidden manna of the 
 promises more eagerly, and cast thy wounded and bleeding 
 soul with more delight and sweetness into iiis blessed arms 
 of mercy and love. For, " O how acceptable is the foun- 
 tain of living waters," saith a worthy divine, " to the 
 chased and panting hart! the blood of Christ to the 
 weary and tired soul ! to the thirsty conscience scorched 
 with "the sense of God's wrath ! He that presents him with 
 it, how welcome is he ! Even as a special choice man ; one 
 of a thousand. The deeper the sense of misery, the sweeter 
 is the sense of mercy. The traitor laid dov/n upon the block 
 is more sensible of his sovereign's mercy in pardoning, than 
 he who is not yet seized. In our dead security before con- 
 version, God is fain to let the law, sin, conscience, Satan, a 
 deep sense of our abominable and cursed state, loose upon 
 us, and to kindle the very tire of hell in our souls, that so 
 we might be roused, and afterward more sweetly and 
 soundly raised and refreshed. For after the most toilsome 
 labour is the swetest sleep ; after the greatest tempests the 
 stillest calms. Sanctified troubles and terrors establish the 
 surest peace ; and the shaking of these winds makes the 
 trees of God's Eden take the deeper rooting." 
 
152 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 I confess, that commonly true converts at the first touch 
 and turning, and after too, cry out most of, and are extra- 
 ordinarily troubled with, some one capital sin, and that 
 which in their days of darkness and vanity wasted their 
 conscience most, and detained them with strongest entice- 
 ments and holdfast in the devil's bondage. Hence it was 
 that Zaccheus was so ready and willing to restore fourfold, 
 that so he might be rid of the sting and horror of his former 
 reigning sin (Luke xix, 8) ; that blessed Paul, as it seems, 
 amongst other dreadful apprehensions of his former unrege- 
 nerate courses, was so much vexed and wounded in heart 
 for that he had been a persecutor ( 1 Tim. i, 13 j 1 Cor. xv, 9). 
 But yet should they lament never so much, howl and roar 
 for that one sin ; if besides they d^d not by the conduct of 
 the blessed Spirit, descend also to a m.ore particular acknow- 
 ledgment, confession, and repentance of all other known 
 sins (and they ought by clearing the eye of natural con- 
 science, industrious inspection into the pure crystal of God's 
 law, discover as many as they can possibly), all were 
 nothing. " He which is grieved," say divines, " for one sin 
 truly and unfeignedly from his heart, will proportionably 
 be grieved for all the sins that he knoweth to be in himself." 
 If we favour any one sin in our heart, or life, or calling, we 
 cannot enjoy God's favour. If there be any sensual lust, 
 or secret corruption, which a man purposely labours to 
 cover and conceal from God's pure eye, the search of his 
 word, and mortifying grace, what hope can he have that it 
 is covered with the blood of Christ from the wrath that is 
 to come, or warranted by any promise of grace from the 
 damnation of hell ? In a true penitent there ought to be an 
 utter cessation from all gross abominable sins ; and at least 
 disallowance, disaffection, and all possible opposition even 
 to unavoidable infirmities and inseparahle frailties of the 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 A Fifth Case wherein spiritual Physicians raust take heed of that second 
 Error. The divers kinds of Death iu Godly Men. 
 
 5. When the physician of the soul promiseth mercy and 
 pardon at random, without that spiritual discretion which 
 is convenient for a matter of so great consequence, and 
 requiring such a deal of dexterity in discerning to a man 
 upon his bed of death, who hath formerly been notorious, 
 or only civil, howsoever a mere stranger to the power of 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 153 
 
 godliness and the truth of profession, because now in the 
 evil dav he grieves extremely by reason ot his extremitj', 
 cries out of his sins, " O, I am an heinous, horrible, and 
 grievous sinner ! If I were lo live again what would not i 
 do ! " A world for comfort now, and " to die the death ot the 
 righteous ; " because he howls upon his bed, as the prophet 
 speaketh, and breaks out oftentimes into a roaring com- 
 plaint of sin and cry for pardon, by reason he now begins to 
 fear and feel the revenging hand of God ready to seize upon 
 him for his former rebellions, 6cc. i tr when he assures him, 
 having been a formal professor only and " foolish virgin, 
 of bliss and glory ; because out of a former habituated 
 spiritual self-deceit^he cries, " Lord, Lord ; " seems to by- 
 standers verv confident that he shall presently receive a 
 crown of life ; thanks God that nothing troubles him, pro- 
 fesses to every one that comes to visit him that he believes 
 and repents with all his heart, forgives all the world, makes 
 no doubt of heaven, &c. 
 
 Here, by the way, we must take notice, that many 
 having outstood the day of their gracious visitation, having 
 "neglected so great salvation, forsaken their own mercy, 
 and judged themselves unworthy of everlasting hte all 
 their life long, by standing out against the ministry ct the 
 word, in respect of any saving work upon their souls ; and 
 now at length being overtaken, after the short gleam ot 
 worldly prosperity, with the boisterous winter-night ot 
 death and darkness of the evil day, may keep a great stir 
 upon their dying beds, or in some great extremity, with 
 grievous complaints of their present intolerable misery and 
 former sinful courses procuring it, with incessant cues tor 
 ease and deliverance, being now caught like wild bulls in a 
 net, full of the wrath of God, with earnest and eager suing 
 and seeking for pardon and salvation, now when worldly 
 pleasures are past; and yet be not truly penitent, not 
 soundly and savingly humbled, not rightly fitted for Christ 
 and comfort. Consider for this purpose Prov. i, 24, 28. in 
 the day of visitation God called upon them and stretched 
 out his hand, but they refused, did not regard ; set at nought 
 all his counsel, and would none of his reproof ; and there- 
 fore in the day of vexation, when extremity and anguish 
 shall come upon them like a thief in the night, a whirlwind, 
 travail upon a woman, suddenly, extremely, unavoidably, 
 he professeth beforehand, that then they shall call upon 
 him, but^he will not answer ; they shall seek him early, but 
 they shall not find him. When God's hand was upon them, 
 then they sought him ; and they returned and inquired early 
 after God, 6cc. " Nevertheless, they did fiatter him with 
 
154 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues ; 
 for their heart was not right with him," &c. (Psalm Ixxviii, 
 34, 35, 36, 37). "They howled upon their beds" (Hos. 
 vii, 14). Will not a dog or a beast, or any irrational 
 creature, when they are in extremity, will they not cry, will 
 they not moan for help 1 Their cries in the evil day were 
 not hearty prayers, but bowlings upon their beds. Their 
 earnestness in such a case is ordinarily like the tears, prayers, 
 and cries of a malefactor newly condemned. He is very 
 earnest with the judge to spare him ; he roars out sometimes, 
 and grieves extremely, yet not heartily, for his former lewd- 
 ness ; but horribly, because he must now lose his life. He 
 seems now, when he sees his misery, to relent, and to be 
 touched with remorse ; but it is only because he is likely to 
 be hanged. Again, many there are, who satisfying them- 
 selves and others with a goodly show of a form only of god- 
 liness, may upon their last bed discover and represent to by- 
 standers a great deal of fearlessness about their spiritual 
 state, much confidence, many ostentations of faith and full 
 assurance, and behave themselves as though they were most 
 certainly going to everlasting bliss, when, as God knows, 
 their answer at his just tribunal must be, "I know you 
 not ; " and in truth and trial they have no more part in 
 Christ, nor other portion in heaven, than the foolish virgins, 
 and those, Luke xiii, 26, 27. They are so confident, not 
 because they have escaped the danger, but because they 
 never saw the danger ; and hence it is, that many of them 
 die with as much confidence as the best Christians ; they 
 have no more trouble than holy men. To be sure I am free 
 from danger, and not to know my danger, may beget equal 
 confidence. 
 
 Now concerning the present case, I must tell you, that for 
 my part, I would not much alter my opinion of a man's 
 spiritual state whom I have thoroughly known before, for the 
 manner of his death. The end of God's dearest servant, 
 after a holy life and unblameable conversation, may not 
 appear in the eye of man so calm and comfortable as was 
 expected ; by reason of much tenderness of conscience, 
 some strong temptation, spiritual desertion, violent distem- 
 per of body ; or because God would have the manner of his 
 death serve the glory of his justice in hardening those about 
 him who were so far from being won by his godly life that 
 they heartily hated it ; or for some other secret and sacred 
 end, seen and seem.ing good to Divine wisdom, whoever 
 disposeth every circumstance even of the least affair most 
 sweetly and wisely. And yet this, as it doth not prejudice 
 his salvation, neither should it his Christian reputation. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 155 
 
 Hear that great doctor in the art of rightly comforting af- 
 flicted consciences, Greenhara, in his Grave Counsel and 
 Godly Observation : " But what if you should die in this 
 discomfort? For my part (as I myself look for no great things 
 in my death ) 1 would not think more hardly of you ; neither 
 would I wish any to judge otherwise of God's child in 
 that state of death. For we shall not be judged according 
 to that particular instant of death, but according to our 
 general course of life ; not according to our deed in that 
 present, but according to the desireof our hearts ever before. 
 And therefore we are not to mistrust God's mercy in death, 
 be we never so uncomfortable, if so be it hath been before 
 sealed in our vocation and sauctification." 
 
 On the other side, a notorious wretch, who hath swam 
 down the current of the times, and wallowed in worldly 
 pleasures all his life long, may seem to die penitently, and 
 resolvedly to be reformed if he recover ; and yet his sorrow 
 of mind may be such only as the terrors of an awakened 
 guilty conscience produce ; and his resolution to cast away 
 his sins, only such as a man hath in a storm to cast away his 
 goods, not because he doth not love them, but because he 
 feareth to lose his life ifhe part not with them. Or a mere civil 
 man, or formal professor, may upon his bed of death be very 
 confident and seem to be full of comfort, and yet that con- 
 fidence no other than the strong imaginary joyful conceit of a 
 covetous man grasping a great deal of gold in a dream, but 
 when he awaketh, behold his hands are empty. 
 
 For a more full and clear apprehension of my meaning 
 and judgment in the point, let us take a survey of the dif- 
 ferent and several kinds of death which ordinarily befal the 
 godly and the wicked. 
 
 The deaths of God's children are divers : — 
 
 (1.) Some of their holy and zealous lives do determine 
 and expire sweetly, fairly, and gloriously, even like a clear 
 sun in a summer's evening, without any storm or cloud of 
 temptation and discomfort. The darksome and painful 
 passages and pangs oi death are enlightened and sweetened 
 with the shining beams of God's glorious presence, and fast 
 erabracement of Jesus Christ in the arms of their laith. So 
 that to them the very joys of heaven and exultations of ever- 
 lasting rest mingle themselves with those last agonies and 
 expirations of death. Their heads are, as it were, crowned 
 with immortality and endless peace upon their beds of death. 
 Luther, that blessed man of God, died sweetly and tri- 
 umphantly over hell, the pope, and the devil. " My iieavenly 
 Father," said he at his death, "eternal and merciful God, 
 thou hast manifested unto me thy dear Son, our Lord Jesus 
 
156 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 Christ. I have taught him, 1 have known him, I love him 
 as my life, my health, and ray redemption, whom the wicked 
 have persecuted, maligned, and with injury afflicted. 
 L»raw my soul to thee." After this he said as ensues thrice. 
 " I commend my spirit into thine hands ; thou hast redeemed 
 me, O God of truth. God so loved the world that he gave 
 his only Son, that all that believe in him should have life 
 everlasting" (John iii, 16). Hear how another blessed 
 saint of God * ended his days : " Having the day before he 
 died continued his meditations and expositionupon Rom. viii, 
 for the space of two hours more, on the sudden he said, 
 ' O stay your reading. What brightness is this 1 see ? Have 
 you lighted up any candles 1 ' To which 1 answered, ' No ; 
 it is the sun-shine ; ' for it was about five o'clock in a clear 
 summer's evening. 'Sunshine,' saith he, ' nay, my Saviour- 
 shine. Now, farewell world ; welcome heaven ; the day 
 star from on high hath visited my heart. O speak it when 
 I arn gone, and preach it at my funeral, God dealeth 
 familiarly with man. I feel his mercy, I see his majesty ; 
 whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell. God, 
 he knoweth ; but I see things that are unutterable.' So 
 ravished in spirit he roamed towards heaven, with a cheerful 
 look, and soft sweet voice, but what he said we could not 
 conceive. With the sun in the morning following, raising 
 himself as Jacob did upon his staff, he shut up his blessed 
 life with these blessed words : ' O what a happy change 
 shall I make ! From night to day ; from darkness to light ; 
 from death to life ; from sorrow to solace ; from a factious 
 world to a heavenly being ! O my dear brethren, sisters, 
 and friends, it pitieth me to leave you behind ; yet remember 
 my death when I am gone ; and what I now feel, I hope 
 you shall find ere you die, that God doth and will deal 
 familiarly with men! And now thou fiery chariot, that 
 came down to fetch up Elijah, carry me to my happy hold : 
 and all ye blessed angels who attended the soul of Lazarus 
 to bring it up to heaven ; bear me, O bear me into the 
 bosom of my best beloved ! Amen, Amen, come Lord 
 Jesus, come quickly ! ' And so he fell asleep." That this 
 is true, the reporter and by-stander, that ancient, learned, 
 and reverend minister of God, Mr Leigh, addeth t, " I say 
 the truth, my brethren, I lie not, my conscience bearing me 
 witness in the Holy Ghost," &c. 
 
 (2.) Others may end their days very uncomfortably, in 
 ravings, impatiences, and other strange behaviours. Nay, 
 
 * Mr. John Holland, a faithful minister of God's word. 
 
 t In his Sermon, entitled, The Soul's Solace against Sorrow. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 157 
 
 the fiery distempers of their hot disease may sometimes even 
 in the saints oi' God produce furious carriages, fearful dis- 
 tractions, an<l some despairful speeches. But these being 
 the natural effects and issues of melancholic excesses, 
 frenzies, and burning fevers, are sins of infirmity in sanctified 
 men. For w^hich, if they come again to themselves, they 
 actually repent ; if not, they are all undoubtedly by a general 
 habitual repentance and God's gracious acceptation thereof, 
 pardoned by the passion of Christ, and buried for ever in his 
 precious death, ihat last and irreversible doom at the 
 dreadful tribunal of the ever-living God must pass upon us, 
 not according to the violent and involuntary distempers at 
 our last hour, but according to the former passages of our 
 life, the sinful or sanctified expense of the days of health. 
 Hear that other great artist in the mystery of dealing with 
 troubled consciences *, "The common opinion is, that if a 
 man die quietly and go away like a lamb, which in some 
 diseases, as consumption and such like, any man may do, 
 then he goes straight to heaven ; but if the violence of the 
 disease stir up impatience, and cause frantic behaviours, then 
 men use to say there is a judgment of God, serving either to 
 discover a hypocrite, or to plague a wicked man. But the 
 truth is otherwise ; for indeed a man may die like a lamb, 
 and yet go to hell ; and one dying in exceeding torments 
 and strange behaviours of the body may go to heaven." 
 
 (3.) The death of some others is mixed ; to wit, of fear- 
 ful tempestuous storms, and almost if not altogether des- 
 pairful agonies in the beginning of their last sickness, and 
 a fair, refreshing, glorious calm and joyful triumph over 
 temptations and fear towards the conclusion of their life. 
 For some secret end and holy purpose, seeming good to his 
 heavenly wisdom, God suffers sometimes even his dearest 
 servants to taste, as it were, of the fire of hell, and for a 
 while to feel in their consciences those infernal flames, as a 
 preparative to drink more sweetly of the well of life and 
 rivers of endless pleasures. So himself is most honoured 
 by helping when all hope is past ; the heart of his child 
 more ravished with the first sight of those unutterable joys, 
 being suddenly raised to the height of happiness from the 
 depth of horror ; the enemies to the narrow way dashed 
 and confounded by observing his deliverance, whom out of 
 profane blindness they deemed a hypocrite ; godly Chris- 
 tians graciously revived when they see, that though the Lord 
 hide his face from his child for a moment, yet at last with 
 everlasting kindness will he have mercy on him ; and that 
 
 * Perkins, in his Salve for a Sick Man. 
 P 
 
158 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 he will never utterly and finally forsake any of his. Thus 
 died thoseblessed servants of God, Mrs. Brettergh, Mr. Pea- 
 cock, &c. Mrs. Brettergh in the heat of temptation 
 " wished that she had never been born, or that she had 
 been made any other creature rather than a woman." But 
 when that hellish storm was overblown by the return of the 
 glorious beams of the sun of righteousness into her soul, she 
 turned her tune and triumphed thus : "Oh happy am i , that 
 ever I was born to see this blessed day ! I confess before 
 the Lord his loving-kindness, and his wonderful works before 
 the sons of men. For he hath satisfied my soul, and filled 
 my hungry soul with goodness." 
 
 Mr. Peacock, in the height of his dreadful desertion told 
 those about him, that he " conversed with hell-hounds ; 
 that the Lord had cursed him ; that he had no grace ; that 
 it was against the course of God's proceeding to save him," 
 &c. But when that horrible tempest of spiritual terrors 
 was happily dispersed, and the light of God's comfortable 
 countenance began to shine again upon his most heavy and 
 afflicted spirit, he disavowed all " inconsiderate speeches," 
 as he called them, in his temptation, and did humbly and 
 heartily ask mercy of God for them all, and did thus tri- 
 umph : " What ! should I extol the magnificence of God, 
 which is unspeakable, and more than any heart can con- 
 ceive 1 Nay, rather let us with humble reverence acknow- 
 ledge his great mercy. V/hat great cause have I to mag- 
 nify the great goodness of God, that hath humbled, nay ra- 
 ther exalted such a wretched miscreant of so base condi- 
 tion to an estate so glorious and stately ! The Lord hath 
 honoured me with his goodness. I am sure he hath pro- 
 vided a glorious kingdom for me. The joy which I feel in 
 my heart is incredible." 
 
 (4.) Some of God's worthiest champions and most zea- 
 lous-servants do not answer the irreprovable sanctity of 
 their life and unspotted current of their former conversation 
 with those proportionable extraordinary comforts and glo- 
 rious passages upon their beds of death, which in ordinary 
 congruity might be expected, as a convenient conclusion to 
 the rare and remarkable Christian carriages of such blessed 
 saints. So bottomless and infinitely unfathomable by the 
 utmost of all created understandings are the depths of 
 God's most holy ways and his inscrutable counsels ; quite 
 contrary many times to the probable conclusions of man's 
 best wisdom. But every one of his, since he certainly 
 passes through those pangs into pleasures and joys endless 
 and unspeakable, must be content to glorify God and to be 
 serviceable to his secret ends with what kind of death he 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 159 
 
 please : whether it be glorious and untempted, or discom- 
 t'ortable because of bodily distempers, and consequently 
 uninterpretable by undiscerning spirits ; or mingled of temp- 
 tations and triumphs ; or ordinary, and without any great 
 show or remarkable speeches, after extraordinary singulari- 
 ties of a holy life, which promised an end of special note 
 and admiration. 
 
 Wliy may not some worthy heavenly-minded Christians 
 sometimes, by strong mortifying meditations and many con- 
 quering fore-conceits of death in their life-time, make it be^ 
 forehand so familiar and easy unto them, and by conti- 
 nual conversing above, and constant peace of conscience, 
 taste so deeply of spiritual joys, that that dreadful passage 
 out of this life, as it may breed no great sense of alteration 
 in themselves, so no extraordinary matter of special obser- 
 vation to others 1 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 The ciivei-s kiuds of Death in Wicked Men. 
 
 Of the wicked, and those who were ever strangers to the 
 mystery of Christ and triith of godliness, — 
 
 (1.) Some die desperately. Though thousands perish by 
 presumption to one of those who despair, yet some there 
 are, to whom, upon their beds of death, all their sins are 
 set in order before ihem, and represented to the eye of their 
 awaked consciences in such grisly forms and so terribly, 
 that at the very first and fearful sight they are presently 
 struck dead in soul and spirit, utterly overv/helmed and 
 quite swallowed up with guilty aud desperate horror. So 
 that afterward no counsel nor comfort ; no consideration of 
 the immeasurableness of God's mercy, of the invaluable- 
 ness and omnipotency, if I may so speak, of Christ's blood- 
 shed, of the variety and excellency of gracious promises, 
 of the loss of their own immortal souls, can possibly drive 
 and divert from that infinitely false conceit and cursed cry, 
 " My sins are greater than can bepardoned." Whereupon, 
 most miserable and forlorn wretches ! they very wickedly 
 and wilfully throw themselves into hell, as it were, upon 
 earth, and are damned above ground. Thus the Lord some- 
 times for the terror of others, glorifying his own justice, and 
 bringing exemplary confusion upon impenitent obstinacy in 
 sin, and wilful opposition to grace, doth in greatest indig- 
 nation by the hand of divine vengeance unclasp unto them 
 
160 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 the book of Iheir own conscience and of his own holy law. 
 In one of which they find now at length all their innumer- 
 able iniquities, transgressions, and sins engraven with the 
 point of a diamond, enraged with God's implacable wrath, 
 aggravated with the utmost malice of Satan, and never to 
 be razed out or remitted but by the blood of the Son of 
 God, in which they peremptorily profess themselves to have 
 no part. In the other they see the fierceness and fulness of 
 all the curses, plagues, and torments denounced there, and 
 due unto all impenitent sinners, ready to be poured upon 
 their bodies and souls for ever; and no possibility to pre- 
 vent them, no way to decline them, but by God's infinite 
 bounty through Jesus Christ, in which they also utterly 
 disc) am all right and interest ; and therefore they are now 
 finally and desperately resolved to look for no mercy ; but 
 in their own judgment and by their own confession stand 
 reprobates from God's covenant, and void of all hope of 
 his inheritance, expecting with unspeakable terror and 
 amazement of spirit the consummation of their misery and 
 fearful sentence of eternal damnation. They are commonly 
 such as have been gross hypocrites like Judas, and lie in 
 some secret abomination against the knowledge of their 
 hearts all their life long ; that have followed still their own 
 sensual ways and course oi the world against the light of 
 the ministry, standing like an armed man in their con- 
 sciences to the contrary ; who have been scorners and per- 
 secutors of the power of godliness and the good way ; who 
 have abjured the gospel of Jesus Christ and forsaken the 
 truth for honour, wealth, or worldly happiness; to whom 
 the Lord in their lifetime vouchsafed many mercies, much 
 prosperity, great means of salvation, long forbearance, &c. 
 And yet they stood out still, they still hated to be reformed, 
 " set at nought all his counsel, and would none of his re- 
 proof." Wherefore the day of gracious visitation being once 
 expired, a thousand worlds will not purchase it again : 
 heaven and earth cannot recal it. No mercy, no comfort, no 
 blessing can then be had, though they seek it with tears and 
 yelling. They shall never more be heard, though with much 
 violence they throw their shrieks into the air, they cry with 
 sighs and groans as piercing as a sword. Not but that the 
 gates of heaven and arms of mercy may stand wide open 
 until their last breath. But, alas ! ihey have already so 
 hardened their hearts that they cannot repent. " After 
 thine hardness, saith Paul (Rom. ii, 5), and heart that can- 
 not repent." They now but howl upon their beds, they do 
 not cry unto God vvith their hearts, as the prophet speaks 
 (Hos.vii, 14). Tlieir earnest and early crying in this last 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 161 
 
 extremity is only because their " fear is come upon them as 
 desolation, and their destruction as a whirlwind." When 
 they cast out their considerations for comfort, it is not the 
 whole creation can possibly help them ; for they must stand 
 or fall to the tribunal of the " everlasting God, mighty and 
 terrible, and Creator of the ends of the earth." If they 
 look up to God the Father, that scripture, Prov. i, 24, 26, 
 comes presently into their head v\ith much horror, and 
 quite kills their hearts ; because he hath called all our life 
 long, and all that goodly time we refused, he will laugh now 
 at our calamity, and mock when our fear is come. Jesus 
 Christ, as they strongly conceive, andimmoveably conclude 
 against themselves, hath now to them for ever closed up his 
 wounds as it were, and will not afford them one drop of his 
 blood; because tliey have so often by coming unworthily 
 spilt it in the sacrament, persecuted him in his members, 
 and despised him in the ministry. The blessed Spirit, be- 
 cause in the day of visitation they repelled all his inward 
 warnings and holy motions, preferring Satan's impure sug- 
 gestions before his sacred inspirations, doth now in their own 
 acknowledgment, by the equity of a just proportion, in this 
 day of vexation leave them to eat the fruit of their former 
 wilfulness, and reap the reward of their own ways. Thus 
 these forlorn wretches are disclaimed, forsaken, and aban- 
 doned of heaven and earth, God and man ; of all the com- 
 forts in this life and blessings of the world to come. And so 
 by final despairing of God's mercy, the greatest of sins, 
 they most unhappily and cursedly follow Judas, the worst 
 of men, into the darkest and most horrible cavern in hell. 
 
 (2.) Others die senselessly and blockishly. They demean 
 themselves upon their dying beds as though there were no 
 immortality of the soul, no tribunal above, no strict account 
 to be given up there for all things done in the flesh, no ever- 
 lasting estate in tiie v\orld to come, wherein everyone must 
 either lie in unspeakable pains, or live in unutterable plea- 
 sures. In their lifetime they were never wont to tremble 
 at God's judgments, or lejoice in his promises, or much 
 trouble themselves with the ministry of the word, or about 
 the state of their souls. All was one to them, what minis- 
 ter they had, whether a man " taught to the kingdom of 
 Christ," or a general teacfier, or an ignorant mangier of the 
 word, or a dissolute fellow, or a dauber with untempered 
 mortar, or a dumb dog. If they were neither prostitutes 
 nor thieves, but well accounted of amongst their neigh- 
 bours, thrived m the world, prospered in their outward 
 stale, provided for posterity, slept lu a whole skin, were 
 P 3 
 
162 INSTRUCTIOxNTS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 not vexed on the Lord's day with any of these precise 
 trouble-towns ; they were well enough, and had all they 
 looked for, either in this world or the world to come. 
 Wherefore at their death, by reason of their former disac- 
 quaintance with spiritual things, and God not opening their 
 eyes, they are neither afflicted with any fear of hell, or af- 
 fected with any hope of heaven ; they are both unappre- 
 hensive of their present danger, and fearless of the fiery 
 lake into which they are ready to fall. In these regards 
 they are utterly untouched, die most quietly, and without 
 any trouble at all. And it is their ordinary answer, when 
 they are questioned about their spiritual state, and how it 
 stands with them between God and their own consciences, 
 "I thank God, nothing troubles me ;" which though they 
 think it makes much for their own credit, yet, alas ! it is a 
 small comfort to judicious by-standers. and such as wish 
 V ell to their souls ; but rather a fearful confirmation that 
 they are finally given over to the spirit of slumber, and 
 sealed up by divine justice in the sottishness and security 
 of their own senseless hearts for most deserved condemna- 
 tion. Thus these men, as one speaks, " live like stocks and 
 die like blocks." " And yet the ignorant people," saith 
 Greenham, " will still commend such fearful deaths, say- 
 ing. He departed as meekly as a lamb ; he went away as a 
 bird in a shell , when they might as well say (but for their 
 feather bed and their pillow) he died like a beast, and 
 perished like an ox in a ditch." 
 
 (3.) Others die formally. I mean, they make very goodly 
 shows and representations of much confidence and comfort. 
 Having formerly been formal professors, and so furnished 
 with many forms of godly speeches, and outward Christian 
 behaviours ; and the spirit of delusion and spiritual self- 
 cozenage, which in their life-time detained them in con- 
 stancy of security and self-conceitedness about the spiritual 
 safety of their souls, without any such doubts, troubles, 
 feais, temptations, as are wont to haunt those who are true 
 of heart (for ordinarily such is the peace of unsound pro- 
 fessors), continuing their imaginary groundless persuasion 
 and presumption in the height and strength unto the end, 
 for their very last breath may be spent in saying " Lord, 
 Lord, open unto us," aa we see in the foolish virgins and 
 those Mat. vii ; I say such men as these, thus wofully de- 
 luded and fearfully deceiving others, may cast out upon 
 their last beds many glorious speeches, intimating much 
 seeming confidence of a good estate to God-ward, contempt 
 of the world, willingness to die, readiness to forgive all the 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 163 
 
 world, hope lo be saved, desire to be dissolved and go to 
 heaven, &c. They may cry aloud with a great deal of 
 iormal confidence, " Lord, Lord ; Mercy, mercy in the 
 name of Christ ; Lord Jesus receive our spirits," &c. ; and 
 yet all these goodly hopes, and earnest ejaculations, growing 
 only from a form, and not from the power of godliness, are 
 bur, as 1 said somewhere before, as so many catcliings and 
 scramblings of a man over head in water. He struggles 
 and strives for hold to save himself, but he grasps nothing 
 but water, it is still water which he catches, and therefore 
 sinks and drowns. They are all but as a spider's web, 
 upon wMch, one falling from the top of a house lays hold 
 by the way for stay and support. " He shall lean upon his 
 house, but it shall not stand; he shall hold it fast, but it 
 shall not endure" (Job viii, 14, 15). "Oh, how many 
 descend," saith an ancient father, " with this hope to eter- 
 nal travails and torment?" " How many," saith another 
 worthy doctor*, "goto hell with a vain hope of heaven, 
 whose chiefest cause of damnation is their false persuasion 
 and groundless presumption of salvation ! " Of all the four 
 kinds of death which ordinarily befal such as are not saved, 
 this is the fairest in show ; but yet of greatest imposture 
 to those about them, and of most pestilent consequence to 
 harden especially all of the same humour that hear of it. 
 
 (4.) Some die penitently. But 1 mean seemingly so, not 
 savingly. Many having served tlieir appetites all their 
 lives and lived in pleasure ; now, when the sun of their 
 sensual delights begins to set, and the dark midnight of 
 misery and horror to seize upon them, would very gladly 
 be saved. And I blame them not, if they might first live 
 the life of the wicked, and then die the death of the righ- 
 teous : if they might have the earthly heaven of the world's 
 favourites here, and the heaven of Christ's martyrs in the 
 world to come. Tliese men are wont in this last extremity 
 to grieve extremely ; but it is but like their "howling upon 
 their beds," Hos. vii, 14. Because they are pinched with 
 some sense of present horror and expectation of dreadful 
 things, they cry out mightily for mercy ; but it is no other 
 than their early seeking, Prov. i, 28. Because distress and 
 anguish is come upon then), they inquire eagerly after God, 
 and would now be gladly acquainted with him ; but just 
 like them. Psalm Ixxviii, 34, "When he slew them, then 
 they sought him : and they returned and inquired early 
 after God. And they remembered that God v/as their rock, 
 and the high God their redeemer. Nevertheless they did 
 * Dr. Featlv. 
 
164 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto ' im with 
 their tongues. For their heart was not right with him." 
 They promise very fair, and protest gloriously what mended 
 men they will be if the Lord restore them. But all these 
 goodly promises are but as a morning cloud, and as the 
 early dew. i hey are like those of a thief or murderer at 
 the bar, who being now cast, and seeing there is now no 
 way but one, O what a reformed man would he be, if he 
 might be reprieved ! Antiochus, as the apocryphal book of 
 the Maccabees reports (2 Maccab. ix), when the hand of 
 God was upon him horribly, vowed excellent things. O 
 what he would do : so and so extraordinarily for the people 
 of God ! yea, and that "he himself also would become a 
 Jew ; and go through all the world that was inhabited and 
 declare the power of God." But what was it, think you, 
 that made this raging tyrant to relent and thus seemingly 
 repent 1 "A pain of the bowels that was remediless came 
 upon him, and sore torments of the inner parts ; so that no 
 man could endure to carry hini for his intolerable stench ; 
 and he liimself could not abide his own smell." Many 
 may thus behave themselves upon their beds of death with 
 very strong shows and many boisterous representations of 
 true turning unto God, whereas in truth and trial they are 
 .as yet rotten at heart-root; and as yet no more comfort 
 upon good ground belongs unto them than to those in the 
 fore-cited places ; and if any spiritual physician in such a 
 case do press it hand over head, or such a patient presume 
 to apply it, it is utterly misgrounded, misapplied. Hear 
 what one of the worthiest divines in Christendom saith * : 
 " Now put the case, one cometh to his ghostly father with 
 such sorrow of mind as the terrors of a guilty conscience 
 usually do produce, and with such a resolution to cast 
 away his sins as a man hath in a storm to cast away his 
 goods ; not because he doth not love them, but because he 
 feareth to lose his life if he part not with them : doth not 
 he betray this man's soul, who putteth into his head that 
 such an extorted repentance as this, which hath not one 
 grain of love to season it witiial, will qualify him suffici- 
 ently for the receiving of an absolution ?" ike. And another, 
 excellently instructed unto the kingdom of heaven t: " Re- 
 pentance at death is seldom sound. For it may seem 
 rather to arise from fear of judgment, and a horror of hell, 
 than for any grief for sin. And many seeming to repent 
 aflectionately in dangerous sickness, when they have re- 
 
 * Dr. Usher, in his Answer to a Jesuit's Challenge, 
 t Dvke, of Kepenfance, chap. xvi. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 165 
 
 covered, have been rather worse than before. It is true, 
 that true repentance is never too Late, but late repentance 
 is seldom fruf : " for here our sins rather leave us than we 
 them, as Ambrose says, and as he adds, " Woe be unto 
 them whose sin and life end together." This received 
 principle among the ancient fathers, that late repentance 
 is rarely true, implies that it is often false and unsound, 
 and so by consequence confirms the present point. Too 
 manifold experience also makes it good. Amongst many, 
 for my part I have taken special notice of two. The one 
 being laboured with in prison, was seemingly so extraor- 
 dinarily humbled, that a reverend man of God was moved 
 thereby to be a means of his reprieve, whereupon a pardon 
 was procured. And yet this so extraordinary a penitent 
 while death was in his eye, having the terror removed, re- 
 turned to his vomit, and some two years after to the same 
 place again, as notorious a Belial as he was before. Another, 
 having upon his bed of sickness received in his own conceit 
 the sentence of death against himself ; and being pressed 
 to humiliation and broken-heartedness, for he had formerly 
 been a stranger and an enemy to purity and the power of 
 godliness, answered thus: " My heart is broken ; " and so 
 broke out into an earnest confession of particular sins ; he 
 named uncleanness, stubbornness, obstinacy, vain-glory, 
 hypocrisy, dissimulation, uncharitableness, covetousness, 
 lukewarmness, iScc. He compared himself to the thief 
 upon the cross. " And if God," saith he, " restore me to 
 health again, the world shall see what an altered man I 
 will be." When he was pressed to sincerity and true 
 heartedness in what he said ; he protested that he repented 
 with all his heart and soul, and mind, and bowels, ^:c. ; 
 and desired a minister that stood by to be a witness of these 
 things between the world and him. And yet this man 
 upon his recovery became the very same, if not worse than 
 he was before. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 The Remedy iii this Fifth Case. 1. Admonition to the Ministers, to be 
 careful in comforting at that time. 2. To the People, not to defer 
 Repentance till that time. 
 
 Now since upon this perusal of the different deaths incident 
 to the godly and the wicked, it appears that some men never 
 soundly converted, may in respect of all outward repre- 
 sentations die as confidently and comfortably in the judg- 
 
166 INSTllUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 ment of the most as God's dearest children ; and that 
 Christ's best servants sometimes may depart this life uncom- 
 fortably to the eye and in the opinion of the greater part ; 
 and we heard before that our last and everlasting doom 
 must pass upon us, according to the sincerity or sensuality, 
 the zealous forwardness or formality of our former courses, 
 and not according to \he seeming of our last carriage upon 
 the bed of death, and enforced behaviour in that time of ex- 
 tremity : I say, these things being so, I hold my conclusion 
 still, and resolution not much to alter my estimation of a 
 man's spiritual state for the manner of his death (I except 
 the thieves upon the cross) : my meaning is, that there may 
 be some (I know not how few, but I am sure there is none, 
 except he have in him the perfection of the madness of all 
 the maniacs that ever breathed, would run that hazard), 
 who formerly out of the way and unreformed, may now at 
 last, being very extraordinarily and mightily humbled under 
 God's mighty hand, and cleaving to the Lord Jesus with 
 truly broken hearts indeed, follow by a miracle, as it were, 
 the thief upon the cross to an everlasting crovvn. And 
 here now I require the care, conscience, heavenly wisdom, 
 experimental skill, and all his ministerial dexterity in the 
 physician of the soul, to discern aright between these and 
 seeming penitents ; and then to apply himself proportion- 
 ably with all holy discretion and seasonableness to their 
 several different estates. 
 
 But to fright and turn every one for ever from that extre- 
 mest folly of hoping to follow that miraculous penitent thief, 
 and from going ou in sin and deferring repentance upon such 
 a deceiving and desperate ground ; let us consider, — 
 
 (1.) What a holy and learned man of God (Greenham) 
 saith to this point. " In great wisdom, that men at the 
 last gasp should not utterly despair, the L,ord hath left us 
 but one example of exceeding and extraordinary mercy, by 
 saving the thief on the cross. Yet the perverseness of all 
 our nature may be seen by this, in that this one serveth us 
 to looseness of life, in hope of the like ; whereas we might 
 better reason, that it is but one, and that extraordinary ; 
 and that besides this one, there is not one more in all the 
 Bible ; and that for this one that sped, a thousand thousands 
 have missed : and what folly is it to put ourselves in a way 
 where so many have miscarried ! To put ourselves into the 
 hand of that physician that hath murdered so many ; going 
 clean against our sense and reason : whereas in other we 
 always lean to that which is most ordinary, and conclude 
 not the spring to be come because of one swallow 1 It is as 
 if a man should spur his ass till he spoke, because Balaam's 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 167 
 
 ass did once speak. So grossly hath the devil bewitched 
 us." 
 
 (2.) The singularities about the good thief. First, his 
 heart was broken with one short sermon as it were ; but 
 thou hast or mightest have heard many, and art yet hard- 
 hearted. Secondly, the other thief saw also that sovereign 
 soul-healing blood gush freshly and abundantly out of his 
 blessed side, and yet was not struck or stirred at all. 
 Thirdly, his example is only for true penitents : but thou, 
 upon this presumption despising in the mean time the riches 
 of God's goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, lead- 
 ing thee to repentance, hardenest, thy heart that thou canst 
 not repent. Fourthly, his case was singular, and such that 
 the like is not to be found in the whole scripture. A king 
 sometimes pardons a malefactor at the place of execution ; 
 wilt thou therefore run desperately into some horrible villany 
 deserving death, hoping to be that one among many thou- 
 sands! Fifthly, "It was a miracle," saith an excellent 
 divine *, "with the glory whereof our Saviour would honour 
 the ignominy of the cross. We may almost as well expect 
 a second crucifying of Christ, as such a second thief Christ 
 then triumphing on the cross, did as princes do in the 
 triumph of entering into their kingdoms, they pardon gross 
 offences before committed, such as they pardon not after- 
 wards." Sixthly, having an eye upon this thief, that thou 
 mayest more fully and freely follow thy pleasures, thou 
 makest "a covenant with death, and an agreement with 
 hell, and puttest the evil day far from thee ; " but the Lord 
 hath professed, " that thy covenant with death shall be dis- 
 annulled, and thy agreement with hell shall not stand ; when 
 the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then shalt thou 
 be trodden down by it. 
 
 (3.) The ordinary impossibilites of following the blessed 
 thief in his miraculous repentance. First, thou art cried 
 unto continually by God's messengers to come in now, while 
 it is called to-day; yet thou standest out still, out of this 
 thought only, or rather v/ant of thought, to take thy till of 
 pleasure in the mean time, and to seek God sufficiently 
 upon thy bed of death, by repenting with the thief at last. 
 But know, for thy terror and timely turning, that the longer 
 thou puttest off and deferresl, the more unht thou shalt be 
 to repent. Thy custom in sinning will exercise more tyranny 
 over thee : the curse of God for thy going on still in thy 
 trespasses will be more heavy upon thee : the corruptions 
 that lurk in thine own bosom will be more strengthened 
 
 * Dyke on Repentance, cliap. xvii. 
 
168 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 against thee ; and this threefold cord is hardly broken ; 
 these three giants will be mastered with very much ado. The 
 farther thou waikest in the ways of death, the more un- 
 willing and more unable wilt thou be to return and be re- 
 formed. Thine understanding will be more darkened with 
 hellish mists ; tliy judgment more perverted ; thy will more 
 stubborn ; thy memory more stufted with sensual notions ; 
 thine affections will become more rebellious ; thy thoughts 
 more earthly ; thine heart more hardened ; thy conscience 
 more seared ; thyself more sold to sin ; and every day that 
 comes over thine head in this state of darkness, much more 
 the child of the devil than thou wast before. To refuse 
 Christ upon this point so freely and fairly offered, is to re- 
 ceive God's curse under seal, and to make sure thy cove- 
 nant with hell and league with death, until thou be slain 
 by the one and swallowed up of the other, without all mercy 
 or recovery. For in this time of delay God grows more 
 angry, Satan more strong, thyself more unable to repent, 
 sin more unconquerable, thy conversion more hard, thy sal- 
 vation more impossible. A ruinous house, the longer thou 
 lettest it run, the more labour and charge will it require in 
 repairing. If thou drive a nail with a hammer, the more blows 
 thou givest to it, the more hard will it be to draw it out again. 
 It isjust so in the case of continuing in sin; and every new sin 
 is a new stroke with a hammer that drives the nail in farther. 
 Secondly, with what possibility art thou likely to pass 
 through the great work of saving repentance ] or with what 
 heart canst thou address thyself unto it ^ when upon thy 
 sick bed thou art set upon at once, if thy conscience be 
 waking, with the ugly sight of all thy sins charging upon 
 thee vvith insupportable horror, with the pangs of death, 
 with Satan's utmost malice and his very powder-plot, and 
 with the terror of that approaching strict tribunal ; 
 winch dreadful encounter is able to put to it the spiritual 
 strength of many years gathering. Thirdly, resolution to 
 defer repentance, when grace is offered, doth justly merit 
 to be deprived for ever after of all opporunity and ability to 
 repent. Fourthly ; it is just vvith God, that tliat man who 
 doth purposely put off repentance and provision for his soul 
 until his last sickness, should for that sin alone be snatched 
 out of the world in great anger, even suddenly, so that there 
 be scarce a moment betwixt the height of his temporal hap- 
 piness and the depth of his spiritual misery. That his foolish 
 hope may be frustrated and his vain purpose come to no- 
 thing ; he may be cut off as the top of an ear of corn, and 
 put out like a candle, when he least thinks of death, and 
 dreams of nothing less than departure from his earthly 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 169 
 
 paradise. " They are exalted for a little while," saith Job, 
 " but are sone and brouu;lit low ; they are taken out of the 
 way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears ot" corn'' 
 (Job xxiv,24). Fifthly, a long continued custom is not 
 wont to be shaken off in an instant. Is it likely that a black- 
 moor should chani^e his skin and a leopard his spots in three 
 or four days, wliich they have contracted in forty or three- 
 score years ? Therefore I marvel that any should be so 
 blindfolded and baffled by the devil as to embolden himself 
 to drive off' until the last, by that passage of scripture — 
 "At what time soever a sinner doth repent him of his sin 
 from the bottom of his heart, I will put all his wickedness 
 out of my remembrance, saith the Lord ; " especially if he 
 look upon the text from whence it is taken, which methinks 
 being rightly understood, and the conditions well con- 
 sidered, is most punctual and precise to fright any from 
 that desperate folly. The words run thus : " But if the 
 wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, 
 and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and 
 right, he shallsurely live, he shall not die. All his trnns- 
 gressions," &cc. ( Ezek. xviii, 21, 22). Hence it appears, 
 that if any man expect upon good ground any portion in 
 this precious promise of mercy and grace, he must " leave 
 all his sins, and keep all God's statutes.'' Now, how per- 
 formest thou the condition of leaving all thy sins, when, as 
 in this last extremity, having received the sentence of death 
 against thyself, thy sins leave thee, and not thou thy sins, 
 that I may speak in the phrase of an ancient father! And 
 what space is left to come to comfort by keeping all God's 
 statutes, when thou art presently to pass to that highest 
 and dreadful tribunal, to give an exact and strict account for 
 the continual breach of all God's laws all thy life long? 
 Sixthly, many seem to be very penitent and promise exceed- 
 ing fair in the evil day and upon their sick beds, who being 
 recovered and restored to their former state are the very 
 same they were before, if not worse. I never knew, nor 
 heard of any unwrought upon under conscionable means, 
 who after recovery performed the vows and promises of a 
 nev/ life, which he made in his sickness and times of ex- 
 tremity. For if he will not be moved with the ministry, 
 God will never give that honour unto the cross to do the 
 deed. " Nay, Father Abraham," saith the rich glutton, 
 " but if one went unto them from the dead they will re- 
 pent. And he said unto him, If they hear not iNIoses and 
 the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one 
 rose from the dead" (Luke xvi, 30, 31). It would amaze 
 thee much if one of thy good-fellow companions should now 
 
 Q 
 
170 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 rise from the dead and tell thee, that he who was thy bro- 
 ther in iniquity is now in heli, and if thou follow the same 
 sensual courses still, thou must shortly most certainly fol- 
 low him to the place of torment. And yet even this would 
 not work at all if thou be a despiser of the word. It may 
 be while the dead man stood by thee thou wouldest be ex- 
 traordinarily moved and promise much ; but no sooner 
 should he be in his grave, but thou wouldst be as graceless 
 as thou wast before. Seventhly, what wise man, seeing a 
 fellow who never gave his name to religion in his life-time, 
 now only troubled about sin, when he is sure he must die, 
 will not suspect it to be wholly slavish and extorted for fear 
 of hell ? " My sentence is," saith Greenham, " that a man 
 lying nov/ at the point of death, having the snares of death 
 upon him, in that strait of fear and pain, may have a sorrow 
 for his life past ; but because the weakness of flesh, and the 
 bitterness of death dothmost commonly procure it, we ought 
 to suspect," &c. Eighthly, painful distempers of body are 
 wont to weaken much and hinder the activeness and freedom 
 of the soul's operations ; nay, sometimes to distract and 
 utterly overthrow them. Many, even of much knowledge, 
 grace, and good life, by reason of the damp and deadness 
 which at that time the extremity and anguish of their disease 
 brings upon their spirits, are able to do no great matter, if 
 any thing at all, either in meditation or expression. How 
 then dost thou think to pass through the incomparably 
 greatest work that ever the soul of man was acquainted with 
 in this life (I mean the /leuj-/)//'^/;) at the point of death ? 
 It is a woful thing to have much work to do, when the power 
 of working is almost done. When we are come to the very 
 last cast, our strength is gone, our spirits clean spent, our 
 senses appalled, and the power of our souls as numb as our 
 senses ; when there is a general prostration of all our powers, 
 and the shadow of death upon our eyes, then something we 
 would say or do, which should do our souls good. But, 
 alas ! how should it then be 1 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The Third Error of applyiiitr comfort, which is iudiscrect application. 
 Tiie first case wherein" it happens, which is too sudden application; 
 and the demonstration of that error. 
 
 When the spiritual physcian pours the balm of mercy and 
 oil of comfort into a wounded conscience — 
 1. Too soon. The surgeon that heals up a dangerous sore. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 171 
 
 and draws a skin over it before his corrosive have consumed 
 the dead Heth, before he hath opened it vi'ith his tents, 
 ransacked it to llie root, and rent out the core, is so far from 
 serving, that he procures a great deal of misery to his 
 patient. For the rotten matter that remains behind will 
 continue to rankle and fester underneath, and at length 
 break out again perhaps, both with more extremity of 
 anguish and difficulty of cure. They are but mountebanks, 
 smatterers in physic and surgery, in short, but plain cheaters 
 and cozeners, who are so ready and resolute for extemporary 
 and palliative cures. Sudden recoveries from rooted and 
 old distempers are rarely sound. If it be thusin bodily cures, 
 what a deal do you think of extraordinary discretion, 
 heavenly wisdom, precise and punctual pondering of cir- 
 cumstances, well-advised and seasonable leisure, both 
 speculative and experimental skill, heartiest ejaculations, 
 wrestlings with God by prayer for a blessing, is very con- 
 venient and needful for a true and right method in healing 
 a wounded conscience ! which doth pass immeasurably all 
 other maladies, both in exquisiteness of pain, tenderness of 
 touch, deceitfulness of depth, and in highest and greatest 
 consequence, either for the everlasting health or endless 
 horror of an immortal soul. Hence it was that that one of 
 a thousand and learned doctor in this heavenly mystery *, 
 did so far differ from all daubers with untempered mortar 
 and the ordinary undoing courses in this kind : — ; 
 
 " But now coming to the salving of this sore," saith he, "I 
 shall seem very strange in my cure, and so much the more 
 be wondered at, by how much in manner of proceeding I 
 differ from the most sort of men herein. I am not ignorant 
 that many visiting afflicted consciences cry still. Oh, com- 
 fort them ! Oh, speak joyful things unto them ! Yea, 
 there be some, and those of the most learned, who in such 
 cases are full of these and such like speeches : Why are you 
 so heavy, my brother? Why are you so cast down, my 
 sister? Be of good cheer. Take it not so grievously. 
 What is there that you should fear? Cod is merciful; 
 Christ is a Saviour. These be speeches of love indeed ; 
 but they often do the poor souls as much good herein, as if 
 they should pour cold water into their bosoms ; whenas 
 without further se irching of their sores they may as well 
 minister a malady as a medicine. For as nutritive and cor- 
 dial medicines are not good for every sick person, especially 
 when the body needeth rather a strong purgative than a 
 matter restorative ; and as carminative medicines may for 
 
 • Greenharo, in his Treatise for an Afflicted Conscience. 
 
172 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 a time allay the pain of the patient, but after the grief be- 
 cometh more grievous : so the comfortable applying of G od's 
 promises are not so profitable ibr every one that is humbled, 
 especially when their souls are rather further to be cast 
 down than as yet to be raised up ; so those sugared consola- 
 tions may for a while overheal the conscience and abate 
 some present grief; but so as afterwards the smart may be 
 the sorer, and the grief may grow the greater. Hereof en- 
 sueth this effect, that comfort seemeth to cure for a while, 
 but for want of wisdom in the right discerning of the cause, 
 men minister one medicine for another ; and so for want of 
 skill the latter grindeth sorer than the former." 
 
 Calvin, also, that great pillar and glory of the Christian 
 world, for sincere and sound orthodox doctrine*, concurs 
 in judgment with this blessed man of God ; and so, I doubt 
 not, do all the faithful ministers of Jesus Christ. " Let this 
 be the first degree of repentance, when men feel that they 
 have been grievous offenders; and then the grief is not to 
 be immediately cured, as impostors deal flatteringly and 
 nicely wath men's consciences, that they may favour them- 
 selves as much as may be, and be notably deceived with 
 superficial daubing. The physician will not forthwith 
 assuage the pain, but will consider what may be more ex- 
 pedient. Perhaps he will increase it, because a sharper 
 medicine will be necessary. Even so the prophets of God, 
 when they see trembling consciences, do not presently ap- 
 ply sweet consolations ; but rather tell ihem, that they must 
 not dally with God, and stir up those who are so forward of 
 their own accord, that they would propose unto themselves 
 the terrible judgment of God, that they may yet be more 
 and more humbled." 
 
 Another excellent and skilful workman in the great mys- 
 tery of saving souls t, tells us truly, " That the promise of 
 salvation doth not immediately belong to one terrified in 
 conscience, but to one that is not only terrified for his pu- 
 nishment, but is contrite-hearted for sin, which is the work 
 of the gospel. Let not these be weary of the yoke of God 
 and the law, and make overmuch haste out of this state, for 
 so they may undo themselves. For some withstanding their 
 terror, have withstood their salvation, &c. Even as an impa- 
 tient patient gets the surgeon to pull out the tent and 
 corrosive, or pulls it oft' himself as soon as it begins to smart 
 a little, and so thinks it is searched enough, and now lays 
 on healing plaisters : but afterwards breaks oft" again worse 
 than ever. Whereas if the corrosive had been let lie on till 
 
 * On Joel, chap, ii, f Mr. Rogers of Dedham, Doctrine of Faith. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 173 
 
 it had eaten out the corruption indeed, then it might have 
 been whole Ions; ago." 
 
 If daubers in this kind did rightly understand and acknow- 
 ledge, or had ever had any experimental feeling in their 
 own souls of Christ's rule, and the Holy Ghost's method, 
 which is first to convince of sin, to deject and humble in 
 the sight of the Lord with apprehension and sense of a most 
 abominable and cursed state, before there follow a convic- 
 tion of the righteousness of Christ to raise up (see John 
 xvi, 8), or of the necessity of the work of the spirit of 
 bondage, to fit and prepare for Christ and comfort ; I say, 
 then, they would not deal so ignorantly in a matter of so 
 dear and e\'erlasting importance. They would not so has- 
 tily and rashly, without all warrant and wisdom, without 
 any further search, discovery, or dejection, oflPer mercy, 
 pardon, and all the promises to a man formerly wicked, only 
 for some faint and enforced confession of sins, or because 
 now being overtaken by the evil day, he howls upon his 
 bed, not for any true hatred of sin, but for present smart 
 and expected horror, 6cc. But would labour to let the spirit 
 of bondage have its full work, and lay him open more at 
 large in the true colour of his scarlet sins ; and not only- 
 cause a bare confession of them, but such a conviction as 
 may stop his mouth, so that he hath not a word to speak, 
 but trembles to see such a sink, Sodom, and hell of sin and 
 abomination in himself, &c. Oh, how oft have I heard 
 many a poor ignorant soul in the day of sorrow, being 
 moved to humble himself in the sight of the Lord that he 
 might lift hira up, first to get his heart broken with the 
 abhorred burthen of all his sins, and then to bring it thus 
 bleeding to the throne of grace, that Christ might bind it 
 up ; I say, being thus intreated, to answer, Yes, yes, with 
 all my heart ; I am sorry for ray sins with all my heart ; I 
 trust in Jesus Christ with all my heart ; and thus, whatso- 
 ever you can counsel or advise, he doth it with all his heart ; 
 whereas, alas ! poor heart, as yet his understanding is as 
 dark as darkness itself, in respect of any, I say not only 
 saving knowledge, but almost of any knowledge at all ; and 
 his heart in respect of any true remorse as hard as a rock of 
 flint. Now those unskilful physicians of the soul, who in 
 this and the like cases will needs without any more ado, 
 without any further enlightening or labour, thrust mercy 
 and comfort upon them, are like those " foolish shepherds," 
 as lMarbury,in his Exposition upon Psalm xxxii, calls them, 
 " who when they want skill to help their poor sheep out of 
 the ditch, are driven to play the miserable comforters, and 
 to take some other indirect course (as many use to do in such 
 
 Q 3 
 
174 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 cases), to cut the sheep's throat in time to make him man's 
 meat, lest it should be said, he died in a ditch." They are 
 desolators not consolators, as Austin sometimes calls them ; 
 not sound comforters, but true cut-throats. 
 
 Besides that which i have said before of the precedency 
 of the woiking of the law and of the spirit of bondage to 
 make way for Christ, let me further tell you upon this oc- 
 casion (that it may appear that much more is to be done 
 herein than is ordinarily imagined before comfort may upon 
 good ground and seasonably be applied to the conscience 
 awaked) what an excellent divine, both for depth of learn- 
 ing and height of holiness, delivered somewhere in this 
 point to this purpose. 
 
 " No man must think this strange, that God dealeth with 
 men after this strange manner; as it were to kill them 
 before he make them alive ; to let them pass through, or by, 
 as it were, the gates of hell to heaven ; to suffer the spirit 
 of bondage to put them into a fear, into a shaking and 
 trembling, &c. For he suffers those that are his to be terri- 
 fied with this fear, — 
 
 " First. In respect of his own glory, for the magnifying 
 both of his justice and of his mercy. 
 
 "(1.) He glorifies his justice when lessening, or altoge- 
 ther, for the time, abstracting all sight of mercy. He lets 
 tlie law, sin, conscience, and Satan loose upon a man to 
 have their course and several comminations, and sets the 
 spirit of bondage on work, &c. Thus as in the great work 
 of redemption*, he would have the glory of his justice 
 appear ; so would he have it also in the application of our 
 redemption, that justice should not be swallowed up of 
 
 * As in the work of creation, so in the work of redemption, God 
 would have the praise of all his attributes. He is much honoured when 
 tliey are ackuowledi^ed to be in him in hiirhest perfection, and their in- 
 finiteness and excellency admired and magnified. In the former there 
 appeareth gloriously his infinite wisdom, goodness, power, justice, 
 mercy, &c.; and yet in the work of redemption, which wasthe greater, 
 they seem to shine with more sweetness, amiableness, and excellency; 
 for in it appeared all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, &c. And 
 in conveying it to the churcli — First, His wisdom there appeareth 
 intinite wisdom, in finding out such a means for the redemption of man- 
 kind as no created understanding could possibly imagine or think of. 
 Secondly, His mercy inuiieasurably sweet and admirable, in not sparing 
 his own Son, the Son of his love," that lie might spare us, who had so 
 grievously transgressed against iiim. Thirdly, His justice in its highest 
 excellency, in sparing us, not to spare his own only Son; laying, as it 
 were, his tiead upon the block, andchoppinar it off ; rending and tearing 
 tliat blessed body, even as the veil of the temple was rent, and making 
 his soul an offering for sin, &c. This was the perfection of justice. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 175 
 
 mercy ; but even as the woman, 2 Kings iv, who had nothing 
 to pay was threatened by creditors to take away her two 
 sons, and put them in prison, so we having nothing to pay, 
 the law is let loose upon us, to threaten imprisonment and 
 ■damnation-, to affright and terrify, and all this for the ma- 
 nifesting of his justice. Furthermore, the book of God is 
 full of terrible threatenings against sinners. Now, shall all 
 those be to no purpose? The wicked are insensible of them, 
 to ihem therefore in that respect they are in vain. Some 
 there must needs be upon whom they must work. * Shall 
 the lion roar,' saith the prophet, ' and no man be afraid 1 ' 
 Since, then, they who should, will not; some there be who 
 must tremble. This the prophet excellently setteth forth, 
 Isa. Ixvi, 2, where the Lord showeth whom he will regard. 
 * Bwt to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and 
 of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.' Neither is 
 it without good cause that God dealeththus with his own in 
 this manner, though it be sharp in the experience. First, 
 we must fear, tremble, and be humbled ; and then we shall 
 receive a spirit not to fear again. 
 
 "(2.) His mercy is also thereby mightily magnified; 
 which would never be so sweet, nor relish so well, nor be so 
 esteemed of us, if the awful terror of justice had not 
 formerly made us smart. A king sometimes doth not only 
 suffer the law to pass upon some grievous malefactor for 
 high treason, but also causeth him to be brought to the place 
 of execution, yea, and lay down his head upon the block 
 ere he pardon ; and then mercy is mercy indeed, and melts 
 the heart * abundantly with amazement and admiration 
 of it. So God dealeth with us many times ; lets the law 
 loose against us, puts us in fear, casts us into prison, and 
 threateneth condemnation in hell for ever ; so that when 
 mercy cometh to the soul, being now lost in itself and at the 
 pit's brink, it appears to be a wonderful mercy, the riches 
 of exceeding mercy, most seasonable, most sweet, most 
 
 * A man who otherwise would not cry nor shed a tear for any thing, 
 despiseth death, and would not fear to meet a host of men ; I say, such 
 a one now having at the last instant a pardon brought from the king, it 
 workech wonderfully upon him, and will cause softness of heart and 
 tears to come many times where nothing else could. He is so struck 
 with admiration of so great mercy, so sweet and seasonable in such an 
 extremity, that he stands amazed and knows not what to say ; but many 
 times falls to weeping, partly for joy of his deliverance, arid partly also 
 out of indignation against himself, 'for his barbarous behaviour towards 
 so merciful a prince. This was to be seen in some great men, at the 
 beginning of King James's reign, condemned for treason, and pardoned 
 at the block. 
 
176 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 ravishing. Why do so many find no savour in the gospel? 
 Is it because there is no matter of sw^eetness or delight in 
 it 1 No ; it is because they have not tasted of, not been 
 soundly touched and terrified by the law and the spirit of 
 bondage. They have not smarted, nor as yet been afflicted 
 with a sense of the bitterness of sin, nor of the just punish- 
 ment due unto the same. God therefore sends into our 
 hearts the spirit of fear and bondage to prepare us to relish 
 mercy ; and then the spirit of adoption not to fear again. 
 And thus by this order the one is magnified and highly 
 esteemed by the foregoing sense of the other. 
 
 " Secondly, for our good ; and that two ways : 1. In jus- 
 tification ; and 2. In sanctification. 
 
 " (1.) We are such strangers unto God that we will ne- 
 ver come unto him till we see no other remedy ; being at 
 the pit's brink, ready to starve, hopeless, &c. We see it 
 in the prodigal son. He would never think of any return 
 unto his father till all other helps failed him ; money, 
 friends, acquaintance, all sorts of food ; nay, if he might 
 have fed upon husks with the swine he would not have 
 thought of returning anymore to his father. This being de- 
 nied him, the texth saith, ' he came to himself : ' showing 
 us, that when men run on in sinful courses they are mad- 
 men, out of themselves, even as we see those in Bedlam are 
 beaten, kept under, denied comforts till they come to 
 themselves. And what saith he theni ' I will arise and 
 go to my father ; and I will say unto him. Father, I have 
 sinned against heaven and against thee,' &c. So it is with 
 us : until the Lord humble and bring us low in our own eyes, 
 show us our own misery and spiritual poverty, and that in 
 us there is no good thing ; that we be stripped of all helps 
 in and without ourselves, and see that we must perish un- 
 less we beg his mercy: I say, until then we will not seek 
 his face and favour, nor have recourse to Jesus Christ, the 
 rock of our salvation. It is with us in this case as it was 
 with the woman whom Christ healed of the bloody issue 
 (Luke viii, 43). How long was it ere she came to Christ 1 
 She had been sick twelve years ; she had spent all her liv- 
 ing upon physicians, neither could she be healed of any. 
 Now this extremity brought her to Jesus Christ. This then 
 is the means to bring to Christ, to bring us upon our knees, 
 to drive us out of ourselves hopeless, as low as maybe ; to 
 show us where help is only to be found, and make us run 
 unto it. The hunted beast flies unto his den ; the Israelites 
 being stung by fiery serpents made haste to the brazen ser- 
 pent, a type of Christ, for help ; the man-killer under the 
 law, chased by the avenger of blood, ran apace to the city 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 177 
 
 of refuge ; Joab, being pursued for his life, fled to the ta- 
 bernacle of the Lord, and laid fast hold upon the horns 
 of the altar ; a wounded man hies unto the surgeon : pro- 
 portionably a poor soul, broken and bruised with the in- 
 supportable buithens of all his abominations, bleeding at 
 heart's root under sense of Divine wrath hy the cutting 
 edge of the sword of the Spirit, managed aright by some 
 masters of assemblies, chased furiously by the law, sin, 
 conscience, and Satan ; sometimes even to the brink of des- 
 pair, will be willing in good earnest to cast itself into the 
 sweet, compassionate, inviting arms and embracements of 
 Jesus Christ, broken and bleeding upon the cross for our 
 sins, and so be made his for ever. 
 
 "(2.) For our sanctification, also, it is good for us that 
 the Comforter's first work be to v/ork fear in us ; for we are 
 naturally so frozen in our dregs, that no fire will warm or 
 thaw us. We wallow in our own blood ; we stick fast in 
 the mire of sin up to the chin, that we cannot stir ; so that 
 this fear is sent to pull us violently as it were from our cor- 
 ruptions, to make us holy, and look unto our ways for the 
 time to come. Now to effect this, sharpest things are best, 
 us are the law and threatenings of condemnation, the open- 
 ing of hell, the racking of the conscience, and a sense of 
 svrath present and to come. So hard-hearted are we by 
 nature, being as the children of the bondwoman, to whom 
 Violence must be used, even as we see a man riding a young 
 and wild horse to tame him. He will run him against a 
 wall that he may make him afraid ; ride him in deep and 
 rough places ; or, if this will not do, take him up to some 
 high rock, and bringing him to the brink thereof, he threat- 
 eneth to throw him down headlong ; maketh him shake and 
 quake, whereby at the last he is tamed. So deals the Lord 
 with us : he gives us a sight of sin and of the punishment 
 due thereunto, a sense of wrath, setteth the conscience on 
 fire, as it were ; fiUeth the heart with fears, horrors, and 
 disquietness ; openeth hell thus unto the soul, bringeth us 
 to the gates thereof, and threateneth us to throw us in ; and 
 all this to make a man more holy, and hate sin the more." 
 
 " The cure of the stone in the heart," saith another*, 
 speaking to the same purpose, " is like that of the stone in 
 the bladder. God must use a sharp incision, and come 
 with his pulling and plucking instruments, and rend the 
 heait in pieces, ere that sin can be got out of it." " Even 
 as in a lethargy it is needful the patient should be cast into 
 ;i burning fever, because the senses are benumbed, and this 
 
 • Dyke of Repentance, chap, ii. 
 
170 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 will wake them, and dry up the besotting humours; so in 
 our dead security before our conversiou, God is pleased to 
 let the law, sin, conscience, and Satan loose upon us, and 
 to kindle the fire ofhell in our souls, that so we might be 
 roused. Our sins stick close unto us as the prisoners' bolts, 
 and we are shut up under them as in a strong prison ; and 
 therefore, unk ss as once in Paul and Silas's case an earth- 
 quake, so here there come a mighty heart-quake, violently 
 breaking open the prison doors and shaking oft' our fetters, 
 never shall we get our liberty," *5lC. 
 
 Thus we see what a mighty work of the law and of the 
 spirit of bondage there must be to prepare for Christ, and 
 how requisite ii is both for the glorifying of God's justice 
 and mercy, and also for the furtherance of our justification 
 and sanctihcation. For illustration of which point, besides 
 all that hath been said before, 1 have more willingly in this 
 last passage pressed at large the authority of so great a di- 
 vine (in which I hope I have not swerved from his sense), 
 because he is without exception, both for holiness and 
 learning ; and so his sincere and orthodox judgment more 
 current and passable. 
 
 CHAP, XI. 
 
 Objection against the former Doctrine. Differences between legal 
 Terrors in Ihe Elect and others. 
 
 Object. But hence, it may be, some troubled soul may 
 take up a complaint and say : Alas ! if it be thus, what 
 shall 1 think of myself f I do not remember that ever 1 
 tasted so deeply of such terrors and legal troubles as you 
 seem to require. 1 have not been so humbled and terrified, 
 nor had such experience of that state under the " spirit of 
 bondage " as you talk of, &c. ; and therefore you have cast 
 scruples into my conscience about the truth and soundness 
 of my conversion. 
 
 Answer. I answer : in this work of the " spirit of bon- 
 dage ; " in this case of legal terrors, humiliations, and other 
 preparative dispositions, we do not prescribe precisely just 
 such a measure and quantity : we do not determine peremp- 
 torily upon such or such a degree or height ; we leave that 
 to tlie wisdom of our great Master in heaven, the " only 
 wise God/' who is a most free agent ; but sure we are a 
 man must have so much, and in that measure, as to bring 
 him to Christ. It must make him weary of all his sins, and 
 of Satan's bondage wholly ; willing " to pluck out his right 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 179 
 
 eye, and cut off his right hand," I mean, to part with his 
 best beloved bosom lusts, to sell all, and not to leave so 
 much as a hoof behind. It must be so much as to make him 
 see his danger, and so haste to the city of refuge ; to be 
 sensible of his spiritual misery, that he may heartily thirst 
 for mercy ; to find himself lost and cast away in hiijiself, 
 that Christ may be all in all unto him ; and after must fol- 
 low a hatred of all false and evil ways for the time to come ; 
 a thorough change of former courses, company, conversa- 
 tion ; and setting himself in the way and practice of so- 
 briety, honesty, and holiness. If thou hast had experience 
 of these affections and effects in thine own soul, whatsoever 
 the measure of the work of the " spirit of bondage" hath 
 been in thee, less or more, thou art safe enough, and mayest 
 go on comfortably in the holy path, without any discourage- 
 ment either from such pretended scruples in thyself, or any 
 of Satan's cruel cavils and oppositions to the contrary. 
 
 Upon this occasion it will not be here unseasonable to 
 tell you how that legal terror, which God appoints to be a 
 preparative in his elect for the spirit of adoption, and a 
 true change, differs from that which is found in aliens, and 
 not attended with any such saving consequents ; that every 
 one who hath had trouble of conscience for sin, may dearly 
 discern whether it hath brought him to Christ, or left him 
 unconverted. 
 
 1. That happy soul, which is under the terrifying hand 
 of God preparing by the work of the spirit of bondage for 
 the entertainment of Christ and a sound conversion, upon 
 that fearful apprehension of God's wrath and strict visitation 
 of his conscience for sin, casts about for ease and reconcile- 
 ment only by the blood of the Lord Jesus, and those soul- 
 healing promises in the book of life, with a resolute con- 
 tempt of all other means and offers for pacification ; feeling 
 now, and finding by experience, that no other way, no 
 earthly thing, not this whole world, were it all dissolved into 
 the most curious and exquisite pleasures that ever any car- 
 nal heart conceived, can any way assuage the least pang 
 of his grieved spirit. Glad therefore is he to take counsel 
 and to advise with any that is able or likely to lead him by 
 a wise and discreet hand to a well-grounded comfort and 
 refreshment ; and resolveth greedily, whatever the pre- 
 scription and direction be, to give way unto it most will- 
 ingly in his performance and practice. " And the people 
 asked him, saying. What shall we do then? Then came 
 also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, 
 what shall we do ? And the soldiers likewise demanded of 
 him, saying, And what shall we do 1 " Thus were John's 
 
180 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING^ 
 
 hearers affected (Luke iii, 10, 12, 14), being afflicted with 
 the piercing passages of John's thundering sermon. " Men 
 and brethren, what shall we do V say the penitent Jews, 
 pricked in their hearts (Acts ii, 37). The jailor (Acts xvi, 
 29, 30) " came trembling and fell down before Paul and 
 Silas, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved 1 " As if 
 they had said, Prescribe and enjoin what you will, be it 
 never so harsh and distasteful to flesh and blood, never so 
 cross and contrary to carnal reason, profit, pleasure, prefer- 
 ment, acceptation with the world, ease, liberty, life, &c. 
 having warrant out of the word, we are resolved and ready 
 to do it. Only inform us first how to partake and be as- 
 sured of the person and passion of Christ Jesus; how to 
 have the angry facer of our blessed God, to whom we have 
 continued rebels so long, turned into calmness and favour 
 unto us. But now a cast-away and alien thus legally terri- 
 fied and under wrath for sin, is never wont to come to this 
 earnestness of care, eagerness of resolution, stedfastness of 
 endeavour, willingness upon any terms, to abandon utterly 
 all his old ways, and to embrace new, strict, and holy 
 courses. These things appear unto him terrible, puritani- 
 cal, and intolerable. He commonly in such cases hath 
 recourse for ease and remedy to worldly comforts and the 
 arm of flesh. He labours to relieve his heavy heart by a 
 strong and serious casting his mind and nestling his con- 
 ceit upon his riches, gold, greatness, great friends, credit 
 amongst men, and such other transitory delights and fading 
 flowers of his fool's paradise. For he is at a point, and 
 resolute with a sensual impenitent obstinacy, not to pass 
 forward through the pangs of the new-birth by repentance 
 and sanctification into the holy life of new obedience ; lest 
 he should (as out of a foolish and frantic baseness he is apt 
 to fear) be engaged and enchained, as it were, to too much 
 strictness, preciseness, holiness of life, communion with 
 God's people, and opposition to good fellowship. 
 
 2. He that is savingly wounded with legal terror, is wont 
 in cool blood, and being something come to himself, to en- 
 tertain the very same thought (or rather mingled with a 
 great deal more reverence, afl'ectionateness, and love, as 
 far as the life of an iminortal soul doth surpass in dearness 
 and excellency the cure of a frail and earthly body) of that 
 man of God, who by a right managing the edge of his spi- 
 ritual sword hath pierced his heart, scorched his conscience, 
 and bruised his spirits ; I say, the same in proportion, which 
 a wise and thankful pTtient would have of that faithful 
 surgeon who hath seasonably and thoroughly lanced some 
 deep and dangerous sore, which otherwise would have been 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 181 
 
 his death. Upon the search and discovery he clearly sees 
 and acknowledges, that had not that holy incision been 
 made into his rotten and ulcerous heart, it had cost him the 
 eternal life of his soul. But now the alien, put out of his 
 sensual humour with horror of conscience, is ordinarily 
 transported with much rageful discontentment against the 
 powerful ministry of God's earnest messengers, who put 
 him to such torture by troubling him for sin and frighting 
 him with hell ; and thereupon cries out against them, at 
 least with secret indignation and fretting, as the devils did 
 against Christ, " Why do you thus torment us betbre the 
 time 1 
 
 3. Aliens in such cases entertain no other thought, and 
 cast about for no other comfort at all, but only how they 
 may recover their former quietness of mind, carnal ease, and 
 freedom from present terror. But he that is fitting by the spirit 
 of bondage for faith and the fellowship of the saints, will 
 never by any means, whatsoever come of him, relapse to 
 his wonted sensual security. Nay, of the two, he will 
 rather lie still upon the rack, waiting for the Lord Jesus all 
 lheda>sof his life, than " return any more unto foolish- 
 ness," or hunt again after any contentment in the mise- 
 rable pleasures of good-fellowship. 
 
 4. That messenger, an interpreter, one among a thousand, 
 who in such a case can seasonably and soundly declare 
 unto a savingly v/ounded soul his righteousness ; assure 
 him it was Christ Jesus' only business in coming from 
 heaven to disburthen " all that labour and are heavy 
 laden," and ease such trembling hearts, 6cc. ; I say such a 
 blessed man of God to such a broken heart is for ever after 
 most dear and welcome ; "his feet are beautiful" in his 
 eye every time becomes near him. Comfort of so high a 
 nature in extremity of such iiorrible consequence doth in- 
 finitely and endlessly endear the delivered soul to such an 
 heavenly doctor. But aliens commonly make no great 
 account of godly ministers any longer than they have pre- 
 sent need of them, and trouble of mind makes them melan- 
 cholic and out with mirth. They seem to reverence them, 
 while from their general discourses of micrcy and God's 
 free grace, of merciful invitations to Christ and certainty of 
 acceptation (if they will come in), they suck into their false 
 hearts before the time and truth of humiliation some super- 
 ficial glimmerings and flashes of comfort and cooling; but 
 if once the heat of their guilty rage begin to assuage, and 
 they find again some ease from their former terrors and 
 wonted relish in earthly delights, they turn such holy men 
 
182 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 out of their hearts, cast them out of their consciences, and 
 hold no higher or further estimatioh of them, than of other 
 and ordinary men, if they forbear to persecute them with 
 thoughts of disdain and contempt. 
 
 5. The true penitent having smarted under the sense of 
 Divine wrath, and frighted witii the flames of horror for 
 sin, doth grow fearful for ever after to offend, and with 
 much gracious care dreads that " consuming fire." But 
 the alien, while he is upon the rack indeed, and hath the 
 heinousness of his sins and hell freshly in his eye, will 
 easily make many glorious protestations and promises what 
 a rare and resolute convert he will become upon his re- 
 covery. But if once the storm be oveiblown, God's hand 
 withdrawn, and his peiinful conscience cast agam into a 
 dead sleep by the power, or rather poison of some sensual 
 receipt, he performs just nothing ; but like a filthy swine 
 wallows again in tiie mire and mud of earthliness and car- 
 nality, and again with the beastly dog returns unto and 
 resumes his vomit. 
 
 6. He that hath savingly passed through the pangs of 
 such spiritual afflictions, is wont to be very kindly affected, 
 most compassionate and tender-hearted to others afflicted 
 with the same woful terrors and troubles of conscience. A 
 woman, who hath herself with extraordinary pain expe- 
 rienced the exquisite torture of childbirth, is wont to be 
 more tenderly and mercifully disposed towards another in 
 the like torment, than she that never knew what that misery 
 meant ; and is more ready, willing, and skilful to relieve 
 in such distresses. It is proportional)ly so in the present 
 case ; but the alien being tainted in some measure with 
 the devil's hateful disposition, is by the heat of his slavish 
 horror rather enraged with malice than resolved into mercy ; 
 he is rather tickled with a secret content, than touched 
 with true commiseration, to see and hear of others plunged 
 into the same gulf of misery and plagued like himself. He 
 is much troubled with soleness in suffering, and the singu- 
 larity of any sorrowful accident. Companionship in cros.>-e,s 
 doth something allay the discomlorts of carnal men ; so 
 that sometimes they secretly but very sinfully rejoice (such 
 is their dogt:,ed devilish disposition) even to see the hand 
 of God upon their neighbours. Neither can he in such ex- 
 tremities minister any means of help or true comfort at all, 
 either by prayer, counsel, or any experimental skill, because 
 the "evil spirit" of his vexed conscience was not driven 
 away by any well-grounded application of God's mercies 
 and Christ's blood ; but as Saul's was by music, worldly 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 183 
 
 uiirth, carnal advice, soul -slaying flatteries of men-pleas- 
 ing ministers, plunging desperately into variety of sensual 
 pleasures, 6cc. 
 
 7. He who after the boisterous tempest of legal terrors, 
 hath happily arrived at the port of peace, 1 mean that 
 blessed peace " which passeth all understanding," made 
 with God himself in the blood of his Son, enters presently 
 thereupon into the good way, takes upon him the yoke of 
 Christ, and serves him afterwards "in holiness and right- 
 eousness all the days of his life," and ordinarily his deeper 
 humiliation is an occasion of his more humble, precise, 
 holy, and strict walking, and of more watchfulness over 
 his heart and tenderness of conscience about lesser sins also, 
 all occasions of scandal, appearances of evil, even aberra- 
 tions in his best actions and holiest duties. But aliens, 
 when once they be taken off the rack, and their torture de- 
 termine, either become just the same men they were before, 
 or else reform only some one or other gross sin which stuck 
 most upon their consciences, but remain unamended and 
 unmortified in the rest; or else, which often comes to pass, 
 grow a great deal worse : for they are, as it were, angry 
 with God that he should give them a taste of hell-fire before 
 their time ; and therefore knowing their time but short, fall 
 upon earthly delights more furiously, and engross and grasp 
 the pleasures of the world with more greediness and im- 
 portunity. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 Instructions for the avoiding this fault of applying comfort too soou. 
 
 These things thus premised, I come to tell you, that for the 
 rectifying of the forementioned error, and prevention of the 
 danger of daubing and undoing for ever in a matter of so 
 weighty importance, I would advise the spiritual physician 
 to labour with the utmost improvement of all his divine 
 skill, heavenly wisdom, best experience, heartiest prayers, 
 most piercing persuasions pressed out of the word for thai 
 purpose, wisely to work and watchfully to observe the season 
 when he may warrantably and upon good ground apply 
 unto the wounded soul of his spiritually sick patient assured 
 comfort in the promises of life, and that sovereign blood 
 which was spilt for broken hearts, and assure him in the 
 word of truth, that all those rich compassions which lie 
 within the compass of that great covenant of everlasting mercy 
 and love, sealed with the painful sufferings of the Son of 
 
184 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 God, belong unfo him. Which is then when his troubled 
 heart is soundly humbled under God's mighty hand, and 
 brought at length to, first, a truly penitent sight, sense, and 
 hatred of all sin ; secondly, a sincere and insatiable thirst 
 after Jesus Christ and righteousness both imputed and in- 
 herent ; thirdly, an unfeigned and unreserved resolution of 
 an universal new obedience for the time to come, Here 1 
 had purposed to have enlaiged ; but I am prevented by 
 that which hath been said already ; and therefore to avoid 
 repetition, I must remit you to the consideration of those 
 legal and evangelical preparations for the entertainment of 
 Christ and true comfort which I handled before, which may 
 give some good direction and satisfaction in the point. 
 See p. 92 to 103. 
 
 Yet take notice, that in the mean time, before such fit- 
 ness be fully effectuated, I would have the man of God ply 
 his patient with his best persuasions and proofs, seasonably 
 mingled with motives to humiliation, of the pardonableness 
 of his sins, possibility of pardon, damnableness of despair, 
 danger of ease by outward mirth, &c. ; and to hold out to 
 the eye of the troubled conscience as a prize and lure, as it 
 were, the freenessof God's immeasurable mercy, the general 
 offer of Jesus Christ without any exception of persons, 
 tiines, or sins ; the preciousness and infallibility of the pro- 
 mises, in as fair and lovely a fashion, in as orient and allur- 
 ing forms as he can possibly. But it is one thing to say, If 
 these things be so, 1 can assure you in the word of life of 
 the promises of life, and already real right and interest to 
 all the riches of God's free grace and glorious purchase of 
 Christ's meritorious blood ; another thing to say, if you will 
 suffer your understandings to be enlightened, your con- 
 sciences to be convinced, your hearts to be wounded with 
 sight, sense, and horror of sin ; if you will come in and 
 take Jesus Christ, his person, his passion, his yoke ; if you 
 will entertain these, and these affections, longings, and 
 resolutions, then most certainly our merciful Lord will 
 crown your tjuly humbled souls with his dearest com- 
 passions and freest love. 
 
 Lastly, be informed that when all is done, I mean when 
 the men of God have their desire, that the patient in their 
 persuasion is soundly wrought upon, and professeth under- 
 standingly and feelingly, and as they verily think from his 
 heart; first, that he is "heavy laden" with the grievous 
 burthen of all his sins; secondly, that he is come by his 
 pi esent spiritual terror and trouble of mind to that resolu- 
 tion, " to do any thing," which we find in the hearers of 
 John and Peter (Luke iii, Actsii) ; thirdly, that he rac^t 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 185 
 
 highly prizeth Jesus Christ far above the riches, pleasures' 
 and glory of the whole earth ; thirsts and longs for him in- 
 finitely : fourthly, that he is most willing " to sell all," to 
 part with all sin, with his right eye and right hand, those lusts 
 and delights which stuck closest to his bosom, not to leave 
 so much as a hoof behind ; fifthly, that he is content with 
 all his heart to take Christ, as well for a lord and husband, 
 to serve, love, and obey him, as for a Saviour to deliver 
 him from the miseries of sia ; to take upon him his yoke ; 
 to enter into the narrow way and walk in the holy path ; 
 to associate himself to that sect which is " so spoken against 
 everywhere" (Acts xxviii, 22); I say, when it is thus 
 with the afflicted party, and most happy is he when it is 
 thus with him ; yet, notwithstanding, because God alone 
 is the searcher of the heart, and the heart of man is de- 
 ceitful above all things, we can assure mercy and pardon 
 only conditionally, though by the mercy of God we do it 
 many and many times with strong and undeceiving confi- 
 dence. We must ever add, either expressly or impliedly, 
 such forms of speech as these : If all tliis which you profess 
 be in truth ; if you be thus resolved indeed ; if these things 
 be so as you have said, why then we assure you in the word 
 of life and truth, your case is comfortable ; you may 
 sweetly repose your troubled and truly humbled soul upon 
 Jesus Christ as your " wisdom, righteousness, sanctifica- 
 tion, and redemption ;" upon all the promises of life, God's 
 free grace, &c. as truly belonging unto you and certainly 
 yours for ever. 
 
 Hear two master builders upon the matter, confirming the 
 present point : — 
 
 1. "To think that it lieth in the power of any priest truly 
 to absolve a man from his sins, without implying the condi- 
 tion of his believing and repenting as he ought to do, is 
 both presumption and madness in the highest degree *." 
 
 2. " In the pardon whereby a priest pardonetht a sinner 
 
 * Dr. Usl:er, in his Answer to a Jesuit's Challenge ; Of the Priest's 
 power to forsrive sins. 
 
 t By pardoning here understand not any sovereis^nty of remitting 
 sins; we leave that error to the Luciferian pride of that '• man of sin, 
 who exalteth himself above all that is called God: " whom if we follow, 
 we must say that in this high priest there is the fulness of all grace, 
 because he alone giveth a full indulgence of all sins, that that may 
 agree unto him which we say of the chief prince our Lord, that "of 
 his fulness all we have received " (De Regimine Principuura, lib. iii, 
 cap. X, inter Opuscula Thoma;, num. 20). Nay, we nmst acknowledge, 
 that the meanest in the whole army of priests that follows this king of 
 pride, hath such fulness of power derived unto him for the opening and 
 shutting of heaven before men, "that foruiveness is denied to them 
 
 R 3 
 
lae INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 for an offence by him committed against God, there are two 
 things to be considered ; one, that there is no pardon if the 
 sinner doth not earnestly repent ; the other, that he himself 
 which pardoneth hath need of pardon. Of these two points, 
 the first is the cause that the priest's pardon is conditional, 
 because he knoweth not the heart ; the other is a cause that 
 the priest should consider of himself that he is rather a 
 delinquent than a judge ; and to teach him to fear, lest that 
 after he hath pardoned others, he himself may not obtain 
 pardon. It is a thing certain, that if a sinner seriously con- 
 verted and believing in Jesus Christ cannot obtain absolution 
 of his pastor, who is passionate or badly informed of the 
 truth, God will pardon him. On the contrary, if a pastor 
 that is indulgent and winketh at vices, or that is deceived 
 by appearance of repentance, absolveth an hypocritical 
 sinner and receiveih him into the communion of the faithful, 
 that hypocritical sinner remaineth bound before God, and 
 shall be punished notwithstanding. For God partaketh not 
 with the errors of pastors, neither regardeth their passions ; 
 nor can be hindered from doing justice by their ignorance *." 
 
 3. Let me add Cyprian, who at the first rising of the 
 Novatian heresy, wrote thus to Antonianust ; " We do not 
 prejudice the Lord that is to judge, but that he, if he find 
 the repentance of the sinner to be full and just, may then 
 ratify that which shall be here ordained by us. But if any 
 one do deceive us with the semblance of repentance, God, 
 who is not mocked, and who beholdeth the heart of man, 
 may judge of those things which we did not well discern, 
 and the Lord may amend the sentence of his servants." 
 
 Neither let this truth (to wit, that our assuring of mercy 
 and pardon must be conditional upon such like terms as 
 these, " If thou dost believe and repent as thou oughtest 
 to do ; if these things be in truth as you promise and con- 
 fess," &c.) discourage or trouble any that are true of heart : 
 
 whom the priest will not forgive" (Bellarm. de Poeniteiit. lib. iii, 
 cap. ii), I say then, by pardoning, we must not understand any sove- 
 reignty of remitting sins ; but a declaring and showing to the true 
 repentant that they are pardoned, ministerially only. To which truth, 
 it is so mighty, even some popish writers subscribe. *' God," saith 
 Lomburd, the father of the Romish school, " hath given to priests to 
 bind and unbind, that is, to show that men are bound or unbound." 
 Nay, our polemical divines prove it to be publicly taught from the time 
 of Satan's loosing until his binding again by the restoring of the purity 
 of the gospel in our days. 
 
 * Buckler of the taith, by Peter de Moulin against Armour the 
 Jesuit, of Auricular Confession. 
 
 t Ad Antonianum, epist. ii, lib. iv. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 187 
 
 for it should not prejudice or hinder their application of the 
 promises, taking Christ as their own, assurance of mercy and 
 comfort ; because they are conscious to themselves of the 
 sincerity of their own hearts : and therefore look how the 
 prophet Isaiah was comforted when the angel said unto 
 him, "Thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged" 
 (Isa. vi,t7), and the poor woman in the gospel, when Jesus 
 said unto her, " Thy sins are forgiven " (Luke vii, 48) : the 
 like consolation doth the distressed sinner receive from the 
 mouth of the minister, when he hath compared the truth of 
 God's word faithfully delivered by him with the work of 
 God's grace in his own heart. According to that of Elihu, 
 "If there be an angel, or a messenger with him, an inter- 
 preter, one of a thousand, to declare unto man his righteous- 
 ness ; then will God have mercy upon him, and say. Deliver 
 him from going down to the pit, 1 have found a ransom " 
 (Jobxxxiii, 23,24)*. 
 
 CHAP. XllL 
 
 The Second Case wherein the former Error is committed, which is in 
 applying too much. Two things concerning which the afflicted Is to 
 be advised for avoiding tliis error. 
 
 2. Too much. A little aqua vita may happily revive and 
 refresh the fainting spirits of a swooning man, but too much 
 would kill. A spoonful of cinnamon water mingled with 
 twelve spoonfuls of spring water and one spoonful of rose 
 water, &c. may be sovereign against the sinking of the heart ; 
 but pour at once a pint into the stomach, and it might un- 
 happily choke the natural heat, waste the radical moisture, 
 and burn up a man's bowels. Mercy being wisely admi- 
 nistered in the right season, and mingled with convenient 
 counsels and cautions, may by God's blessing bind up a 
 broken heart with a progressive and kindly cure, it may 
 mollify for the present with an healing and heavenly heat 
 the smarting anguish of a wounded conscience, and at 
 length seasonably close it up with sound and lasting com- 
 fort ; but poured out at random by an unsteady and indis- 
 creet hand, it may by accident dangerously dry up penitent 
 tears too soon, and stifle the work of the spirit of bondage 
 in tlie beginning. 
 
 But here let none either out of ignorance or malice mis- 
 take or be troubled with this too much. The same phrase la 
 
 * Usher, in his Answer to a Jesuit's Challcuge. 
 
188 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 the same sense is to be found in Mr. Perkins *, a great 
 master in the deep mystery of dealing with afflicted con- 
 sciences. For we must know, that too inuch is by no means 
 to be meant of any ways restraining or confining the infinite- 
 ness of God's mercy. It were execrable blasphemy to dis- 
 robe God's most glorious attribute of its immensity ; but in 
 respect of not mingling some cautions to keep from presump- 
 tion, as will appear in the ensuing counsels 1 shall commend 
 for that purpose. 
 
 Upon this ground, I reason thus : — 
 
 A man may press and apply God's justice and the terrors 
 of the law loo much ; therefore also mercy and the comforts 
 of the gospel too much : the consequence is clear ; for as 
 the former may plunge into the gulf of despair, so the other 
 may cast upon the rock of presumption. Nay, it is more 
 than unanswerably strong, because we are far readier to 
 apprehend and apply unto ourselves mercy than judgment ; 
 and thousands are endlessly overthrown through presump- 
 tion for one by despair. And the antecedent who will deny 1 
 It is rather so preposterously applauded and pressed, that 
 most, if a minister, even with his best discretion, reveal the 
 whole counsel of God, and tell them that none shall be 
 refreshed by Christ, but only those who " labour and are 
 heavy laden" (Matt, xi, 28); that they must "humble 
 themselves in the sight of the Lord," if they would have 
 him "to lift them up " (James iv, 10); that none "shall 
 have mercy " but such as " confess and forsake their sins " 
 (^Prov. xxviii, 13) ; that the mere civil man and lukewarm 
 formal professor without holiness and zeal can never be 
 saved (Heb. xii, 14; Revel, iii, 19) ; that all "the wicked 
 shall be turned into hell," &c. (Psalm ix, 17) ; in a word, 
 if he take the right course to bring men " from darkness to 
 light, from Satan to the living God;" by first wounding 
 with the law before he heal with the gospel ; — I say, the 
 most in this case are ready to cry out and complain that he 
 throws wildfire, brimstone, and gunpowder into the con- 
 sciences of men. 
 
 Conceive, therefore, I pray you, — 
 
 That there is in God, first, his justice ; and secondly, his 
 mercy, both infinite and equal. Only in regard of man 
 there is an inequality, for God may be said to be more mer- 
 ciful unto them that are saved, than just to them that are 
 damned. For of damnation, the just cause is in man ; but 
 of salvation, it is wholly from grace. In himself, and origi- 
 
 * Cases of Conscience, book i, chap, vii, ject. 6; and chap, xi, 
 sect. 1. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 189 
 
 nally, they are both equal, and so are all his attributes ; 
 but in respect of the exercise and expression upon his crea- 
 tures, and abroad in the world, there is some difference. 
 But for my purpose and our ministerial employment and 
 commission, take notice, 
 
 That as the revealed effects of God's mercy are love, 
 tender-heartedness, compassions, his own dear Son's precious 
 heart-blood, pardon of sins, peace of conscience, unspeak- 
 able and glorious joy thereupon, evangelical pleasures, com- 
 fortable presence of the Spirit even in this life, and in the 
 other world pleasures infinitely more than the stars of the 
 firmament in number, even for ever and ever ; and all 
 these upon all true penitents : — 
 
 So the revealed effects of his justice are " indignation and 
 wrath, tribulation and anguish ; " that sword, " which will 
 devour flesh ; " those arrows, that " drink blood ; " that 
 fiery anger, " which will burn unto the lowest hell, and set 
 on fire the foundations of the mountains ; " that coming 
 against, which is " with fire and chariots like a whirlwind, 
 to render anger with fury, and rebuke with flames of fire ; " 
 that meeting, which is as of a " bear bereaved of her 
 whelps, to rend the caul of the heart, and devour like a 
 lion," 6cc. ; all plagues, with the extremity, temporal, 
 spiritual, eternal ; all the curses in this book of his ; all 
 the torments of hell, to the utmost spark of those infernal 
 flames ; and all these upon all impenitent sinners. Now 
 God will be glorified both ways and by them both. 
 
 Give us leave, then, to give them both their due. 
 
 We are most willing and ready, as our great Master in 
 heaven would have us (Isa. xl, 1, 2), and our blessed 
 Saviour by his example doth teach us (Luke iv, II), to 
 convey by our ministry into every truly broken heart and 
 bleeding soul the warmest blood that ever heated Christ's 
 tender heart, and to keep back from the true penitent not 
 any one grain of that immeasurable mine of all the rich 
 mercies purchased Avith that precious blood. 
 
 Be content therefore on the other side that we open the 
 armoury of God's justice, and " reveal his wrath from heaven 
 against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men ; that 
 indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, shall be 
 upon every soul of man that doth evil," &c. As we are ever 
 ready to bind up the bruised spirit with the softest oil of 
 God's sweetest mercy ; so let us, 1 pray you, have leave, in 
 the equity of a just and holy proportion, to wound with the 
 hammer of the law the hairy scalp of every one that goes 
 on in his sin. 
 
 Let us deal faithfully even with wicked men, lest we 
 
190 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 answer for the blood of their souls, by telling them, that as 
 certainly as all the glorious comforts and blessed conse- 
 quents of God's infinite mercy shall crown the heart and 
 head of every true-hearted Nathanael for ever, so all the 
 dreadful effects of his angry justice will at length seize upon 
 the souls and confound the consciences of all unholy men 
 with extremest severity and terror. 
 
 Let it be thus, then, and let our ministerial dispensation 
 be in this manner. If thou be an impenitent person, I would 
 tell thee that the utmost wrath of God, unquenchable and 
 everlasting vengeance, all earthly and infernal plagues, are 
 thy certain portion ; but I would mollify and sweeten the 
 bitterness of this sentence with assurance of mercy upon 
 repentance, to prevent the assaults of despair. 
 
 On the other side ; if the ministry of the word hath 
 wrought upon thee effectually, and now thy truly humbled 
 soul thirsts after Christ with a sincere hatred and opposition 
 against all sin ; I would assure thy troubled and trembling 
 heart in the word of life and truth, of all those most preci- 
 ous blessings and sweetest comforts, which the book of God 
 doth promise, and the blood of Christ hath bought. But 
 withal I would commend unto thee some coolers and coun- 
 ter-poisons against presumption and falling to pharisaism. 
 
 For which purpose, and for prevention of danger and 
 spiritual undoing by unskilful and indiscreet daubing in the 
 case proposed, 1 come now to tender such counsels and cau- 
 tions as these, or the like, which the faithful physician of the 
 soul, according to occasions, circumstances, and present 
 exigencies, may think fit to be mingled with administration 
 of mercy, and wisely propounded to the afflicted party. 
 
 It may not prove unseasonable to speak thus, or in some 
 such manner, to thy spiritual patient : — 
 
 I. If these things be truly and soundly so ; if thou find 
 and feel indeed such a mollified and melting spirit, such 
 broken and bleeding affections in thy bosom, thou art cer- 
 tainly blessed. If thai sorrowful soul of thine doth renounce 
 from the very heart-root with special distaste and detesta- 
 tion all manner of sin ; insatiably " tliirst after righteous- 
 ness ;" unfeignedly resolve for the short remainder of a few 
 and evil days to bend itself towards heaven in all new obe- 
 dience ; I say, if this be sincerely the holy disposition and 
 resolution of thine heavy heart, notwithstanding all thy 
 present terror and trouble of mind, thou art truly and ever- 
 lastingly happy. Only take notice (lest my ministering of 
 mercy be mistaken, or thy conceiving of comfort miscarry) 
 that the '* heart of man is deceitful above all things." A 
 bottomless depth it is of falsehoods, dissemblings, hypoeri- 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 191 
 
 sies ; aa endless maze of windings, turnings, and hidden 
 passages. No eye can search and see its centre and secrets, 
 but that all-seeing One alone, which is ten thousand times 
 brigliter than the sun, to which the darkest nook of hell is 
 as the noon-day : and therefore not I nor any man alive 
 can promise pardon, or apply the promises, but conditionally 
 upon supposition, "if these things be so and so, as thou 
 hast said." And the sincerity of thy heart and truth of these 
 hopeful protestations, which we now hear from thee in this 
 extremity (and I must tell thee by the way, such like rnay 
 be enforced by the slavish sting of present tenor, not fairly 
 and freely flow from a true touch of conscience for sin; I 
 say this may be, though I hope better things of thee) -, the 
 truth, as 1 said, both of thy heart and these affectionate 
 promises will appear when the storm is over, and this dismal 
 tempest, which hath overcast and shaken thy spirit with 
 extraordinary fear and astonishment, is overblown. Thy 
 course of life to come will prove a true touchstone, to try 
 whether this be the kindly travail of the new birth, or only 
 a temporary terror during the fit, by reason of the uncouth- 
 ness and exquisiteness of this invisible spiritual torture, 
 without true turning to Jesus Christ. If when the now- 
 troubled powers of thy soul, which the wound of thy con- 
 science hath cast into much distracted and uncomlortable 
 confusion, shall recover tlieir wonted calmness and quiet, 
 thou turn unto thine old bias, humour, company, and con- 
 versation, it will then be more than manifest that this 
 furnace of terror and temptation, wherein thou now liest 
 and languishest, was so lar from working thine heart to 
 heavenliness and grace, that it hath hammered it to more 
 hardness and ungraciousness — from purging and refining, 
 that it hath occasioned more earthliness, epicurism, and 
 raging affections in sensuality and sinful pleasures. But if, 
 when thou art up again and raised by God's merciful hand 
 out of the depth of this spiritual distress, into which the 
 horrible sight and heavy weight of thy sins hath sunk thee ; 
 if then thou express and testify thy true heartedness in these 
 present solemn protestations, made now, as it were, in thy 
 hot blood ; I mean, of thy hatred against sin, by an earnest 
 opposition, watchfulness, and stiiving against all, especially 
 that, which in thine unregenerate time stuck closest to thy 
 bosom, of thine hunger and thirst after a comfortable frui- 
 tion of God's face and favour, by a conscientious and con- 
 stant pursuit and exercise of all good means and opportuni- 
 ties, of all his blessed ordinances appointed and sanctified 
 for growth in grace, and bringing him nearer unto him ; of 
 thy future new obedience and Christian walking, by plyinc; 
 
192 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 industriously and fruitfully with thy }>est endeavour and 
 utmost ability those three glorious works of Christianity, 
 preservation of purity in thine own soul and body, righteous 
 dealing with all thou hast to do with, holy carriage towards 
 God in all religious duties ; in a word, by " denying un- 
 godliness and worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously, 
 and godlily in this present world," of which the " grace of 
 God teacheih " every true convert to make conscience (Tit. 
 ii, 11, 12) ; — I say, if upon thy recovery this be thy course, 
 thou art certainly new-created. Such blessed behaviour as 
 this will infallibly evidence these present terrors to have 
 been the pangs of thy new-birth, and thy happy translation 
 from death to life, from the vanity and folly of sin into the 
 light and liberty of God's children. 
 
 II. Secondly, say unto him : When once that blessed 
 fountain of soul-saving blood is opened upon thy soul in 
 the side of the Son of God by the hand of faith for " sin 
 and for uncleanness ;" then also must a counter-spring, as 
 It were, of repentant tears be opened in thine humbled 
 heart, which must not be dried up until thy dying day. 
 This is my meaning (for every Christian hath not tears at 
 command : the heart sometimes may bleed when the eyes 
 are dry). Thou must be content to continue the current 
 of thy godly sorrow upon that abominable sink of all the 
 lusts, vanities, and villanies of thy dark and carnal time ; 
 and also upon those frailties, infinnities, imperfections, de- 
 fects, relapses, backslidings, which may accompany thy 
 regenerate state, even until that body of sin which thou 
 carriest about thee be dissolved by the stroke of death. As 
 concerning thine old sins, and those that are past, it is not 
 enough that now the fresh horror of them, and those grisly 
 affrighting forms wherein they have appeared to the eye of 
 thy wounded conscience, have wrought upon thy heart, by 
 God's blessing, some softness, heart-rising, remorse, and 
 hatred : but thou must many and many a time hereafter, 
 in the extraordinary exercises of renewed repentance, press 
 thy penitent spirit to bleed afresh within thee, and draw 
 water again out of the bottom of thy broken heart with 
 those Israelites (1 Sam. vii, 6), and pour it out before the 
 Lord in abundance of bitter tears for thy never -sufficiently- 
 sorrowed-for abominations and rebellions against so blessed 
 and bountiful a God. 
 
 Now the solemn times and occasions when we are called 
 to this renewed repentance are such as these : — 
 
 1. When we are to perform some special services unto 
 God; because then out of a godly jealousy we may fear 
 lest the face and favour of God, the love and light of his 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 19J 
 
 countenance, may not lie so open unto us, by reason of the 
 cloudy interposition of our former sins. 2. When we seek 
 for any special blessing at God's merciful hands ; because 
 then out of a gracious fear we may suspect that our old 
 sins may intrude, and labour to intercept and divert from 
 our longing souls the sweet and comfortable influences ot 
 the throne of grace. It may seem that David, in the cur- 
 rent of his prayer, saw his old sins charge upon him, and 
 therefore cries out by the way, " Remember not the sins oi 
 my youth." 3. In the time of some great affliction and 
 remarkable cross, when upon a new search and strict ex- 
 amination of our hearts and lives, we, humbling ourselves 
 more solemnly again in the sight of the Lord, and mourn- 
 ing afresh over him whom we have pierced with our youthful 
 pollutions and provoke daily vvith many woful failings, are 
 wont to seek God's pleased face and our former peace, 
 sanctification of it unto us at the present time, and the re- 
 moval of it from us in due time in the name of Jesus C'hrist. 
 4. After relapse into some old secret lust, or fall into some' 
 new scandalous sin. David's remorse for adultery and 
 murder brought his heart to bleed over his birth sin 
 (Psalm li, 5). 6. Above all, upon all those mighty days 
 of humiliation by prayer and fasting, public, private, or 
 secret, wherein God's people wrestle with God by the om- 
 nipotency of prayer, and work so many wonders from time 
 to time. Some there are also, who setting apart some spe- 
 cial times to confer with God in secret, lay together before 
 him the glorious catalogue of the riches of his mercy, 
 reaching from everlasting to everlasting, all his favouis, 
 preservations, deliverances, protections, &c. from their first 
 being to that time, and the abhorred catalogue of all their 
 sins from .^dam to that hour; original, both imputed and 
 inherent; actual, both before and since their calling; and 
 this they do with hearty desire of such different afl'ections 
 as they severally require. A serious and sensible com- 
 paring of which two together, makes sin a great deal more 
 loathsome and the mercies of God more illustrious, and so 
 proves effectual many times, by the help of the Holy Ghost, 
 to soften their hearts extraordinarily, to make them weep 
 heartily, and fills their soul with much joyful sorrow and 
 humble thankfulness. 6. Upon our beds of death. Then, 
 because we take our faiev.ell of repentance, we should 
 take our fill of it; because it is the last time we shall look 
 upon our sins for that purpose, we should dismiss them 
 with utmost and extreinest loathing. At such times and 
 upon such occasions as these and the like, when thou art 
 called to a more solemn, strict, and severe search and re- 
 
 S 
 
194 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 view of thy old sins and former life, thou must renew this 
 present repentance of thy new birth, make thine heart 
 break again and bleed afresh with the sight of thy hereto- 
 fore much doated upon but now most abhorred abominable 
 courses. And so often also as thou lookest back upon them, 
 thou must labour to abominate and abandon them with 
 more resolute aversion and new decrees of detestation. 
 Though it may be, by the mercies of God, they shall never 
 be able to sting thee again with the same slavishness of 
 guilty horror, yet thou must still endeavour in thy cool 
 blood to strangle utterly thy former delight in them with 
 more hearty additions of deadly hatred, and to be more 
 and more humbled for them until thy ending hour. It is a 
 very high happiness and blessing above ordinary to be able 
 to look back upon thy choicest youthful pleasures and pol- 
 lutions, without either sensual delight or slavish horror ; 
 with sincere hatred, holy indignation, and hearty mourn- 
 ing. 
 
 Now for the time to come, and those sins which here- 
 after the rebelliousness of thy sinful nature, and violence of 
 the devil's temptations may force upon thee ; if thy heart 
 be now truly touched and conscience savingly enlightened, 
 thou shalt find much matter, necessity, and use of con- 
 tinuing thy repentance so long as thy life lasts. In a leak- 
 ing ship there must be continual pumping. A ruinous 
 house must be still in repairing. These bodies of death we 
 bear about us, are naturally liable to so many batteries and 
 breaches by the assaults of original sin and other impla- 
 cable enemies to our souls, that there is extreme need of 
 perpetual watch and ward, repenting and repairing, lest 
 the new man be too much oppressed and too often sur- 
 prized by the many and cunning encounters of the old 
 Adam. When thou art in company, solitary, busied about 
 thy particular calling, there may suddenly arise in thine 
 heart sqme greedy wish, some gross conceit, some vain, un- 
 clean, ambitious, revengeful thought : ejaculate presently 
 a penitent sigh and fervent prayer for pardon of it in the 
 passion of Christ. In thy family, perhaps amongst thy 
 children and servants, by reason of some cross accident, 
 thou mayest break out into some unadvised passionate 
 speech, and disgrace thyself and profession by over-hasty 
 intemperate heat, not without some danger of hurting and 
 hardening those about thee thereby : get thee presently 
 upon it into thy closet, or some place for that purpose, 
 throv.' thyself down with a truly grieved and humbled soul 
 before the throne of grace, and rise not until thou be recon- 
 ciled unto thy God. If at any time, which God forbid, 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 195 
 
 thou be overtaken with some more public and scandalous sin, 
 or tlangerously haunted with some enormous secret lust ; 
 appoint for thyself a solemn day of humiliation, and then 
 cry unto the Loid " like a woman in travail," and give him 
 no rest until he return unto thee with the wonted favour 
 and calmness of his pleased countenance. If Christians 
 would constantly take to heart and ply this blessed busi- 
 ness of immediately rising by repentance after every relapse 
 and fall into sin, they would find a further paradise and 
 pleasure in the ways of God than they ever yet tasted. 
 'I'his course continued with present feeling and after-watch- 
 fulness, would help excellently, by the blessing of God and 
 exercise of faith, the only conduit of all spiritual comfort, 
 to keep in their bosoms that which they much desire and 
 often bewail the want of, a cheerful, bold, and heavenly 
 spirit. 
 
 Neither let any here be troubled because I press the ex- 
 ercise and use both of renewed and continued repentance 
 all our life long, as though thereupon the Christian's life 
 might seem more uncomfortable. For we are to know that 
 " sorrow after a godly sort," evangelical mourning, is 
 mingled with abundance of spiritual joy, which doth in- 
 finitely surpass in sweetness and worth all worldly plea- 
 sures and delights of sense. Nay, whereas all the jovial 
 good-fellow mirth of carnal men is but a flash of hellish 
 folly, this is a very glimpse of heavenly glory. Let me 
 tell you again how sweetly and truly that excellent 
 divine of Scotland* speaks of it: "There is," saiih he, 
 " more lightness of heart and true delight in the sorrow 
 of the saints, than in the world's loudest laughter. For 
 unspeakable joy is mingled with unutterable groans." The 
 ancient fathers are of the same mind with this man of God. 
 " Godly sorrow," saith Chrysostom, " is better than the 
 joys of the world." Even as " the joy of the world is ever 
 accompanied with sorrow, so godly tears beget continual 
 and certain delight." Again, " Such a maii as this now" 
 (meaning him whose heart is inflamed with a heavenly 
 heat), " despising all things here below, doth persevere in 
 continual compunction, pouring out abundance of tears 
 everyday, and taking thence a great deal of pleasure!." 
 •' Let the penitent," saith Austin, '* be always sorrowful 
 for sin, and always rejoice for that sorrow t." 
 
 * Rolloc, on John, cb;ip. xi. 
 
 t Chi-ysostoni, 2 Cor. vii, hom. 15; Matt, ii, lioiii. (>. 
 
 t De vera et falsa Heiiiterjtia, cap. xiii. 
 
196 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 Two Things more, concerning wliicli the Afflicted Is to be advised, and 
 Two Things wliich the Minister is to heed for avoiding that Error. 
 
 III. Beware of two dangerous errors : — 1. Either to con- 
 ceive that thou mayest not admit of any comfort, or apply 
 the promises comfortably, because thou still findest in thy- 
 self more matter of mourning and further humiliation. 
 2. Or to think, when thou hast once laid hold upon Christ's 
 person and precious sufferings for the pardon of thy sins 
 and quieting of thy soul, that then thou must mourn no 
 more. 
 
 1. For the first know, that were our heads seas, and our 
 eyes fountains of tears, and poured out abundantly every 
 moment of our life ; should our hearts fall asunder into 
 drops of blood in our breast, for anguish and indignation 
 against ourselves for our transgressions, yet should we come 
 infinitely short of the sorrow and heart's grief which our 
 many and heinous lusts and pollutions justly merit and 
 exact at our hands. Therefore we cannot expect from our- 
 selves any such sufficiency of sorrow or worthiness of weep- 
 ing for our sins, as by the perfection and power thereof to 
 win God's favour and draw his mercy upon us. Such a 
 conceit were most absurd, senseless, and sinful, and would 
 rather discover and taste of natural pride than true humi- 
 lity, and tend unhappily to the disgrace of God's mercies 
 and gracing our own merits. True it is, had we a thousand 
 eyes it were too little to weep them all out, for the very 
 vanity of that one sinful sense. Had we a thousand hearts, 
 and they should all burst with penitent grief and bleed to 
 death for the sins of our souls, it were more than immea- 
 surably, inconceivably insufficient. For were all this so, 
 yet were it not this, but the heart's blood of Jesus Christ 
 could make the Father's heart to yearn compassionately 
 over us, or purchase pardon and acceptation at his hands. 
 Tender therefore unto that poor troubled soul, who being 
 sorely crushed and languishing under the burthen of his 
 sins refuses to be raised and refreshed, endlessly pleading 
 and disputing against himself out of a strong, fearful appre- 
 hension of his own vileness and unworthiness, putting off 
 all comfort by this misconception, that no seas of sorrow, 
 no measure of mourning, will suffice to enable him to come 
 comfortably unto Jesus Christ ; — I say, press upon such an 
 one this true principle in the high and heavenly art of 
 lightly comforting afflicted consciences : — 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 197 
 
 So soon as a man is truly and heartily humbled tor all 
 liis sins, and weary of their weight, thougli the degree of 
 his sorrow be not answerable to his own desire, yet he shall 
 most certainly be welcome unto Jesus Christ. 
 
 It is not so much the amount and measure of our sorrow, 
 as the truth and heartiness, which fits us for the promises 
 and comforts of mercy. Though I must say this also, He 
 that thinks he hath sorrowed enough for his sins, never 
 sorrowed savingly. 
 
 2. For the second, which is more properly and specially 
 pertinent to our purpose, take notice, that the blood of 
 Christ being seasonably and savingly applied to thine hum- 
 bled soul for the pardon and purgation of thy sin, must by 
 no means dam and dry up thy well-spring of weeping, but 
 only assuage and heal thy wound of horror. That precious 
 balm hath this heavenly property and power, that it rather 
 melts, softens, and makes the heart a great deal more 
 weeping-ripe. If these be truly the pangs of the new birth 
 wherewith thou art now afflicted, thou shalt find that thy 
 now cleaving with assurance of acceptation unto the Lord 
 Jesus will not so much lessen, hinder, or cease thy sorrow, 
 as rectify, season, and sweeten it. If thy right unto that 
 soul-saving passion be real, and thou cast thine eye with a 
 believing, hopeful heart upon him whom thou hast therein 
 pierced with thy sins (and those sins alone are said pro- 
 perly to have pierced Christ which at length are pardoned 
 by Ins blood), thou canst not possibly but entertam excess 
 of love unto thy crucified Lord; and sense of God's mercy 
 shed into thy soul through his merits will make thee weep 
 again, and fairly force thine heart to burst out abundantly 
 into fresh and filial tears. 
 
 See how freshly David's heart bled with repentant sor- 
 row upon his assurance by Nathan of the pardon of his sin 
 (Psalm li). Thou canst not choose but mourn more 
 heartily, evangelically, and (which should passingly please 
 thee and sweetly perpetuate the spring of thy godly sorrow) 
 more pleasingly unto God. 
 
 Take therefore special notice and heed of these two depths 
 of the devil that I have now disclosed unto thee. 
 
 First. When thou art truly wrought upon by the ministry 
 of the word, and now fitted for comfort, " believe the pro- 
 phets," those ones of a thousand, learned in the right hand- 
 ling of afflicted consciences, " and thou shalt prosper." 
 As soon as thy soul is soundly humbled for sin, open and 
 enlarge it joyfully like the thirsty ground, that the refresh- 
 ing dew and doctrine of the gospel mav drop and distil 
 
 S 3 
 
198 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 upon it as the small rain upon the parched grass. Other- 
 wise — 
 
 (1.) Thou ofFerest dishonour and disparagement as it 
 were to the dearness and tenderness of God's mercy, who 
 is ever infinitely more ready and forward to bind up a 
 broken heart, than it to bleed before him*. Consider for 
 this purpose the parable of the prodigal son (Luke xv, 11) ; 
 he is there said to go, but the father ran. 
 
 (2.) Thou mayest by the unsettledness of thy heavy 
 heart unnecessarily unfit and disable thyself for the duties 
 and discharge of both thy callings. 
 
 (3.) Thou shalt gratify the devil, who will labour mightily 
 by his lying suggestions (if thou wilt not be counselled and 
 comforted when there is cause) to detain thee in perpetual 
 horror here, and in an eternal hell hereafter. Some find 
 him as furiously and maliciously busy to keep them from 
 comfort when they are fitted, as from fitness for comfort. 
 
 (4.) Thou ait extremely unadvised, nay, very cruel to thine 
 own soul. For whereas it might now be filled with " un- 
 speakable and glorious joy" (1 Pet. i, 8), with " peace that 
 passeth all understanding" (Phil, iv, 7), with evangelical 
 pleasures, which are such as " neither eye hath seen nor 
 ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man" 
 (1 Cor. ii, 9), by taking Christ, to which thou hast a strong 
 and manifold calling — " Ho ! every one that thirsteth, come 
 ye to the waters," &c. (Isa. Iv, 1) ; " Come unto me all ye 
 that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" 
 (Matt, xi, 28) ; " If any man thirst, let him come unto me 
 and drink'* (John vii, 37) ; "and let him that is athirst, 
 come : and whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
 freely" (Revel, xxii, 17) ; yea, a commandment — "And 
 this is his commandment, that we should believe on the 
 name of his Son Jesus Christ" ( 1 John iii, 23) : — and yet, 
 for all this, thou as it were wilfully standest out, will not 
 " believe the prophets," forsakest thine own comfort, and 
 liest still upon the rack of thy unreconcilement unto God. 
 
 Secondly. On the other hand, when the anguish of thy 
 guilty conscience is upon sure ground something allayed 
 and suppled with the oil of comfort, and thy wounded 
 heart warrantably revived with the sweetness of the pro- 
 raises, as with " marrow and fatness," thou must not then 
 
 * "And therefore will the Lor J wait that he may be gracious unto 
 you" (Isa. XXX, 18). "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not 
 comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and thy foun- 
 dations with sapphires" (isa. liv, II). "He rctaineth not his anger 
 for ever, because lie delighteth in mercy" (Micah vii, 18). 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 109 
 
 either shut up thine eyes from further search into thy sins, 
 or dry them up from any more mourning. But comfort of 
 remission must serve as a precious eye-salve, both to clear 
 their sight, that they may see more and with more detes- 
 tation ; and to enlarge their sluices, as it were, to pour out 
 repentant tears more plentifully. Thou must continue rip- 
 ping up and ransacking that hellish heap of thy former re- 
 bellions and pollutions of youth ; still dive and dig into 
 that body of death thou bearest about thee, for the finding 
 out and furnishing thyself vi^ith as much matter of sound 
 humiliation as may be, that thou mayest still grow viler 
 and viler in thine own eyes, and be more and more humble 
 until thy dying day. But yet so, that as thou boldest out 
 in the one hand the clear crystal of God's pure law to dis- 
 cover the vileness and variety of thy sins, all the spots and 
 stains of thy soul, so thou hold out in the other hand, or 
 rather with the hand of faith lay hold upon the Lord Jesus, 
 hanging bleeding and dying upon the cross for thy sake. 
 The one is sovereign to save from slavish stings of con- 
 science, bitterness of horror, and venom of despair. The 
 other, mingled with faith, will serve as a quickening preser- 
 vative to keep in thy bosom an humble, soft, and lowly 
 spirit, which doth ever excellently fit to live by faith more 
 cheerfully, to enjoy God more nearly, to apply Jesus Christ 
 more feelingly, and to long for his coming more earnestly : 
 in a word, to climb up more merrily those stairs of joy, 
 which are pressed upon us by the holy prophet, " He 
 glad — rejoice — and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in 
 heart" (Psalm xxxii, 11). 
 
 IV. Conceive that hypocrisy may lurk in very goodly out- 
 ward forms and fairest promises and protestations of self- 
 seeming earnest humiliation. Look upon Ahab (1 Kings 
 xxi, 27^ ; upon the Israelites (Psalm Ixxviii, 34, 35). I mean 
 not only gross hypocrisy, whereby men's false hearts teach 
 them to deceive others; but also that which elsewhere I 
 have styled formal hypocrisy, whereby men's own hearts 
 deceive even their ownselves. For I make no question but 
 the promises of amendment which many make when they 
 are pressed and panting under some heavy cross or grievous 
 sickness, proceed from their hearts ; I mean they speak as 
 they think, and, for the present, purpose performance, who 
 notwithstanding upon their recovery and restitution of 
 former health and wonted worldly happiness, return " with 
 the dog unto their vomit," and plunge again perfidiously 
 into the cursed current of their disclaimed pleasures. But 
 by the way, and in a word, to enlighten a perplexed point, 
 
200 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 and prevent a scruple which may trouble true hearts indeed, 
 who hold truth of heart in their repentances, services, and 
 duties towards God to be their peculiar and a special touch- 
 stone to try and testify tlie soundness of their sanctification, 
 the truth of their spiritual states, and a distinctive character 
 from all sorts of unregeuerate men, and all kinds of hypo- 
 crisy ; — i say, purposes and promises made from the heart 
 in the sense 1 have stated, with earnest eager protestation 
 while they are in anguish and extremity, and yet after de- 
 liverance and ease melt away " as a morning cloud and 
 like the early dew," proceed from hearts rather affected 
 only with sting of present horror, natural desire of happi- 
 ness, misconceit that it is a light thing to leave sin, and the 
 like, than truly broken and burthened with sight of their 
 own viieness, sense of God's displeasure, hatred of wicked- 
 ness and former sensual ways ; or enamoured with the 
 sweetness of Jesus Christ, amiableness of grace, and good- 
 ness of God, 6cc. Howsoever for my purpose certain it is, 
 and too manifest by many woful experiences, that as it 
 often falls out and fares with men in their corporal visita- 
 tions and outward crosses, to wit, that while the storm and 
 tempest beats sore upon them they run unto God as " their 
 rock, and inquire early after him," as it is said of the 
 Israelites, Psalm Ixxviii, 34 ; but when once a hot gleam of 
 former health and prosperity shines upon them again, they 
 hie as fast out of God's blessing into the warm sun ; from 
 sorrow for sin to delight of sense ; from seeking God to 
 security in their old ways : 1 say, even so it is sometimes 
 also with men in afflictions of soul and troubles of con- 
 science. While the agony and extremity is upon them, they 
 grieve as though they would become true converts ; both 
 promise and purpose many excellent things for the time to 
 come, and a remarkable change ; but if once the fit be over, 
 they " start aside like a broken bow," and fearfully fall away 
 from what they have vowed, with horrible ingratitude and 
 execrable villany, having been extraordinarily schooled and 
 scorched, as it were, in the flames of horror, and warned 
 to take heed by the very vengeance of hell. For the former, 
 hear the experience of reverend divines. " jMany seeming," 
 saith one, " to repent affectionately in dangerous sickness, 
 when they have recovered have been rather worse than 
 before." " 1 would have thought myself," saith another, 
 " that many monstrous persons whom 1 have visited, when 
 God's hand upon them caused them to cry out and promise 
 amendment, would have proved rare examples to otiicrs of 
 true conversion unto God. But to my great grief, and to 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES* 2M 
 
 teach me experience what becometh of such untimely fruits, 
 they have turned back again as an arrow from a stone wall, 
 and as the dog to his own vomit." 
 
 For the latter, 1 could here make it good also by too 
 many experiences, were it convenient ; but I forbear for 
 some reasons to report them at this time. 
 
 I publish this point and speak thus, not to trouble any 
 true converts about the truth of their hearts in their troubles 
 of conscience : consciousness unto themselves of their new 
 birth, already happily past; their prizing and cleaving to 
 the Lord Jesus invaluably, invincibly ; their present new 
 obedience, new courses, new company, new conversation, 
 <S;c. makes it more than evident that they were savingly 
 mollified and melted in the furnace of their spiritual afflic- 
 tions, fashioned and framed by the hand of the Holy Ghost 
 to be God's jewels : but to terrify those miserable men, who 
 having tasted that transcendent torture of a wounded con- 
 science, dare upon any terms look back again upon the world 
 with delight and doating, and again commit those sins 
 which have already stung their hearts with the very terrors 
 of hell : or rather at this time to teach and tell the afflicted 
 in conscience, that when the rich treasures of God's free 
 mercy and " the unsearchable riches of Christ " are opened 
 and offered unto him, he drink not so indiscreetly at first of 
 that immeasurable sea as presently to fall into a surfeit of 
 security. But to prevent miscarriage in a matter of so in- 
 valuable moment, let him rather mingle motives to humilia- 
 tion with his medicine of mercy. Let him look well to the 
 grounds and good speeches upon which the spiritual physi- 
 cian is encouraged to comfort him, that they shrink not hi 
 the wetting. Let him fear and attend his own deceitful 
 heart with all nairow watch and a very jealous eye. Other- 
 wise that false heart of his may prove a depth to drown his 
 own dear soul in the pit of endless perdition. For in time 
 of extremity and terror, especially of conscience, it may 
 seem pliable and promise fair, and yet when it comes to 
 performance and practice, either impudently and perfidiously 
 wallows again in open wickedness, or rests only in a " form 
 of godliness " at the best. Let him be " stedfast in the 
 covenant," and then he may be suie that his " heart was 
 upright," and that he did not " flatter with his mouth, or 
 lie unto God with his tongue." 
 
202 INSTRUCTIOxXS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 Tlie Fiftli Advice to the Afflicted. Two Directions to the Minister, to 
 be observed towards his Patient. 
 
 V. Since thou art now upon terms of turning unto God, 
 taking profession upon thee, and giving up thy name unto 
 Christ, the blessedest business that ever thou wentest about, 
 be well advised, consider seriously what thou undertakest, 
 and cast deliberately beforehand what it is like to cost thee. 
 Thou must make an account to become the drunkard's song, 
 and to have those " that sit in the gate to speak against 
 thee ;" the vilest of men to rail upon thee, and the wisest 
 of the world to laugh at thee. Thou must be content to 
 live a despised man, to be scoffed at, to "be hated of all 
 men," to " crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts ; " 
 to look upon the world, set out in the gaudiest manner with 
 all her baits and Babels of riches, honours, favours, great- 
 ness, pleasures, &c. as upon an unsavoury rotten carcass. 
 Thou and the world must be as two dead bodies upon one 
 bier, without any delightful mutual commerce or inter- 
 course, strangers and stark dead one unto another in respect 
 of thy any farther trading with the vanities thereof. For 
 keeping a good conscience, standing on God's side and for 
 Christ's sake, thou must deny thyself thy v/orldly wisdom, 
 carnal reason, corrupt affections ; thy acceptation with the 
 world, favour of great ones, credit and applause with the 
 most ; thy passions, profit, pleasures, possibility of rising 
 and growing great ; thy nearest friends, dearest companions, 
 ease, liberty, life ; and grow by little and little into Esther's 
 most noble and invincible resolution, when doing God's will 
 threateneth any earthly danger; "And if 1 perish, I 
 perish ; " but not to perish so is everlastingly to perish, and 
 so to perish is to be saved for ever. Thou must thus resolve 
 upon this self-denial when thou first enterest into profession, 
 or else thou wilt never be able to hold out in thy spiritual 
 building, or conquer in the Christian warfare (See and con- 
 sider the occasion, and how earnestly Christ enjoins it. 
 Matt, xvi, 24 ; Luke xiv, 26, &c., and presses it with two 
 parables.) ; but all will come to nought, and thou cursedly 
 conclude in open apostasy, gross hypocrisy, or self- deceiving 
 formality. Consider the young man in the gospel. He 
 came hastily to Jesus Christ, and would needs be his disciple 
 and follower upon the sudden. But alas ! he did wofully 
 mistake. Little did he know, neither indeed would know, 
 what belonged unto it. That the servant of such an heaveiily 
 Master must be no earth-worm ; that every one of his dis- 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 203 
 
 ciples must " take up their cross and follow him; " for his 
 sake part with any thing, every thing, be it riches, honours, 
 credit, pleasures, &c. And therei'ore wiien once Christ for 
 the trial of his heart had bid him " go and sell that he had," 
 &c., he had soon done ; he was quickly gone. Now had 
 this young man gone away without this lesson, he had gone 
 away a disciple as well as any other, and perhaps as jolly a 
 professor as the forwardest of them all ; and that both in his 
 own strong opinion and uncharitable misconceit of the rest 
 who were true of heart : as Judas did a long time ; and the 
 foolish virgins all their life long. Too many such professors 
 as he would have proved, are to be found even in this noon- 
 tide of the gospel abroad in the world ; who being at their 
 first entrance into profession not soundly humbled, nor lay- 
 ing a sure foundation ; not resolved upon an universal self- 
 denial, nor weighing with due forecast what it will cost 
 them ; do afterward misbehave themselves upon any gainful 
 occasion, or greater trial and temptation, or being put to it 
 indeed. They are wont from time to time to discover their 
 rottenness, open the mouths of the profane, and shame all. 
 They are like unto reeds, which in a calm stand upright and 
 seem stiff and strong; but let the tempest break in upon 
 them and they bend anyway. While their lemporal state 
 is untouched, their outward happiness unhazarded, they 
 seem resolute, thorough, and courageous ; but let a storm of 
 persecution be raided against them ; let them be put into 
 a great fright that if they stand to it they may be undone, 
 &c. and then like cowards they hide their heads, pull in the 
 horns; and shamefully shrink in the wetting ; unhappily 
 holding it better to sleep in a whole skin than with a good 
 conscience. Like the eagle, they soar aloft with many good 
 religious shows and representations, but they still keep their 
 eye upon the prey ; and therefore when advantage is offered 
 they will basely stoop from forwardness, honesty, generosity, 
 humanity, anything, to seize upon a worldly commodity, 
 office, honour, soine earthly pelf, and transitory nothing. 
 Some of these, after profession for some tin)e, fall quite 
 away from it, and turn epicures or worldlings, if not scor- 
 ners and persecutors. Others hold on in a plodding course 
 of formal Christianity all their life long ; and at last depart 
 this life like the foolish virgins, and in that formal manner 1 
 told you of before. Neither be thou disheartened with this 
 counsel of leaving all for Christ. For thou shalt be no loser, 
 but a great gainer thereby. Besides "eternal life in the 
 world to come," tliou shalt receive a hundredfold now in 
 this time," as Christ himself tells thee, ]\lark x, 30. If 
 thou part with worldly joys, thou shalt have quiet in 
 
204 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 the Holy Ghost, spiritual joy unspeakable and glorious, 
 nearer familiarity with God, dearer communion with Jesus 
 Christ, &ic. ; to which the pleasures ot ten thousand worlds, 
 were they all to be enjoyed at once, were but extremest 
 pain. If thou lose thine husband, he that made thee will 
 be in his stead unio thee, " Thy Maker is thine husba:id, 
 the Lord of Hosts is his name " (Isa. liv, 5). Jf thou lose 
 thy father, the all-sufficient Jehovah, blessed for ever, " will 
 pity thee as a father pitieth his children " (Psalm ciii, 13). 
 if thou lose thy friends and the world's favour, thou shalt 
 have all and the only excellent upon earth to love thee 
 dearly, and to pray heartily for thee (Psalm xvi, 3) ; in a 
 word, if thou lose all for Christ's sake, he will be unto thee 
 " all in all" (Coloss. iii, 11). And in him all things shall 
 be thine in a faj more sweet and eminent manner. " All 
 things are yours, whether Paul, or ApoUos, or Cephas, or 
 the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to 
 come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is 
 God's" (1 Cor. iii, 21, 22, 23). 
 
 VI. When the spiritual physician shall see the soil of his 
 patient's heart well softened with sorrow for sin, comforta- 
 bly warmed with refieshing beams of favour from the face 
 of Christ, and so seasonably fitted to enter a Christian 
 course, and to " bring forth fruits meet for repentance," let 
 him throw in some timely seeds of zeal, holy preciseness, 
 undaunted courage, and unshaken resolution about the 
 affairs of heaven, and in the cause of God ; from such 
 quickening scriptures and excellent examples as these, 
 Luke xiii, 24 ; Rom. xii, 11, 12 ; Kphes. v, 15 ; Phil, i, 10, 
 11; Matt, xi, 12; Revel, iii, 16; Ruth iv, 11; Esther iv, 
 16; Nehem. vi, 11 ; 1 Kings xxii, 14; Heb. xi, 24, 25; 
 1 Sam. XX, 32 ; Acts xxi, 13, &c. that it may be happily 
 preserved from the rank and flourishing, but rotten and 
 fruitless weed of formality and lukewarmness ; which pesti- 
 lent canker, if it once take root in the heart, it will never 
 suffer the herb of grace, if 1 may so speak, the heavenly 
 unfading flowers of saving grace, to grow by it while the 
 world stands. Nay, and will prove one of the strongest 
 blots to bar them out ; and the most boisterous cart- rope to 
 pull down extraordinary vengeance upon the head of the 
 party. For as a loathsome vomit is to the stomach of him 
 that casts it out, so are lukewarm professors to the Lord 
 Jesus (Revel, iii, 10). 1 marvel many times what such 
 men mean, and what worship, service, and obedience they 
 would have the mighty Lord of heaven and earth to accept. 
 He offers to us in the ministry his own blessed Son to be 
 our dear and everlasting husband, his person with all the 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENGES. 205 
 
 rich and royal endowments thereof, the glory and endless 
 felicities above, his own thrice-glorious and ever-blessed 
 self to be enjoyed through all eternity, which is the very 
 soul of heavenly bliss, and life of eternal life. Do you 
 think it then reasonable or likely that he will ever accept at 
 our hands a heartless, formal outwardness ; a cold, rotten 
 carcass of religion ; that we should serve ourselves in the 
 first place, and him in the second ; that w^e should spend 
 the prime and flower of our loves, joys, services, upon some 
 abominable bosom sin ; and then proportion out to the ever- 
 lasting God, mighty and terrible Creator and Commander 
 of heaven and earth, only some outward religious forms 
 and conformities, and those also so far only as they hurt 
 not our temporal happiness, but may consist with the entire 
 enjoyment of some inordinate lust, pleasure, profit, or pre- 
 ferment ] Prodigious folly, nay, fury to their own souls ! 
 This very one most base and unworthy conceit of so great a 
 God, and his due claims, meriteth ju>tly exclusion from the 
 kingdom of heaven with the foolish virgins for ever. jMy 
 counsel therefore is, when the spiritual patient hath passed 
 the tempestuous sea of a troubled conscience, and is now 
 upon terms of taking a new course, that by'kll means he 
 take heed that he run not upon this rock. It is better to 
 be key-cold than lukewarm ; and that the milk boil over 
 than be raw. 
 Vn. I hough itbeanordinary,yetitisadangerousand utterly 
 undoing error and deceit to conceive that all is ended when 
 the afflicted party is mended, and hath received ease and 
 er largement trom the terrible pressures ( f his troubled con- 
 science ; to think that after the tempest of present terror and 
 rage of guiltiness be allayed and overblown there needs no 
 more to be done. As though the new birth uere not ever 
 infallibly and inseparably attended with new obedience. \s 
 though when once the soul is soundly and savingly struck 
 through, humbled, and prepared for Christ by the terrifying 
 power of the law revealing the foulness of sin and fierceness 
 of Divine wrath, which set on by the " spirit of bondage " 
 is able like a mighty thunder to break and tear in pieces the 
 iron sinews of the most stubborn and stony heart, there 
 followed not hearty showers of repentant tears, never to be 
 dried up uritil our ending hour (as 1 taught before), when 
 all tears shall be everlastingly wiped away with God's mer- 
 ciful hand: and that the Sun of righteo'isness did not 
 presently break forth upon that happy soul, to dispel the 
 hellish clouds of sensuality, lust, lying in sin, iSic. and to 
 enlighten, inflame, and fill it with the serenity and clear sky 
 as it were of sanctification and purity, a kindly fervour of 
 
 r 
 
206 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 zeal for God's glory, good causes, good men, and keeping a 
 good conscience and fruitful influence of sobriety, righteous- 
 ness, and holiness for ever after. And therefore, if upon 
 recovery out of trouble of conscience there follow not a 
 continued exercise of repentance, both for sins past, present, 
 and to come, as you heard before, an universal change in 
 every power and part both of soul and body, though not in 
 perfection of degrees, yet of parts ; a heart-rising hatred 
 and opposition against all sin ; a shaking off old com- 
 panions, brethren in iniquity, all Satan's good-fellow revel- 
 lers; a delight in the word, ways, services, sabbaths, and 
 saints of God ; a conscientious and constant endeavour to 
 express the truth of the protestations and promises made in 
 time of terror, as I told you before, &c. ; — in a vv^ord, if 
 there follow not a new life, " if all things do not become 
 new" (2 Cor. v, 17), there is no new-birth in truth : all is 
 nought, and to no purpose in the point of salvation. 
 
 I'hey are then miserable comforters, physicians of no 
 value; nay, of notorious spiritual bloodshed, who having 
 neither acquaintance with, nor much caring for the manner, 
 means, method, any heavenly wisdom, spiritual discretion, 
 or experimental skill in managing aright sucli an important 
 business ; if any ways they can assuage the rage and still 
 the cries of a vexed, guilty conscience, they think they have 
 done a worthy work, though after their daubing there be 
 nothing left behind in it but a senseless scar ; nay, and per- 
 haps more searedness and benumbedness brought upon it, 
 because it was not kin-ilily wrouglit upon in the furnace of 
 spiritual affliction, and rightly cured. 
 
 I fear many poor souls are fearfully deceived, who being 
 recovered out of terrors of conscience too suddenly, unsea- 
 sonably, or one way or other unsoundly, conceive presently 
 they are truly converted, though afterward they be the very 
 same men, of the same company and conditions they were 
 before, or at best bless themselves in the seeming happiness 
 of a half conversion *. 
 
 * By this half Herodlan conversion they may leave many sins, and 
 " do niany things," hear the best ministers gladly, respect and counte- 
 nance them, &c. ; and yet for all this, in respect of their own personal 
 salvation, as well never a whit as never the better; as wel I not at all as 
 nor thorough-stitch. 
 
afflictp:d consciences. 207 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 Two Cases wherein pangs of Conscience are not healed, whatever they 
 seem. 
 
 For a more full discovery of this mischief, and prevention 
 of those miseries which may ensue upon this last miscarriage, 
 let me acquaint you with four or five passages out ot pangs 
 of conscience, which still lead amiss and leave a man to 
 the devil still, and for all his fair warning by the smart ot 
 a wounded spirit, drown him in the works of darkness and 
 ways of death. 
 
 1. Some, when by the piercing power and application of 
 the law, their consciences are pressed with the terrible and 
 intolerable weight of their sins ; and the worm that never 
 dies, which hath been all this while dead drunk with sen- 
 sual pleasures, is now awaked by the hand of Divine justice, 
 and begins to sting ; they presently with unspeakable rage 
 and horror fall into the most abhorred and irrecoverable 
 dungeon of despair. The flames of eternal fire seize upon 
 them even in this life ; they are in hell upon earth, and 
 damned, as it were, above ground. Such they are com- 
 monly who all their life long have been contemners of the 
 gospel ministry ; scorners of the " good way ;" quenchers of 
 the Spirit ; revolters from good beginnings and profession of 
 grace ; harbour ers of some secret, vile, abominable lusts in 
 their hearts against the light of their conscience ; close 
 agents for popery and profaneness ; plausible tyrants against 
 the power of godliness, and such other like notorious cham- 
 pions of the devil, and infamous rebels to the Highest Ma- 
 jesty : whom, since they have been such, and have so des- 
 perately and so lung "despised the riches of his goodness 
 and forbearance and long suflering, leading them to repen- 
 tance," God most justly leaves now in the evil day : when 
 once the hot transitory gleam of worldly pleasures is past, 
 and his judgments begin to grow upon their thoughts like a 
 tempestuous storm ; and death to stand before them irre- 
 sistible like an armed man ; and sin to lie at the door like 
 a bloodhound ; and the guilty conscience to gnaw upon 
 the heart like a vulture, &c. ;— I say, then he leaves them 
 in his righteous judgment to sink or swim, " to eat the 
 fruit of their own ways" to the fulness of that unquench- 
 able wrath which by their innumerable sinful provocations, 
 impenitency, and unbelief, they liave " treasured up against 
 this day of wrath." That raging worm, which never dies 
 in the damned, and naturally breeds in every graceless 
 
208 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 conscience by their insatiable surfeit in sin, and greedy 
 " drinking in iniquity like water," grows so strong and to 
 such a strange bigness, that taking advantage, especially 
 in the time of terror, of their weakness and confusion of 
 spirit upon the bed of death, at some season of irrecove- 
 rable danger, it surprises them upon the sudden with un- 
 expected hellish armies of guiltiness and horror, and over- 
 throws them quite, horse and man, never to rise again in 
 this world or the world to come. Then would those woful 
 wretches who would never be warned betinie, give ten 
 thousand worlds, if they had them, for one moment of that 
 merciful time of grace which they have cursedly long abused, 
 for the benefit of the ministry which they have insolently 
 scorned, for a drop of that precious blood which by their 
 desperate villanies and hatred to be reformed they have 
 trampled under foot. But, alas ! no mercy, no blessing, 
 no comfort will then be had, though, with profane Esau, 
 they seek it with tears, and throw their rueful and piercing 
 cries into the air with hideous groans and yelling. And 
 therefore turning their eye upon their torments will roar 
 out like those sinful hypocrites, Isaiah xxxiii, 14, with un- 
 utterable anguish of spirit, " Who among us shall dwell 
 with the devouring fire 1 who among us shall dwell with 
 everlasting burnings'?" "In the morning they shall say, 
 Would God it were even ; and at even they shall say, 
 Would'God it were morning ; for the fear of their hearts 
 wherewith they shall fear, and for the sight of their eyes 
 which they shall see" (Deut. xxviii, 67). In their life- 
 time they behaved themselves like cruel beasts and bloody 
 goads in the sides of the saints and against their sincerity ; 
 and now at last themselves are caught with a witness, and 
 lie upon their beds of extremity and terror " like wild bulls 
 and beasts in a net, full of the fury of the Lord." 
 
 JI. Others there are, who finding their sins discovered, 
 and their consciences wounded by the light and power of 
 the word, and now feeling sadness, heavy-heartedness, 
 uncouth terrors, much perplexity and anxiety of spirit 
 coming upon them, address themselves presently and have 
 speedy recourse to the "arm of flesh," outward mirth, 
 carnal contentment, and such other miserable comforters. 
 They falsely suppose, and to their own utter and everlasting 
 overthrow, that these spiritual pangs that are now upon 
 them, which if rightly managed might prove a happy pre- 
 parative and legal artillery, as it were, to break the iron 
 bars and open the everlasting doors of their souls that the 
 King of Glory might come in, be nothing but fits of melan- 
 choly, or sour and unseasonable eflects and impressions of 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 209 
 
 some puritanical ministry and dangerous temptations to 
 despair. And therefore they hie out of them as fast as they 
 can, by posting after worldly pleasures, pastimes, plays, 
 music, gaming, merry company, jovial meetings of good 
 fellowship, taverns, ale-houses, visits, entertainments, im- 
 provement of their chief carnal contentment, &,c. ; if not to 
 wizards and even to light a candle at the devil for light- 
 someness ef heart. Thus, I know not whether with more 
 sin or folly, they endeavour to come unto themselves again 
 by the mirth and madness of wine, earthly joy, carnal 
 counsel, &c. ; wherein they are not unlike those idolatrous 
 Israelites, who while they burnt up their children in sacri- 
 fice to Moloch, filled iheir ears with noise of instruments, 
 lest by the rueful cries of their little babes they should be 
 moved to pity, and so stayed in the cruel service of that 
 blood-sucking idol. Just so these men of pleasure and per- 
 dition do sinlully seek to stop the guilty clamours of their 
 vexed consciences with the comforts of this life and sensual 
 joy, while their souls are sacrificing to Satan, and making 
 fit fuel for the fire of hell, lest by listening to their cries 
 and controlments they should be stirred up to take com- 
 passion of their own poor immortal souls, and be stopped 
 in the pursuit of their fugitive follies and delights of sense. 
 But, alas ! in so doing they are also like a man in a burn- 
 ing fever, who lets down cold drink eagerly and merrily, 
 because in the extremity of thirst it cools him a little ; but 
 after a wliile he shall find the heat, the pain, and the 
 danger all doubled upon him. Earthly pleasures may for 
 the present still the noise of an accusing conscience, and 
 seem somewhat to allay its guilty rage, but assuredly they 
 will afterwards kindle such a fire in the bowels of these 
 miserable men as will burn even to the very bottom of hell, 
 and blow them up body and soul with irrecoverable ruin 
 for ever. He that goes about to cure the wound of his con- 
 science for sin with sensual delight, is as if to help the 
 toothache he should knock out his brains, or when he is 
 stung with a wasp siiould rub with a nettle the smarting 
 place, or finding no good by physic should run unto wizards ; 
 as if in extremity of thirst he should drink rank poison to 
 quench it, apply a venomous plaister to his sore, and prop 
 up his falling roof with burning firebrands ; remedies far 
 worse and more pestilential than the malady, for they 
 either plunge them deeper into the dungeon of melancholy 
 and heavy-heartedness, or else draw a skin only over the 
 spiritual wound, whereby it festers and rankles underneath 
 more dangerously. For thus stopping the mouth of that 
 
 1 3 
 
210 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 never-dying worm, that insatiable wolf in the mean time 
 doth make it, when there is no more supply of carnal plea- 
 sures whereupon it feeds for a while, to fall more furiously 
 upon the conscience that bred it, and to gnaw more ra- 
 gingly by reason of its former restraint and enforced diver- 
 sion. 
 
 I know full well, Satan is right well pleased, and doth 
 much applaud this pestilent course of theirs, and therefore 
 he helps forward this accursed business all he can, of aban- 
 doning and banishing all trouble of mind for sin with 
 worldly toys. For ordinarily out of his cruel cunning thus 
 he proceeds in these cases : — 
 
 1. In the first place, and above all, he labours might 
 and main to detain men in that height of hard-heartedness, 
 that they may not be moved at all with the ministry, or 
 suffer the sword of the Spirit to pierce. And then like " a 
 strong man armed" he possesseth their bodies and souls, 
 which are his palace, with much peace, and disposeth them 
 wholly in any hellish service at his pleasure. Thus he 
 prevails with a world of men amongst us. They hear ser- 
 mon after sermon, judgment upon judgment, and yet are no 
 more stirred with any penitent astonishment for sin or saving 
 work of the word, than the very seats whereon they sit, the 
 pillars to which they lean, or dead bodies upon which they 
 tread. They are ordinarily such as these: — First; Igno- 
 rants of two sorts : (1.) Unskilled both in the rules of rea- 
 son and religion ; such are our extremely sottish and grossly 
 ignorant people, which swarm among us in many places, 
 to the great dishonour of the gospel, by reason of the want 
 of catechising and other discipline. (2.) Led by the light 
 of natural conscience to deal something honestly, but idiots 
 in the great mystery of godliness ; such are our merely 
 civil honest men. Secondly ; Those that are wise in their 
 own conceits (Isa. v, 21), being strongly persuaded of their 
 good estate to God-ward, whereas, as yet, they have no 
 part at all in the first resurrection : such as those, 
 Matt, vii, 22; and xxv, 11. Thirdly ; All such as are re- 
 solved not to take sin to heait (See Isa. xxviii, 15). These 
 either, (1.) iMake God all of mercy; (2.) Or preserve a 
 secret reservation in their hearts to repent hereafter ; 
 (3.) Or have so prodigiously hardened their hearts that they 
 fear not the judgment to come ; (4.) Or with execrable 
 villany desire to extinguish the very notions of a Deity by 
 a kind of an affected atheism, and, being drowned in sen- 
 suality, labour not to believe the word of God, that they 
 may sin without all check or reluctance. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 211 
 
 % But if it fall out by God's blessing that the word once 
 l>egin to get within a man, and to work terror and trouble 
 of mind for sin ; so that he sees him grow sensible of his 
 slavery, weary of his former ways, and like enough to break 
 the prison and be gone ; then doth he seriously observe 
 and attend which way the party inclines, and how he may 
 be most easily diverted, that he may thereafter proportion 
 his plots and attempts against him the more prosperously. 
 
 (1.) If he find him to have been a horrible sinner, of a sad 
 and melancholic disposition, much artlicted with outward 
 crosses, &c., he then lays load upon his affrighted soul with 
 all his cunning and cruelty, that if it be possible he may 
 drive him to despair. For this purpose he makes keen the 
 sting of the guilty conscience itself all he can, sharpens the 
 empoisoned points of his own fiery darts ; adds more gris- 
 liness to his many hateful transgressions, more horror to 
 the already flaming vengeance against sin, i\c.; that, if 
 God so permit, he may be sure to strike desperately home, 
 and sink him deep enough into that abhorred duneenn. 
 
 (2.) But if he perceive him not to have been infamous 
 and noted for any notorious sins, by natural constitution to 
 be merrily disposed, impatient of heavy-heartedness, and 
 formerly much addicted to good-fellowship ; if he spy him 
 to strive and struggle for disentanglement out of these un- 
 couth terrors, and re-enjoyment of his former worldly de- 
 lights and jovial companions ; — I say, then he is most for- 
 ward to follow and feed his humour this way also, that so 
 he may stifle and utterly extinguish the work of the spirit 
 of bondage in the very beginning. And to this end he 
 blunts with all the cunning he can the sting of a man's own 
 conscience, and quite removes his own : he procures and 
 offers all occasions of outward contentment, he furnishes 
 his fellows in iniquity and the devil's proctors with per- 
 nicious eloquence and store of enticements to bring him 
 back again to their bent and beastly courses ; he ministers 
 his own delicious potions of carnal pleasure to cast his con- 
 science asleep again. In brief, he leaves no policy, plot, 
 or practice unassayed, unattempted, to make the power of 
 the law unprofitable unto him, and to drown all his sorrow 
 for sin in sensual drunkenness. 
 
 This, then, I make the second pestilent passage out of 
 pangs of conscience ; to wit, when a man to decline them 
 is driven by the subtlety of Satan and perverseness of his 
 own flesh, if not to wizards and fortune-tellers, as they call 
 them, and other such oracles of the devil, yet at best to 
 human helps, lo worldly wisdom, to outward mirth, good- 
 fellowship, pleasant company, his hea' s of gold, hoards of 
 
212 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 wealth, riches, pastures, variety of choicest pastimes; nay, 
 for ease to any thing, even to drinking, dancing, dicing, 
 masking, revelling, roaring, or any other such ribald, bed- 
 lam, and raging fooleries. 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 A Third Case, wherein Fangs of Conscience may seem to be healed 
 and are not; with tht; l>iscovery of Men's Errors in that kind. 
 
 III. Some there are, vv-ho pass out of trouble of mind for sin and 
 legal terrors into a kind of an artificial, enforced, unsound, 
 untimely, and counterfeit peace of conscience. I mean it 
 thus : when a man's carnal heart, wounded by the terrify- 
 ing power of the word, with sight and horror of his former 
 wicked ways ; but weary of the wound, impatient of spi- 
 ritual heaviness, wilfully set and resolved obstinately against 
 the holy severities of the school of repentance, mortifica- 
 tion, godly strictness, walking with God, 6cc., and withal 
 meeting with some dauber with untempered mortar, who is 
 very reatiy to heal his heart with sweet words, saying, 
 " i eace, peace, when there is no peace " (Jer. vi, 14) ; — 
 I say, in this case snatches hold of comfort, and applies 
 the promises of mercy and salvation before they belong 
 unto him; before he be searched to the quick, sounded to 
 the bottom, and soundly humbled ; before the spirit of 
 bondage hath its perfect work, and he be kindlily fitted for 
 Jesus Christ. For this purpose they are wont to wrest, 
 abuse, misapply many places in the book of God; the un- 
 skilful physicians in application, and the deluded patients 
 in apprehension of them ; even such as these : " Come unto 
 me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and 1 will give 
 you rest " (Matt, xi, 28). Yea, but they are not weary of 
 all their sins, but only troubled with the present terror ; 
 nor willing to take upon them the cross ot Christ. Well 
 enough content they are to take him as a Saviour to pre- 
 serve them from hell, but not as a lord, a king, and a hus- 
 band, to serve, obey, and love him. " Whosoever shall 
 call upon the name of the T^ord shall be saved " (Rom. x, 
 13). Yea, but they do not consider that many also shall 
 cry "Lord, Lord," (Matt. vii,22, andxxv, 11) and yet be ex- 
 cluded from eternal bliss ; and therefore " all that call 
 savingly upon the name of Christ, must depaitfrom iniquity" 
 (2 Tim. ii, 19). But they upon lecovery will by no means 
 depart from their darling delight. " He that believeth on 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 213 
 
 tlie Son hath everlastins life" (John iii, 36) Yea, but jus- 
 tifying faith purifies the heart (Acts xv, 9), fills it with dear 
 affections unto heavenly things, deadens it to the world, and 
 divorces it quite from all former carnal pleasures and com- 
 panionship. " I will give unto him that is athirst of the 
 fountain of the water of life freely" (Revel, xxi, 6). Yea, 
 but they thirst only for salvation, not for sanctification ; 
 for mercy, not for grace ; for happiness, not for holiness, 
 &c. These men, as well as the second sort, will by no 
 means pass through the pangs of the new birth into the 
 holy path. They wickedly misconceive, out of the rotten 
 principles of their own worldly wisdom, prejudice against 
 the power of godliness, and pestilent persuasions of " pillow- 
 sewers under their elbows," that in so doing they shall be 
 utterly undone and never have a good day afterward ; but, 
 to speak in their own language, fall presently into the hands 
 of the puritans, into the strict tortures and hypocritical 
 miseries of preciseness, into sourness, unsociableness,nielan- 
 choly ; and indeed into a state only a step short of distrac- 
 tion and madness. And these therefore cast about to get 
 out of trouble of mind and sense of Divine terror with as 
 great impatiency and precipitation as the former, only more 
 plausibly and with seemingly fairer, but truly false satis- 
 faction to their own souls. For the former rush with furious 
 indignation out of these spiritual dejections of conscience, 
 as unmanly fears not fit for worthy spirits and men of jovial 
 resolution, into greater excess and variety of vyorldly de- 
 lights and sensual looseness ; and so ordinarily become 
 afterward very notorious and more desperate enemies to the 
 kingdom of Christ. Jiecause the power of the word hath 
 once stung their carnal hearts with some remorseful terror, 
 they ever after heartily hate the sound and searching 
 ministry, and managers thereof, the inflicters of their 
 smart ; for no other reason in the world but that they tell 
 them the truth, and thereupon torment them before their 
 time, that so, if they be not wanting unto themselves, they 
 may escape the torments of eternity hereafter. And they 
 set themselves against godly Christians with incompatible 
 estrangement and implacable spite, only because they are 
 professors of self-denial, holy strictness, nonconformity to 
 the world, repentance, mortification, .Stc. ; the entertain- 
 ment and exercise whereof they furiously more detest and 
 fly from, than the death of their bodies and damnation of 
 their souls. But these latter pass more plausibly out of 
 trouble of conscience, and take a fairer course of the two, 
 though it prove but an imaginary and counterfeit cure. For 
 they labour to close up their spiritual wourwl with comfort 
 
214 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 out of the word, and promise peace to their troubled hearts 
 from the promises of life. But herein they tail and fearfully 
 deceive themsslves, in that they co'jceive the first fits and 
 quHim<, as it were, of legal terror, to be savini;- repentance ; 
 a general speculative apprehension of Christ's passion, to 
 procure a special pardon for all their sins ; fruitless specula- 
 tions of faith, to prevent and secure them from the wrath 
 that is to come ; a mere verbal profession, to be forwardness 
 enough except a man would be too precise. Upon the first 
 fright and feebng the smart of a confused remorse and 
 horror lor sm, without any further penitent wading into 
 particulars, or thorough search into their hearts, lives, con- 
 sciences, and callings ; without suffering the work of the 
 spirit of bondage to drive them to Christ, and a resolution 
 to sell all, &c. ; they presently apply, by the strong delusion 
 of their own idle groundless conceit, all the gracious pro- 
 mises and privileges of God's child to their unhumbled 
 souls, and enforce their understandings, by a violent greedy 
 error, to think they are justified by such an artificial heart- 
 less notion, which falsely they call faith : and so, resting in 
 a counterfeit pei suasion that they are true converts, ordina- 
 rily turn carnal professors. 
 
 These are a kind of people who have no more spiritual life 
 than a dead faith can infuse into them ; no more comfort in 
 the communion of saints than an outward correspondence 
 in profession, speculative discourses of religion, and meet- 
 ings at the means of grace, can yield ; no more interest or 
 right to heaven, than a bold presumptuous confidence, built 
 first upon their own wilful fancy, and seconded with Satan's 
 lying suggestion, can give them : whose sorrow for sin at 
 the most is commonly no more than " afflicting their souls 
 for a day, and bowing down their heads like a bulrush, 
 without loosing the bands of wickedness or departing from 
 iniquity," whose conversion is nothing but a speculative 
 passage from a confused apprehension of sin to a general 
 application of Ciiiist, vvithout any sensible or saving altera- 
 tion in their ways : whose new obedience consists only in a 
 formal conformity to outw^ard exercises of religion, without 
 all true zeal, life, heartiness, holiness, or indeed honest 
 dealing with their brethren. But these men are to know, 
 that Christ's blood never pardoned any man's soul from sin, 
 whose spirit the power thereof did not purge from ;v;uile. It 
 never saves any one from hell whom it doth not hist in some 
 good measure season with holiness and heavenly life. In 
 vain do they build comfort upon his passion, who do not 
 conscientiously conform to the practice of his word. And 
 let them further be informed, for a more clear discovery of 
 
AFFLICTED COJ^J SCIENCES. 215 
 
 their giossand damnable self-deceili that howsoever a di^ad 
 faith, according to its n;ime and nature, enters (if it hath 
 any being at all) into the understanding without any re- 
 markable motion, sense, and alteration ; yet that faith 
 which truly justities, pacilies, purities, mortifies, sanctifies, 
 and saves, is evidently discernible by — First, many stirring 
 preparatives ; sight and sense of a man's miserable state by 
 nature, of his siniuluess and cursedness, humbling himself 
 in the sight of the Lord," fearful apprehensions wrought by 
 the spirit of bondage ; illumination, conviction, legal terrors, 
 ixc. Secondly, violent affections about the infusing of it, 
 which are wont to be rai>:ed in the humbled heart by the 
 Holy Ghost; extreme thust, infiamed desires, vehement 
 longings, unutterable groanings of spirit, prizing and pre- 
 ferring the person and passion of Christ before the possession 
 of infinite worlds; willingness to "sell all," to part with 
 any thing for him, though never so dear or so much doated 
 upon heretofore ; with pleasure, riches, preferments, " a 
 right hand, aright eye," liberty, life, 6cc. Nay, in such 
 a case, if even hell itself should stand between Jesus Christ 
 and a poor soul, he would most willingly pass through the 
 very flames thereof to embrace his blessed crucified Lord in 
 the arms of a lively faith. Thirdly, inseparable consequents 
 and companions : 1. A hearty and everlasting falling out 
 with all sin. 2. Sanctification throughout in body, souL 
 spirit, and calling, and in every power, part, and passage 
 thereof, though not in peifection of degrees, yet in truth and 
 effectually. 3. A set and solemn course of new obedience, 
 spent principally in self- sobriety, righteousness towards our 
 brethren, and holiness towards (jod. 
 
 Many unfaithful men in the m.inislry, both in their public 
 teaching, and private visitations of the sick, have much to 
 answer for in this point ; who for want of skill in that 
 highest art of saving souls : of familiarity with God, and 
 secret working of his Spirit ; of experience in their own 
 change, and of the spiritof discerning, &c. many times concur 
 with such miserable men to mar all, in stifling the very first 
 stirrings of legal remorse, by healing the wounds of their 
 conscience with sweet words before they be searched and 
 sounded to the bottom ; and by an unseasonable and indis- 
 creet heaping a great deal of comfort there, where as yet a 
 good ground-work of true humiliation is not soundly laid. 
 Many and lamentable are the spiritual miseries in those 
 places where such daubers with untempered mortar have 
 the direction, who never passed through the pangs of the 
 new birth themselves, were never feelingly acquainted with 
 the wonderful dealings of God in that great miracle of a 
 
216 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 man's conversion; or*" trained up experimentally in the 
 school of temptations, painful exercises of mortification and 
 counterminings against the depths, wiles, devices, and 
 stratagems of the devil. The blessed prophet paints them 
 to the life, and denounces a dreadful woe against such 
 flattering and foolish prqphets (Ezek. xiii). A ship-master, 
 skilful only in astronomy and other speculative passages of 
 the art of navigation, is nobody in conducting men safely 
 over some dangerous sea, to him that beside sufficiencies 
 of art, is furnished also with experimental skill in those 
 parts, by passing formerly that way himself, and having 
 discovered those dangers of ruin and hidden rocks, which 
 the other man might easily run upon. Give me a man in 
 whom variety and profoundness of best learning doth con- 
 cur in the highest degree of excellency ; yet if his own 
 heart be not soundly wrought upon and seasoned with 
 saving grace, himself experimentally seen into the mystery 
 of Christ and secrets of sanctitication ; as he shall be hardly 
 able to wound other men's consciences, and pierce them to 
 the quick, so he will be found very unfit to manage aright 
 the spiritual miseries of a troubled soul, and to transport it 
 savingly through the tempestuous terrors and temptations 
 incident to the new creation, into the port of true peace 
 and paradise of the blessed brotherhood. A dreadful and 
 tender point it is to deal with distressed consciences ; so 
 many depths of Satan and deceits of man's heart mingle 
 themselves with business of so great consequence. Even a 
 well-meaning man without much heed and good experience, 
 both in the point and the party, may err dangerously and be 
 much deceived herein, i have heard from a man of con- 
 science and credit, besides many and many in the same 
 kind, of a fearful imposture to this purpose. " A man who 
 for the world was well enough, visited with some trouble of 
 mind for his sins, sent for a minister to comfort him. He, 
 it seems, not sounding him to the bottom, or searching to 
 the quick, heaped upon him unseasonably and too soon, 
 mercies and hopes of spiritual safety. Amongst other 
 things he asked him, whether formerly he had ever felt tes- 
 timonies and refreshings of God's favour and love. Yea, 
 answered the party (and heie take notice of a notorious 
 depth of the devil); once riding alone upon the way in 
 sucii a place, 1 grew upon the sudden veiy lightsome and 
 light-hearted, &c. (I'his was but a flash of Satan's angelical 
 glory, cunningly to lighten and lead him the way to further 
 confusion.) VVhy then, replied the minister, you may 
 build upon it. God is constant in his favours ; and whom 
 lie loves once he loves for ever. Hereupon the patient was 
 
AFFLICTED COiNSCIENCES. 217 
 
 presently healed of his wounded heart, and after fell into 
 his former courses, and grew fully as profane as he was 
 before." Amongst tlie many important passages of our 
 ministerial employment, 1 fear this weighty affair of visiting 
 the sick is passed over also (more is the pity ! ) w-ith much 
 ignorance, slightness, and neglect. It is incredible to con- 
 sider how fearfully many offend, and what a deal of hurt 
 they do by observing one plodding general form, and that a 
 poor one too, towards all patients promiscuously, without 
 any judicious discretion in distinguishing the variety of 
 spiritual states, the different degrees of unregenerateness, 
 former courses of life, -Sec. Commonly their carriage in 
 such cases is the same to the notorious sinner, the mere 
 civil man, gross hypocrite, carnal gospeller, formal professor, 
 backslider, the weak and strong, the tempted and untempted 
 Christian. If they but hear from the sick man a general 
 acknowledgment of his sins, forural cries for mercy and 
 pardon, earnest desires to die the death of the righteous, 
 6cc. which may be easily and ordinarily found in a pharisee 
 or foolish virgin, as you have heard before, they will pre- 
 sently needs persuade him that he is as surely a saved man 
 as if he were in heaven already. Herein resembling, saith 
 Marbury on Psalm xxxii, " a foolish shepherd, who want- 
 ing skill to help his poor sheep out of the ditch, is driven to 
 play the miserable comforter, and to take some other indi- 
 rect course (as many use to do in such cases), to cut the 
 bheep's throat in time to make him man's meat ; lest it 
 should be said he died in a ditch." Many and many a time 
 do such fellows as these empty and discharge their common 
 place books of all the phrases of mercy and comfort, 
 collected curiously and industriously for that purpose, upon 
 those men who were never acquainted with the ways of God 
 in their life-time, nor with the truth of humiliation, or truly 
 with the great work of repentance upon their beds of death. 
 Those formal churchmen who stood about Marshal Biron, 
 that great peer and pillar of France, at his death, did in 
 this respect very ill offices of ghostly fathers unto hirn in 
 his greatest need and last extremity. For when he behaved 
 himself more like a furious devil already amongst the 
 damned spirits in blasphemies, impatiencies, and most 
 raging passions, than a meek and humble saint of (lod, 
 ready to pass into everlasting mansions of peace, they not- 
 withstanding, out of their popish divinity, gave him " this 
 absolution, assuring him that his soul was ready to see God, 
 and to be partaker of his glory in heaven;" when it had 
 been far fitter to have diiven him to the sight of his sins, 
 sense of that dreadful hour, terror of that strict tribunal to 
 
 U 
 
218 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 which he was ready to pass, and fearfulness of that infernal 
 fiery lake from which no greatness can privilege graceless 
 men. I fear there are many time-serving ministers of the true 
 religion also, who are ready to do proportionable service to 
 ungodly great ones upon whom they depend, by promising 
 them life. But many and dreadful are the mistakings and 
 miseries which fall upon the souls of men, both patients 
 and by-standers, by these flattering formal visitations and 
 funeral panegyrics which ordinarily follow after. Happy 
 then, and hopeful is that man, who in the troubles of his 
 soul meets with that " one of a thousand" (Job xxxiii, 23), 
 with those sons both of consolation and thunder, who are 
 as able, ready, and willing rightly to bind up a bruised 
 spirit with the balm of mercy and promises of life, as to 
 break in pieces a stubborn heart with the terrors of the 
 law : who, as they labour in the first place to frighten men 
 out of their sinful courses into penitent dejections of con- 
 science, a needful preparative to a saving conversion, so 
 they have learned both speculatively and experimentally to 
 conduct them through the pangs of the new birth to sound 
 comfort in Christ, mortification, new obedience, walking 
 with God, &c. 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 Three Cases more, wherein the pangs of Conscience are not healed. 
 
 4. Others there are who pass out of trouble of conscience 
 for sin into some more tolerable courses for the time to 
 come ; bui yet not thoroughly and savingly into the truth 
 and pursuit of Christianity. For when Satan once per- 
 ceives that sorrow for sin lies so heavy upon a man's heart, 
 and the rage of guiltiness doth sting him still with such 
 restless anguish, that in all likelihood it will at length 
 draw and drive him to some alteratiou at least, and work 
 out at last some measure of amendment, then doth he, out 
 of an insatiable hellish thirst to hold him still in his clutches, 
 bend and employ all his power and policy to make him 
 satisfy himself, and rest finally, as sufficiently fitted for 
 salvation, in some partial, insufficient, half conversion ; 
 and to sit down contentedly with religious forms only, and 
 some outward reformation. The devil's first desire in work- 
 ing our destruction is to keep a man who is notoriously 
 naught in the highest strain of impiety ; a traitor in grain. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 219 
 
 as it were, and most desperate rebel to the Divine Majesty, 
 wallowing still in all variety of viilany and vanity, iiut 
 if that will not be, he is glad to detain him in what degree 
 of profaneness he can most conveniently and with greatest 
 safety, though the least and the lowest ; in any state of un- 
 regenerateness, though furnished with the utmost perfec- 
 tion of which it is capable, so that he step not into the 
 kingdom of Christ. Rather than he will utterly lose him 
 and part with him quite, he will leave possession of him in 
 part, and be willing, though full sore against his will, to 
 lose a great deal of his former more furious service, and 
 something of the fulness of his conformity to the fashions of 
 hell. If he cannot do as he would, he will do as he may. 
 When he sees him grumbling, and grow discontent and 
 weary with the loathsomeness of the dungeon and weight 
 of his fetters, rather than he should escape and break quite 
 away, he will knock off some of his irons, grant him the 
 liberty of the prison, the comfort of the walks ; nay, and 
 suffer him sometimes to walk abroad, so that he be still 
 watchfully attended by his keeper, and continue a retainer 
 to the kingdom of darkness. He will be content to give 
 him the benefit of the fewest stripes in hell, and the least 
 measure of damnation, though that also be more than in- 
 finitely terrible and intolerable, rather than he should not 
 be damned at all. And therefore in such a case he will 
 easily suffer him to proceed to some kind of repentance, 
 and reformation of some one or more outward gross no- 
 torious sins, remorse whereof, perhaps, did first raise the 
 terror and trouble in his mind, so that he will there rest 
 and remain unmortified and unamended in the rest. Or, 
 he cares not much though he be universally outwardly 
 reformed, and unblameable for the most part in his visible 
 carriage and conversation, though he restore ill-gotten goods, 
 say his prayers, give alms, fast often, give tithes of all that 
 he possesses with the pharisee, hold out a lamp of goodly 
 profession to the eye of the world with the foolish viigins, 
 observe godly ministers, reform many things after their 
 preaching, and hear them gladly, with Herod ; so that for 
 all this plausible and unpernicious outside the heart con- 
 tinue unchaste, impure, unholy, unheavenly still ; and he 
 still hug in his bosom some secret lusts and sensual cor- 
 ruptions with willing delight and loathness to leave them. 
 Or, if a man, besides outward religious representations and 
 conformities, desires also to find and feel in himself some 
 kind of inward work, he will not be much troubled with 
 addition of the spirit of illumination, temporary faith, some 
 "joy in the word" (Matt. xiii,20), "taste of the powers 
 
220 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 of the world to come," &c. (lleb. vi, 5) ; so that the spirit 
 of special sanctification be wanting still, and that some 
 darling deliglit be maintained in heart, life, or calling ; 
 which the man by no means would have meddled with or 
 mortified. On that (which is a notable depth of the devil, 
 of which take special notice), wheieas a man hears many- 
 times out of the ministry of the word, that the abandoning 
 of his bosom sin is a good token of a true conversion, and 
 the embracing of it still is too sure a sign that he is Satan's 
 still ; to the end he may blind him in this important point, 
 he will suffer him to exchange the visible form and outward 
 exercise even of his beloved sin. For example: a man's 
 captain and commanding sin is covetousness, and it is out- 
 wardly exercised in usury, bribery, sacrilege, &c. He is 
 well enough content in this case to let him be frighted by 
 the terror of the ministry from those grosser acts of cruelty 
 for which the world cries shame on him (especially not 
 restoring), so that he insensibly fall into and secretly prac- 
 tise some other cunning invisible oppressions, or any un- 
 lawful ways of getting. His sweet sin is voluptuousness ; 
 he hunts after it in the horrible villanies of adultery or for- 
 nication ; but at some sermon or other, he is told and ter- 
 rified, that by such sins he doth not only damn himself, 
 but also even draw another to hell with him ; whereupon 
 he may grow into a slavish distaste and discontinuance from 
 them, and Satan will not say much, so that there succeed 
 in their rooms some other kinds of sins of the same class. 
 Nay, he will yet yield further, and endure an utter cessation 
 from the external acts and visible practice of a man's pre- 
 dominant and reigning sin, so that he delightfully feed 
 upon it still in his' heart with speculative greediness, and 
 spend the strength of his affections and the most of his 
 thoughts that way. He will give him leave to leave off" his 
 usury, and to call in his money (but ordinarily ever without 
 restitution), so that he may hold his heart still "exercised 
 with covetousness." He can well enough abide abandon- 
 ing the gross acts of uncleanness ; so that he lie frying in 
 the flames of his own scorching concupiscence, and consume 
 his thoughts in the adulteries of the heart and contem- 
 plative filth. O the endless mazes, unfathomed depths, and 
 deepest malice of that old red dragon ! He will yield unto 
 any thing, rake in the very darkest nook of hell for some 
 cunning device, rather than part with a precious soul out 
 of his hellish paw. If a man be so haunted with horror of 
 conscience that he dare not for his life lie any longer in 
 notoriousness, but will needs get into som.e new course, he 
 can put him into many new fashions, and yet no new birth, 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. "221 
 
 no new man. He will suffer him to pass into a more to- 
 lerable conversation, and yet come short of a true conver- 
 sion ; he can afford him a moral change, or a formal change, 
 or a mental change (I mean it only in respect of the spirit 
 of illumination and general graces), or a temporary change 
 (of which see my " Directions for Walking with God"), 
 and yet continue him still within the confines of his cursed 
 kingdom, and in a damnable state. He doth improve to 
 the utmost, as occasion of advantage is offered, both the 
 grisliest shape of a foul fiend, and the most alluring light 
 of his angelical glory, to do us a mischief any way, either 
 upon the right hand or the left. How many thousands, 
 (ah, pity!) even in this clearest noon-tide of the Gospel 
 doth he keep in a presumptuous confidence, that they are 
 converted ; and yet most certainly his own still, and in a 
 willing slavery to some one or other predominant lust at 
 the least ! Be advised, then, in the name of Christ, who- 
 soever thou art, when the hand of God in great mercy shall 
 visit and vex thy conscience for sin by the piercing power 
 of the ministry, be sure to follow the direction and guidance 
 of that blessed hand, without daubing or diversion, out of 
 the kingdom of darkness, through the pangs of the new 
 , birth into the holy path, wholly and for ever. Make sure 
 work, whatsoever it cost thee ; go thorough-stitch, though 
 thou lose a right hand or right eye by it ; " sell all that 
 thou hast ; " the pearl is of great price ; have never any 
 thing more to do with the devil ; give over the trade of 
 sinning entirely; never more to "turn again unto folly" 
 upon any terms. And if Satan set upon thee with baits 
 and allurements to detain thee in his spiritual bondage but 
 by one darling delight to which thou hast been most ad- 
 dicted, answer him in this case with unshaken resolution, 
 as Moses did Pharaoh in a point of temporal bondage, 
 " There shall not so much as a hoof be left behind ;" yield 
 not a hair's breadth upon any condition to that hellish 
 Pharaoh ; especially in so great a matter as the endless 
 salvation or damnation of thy soul. If he can keep pos- 
 session but by one reigning sin, in which thou liest with 
 delight against the light of thy conscience, hating to be re- 
 formed, he desires no more. One knot in a thread will stay 
 the needle's passage as well as five hundred. See to this 
 purpose my Directions of Walking with God. Beware then 
 of closing up the wound of thy terrified and troubled con- 
 science with any outside, half, or unsound conversion ; 
 which I make the fourth passage out of trouble of mind for 
 sin. 
 5. And why may not Satan sometimes by God's permis- 
 
 V 3 
 
222 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 sion be suffered to inflict and fasten his fieiy darts of terrorj 
 and temptations upon a man's conscience, continue them 
 there some while with much anguish and horror for some 
 secret holy end, seen and seeming good to Divine wisdom, 
 and at length remove and withdraw them, not upon suc- 
 cession of any sound comfort or true peace from the pro- 
 mises of life and pardon of sin ; but only upon a mere ces- 
 sation of the devil's pleasure to torment and terrify any 
 longer'? Not that he can hurt the least or most contemp- 
 tible creature that ever God made when he pleases ; but 
 that it pleaseth God sometimes to give him the reins and 
 leave to rage. Quieting the conscience in this case is no 
 comfortable cure from positive help ; but a counterfeit pal- 
 liation by ceasing to hurt. 
 
 6. Nay, let me here further, before I pass out of the 
 point, discover unto you a mystery ; but it is of iniquity and 
 horrible hypocrisy. I have known some (would you think 
 it?) who have counterfeited even trouble of conscience; 
 and made show without all truth or true touch of sundry 
 temptations and spiritual distempers incident only to the 
 saints. And have for that purpose addressed themselves 
 Avith much industry and noise, and had recourse many 
 times to some spiritual physicians, with many tears, a 
 heavy countenance, and other rueful circumstances, ex- 
 pressing almost exactly the scruples, doubts, distrusts, com- 
 plaints, of such as are truly grieved in spirit and true of 
 heart. O the wonderful depth which lieth hid in the con- 
 fluence of the hypocrisies of man's false heart ; and the 
 devices of " that old serpent, which deceiveth the whole 
 world!" (Revel, xii, 9.) Such as these take upon them 
 and lay aside terrors of conscience, as players do their ap- 
 parel and parts. 
 
 SECT. II, PART II. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 The rk^ht method of curing an Afflicted Conscience. Four things re- 
 quired in the riglit method of curing. 
 
 The passages past do all mislead into bye-paths ; but there 
 is one blessed way, besides all these, though it be a narrow 
 one, which conducts directly out of a natural state through 
 the pangs of the new birth without diversion or daubing ; 
 without any longer detainment in any lust, sensual plea- 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 223 
 
 sure, or beloved vanity ; in any kind of hypocrisy, or de- 
 gree of unregenenition, into the paradise of grace fully and 
 for ever. This neither plunges a man into the pit of des- 
 pair, nor misguides him by carnal counsel and his ovi^n 
 wicked conceit into the fool's paradise, and tasteless fool- 
 eries of outward mirth ; nor pacifies unseasonably with un- 
 timely and counterfeit peace ; nor leaves in the deceiving 
 forms of an unsound conversion, and unsaving flourishes of 
 general graces only, (S:c. ; but conveys and transports him 
 happily by an universal, sincere, supernatural, thorough 
 change, into the •' holy path ; " and that thus, and by such 
 degrees as these : — 
 
 i. The fiist is an illumination of the mind, conviction of 
 the conscience, terrifying the heart with sight, sense, and 
 horror of sin in some true measure. The first work of the 
 Spirit is to " convince of sin " (John xvi, 8), which presup- 
 poseth illumination and produceth terror. The Spirit of 
 bondage must be first set on work to show us our spiritual 
 misery, to humble us to prepare for Christ. And yet this 
 work in itself is common to the alien with the child of the 
 new birth ; and ordinarily here they part. The alien, and he 
 that hates to be reformed, out of an inveterate, unhappy pre- 
 judice against the saving preciseness of the saints and loath- 
 ness to leave utterly his foimer courses, company, conver- 
 sation ; being obstinately against passing on forward into 
 the way which is called holy (regeneration, the new birth, 
 repentance, mortification, sanctification, self-denial, new 
 obeuience, walking with God, turning Puritan, &c., are 
 terras perhaps of as great terror unto him as his present 
 trouble of conscience), doth now here divert, and afterward 
 wilfully and wofully perish in some pestilent or plausible 
 bye-path. In this case he labours and lays about him for 
 ease any way (yea, sometimes he will have it from the 
 devil himself, if he can, rather than miss of it) so that he 
 niay attain and keep it without any great alteration of 
 his former ways, or especially without parting with 
 his darling pleasure. And therefore he assays either 
 to conquer his spiritual affliction with worldly comforts, 
 carnal counsel, choice contentments, &c., or else to allay 
 the present storm of his guilty rage with some counterfeit 
 calm ; or at best to still the cry of his conscience, with put- 
 ting forth his hand to some outward works of Christianity, 
 and some kind of conversion, which may yet well enough 
 consist with the secret enjoyment of his bosom sin ; or by 
 some other such indirect course and unsound cure. But 
 now the other, whom the Lord doth purpose to prepare for 
 himself by this first work, and to call effectually, doth en- 
 
224 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 tertain at the same time by the help of God a strong, invin- 
 cible resolution, not only never more to return unto foolish- 
 ness, whatsoever comes of hicn, never upon any terms to 
 fall back again into his former sinful pleasures, which have 
 now fastened so many fiery scorpion's stings in his con- 
 science ; but also never to admit of any cure, recovery, 
 and comfort to his afHicted soul but only by Jesus Christ. 
 Never to have the bleeding wounds of his bruised spirit 
 bathed, bound up, and healed, but in tliat " fountain, 
 opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of 
 Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." Nay, rather than 
 he will do the one or the other, he will abide upon the rack 
 of his spiritual torture unto his ending hour. Whereupon 
 he directly addresseth and applies himself to the only 
 means appointed and sanctified by God for working a sure, 
 kindly, and lasting cure in such a case ; 1 mean, the mi- 
 nistry of the word. And if he may have his will, he would 
 hit upon the most skilful, experienced, searching, and 
 sound-dealing man, amongst all God's faithful messengers. 
 2. And so in a second place, without all reservation or 
 any purpose ever to return or divert, he comes unto the 
 ministers of God in the same mind and with the same mean- 
 ing that Peter's hearers did, having his heart pricked and 
 rent in pieces with legal terror, as theirs were : " Men and 
 brethren, what shall we dol" (Acts ii, 37.) If there be 
 any instruction, direction, or duty, which upon good ground 
 out of God's blessed book you can enjoin, we will willingly 
 follow it, embrace it, and rather die than not do it. Pre- 
 scribe any course whereby we may have the boiling rage 
 of our guilty consciences somewhat assuaged, and we will 
 bless God that ever we saw your faces ;. nay, that ever he 
 made you the happy instruments to fasten these keen ar- 
 rows of truth and terror in our amazed and afflicted spirits. 
 And now here the ministers of God have a strong and sea- 
 sonable calling to set forth in the highest degree the ex- 
 cellency, amiableness, and soul-saving sufficiency of Jesus 
 Christ, blessed for ever ; to amplify and magnify to the life 
 the heavenly beauty, invaluableness, and sweetness of his 
 person, passion, promises. No sin of so deep a dye, be it 
 scarlet or crimson, but his precious blood can raze it out. 
 No heart so dark or heavy, but one beam shining from his 
 pleased face can fill it as full of spiritual glory and joy as 
 the sun is of light, or the sea of waters. No man so mi- 
 serable, but if he will go out of himself and the devil's sla- 
 very quite, and come in, when he is dearly invited, he will 
 advance him " without money, and without pricef»'' from 
 depth of horror to height of happiness. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 22& 
 
 3. By this time, being thus told and truly informed in the 
 mystery and mercy of the gospel, the poor wounded and 
 weary soul begins to be deeply and dearly enamoured of 
 Jesus Chi ist. 'l"o advance him highest in his thoughts, as 
 the only jewel and joy of his heart, without which he hath 
 been heretofoie a dead man, and shall hereafter be sunk m 
 endless perdition ; to prefer and pnze him far above the 
 pleasures, riches, and glory of the whole earth ; to set his. 
 eye and longing so upon him, as to hold himself lost forever 
 without his love. Nay, in the case in which he now stands, 
 he is most willing for a sound and saving cure to pass 
 through a piece of hell, if need were, to such a heavenly 
 physician, in whose blessed person alone, as he hears, all 
 the riches of mercy, goodness, compassion, and comfort are 
 to be found, and in whom are hid and heaped up the fulness 
 of grace and treasures of all perfection. So that now the 
 current of his best affections, and all the powers of his hum- 
 bled soul are wholly bent and directed towards him, as the 
 sunflower towards the sun, the iron to the loadstone, and 
 the loadstone to tlie pole star : to whom the nearer he draws, 
 the more heartily it grieves him that ever he pierced so 
 sweet and dear a Saviour with such a former impure, loath- 
 some life, and so many abominable and now most abhorred 
 provocations. 
 
 4. I'pon this discovery, survey, and admiration of this 
 " pearl of great price," this rich treasure, the now truly 
 broken and contrite heart doth cast about by all means how 
 to compass it. Oh ! what would he now give for the sweet 
 fruition and ravishing possession of it ! Heart's blood, life, 
 lying in hell for a season, were nothing in this case. The 
 imperial crowns and command of ten thousand worlds, 
 could they be all enjoyed at once, would be in his thoughts 
 but as dust in the balance laid in the scale against Jesus 
 Christ. But these things are not required at his hands. At 
 last he happily hits upon that which God would have him ; 
 he even resolves to " sell all that he hath," to part with all 
 sin, though it should be as dear and as much doated upon as 
 that compared to a right eye or right hand ; be it that which 
 hath kept him longest in hell, most wasted the conscience, 
 and stuck closest to his bosom ; I mean his captain corrup- 
 tion, master lust, or dearest delight, he will spare none, he 
 will quite depart from Sodom, he will not leave so much as 
 a hoof behind. For he well now remembers what he hath 
 often heard heietofore, though then he took no heed, that 
 the Lord Jesus and any one allowed lust are never wont to 
 lodge together in the same soul. 
 
226 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Three Things more required in those who are rightly cured. 
 
 5. To the party thus legally afflicted, evangelically affected, 
 and fitted savingly, now do all the promises of life in God's 
 blessed book offer themselves as so many rocks of eternity 
 in " faithfulness and truth;" for his wearied soul, tossed 
 with tempest, and sorely bruised with storms of terror, 
 sweetly to rest upon with everlasting safety. God the Fa- 
 ther, his bowels of tenderest compassion and bounty already 
 stirring within him, runs, if I may so say, as the father in 
 the gospel, to fall upon its neck and to kiss it with the kisses 
 of his sweetest mercy. Jesus Christ opens himself, as it 
 were, upon the cross to receive it graciously into his bleed- 
 ing wounds ; all which, he beholding with a spiritually en- 
 lightened eye, admiring and adoring, cannot choose but sub- 
 scribe and seal unto them that they are true, and so by the 
 help of the Holy Ghost casts himself with all the spiritual 
 strength he can, at least with infinite longings, most thirsty 
 desires, and resolution never to part, into his blessed bosom, 
 saying secretly to himself. Come life, come death, come 
 heaven, come hell, come what may, here will I stick for 
 ever : and if ever I perish, they shall pluck me out of the 
 hands, and rend me from between the arms of this mighty, 
 glorious, and dearest Redeemer of mine. 
 
 6. And having now taken Christ as a Saviour, to free him 
 from the miseries of sin, he is willing also to take him as a 
 Lord, husband, and king, to serve, love, and obey him. For 
 every one that is truly Christ's, doth as well thirst heartily 
 and sincerely endeavour after mortification, conquest over 
 corruptions, sanctification, purity, new obedience, ability to 
 do or suffer any thing for Christ, as for pardon of sin and 
 salvation from hell : and therefore he willingly " takes tipon 
 him his yoke," which though so called, is " easy and light;" 
 enters in earnest into the " narrow way," which though it 
 be " everywhere spoken against," as it was in Paul's time 
 (Acts xxviii, 22), yet in truth and upon trial is most pre- 
 cious, profitable, and pleasant. See Prov. iii, " Happy is 
 the man that findeth wisdom," to wit, in the word, to walk 
 in the ways of God. "She is more precious than rubies ; 
 and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared 
 unto her. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her 
 left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of plea- 
 santness, and all her paths are peace." He now, for the 
 short remainder of his abode in the vale of tears, vows and 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 227 
 
 gives up the flower and prime of all his abilities, loves, joys, 
 endeavours, performances of every kind, to the Highest 
 Majesty ; and consecrates all the powers and possibilities of 
 body and soul to do him the best and utmost service he can 
 any way devise, until his dying day, and still grieves and 
 walks more humbly because he can do no better. For when 
 he casts his eyes upon God the Father's free love, and 
 Christ's dear passion, he thinks with himself (and so he 
 well may), that if he were able to do him as much service 
 as all the saints do, both in this and the church above, with 
 addition of all the angelical obedience, it were all infinitely 
 less than nothing towards the discharge of his debt and 
 incomprehensible everlasting obligation. 
 
 7. And being thus incorporated into Christ, he presently 
 associates himself to the brotherhood, to the " sect that is 
 everywhere spoken against : " for so is profession accounted 
 (Acts xxviii, 22). After that Peter's hearers " were pricked 
 in their hearts," they were counselled to repent, believe, be 
 baptized, &c. and to " save themselves from that untoward 
 generation" (Acts ii, 40). He now begins to delight him- 
 self in them whom he heartily hated before; 1 mean, the 
 people of God, professors of the truth and power of religion, 
 and that as the most " excellent of the earth," the only true 
 noble worthies of the world, worthy for ever of the flower, 
 fervency, and dearness of his most melting aff'ections and 
 intimate love. And he labours also might and main to ingra- 
 tiate himself into their blessed communion, by ail engage- 
 ments and obligations of a comfortable, fruitful, and con- 
 stant '• fellowship in the gospel ;" by a humble mutual in- 
 tercourse and communication of holy conference, heavenly 
 counsel, spiritual encouragements, consideration one of an- 
 other, confirmation in grace, and in assurance of meeting in 
 heaven ; resolved to live and die with these neglected happy 
 ones, in all fair and faithful correspondence, sweetest offices 
 of Christianity, and constant cleaving to the Lord Jesus and 
 his glorious cause ; nay, assured to reign with them here- 
 after everlastingly in fulness and height of all glory, joy, 
 and bliss ; for if once this divine flame of brotherly love be 
 kindled by the Holy Ghost in the hearts of true-hearted 
 Christians one towards another, it hath this property and 
 privilege above all other loves, that it is never after put out 
 or quenched, but burns in their breasts with much affec- 
 tionate fervour, with mutual warmth of dearest sweetness 
 here upon earth, and shall blaze eternally with seraphical 
 heat in the highest heavens hereafter. In the mean time, 
 he makes conscience of sympathizing both with their felici- 
 ties and miseries. His heart is enlarged with lightsomeness. 
 
228 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 or eclipsed with grief, as he hears of the prosperity or op- 
 pression of God's people. I the rather here mention this 
 mark of the true convert, because it is so much required, 
 nay infinitely exacted at our hands in these heavy times of 
 the church ; and therefore may be to every one of us an 
 evident touchstone to try whether our profession be vital or 
 formal. If those terrors which 1 have heretofore many times 
 threatened out of God's book against all those pitiless and 
 hard-hearted cannibals who take not the present troubles of 
 the church to heart, on purpose to break in pieces those 
 flinty rocks which dwell in some men's breasts, and to drive 
 us all to compassionateness, prayer, days of humiliation, 
 and parting from our evil ways ; I say, if they have been 
 thought by any to have been pressed too precisely and pe- 
 remptorily, hear what I have since seen in Austin, and what 
 a peremptory censure he doth pass upon those who want a 
 fellow-feeling in such a case : "If thou hast this fellow- 
 feeling, thou art of that blessed body and brotherhood ; if 
 not, thou art not." And here can I hardly forbear crying 
 out with " a voice lifted up like a trumpet," against all 
 those profane Esaus, swinish Gadarenes, senseless earth- 
 worms, who all this while that so many noble limbs of that 
 great blessed body of the reformed churches have lain in 
 tears and blood, did never take to heart to any purpose, or 
 trouble themselves at all with their grievous troubles ; but 
 have sottishly and securely lain " at ease in Zion," liable to 
 that horrible curse denounced against Meroz: — " Curse ye 
 Meroz (said the angel of the I-ord), curse ye bitterly the 
 inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of 
 the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty " 
 (Judg. V, 23). They have not helped the people of God so 
 much as with any hearty fellow-feeling, wrestling with God 
 in prayer, set days to seek the return of God's face and fa- 
 vour. Men they are of the world, which have their portion 
 in this life ; who feel nothing but worldly losses, know no- 
 thing but earthly sorrows, relish nothing but things of sense. 
 If they be stung with a dear year, rot of cattle, loss by sure- 
 tyship, shipwreck, robbery, fire, &c. they howl and lament 
 immoderately. But let " Joseph be afflicted," God's people 
 in disgrace, the ministry hazarded , Christ's spouse " sit in 
 the dust," the " daughter of Zion" weep bitterly and have 
 none to comfort her, and these merciless men are no whit 
 moved. They have not a tear, a groan, or sigh to spend in 
 such a rueful case; whereby they infallibly demonstrate to 
 their own consciences, that they are no living members of 
 Christ's mystical body, have no part of the holy fellowship 
 of the saints, no spark of spiritual life, no acquaintance at 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 229 
 
 all with the ways of God ; but continue cursedly careless 
 what becomes of the gospel, or God's children, so that they 
 may rise, grow rich, and sleep in a whole skin. 
 
 By this time he is become the drunkard's song, table-talk 
 to those that " sit in the gate," music to great men at their 
 feasts, a bye-word to the children of fools and the children 
 of villains, men viler than the earth, vvhose fathers he would 
 have disdained to have set with the dogs of his flock. And 
 what then 1 Even thus they dealt with David, Job, and 
 Jeremiah (Psal. Ixxix, Job xxx, Lam. iii, 63). Nay, they 
 told the Son of God himself, in whom the Godhead dwelt 
 bodily, that he was " a Samaritan, and had a devil" (John 
 viii, 48). What thinking man, then, that gives his name to 
 Christ and looks to be saved, will look for exemption 1 
 Especially since all the contumelies and contempts, all those 
 nicknames of puritan, precisian, hypocrite, humourist, fac- 
 tionist, with which lewd tongues are wont to load the saints 
 of God, are so many honourable badges of their worthy de- 
 portment in the holy path, and resolute standing on the 
 Lord's side. Some noble Romans having done some singular 
 service to the state, being afterwards troubled and handled 
 violently in some private cases, were wont to bare their bo- 
 dies, and to show in open court the scars and impressions of 
 those wounds which they had received in their country's 
 cause, as characters of special honour and strongest motives 
 to commiseration. So many lying imputations, unworthy 
 usages, and persecutions in any kind for profession of godli- 
 ness, which the faithful Christian shall bring to the judg- 
 ment-seat of Christ, so many glorious and royal representa- 
 tions of excellency of spirit and height of courage in the 
 Christian cause shall they be accounted in the sight and 
 judgment of Almighty God and the blessed angels, and 
 make him more amiable and admirable in the face of heaven 
 and earth. 
 
SECT. Ill, PART I. 
 
 CHAP. T. 
 
 Three Principles of Comfort from without us, to be applied to AfHicted 
 Consciences. 
 
 Thus much of the theory, I come now to the practical part, 
 to a particular application of some special sovereign anti^ 
 dotes to the most grievous ordinary maladies incident to the 
 souls of the saints. 
 
 But first give me leave to premise some general well-heads, 
 out of which do spring abundance of comfort, and over- 
 flowing rivers of refreshing for all intents and effects in point 
 of temptation and trouble of mind. 
 
 And first take a fruitful cluster and heavenly heap of them 
 together; those twelve heads of extraordinary, immeasura- 
 ble, comfortable matter for spiritual medicines, vi'hich I 
 have heretofore erected as so many invincible bulwarks 
 against all assaults of despair, oppositions of Satan, excep- 
 tions of distrust. 
 
 1. The infiniteness of God's mercy, sweetly intimated in 
 Isa. Iv, 6, 7, 8. The mercy of God is like himself, infinite. 
 All our sins are finite, both in number and nature. Now 
 between finite and infinite there is no proportion, and so no 
 possibility of resistance. And therefore be thy sins never 
 so notorious and numberless, yet a truly broken heart, 
 thirsting for and throwing itself upon Christ, unfeignedly 
 resolving upon new obedience and his glorious service for 
 the time to come, can no more withstand or stand before 
 God's mercies, than a little spark can withstand the bound- 
 less and mighty ocean, thrown into the midst of it ; nay, 
 infinitely less. If all the sins that all the sons and daugh- 
 ters of Adam have committed since the creation to this time 
 were all upon one soul, yet so affected as 1 have said, and 
 put into such a new penitent gracious temper, it should be 
 most certainly upon good ground and everlastingly safe. I 
 speak not thus to make any secure ; for any one sin, pleasing 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 231 
 
 and reigning, will ruin a soul for ever ; but to assure of 
 mercy enough, how great or many soever the sins have 
 been, if the heart be now truly humbled for them all, and 
 wholly turned heavenward. 
 
 2. The invaluableness of Christ's meritorious blood , which 
 is called " the blood of God," and therefore of inestimable 
 price. Understand me aright : it was " the blood of God ;" 
 not of the Godhead, but of him who was both God and man. 
 For the manhood of Christ was received into the union of 
 the Second Person, and so it may be called " the blood of 
 God," for so speaks St. Paul ( Acts xx, 28), "God purchased 
 his church with his own blood ;" that is, Christ, God incar- 
 nate. Our divines express it thus : " It was the Son of God 
 and Lord of life that died for us upon the cross ; but it was 
 the nature of man, not of God, wherein he died ; and it was 
 the nature of God, and infinite excellency of the same, 
 whence the price, value, and worth of his passion grew." 
 This blessed blood then is of infinite efficacy ; and therefore, 
 if thou be now turning to the Lord, assure thyself, whatso- 
 ever thy sins have been, they have not outgone the price 
 that hath been paid for them. This blood, upon repentance, 
 did take oflf the transcendant scarlet guilt from the souls 
 even of those that shed it. (Acts ii, &c.) 
 
 3. The riches of the word, in affording precedents of the 
 saints, and of the Son of God himself, who have surpassed 
 thee, and that perhaps very far, in any kind of misery thou 
 canst name. 
 
 (1.) Thou art perhaps consulting with the prodigal to 
 come in, but there comes terribly into thy mind the extra- 
 ordinary heinousness of thy former sins, and that hinders. 
 Cast thine eye then upon Manasseh, a man of prodigious 
 impiety and matchless villany. He " shed innocent blood 
 very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to 
 another. He did that which was evil in the sight of the 
 Lord, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the 
 Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. He caused 
 his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son 
 of Hinnom. Also he observed times, and used enchant- 
 ments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, 
 and with wizards. He wrought much evil in the sight of the 
 Lord, to provoke him to anger," &c. (2 Kings xxi, 16; 
 2 Chron. xxxiii, 2 — b.) And yet this great sinner, " hum- 
 bling himself greatly before the God of his fathers," was 
 received to mercy (ver. 12, 13). 
 
 (2.) Suppose (which yet were a horrible thing) that after 
 conversion, by extraordinary violence of temptation, strong 
 ensnarement of some sudden sensual offer and opportunity. 
 
232 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 treacherous insinuation of thy own false heart, and furious 
 reassault of thy former bosom sin, thou shouldst be over- 
 taken grossly with some grievous sin and scandalous fall, 
 and then upon illumination, remorse, and meditation of 
 return, reason thus within thyself : — "Alas', what shall 1 
 do now ? I have undone all. I have wofully again defiled 
 my soul, so fairly washed in my .Saviour's blood, with that 
 disavowed sin of my unregenerate time. I have shamed 
 my profession, disgraced religion for ever ; I have broke my 
 vows, lost my peace, and my wonted blessed communion 
 with God : and therefore what hope can I have of any ac- 
 ceptance again at the throne of grace?" — I say in this case, 
 to keep thee from sinking, cast thine eye upon Aaron, 
 David, Peter, who, returning with sound and hearty re- 
 pentance, were mercifully received into as great favour as 
 they were before. But God forbid that any professor of 
 religion should ever fall so foully, especially in this glorious 
 mid-day of evangelical light. 
 
 (3.) Art thou languishing under the heavy desolations of 
 a spiritual desertion, and deprived of thy former comfortable 
 feelings of God's favourable countenance 1 Look upon Da- 
 vid: " I remembered God, and was troubled. I com- 
 plained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. I am so troubled 
 that I cannot speak. My soul refused to be comforted" 
 (Psalm Ixxvii). Nay, upon Jesus Christ himself, crying, 
 "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me 1" (Matt, 
 xxvii, 46.) 
 
 (4.) Art thou haunted with some of Satan's most hateful 
 and horrible injections, grisly to the eye even of corrupted 
 nature ; thoughts framed by himself immediately and put 
 into thee, perhaps tending to atheism, or to tlie dishonour 
 of God in the highest degree, or of his blessed word ; to 
 self-destruction, or the like? — thoughts which thou canst 
 not remember without horror, and darest not reveal or name 
 for their strange and prodigious monstrousness ? If it be 
 thus with thee, consider how this malicious fiend dealt with 
 the Son of God himself. He offered to his most holy and 
 unspotted imagination these propositions: First, murder 
 and make away with thyself (Matt, iv, 6). Secondly, fall 
 down and worship the devil (ver. 9) ; thaa which, a fouler 
 thought I think was never injected ; that Jesus Christ, 
 blessed for ever, in whom the Godhead dwelt bodily, should 
 fall down and worship the devil, the vilest of creatures. 
 And yet this was suggested to our blessed Saviour ; to 
 which his purest heart, infinitely incapable of sin, was as a 
 brass wall to an arrow, beating it back presently with infi- 
 nite contempt, and himself did utterly conquer and confound 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 233 
 
 the tempter, and that for thee and thy sake too. And 
 therefore if thy humbled soul do abominate and abandon 
 them from the heart-root to the pit of hell, they shall never 
 be laid to thy charge, but set on Satan's score. Extremely 
 then do those wrong themselves, and gratify the devil to 
 the height, who suffer such injections, which they heartily 
 hate and stand against with all their strength, to hold their 
 hearts still upon the rack of extraordinary astonishment and 
 distraction, whereby they are unnecessarily discouraged 
 and disabled for a cheerful discharge of both their callings, 
 which is the thing Satan especially aims at in vexing so 
 many of God's dearest servants with this most fiery dart. 
 
 (5.) It may be that many years after thy new birth, when 
 thou thinkest the worst is past, thoumayest be revisited and 
 afflicted afresh with perhaps sorer spiritual pangs and more 
 horror than at the first. And what then? Hear how Da- 
 vid, a man after God's own heart, cries out: " My bones 
 waxed old, through my roaring all the daylong; for day 
 and night thy hand was heavy upon me : my moisture is 
 turned into the drought of summer" (Psal. xxxii, 3, 4). 
 And Job, a God fearing man and most upright : " Where- 
 fore hidest thou thy face, and boldest me for thine enemy ? 
 Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro ; and wilt thou 
 pursue the dry stubble 1 For thou writest bitter things 
 against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of ray 
 youth. The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the 
 poison thereof drinketh up my spirit : the terrors of God do 
 set themselves in array against me" (Job xiii, 24, 25, 26 ; 
 vi, 4). Hezekiah, that walked before God in truth and 
 \yith a perfect heart -. " I reckoned till morning, that as a 
 lion so will he break all my bones : from day even to night 
 wilt thou make an end of me. Like a crane or a swallow, 
 so did I chatter : I did mourn as a dove. Mine eyes fail 
 with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake 
 for me" (Isa. xxxviii, 13, 14). 
 
 (6.) Dost thou day after day pour out thy soul in prayer 
 before the throne of grace with all the earnestness thy poor, 
 dead heart (as thou callest it) can possibly ; and dost thou 
 still rise up dull, heavy-hearted, and uncomfortable, with- 
 out any sensible answer from Cod, or comfortable sense of 
 his favour and love shed into thy heart? Be it so : yet for 
 all this, pray still in obedience unto thy God against all 
 discouragements and appositions whatsoever. Still press 
 hard unto and ply God's mercy-seat, if it be but with sighs 
 and groanings. Assuredly at length and in the fittest time 
 thou shalt be gloriously refreshed, and registered in the 
 remembrance of God for a Christian of excellent faith. See 
 
 X 3 
 
234 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 a. pattern of rare and extraordinary patience this way in 
 Matt. XV, 23. There that woman of Canaan, having re- 
 ceived many grievous repulses and cutting discouragements ; 
 — the solicited was silent — the disciples grumble — she was 
 not of the fold — she was a dog ; — yet for all this, by her 
 constancy in crying after Christ, her petition at last was 
 not only granted, but herself also crowned with a singular 
 and admirable eulogy from the Lord's own mouth: " O 
 woman ! great is thy faith : be it unto thee even as thou 
 wilt." What an honour and comfort was this, to be thus 
 commended by Jesus Christ! — and that with an admira- 
 tion, " O woman! " 
 
 (7.) Hath thy faith lost its feeling? Dost thou for the 
 present feel nothing but " anger, wrath, and great indigna- 
 tion 1 " Is God's face and favour, wherein is life, turned 
 away from thee, and quite hid from thy sight! Nay, " hath 
 he broken thee asunder, taken thee by the neck, and shaken 
 thee 10 pieces, and set thee up for his mark 1" Yet for all 
 this, let thy truly humbled soul be so far from loosing or 
 leaving its holdfast and sure repose upon the person, pas- 
 sion, and promises of Jesus Christ, that in such a case it 
 cleave and cling faster to that blessed rock, and far more 
 immovably. For therein especially is the strength and glory 
 of faith improved and made illustrious. It is one of the 
 most noble and heroical acts of faith to believe without 
 feeling. " He who believeth most and feeleth least, is he 
 who glorifieth God most, [t is nothing to swim in a warm 
 bath : but to endure the surges and tumbling billows of the 
 sea — that is the man." To believe when God doth fairly 
 and sensibly shine upon the soul with the love and light of 
 his countenance, is no great matter ; but to rest invincibly 
 upon his mercy through Christ, when he grinds thee to 
 powder, that is the faith. Thou hast before thee for this 
 purpose a matchless precedent. Thus cries holy Job, vexed 
 not only with an unparalleled variety and extremity of out- 
 ward aifiictions, but also with the venom of the Almighty's 
 arrows, drinking up his spirit — " Though he slay me, yet 
 will I trust in him" (Chap, xiii, 15). So Abraham, Rom. 
 iv, 18. 
 
 (8.) Hast thou given thy name stoutly to religion, and 
 dost thou stand on God's side with resolution 1 And art 
 thou therefore villanously traduced with slanderous, odious 
 nicknames of puritan, precisian, hypocrite, humourist, dis- 
 sembler, &c. 1 Consider then for thy comfort, that grace- 
 less wretches, when he was upon earth, called thy blessed 
 Lord and Saviour devil (Matt, x, 25; John vii, 20), which 
 passeth all, lam persuaded, that any drunken Belial ever 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 235 
 
 fastened upon thee. Contemn thou therefore for ever, and 
 trample upon with a humble and triumphant patience, all 
 their contumelies and contempts. Pass by nobly, without 
 touch or trouble, without wound or passion, the utmost 
 malice of the most scurrilous tongues, the basest taunts of 
 the most impure drunkard. 
 
 (9.) Doth the world, carnal men, thine own friends, for- 
 mal teachers, suppose and declare thee to be a dissembler 
 in thy profession, and will needs concurrently and confi- 
 dently, yet falsely, fasten upon thee the imputation of hy- 
 pocrisy? A heavy charge ! Yet for all this, let thy truly- 
 humbled heart, conscious to itself of its own sincerity in 
 holy services, like a strong pillar of brass, beat back all 
 their poisoned arrows of malice and mistake, without any 
 direction or discouragement ; only take occasion hereby to 
 search more thoroughly, and walk more warily. Job may 
 be a right noble pattern to thee in this point also. He had 
 against him not only the devil, his enemy, pushing at him 
 with his poisoned weapons ; but even his own friends scourg- 
 ing him with their tongues ; his own wife a thorn pricking 
 him in the eye : yea, his own God " running upon him like 
 a giant, and his terrors setting themselves in array against 
 him;" powerful motives to make him suspect himself of 
 former halting and hollow-heartedness in the ways of God ; 
 yet notwithstanding his good and honest heart having been 
 long before aquainted with, and knit unto his God in truth, 
 makes him break out boldly, and resolutely protest — " Till 
 1 die I will not remove my integrity from me. My righ- 
 teousness I hold fast, and will not let it go. Behold, my 
 witness is in heaven, and my record is on high" (Job xxvii, 
 5,6; xvi, 19). 
 
 (TO.) Art thou a loving and tender-hearted mother unto 
 thy children, and hast thou lost the dearest? The greatest 
 outward cross, 1 confess, that ever the sons and daughters of 
 Adam tasted, and goeth nearest to the heart. Yet thy sor- 
 row is not singular, but outgone m this also : for the blessed 
 mother of Christ stood by, and saw her own only, dear, in- 
 nocent Son, the Lord of life, most cruelly and villanously 
 murdered upon the cross before her eyes (John xix, 25). 
 Hast thou lost thy goods or children? Doth thy wife that 
 lies in thy bosom set herself against thee ? Do thy nearest 
 friends charge thee falsely? Art thou pained extremely 
 from top to toe? Do the arrows of the Almighty stick fast 
 in thy soul ? Thy affliction is grievous enough, if thou taste 
 any of these severally ; but do they all in greatest extremity 
 concur upon thee at once ? Hast thou lost all thy children 
 
236 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 and all thy goods? Doth thy wife afflict thy afflictions? 
 If this be not thy case and rueful condition, thou comest 
 yet short of Job, a most just man, and one of God's dearest 
 jewels. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Two Principles of Comfort more. 
 
 4. The " exceeding greatness and preciousness of the pro- 
 mises." In every one of which it is incredible to consider 
 what abundant matter of unspeakable and glorious joy lies 
 wrapt up ! Oh ! how sweet are they to a thirsty soul m the 
 tiine of anguish and trouble ! They are like a cloud of 
 rain that cometh in the time of a drought. They are very 
 glimpses of heaven shed into the heart, many times as dark 
 as hell. They are even rocks of eternity, upon which every 
 bruised reed may sweetly repose with impregnable safety. 
 A truly humbled spirit, relishing spiritual things, would not 
 exchange any one of them for all the riches and sweetness 
 of both the Indies. Tell me, dear heart, thou that in thy 
 uuregenerate time, though now happily changed, lay soak- 
 ing in sins of cruelty and blood ; whether that merciful 
 promise, " Come now, and let us reason together, saith the 
 Lord ; Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as 
 white as snow ; though they be red like crimson they shall 
 be as wool" (Isa. i, 18) ; be not far dearer unto thee " than 
 thousands of gold and silver?" Or thou, who formerly 
 pollutedst thyself villanously with such secret execrable 
 lusts, which now thou canst not remember without horror, 
 tell me, if it were utterable by the tongue of man, with what 
 dearest sweetness and blessed peace thy broken heart was 
 bound up and revived, when thou didst cast thine eye con- 
 siderately and believingly upon that precious place, " I will 
 sprinkle water upon you, and ye shall be clean ; and from 
 all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse 
 you" (Ezek. xxxvi, 25). 
 
 "There was beyond the seas, as my Author reports*, 
 a Christian matron of excellent parts and piety, who 
 languishing long under the horrible pressure of most furious 
 and fiery temptations, wofully at length yielded to despair, 
 and attempted the destruction of herself. After often and 
 curious seeking occasion for the fulfilment of her design, at 
 last, having first put off her apparel, she threw herself head- 
 long from a high promontory into the sea. But having re- 
 
 * Alexipharm. adversus desperationem ; Authore M. Nlcolao Lau- 
 entio, p. 63 et seq. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIEMCES. 237 
 
 ceived no hurt by the fall, she was there by a most ex- 
 traordinary mercy strangely preserved for the space of two 
 hours at the least, though all the while she laboured in- 
 dustriously to destroy herself. Afterwards drawn out with 
 much ado, and recovered, she yet did conflict with that 
 extremest desperate horror almost a whole year ; but by 
 God's good providence, which sweetly and wisely ordereth 
 all things, listening on a time, though very unwillingly at 
 first, to her husband, reading amongst other places Isa. Ivii, 
 15, 16, ' Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth 
 eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy 
 place ; with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, 
 to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of 
 the contrite ones. For 1 will not contend for ever, neither 
 will I be always wroth : for the spirit should fail before 
 me, and the souls which I have made ; ' — I say, listening to 
 these words, the Holy Ghost drawing her heart, she began 
 to reason thus with herself: God doth here promise to 
 revive and comfort the heart of the contrite and spirit of 
 the humble, and that he will not contend for ever, neither 
 be always wroth. But I have a very contrite heart, and a 
 spirit humbled even unto the dust, out of the acknowledg- 
 ment and sense of my sins and divine vengeance against 
 them; therefore, peradventure, God will vouchsafe to re- 
 vive and comfort my heart and spirit ; and not contend 
 with me for ever, nor be wroth against me still. 
 
 "Hereupon by little and little there flowed by God's 
 blessing into her dark and heavy heart abundance of life, 
 lightsomeness, spiritual strength, and assurance. In which 
 she continued with constancy and comfort many a year 
 after, crowned those happy days and a blessed old age 
 with a glorious and triumphant death, and went to heaven 
 in the year 1595." 
 
 What heart now but hers that felt it can possibly con- 
 ceive the depth of that extraordinary unutterable refreshing, 
 which sprung out of that promise upon her forlorn and 
 fearful soul ; or the excess of that love which she bore ever 
 after to those blessed lines, to the mercy that made them, 
 and to the blood that sealed them 1 
 
 " Another, terrified in conscience for sin, resolves to turn 
 on God's side ; but the cry of his good-fellow companions, 
 strength of corruption, and cunning of Satan, carry him 
 back to his former courses. A good number of years after 
 he was so thoroughly wounded, that whatsoever came of 
 him he would never return again unto folly. Then comes 
 into his mind the first of the Proverbs, whence he reasoned 
 against himself: — So many years ago God called and 
 
238 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 stretched out his hand in mercy, but I refused ; and there- 
 lore now, though I call upon him he will not answer ; though 
 I seek him early I shall not find him. Whereupon was his 
 heart filled with much grief, terror, and slavish fear. But 
 the Spirit of God leading him at length to that place, 
 Luke xvii, 4, *If thy brother trespass against thee seven 
 times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, 
 saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him.' He thence happily 
 argued thus for himself: — Must I, a silly,, sinful man, for- 
 give my brother as often as he repents ; and will not then 
 the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort entertain 
 me, seeking again in truth his face and favour? God forbid. 
 From which he blessedly drew such divine sweetness and 
 secret sense of God's love, that his trembling heart at first 
 received some good satisfaction, and afterward was settled 
 in a sure and glorious peace. 
 
 " Another godiy man passing through his last sickness 
 with such extraordinary calmness of conscience, and abso- 
 lute freedom from temptation, that some of his Christian 
 friends observing and admiring the smgularity of his soul's 
 quiet, at that time especially, questioned him about it : — he 
 answered, that he had stedfastly fixed his heart upon that 
 sweetest promise, Isa. xxvi, 3, ' Thou wilt keep him in per- 
 fect peace whose mind is stayed on thee ; because he 
 trusteth in thee.' And his God had graciously made it 
 fully good unto his soul." 
 
 And so must every saint do who would sound the sweetness 
 of a promise to the bottom ; and make it the arm of God 
 unto him for sound and thorough comfort ; even settle his 
 heart fixedly upon it, and set his faith on work to brood it, 
 as it v/ere, with its spiritual heat, that quickness and life 
 may thence come into the soul indeed. For God is wont 
 to make good his promises unto his children proportionally 
 to their trust in them, and dependence upon his truth 
 and goodness for a seasonable performance of them. 
 
 Now all these promises in God's blessed book (which 
 adds infinitely to their sweetness and certainty) are sealed 
 with the blood of Jesus Christ (Heb. ix, IG) and confirmed 
 with the oath of Almighty God, Heb. vi, 17, 18; " God, 
 willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise 
 the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath : 
 that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible 
 for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have 
 fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us." O 
 what a mighty and precious invitation is this, to believe 
 perfectly ! The special aim of God's oath, whereas his pro- 
 mise had been more than infinitely suflficient, was to 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 239 
 
 strengthen our consolation ; and therefore every heart true 
 unto Christ ought hence to hold fast, not a faint, wavering, 
 inconstant ; but a strong, stedfast, and unconquerable com- 
 fort. Otherwise it sacrilegiously, as it were, robs God of 
 the glorious end for which he swore. 
 
 5. The free love of God ; which, how rich and glorious, 
 how bottomless and boundless a treasure it is of all graci- 
 ous sweetness, abundant comfort, and endless bounty, ap- 
 pears in this ; that Jesus Christ blessed for ever, that in- 
 valuable, incomparable jewel, came out of it. " For God 
 so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, 
 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
 have everlasting life" (Johniii, 16): and therefore every 
 sincere servant of Christ, who upon a serious and sad sur- 
 vey of his Christian ways, finds himself to come so far 
 short of that which God requires and himself desires, that 
 his prayers are very faint, his sorrow for sin very scant, 
 his love unto the brethren too cold, his spending the sab- 
 baths very unfruitful, his spiritual growth since he gave his 
 name to Christ very poor, his profiting by the means he en- 
 joys most unanswerable to the power and excellency there- 
 of, his new obedience almost nothing, &c. (for so he is 
 wont to vilify himself) : whereupon he is much cast down ; 
 and out of this apprehension of his manifold unworthiness 
 concludes against himself, that he hath little cause to be 
 confident in the promises of life ; or to presume of any part 
 and interest in Jesus Christ ; and so begins to retire the . 
 trembling hand of his already very weak faith from any 
 more laying hold of comfort : — I say, in such a case, being 
 true hearted, he may safely and upon sure ground have re- 
 course to this ever-springing fountain of immeasurable 
 mercy ; and raise up his drooping soul against all contrary 
 oppositions, with unspeakable and glorious refreshing, from 
 such places as these: "I will love thee freely" (Hos. 
 xiv, 4) ; " Ho ! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
 waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat ; 
 yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money, and without 
 price." " I, even I am he that blotteth out thy transgres- 
 sions for ray own sake, and will not remember thy sins " 
 (Isa. Iv, 1 ; and xliii, 25) ; " I will give unto him that is 
 athirst of the fountain of the water of life fieely " (Revel, 
 xxi, 6). God never set the promises on sale, or will ever 
 sell his S n to any. He never said, just so much sorrow, so 
 much sanctity, so much service, or no Christ ; but he ever 
 gives him freely. Every truly humbled heart, which will 
 take him at the hands of God's free love, as a husband to 
 be saved by him and to serve him in truth, may have him 
 
240 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 for nothing. Yet I must add this ; there was never any 
 who received the Lord Jesus savingly, but he laboured sin- 
 cerely to sorrow as much for sin, to be as holy, to do him 
 as much service as he could possibly. And when he re- 
 flected upon his best, he ever desired it had been infinitely 
 better. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Five other Principles of Comfort. 
 
 <i. The sweet name of the Lord, which lie proclaims, 
 Exod. xxxiv, 6; 7, wherein he first expresseth his esseiice in 
 one word, " Ihe Lord, the Lord : " which doubled is ef- 
 fectual to stir up Moses' attention. Secondly, three attri- 
 butes: first, his power in one word, "strong." Secondly, 
 his justice in two forms of speech: "not making the 
 wicked innocent ; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon 
 the children, and upon children's children, unto the third 
 and fourth generation : " Thirdly, but his special goodness 
 and good affection towards repentant and believing sin- 
 ners in seven: (L) "Merciful, and (2.) Gracious; (3.) Long 
 suffering and abundant in (4.) Goodness and (5.) Truth, 
 <6.) Keeping mercy for thousands ; (7.) Forgiving iniquity, 
 transgression, and sin." In which there are contained un- 
 answerable replies to all the scruples, doubts, exceptions, 
 and objections, which may arise in a troubled soul. 
 
 (1.) Thou sayest, perhaps, that thou art plunged into the 
 depth of ext.remest spiritual misery, both in respect of sin- 
 fulness and cursedness; the present sense whereof is ready 
 to sink thee into despair. Be it so. Then take my counsel 
 in this case : Cast thine eye upon the first and fairest flower 
 in this heavenly, glorious garland of divine goodness ; and 
 thou shalt find a far greater depth of mercy ready to swallow 
 up thy depth of misery. The mercy of God and misery 
 in this kind are relatives. No misery, no mercy ; much 
 misery, much mercy ; transcendent misery, transcendent 
 mercy; the only difference is, the mercy of God is infinite, 
 thy misery finite. And therefore how much spiritual misery 
 soever thoubringest in a broken heart to the throne of grace, 
 God's bountiful hand will weigh out to thee a proportion- 
 able measure of mercy ; nay, a measure without measure, 
 superabundant, running over. For where misery in a truly 
 humbled soul aboundeth, there mercy doth much more 
 abound. 
 
 (2.) Or suppose, that at thy first turning unto God, 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 24! 
 
 tliough truly humbled, yet thou art tempted not to take 
 Christ, because thou art but even now come out of hell 
 and horrible courses, and as yet hast no good thing in thee 
 at all ; or after some progress in Christianity, reflecting in 
 time of temptation upon thy whole carriage since conver- 
 sion, and finding it to have been so fruitless and full of 
 failings, thou concludest thyself in thy present feeling to 
 be extremely vile ; of a very doubtful state for thy soul, if 
 not altogether naught ; that no professor upon earth walks 
 so unworthily, and if ministers knew thy heart, and weak 
 performance of holy duties, they would not be so forward 
 to press comfort upon thee. I say in these two cases and 
 the like, it is a great happiness and sweetest comfort that 
 the mighty Lord of heaven and earth hath proclaimed him- 
 self to be gracious, which imports thus much, — to pour out 
 abundance of extraordinary bounty upon a most undeserv- 
 ing party ; to place dearest affection and desire of doing 
 good there, where there is no desert at all. As if a king, 
 to make his royal favours more illustrious, should raise a 
 worthless wretch, a most contemptible vassal, to be his 
 worthiest favourite and highest in his love. And therefore 
 bring unto the throne of grace but a true sense of thy mi- 
 sery, a sincere thirst for mercy, a humble acknowledgment 
 of thine unworthiness ; and God hereupon, for Christ's sake, 
 will think thee worthy of the " riches of his grace," the 
 righteousness of his Son ; all the promises in his book, all 
 the comforts of his Spirit, a crown of immortality and bliss ; 
 for he is gracious, and an universal glorious confluence of 
 blessedness in all kinds is promised to poverty in spirit, and 
 shall most certainly to the utmost be made good unto it for 
 ever. 
 
 (3.) But, alas ! I, saith another, have most wretchedly 
 mispent the flower and strength of mine age in vanity and 
 pleasure ; in lewdness and lust. The best of my time hath 
 been wofully wasted in Satan's notorious service, and sen- 
 sual serving myself ; and therefore, though I be now 
 weary of my former ways, and look back upon them with a 
 trembling heart and grieved spirit ; yet I am afraid that 
 God hath given over looking after me ; that his patience 
 towards me is expired, and my day of visitation outstood ; 
 and that he will not vouchsafe to cast his eye of compas- 
 sion upon such a Blackmoor and leopard as I am ; so over- 
 grown with corruption, and grown old in sin ; especially 
 having so long neglected so great salvation, forsaken mine 
 own mercy so long, and so unthankfuUy " despised the riches 
 of his goodness and forbearance leading me to repentance." 
 I confess, it is something rare to see men gone on so long, 
 
242 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 and grown old in sin, to return and give way to any saving 
 work of the ministry, because too often in the mean time 
 they so " harden their hearts, that they cannot repent;" 
 yet notwithstanding, be thou assured in the word of life and 
 truth, if now at length thou be truly touched indeed, and 
 wilt come in earnest, the Father of mercies will receive 
 thee freely to mercy, and embrace thy bleeding soul in 
 the arms of his everlasting love through Christ. For it is a 
 title of highest honour unto him to be " long-sufFering." He 
 all this while " waited that he might be gracious unto thee ; " 
 (Isa. XXX, 18) ; andnow undoubtedly upon thy first resolution 
 to return in truth he will meet thee with infinitely more com- 
 passionate affectionateness than the father in the gospel 
 met his prodigal ; who " when he was a great way off, his 
 father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on 
 his neck, and kissed him, &c." (Luke xv, 20,) 
 
 (4.) Yea, but, saith another, though I have been a pro- 
 fessor long, yet many times my heart is full heavy, and 
 more loath to believe when I seriously and sensibly call to 
 mind the heinousness of my unregenerate time, and see in 
 myself besides, since I was enlightened and would have 
 behaved myself in forwardness and fruitfulness for God 
 answerably to my former folly and furiousness in evil, so 
 many defects and imperfections every day ; and such weak, 
 distracted discharging of commanded duties, both to God 
 and man. Take then counsel and comfort in this case, by 
 casting thine eye upon God's kindness. He is " abundant 
 in kindness ; " which hath these four precious properties : 
 first, to be easily entreated ; secondly, to be entreated for 
 the greatest; thirdly, to pass by involuntary infirmities; 
 fourthly, to accept graciously weak services. Even a frail 
 man, if of a more noble, generous, and kind disposition, 
 will be easily appeased for the unpurposed offences, errors, 
 and oversights ; and well pleased with the good will, sin- 
 cere and utmost endeavours, especially of those who he 
 knows to be true-hearted unto him ; and desire heartily, if 
 they were able, to do all he desires, even to the height of 
 exactness and expectation. How much more then will our 
 heavenly Father deal so with his children, who is in himself 
 essentially and infinitely kind. 
 
 (5.) Yea, but, sayest thou, many times when I reach out 
 the hand of my faith to fetch some special promise into my 
 soul for refreshing and comfort ; and weighing them well, 
 and comparing advisedly my own nothingness, worthless- 
 ness, vileness, with the riches of mercy, grace, and glory 
 shining in it ; and marking the disproportion, I am over- 
 whelmed with admiration and astonishment; and;, to tell 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 243 
 
 you true, say sometimes to myself, Is it possible that this 
 should be so ? That so glorious things should belong lo such 
 a wretch and worm as 1 am 1 But turning thine eye from 
 a distrustful and too much dejected dwelling upon thine 
 own desert, to what Christ hath done for thee, and to the 
 almightiness and all mercifulness of him that promiseth, 
 consider withal, that God is also " abundant in truth." 
 Every promise in his book is as sure as himself, sealed with 
 his Son's blood, and confirmed with his own oath. He 
 must sooner cease to be God and deny himself, which is 
 more than infinitely impossible, and prodigious blasphemy 
 to imagine, than fail in the least circumstance or syllable 
 of his immeasurable love and promises of life to any one 
 that heartily loves him and is true of heart : and therefore 
 when thy thirsty soul makes towards the well of life, by 
 virtue of that promise, Rev. xxi, 6, " I will give to him 
 that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely ; " 
 and upon survey of the overflowing rivers of pleasures and 
 bliss, which everlastingly spring thence, begins to retire 
 from it, as too good news to be true: I say then steel thy 
 faith and comfort thyself gloriously by consideration of 
 that " abundant truth " with which he hath crowned every 
 word of his, stronger than a rock of brass, far surer than 
 the pillars of the earth or poles of heaven. Nay, I speak 
 an admirable thing, and of unutterable consolation, which 
 cannot be violated without destruction of the Deity, most 
 blessed and glorious for evermore ; and let this ever banish 
 and beat back all scruples, doubts, fears, which at any time 
 offer themselves, and oppose thy unspeakable joy and peace 
 in believing." 
 
 (6.) Well, saith another, I easily acknowledge the incom- 
 prehensible goodness in this name of God ; and hold them 
 most blessed who have their part and portion therein. But 
 for my part 1 am afraid I come too late : for I have observed 
 the course of the ministry amongst us, and the dispensa- 
 tion of God's mercy in it. At first coming, our town being 
 full of ignorance, profaneness, and much superstitious fol- 
 lies, having never before enjoyed the word with any life or 
 power, we all stood amazed a good while at the majesty 
 and mystery of this new heavenly light. The first mes- 
 sages of the ministry sounded in our ears " as the voice of 
 many waters," m.ighty and great, but confused ; not work- 
 ing in us either joy or terror, but only an extraordinary 
 wonder, and secret acknowledgment of a strange force and 
 more than human power. But afterwards, when our watch- 
 man was better acquainted with our ways, and had more 
 fully discovered the state of our souls, the word was unto 
 
•244 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 us as a " voice of a great thunder," more distinct and par- 
 ticular ; breeding not only admiration but fear also ; not 
 filling our ears only with an uncouth sound, but our hearts 
 also with a terrible searching. For the sermons of every 
 sabbath came home to our consciences, singling out our 
 several reigning corruptions, beating punctually upon our 
 bosom sins, manifesting clearly our spiritual misery and 
 certain liableness to the exlremest wrath of God and end- 
 less woe. Whereupon we were all at our wits' end what 
 to do, grew weary of our lives, wished with all our hearts 
 that such a puritan preacher had never come amongst us ; 
 told every man almost we met, ihat we had a fellow at our 
 town would drive us all to despair, distraction, self-destruc- 
 tion, or some mischief or other ; that we heard nothing 
 from him but of damnation, and hell, and such horrible 
 things. Now in this second work of the word there was a 
 good number, even some out of that cursed crew and knot 
 ■of good-fellowship wherein I have been ensnared so long, 
 won unto Jesus Christ. For being enlightened, convinced, 
 and terrified in conscience for their former sinful courses, 
 the continued piercing of the word and work of the spirit of 
 bondage keeping them upon the rack under the dreadful 
 sense of divine wrath and their damnable state a good 
 while ; at last they happily resolved, without any more 
 delay, diversion, bye-path, or plunging again into worldly 
 pleasures, to pass on directly, by the light and guidance of 
 the gospel, into the holy path. And so undertook, and hi- 
 therto have holden out in profession and a blessed confor- 
 mity to the better side. But I, and a greater part, a great 
 deal more was the pity, hating heartily to be reformed, and 
 abhorring that precise way so much " spoken against every- 
 where,'' into which we conceived such severe ministerial 
 counsel would have conducted as ; I say, we wickedly 
 wrested out of our vexed consciences those keen arrows of 
 truth and terror with great indignation; we unhappily 
 hardened our hearts and foreheads against the power of the 
 word, which particularly pursued us every sabbath. Nay, 
 alas ! we persecuted the very means which should sanctify 
 us ; and men which would have saved us. Here then is my 
 case and complaint ; neglecting that blessed season when I 
 was first terrified and troubled in mind, when the angel 
 from heaven, as it were, " troubled the water," and when 
 some, even of mine own companions in iniquity, were con- 
 verted ; I am afraid I now come too late, that the mercy of 
 God to do me spiritual good is already expiied ; and that 
 the ministry which I have so wretchedly opposed, is the 
 very same to me that it was to the obstinate Jews (Isa. vi, 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 245 
 
 9, 10). Nay, but yet say not so, though it be with thee as 
 thou hast said ; for our gracious God " keepeth mercy for 
 thousands." Here you must know that a Jinite number is 
 put for an infinite, and an infinite indeed. And therefore 
 if thou now be in earnest, and willing to come in, in truth ; 
 and those thine other brethren in good-fellowship, and 
 hundreds, thousands, millions more, or any whosoever to 
 the world's end, God hath mercy in store for you all ; and 
 being all weary of all your sins, unfeignedly thirsting for 
 the well of life, resolving for the time to come upon new 
 courses, company, and conversation, you shall all be most 
 welcome to Jesus Christ. Even the last man upon earth, 
 bringing a truly broken heart to the throne of grace, shall 
 be crowned as richly and with as large a portion of God's 
 infinite mercy and Christ's invaluable merit as Adam and 
 Eve, or whosoever laid first hold of that first promise, 
 " The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." 
 
 (7.) Yea, but, alas ! I have been no ordinary sinner. My 
 corruptions have carried me beyond the villanies of the 
 vilest you can name. Not only the variety, but the notori- 
 ousness also, and enormity of my wicked ways have set an 
 infamous brand upon me, even in the sight of the world ; 
 beside those secret pollutions and sinful practices which no 
 eye but that which is ten thousand times brighter than the 
 sun ever beheld. Had I not been extremely outrageous, 
 stained with abominations of deepest dye, and gone on thus 
 with a high hand, I might have had some hope ; but now 1 
 know not what to say ! Take notice, then, to the end that 
 nothing at all may possibly hinder or any way discourage 
 any poor soul that sincerely seeks for mercy and desires to 
 turn truly on God's side, from assurance of gracious accep- 
 tation and entertainment at his throne of grace ; that it is 
 natural also to his name " to forgive iniquity, transgression, 
 and sin ; " that is, sins of all sorts, kinds, and degrees 
 whatsoever. There is none so hateful and heinous, whe- 
 ther natural corruption, or ordinary outward transgression, 
 or highest presumption, but, upon repentance, God is most 
 able, ready, and willing to remit it. 
 
 7. God the Father's compassionate pangs of infinite afifec- 
 tion, and forwardness to entertain in his arms of mercy all 
 true penitents. " As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no 
 pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked 
 turn from his way and live : turn ye, turn ye from your 
 evil ways : for why will ye die, O house of Israel 1 " (Ezek. 
 xxxiii, 11.) " Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem, wilt thou not 
 be made clean? when shall it once be?" ( Jer. xiii, 27.) 
 " They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from 
 
 Y^ 
 
246 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her 
 again 1 shall not that land be greatly polluted ? But thou 
 hast played the harlot with many lovers ; yet return again 
 to me, saith the Lord/' (Jer. iii, 1). " Oh that my people 
 had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways ! 
 1 should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my 
 hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord 
 should have submitted themselves unto him : but their time 
 should have endured for ever. He should have fed them 
 also with the finest of the wheat : and with honey out of 
 the rock should I have satisfied thee" (Psalm Ixxxi, 13 
 — 16). " O that thou hadst hearkened to my command- 
 ments ! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righte- 
 ousness as the waves of the sea : thy seed also had been as 
 the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel 
 thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor de- 
 stroyed from before me" (Isa. xlviii, 18, 19). 
 
 8. His merciful almightiness in putting life andlightsome- 
 ness into the most dead and daikest heart. " Seek him," 
 saith the prophet, " that maketh the seven stars and Orion, 
 and turneth the shadow of death into the morning " (Amos 
 v, 8). Suppose thou settest thyself to seek God's face and 
 favour, and art presently set upon with this temptation — 
 But alas! my soul is so black with sin and dark with sor- 
 row, that it is to no purpose for me to proceed. But now, 
 in this case, consider who he is that thou seekest. It is he 
 that made of nothing those beautiful, shining, glorious con- 
 stellations, Orion and the Pleiades ; he it is that turneth the 
 darkest midnight into the brightest morning. 
 
 9. Christ's sweetest, dearest, most melting invitations of 
 all truly troubled souls for sin unto the well of life, and 
 their own everlasting welfare. " Come unto me, all ye 
 that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest " 
 (Mat. xi, 28). " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the 
 prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how 
 often would I have gathered thy children together, even as 
 a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings," &c. (Matt, 
 xxiii, 37). " And when he was come near, he beheld the 
 city, and wept over it, saying. If thou hadst known, even 
 thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto 
 thy peace!" (Luke xix, 41, 42.) " In the last day, that 
 great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If 
 any man thirst, let him come unto ir^e and drink " (John 
 vii, 37). 
 
 10. Experience perhaps of the comforter, converted from 
 a more wicked and desperate course than the patient him- 
 self. And it doth not a little refresh the heart of him, who 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 247 
 
 grievously wounded in conscience, thereupon sendeth for 
 a skilful and faithful mesenger of God ; and when he hath 
 opened his case fully unto him heareth him say, when he 
 hath said all : " My case was far worse than yours every 
 way." Nay, but besides those notorious sins I have named 
 unto you, I have defiled myself with many secret execra- 
 ble lusts, lie it so, saith the spiritual physician, yet in 
 the days of my vanity I have been guilty of more and more 
 heinous crimes than any you have yet spoken of. Yea, but 
 even now, when I have most need of, should most prize, re- 
 verence, and lay hold upon God's blessed word. Son, and 
 promises, I am continually beset with many abhorred, vil- 
 lanous, and prodigious injections about them. Not a man 
 alive, replires the man of God, hath had his head troubled 
 with more hideous thoughts of this hellish nature than I. 
 
 11. That precious parable (Luke xv) wherein all those 
 loving passages of the father unto his prodigal son ; to wit, 
 " his beholding him when he was yet a great way off; his 
 compassion, running towards him, falling upon his neck, 
 kissing him, putting on him the best robe and the ring, 
 killing the fatted calf," &:c. ; — do shadow that immeasurable, 
 incomprehensible love of God the Father to every one that 
 is willing to come out of the devil's cursed service into the 
 good way ; but come as far short of expressing it to the life, 
 as the infinite greatness of Almighty God surp^sseth the 
 finite frailty of a weak man and worm of the earth. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Foar Conclusions of Comfort, drawn from those places of Scripture 
 which set forth the Lord's dealing with us as a Father with his Chil- 
 dren. 
 
 In the second place, let us take a view of some of those 
 most delicious and sweetest streams of dearest comfort, 
 which spring abundantly out of that fruitful fountain of 
 compassion and love — "Like as a father pitieth his chil- 
 dren ; so the Lord pitieth them that fear him" (Psalm 
 ciii, 13 ; see also Deut. viii, 5 ; and Mai. iii, 17). 
 
 Hence may we draw refreshing enough to our thirsty 
 souls in many passages of heavy thoughts and grievous 
 complaints about our spiritual state. 
 
 1. In the distempers and damps of prayer, thus : — 
 Suppose the dearest son of the most loving father to lie 
 grievously sick, and out of the extremity of anguish to cry 
 out and complain unto him, that he is so full of pain in. 
 
248 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 every part that he knows not which way to turn himself, or 
 what to do ; and thereupon entreats him by the love he 
 bears him, to touch him tenderly, to lay him softly, to mol- 
 lify all he may his painful misery, and give him ease. How 
 ready, think you, would such a father be, with all tender- 
 ness and care to give his helping hand in such a rueful case ! 
 But yet if he should grow sicker and weaker, so that he 
 could not speak at all, but only look his father in the face 
 with watery eyes, and moan himself unto him with sighs 
 and groans, and other dumb expressions of his increased 
 pain and desire to speak, would not this yet strike deeper 
 into the father's tender heart ; pierce and melt with more 
 feeling pangs of compassion, and make his bowels yearn 
 within him with an addition of extraordinary solicitude to do 
 him good? Even just so will thy heavenly Father be 
 affected and deal with thee, in hearing, helping, and show- 
 ing mercy, when all thy strength of prayer is gone, but 
 only groans and sighs. Nay, with incomparably more 
 affectionateness : for, look how far God is higher than man 
 in majesty and greatness, which is by an infinite distance 
 and disproportion ; so far doth he pass him in tender- 
 heartedness and love. See Isaiah Iv, 8, 9. 
 
 Or be it so that thou art able to speak unto God, and in 
 some measure to utter thy mind, yet in thy thought it is so 
 weakly, coldly, and confusedly, that thou thiukest it had 
 been better altogether to have held thy peace. Take no- 
 tice here, that God's child is able, first, sometimes to pour 
 out his heart unto his God with life and power : secondly, 
 sometimes to say something, but with much coldness, dead- 
 ness of heart, and distractedness (as he complains), with- 
 out his wonted feeling and freedom of spirit : thirdly, at 
 other times he can say just nothing, but groan and sigh, and 
 only desire he could pray. For this last, look upon the 
 last passage. For the second, to wit, when the Christian 
 is troubled that he can say something and speak words unto 
 God, yet without that order, eflficacy, fit phrase and com- 
 ing off so comfortably, as he thinks it to be found in other 
 professors ; I say in this case consider, that as a father is 
 more delighted with the stammering and fluttering, as it 
 were, with the inarticulate and imperfect talk of his own 
 little child when it first begins to speak, than with the ex- 
 actest eloquence of the most famous orator upon earth ; 
 so assuredly our Heavenly Father is infinitely better pleased 
 with the broken, interrxipted passages and periods of prayer 
 in thee, an upright heart, heartily grieved that he can do no 
 better, nor offer up a more lively, hearty, and orderly sa- 
 crifice, than with the excellently composed, fine-phrased. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 249 
 
 ami most methodical petitions of the most learned phaiisee. 
 Nay, his soul extremely loathes the one, and graciously 
 accepts the other in Jesus Christ. As concerning the com- 
 plaint of coldness ; be assured, that though thy prayers pro- 
 ceed out of thy mouth faint and feeble, cold and uncom- 
 fortable, yet springing from a sincere heart, purified by 
 faith, truly humbled under God's mighty hand for sin, 
 seconded with groans and grief, with a holy anger and 
 self-indignation that they be not more fervent and piercing, 
 and offered in obedience unto God ; they are most certainly 
 as it were by the way fortified and enlivened with the pa- 
 cifying perfections and intercessory spirit of Jesus Chiist, 
 sweetly perfumed with the precious odours of his fresh 
 bleeding merits and blessed mediation, so that they strike 
 the ears of the Almighty with far greater strength and ir- 
 resistible importunity than is ordinarily imagined ; and are 
 as sweet smelling sacrifices in his nostrils ; the very sight 
 of whose crucified Son at his right hand tendering the suit 
 can calm his most angry countenance, and convert, by a 
 sacred meritorious atonement, his displeasures and wrath 
 into compassions and peace. Now blessed be God that the 
 weak prayers and broken sighs of tempted and troubled 
 spirits have this happy promise and prerogative, that be- 
 fore they press, as it were, into the presence of God the 
 Father, they are mingled in the mean lime with the sove- 
 reign and satisfactory incense in the " golden censer," 
 whence evaporating out of the angel's hand (I mean the 
 " Angel of the Covenant," for so the truest interpreters 
 understand the place) they ascend into the sight of our 
 gracious Father, incorporated and enwoven into that pre- 
 cious and pleasing fume ; and that it pleaseth the blessed 
 Spirit, in the needful time of spiritual extremities, to draw 
 the petitions of our sometimes speechless, heavy, and dis- 
 tracted hearts ; Jesus Christ the great angel of the cove- 
 nant to perfect, perfume, and present them : he that by an 
 excellency and title of the highest honour is styled the 
 Hearer of prayers, to receive them into his merciful hand 
 and bosom of compassionate acceptation ! Go on then, 
 poor soul ! thou that sorely droopest under the sensible 
 weight of thy manifold weaknesses and unworthiness this 
 way ; and thereupon sometimes sinfully drawest back, with 
 some thoughts of giving over quite, which is that the devil 
 desires, and would utterly undo thee for ever, — press forward 
 in the name of Christ unto the throne of grace with a lighter 
 heart than thou art wont. Shall the Lord Jesus call and 
 cry for a pardon for those who put him to death, who were 
 so far from seeking unto liim, that like so many evening 
 
250 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 wolves they sought and sucked his blood ; and will he shut 
 his ears, thinkest thou, from thy complaints and groans, 
 who values one drop of his blood to quench thy spiritual 
 thirst at a higher price than the worth of many worlds'? 
 Comfort thyself invincibly. It cannot be. 
 
 2. In the faintness of faith, and want of feeling. 
 
 Thou beholdest sometimes a father holding a little child 
 in his arms : now, whether dost thou think is the child safe 
 by its own or by the father's hold 1 It clasps about the fa- 
 ther with its little weak hands as well as it can ; but the 
 strength of its safety is in the father's arm ; nay, and the 
 father holds the faster when at any time he perceives the 
 child to have left its hold. Thou art tied as it were unto 
 Christ by a double bond ; first, of the Spirit, and secondly, 
 of faith. Thou layest hold on Christ by faith, and he holds 
 thee by his Spirit. Now thy infant faith, or after some 
 good standing in Christianity weakened and sorely wounded 
 in thy present feeling, hath lost its holdfast ; and therefore 
 thou thinkest all is gone, and walkest dejectedly and un- 
 comfortably, as though not any promise in God's book, or 
 drop of Christ's blood were thine. But assure thyself, be- 
 ing sound at the heart-root, and " walking in the light, as 
 God is in the light," thy heavenly Father in this case holds 
 thee so fast by his Spirit, that no man or devil, not all the 
 powers of darkness or gates of hell, can possibly pluck 
 thee out of his hand. Nay, the excellency of his power is 
 most gloriously improved and made more illustrious in thy 
 greatest extremities and extremest spiritual weakness ; and 
 he holds it his highest honour to hold thee the fastest when 
 thy hold is gone. Here then and upon this ground thou 
 hast a calling, and mayest comfortably, for he is ever most 
 loving and tender-hearted in times of temptation to all that 
 are true of heart, exercise that most excellent act of faith, 
 " to believe without feeling : " to believe when the face of 
 God doth shine upon thee with sensible refreshing, and 
 when thou enjoyest plentiful and pregnant proofs of his fa- 
 vour, is no great matter, no such mastery ; but to believe 
 when all sense of God's love is gone, and the light of his 
 countenance hid from thee, when all go quite cross and con- 
 trary in the apprehension of carnal reason, then is the 
 highest praise ; this is the perfection of faith. The very 
 dull, senseless, and soul-less earth upon which we tread, 
 may teach us to rest and depend upon God in such a case. 
 It is a mighty and massy body, planted in the midst of thin 
 air, and hangs upon just nothing in the world, but only 
 upon God's word. By that alone it is there established 
 immoveably, keeps its place most steadily, never stirs an 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 251 
 
 inch from it. It hath no props nor pillars to uphold it ; no 
 bars nor beams to fasten it ; nothing to stay and support it, 
 but the bare word of God alone. " He upholdeth all things 
 by the word of his power," saith the apostle, Heb. i, 3 ; 
 and yet not all the creatures in the world can shake it, or 
 make it tremble. Be it so then that thy faith hath lost its 
 holdfast ; that for the present thou findest no feeling ; no 
 encouragements of " joy and peace in believing," no sensi- 
 ble pawns and pledges of God's wonted favour ; yet for all 
 this, cast thyself upon the sure word of that mighty God 
 who hath established all the ends of the earth ; and reared 
 sucli a great and goodly building where there was no foun- 
 dation ; and doubtless thou slialt be more than infinitely, 
 everlastingly safe, and settled like " mount Zion, which can- 
 not be removed, but abidetn for ever." 
 
 3. In failings of new obedience. 
 
 Thou puttest thy son in employment, settest him about 
 thy business, he improves the utmost of his skill, strength, 
 and endeavour to do thee the best service he can, and 
 please thee, if it were possible, to perfection ; but yet comes 
 short of what thou desirest, and fails in many particulars ; 
 and therefore he weeps and grieves, and is much troubled 
 that he can give no better contentment. Now tell me, thou 
 whose heart is warmed with the tenderness of a father's 
 affection, whether thou wouldst not be most ready and will- 
 ing to pardon and pass by all defects and failings in this kind"? 
 Nay, I know thou wouldst rejoice and bless (iod that he had 
 given thee a child so obedient, willing, and affectionate. 
 In like manner thy heavenly Father sets thee on work, to 
 believe, repent, pray, read the Scriptures, hear the word, 
 confer, meditate, love the brethren, sanctity his sabbaths, 
 humble thyself in days of fasting and prayer, pour out thy 
 soul day and night (as the times require) in compassion, 
 fellow-feeling, and strong cries for the afflictions of Joseph, 
 the destruction of the churches, and those brethren of 
 thine which have so long lain in blood and tears ; to be in- 
 dustrious and serious in all works of justice, mercy, and 
 truth. And thou goest about these blessed tasks with an 
 upright heart and obedience unto God, but the several per- 
 formances come far short of what his word requires and thy 
 heart desires ; and thereupon thou mournest and grievest, 
 and afflictest thy soul in secret, because thou canst not come 
 off with more power and life ; nor bring that glory unto God 
 in thy Christian walking, which so many mercies, means, 
 and such a ministry may exact at thy hands. In this case 
 now, of these involuntary failings and humble disposition 
 of thy heart, therefore be most assured thy All-suffiicient 
 
252 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 Father " will spare thee as a man spareth his own son, that 
 serveth him." Nay, and with so much more kindness and 
 love, " as the heavens are higher than the earth," and God 
 greater than man. 
 
 4. In case of spiritual desertion. 
 
 A father solacing himself with his little child, and de- 
 lighting in its pretty and pleasing behaviour, is wont some- 
 times to step aside into a corner or behind a door, upon 
 purpose to quicken yet more its love and longing after him, 
 and try the impatiency and eagerness of its affections. In 
 the mean time he hears it cry, run about, and call upon 
 him, and yet he stirs not, but forbears to appear; not for 
 want of compassion and kindness, which the more it grieves 
 the more abounds ; but that it may prize more dearly the 
 father's presence, that they may meet more merrily, and re 
 joice in the enjoyment of each other more heartily. Con- 
 ceive then, and consider to thine own exceeding comfort, that 
 Ihy heavenly Father deals just so with thee in a spiritual 
 desertion. He sometimes hides his face from thee, and 
 withdraws his quickening and refreshing presence for 3 time, 
 not for want of love, for he loves thee freely ; he loves thee 
 w^ith an everlasting love ; he loves thee with the very same 
 love with which he loves Jesus Christ ; and that dear Son 
 of his loves thee with the same love his Father loves him. 
 But to put more heat and life into thine affections towards 
 him and heavenly things ; to cause thee to relish commu- 
 nion with Jesus Christ, when thou enjoyest it, more sweetly ; 
 to preserve it more carefully ; to joy in it more thankfully ; 
 and to shun more watchfully whatsoever might rob thee of 
 it ; to stir up all the powers of thy soul and all the graces 
 of God in thee ; to seek his face and favour again with more 
 extraordinary and* universal seriousness and industry. For 
 we find with pleasure, possess with singular contentment, 
 and keep with special care, what we have sought with pain. 
 We may see this in the spouse. Cant, iii, 1,6, under the 
 pressure of a grievous desertion. Ponder every particular. 
 " By night on my bed I sought him. whom my soul loveth : 
 I sought him, but I found him not. I will rise now, and go 
 about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will 
 seek him whom my soul loveth : I sought him, but I found 
 him not. The watchmen that go about the city found me : 
 to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth ? It was 
 but a little that I passed from them, but 1 found him whom 
 my soul loveth : 1 held him, and would not let him go, un- 
 til I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the 
 chamber of her that conceived me. I charge you, O ye 
 daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 253 
 
 the field, that ye stir not up nor awake my love till he 
 please." And lastly, that when the comfortable beams of 
 God's lightsome countenance shall break out again upon 
 thy soul, and thy beloved is returned, thou mayest sing 
 that triumphant song of faith most joyfully ; " I am my 
 beloved's, and my beloved is mine." i)esertions then and 
 delays of this nature are fruits of thy heavenly Father's 
 love, and ought to be no discouragements unto thee at all, 
 holding thy integrity. His love thereby is intended to- 
 wards thee by the restraint of the influence and sense of it 
 from thy soul, as a brook grows big by damming it up for a 
 while ; and thy love is more inflamed towards him, when 
 thou feelest by the want of it what a heaven upon earth it 
 is to have his face shine upon thee with its quickening, re- 
 freshing presence ; and that a sensible embracement of 
 Jesus Christ in the arms of thy faith is the very life of the 
 soul, as the soul is the life of the body, the crown of all 
 sweet contentment in this vale of tears, and a piece, as it 
 were, of everlasting pleasures. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Eight Conclusions more drawn from the afore-mentioned places. 
 
 5. In times of trial. 
 
 Thou seest sometimes a father setting down his little one 
 upon its feet to try its strength, and whether it be yet able 
 to stand by itself or no ; but withal he holds his arms on 
 both sides to uphold it, if he see it incline either way, and 
 to preserve it from hurt. Assure thyself thy heavenly 
 Father takes care of thee with infinitely more tenderness in 
 all thy trials, either by outward afflictions or inward 
 temptations. "Though thou shouldst fall, yet shalt thou 
 not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth thee with 
 his hand" (Psalm xxxvii, 24). Never did goldsmith 
 attend so curiously and punctually upon those precious 
 metals he casts into the fire, to observe the very first season, 
 and be sure that they tarry no longer in the furnace than 
 the dross be wasted, and they be thoroughly purified and 
 fitted for some excellent use, as our gracious God lovingly 
 waits to take thee out of trouble and temptation when the 
 rust is removed from thy spiritual armour, thy graces shine 
 out, and thou art heartily humbled and happily fitted to do 
 him more glorious service for the time to come ; 1 mean 
 when he hath attained the end which he mercifully in- 
 tended in love and for thy good. 
 Z 
 
254 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 6. In thoughts of our unworthiness. 
 
 David commanded Joab and the other captains " to en- 
 treat the young man Absalom gently for his sake " (2 Sam. 
 xviii, 5). A rebellious, traitorous son up in arms against his 
 own father, gracelessly and unnaturally thirsting, out of a 
 furious ambitious humour, to wring the regal sceptre out of 
 his hand, and to set the imperial crown upon his own head. 
 How dearly and tenderly then will the Father of mercies 
 deal with a poor humbled soul that sighs and seeks for his 
 favour infinitely more than any earthly treasure, or the 
 glory of a thousand worlds ! 
 
 7. I will suppose thou hast broke some special vow 
 (which were a grievous thing) made before the sacrament 
 upon some day of humiliation, or such other occasion, and 
 so forfeited thyself, as it were, and thy soul into the hands 
 of God's justice, to be disposed of to the dungeon of utter 
 darkness, if thou wert served as thy sin hath deserved. 
 And thereupon thou art much afflicted and sore troubled in 
 mind, to have suffered thyself to be so sottishly ensnared 
 again in such a disavowed sin, against so strong a purpose. 
 But here consider whether thou, being a father, wouldst 
 take the forfeiture of a bond, and advantage of breaking 
 day, especially full sore against his will, from thy dearest 
 child, entreatmg thee to regard him kindly. Much, nay 
 infinitely less will thy heavenly Father deal hardly with 
 thee in such a case, if thou complain at the throne of grace 
 with a grieved spirit, renew thy covenant, and tell him truly 
 that thou wilt, by the help of the Holy Ghost, guard thy 
 heart with a narrower v/atch and stronger resolution for the 
 time to come. " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and 
 just to forgive us our sins" (1 John i, 9) ; and in such a 
 case we have ever a blessed " advocate with the Father, 
 Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John ii, 1). 
 
 A father sometimes threatens and offers to throw his little 
 one out of his arms •, but upon purpose only to make him 
 cling closer unto him. Our heavenly Father may seem to 
 cast oflf his child, and leave him for a while in the hands 
 of Satan for inward temptation, or to the rage of his blood- 
 thirsty agents for outward persecution : but it is only to 
 draw him nearer to himself by more serious seeking and 
 sure dependence in the time of trouble, and that with the hand 
 of his faith he may lay surer hold upon his all-sufficiency. 
 
 And the child, especially if of riper age and wiser 
 thoughts, laughs perhaps in the father's face, dreads no 
 danger, dreams not of being hurt : and what is the reason, 
 think yel Only because he knows he that holds him is his 
 father. So thy heavenly Father holds thee as it were over 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. , 255 
 
 hell in some strong temptation, upon purpose to terrify thee 
 I'rom tampering so much with the devil's baits ; so that thou 
 seest nothing about thee for the present but darkness and 
 discomforts, and the very horrors of eternal death ready to 
 take hold of thee ; yet for all this, upon the ground of this 
 loving, gracious resemblance, thou mayest be comforted 
 and cry confidently with Job, " Though he slay me, yet 
 will I trust in him" (Job xiii, 15) ; with David, " though 
 I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear 
 no evil " (Psalm xxiii, 4). " Who is among you," saith 
 the Prophet (Isaiah 1, 10), "that feareth the Lord, that 
 obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, 
 and hath no light ? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, 
 and stay upon his God." 
 
 9. A son, by the seduction of some dissolute and drunken 
 Belials is drawn into lewd and licentious company, and 
 so plunges presently over head and ears into pestilent 
 courses ; falls unhappily to swaggering, drinking, gaming, 
 the mirth and madness of wine and pleasures ; and at 
 length to express to the life an exact conformity to that 
 complete character given in the book of Wisdom* of the 
 professors of good-fellowship (astheycall it) and epicurism, 
 both for pursuit of sensual delights and persecution of true 
 professors, whereby he wastes his patrimony, cuts the heart 
 of his parents, and wounds his conscience. His father 
 mourns and grieves, consults and casts about with all love 
 and longing for his recovery and return. At length, out of 
 sense and conscience of his base and debauched behaviour, 
 vile company, dishonouring God, banishing good motions, 
 " he comes to himself," entreats his father upon his knees 
 with many tears that he would be pleased to pardon what 
 is past, receive him into favour again, and he will faithfully 
 endeavour to displease him no more, but redeem the loss 
 of the former with the improvement of the time to come. 
 How willingly and welcomely think you would such a 
 father receive such a son into the bosom of his fatherly af- 
 fection, and arms of dearest embracement. And yet so, 
 and infinitely more, is our heavenly Father merciful and 
 melting towards any of his relapsed children, returning unto 
 his gracious throne with true remorse and hearty grief for 
 so going astray ; which is an incomparable comfort in case 
 of backsliding, which yet God forbid. 
 
 10. A father indeed will lay heavier burthens upon his 
 son now grown into years and strength, and puts him to 
 sorer labour and harder tasks ; but while he is very young 
 he is wont to forbear him with much tenderness and com- 
 passion ; because he knows he is scarcely able to carry him- 
 * Wisd. ii, 6, &c. ; xii, &c. 
 
256 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 self out of the mire. Even so, but with infinitely more affec- 
 tionateness and care, watchfulness and love, doth our 
 heavenly Father bear in his arms and forbear a babe in 
 Christ. See Isa. xl, 11. This maybe a very sweet and 
 precious cordial to weak consciences at their first conversion, 
 who when they cast their eye upon the heinousness and 
 number of their sins, the fiery and furious darts of the devil, 
 the frowns and angry foreheads of their carnal friends, the 
 world's lowering and enmity, the rebelliousness and un- 
 towardness of their own hearts, pressing upon them all at 
 once, and so considering that " refraining from evil, they 
 make themselves a prey," are ready to sink and faint, and 
 fear that they shall never hold out. For they may hence 
 ground upon it, being upright-hearted, and believing that 
 (jod, who knows their weakness full well, " will not suffer 
 them to be tempted above that they are able ; but will with 
 the temptation also make a way to escape, that they may 
 be able to bear it." So that over all these adversaries and 
 ungodly oppositions they shall most certainly be more than 
 conquerors. 
 
 11. When thou art dejected in spirit, and walkest more 
 heavily, because thou comest short of stronger Christians in 
 all performances, services, duties, and fruitful walking, and 
 thereupon sufFerest slavish doubts and distrusts, lest thy 
 groundwork be not well laid, and beat back and bar out 
 all spiritual joy and expected contentments in thy Christian 
 course ; 1 say then, and in such a case, suppose a father 
 should call unto him in haste two of his children, one of 
 three years old, the other of thirteen : they both make all 
 the haste they can, but the elder makes much more speed, 
 and yet the little one comes on waddling as fast as it can, 
 and if it had more strength it would have matched the 
 other. Now would not the father accept of the younger's 
 utmost, endeavour according to its strength, as well as of 
 the elder's faster gait, being stronger! I amsure he would ; 
 and that with more tenderness too, and taking it in his arms 
 to encourage it. And so certainly will thy heavenly Father 
 deal with thee in the like case about thy spiritual state, 
 being true-hearted, and heartily grieving, praying, and en- 
 deavouring to do better. 
 
 12. Suppose a child to fall sick in a family. The father 
 presently sets the whole house on work for the recovery of 
 its welfare. Some run for the physician, others for friends 
 and neighbours ; some tend it, others watch it ; all contri- 
 bute their several abilities, endeavours, and diligence to do 
 it good; and thus they continue in motion, afi'ection, and 
 extraordinary employment about it, far more than about 
 all the rest that are well, until it recover. With the very 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 257 
 
 same but incomparably more tender care and compassion 
 will thy heavenly Father visit thee in all thy spiritual 
 maladies and sicknesses of soul. The whole blessed Trinity 
 is stirred, as it were, extraordinarily, and takes to heart thy 
 troubles at such a time. Even as a shepherd takes more 
 pains and exercises more pity and tenderness about his 
 sheep when they are out ot tune. See Isa. xl, 11 ; Ezek. 
 xxxiv, 16 ; upon which places hear the paraphrase of a 
 blessed divine : "The Lord v/ill not be unfaithful to thee 
 if thou be upright with him, though thou be weak in thy 
 carriage to him ; for ' he keeps his covenant for ever ; ' and 
 therefore in Isa. xl, the Lord expresseih it thus : ' You shall 
 know me as sheep know their shepherd, and I will make 
 a covenant with you,' and thus and thus I will deal with 
 you. And how is that? Why the covenant is not thus 
 only — as long as you keep within the bounds and keep within 
 the fold, as long as you go along the paths of righteousness 
 and walk in them; — but this is the covenant that I will 
 make : I will drive you according to that you are able to 
 bear. If any be great with young, I will drive them softly ; 
 if they be lame that they are not able to go, saith he, ' I 
 will take them up in mine arms and carry them in my 
 bosom.' If you compare with Ezek. xxxiv, j'ou shall find 
 there he puts down all the slips we are subject to (speaking of 
 the time of the gospel, when Christ should be the shepherd), 
 he shows the covenant that he will make with those that are 
 his. Saith he ; 'if any thing be lost,' if a sheep lose itself, 
 this is my covenant, ' I will find it ; ' if it be driven away 
 by any violence of temptation, ' 1 will bring it back again:' 
 If there be a breach made into their hearts by any occasion 
 through sin and lust, ' 1 will heal them and bind them up.' 
 This the Lord will do ; this is the covenant that he makes." 
 But I was telling you the whole blessed Trinity grieves (if 
 I may so speak) after a special manner in all the spiritual 
 troubles especially of all those who are true of heart. God 
 the Father's bowels of mercy yearn compassionately over 
 thee when he sees thee spiritually sick. The distressed and 
 disconsolate state of thy soul, puts him into such melting 
 and affectionate pangs as these: "O thou afflicted, tossed 
 with tempest, and not comforted ; behold, I will lay thy 
 stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sap- 
 phires," &c. " Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith 
 your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto 
 her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is 
 pardoned," &c. (Isa. liv, 11 ; and xl, 1, 2.) Jesus Christ, 
 out of his own experience, knoweth full well what it is to be 
 grievously tempted, what it is to have the most hideous 
 Z 3 
 
253 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 thoughts and horrible injections thrown into the mind that 
 can be possibly imagined ; nay, that the devil himself can 
 devise. See Matt, iv, 6, 9. What a hell it is to want the 
 comfortable influence of the Father's pleased face and 
 favour. See INIatt. xxvii, 46. And therefore he cannot 
 choose but be "afflicted in our afflictions;" and very 
 sensibly and sweetly tender-hearted in all our spiritual 
 troubles. They pity us most in our sicknesses, who have 
 felt the same themselves. *' In that he himself suffered and 
 was tempted, he is able to sviccour them that are tempted " 
 (Heb. ii, 18). As for the blessed Spirit, it is his proper 
 work, as it were, " to comfort them that mourn in Zion ; to 
 give unto them beauty for ashes ; the oil of joy for mourning, 
 the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." And yet 
 besides all this, thy heavenly Father, in the distress of thy 
 soul, sets also on work the church of God about thee ; 
 faithful ministers to pray for, and prepare seasonable and 
 sound arguments, reasons, counsels, and comforts out of 
 God's blessed book, to support, quicken, revive, and recover 
 thee all they can ; private Christians to commend thy case 
 unto the "throne of grace and mercy;" and that ex- 
 traordinarily with mightiness of prayer upon their more 
 solemn days of humiliation. 
 
 Thus, and in the like manner, peruse all the compassionate 
 passages of the most tender-hearted parents to their best- 
 beloved children in all cases of danger and distress ; and so 
 and infinitely more tenderly will our heavenly Father deal 
 with all that are upright-hearted in all their troubles, trials, 
 and temptations, tor the dearest love of the most affectionate 
 father and mother to their child is nothing to that, which 
 lie bears to those that fear him (Isa. xlix, 15; Psalm ciii, 13; 
 Deut. viij, 5), 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 A Principle of Conifoit from something within us, confirmed from 
 several Testimonies and Instances of Scripture, and by one Reason. 
 
 Thirdly. There is a precious principle in the mystery of 
 salvation, which, as a comforting cordial water, serves to 
 quicken and revive in the swoonings and faintings of the 
 body, defection of the spirits, and sinking of the heart ; so 
 it may be sovereign to support and succour in afflictions 
 and dejections of soul, and weaknesses of our spiritual 
 state. It is thus delivered by divines : — 
 
 " A constant and earnest desire to be reconciled to God. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 269 
 
 to believe and to repent, if it be in a touched heart, is in 
 acceptation with God as reconciliation, faith, repentance 
 itself*." 
 
 " A weak faith shows itself by this grace of God, namely, 
 an unfeigned desire, not only of salvation (for that the 
 wicked and graceless man may have), but of reconciliation 
 with God in Christ. This is a sure sign of faith in every 
 touched and humbled heart, and it is peculiar to the 
 elect t." 
 
 " Those are blessed who are displeased with their own 
 doubting and unbelief ; if they have a true earnest desire 
 to be purged from this distrust, and to believe in God 
 through Christ :t." 
 
 "Our desire of grace, faith, and repentance, are the 
 graces themselves which we desire ; at least, in God's 
 acceptation, who accepteth of the will for the deed, and of 
 our affections for the actions §." 
 
 '• Hungering and thirsting desires are evidences of a 
 repenting heart II." 
 
 " Tjue desire argues the presence of things desired, and 
 yet argues not the feeling of it If." 
 
 " It may not be dissembled, that there are in the world 
 many definitions or descriptions of faith, such as do not 
 comprehend in them that only thing which is the chief stay 
 of thousands of the dear servants of God, and that is, desires 
 which may not be denied to be of the nature of faith. I ex- 
 press my meaning thus : That when a man or woman is 
 so far exercised in the spiritual seeking of the Lord his 
 God, that he would be willing to part with the world and 
 all things thereof if he had them in his own possession, 
 so that by the Spirit and promises of God he might be as- 
 sured that the sins of his former life, and such as presently 
 do burthen his soul were forgiven him ; and that he might 
 believe that God were now become his God in Christ ; — I 
 would not doubt to pronounce that this person (thus prizing 
 remission of sins at this rate, that he would sell all to buy 
 this pearl) did undoubtedly believe. Not only because it 
 is a truth (though a paradox) that the desire to believe is 
 faith ; but also because our Saviour Christ doth not doubt 
 to affirm that they are blessed that ' hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness, because they shall be satisfied' (Matt, v, 6). 
 
 ' Perkins, in his Grain of Mustard Seed, Concl. 3. 
 
 t Idem, in his Exposition of the Creed. 
 
 t Idem, upon the Sermon on the Mount. 
 
 5 Downam, in his Christian Warfare, chap. .xlii. 
 
 || Dvke, of Kepentance, chap. xv. 
 
 II T'T. upon Psalm xxxii. 
 
260 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 And to * him that is athirst I will give to drink of the water 
 of life freely ' (Revel, xxi, 6). And David doubted not to 
 say, 'The Lord heareth the desire of the humble' (Psalm 
 X, 17)*." 
 
 " I think, whensoever the humbled sinner sees an infinite 
 excellency in Christ, and the favour of God by him, that it 
 is more worth tiian all the world, and so sets his heart upon 
 it that he is resolved to seek it without ceasing, and to 
 part with all for the obtaining it ; now, I take it, is faith 
 begun." — "What graces thou unfeignedly desirest, and 
 constantly usest the means to attain, thou haslt." 
 
 " There is no rock more sure than this truth of God, that 
 the heart that complaineth of the want of grace, desireth 
 above all things the supply of ihat want, useth all holy 
 means for the procurement of that supply, cannot be desti- 
 tute of saving grace |." 
 
 ** Such are we by imputation as we be in affection. And 
 he is now no sinner, who for the love he beareth to righteous- 
 ness would be no sinner. Such as we be in desire and 
 purpose, such we be in reckoning and account with God, 
 who giveth that true desire and holy purpose to none but to 
 his children whom he justifieth §." 
 
 " We must remember that God accepts affecting for 
 effecting ; willing for working ; desires for deeds ; purposes 
 for performances ; pence for pounds ; and unto such as do 
 their endeavour, hath promised his grace enabling them 
 every day to do more and more ||." 
 
 "If there be in thee a sorrow for thine unbelief ; a will 
 and desire to believe ; and a care to increase in faith by 
 the use of good means ; there is a measure of true faith 
 in thee, and by it ihou mayest assure thyself that thou art 
 the child of God If." 
 
 "It is a great grace of God to feel the want of God's 
 graces in thyself, and to hunger and thirst after them**." 
 
 " If you desire healing of your nature, groan in desire for 
 grace, perceive your foulness unto a loathing of yourself, 
 fear not, sin hath no dominion oyer you." — " Sense of want 
 of grace, complaint and mourning from that sense, desire, 
 settled and earnest, with such mourning to have the want 
 supplied, use of good means, with attending upon him 
 therein for this supply, is surely of grace." — " What graces 
 
 * Byfield, In his Exposition upon the Epistle to the Colossiaiis, 
 chap, i, ver. 4. 
 
 t Rogers of Dedhani, iu his Doctrine of Faith, chap. ii. 
 t (!rook, scrm. ill. $ Greenliani. 
 
 II DvkCjOf vSelf-Deceivinjr, chap. xix. % Perkins, on (iaiatians. 
 
 * * Broad, p. 88. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 261 
 
 thou unfeignedly desirest and constantly usest the means to 
 attain, thou hast*." 
 
 Take it in short from me thus : — 
 
 A true desire of grace argues a saving and comfortable 
 estate. 
 
 The truth of which appears clearly by scripture, reason, 
 both ancient and modern divines. 
 
 Proofs: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst 
 after righteousness, for they shall be filled'' (iNIatt. v, 6). 
 Here to a desire of grace is annexed a promise of blessed- 
 ness, which comprehends all the glory and pleasures of 
 Christ's kingdom here, and all heavenly joys and everlasting 
 bliss hereafter. " If any man thirst, let him come unto me 
 and drink" (John vii, 37;. " The Lord heareth the desire 
 of the humble " (Psalm x, 17). " He will fulfil the desire 
 of them that fear him" (Psalm cxlv, 19). "The Lord 
 filleth the hungry with good things" (Luke i, 53). "Let 
 him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take 
 the water of life freely" (Kev. xxii, 17). "Ho! every 
 one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," &c. "1 will 
 pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the 
 dry ground " (Isa. Iv, I ; and xliv, 3). 
 
 "(J Lord, I beseech thee," saith Nehemiah, "let now 
 thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to 
 the prayer of thy servants who desire to iear thy name." 
 Here those who desire to fear the Lord are styled his 
 servants ; and proposed as men qualified and in a fit dis- 
 position to have their prayers heard, their petitions granted, 
 their distresses relieved, their atfairs blessed with success. 
 And no doubt this man of God would make special choice 
 of such attributes and afl^ections, which might prove power- 
 ful and pleasing arguments to draw from (jod compassion, 
 favour, and protection. And therefore a true-hearted de- 
 sire to fear the Lord is a sign of his servant. 
 
 Abraham, as you know. Gen. xxii, did not indeed when 
 It came to the point, sacrifice his son ; an angel irom heaven 
 stayed his hand. Only he had a will, purpose, and resolu- 
 tion, if the Lord would so have it, even to shed the blood 
 of his only child. Now this desire to please God was 
 graciously accepted at his hands as though the thing had 
 been done, and thereupon crowned with as many blessings 
 as there are stars in the heaven, and sands upon the sea 
 shore. " By myself have 1 sworn, saith the Lord, because 
 thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thine only 
 t;ou" (and yet he spilt not a drop of his blood, save only 
 
 * Wilson on Faith. 
 
262 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 in purpose and preparedness to do God's will), " therefore 
 will 1 surely bless thee and greatly multiply thy seed as 
 the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea 
 shore" (Gen. xxii, 16, 17). 
 
 Rich men cast into the treasury large gifts and royal 
 offerings no doubt (Mark xii) ; for it is there said, " Many 
 that were rich cast in much " (ver. 41) ; and yet the poor 
 widow's two mites, receiving worth and weight from her holy 
 and hearty atfection, in Christ's esteem did outvalue and 
 overweigh them all. " Verily," saith Christ, " 1 say unto 
 you, that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they 
 which have cast into the treasury." 
 
 Reaso7is. 1. One argument may be taken from the 
 blessed nobleness of God's nature, and the incomparable 
 sweetness of his divine disposition, which by intinite 
 distance, without all degree of comparison and measure ot 
 proportion, doth surpass and transcend the ingenuousness 
 of the noblest spirit upon earth. Now, men of ingenuous 
 breeding and generous dispositions are wont to receive 
 sweetest contentment, and rest best satisfied in prevailing 
 over and winning the hearts, good wills, and affections of 
 those who attend or depend upon them. Outward perform- 
 ances, gratifications, and visible effects, are often beyond 
 our strength and means ; many times mingled and quite 
 marred with hypocrisies, disguisemeuts, feigned accom- 
 modations and tiatteries, with self-advantages, bye-respects, 
 and private ends. But inward reverence and love, kind 
 and affectionate stirrings of the heart, are ever and alone 
 in our power, and ever by an uncontrollable freedom ex- 
 empted from enforcement, dissembling, and formality. No 
 marvel then though the most royal and heroical spirits prize 
 most, and be best pleased with possession of men's hearts, 
 and being assured of them can more easily pardon the 
 want of those outward acts of sufficiency and service (most 
 minded by basest men) which they see to be above the 
 reach of their ability and power. Now if it be so that 
 even ingenuous and noble natures accept with special 
 respect and esteem the afiectionateness and hearty well 
 willing of their followers and favourites, though they want 
 dexterity and means to express it actually in visible effects 
 and executions answerable to their afiections, how much 
 more are spiritual longings, holy affections, thirsty desires, 
 graciously accepted of that God, in respect of whose com- 
 passions, the bowels of the most merciful man upon earth 
 are cruelty ; in respect of whose unmeasurably amiable, 
 melting, sweetest disposition, the ingenuousness of the 
 noblest spirit is doggedness and disdafti. Especially since 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 263 
 
 men's good turns and offices of love turn many times to our 
 good and benefit, to our advancement, profit, preferment : 
 but our "well-doing extendeth not unto God" (Psalm 
 xvi, 2). That infinite essential glory with which the highest 
 Lord, alone to be blessed, adored, and honoured by all for 
 ever, was, is, and shall be everlastingly crowned ; can 
 neither be impaired by the most desperate rebellions, nor 
 enlarged by the most glorious good deeds, " Can a man," 
 saith Eliphaz to Job, " be proifitable unto God : as he that 
 is wise may be profitable unto himself? Is it any pleasure 
 to the Almighty that thou art righteous? Or is it gain to 
 him that thou makest thy ways perfect? If thou sinnest, 
 what doest thou against him ? Or if thy transgressions be 
 multiplied, what doest thou unto him ? If thou be righteous, 
 what givest thou him "^ or what receiveth he of thine hand? 
 Thy wickedness may hurt a man, as thou art ; and thy 
 righteousness may profit the son of man " (Job xxii, 2, 3 ; 
 and XXXV, 6, 7, 8). Were all the wicked men upon earth 
 turned into human beasts, desperate Uelials, nay, in- 
 carnate devils ; and the whole world full of those outra- 
 geous giants of Babel, and those also of the old world ; and 
 all with combined force and fury should bend and band 
 themselves against heaven, yet they could not hurt God. 
 " The Lord is king, be the people never so impatient; he 
 sitteth between the cherubim, be the earth never so un- 
 quiet." Or were all the sons of men Abrahams or angels, 
 and as many in number as the stars in heaven; and as 
 shining both with inward graces and outward good deeds 
 as they are in visible glory ; yet could they make no addi- 
 tion unto that incomprehensible Majesty above ; they could 
 not confer so much as one drop to that boundless and 
 bottomless sea of goodness, or the least glimpse unto that 
 Almighty Sun of Glory. " All nations before him are as 
 nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing, 
 and vanity" (Isa. xl, 17). Our sins hurt him not; our 
 holiness helps him not. It is only for our good, that God 
 would have us good. No good, no gain accrues unto him 
 by our gcodness. For what good can come by our imperfect 
 goodness to that which is already infinitely good ? What 
 glory can be added by our dimness to him, which is already 
 incomprehensibly glorious ? Every infinite thing is naturally 
 and necessarily incapable of addition ; possibility of which 
 supposed, implies contradiction, and destroys the nature of 
 infinity. If it be so then, that good turns do good unto 
 men, and yet out of their ingenuousness they most esteem 
 goodwills, true-heartedness, kind affections, and can well 
 find in their hearts to pass by failings where there is heart 
 
264 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 and good will ; to pardon easily want of exactness in per- 
 formance where there are unfeigned purpi ses ; how much 
 more will your gracious God, who gains nothing by all the 
 good works in the world, out of the depth of his dearest 
 compassions, kindly interpret and accept in good part the 
 holy longings and hungry desires of a panting and bleeding 
 soul ? How dearly will he love the love of a true-hearted 
 Nathanael 1 How willingly will he take the will for the 
 deed, the groanings of the heart before the greatest sa- 
 crifice'? 
 
 But lest you mistake, take notice here of a twofold 
 glory: — 
 
 1. Essential, infinite, everlasting. It is impossible that 
 this should either receive disparagement and diminution, or 
 addition and increase by any created power. And this I 
 meant in the precedent passage. 
 
 2. The other I may call accidental, finite, temporary. 
 This ebbs or flows, shines oris overshadowed, as goodness or 
 gracelessness prevails in the world ; as the kingdom of 
 Christ or powers of darkness get the upper hand amongst 
 the sons of men. In this regard indeed, rebellious wretches 
 dishonour God upon earth, I confess ; and godly men by 
 their holy duties, good works, and gracious behaviour, make 
 his name more illustrious in the world ; but what is this to 
 that essential, infinite, everlasting glory, which was as great 
 and lull in all that former eternity, before the world was, 
 when God, blessed for ever, enioyed only his glorious self, 
 angels, men, and this great universe lying all hid as yet in 
 the dark and abhorred dungeon of nothing, as now it is or 
 ever shall be? 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 One Reason more, confirming the Truth of the former Principle. 
 
 Reason 2. A second reason may be taken from God's pro- 
 portionable proceedings in his courses of justice and mercy. 
 In his executions of justice and inflictions of punishment, 
 he interprets and accepts desires for the deeds, aftections 
 for actions, thoughts for the things done. " Whosoever," 
 saith Christ, " looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath 
 committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matt. 
 V, 28). In God's interpretation, in the search and judg- 
 ment of divine justice, he that lusts after a woman in his 
 heart is an adulterer ; and without true and timely repent- 
 ance shall be so taken and proceeded against at that great 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 265 
 
 and last day. " Whosoever hateth his brother," saithJohn. 
 " is a murderer" (1 John iii, 15). A hateful thought of our 
 brother, murders nim and spills his blood by the verdict of 
 the blessed Spiiit ; and a malicious man, at the bar of God, 
 goes for a manslayer. If this, then, be God's manner of 
 proceeding in justice, we may much more confidently ex- 
 pect, nay, with reverent humUity challenge (way being 
 made by the mediation of Christ) the same proportionable 
 measure in those his most sweet and lovely inclinations and 
 expressions of mercy. Shall a lewd desire after a woman 
 fall under the axe of God's justice, as if it were the gross 
 act of lust ; and shall not a longing desire after grace be 
 graciously embraced in the arms of mercy as the grace 
 itself? Shall an angry thought, invisible, immaterial, hurt- 
 ful only to the heart which harbours it, be charged with 
 actual bloodshed ; and shall not a panting thirst of a broken 
 and bleeding soul after Christ's saving and sanctifying blood 
 be bathed and refreshed in his precious blood? Yes, cer- 
 tainly, and much rather ; for " God's tender mercies are 
 over all his works" (Psalm cxlv, 9), and mercy with a 
 holy exultation triumpheth and " rejoiceth against judg- 
 ment " (James ii, 13). " His mercy is great unto the hea- 
 vens" (Psalm Ivii, 10). He doth with much sweet content- 
 ment, and as it were natural propension, incline to the 
 gracious effusions of mercy. " He delighteth in mercy," 
 saith Micah (chap, vii, 18) ; he is most highly pleased and 
 exalted most gloriously when he is pardoning sins, purging 
 souls, pulling out of the devil's paw, pouring in grace, 
 shining into sad and uncomfortable hearts, saving from hell, 
 &c. 1 his makes him so passionate (in a holy sense) when 
 he hath no passage for his love. (See Deut. v, 29; Psalm 
 Ixxxi, 13 ; Isa. xlviii, 18 ; Matt, xxiii, 37 ; Luke xix, 41, 42.) 
 But now on the other side he is hardly drawn, not without 
 much reluctancy, delays, forbearance, and as it were some 
 kind of violence offered by excess of multiplied rebellious 
 provocations, to exercise his justice and to punish for sin. 
 (See 2 Chron. xxxvi, 16 ; Hos. vi, 4, &c.) It appears from 
 the emphasis of the original in Zeph. ii, 2, that in this 
 respect, in a right and sober sense, God travaileth as it were 
 with anger. When the cry of our sins comes first to heaven, 
 he doth not presently pour upon our heads fire and brim- 
 stone, according to our desert ; but as loath to enter into 
 judgment with us, he then but begins to conceive, as it 
 were, wrath, which he bears, or rather forbears, full many 
 and many a month ; still waiting, when upon our re- 
 pentance he might "be gracious unto us;" until it come 
 to that ripeness by the fulness and intolerable weight 
 
 2 A 
 
266 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 of our sins that, he can possibly bear no longer. And then 
 also, when he is about to be delivered of his justly-con- 
 ceived and long-forborne vengeance, mark how he goes 
 about it: "Ah!" says he (Isa. i, 24). This aspiration 
 argues a compassionate pang of grief, speaking after the 
 manner of men, to proceed against his own people, though 
 they had provoked him as enemies. "How shall I give 
 thee up, Ephraim ? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How 
 shall 1 make thee as Admah ? How shall I set thee as 
 Zeboim? ]\iine heart is turned within me : my lepentings 
 are kindled together" (Hos. xi, 8). When he came against 
 Sodom and Gomorrah, the most prodigiously wicked people 
 that ever the earth bore, what a miracle of mercy was it 
 that he should be brought so low as to say, "I will not 
 destroy it for ten's sake " (Gen. xviii, 32). 
 
 So it is, then, that mercy flows naturally and easily from 
 God, and he is most forward and free-hearted in granting 
 pardons and receiving into grace and favour. But justice is 
 ever, as it were, violently with " cart-ropes of iniquity" 
 pulled from him. He is pressed with our sins, as a cart is 
 pressed that is full of sheaves, before we wring from him 
 the vials of just wrath, and wrest out of iiis hands the 
 arrows of deserved indignation. That you err not in this 
 point, conceive thai both God's mercy and justice are ori- 
 ginally and fundamentally, as God himself, infinite; both 
 of the same length, height, breadth, and depth; that is, 
 equally endless, boundless, bottomless, unsearchable. Yet, 
 if we consider the exercise and execution of them amongst 
 the creatures and abroad in the world ; mercy, that sweetest 
 attribute and most precious balm to all bruised hearts, doth 
 far surpass and outshine the other though incomparable ex- 
 cellencies of his divine nature, and all the perfections which 
 accompany the greatness of God ; as appears Exod. xx, 5, 6; 
 Gen. xviii, 32; Joel ii, 13 ; Jonah iv, 2; Psalm xxxvi, and 
 ciii ; 2 Chron. xxi, 13. His influences and beams of mercy 
 are fairly and plentifully shed into the bosom of every crea- 
 ture, and shine gloriously over all the earth, even from one 
 end of heaven to the other. The whole world is thickly set 
 and richly embroidered as it were with wonderful variety of 
 impressions and passa;^es of his goodness and bounty. In 
 this great volume of nature round about us we may run and 
 read the deep prints and large characters of kindness and 
 love, which his merciful and munificent hand hath left in 
 all places, in every leaf, and page, and line of it. If mercy 
 then be so graciously magnified over all his works, Me may 
 more strongly build upon it, that if the hand of justice seize 
 upon a hateful thought as a murderer and stained with 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCI':S. 267 
 
 blood, and arraign a lustful thought as guilty of adultery 
 and actual pollution ; his arms of mercy will most certainly 
 embrace and accept of a sincere desire of the deed done, of 
 hearty affections for the actions, and of a grieved spirit for 
 the grace it groans for. 
 
 Yea, but, may some say, if mercy be so fair a flower in 
 the garland of God's incomprehensible greatness, if it so 
 far excel his other attributes in amiableness amongst his 
 creatures, how comes it to pass that the number of his elect 
 is so small, and the sway of the multitude sink down urider 
 the burthen of their iniquities, transgressions, and sins, into 
 the pit of endless perdition? How comes it to pass, that 
 out of the great heap and mass of all mankind, there are 
 made but so few vessels of mercy ; and that so many vessels 
 of wrath are justly for their sins filled brini full with the 
 vials of everlasting vengeance? See Matt, vii, 13, 14 ; and 
 XX, 16. 
 
 Some matter of answer to this point (would ye think it?) 
 may be taken even from the schoolmen. 
 
 If we consider, first, the inconceivable eminency and in- 
 valuable worth of the crown of glory, which doth so far and 
 disproporlionabiy surpass and transcend the common slate 
 and condition of our nature. Secondly, the preciousness of 
 the effusion of the blood of the dear and only Son of God 
 for the purchasing of that so glorious a crown. Thirdly, the 
 necessary and inevitable defectibility of the creature. 
 Fourthly, the most free and wilful apostasy of Adam, and 
 in him of all his posterity. Fifthly, the abominable and 
 villanous nature and stain of sin. Why should we^not, 
 therefore, rather wonder at the unsearchableness of God's 
 mercy for advancing one soul to that endless bliss in heaven, 
 than repine at the equity of his justice, if he should have 
 suffered all the polluted and sini'ul sons of Adam to pass 
 from the mass of corruption into which they freely fell of 
 their own accord and cursed choice, through a rebellious 
 life, into the endless miseries of their deserved confusion ? 
 Would it not have been a greater marvel to have seen any 
 one clearly convinced and found guilty of that rnost horrible 
 villany that ever was bred in hell, or heard of in the world 
 (I mean the Popish powder treason), pardoned, than all 
 those desperate assassins to have justly perished in their so 
 abhorred and execrable rebellion? And it is utterly unima- 
 ginable, either by man or angel, what a deal of mercy doth 
 flow out of the bowels of God's dearest compassions, through 
 the heart's blood of his only Son, to the washing and salva- 
 tion but of one soul ! 
 
•268 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 The former Principla confirmed by Two more Reasons, and by 
 Aatliority. 
 
 Reason 3. A third reason may be taken from its part and 
 interest in the fountain of salvation and rivers of living 
 water. He that thirsts after grace is already entitled to the 
 well of life and fulness of heavenly bliss, by a promise from 
 God's own mouth, in Kev. xxi, 6, " I will give to him 
 that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." 
 In that place, after God himself had confirmed and crowned 
 the truth and certainty of the gloriousness of the holy city, 
 and the happiness of the inhabitants thereof, with a solemn 
 asseveration of his own immutability and everlastingness — 
 " It is done. 1 am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and 
 the end" — he then notifies and describes the persons to 
 whom the promise and possession of so great and excellent 
 glory doth appertain, and those also which shall be eter- 
 nally abandoned from the presence of God, and burned in 
 the lake of fire and brimstone for ever. 
 Inhabitants of heaven elect are : — 
 
 1. Humble souls, thirsting after grace, God's favour, and 
 that blessed fountain open to all broken hearts for sin and 
 uncleanness, "1 will give to him that is athirst of the well 
 of the water of life freely" (ver. 6). 
 
 2. Christ's champions here upon earth against the powers 
 of darkness, and conquerors of their own corruptions. " He 
 that overcometh shall inherit all things ; and i will be his 
 God, and he shall be my son" (ver. 7). But the fearful, 
 &CC. are marked out for hell (ver. 8); for all that cursed 
 crew and slaves of sin are overcome of Satan and their own 
 lusts, and so carried away captives into everlasting misery 
 and woe. 
 
 Cast not away thy confidence then, poor heart ; no, not 
 in the lowest languishings of thy afflicted soul. If thou be 
 able to say sincerely with David (Psalm cxliii), " My soul 
 thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land ;" if thou feel in thy 
 affections a hearty hunger after righteousness, both infused 
 and imputed, as well after power against, as pardon of sin ; 
 be assured the well of life stands already wide open unto 
 thee, and in due time thou shalt drink thy fill. Thy soul 
 shall be fully satisfied with the excellencies of Jesus Christ, 
 evangelical joys, " as with marrow and fatness," and thou 
 shalt be abundantly refreshed out of the river of his plea- 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 269 
 
 Ueason 4. That which Paul tells us in the point of com- 
 municating to the necessities of the saints ; to wit, " If 
 there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that 
 a man hath, and not according to that he hath not" (2 Cor. 
 viii, 12), holds true also in all other services and divine du- 
 ties ; so that we are accepted with the Lord accordingly as 
 we are inwardly affected, although our actions be not an- 
 swerable to our desires. He that hath a ready and resolved 
 mind to do what he may, would undoubtedly do a great 
 deal more if ability were ministered. God, saith Paul, 
 " worketh both to will and to do." If both be his own 
 works, the desire as well as the deed, he must needs love 
 and like both the one and the other, both in respect of ac- 
 ceptation and reward. David did but conceive a purpose to 
 build God a house, and he rewarded it with the building 
 and establishing of his own house (2 Sam. vii, 16). He did 
 but conceive a purpose to confess his sin, and God's ear was 
 in his heart before David's confession could be in his tongue 
 (Psalm xxxii, 5). To poor beggars that wanted food for 
 themselves, Christ shall say at the last day, Ye have fed 
 me when I was hungry, only in regard of their strong affec- 
 tions if they had had means. The prodigal child, when he 
 was but conceiving a purpose of returning, was prevented 
 by his father first coming to him ; nay, running towards him 
 (Luke XV, 20). God will answer us before we call (Isa. 
 Ixv, 24) ; that is, in our purpose of prayer. 
 
 Besides scripture and reasons, I add ancient a,nd modern 
 authority ; not for any other confirmation, but only to show 
 consent. 
 
 " To desire the help of grace is the beginning of grace," 
 saith Austin*. 
 
 " Only thou must will, and God will come of his own 
 accord," saith Basil t. 
 
 " He that thirsts, let him thirst more ; and he that desires, 
 let him yet desire more abundantly ; because, so much as he 
 can desire, so much he shall receive." — Bernard t. 
 
 " Christ," saith Luther§, " is then truly omnipotent, and 
 then truly reigns in us, when we are so weak that we can 
 scarce give any groan." 
 
 Again : " The more we find our unworthiness, and the 
 less we find the promises to belong unto us, the more we 
 must desire them ; being assured that this desire doth greatly 
 please God, who desiieth and willeth that his grace should 
 be earnestly desired ||." 
 
 * Lib. tie Correptioiic ct Gratia, cap. i. t 8erm. de Penitentia. 
 
 t De Lectione Evaugelica, senn.i. i Tom. iv, p. 124. 
 
 II Ibid, r- 300. 
 
 2A 3 
 
270 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 " When I have a good desire," saith Kemnicius*, " though 
 it doth scarcely show itself in some little and slender sigh, 
 1 must be assured that the Spirit of God is present, and 
 worketh his good work." 
 
 '' Faith," saith Ursint, "in the most holy man in this life, 
 is imperfect and weak ; yet, nevertheless, whosoever feels in 
 his heart an earnest desire and striving against his natural 
 doublings, both can and must assure himself that he is en- 
 dued with true faith." 
 
 " If thou shalt feel thyself," saith RollocJ, " to believe in 
 Christ, and that for Christ ; or at least, if thou canst not 
 forthwith attain that, if thou feel thyself willing to believe 
 in Christ for Christ, and willing to do all things for God's 
 sake and sincerely, thou hast certainly a very excellent ar- 
 gument, both of perseverance in faith, and of that faith 
 which shall last for ever." 
 
 " Our faith may be so small and weak," saith Taffin§, 
 " that it doth not yet bring forth fruits that may be lively 
 felt in us ; but if they which feel themselves in such estate 
 desire to have these feelings (namely, of God's favour and 
 love) ; if they ask them at God's hands by prayer, this de- 
 sire and prayer are testimonies that the Spirit of God is in 
 them, and that they have faith already. For is such a de- 
 sire a fruit of the flesh or of the Spirit] It is of the iloly 
 Spirit, who bringeth it forth only in such as he dwells in." 
 
 " Is it possible," saith Hooker||, speaking of Valentinian 
 the emperor, out of Ambrose, " that he which had purposely 
 the Spirit given him to desire grace, should not receive the 
 grace which that Spirit did desire?" 
 
 " Where we cannot do what is enjoined us, God accepteth 
 our will to do, instead of the deed itself^f." 
 
 " I am troubled with fear that my sins are not pardoned, 
 saith Careless. They are, answered Bradford ; for God 
 hath given thee a penitent and believing heart ; that is, a 
 heart which desireth to repent and believe. For such a one 
 is taken of him ( he accepting the will for the deed) for a 
 penitent and believing heart**. 
 
 * Loc. Com. par. i. t Catechis. t On John v. 
 
 ^ I n his Marks of God's Children. || Lib. v, sec. Ix. 
 
 % Ibid. ** Acts and Monuments, Bradford's Letter to Careless. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 271 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 By uiiut Marks true Desires of Grace in us may be known. 
 
 BtFORE 1 come to the use of this comfortable point, lest any 
 deceive themselves about it, as the notorious sinner, the 
 mere civil man, and the formal professor may all do very 
 easily, take notice of some marks of this saving desire. 
 It is— 
 
 1. Supernatural ; for it follows an effectual conviction of 
 sin and co-operation of the spirit of bondage with the 
 preaching and power of the law ; for a thorough casting a 
 man down in the sight of the Lord, showing and convincing 
 him to be a sink of sin, abomination, and curse ; to be quite 
 undone, lost, and ruined in himself (which preparative 
 work, precedent to the desire I speak of, is itself above 
 nature); whereupon the soul thus enlightened, convinced, 
 and terrified, being happily led unto and looking upon the 
 glorious mystery of the gospel, the excellency and otier of 
 Jesus Christ, the sweetness and freeness of the promises, 
 the heavenly splendour and riches of " the pearl of great 
 price," doth conceive by the help of the Holy Ghost this 
 desire and vehement longing, which you may then know to 
 be saving, when it is joined with a hearty willingness and 
 unfeigned resolution to sell all, to part with all sin, and to 
 bid adieu for ever to our darling delight. It is not then an 
 effect only of self-love, not an ordinary wish of natural ap- 
 petite, like Balaam's (Numb, xxiii, 10) ; of those who desire 
 to be happy, but are unwilling to be holy ; who would 
 gladly be saved, but are loath to be sanctified. 
 
 2. It ever springs from a humble, meek, and bruised spi- 
 rit ; very sensible, both of the horror of sin and happiness of 
 pardon ; both of its own emptiness and of the fulness in 
 Christ ; never to be found in the affections of a self-ignorant, 
 self-confident, unhumbled phaiisee. 
 
 3. It must be constant, importunately greedy after supply 
 and satisfaction. Not out of a pang or passion only, or 
 begot by the tempest of some present extremity, like a flash 
 of lightning, and ihen quite vanishing away when the storm 
 of terror and tempation is over. For if a sincere thii st after 
 Christ be once on foot, and takes root in a heart truly hum- 
 bled, it never determines or expires in this life or the life to 
 come. 
 
 4. It is ever linked and enlivened with a continued and 
 conscientious use and exercise of the means ; and draws 
 
272 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 from them, by little and little, spiritual strength and vigour, 
 much vital efficacy and increase. Not idle, ignorant, un- 
 exercised. It were very vain and absurd to hear a man 
 talk of his desire to live, and yet would neither eat nor 
 drink, nor sleep, nor exercise, nor take physic, nor use 
 those means which are ordinary and necessary for the 
 maintenance of life. It is as fruitless and foolish for any 
 one to pretend a desire of grace after Christ, and to be 
 saved, and yet will not prize and use the faithful ministry, 
 the word preached and read, prayer, meditation, conference, 
 vows, days of humiliation, the use of good company and 
 good books, and all divine ordinances and blessed means 
 appointed and sanctified by God for the procuring and pre- 
 serving a good spiritual state. 
 
 5. It is not a lazy, cold, heartless, indifferent desire, but 
 earnest, eager, vehement, extremely thirsting, as the parched 
 earth for refreshing showers, or the hunted hart for the 
 water-brooks. Never was Ahab more sick for a vineyard ; 
 Rachel more ready to die for children ; .Sisera or Sampson 
 for thirst, than a truly humbled soul after Jesus Christ, 
 after bathing in his blood and hiding itself in his blessed 
 righteousness. This desire deadens the heart to all other 
 desires after earthly things, gold, good-fellowship, pleasures, 
 fashions, even the delights of the bosom sin. All other 
 things are but dross and dung, vanity and vile in respect of 
 that object it hath now found out and affects. As Aaron's 
 rod, managed miraculously by the hand of Divine power, 
 swallowed up all the other rods of Pharaoh's sorcerers, so 
 this spiritual desire, planted in the heart by the Holy Ghost, 
 eats up and devours all other desires and over-eager affec- 
 tions after worldly contentments, as worthless, vain, tran- 
 sitory ; as empty clouds, wells without water, comforters 
 of no value. We that deal with afflicted consciences hear 
 many times some expressions of this impatient, violent de- 
 sire in troubled minds. " I have borne nine childien," 
 said one, "with as great pain I think as other women. I 
 would with all my heart bear them over a^ain, and pass 
 again through the same intolerable pangs every day, as 
 long as I live, to be assured of my part in Jesus Christ." 
 Complaining another time that she had no hold of Christ, 
 it was said unto her : But doth not your heart desire and 
 long after him ! " Oh ! " says she, " I have a husband and 
 children, and many other comforts ; I would give them all, 
 and all tlie good I shall ever see in this world or in the 
 world to come, to have my poor thirsty soul refreshed with 
 that precious blood of his." 
 
 6. It is growing from appetite to endeavour, from endea- 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 273 
 
 vour to action ; from action to habit ; from habit to some 
 comfortable perfection and stature in Christ. If it be 
 quite quenched and extinguished when the spiritual an- 
 guish and agony is over, or stand at a stay, never trans- 
 cending the nature of a naked wish, it is to be reputed 
 rootless, heartless, graceless. There are Christians that lie 
 as yet, as it were, struggling in the womb of the church, 
 who, for a time at the least, live spiritually only by grievings 
 and groans, by hearty desires, eager longings, and affec- 
 tionate stirrings of spirit : there are also babes in Christ ; 
 young men in Christ; strong men in Christ ; old Christians. 
 A perpetual infancy argues a nullity of sound and saving 
 Christianity. The child that never passeth the stature and 
 state of an infant will prove a monster. He that grows not 
 by the sincere milk of the word is a true changeling, not 
 truly changed. He that rests with contentment upon a desire 
 only of good things, never desired them savingly. But 
 here, lest any tender conscience be unnecessarily troubled, 
 1 must confess, it is not so growing as I have said, or not so 
 sensibly, at certain times — as while the pangs of the new- 
 birth are upon us, in times of desertion, temptation, though 
 even then it grows in a holy impatiency, restlessness, and 
 longing, which is well-pleasing unto the Father of mercies, 
 and which he accepts graciously until he give more 
 strength. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 Two especial Times wlierein the former Principle is to be applied. 
 
 The point thus cleared is very sweet and sovereign ; but 
 so that no carnal man must come near it, no stranger meddle 
 with it, much less swine trample upon it. It is a jewel for 
 the true-hearted Nathanael's wearing alone. Nay, the 
 Christian himself, in the time of his soul's health, height of 
 feeling, and flourishing of his faith, must hold off his hand ; 
 only let him keep it fresh and orient in the cabinet of his 
 memory, as a very rich pearl against the day of spiritual 
 distress. As precious and cordial waters are to be given 
 only in swoonings, faintings, and defection of the spirits ; 
 so this delicious manna is to be ministered specially, and 
 to be made use of in the straits and extremities of the soul, 
 at such times and in such cases as these : In 
 
 1. The strugglings of the new-birth. 
 
 2. Spiritual desertions. 
 
274 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 3. Strong temptations. 
 
 4. Extraordinary troubles upon our last bed. 
 
 1. When thou art once come so far as I intimated before ; 
 to wit, that after a thorough conviction of sin, and sound 
 humiliation under God's mighty hand, upon a timely and 
 seasonable revelation of the glorious mystery of Christ, his 
 excellencies, invitations, his truth, tender-heartedness (for 
 the desire I speak of is an effect and affection wrought ever 
 immediately by the gospel alone) ; 1 say, when in this case 
 thine heart is filled with vehement longings after the Lord 
 of life, if ihou be able to say with David, " jMy soul thirsteth 
 after thee, as a thirsty land" (Psalm cxliii, 6) ; if thou feel 
 in thy-elf a hearty hunger and thirst after the favour of 
 God, that fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, and 
 fellowship with Christ, assuredly then the well of life is 
 already opened unto thee by the hand of thy faithful Re- 
 deemer, and in due time thou shalt drink thy fill. He that 
 is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the eter- 
 nal and unchangeable God, hath promised it. And amidst 
 the sorrows of thy trembling heart, and longings of thy 
 thirsty soul, thou mayest even challenge it at his hands 
 with a humble, sober, and zealous confidence. As did that 
 Scottish penitent (George Sprot) a little before his execu- 
 tion. He freely *' confessed his fault, to the shame, as he 
 said, of himself, and to the shame of the devil, but to the 
 glory of God. He acknowledged it to be so heinous and 
 horrible, that had he a thousand lives, and could he die ten 
 thousand deaths, he could not make satisfaction. Not- 
 withstanding, said he, Lord, thou hast left me this comfort 
 in thy word, that thou hast said, ' Come unto me all ye that 
 are weary and laden, and I will refresh you.' Lord. I am 
 weary ; Lord, I am heavily laden with my sins, which are 
 innumerable. I am ready to sink, Loid, even to hell, with- 
 out thou in thy mercy put to thine hand and deliver me. 
 Lord, thou hast promised by thine own word, out of thine 
 own mouth, that thou wilt refresh the weary soul. And 
 with that he thrusts out one of his hands; and reaching 
 as high as he could, with a louder and a strained voice 
 cried, I challenge thee, Lord, by that word, and by that 
 promise which thou hast made, that thou perform and 
 make it good unto me that call for ease and mercy at 
 thine hands." Proportionably when heavy-heartedness for 
 sin hath so dried up thy bones, and the angry counte- 
 nance of God so parched thine heart that thy poor soul be- 
 gins to gasp for grace, as the thirsty land for drops of rain, 
 thou mayest, though dust and ashes, with a holy humility 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 275 
 
 thus speak unto thy gracious God. O merciful Lord God, 
 thou art Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. 
 Thou sayest, It is done, of things that are yet to come, so 
 faithful and true are thy decrees and promises. And thou 
 hast promised by thine own word out of thine own mouth, 
 that " unto him that is athirst, thou wilt give of the fountain 
 of the water of life freely" (Rev. xxi, 6). O Lord, I thirst, 
 I faint, i languish, I long for one drop of mercy. " As the 
 hart panteth for the water brooks, so panieth my soul after 
 thee, O God," and after the yearning bowels of thy wonted 
 compassions. Had I now in possession the glory, the 
 "wealth, and the pleasures of the whole world ; nay, had I ten 
 thousand lives, joyfully would I lay them all down and part 
 with them to have this poor trembling soul of mine received 
 into the bleeding arms of my blessed Redeemer. O Lord, 
 and thou only knowest it, my spirit within me is melted 
 into tears of blood, ray heart is shivered into pieces. Out 
 of the very place of dragors and shadow of death do I lift 
 up my thoughts, heavy and sad, before thee ; the remem- 
 brance of my former vanities and pollutions is sickening to 
 my soul ; and it is sorely wounded with the grievous re- 
 presentation thereof. The very flames of hell, Lord ! the 
 fury of thy just wrath, the scorchings of mine own con- 
 science, have so wasted and parched mine heart, that my 
 thirst is insatiable. JNly bowels are hot within me ; my de- 
 sire after Jesus Christ, pardon, and grace, is greedy as the 
 grave; "the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a 
 most vehement flame." And, Lord, in thy blessed book 
 thou callest and criest, " Ho ! every one that thirsteth, 
 come ye to the waters," &c. (Isa. Iv, 1). " In that great 
 day of the feast, thou stoodest and criedst with thine own 
 mouthj saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me 
 and drink" (John vii, 37). And these are thine own 
 words, those " who hunger and thirst after righteousness 
 shall be filled" (Watt, v, 6). I challenge thee. Lord, in 
 this my extremest thirst after thine own blessed self, and 
 spiritual life in thee, by that word, and by that promise 
 which thou hast made, that thou perform and make it good 
 unto me that lie grovelling in the dust and trembling at thy 
 feet. Oh! open now that promised "well of life;" fori 
 must drink, or else I die. 
 
 Here then, and in a word, is thy comfort : in these hun- 
 gerings and thirstings of ihe soul, there is as it were the 
 seed of faith, there is something of faith in them, as excel- 
 lent divines both for learning and holiness do affirm. How- 
 soever, or in Avhat phrase soever it be expressed, sure I am, 
 
276 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 such desires, so qualified as before, shall be fulfilled, satis- 
 fied, accomplished, possessed of the well of life ; and that 
 is abundant to put the thirsting party into a comfortable 
 and saving state. The words of Scripture are punctual and 
 downright for this. " Blessed are they which do hunger 
 and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled " 
 (Matt. V, 6). "If any man thirst, let him come unto me 
 and drink" (John vii, 37). "The Loid heareth the desire 
 of the humble" (Psalm x, 17). " He will fulfil the desire 
 of them that fear him" (Psalm cxlv, 19). "The Lord 
 filleth the hungry with good things" (Luke i, 53). "Let 
 him that is athirst. come. And whosoever will, let him 
 take the water of life freely" (Rev. xxii, 17). " Ho ! every 
 one that ihiisteth, come ye to the waters" &c. (Isa. Iv, 1). 
 " I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon 
 the dry ground" (Isa. xliv, 3). These longings and de- 
 sires, this hunger and thirst, before a sensible apprehension 
 and enjoyment of Christ, arise from a sense of the necessity 
 and want of his blessed person and precious bloodshed, 
 which the afflicted soul now prizeth before ten thousand 
 worlds : and for whose sake is most willing to sell all, and 
 to abandon wholly the devil's service for ever. Those, after 
 a full entrance into the holy path, and joyful grasping of 
 the Lord Jesus in the arms of our faith, arise partly from 
 the former state of unutterable sweetness we found in him ; 
 partly from the want of a more full and farther fruition of 
 hiu), especially when he is departed, in respect of present 
 feeling ; as in times of desertion, extraordinary temptation, 
 &c. In the passage that is past 1 understand the former ; 
 in those that follow, the latter. 
 
 2. Concerning desertions, I intend a larger anvl moie 
 particular discourse ; and therefore 1 pass by them here. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 Two other especial Times wherein use is to be made of the former 
 Principle. 
 
 3. We may have recourse for comfort to this precious point 
 in some special temptations of doubtfulness and fear about 
 our spiritual state. When spiritual life is run, as it were, 
 into the root in some particulars, and actual abilities to 
 exercise some graces and discharge some duties aie returned 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 277 
 
 to nothing for the present, but groans, desires, and longings 
 to do as God would have us. 
 
 For instance : — 
 
 Thou art much afflicted, because thou feelest the spirit of 
 prayer not to stir and work in thee with that life and vigour 
 as it was wont ; but beginnest to languish in the inward man 
 for lack of that vital heat and feeling in the mutual inter- 
 course and commerce between God and thine own soul, 
 which heretofore many times warned thine heart with many 
 sweet refreshings, springing from a comfortable correspon- 
 dence between thy holy ejaculations and his heavenly in- 
 spirations ; between thine humble complaints at the throne 
 of grace and his gracious answers; nay, it maybe, thou 
 throwest down thyself before his seat of mercy in much 
 bitterness of spirit ; and for the time can say little or 
 nothing ; the present dulness and indisposition of thine 
 heart stopping all passages to thy wonted prayers, and 
 damming up, as it were, the ordinary course of thy most 
 blessed heart-ravishing conference with thy God in secret. 
 But tell me true, poor soul, though at such a time, and in 
 such an uncomfortable damp and spiritual deadness, thou 
 feelest not thine heart enabled and enlarged for the pre ent, 
 to pour out itself with accustomed fervency and freedom ; 
 yet doth not that heart of thine with an unutterable thirst 
 and desire long to offer up unto his throne of grace thy 
 suits and sacrifices of prayer and praises with that hearti- 
 ness and feeling, with all those broken and bleeding affec- 
 tions, which a grieved sense of sin that hangs so l^ast on, 
 and a holy greediness after pardon, grace, and nearer com- 
 munion with his heavenly highness, are wont to beget in 
 truly humbled souls 1 If so, assure thyself this very desire 
 is a prayer of extraordinary strength, dearness, and accep- 
 tation with thy God ; — I say, with that thy merciful Lord 
 God, who is as far more compassionately and lovingly af- 
 fected to his child, than the kindest father to his dearliest 
 beloved Son ; as the infinite love of a tender-hearted God 
 doth surpass the faint affection of a frail and mortal man. 
 Suppose thy dearest child were in great extremity, and 
 should at last grow so low and weak, that it were not able 
 to speak, but only groan and sigh, and cast its eye upon 
 thee, as one from whom alone it looked for help. Would 
 not thine heart melt over thy child a great deal more in 
 that misery than ever before when it was able to express its 
 mind? I am sure it would. It is just so in the present 
 point : for " like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord 
 pitieth them that fear him." Nay, and much more, if we 
 consider the amount and quantity. For look how far God 
 
 ■2 B 
 
278 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 is higher than man in majesty and greatness, which is with 
 an infinite distance and disproportion ; so fai doth he pass 
 him in tender-heartedness and mercy. See Isa. Iv, 8, 9. 
 
 Thou mayest sometimes upon the awakening, illumina- 
 tion, and search of thy conscience after some drowsy repose, 
 and deeper sleep upon the bed of security ; some fouler 
 ensnarement and longer abode in some knows scandalous 
 sin, after the canker of earthly cares and teeth of v/orldly 
 mindedness have, ere thou be well aware, with an in- 
 sensible pleasing consumption eaten too far into the 
 heart of thy zeal and other graces ; in the apprehension 
 of some present terror, arising from a more serious 
 and sensible survey of the new abhorred villanies and 
 abominations of thine unregenerate time; or from the 
 grieved remembrance of thy falls and failings ; of thy sins 
 and unserviceableness since thy conversion, which I am 
 persuaded trouble the Christian most, and go nearest to his 
 heart, &c. ; — I say, in such cases as these thou mayest feel 
 such a fearfulness and faintness to have surprised the hand 
 of thy faith, that it cannot so presently and easily recover 
 its former hold ; nor clasp about the glorious justice and 
 meritorious blood of Christ with that fastness and firmness 
 of assent, with that comfort and confidence, as it was wont. 
 So that for a time thou mayest lie under the torture of a 
 heavy heart, uncheerfulness in all thy ways, and some de- 
 gree of horror, because thou canst get no better hold-fast. 
 But more is thy fault ; for never did dearest father so 
 lovingly entertain into his greedy arms a penitent sou, re- 
 turning from going astray, than our merciful God upon thy 
 renewed humiliation is willing to shine upon thee again 
 with the refreshing beams and blessings of his wonted fa- 
 vour. Yet tell me true, dear heart, though for the present 
 that precious and happy prayer of Paul for the Romans, 
 " The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believ- 
 ing" (Rom. XV, 13), be not fulfilled upon thy soul ; though 
 thy former joyful feelings be turned into distrustful fears ; 
 yet doth not that heavy heart of thine desire far more to be 
 recomforted with the presence and pleased face of thy be- 
 loved, than crowned with the glory and pleasures of many 
 worlds? Wouldst thou not much rather feel the hand of 
 thy faith fastened again with peace and full persuasion 
 upon the person, passion, and piomises of the Lord Jesus, 
 than grasp in thy bodily hand the richest imperial crown 
 that ever sat upon any Cesar's head? If Satan's spiteful 
 craft, taking a cruel advantage of thy present dejection of 
 spirit, do not hinder thy trembling heart from telling the 
 truth, I know thou canst not deny this. And then I must 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 279 
 
 tell thee, these hearty longings and lorkging desires in the 
 mean time, until God give more strength, be right dear to 
 that tender-hearted Father of thine, who doth infinitely 
 more esteem one groan or sigh from a broken spirit, than 
 " a thousand rams, or ten thousand rivers of oil," and are 
 most precious and piercing to that compassionate heart, that 
 poured out its warmest and dearest blood to purchase the 
 salvation and refresh the sadness of every truly humbled 
 soul. Ground upon it then, and be of good cheer. If thy 
 troubled spirit, filled with the sense of the want of its former 
 sweet and joyful feelings, find in itself a true and hearty 
 longing after the supply of that want; a constant and con- 
 scientious pursuit of all holy means for the procurement of 
 that supply, I can assure thee in the word of life and truth, 
 in God's season thou shalt be satisfied. " He will fulhl the 
 desire of them tliat fear him ; he also will hear their cry 
 and will save them" (Psalm cxlv, 19). And this blessed 
 promise for the accomplishment of thy desire is as surely 
 thine as the breath in thy body. He must sooner cease to 
 be God, and deny himself, which is more than infinitely 
 impossible and prodigious blasphemy to imagine, than fail 
 in the least circumstance or syllable of all his love and pro- 
 mises of life to any one that heartily loves him. All the 
 sacred sayings in his holy book, and all those promises of 
 salvation, are signed with the hand of truth itself, and sealed 
 with the blood of his beloved Son ; and so are far surer than 
 the pillars of the earth, or poles of heaven : for heaven and 
 earth must pass away before any tittle of his word fall unto 
 the ground ; and therefore, as he will most certainly pour 
 upon the hairy pate of every one which hates to be reformed 
 all the plagues and curses threatened there, even to the 
 least spark of the flames of hell ; and the last drop of the 
 full vials of his infinite, endless, unquenchable wrath ; so 
 will he abundantly make good to every upright soul, sin- 
 cerely thirsting after Jesus Christ, in the best time, all the 
 promised good in his blessed book, and that above all ex- 
 pectation, expression, or imagination. 
 
 Fourthly. Thou mayest be in many ways distressed upon 
 thy bed of death. 
 
 1. Casting thine eye back upon thy whole life, all thy 
 sins from Adam to that hour, and willing, as thou must 
 now take thy farewell so to take thy fill of repentance ; they 
 appear to the eye of thy conscience far more in number, and 
 more ugly than ever before. And no marvel ; for being 
 now sequestered for ever from all worldly comforts and 
 company, distractions and diversions, and the clouds of 
 natural fear, raised by the dreadful circumstances of ap- 
 
280 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 proaching dissolution, uniting, as it were, and collecting the 
 sight of thy soul, which employments, in the world, com- 
 merce among men, and sunshine of outward prosperity, 
 did before too much disperse, dazzle, and divert; they are 
 represented far more to the life, and in their true colours. 
 Whereupon, comparing the poor weak, nothingness, as thou 
 now apprehendest, of thy godly sorrow, hatred, and oppo- 
 sition against them, with thy present apprehension of their 
 heinousness, hatefulness, and horrible number, thou begin- 
 nest to be dejected, and knowest not well what to think of 
 thyself : I say then for thy comfort, consult with thy sanc- 
 tified heart, and thou shalt find and feel an infinite hearty 
 desire that thy repentance for them, detestation of them, 
 and heart rising against them, had been, and now were as 
 thorough, sound, and resolute as ever was in any penitent 
 soul that breathed the lite of grace upon earth. 
 
 2. Revising now thy whole Christian conversation, spend- 
 ing of sabbaths, pouring out prayers, reading scriptures, 
 hearing the word, love of the brethren, days of humiliation, 
 works of mercy, receiving the sacrament, godly conference, 
 living by faith in all estates, Sec, thou mayest see them in 
 this last, impartial, clear, retired examination of thy con- 
 science, to have been beset with so many failings, imper- 
 fections, deadness of spirit, distractions, distempers, that 
 thou beginnest to fear and conceive thou mightest as well 
 never have entered the Christian course at all as to have 
 made so little progress therein. In this case also reflect 
 upon the holy habitual disposition of thy heart, and thou 
 shalt feel it thirsting and longing unfeignedly that all the 
 holy duties and good deeds that ever passed through thy 
 heart and hands had been done in answerable exactness to 
 the rules of divine truth ; and, if it had so pleased God, 
 with absolute freedom from all infirmities. 
 
 3. Thou mayest be troubled at that time, because, be- 
 ing perhaps, as yet, but of little standing in profession, thou 
 hast done God so little service ; and in that short time hast 
 not stood on God's side with that courage and life, nor 
 walked in his holy ways with that watchfulness and zeal 
 as thou mightest. And it cuts thy heart the more, because 
 thou hast spent so much of thy time in serving thyself and 
 Satan, and expectesc now to enjoy immortal joys and a 
 crown of endless bliss. But here is thy comfort — it is the 
 unfeigned desire and resolution of thine heart. If the Lord 
 would be pleased to allow thee a longer time in this life, 
 and add many more years unto it, thouvvouldest double 
 thy diligence, and improve all opportunities to do thy God 
 every way far more glorious service than heretofore, all the 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 281 
 
 days of thine appointed time. Oh ! then thou wouldst do 
 so and so ! 
 
 Assure now thyself in these three cases and troubles upon 
 thy last bed, this sincere desire of thine upright soul will be 
 graciously accepted of our merciful God in the name of 
 Jesus Christ ; as though, first, thy repentance had been to 
 the full ; secondly, thy obedience to the height ; thirdly, 
 thy present promises, vows, and resolutions for future for- 
 wardness and fruitfulness performed to the utmost. For 
 when all is done, Jesus Christ is all in all. He alone is the 
 only sanctuary and tower of everlasting safety, for every 
 truly humbled soul to fly unto, both in life and death. He 
 is made untcr us " wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, 
 and redemption" (1 Cor. i, 30). 
 
 SECT. Ill, PART II. 
 
 CHAF.I. 
 
 The First particular Malady set down, with a general Principle for the 
 Cure of it. 
 
 I COME now, as I promised, to some special cures and par- 
 ticular application of comfortable antidotes to divers spiri- 
 tual maladies, of which Christians especially complain ; to 
 those terrors and temptations which are wont most to afflict 
 sin-troubled and truly humbled souls. 
 
 1. I will suppose thou art eftectually and savingly 
 wrought upon by the preaching and power of the word ; 
 enlightened and convinced to acknowledge and feel thy- 
 self to be a most sinful and cursed wretch by nature ; lost 
 and forlorn, damned and utterly undone in thyself, <Scc. ; and 
 upon the opening of the glorious mystery of the gospel, and 
 offer therein of the person and precious merits of Jesus 
 Christ, for the present binding up of thy broken heart and 
 endless blessedness, thou art ravished with extraordinary 
 admiration and affection after that " hidden treasure and 
 pearl of great price," holding thyself happy that ever 
 thou wast born, and made for ever if thou canst get posses- 
 sion of it ; but a lost man if thou canst not get it, and an 
 everlasting castaway. Most willing therefore art thou to 
 " sell all that thou hast; " prizing it infinitely before the 
 riches, glory, and pleasures of the whole earth. In which 
 state thou hast a strong, direct, and special calling to fill 
 thine hungry soul with Jesus Christ ; to lay hold upon his 
 
 2 B 3 
 
^282 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 person, sufferings, promises, and all the rich purchases of 
 his dearest blood as thine own for ever ; to take him as 
 thy " wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and 
 redemption ; " that so " unspeakable joy, and full of glory," 
 " peace which passeth all understanding," evangelical 
 pleasures, which " neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nei- 
 ther have entered into the heart of man," might abun- 
 dantly flow into thine heart from the " fountain of all com- 
 fort." But yet so it is, alledging that thou art the unwor- 
 thiest upon earth, the vilest of men ; no heart so hard as 
 thine ; thy sins far above ordinary ; of an abominable and 
 most abhorred strain ; of a scarlet and crimson dye; for 
 thou hast done so and so ; sinned many and many a time 
 against that divine, nay and even natural light, which stood 
 in thy conscience like an armed man ; persecuted the 
 saints ; lived in Sodom ; and that which troubles thee most 
 of all, for all these sins thy sorrow is very poor and scant, 
 in no proportion to thy former heinous provocations: — I 
 say upon these, and the like mistaken grounds, thou very 
 unadvisedly professest, but against thine own soul, that as 
 yet thou canst not, thou darest not, thou wilt not meddle 
 with any mercy, apply any promise, or be persuaded that 
 Jesus Christ belongs unto thee. What! such a vile, un- 
 worthy, abominable wreicli as thou, to expect such glorious 
 things, to come near so pure a God, to lay violent hands 
 upon the Lord of life, and look for everlasting bliss ! Alas ! 
 say what you will, sayest thou, as yet 1 cannot, I dare 
 not, I will not. Whereupon thou wilfully, as it were, 
 liest still jupon the rack of much spiritual terror and trou- 
 ble of mind ; and, which is a miserable addition and mis- 
 chief, for which thou mayest thank thyself, art all the 
 while far more liable and liest much more open to Satan's 
 most horrible injections, and cruellest temptations to self- 
 destruction, despair, plunging again into former pleasures 
 of good-fellowship, and the like. 
 
 It grieves me to consider how fearfully and falsely thou 
 deceivest thine own heart in a point of so great importance, 
 to thy much spiritual hurt and further horror. Why, this it 
 is which maketh thee most welcome to Jesus Christ; be- 
 cause thou art so sensible of thy spiritual misery and beg- 
 gary ; because thou art so vile, so abominable, so unwor- 
 thy and wretched in thine own conceit. " Those that be 
 whole, need not a physician, but they that are sick. Christ 
 came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mat. ix, 
 12,13). And in this respect he is said to " justify the un- 
 godly " (Rom. iv, 5) ; and to " die for the unjust" (1 Pet. 
 iii, 10) ; and to seek those that find themselves lost : and 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 283 
 
 therefore that which thou makest thy greatest discourage- 
 ment to come unto ("hrist, should be, and in truth is the 
 greatest encouragement to cast thyself with confidence into 
 tiie bosom of his love. 
 
 But before 1 come to speak more fully to the point, let 
 me premise this principle : — 
 
 When a man is once sincerely humbled under God's 
 mighty hand, with sight of sin and sense of divine wrath ; 
 so that now all his former wicked ways, pollutions, and pro- 
 vocations of God's pure eye, lie so heavy upon his heart, 
 that he is truly weary, willing to be rid of them all, un- 
 feignedly thirsting after the blood and righteousness of 
 Christ ; and therefore as well content to take upon him his 
 sweet and easy yoke, to please him in new obedience 
 for the time to come, as to partake of the merit of his pas- 
 sion for the present pardon of his sins : — I say then he 
 must conceive that he hath a sound, seasonable, and com- 
 fortable calling to lay fast hold upon Jesus Christ, and to 
 be undoubtedly persuaded that he hath his part and por- 
 tion in him. And besides that God's blessed word deter- 
 mines it, he may the rather assent unto it and the more 
 boldly believe it, because he hath now found and feels by 
 his own expeiience the practice of that double policy of 
 the devil, so often discovered unto him heretofore by God's 
 faithful messengers ; to wit, that whereas he was a long 
 time uiOit industrious to keep his heart resolutely stubborn 
 and unstirred against the might and piercing of the most 
 powerful ministry, and when at any time he once perceived 
 it to begin to work upon him, raised all possible opposition 
 against his yielding ; so now, when he is truly touched in- 
 deed and resolute to abandon his hellish slavery for ever, 
 he labours might and main, with all restless cruelty and 
 malice, to keep his conscience continually upon the rack. 
 To this purpose he objects and urges to the utmost the 
 heinousness of his former sins, the fierceness of God's 
 wrath (vyhich he cunningly concealed before), the little- 
 ness of his sorrow, his unworthiness to meddle with any 
 prouiise, and the like. And what is the reason, think you, 
 that he who was so daubing before is now so downright ? 
 he that was so indulgent before is now so desperate, and for 
 nothing but despair and damnation] It is easy to tell : for 
 tliat foul fiend knows full well, if a poor soul in the sup- 
 posed case and such a truly humbled state, shall but come 
 now, when Christ calls him, and " set to his seal that God 
 is true " (which not to do shall ever be an unmannerly mad- 
 ness, and wilful cruelty to a man's own conscience), he is 
 then quite gone out of his kingdom of darkness, and an im- 
 mortal soul is pulled out of his hellish paw for ever. This 
 
284 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 is the true reason why he so rageth when he sees a weary 
 soul make towards Jesus Christ for rest. I have often fore- 
 told you of Satan's method and malice in managing his 
 temptations in this kind, that being forewarned ye may be 
 fore-armed. He plots first, and prevails with most 
 amongst us, to keep them from terror and trouble for sin : 
 but if they be once happily wounded that way, then his 
 next plot is to allay and take away the smart by outward 
 mirth, or daub and draw over a skin only with unsound and 
 superficial comfort. But if he find that it bleeds still, and 
 will not be stanched but only by the blood of Christ, and 
 that no earthly pleasure can any whit assuage the pain ; 
 then in the third place doth he cast about and contend with 
 all cruelty to keep the poor soul in a perpetual sad, slavish 
 trembling, that it may not dare to meddle wiih any comfort, 
 or apply the promises ; but cherishing the bruise, against 
 the counsel of the prophets, bleed inwardly still. And this 
 point he plies with more eagerness and fury, because the 
 very next step, to wit, but even reaching out of this spiri- 
 tual gulf and grief for sin towards the merciful hand of 
 Christ holden out to help him up, is the next and imme- 
 diate act by which a man is quite and for ever pulled out of 
 his power and put into the paradise of grace. 
 
 Or in a word, and shorter, thus : — Though thou comest 
 freshly out of a hell of heinous sins ; and hitherto hast nei- 
 ther thought, nor spoke, nor done any thing but abomi- 
 nably ; yet if now with true remorse thou groanest under 
 them all, as a heavy burthen, and sincerely longest for the 
 Lord Jesus and newness of life, thou art bound presently, 
 immediately after that act and unfeigned resolution of thy 
 soul, to take Christ himself and all the promises of life as 
 thine own for ever. All delays, demurs, exceptions, objec- 
 tions, pretexts, standing out, scruples, distrusts, and con- 
 tradictions to the contrary, are dishonourable to God's 
 mercy and free grace, disparagement to the promises, dero- 
 gatory to the truth and tender-heartedness of Jesus Christ ; 
 an unnecessary detainment of the soul in terror, and only 
 a gratification of that roaring lion, whose trade is to tear 
 souls in pieces and torture them all he can. For as soon as 
 we are poor in spirit, we are presently blessed (Mat. v, 3) ; 
 as soon as we are weary of our sins, the hand of Christ is 
 ready to take off the burthen (Mat. xi, 28) ; as soon as we 
 thirst in the sense I have said, the " fountain of the water 
 of life " is set wide open unto us (Rev. xxi, 6) ; as soon as 
 we have got "contrite and humble spirits," we become 
 royal thrones for " the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth 
 eternity" to dwell in forever (Isa. Ivii, 15). 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 285 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Tlif /irst partic'.ilar ar^'ument to l>e applied for the Cure of the former 
 Malady. 
 
 And now come and take abundantly mighty arguments and 
 invincible motives, which neither man, nor devil, nor na- 
 tural distrust can ever any ways possibly disable ; not to 
 lie any longer, being in the supposed state, upon the rack of 
 terror ; but to lay hold upon the rock of eternity. I mean, 
 to rest and establish thy trembling heart upon the Lord 
 Jesus with everlasting peace and safety ; and af;er\vards to 
 walk watchfully and fruitfully in the holy way until thine 
 ending hour. 
 
 1. And first take notice, that Jesus Christ, God blessed 
 for ever, keeps an open house for all such hungry and thirsty 
 souls. " Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever 
 will, let him take the water of life freely " (Rev. xxii, 17). 
 " Whosoever will ; " in whose heart soever the Holy Ghost 
 hath wrought an eflectual, earnest, hearty will ; that su- 
 pernatural sincere desire described before, which prizeth 
 the " uell of life" before the whole world, and is ever ac- 
 companied with an unfeigned resolution to sell all for the 
 pearl of great price ; 1 say, such a one may come and 
 welcome, and that without bidding, and drink his fill of 
 the river of all spiritual pleasures. If there were no 
 more but this, this is more than enough to bring thee to 
 Jesus Christ. If a proclamation should be made, that 
 such or such a great man kept open house for all comers, 
 there need no move to bring in all the poor hungry people 
 in the country, without any further waiting or inviting. 
 But here, above all degress of comparison, the hunger is 
 more importunate and important ; the feast-maker more 
 faithful and sure of his word ; the fare more delicious and 
 ravishing. And why dost thou refuse? Thou hast a war- 
 rant, infinitely above all exception. 1 he Lord of life keeps 
 open house for all that mil come; and thou knowest in 
 thine own conscience, and canst not deny but that he hath 
 already honoured thee with that singular favour as to plant 
 in thy soul a icill this way, and that most earnestly. For 
 what wouldst thou not part with to have assurance of thy 
 part in Jesus Christ ? What wouldst thou not give, if it 
 might be bought, to hear him speak peace unto thy soul, 
 and say sweetly unto it, " I am thy salvation 1" And 
 therefore if thou come not in presently, and take the com- 
 fort of this precious place and promise, " setting to thy 
 
286 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 seal that God is true," consider by the foregoing view of 
 thy case, whether thy terrors and temptations be not justly 
 upon thee until thou dost. 
 
 2. If this will not serve (which God forbid), then in a 
 second place thou art invited solemnly by the feast -maker, 
 as it were, himself, with his own mouth, which is an infi- 
 nite mercy, honour, and comfort: " Come unto me, all ye 
 that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest " 
 (Mat. xi, 28). Here is no exception of sins, times, or per- 
 sons. And if thou shouldst reply. Yea, but alas ! I am the 
 unworthiest man in the world to draw near unto so holy a 
 God ; to press into so pure a presence ; to expect upon the 
 sudden such glorious, spiritual, and heavenly advance- 
 ment; most impure, abon.inable, and vile wretch that I 
 am ! readier far and fitter to sink into the bottom of hell 
 by the insupportable weight of my manifold heinous sins: — 
 I say then the text tells thee plainly, that thou mightily 
 mistakest ; for therefore only art thou ht, because thou 
 feelest so sensibly thy unfitness, unworthiness, vileness, 
 wretchedness. The sorer and heavier thy burthen is, the 
 rather shouldst thou come. In a word, it appears by thine 
 own words expressing such a penitent apprehension of thy 
 spiritual poverty, that thou art the only man, and such as 
 thou alone, which Christ here specially aims at, invites, 
 and accepts. 
 
 3. " He knowing our frame," our sluggish, dull, and heavy 
 disposition, our spiritual laziness, natural neglect of our 
 own salvation, and loathness to believe ; adds in another 
 place to ordinary invitation, a stirring, compassionate, and 
 quickening compellation, or rather exclamation. "Ho!" 
 saith he, Isaiah Iv, 1, " every one that thirsteth, come ye to 
 the waters," 6ic. And lest any think he shall come to his 
 cost, or shall bring any thing in his hand, he calls upon 
 " him that hath no money ; ' and thus doubles his cry : 
 " Come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wiue and milk, 
 without money, and without price." O most blessed and 
 sweetest lines ! So full of love and longing to draw us to 
 the well of life, that besides that holy pang of compassion 
 and excitation, " Ho ! " he cries thrice, " Come, come, 
 come ! " Yea, but,mayest thou say, alas ! I am so far from 
 bringing any thing in my hand, that I bring a world of 
 wickedness upon my heart ; and that above ordinary, both 
 in notoriousness and number ; and therefore I am afraid the 
 heinousness of my sins will hinder my acceptation, though 
 the invitation be most sweet and precious. Be it so ; yet 
 the Spirit of God in the same chapter doth purposely meet 
 with and remove that very scruple : " Let the wicked, saith 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 287 
 
 he, " forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts " 
 (and this is thy case ; thou art unfeignedly set against all 
 sin, both inward and outward), *' and let him return unto 
 the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our 
 God, for he will abundantly pardon " (ver. 7). He will 
 not only have mercy upon thee, but he will also abundantly 
 pardon. He will multwl.y his pardons according to thy pro- 
 vocations, and that with superabundance (Kom. v, 20). 
 
 4. If all this will not yet do, he descends, out of the infi- 
 nite riches of his grace, to a miracle of further mercy. For 
 the mighty Lord of heaven and earth sends ambassadors 
 unto us, dust and ashes, worms and no men, to beseech us 
 to be reconciled unto him. " Now then we are ambassadors 
 for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray 
 you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled unto God " (2 Cor. 
 V, 20). What man can possibly ponder seriously upon this 
 place, but must be transported with extraordinary admira- 
 tion ; nay, adoration of the bottomless depth and infinite 
 height of God's incomprehensible, everlasting, and free 
 love ! We most abhorred, vile wretches, are the offenders, 
 traitors, rebels, and enemies, and ought to seek and sue unto 
 him fi.rst upon the knees of our souls, trembling in the dust, 
 and, if it were possible, with tears of blood. And yet he 
 begins unto us, entreating us by his own Son, and his ser- 
 vants, the ministers, to come in, accept his favour and grace, 
 enter into the wise and good way, which is precious, profi- 
 table, honourable, and pleasant ; that he may hereafter set 
 upon our heads everlasting crowns of glory and bliss. An 
 earthly prince would disdain and hold it in foul scorn to 
 send unto his inferior for reconcilement, especially who 
 had behaved himself basely and unv/orthily towards him, 
 and justly provoked his royal indignation. It is thus indeed 
 with worms of the earth, " in whom there is no help," and 
 whose breath is in their nostrils. But it is otherwise with 
 the King of kings, " who sitteth upon the circle of the 
 earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, and 
 the nations as the drop of a bucket ; who bringeth the 
 pririces to nothing, and maketh the judges of the earth as 
 vanity." He is content to put up at our hands this indig- 
 nity and affront, if I may so speak. He is glad to sue unto 
 us first, and send his ambassadors day after day, beseeching 
 us to be reconciled unto him. O incomprehensible depth of 
 unspeakable mercy and encouragement to come in and trust 
 in his mercy in case of spiritual misery, able to trample 
 under foot triumphantly all oppositions of the most raging 
 hell or distrustful heart ! 
 
 5. Nay, he commands us ; " and this is his command- 
 
288 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 ment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus 
 Christ" ( 1 John iii, 23). This command alone of the All- 
 powerful God should infinitely outweigh and prevail against 
 all other countermands of heaven or earth, flesh and blood, 
 Satan, nature, reason, sense, the whole creation, all the 
 world. It should swallow up all scruples, doubts, fears, 
 despairs. Coming to Jesus Christ with broken hearts ac- 
 cording to this commandment, it will bear us out against 
 all oppositions, accusations, weaknesses of faith, in the evil 
 times, in the hour of temptation, upon our beds of death, at 
 the last and greatest day. It will be a plea at such times 
 utterly above all exception, against all allegations, terrors, 
 and temptations to the contrary, to say, i was humbled 
 under the burthen of sin and sense of my spiritual misery. 
 God in mercy offered me his Son Jesus Christ freely in the 
 mystery of the gospel by the ministry of the word. I there- 
 upon thirsted infinitely for his person and precious blood, 
 that I might thereby obtain pardon and power against my 
 sins. He called upon me and commanded me to drink my 
 fill of the water of life freely. I accepted his gracious offer, 
 and according to his commandment cast myself upon the 
 Lord Christ against all the contradictions of carnal reason 
 and sophistry of Satan ; and since that time he hath given 
 me power to serve him in sincerity of heart. This is my 
 ground and warrant, even the commandment of my blessed 
 God, thus to drink when 1 was thirsty ; against which the 
 gates of hell can never possibly prevail. In thy case then, 
 who thirstest extremely, and upon free ofter yet refusest to 
 drink, consider how unworthily thou dishonourest God and 
 wrongest thine own soul ; by suffering the devil's cavils and 
 the groundless exceptions of thine own distrustful heart to 
 prevail with thee against the direct command of Almighty 
 God, which thou oughtest to obey against all reason, sense, 
 fears, doubts, despairs, and hellish suggestions. Abraham, 
 the father of the faithful, did readily and willingly submit 
 to God's commandment, even to kill his own only dear son 
 with his own hand, naturally, matter of a great grief as 
 could possibly pierce the heart of a mortal man. And wilt 
 thou, being broken-hearted, stand off from believing, and 
 refuse when he commands thee to take his own only dear 
 Son ; especially since thou takest with him the excellency 
 and variety of all blessings both of heaven and earth ; a 
 discharge from every moment of the everlasting pains of 
 hell ; deeds sealed with his own blood, of thy right to the 
 glorious inheritance of the saints in light 1 In a word, even 
 all things, the most glorious Deity itself blessed for ever, to 
 be enjoyed through him, with unspeakable and endless 
 
rVFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 289 
 
 pleasure through all eternity ! Prodigious madness ! cruelty 
 to thine own soul ; or something at which heaven and earth, 
 man and angel, and all creatures may stand amazed, that 
 thou shouldst so wickedly and wilfully " forsake thine own 
 mercy," and " neglect so great salvation." 
 
 6. Lastly, lest he should let pass any means, or be any 
 ways warning on his part to drive us to Christ, and settle 
 our souls upon him with sure and everlasting confidence, he 
 also threateneth : " And to whom sware he, that they 
 should not enter into his rest ; but to them that believed 
 notV (Heb. iii, 18.) Wherein he expresseth extremest 
 anger, unquenchable and implacable indignation. He 
 swears in his wrath that no unbeliever shall ever enter into 
 his rest. In the threats of the moral law there is no such 
 oath, but a secret reservation of mercy upon the satisfaction 
 of divine justice some other way. But herein the Lord 
 is peremptory, and a third way shall never be found or 
 afforded the sons of men. Neglect of such a gracious offer 
 of so great salvation, must needs provoke and incense so 
 great a God extraordinarily : for with prodigious ingratitude 
 and folly it slings as it were God's free grace in his face 
 again, and sins against his mercy. Suppose a mighty prince, 
 passing by all the royal and noble blood in Christendom, 
 many brave and honourable ladies, should send to a poor 
 maid, bred in a base cottage, born both of beggarly and 
 wicked parents, offer her marriage, and to make her a prin- 
 cess ; and she then should foolishly refuse and reject so 
 infinitely undeserved and unexpected advancement. As 
 she might thereupon be justly branded for a notorious ma- 
 niac ; so would not so great a prince, think you, be mightily 
 enraged at such a dunghill indignity and peevish afiVont ? 
 The Prince of peace, upon whose thigh is written " King of 
 kings, and Lord of lords," passing by more excellent and 
 noble creatures, sends unto thee, whose "father is corrup- 
 tion and the worm thy mother and thy sister," and who in 
 respect of thy spiritual stateliest "polluted in thine own 
 blood," and offers to "betroth thee unto himself in righ- 
 teousness and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in 
 tender mercies" (Ilos. ii, 19); to crown thee with all the 
 riches both of his kingdom of grace and glory. Now if thou 
 shouldest stand off (which God forbid !) as thereupon out 
 out of perfection of madness thou forsakest thine own sal- 
 vation, so thou most justly enforcest that blessed Lord to 
 swear in his wrath that thou shalt never be saved. 
 
 Thus thou hast heard how, first, he keeps open house to 
 all such hungry and thirsty souls (Rev. xxii, 17; ; secondly, 
 he invites (Mat.xi, 28) ; thirdly, invites with an awakening 
 
290 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 and rousing compellation (Isa.lv, 1); fourthly, entreats 
 (2 Cor. V, 26) ; fifthly, commands (1 John iii, 23) ; sixthly, 
 and threatens (Heb. iii, 18). How cruel then is that man 
 to his own wounded conscience, who in his extreme spiri- 
 tual thirst will not be drawn by this sixfold merciful cord to 
 drink his fill of the fountain of the water of life ; to cast 
 himself with confidence and comfort into the arms of the 
 Lord Jesus, which is more than infinitely able to tie the 
 most trembling heart, and that which hangs off most by 
 reason of pretended doubts, scruples, and distrusts, to that 
 blessed Saviour of his with all full assurance and perfect 
 peace ! How is it possible but that all, or some of these 
 should bring in every broken heart to believe ; and cause 
 every one that is weary of his sins to rely upon the Lord of 
 life for everlasting welfare ! 
 
 CHAP. in. 
 
 The Second particular Argument to be used for the Cure of the Foi-mer 
 Malady. Five Parts of that Argument laid open. The First Branch 
 of the Fifth Part. 
 
 But that which I desire principally to press for my purpose 
 in the point at this time, is this : Thy conscience is now 
 awakened, terrified, and troubled, and therefore, as I sup- 
 pose, tender and very sensible, at least for a time, of the 
 least sin. Every sin lies now upon thy soul as heavy as a 
 mountain of lead ; and therefore thou wouldst not willingly 
 add unto thy already insupportable burthen any more 
 weight. All thy youthful lusts and abominations stare in 
 the face of thy conscience with grisly and horrible looks ; 
 and therefore, for the present especially, thou art notably 
 scared from a willing provocation of God's anger and 
 wounding it afresh with a new sin. Well, it being thus then, 
 if it appear unto thee, that by thy standing off, in the case 
 I have supposed thee, from taking Christ as thine own, 
 applying the promises as most certainly belonging unto 
 thee, and so "setting to thy seal that God is true," thou 
 dishonourest him extraordinarily in many respects. Me- 
 thinks then thou shouldst be mightily moved, without any 
 more ado, to cast thyself presently upon the Lord Jesus 
 with comfort and much assurance; especially since thy so 
 yielding to the law of faith is for thy infinite good. And 
 assure thyself thou oft'endest in the mean time many ways. 
 L By a sour and self-willed unmannerliness towards 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 291 
 
 Christ in not coming when he calls thee, Mat. xi, 28. " It 
 is pride, and high pride," saith a worthy divine*, "not 
 to come when thou art called. It is rudeness, and not good 
 manners, not to do as thou art bidden to do ; yea, so often 
 and earnestly charged to do." It would be a foul fault and 
 unmannerly disobedience for any subject in this kingdom, 
 though never so ragged and tattered, or pretending never so 
 much his unfitness and unfineness to press into so great a 
 presence, not to come unto the king, if he should please 
 earnestly to call upon him. Disobedience to the law of 
 faith and rejecting God's gracious ofi'er of his Son freely, is 
 the greatest, and an inexpiable sin. He hath sworn in his 
 wrath that such as thus refuse shall never enter into his 
 rest. 
 
 2. By a saucy prescribing unto him upon what terms he 
 shall take thee. "Ho!" says he, "everyone that thirst- 
 eth, come ye to the waters ; and he that hath no money ; 
 come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk, 
 without money and without price" (Isa. Iv, 1). Nay, 
 sayest thou, I will either bring something in mine hand, or 
 I will have none. Whereas it appears in the cited place, 
 that Christ calls not only those that are "thirsty," but also 
 such as " have no money." 
 
 3. By undervaluing the invaluable worth of his precious 
 blood, as though thy sins had exceeded the price that hath 
 been paid for them. Whereas it is called, Acts xx, 28, 
 God's own blood ; and therefore no want in it to wash away 
 any sin, and for ever. 
 
 4. By offering disparagement to all the promises in God's 
 blessed book ; every one whereof doth now sweetly and 
 upon geod ground invite thee, as it were, to repose upon it 
 as upon a sure word of God with everlasting rest and 
 safety. But thou, giving too much way to the devil's lies, 
 and the dictates of thine own distrustful heart, keepest off 
 and retirest, as though they were too weak to support thy 
 now troubled and trembling soul, especially laden with so 
 many and heinous sins. Whereby consider how great in- 
 dignity thou offerest to such promises and places as these, 
 Isa. i, 18 ; Ezek. xxxvi, 25 ; Isa. Iv, 7, 8, 9 ; and Ivii, 15. 
 Especially being so strongly backed by God's blessed oath : 
 " God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of 
 promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an 
 oath. That by two immutable things, in which it was im- 
 possible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, 
 who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before 
 
 * Ward, in his Life of Faith. 
 
292 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 us" (Heb. vi, 17, 18). What a mighty strength may that 
 most glorious speech of our all-merciful God infuse into our 
 faith, Ezek. xxxiii, 11, " As I live," &c. ; as if he should 
 have said, As sure as I am the true, eternal, living, and 
 omnipotent God, &c. so certainly " 1 have no pleasure in 
 the death of the wicked ; " but I have pleasure that he 
 should come in, take my Son, and be my servant. Under- 
 stand the same proportionably of every promise. As sure 
 as I have an eternal essence and being of a Godhead, &c. ; 
 so certainly will I give freely to every one, that is truly 
 weary of all his sins, and thirsts unfeignedly for mercy and 
 grace, eternal rest and refreshing in the ever-springing foun- 
 tain of all spiritual and heavenly pleasures : and so of the 
 rest. 
 
 In a word, what an unworthy thing is this ; that all the 
 precious promises in the book of God, confirmed with his 
 own oath and sealed with his Son's blood, should suffer dis- 
 honour and disparagement, as it were, by thy distrust. As 
 if so many mighty rocks of mercy and truth were not able 
 to sustain a poor bruised reed ! 
 
 5. By disabling and dishonouring — 
 (1.) God's free love. See Hos. xiv, 4; Jer. xxxi, 3; 
 Ezek. xvi ; Deut. vii, 7. 8 ; John iii, 16 ; Ephes. i, 5. 
 
 If God would not give us Christ without some matter and 
 motives in us, without something done by ourselves first, it 
 were something to stand out in such a case. But he gives 
 him most freely, without any respect or expectation at all of 
 any precedent work or worth on our part. Only there is 
 required a predisposition in the party to take Christ, legal 
 dejection, sight, sense, and burthen of sin ; we must be 
 truly wounded, sensible of the devil's yoke, feel our own 
 misery ; we must prize him above, and thirst for him more 
 than the whole world (See Luke iv, 18). A man will not 
 seriously seek after a physician before he feel himself to be 
 sick ; for ease, before he be pressed with the weight of his 
 burthen ; for a plaister, before he be wounded ; for heavenly 
 riches, before he be sensible of his spiritual beggary; for 
 enlargement and pardon, before he find himself in prison ; 
 for mercy, before he smart with sense of his misery. Such 
 dispositions, then, as these, serve only to drive us unto 
 Christ, and to let us see and feel a necessity of him ; but 
 they are infinitely impossible by any worthiness to draw on 
 Christ. He is a "gift" (Rom. v, 16; John iii, 16), and 
 what is freer than gift ? Nothing is required at our hands 
 for receiving him, but empty-handedness and sensiblenesS 
 of our own nothingness. Our heavenly Father never did, 
 nor ever will sell his Son unto any one that will needs be 
 
AFFLICTED COjS SCIENCES. 293 
 
 something in himself. He ever did, and ever will give him 
 to every poor soul that is vile in his own eyes, nothing in 
 himself ; " labours and is heavy laden," and willing to take 
 him as a Saviour and a Lord. A full hand can hold nothing. 
 Either it must be empty, or we cannot receive Christ. First 
 thirst, and then " buy without money and without price." 
 
 Methinks Chrysostom doth somewhere set out sweetly the 
 admirable and adored frankness of this Divine bounty : — 
 " If thou wilt be adorned with my comeliness, or be armed 
 with my weapons, or put on my garments, or be fed with 
 my dainties, or finish my journey, or come into that city 
 whose builder and maker I am, or build a house in my 
 country, thou mayest so do all these things, that I will not 
 only not exact of thee any price or payment for any of these 
 things, but 1 myself would be a debtor unto thee of a great 
 reward, so that thou wouldst not disdain to use my things, 
 my strength, gifts, graces. What can be ever found equal 
 to this bounty *." 
 
 If God, then, be so infinitely good as to oifer his Son so 
 freely ; and thou so fitted to receive him by sensibleness of 
 thy spiritual misery, thirsting for his blood, resolving upon 
 his service for the time to come, &c. ; how unadvisedly 
 cruel art thou to thine own conscience, and how beyond 
 measure proud, that wilt needs stand off still from taking 
 the Lord Jesus ; and suffer still thy poor trembling soul to 
 lie unnecessarily upon the rack of terror ? Since thou 
 gettest and gainest nothing thereby ; but first, God's dis- 
 honour ; secondly, thine own wilful torture ; thirdly, grati- 
 fication of Satan's malicious cruelty. 
 
 Object. 1. But were it not fitter for me, mayest thou say, 
 first to amend my life ; to do some good works ; to have ex- 
 perience of the change of my conversation ; to grieve legally 
 longer, before I be so bold as to lay hold upon Christ, and 
 apply the promises 1 
 
 Answer. Thou must first be alive before thou canst work. 
 Thou must have spiritual ability inspired before thou canst 
 walk in the "good way;" thou must be justified before 
 thou be sanctified. Now spiritual life is only then, and 
 never before or by any other means infused, but when we 
 reach out an empty hand, and take Jesus Christ into our 
 humbled souls. When a poor soul weary of all sin, accord- 
 ing to his call, commandment, and counsel, rolls itself as it 
 were and leans upon the Lord Jesus, then is spiritual life 
 first breathed into it. The vital operations of grace in alt 
 holy duties, good deeds, amendment of life, holy walking, 
 
 * On Mat. xxiv, horn. 77. 
 
 2C 3 
 
291 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 universal obedience, must appear afterward. Zaccheus 
 received Jesus Christ first into his heart and house, before 
 he M^as able to restore and distribute. Casting ourselves 
 upon the Lord of life with truth of heart, as our only jewel 
 and joy we have in heaven or in earth, with whom we are 
 resolved to live and die, draws from him into our souls that 
 heavenly virtue and vigour, whereby we are afterward en- 
 abled to exercise all the functions of spiritual life, and to 
 die to the world and all worldly pleasures for ever. Herein 
 is thy fault and failing : thou conceivest not aright of God's 
 free grace ; but thinkest thou shalt not be welcome, except 
 thou cumest with thy cost. Whereas God ever gives his 
 Son freely, and bids thee come and welcome, and "buy 
 without money, and without price." 
 
 Object. 2. But will it not be presumption in me, having no 
 good thing in me at all to bring with me, but coming now 
 as it were fresh out of hell, from a most wicked, impure, 
 abominable life, to take Christ as mine own, and all those 
 rich and precious promises sealed with his blood 1 
 
 Answer. Knough hath been already said to meet with this 
 objection. It is not presumption, but good manners, to 
 come when thou art called. How can he be said to pre- 
 sume, who is both invited and entreated, commanded and 
 threatened to come in 1 Of which see before. 1 hou must 
 now, in this extreme spiritual thirst of thine, drink of the 
 water of life so freely offered, that thou mayest receive some 
 heavenly strength to be good, and " power to become the 
 son of God ■' (John i, 12). Thou must throw thy sinful 
 soul upon Jesus Christ, bleeding and breathing out his last 
 upon the cross (as the body of the Shunamite's child was 
 applied to the prophet, who stretched himself upon it), that 
 thou mayest thereby be quickened with desired fruitfulness, 
 filled by little and little with " all the fulness of God " 
 (Kphes. iii, 19) ; receiving " grace for grace" (John i, 16) ; 
 "I am the resurrection and the life," saith Christ; "he 
 that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he 
 live" (John xi,25). 
 
 It were execrable presumption for any man who pur- 
 poseth to go on in the willing practice or allowance of any one 
 known sin, to believe that Christ is his righteousness and 
 sanctification. But, where all sin is a burthen, every pro- 
 mise as a world of gold, and the heart sincere for a new 
 way, there a man may be bold. For thee to have pre- 
 tended part in Christ, wallowing yet in thy sins, had been 
 horrible presumption indeed ; and for me to have applied 
 the promises and preached pe;ice unlo thy remorseless con- 
 science before the pangs of the new birth had seized upon 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 295 
 
 thee, had been the vilest daubing. But in the case 1 now 
 suppose, it is both seasonable and surely grounded for me 
 to assure thee of acceptation and pardon, and for thee to 
 receive Jesus Christ without any more ado into the arms of 
 thy humble soul. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Two Brfinclics more of the Fifth Part of the former Argument, and 
 the several Particles which belong to the Second of them. 
 
 (2.) His sweet name (Exod. xxxiv, 6, 7), wherein is an- 
 swered whatsoever may any ways be pretended for standing 
 out in this case, as appears fully before, chap, iii, p. 240. 
 
 (3.) His glorious attributes. 
 
 1st. His truth. He that believeth hath set to his seal 
 that God is true (John iii, 33). He that labours and is 
 heavy laden with the burthen of sin, comes to Christ for 
 ease when he is called, takes him for his Saviour and his 
 Lord, and thereupon grounds a resolute, unshaken, and 
 everlasting confidence, that he is his for ever, puts to his 
 seal that Christ is true, that his precious promise, "Come 
 unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest " (Mat. xi, 28), is inviolable. Whereby Christ 
 Jesus, blessed for ever, is mightily honoured, his truth glori- 
 fied, and thine own soul with extraordinary blessedness 
 everlastingly enlivened. But he now that retires in this 
 case and holds ofF, makes him who is truth itself a liar. 
 "He that believeth not God, hath made him a liar" 
 (1 John v, 10). 
 
 Now what a fearful indignity is this against the Lord God 
 of truth ! We see too often how miserable mortal men, 
 worms of the earth, take such an affront at the hands one 
 of another ; for many times for the lie given them they 
 throw ihemselves desperately upon the irrecoverable ruin of 
 their lives, estates, soul>, and posterity, by challenging and 
 killing each other ; which dishonour to the mighty Lord of 
 heaven and earth is the greater, and is much aggravated by 
 the infinite infallibility of the promises. For besides his 
 word, which were more than immeasurably sufficient, he 
 hath added a most solemn oath for our sakes, that we might 
 have greater assurance and stronger consolation. 
 
 2d. His mercy, most directly and specially. And to say 
 nothing of the freeness of his mercy, which springs only out 
 of the riches of his infinite bounty, and " the good pleasure 
 
296 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 of his will ; " of his readiness to forgive, otherwise the 
 death of Christ should be of none effect, his blood shed in 
 vain, the greatest work lost that ever was done ; of his 
 "delight in mercy," Micah vii, 18 (Mercy in man is 
 a quality, in God it is his nature and essence. Now what 
 we do naturally we do willingly, readily, unweariedly. As 
 the eye is not weary of seeing, the ear with hearing, &;c. 
 A bee gives honey naturally, never stings but when pro- 
 voked. When God is angry, it is but as it were by acci- 
 dent, upon occasion, drawn unto it by the violent importu- 
 nity of our multiplied provocations ; but he delights in 
 mercy, ficc.) — I say, to say nothing of these, this one consi- 
 deration may convince us of extreme folly in refusing mercy 
 in such a case, notwithstanding the heinousness or number 
 of our sins ; to wit, that no sins, either for number or noto- 
 riousness, in a truly broken heart, can make so much resist- 
 ance to God's infinite mercies, as the least spark of fire 
 could make to the whole sea, and that is little enough. Nay, 
 as infinitely less as an infinite thing exceeds a finite ; be- 
 tween which there is no proportion. 
 
 3d. His power. For thou art very likely thus or in the 
 like manner to reason with thyself, and cavil cruelly against 
 thine own soul. Alas ! what talk you of taking Christ, the 
 promises of life, and heavenly lightsomeness ; my poor heart 
 is as dark as the very middle of hell ; much harder than a 
 rock of adamant ; as cold and dead as the senseless centre 
 of the earth ; as uncomfortable and restless almost as des- 
 peration itself. It is more than infinitely impossible that 
 such a dark, hard, dead, comfortless thing should ever be 
 enlightened, softened, quickened, and established with 
 joy, 6lC. 
 
 But mark how herein thou unadvisedly undervaluest and 
 unworthily settest bounds to the unlimited power of God. 
 Whereas thou shouldest imitate Abraham, the father of all 
 them that believe, who " staggered not at the promise of 
 God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory 
 to God ; and being fully persuaded that what he had pro- 
 mised he was able also to perform " (Rom. iv, 20, 21). 
 
 Be advised in this case : 
 
 [1.] To compare these two things together : " the mak- 
 ing of the seven stars and Orion, and turning the shadow 
 of death into the morning ; " and the infusion of heavenly 
 light into thy dark and heavy heart. And dost thou not 
 think that the second is as easy as the first to the same om- 
 nipotent hand 1 Nay, it is easier in our own apprehension 
 (to the Divine Majesty nothing is difficult or uneasy). For 
 those glorious shining constellations were created of nothing j 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES; 297 
 
 and nothing hath no disposition to any being at all, much 
 less to any particular existence ; but a soul sensible and 
 weary of its spiritual darkness is in the nearest and most 
 immediate passive disposition, if I may so speak, to receive 
 the whole sun of righteousness. Reach but out thy hand in 
 this case to Jesus Christ offering himself freely unto thee 
 as a Saviour and Lord, and thou shalt presently take posses- 
 sion of the kingdom of grace, and undoubted right to ihe 
 everlasting kingdom of glory. The prophet (Amos v, 8) 
 presseth this argument of power for some such purpose ; 
 and it may serve excellently against all pretences and 
 counter-pleas, for a supposed impossibility of being enlight- 
 ened and refreshed in the depth of spiritual darkness and 
 distress. It may be thou mayest say unto me, You advise 
 me indeed to seek God's face and favour ; but, alas ! mine 
 is not an ordinary heart, it is so full of guilty sadness and 
 horror for sin, that I have little hope. Yea, but consider, 
 He that 1 counsel thee to seek, " made the seven stars and 
 Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning ; " 
 and will do far greater wonders for thy soul if thou wilt 
 ** believe the prophets that thou mayest prosper." If thou 
 wilt trust in him, he will quickly turn the tumultuous roar- 
 ings of thy conscience into perfect peace. " Thou wilt 
 keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee ; 
 because he trusteth in thee " (Isa. xxvi, 3). The prophet, 
 therefore, to prevent all scruples and exceptions in this 
 kind, calls upon them thus : " Seek him that maketh the 
 seven stars and Orion," 6cc. 
 
 [2.] Lay these two together: "To bring honey out of 
 the rock and oil out of the flinty rock " (Deut. xxxii, 13) ; 
 and to mollify thine heart, even to thine own heart's desire ; 
 in which there is already some softness, else thou couldst 
 not sensibly and sincerely complain of its hardness. And 
 thou must needs acknowledge that they are both equally 
 easy to the same Almighty arm. 
 
 [3.] Thou mayest well consider that it is a far greater 
 work " to make heaven and earth," than to put spiritual 
 life and lightsomeness into thy truly humbled and thirsty 
 soul, to which so many precious promises are made. And 
 He, with whom thou hast to do, and from whom thou ex- 
 pectest help, is He " that made heaven and earth, the sea, 
 and all that therein is; which keepeth truth for ever" 
 (Psalm cxlvi, 6) ; which openeth the eyes of the blind, 
 and raiseth them that are bowed down ; " which healeth 
 the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds; who 
 taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope 
 in his mercy " (Psalm cxlvii, 3, 11). 
 
298 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 [4.] In such an extremity of helplessness and hopeless- 
 ness, in this trembling and terror of thy heart, thou 
 shouldst call to mind for thy comfort, that " he who esta- 
 blisheth all 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 most 
 forlorn and forsaken soul, even sinking into the mouth of 
 despair. He that said at first to the earth, Stand still upon 
 nothing, and it never stirred out of its place since the 
 creation, can easily uphold, fortify, and refresh thine heart 
 in the depth of the most grievous spiritual misery ; even 
 when in the bitterness of thy spirit thou criest, " My 
 strength and my hope is perished from the Lord" (Lament, 
 iii, 18). 
 
 4th. Even his justice. Christ's blood is already paid as 
 a price for the pardon of the sins of thine humbled soul, 
 and thou wilt needs pay it over again, or else thou wilt not 
 enter upon the purchase: as though God did expect and 
 exact the discharge of the same debt twice, which to ima- 
 gine, were a monstrous intolerable indignity to the most 
 just God. You know full well what we should think of 
 that man, who having a debt fully discharged by the surety, 
 should press upon the principal for the payment of the 
 same again. We should indeed think him to be a very 
 cruel, hard-hearted, and merciless man ; we should call 
 him a Turk, a cut-throat, a cannibal, far fitter to lodge in 
 a den of tigers than to live in the society of men. What a 
 fearful dishonour then is it to the merciful and mighty 
 Lord of heaven and earth, to the righteous Judge of all the 
 world, to conceive, that having received an exact and full 
 satisfaction for all our sins, by the heart's blood of his own 
 dear Son, he should ever require them again at our hands ! 
 Far be it then from every one, who would not offer extra- 
 ordinary disparagement even to God's glorious justice, to 
 entertain any such thought, especially since we have his 
 word, his oath, and the seal of his Son's blood for security. 
 And assuredly we may build upon it, as upon a rock of 
 eternal truth ; that when we come unto Christ, weary of 
 all our sins, thii sting sincerely for him, and throwing our- 
 selves upon him, as salvation itself, resolved to take upon 
 us his sweet and easy yoke for the time to come, he doih 
 presently, as he hath promised, take off the burthen, and 
 free us everlastingly from the guilt and stain, condemna- 
 tion and reign of all our sins. 
 
 But now if thou wilt cast thyself upon Jesus Christ, roll 
 thyself upon the promises, being so humbled, spiritually 
 thirsty, and resolved, as thou hast said and I supposed at 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 299 
 
 the first (for we who are God's messengers, comfort and 
 assure of pardon in sucli cases, only upon supposition, that 
 the heart and speeches, all the promises and protestations 
 of the party and patient we deal with, be sincere every 
 way) ; I say, if thou thus cast thyself upon the Lord Jesus 
 and 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 bles- 
 sedly altered. Thou shalt now do as God would have thee ; 
 and mightily honour the invaluable and infinite dignity of 
 his Son's passion and blood, the precious freeness of all 
 the promises, his free love, sweet name, truth, mercy, power, 
 justice, <ScC.; thou shalt also cut off and defeat the devil's 
 present fiery darts and projects of further cruelty ; disen- 
 tangle and unwind thyself out of the irksome maze of rest- 
 less terrors and trouble of mind ; crown thine own soul in 
 the mean time " with peace thatpasseth all understanding, 
 with joy unspeakable and full of glory " (Philip, iv, 7 ; and 
 IPet. i, 8); with evangelical pleasures, such as "neither 
 eye hath seen, ear heard, or have entered into the heart 
 of man " (1 Cor. ii, 9) ; and hereafter be most certainly 
 received by that sweetest Redeemer of thine into those 
 glorious mansiops above, where nothing but light and 
 blessed immortality, no shadow for matter of tears, dis- 
 contentments, griefs, and uncomfortable passions to work 
 upon ; but all joy, tranquillity, and peace, even for ever and 
 ever, doth dwell. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The second Malady of Conscience. Three Considerations against Un- 
 soundness, proposed for the Cure of this Malady j and Three more 
 against Unadvisedness. 
 
 Yea, but, may another say, I, in the case proposed, have 
 cast myself, according to your counsel, upon Jesus Christ ; 
 and there by the mercy of God am I resolved to stick, come 
 what will ; and yet no comfort comes. What should I 
 think of myself in this case 1 
 
 I think in such a case it may be convenient, and tliat 
 such an one hath thereupon some cause and calling seriously 
 and impartially to search and try his spiritual state. For 
 which purpose, ponder seriously upon such considerations 
 as these ; some of which may discover unsoundness, others 
 unadvisedness. 
 
 1. It may be the party is not yet come in truth to that 
 
300 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 sound humiliation, contrition, spiritual thirsting, resolution 
 to sell all, iScc, required by the reverend Author quoted 
 before*: but only hath passed over them overtly, not 
 soundly ; superficially, not sincerely ; and then no marvel 
 though no true and real comfort come. Inform thyself fur- 
 ther in this point, that thou mayest more fully knovv^ my 
 meaning in it, and be guided aright in a matter of so great 
 weight t. 
 
 2. Or it may be, how^soever he protest otherwise, and for 
 all his partial legal terror and trouble of mind, his deceit- 
 ful heart may still secretly harbour and hanker after some 
 sweet sin, as pride, revenge, strange fashions, worldliness, 
 lust, plays, gaming, good-fellowship, as it is called, &c. ; 
 from which it doth not heartily yield, resolve, and endea- 
 vour to make an utter and final cessation and divorce. And 
 assuredly that false heart which regards and allows any 
 wickedness in itself, howsoever it may be deluded with 
 some Anabaptistical flashes, yet shall never be truly re- 
 freshed with " joy in the Holy Ghost." 
 
 3. It may be, though there were some probable and 
 plausible shows that the party was principally cast down 
 and affected with the heavy weight of sin and horror of 
 God's wrath for it ; yet the true predominant cause of his 
 heaviness, heart's grief, and bitterest complaint, was some 
 secret earthly discontentment, the restless biting of some 
 worldly sting : and in such cases, remove this, and you 
 remove his pains ; comfort him about his cross, and you set 
 him were he was ; and therefore, as in all this he continues 
 a mere stranger in affection to the sweetness, amiableness, 
 and excellency of Jesus Christ, so it is impossible that he 
 should be acquainted with any sound spiritual comfort. 
 
 But I will suppose all to be sincere and as it should be ; 
 let me advise thee then to take notice of thine own un- 
 advisedness. 
 
 (1.) Thou art perhaps so full of the want of feeling, 
 such a stranger to so much expected and desired joy and 
 peace in believing, and by consequence so drowned in the 
 unnecessary distractions and distempers of a sad heart, 
 that thou utterly forgettest to give thanks and magnify God's 
 singular and incomprehensible mercy for enlightening, 
 convincing, and territying thy conscience, offering his Son, 
 raising in thine heart an insatiable thirst after him, and 
 giving thee spiritual ability to rest thy weary soul upon 
 him ; and who knows not that unthankfulness keeps many 
 good things from us, and is an unhappy block in the way to 
 
 * Rogers of Dedham, on Faith. t Ibid. cap. ii, and v. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 301 
 
 intercept and hinder the comfortable influence and current 
 of God's favours and mercies from being showered down 
 so frankly and plentifully upon his people 1 And he is more 
 likely to be the more provoked in this case, because thou 
 sufferest thine heart to be locked up and thy tongue tied, by 
 Satan's cunning and cruel malice, from praising the glory 
 of God's free grace, for such a work of wonder ; I mean 
 that mighty change of thine from nature to grace, in extol- 
 ling of which, were all the hearts and tongues of all the 
 men and angels in heaven and earth set on work industri- 
 ously through all eternity, they would still come infinitely 
 short of that which is due and deserved. 
 
 (2.) Or it may be, when some one of a thousand, upon 
 thy complaint that no comfort comes, doth seriously labour 
 to settle thine heart in peace, pressing upon thee for that 
 purpose invincible and unanswerable arguments out of the 
 word of truth ; to open it wide, that overflowing rivers of 
 evangelical joys, which may spring (to him that is advised 
 and believes the Prophets) abundantly even from the 
 weakest faith to refresh and comfort it ; telling thee, that 
 as thine humbled soul, leaning upon Christ, draws much 
 heavenly virtue, mortifying power, and sanctifying grace 
 from him, so it may and ought also to draw abundance of 
 spiritual-lightsomeness from that ever-springing fountain of 
 life, &c. ; — yet notwithstanding all this, thou sufferest some 
 malicious counter-blasts and contrary suggestions of the 
 devil to disperse and frustrate all these well-grounded and 
 glorious messages ; and therefore it is just with God that 
 thou fare the worse at his hands, and fall short of thine 
 expectation, because thou givest more credit to the father 
 of lies than to the Lord of truth. Since thou spillest all 
 the cordials that are tendered unto thee in the name of 
 Christ by his faithful physicians, thou art deservedly desti- 
 tute of comfort still. Many in such cases, while God's 
 messenger, who can rightly declare his ways unto them, 
 stands by, opening and applying the rich treasures of God's 
 free mercy in the mystery of the gospel, and with present 
 replies repelling Satan's cavils, are reasonably well cheered 
 and revived ; but when he is gone they very weakly and 
 unworthily give way again to that foul lying fiend, to cast 
 a discomfortable mist over the tender eye of their weak 
 faith, and to domineer as he did before. 
 
 Tell me true, if thou wert in doubt and distress about 
 thy temporal state, tenure of thy lands, soundness of thy 
 title-deeds, wouldst thou advise with and take counsel from 
 a fool, a knave, and an enemy ; or wouldst thou make 
 clwice of an honest, wise, understanding friend 1 I doubt 
 
 2 D 
 
302 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 not of thine answer. And wilt thou then so far disparage 
 divine truth, gratify hell, and hurt thine own heart, as in 
 that weightiest point of thy spiritual state to consult and 
 resolve with the devil, a liar, a murderer, a sworn enemy 
 to God's glory and thy soul's good ; and neglect God him- 
 self, blessed for ever, speaking unto thee out of his word, 
 by that minister, which in such a case durst not falsify or 
 flatter thee for a world for gold ] Shall many thousands of 
 worldly wise men give credit very readily and roundly to 
 " daubers with untempered mortar," upon a false and rotten 
 foundation, to the most certain and eternal ruin of their 
 souls ; and shall not a humble, an upright-hearted man, 
 believe the prophet upon good ground, that the bones 
 which the heavy burthen of sin hath broken may rejoice 1 
 God forbid. 
 
 (3.) Nay, but suppose the party be truly humbled, very 
 thankful, resolute against all sin, labour to believe the 
 prophets, &c. and yet no comfort come. I say then there 
 is one other duty expected at thy hands, right precious 
 and pleasing unto God, and that is waiting ; by which God 
 would, 
 
 1. Set yet a sharper edge and eagerness, more hungering 
 and thirsting, greater longing and panting after the ravish- 
 ing sweetness of his comfortable presence, with which 
 melting, earnest, crying dispositions, he is very much 
 delighted. 
 
 2. Cause us with peace and patience to submit unto and 
 depend upon his merciful wisdom in disposing and appoint- 
 ing times and seasons for our deliverances and refreshings. 
 For he well knows that very point and period of time, first, 
 when his mercy shall be most magnified ; secondly, his 
 children's hearts most seasonably comforted and kindly 
 enlarged to pour out themselves in thankfulness ; thirdly, 
 his and our spiritual enemies most gloriously confounded. 
 
 3. Quicken and set on work with extraordinary fervency 
 the spirit of prayer, fright us further from sin for the time 
 to come ; fit us for a more fruitful improvement of all offers 
 and opportunities to do our souls good ; to make more of 
 "joy and peace in believing" when we enjoy it ; and 
 to declare to others in like extremity God's dealings with 
 us for their support, &c. 
 
 We must learn then to expect and be content with God's 
 season ; and hold up our hearts in the mean time with such 
 considerations as these : First, we perform a very ac- 
 ceptable service, and a Christian duty, right pleasing unto 
 and much prevailing with God, by waiting. See Isa. xl, 
 31 ; xlix, 23; Ixiv, 4; and Lam. iii, 25. Secondly, By our 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 303 
 
 patient dependence upon God in this kind, we may mightily 
 increase and multiply our comfort when his time is come. 
 For he is wont to recompense abundantly at last his longer 
 tarrying with excess of joy, and overflowing expressions of 
 his love. Thirdly, we must ever remember, that all the 
 while he exerciseth us with waiting, that season is not yet 
 come, which in his merciful wisdom he holds the meetest 
 to magnify the glory of his mercy most, and most wisely 
 to advance our spiritual good. Fourthly, and that which 
 is best of all, if the true convert, resting his weary soul 
 upon the Lord Jesus and promises of life, should be taken 
 away before he attain his desired comfort, he shall be 
 certainly saved, and undoubtedly crowned with everlasting 
 blessedness; for " blessed are all they that wait for him" 
 (Isa. XXX, 18). A man is saved by believing ; and not by 
 "joy and peace in believing." Salvation is an inseparable 
 companion of faith ; but joy and peace accompany it as a 
 separable accident ; as that which may be removed from 
 it ; yea, there is cause why it should be removed. The 
 light would never be so acceptable, were it not for the 
 usual intercourse of darkness. 
 
 Take here notice upon this occasion, that as a truly 
 humbled soul receiving Christ in the sense I have said, 
 hath power given him thereby to become the Son of God ; 
 so he doth draw also from that glorious object of faith, so 
 full of all amiableness, excellency, and sweetness— 
 
 L Sometimes, by the mercy of God, a very sensible, 
 stirring, and ravishing joy, " unspeakable and full of glory ;" 
 which though it be many times very short, yet is unutterably 
 sweet. 
 
 2. If not so, yet an habitual calmness of conscience, if 
 I may so call it ; which though we do not mark it so much, 
 or magnify God's mercy for it as we ought, yet it makes us 
 differ as far by a comfortable freedom from many slavish, 
 guilty twitches, and an universal contentedness in all our 
 courses and passages through this vale of tears, from the 
 world's dearest and most admired favourite, as the highest 
 region of the air from the restless and raging sea : espe- 
 cially if that unhappily happy wretch have a waking con- 
 science. 
 
 3. Or at least ever a secret heavenly vigour, whereby the 
 soul is savingly supported in what state soever, though it 
 be under the continued pressures of most hideous tempta- 
 tions ; the tithe of the terror whereof would make many 
 a worldling make way with himself, because he wants this 
 stay. And suppose they should continue unto the last gaspi 
 even unto thine ending hour, nay entrance into heaven j 
 
304 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 yet thy spiritual state is not thereby prejudiced, but thy 
 salvation is still most sure ; and thy first taste of those 
 eternal joys shall be the sweeter, by how much thy former 
 temptations and trials have been the sorer : for we must 
 ever hold fast this blessed tiuth, that we are justified by 
 casting ourselves upon Christ, not by comfort; by faith, 
 not by feeling ; by trusting the sure word of God, not by 
 assurance. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Two Considerations more against Unadvisedness, for the Cure of the 
 former Malady. 
 
 But I desire to come yet nearer to thy conscience, and to 
 press comfort upon thee with such strong and irresistible 
 arguments, as all the subtlety of the infernal powers will 
 never be able to dissolve. 
 
 Thou sayest, and 1 suppose so, that thou art "weary of 
 all thy sins," dost hunger and thirst after the righteousness 
 of Christ ; prizest him before all the world ; hast cast thy- 
 self upon his truth and tender-heartedness for everlasting 
 safety ; and yet thou feelest no special sensible joy in thine 
 heart thereupon. Be it so ; yet upon this occasion take ray 
 counsel, and at my request address thyself again, and have 
 recourse afresh unto the promises : settle thy soul upon 
 them seriously, with fixed meditation and fervent prayer : 
 set thyself purposely with earnestness and industry to suck 
 from them their heavenly sweetness. And then, how is it 
 possible that thine humble, upright heart should make 
 resist ince to those mighty torrents of spiritual joys and 
 refreshings, which by a natural and necessary consequence 
 spring abundantly from the ensuing comfortable conclusions, 
 grounded upon the sure word of God, and thine ow^n in- 
 ward sense and most certain undeniable experience t 
 
 VVhosoever "hungers and thirsts after righteousness" 
 is blessed from Christ's own mouth. Matt, v, 6. And this 
 blessedness compriseth an absolute and universal confluence 
 of all excellencies, perfections, pleasures, and felicities in 
 this world, and in the world to come ; begun in some 
 measure in the kingdom of grace, and made complete in 
 the kingdom of glory through all eternity. 
 
 But I, mayest thou say, out of evident feeling and 
 experience, find myself to " hunger and thirst after righteous- 
 ness." 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 305 
 
 Therefore I am most certainly blessed and interested in 
 all the rich purchases of Christ's dearest blood and merit, 
 which is the full price of the kingdom of heaven and all 
 the glory thereof. 
 
 Whosoever is athirst, hath his part in the " fountain 
 of the water of life " (Rev. xxi, 6 ; xxii, 17 ; John vii, 37 ; 
 and Isa. Iv, 1). 
 
 But I, mayest thou say, cannot deny, dare not belie my- 
 self, but that my poor heart thirsts unfeignedly to be bathed 
 in the heavenly streams of God's free favour and Christ's 
 sovereign blood. 
 
 Therefore, undoubtedly I have my part in the well of life 
 everlastingly ; whence, what delicious streams of dearest 
 joy do sweetly flow ! 
 
 Whosoever " labours and is heavy laden " may justly 
 challenge at the hands of Christ rest and refreshing (Matt, 
 xi, 28). 
 
 But I feel all my sins an intolerable burthen upon my 
 wounded soul, and most willingly take him as a Saviour 
 and a Lord. 
 
 Therefore I have my portion in his spiritual and eternal 
 rest. 
 
 "The High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, 
 whose name is Holy," and who dwells " in the high and 
 holy place ;" dwelleth also in every " humble and contrite 
 spirit," as in a royal throne. He hath, as it were, two 
 thrones ; one in the empyrean heaven, the other in a broken 
 heart (Isa. Ivii, 15). 
 
 But my heart lies groveling in the dust, humbled under 
 the mighty hand of God, and trembling at his feet. 
 
 Therefore it is the mansion of Jehovah, blessed for ever. 
 
 Whosoever " confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have 
 mercy " (Prov. xxviii, 13). 
 
 But I confess and abominate all sin, resolved never to 
 '* turn again to folly." 
 
 Therefore mercy is most certainly mine. 
 
 He in whose heart the Holy Ghost hath enkindled a kindly 
 heat of affection to the brethren, hath passed from death to 
 life (1 John iii, 14). 
 
 But, by the mercy of God, my heart is wholly set upon 
 the "brotherhood " (1 Pet. ii, 17), which I heartily hated 
 heretofore. 
 
 Therefore I have passed from death to life. 
 
 These and the like conclusions are in themselves as full 
 
 of sound joy and true comfort, as the sun is of light or the 
 
 sea of waters. Open but the eye of thine humble souL 
 
 and thou mayest see many glorious things in them. Crush 
 
 2 D 3 
 
306 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 them but a little with the hand of faith, and much delicious 
 sweetness of spiritual peace may distil upon thy soul. 
 
 Lastly, such considerations as these may contribute some 
 matter of comfort and support to him of weakest apprehen- 
 sion in this case. 
 
 1. If he consult with his own conscience, he shall happily 
 find in his present sincere resolution an impossibility to 
 turn back again to his former sinful life, pleasures, good- 
 fellowship, sensual courses, and company. He says, and 
 thinks it, that he will rather die than lie, swear, profane 
 the sabbaths, put to usury, do wrong, keep any ill-gotten 
 goods in his hands, haunt ale-houses, play-houses, gaming- 
 houses ; or willingly put his heart or hand to any kind of 
 iniquity, as he was formerly wont. And doth nature, 
 think you, keep him back, or grace and God's Spirit 1 
 
 2. If he should now hear, and have his ears filled with 
 oaths, blasphemies, ribald talk, rotten speeches, filthy 
 songs, railing at God's people, scoffing at religion, jesting 
 out of scriptures, &c., his heart would rise ; he would either 
 reprove them or be rid of them as soon as he could ; whereas 
 heretofore he hath been perhaps a delightful hearer of them, 
 if not a notorious actor himself. And whence do you 
 think doth this arise, but from the seed of God remaining 
 in him ? 
 
 3. If when you hear him complain, that howsoever he 
 hath cast himself upon Christ, as the prophets have coun- 
 selled him, yet since thereupon he feels no such comfort 
 and peace in believing as other Christians do, he begins to 
 doubt whether he hath done well or no, and to conceive 
 that he hath laid hold upon the promises too soon ; nay, 
 and it may be upon this discontent, doth thus further en- 
 large his complaint — Alas! my sins have formerly been 
 so great, my heart is at this present so hard, my sorrow so 
 scant, my failings so many, that I know not what to say 
 to myself. Methinks I can neither pray, confer, love the 
 brethren, sanctify the sabbath, rejoice in the Lord, as I see 
 other of God's children do ; and therefore I am afraid all 
 is nought. What heart can 1 have to hold on ] — 1 say, if 
 to such a speech thou shouldst for trial give this reply : 
 Well then, if it be so, even give over all ; strive no more 
 against the stream ; trouble thyself no longer with reading, 
 prayer, following sermons, forbearing good-fellowship and 
 thine old companions. And since no comfort comes by 
 casting thyself upon Christ, cast thyself again into the 
 current of the times, course of the world, and merry 
 company ; for there, yet, is some little poor pleasure to be 
 had at least. Oh ! No, no, no, would he say ; that will 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 307 
 
 I never do, whatsoever comes of me. I will trust in my 
 Christ, though he should kill me ; for all these discourage- 
 ments 1 will by no means cast away my confidence : I 
 have been so freshly stung with their guilt, that I will 
 rather be pulled in pieces with wild horses than plunge 
 again into carnal pleasures. 1 will put my hand to all 
 holy duties in obedience to God, though I perform them 
 never so weakly. 1 will, by the mercy of God, keep my 
 face towards heaven and back to Sodom so long as 1 breathe, 
 come what will, inc. And whence do you think springs 
 this resolution, but from a secret saving power, supporting 
 him in the most desperate temptations and assaults of 
 distrust 1 
 
 Now this first, secret saving power, by which an humble 
 soul leaning upon Christ is supported, when it is at the 
 lowest ; secondly, the seed of God ; and thirdly, presence 
 of grace, do every one of them argue a blessed stale, in 
 which thou shall be certainly saved ; and therefore thou 
 niayesl lift up thine heart and head with comfort unspeak- 
 able and glorious. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 The Third Malady of Conscience. The Danger of it. The Causes of 
 it. Two things proposed for Cure of it. 
 
 3. Many there are who much complain of the great dis- 
 proportion between the notorious vvickedness of their former 
 life and their lamentable weakness of an answerable be- 
 wailing it ; between the number of their sins and fewness 
 of their tears ; the heiuousness of their rebellions, and little 
 measure of their humiliation. And thereupon, because they 
 did not find and feel those terrors and extraordinary troubles 
 of mind in their turning unto God ; those violent passions 
 and pangs in their new birth, which they have seen, heard, 
 or read of, or knov/n in others, perhaps far less sinners than 
 themselves ; they are much troubled with distractions and 
 doubts about the truth and soundness of their conversion. 
 '\\ hereby they receive a great deal of hurt and hindrance 
 in their spiritual state ; for Satan gains very much by such 
 a suggestion, and grounds many times a manifold mischief 
 upon it. For by keeping this temptation on foot, these 
 doubts and troubles in their minds whether they be truly 
 converted or no, he labours and too often prevails — 
 
 1. To hinder the Christian in his spiritual building. 
 With what heart can he hold on who doubts of the sound- 
 
308 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORtI^TG 
 
 ness and sure laying of the foundation 1 What progress is 
 he like to make in Christianity who continually terrifies 
 himself with fearful exceptions and oppositions about the 
 truth of his conversion 1 A man in a long journey would 
 jog on but very heavily, if he doubted whether he were in 
 the right way or no. 
 
 2. To abate, lessen, and abridge his courage in standing 
 on God's side, patience under the cross, and spiritual mirth 
 in good company. To keep him in dulness of heart, dead- 
 ness of affections, distractions at holy exercises, and under 
 the reign of almost a continual sadness and uncomfortable 
 walking ; to make him quite neglect and never look towards 
 those sweet commands of the blessed Spirit : ' ' Rejoice 
 evermore. Rejoice ; and I say again, rejoice. Be glad in 
 the Lord, and rejoice ye righteous ; and shout for joy all 
 ye that are upright in heart." 
 
 3. To fasten a great deal of dishonour upon God, {when 
 he can make the Christian disavow, as it were, and nullify 
 in his estimation, so great a work of mercy and grace, 
 stamped upon his soul by an Almighty hand. A work for 
 wonder and power answerable, if not transcendent, to the 
 creation of the world. To the production whereof the in- 
 finite mercies of the Father of all mercy ; the warmest 
 heart's blood of his only Son ; the mightiest moving of the 
 blessed Spirit, were required. Now what an indignity and 
 disparagement oflfered unto so glorious a workman and 
 blessed a work, to assent and subscribe unto the devil, a 
 known liar, that there is no such thing ! 
 
 4. To double and aggravate upon the Christian the grie- 
 vous sin of unbelief. Not to believe the promises as they 
 lie in his book, is an unworthy and wicked wrong unto the 
 truth of God. But for a man to draw back and deny when 
 they are all made good upon his soul, makes him worse 
 than Thomas, the apostle ; for when he had thrust his hand 
 into Christ's side he believed. But in the present case a 
 man is ready to renounce and disclaim, though he have 
 already grasped in the arms of his faith the crucified bleed- 
 ing body of his blessed Redeemer, the sacred and saving 
 virtue whereof hath inspired into the whole man a new, 
 spiritual, sanctifying life, and a sensible, undeniable change 
 from what it was. 
 
 5. To detain the heart locked up, as it were, in a per- 
 petual barrenness from giving of thanks, which is one of the 
 noblest and most acceptable sacrifices and services that is 
 oflfered unto God. Now what a mischief is this, that an 
 upiight heart should be laced up, and his tongue tied by 
 the devil's temptation from magnifying heartily the ^ory 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIE]\CES. 309 
 
 of God's free grace for such a work ! I mean the new crea- 
 tion, at which heaven and earth, angels and men, and all 
 creatures, may stand everlastingly amazed. So sweet it is 
 and admirable, and makes an immortal soul for ever. 
 
 But to keep myself to the point. Those who complain, 
 as 1 have said, that because the pangs of their new birth 
 were not, in that proportion they desire, answerable to the 
 heinousness of their former pestilent courses and abomi- 
 nableness of their foregone ill-spent life, many times sus- 
 pect themselves, and are much troubled about the truth of 
 their conversion ; may have their doubts and scruples in- 
 creased, by taking notice of such propositions as these, 
 which divines both ancient and modern let fall sometimes 
 in their penitential discourses : — 
 
 " Ordinarily men are wounded in their consciences at 
 their conversion, answerably to the wickedness of their 
 former conversation." — " Contrition in true converts is for the 
 most part proportionable to the heinousness of their former 
 courses. — " The more wicked that thy former life hath been, 
 the more fervent and earnest let thy repentance or return- 
 ing be*." 
 
 " Sorrow must be proportionable to our sins. The greater 
 our sin, the fuller must be our sorrow t." 
 
 " According to the weight of sin upon the conscience, 
 ought penitent sorrow to be weighty J." 
 
 " He that hath exceeded in sin, let him exceed also in 
 sorrow^." 
 
 "Look how great our sins are, let us so greatly lament 
 them [|." 
 
 " Let the mind of everyone drink up so much of the tears 
 of penitent compunction, as he remembers himself to have 
 withered from God by wickedness H." 
 
 " Grievous sins require most grievous lamentations**." 
 
 " The measure of your mourning must be agreeable and 
 proportionable to the sin tt." 
 
 And we may see these rules represented unto us in the 
 practice of Manasseh, who being a most grievous sinner 
 (2 Chron. xxxiii, 6), " humbled himself greatly before the 
 God of his fathers" (ver. 12). In the woman who is called 
 a sinner (Luke vii, 37) emphatically, and by a kind of sin- 
 gularity, and therefore sorrows extraordinarily (ver. 38), 
 and " wipes Christ's feet with tears." In the idolatrous 
 Israelites upon their turning unto the Lord (I Sam, vii, 4, 
 
 * Homil. of Repentance. t Dike on Repentance, chap. iv. 
 
 t Ambr. ad Viri?. corr. cap. viii. § Idem de Penit. lib. i, cap. ii. 
 II Cypr. de Lapsis ad fin. % (iregor. Pastor. Curse, cap. xxx. 
 
 ** Autr. ad Fratr. in ereino. tt Cireenliam's Grave Coausel. 
 
310 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 6), " who drew water, and poured it out before the Lord." 
 In the hearers of Peter, who having their consciences all 
 bloody with the horrible guilt of crucifying the Lord of life 
 (Acts ii, 33, 36), were " pricked in their hearts" (ver. 37) 
 with such horror and raging anguish, as if so many poisoned 
 daggers and scorpions' stings were fastened in them. In 
 Paul, vvho having been a heinous offender, a grievous per- 
 secutor (Actsix), whereas the other apostles, as one says, 
 had been honest and sober fishermen, tasted deeper of 
 this cup than they ; for he tells us, Rom. viii, 11, that " the 
 law slew him." He was strangely amazed with a voice 
 from heaven, struck down to the earth, and stark blind. 
 " He trembled and was astonished : for three days he did 
 neither eat nor drink," &c. (Acts ix.) 
 
 And there is good reason for it. For ordinarily the newly 
 enlightened eye of a fresh bleeding conscience is very sharp 
 and clear, piercing and sightful, greedy to discover every 
 stain and spot of the soul ; to dive even to the heart root, 
 to the blackest bottom and ugliest nook of a man's former 
 hellish courses ; to look back with a curious survey through 
 the pure perspective of God's righteous law over his whole 
 life, to his very birth sin and Adam's rebellion. And in 
 this sad and heavy search, it is very inquisitive after and 
 apprehensive of all circumstances which may add to the 
 heinousness of sin and horror in his heart. It is quick- 
 sighted into all aggravating considerations ; and quickly 
 learns and looks upon all those ways, degrees, and circum- 
 stances by which sins are made more notorious and hateful. 
 And what the spirit of bondage in a fearful heart may infer 
 hereupon you may easily judge. 
 
 Now to the case proposed ; I say, 
 
 1. That between sin and sorrow we cannot expect a 
 precise equation ; not an arithmetical, but a geometrical 
 proportion. Great sins should be greatly lamented ; yet 
 no sin can be sufficiently sorrowed for, though it may be 
 savingly. When we say the pangs of the new birth must 
 be answerable to our former sinful provocations, vve mean 
 not that we can mourn for sin according to its merit ; that 
 is impossible. But great sins require a great deal of sor- 
 row. We must not think that we have sorrowed enough 
 for any sin, though we can never sorrow sufficiently. 
 
 Before I proceed to a farther and fuller satisfaction in 
 the point, let me tell you by the way how uncomfortable 
 and doubtful the popish doctrine is in this matter, that the 
 truth of our tenet may appear the more precious, and taste 
 more sweet. 
 
 Their attrition and conlritiGn, as I take it, differ as our 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 311 
 
 legal and evangelical repentance ; 1. In respect of the ob- 
 ject. Contrition, as they say, is sorrow for sin, as an offence 
 against God ; attrition is a grief for sin, as liable to punish- 
 ment. 2. In respect of the cause. Contrition ariseth from 
 son-like, attrition from servile fear*. 
 
 This contrition is the cause of the remission of sinst. 
 Well then, thou art a papist and troubled in conscience. 
 Thou knowest well that without contrition, no remission : 
 but when comest thou to that measure and degree which 
 may give thee some contentment about the pardon of thy 
 sins ? Go unto them in this point for resolution and relief, 
 and thou goest unto a rack. Consult with their chapters, 
 " De quantitate Contritionis," of the amount of sorrow, 
 and they are able to confound thee with many desperate 
 distractions. 
 
 1. Lookback upon the elder schoolmen; and you shall 
 have Adrian t and others tell you ofa contrition in the highest 
 strain, and to which nothing can be added§. This opinion 
 Vega refutes 1|, and Bellaimine dislikes it*[[. Note by the 
 way how sweetly they agree ; our concord is angelical in 
 respect of their confusions. 
 
 2. Go to Scotus** and his followers, and you shall find 
 him to talk of a certain intensity of contrition, which is only 
 known unto God; but this Greg.de Valent. censures as 
 very false tt. You see again, as there is no truth in their 
 tenets, so no constancy, no concord, and by consequence 
 no comfort to a truly troubled spirit. 
 
 3. Come at length to the latter locusts, some modern 
 Jesuits, daubers over of their superstitious ruins with many 
 rotten distinctions (I mean Bellarmine, Greg, de Valent. 
 and their fellows), and they dare not stand either to the 
 unknown intensity of Scotus, nor that of highest pitch, whicli 
 Adrian holds ; but come in with a sorrow for sin, apprecia- 
 tive summus. And what is that, think you 1 
 
 Hence Bellarmine (for ^'alent. speaks more warily in the 
 quoted place, Art. '• Neque veni ;" yet very weakly too, 
 for in such cases the troubled mind is not wont to rest upon 
 generals only, but will in spite of ourselves bring us to 
 particulars, howsoever Scotus, Navar, and Madina advise 
 the contrary) — " Sorrow for sin," saith he, " is then summus 
 
 * See Valent. Disp. vii, q. 8, De Contrit. punct, 2. 
 
 t Bellar. lib. ii, De Poeuit. cap. xil. 
 
 t QuEest ii, de Foenit. qnodlib. v, artic. 3. 
 
 § \'alent. torn, iv, disp. 7, qu. 8, de Contrltione, punct. 5. 
 
 II De Justif. lib. xiii, cap. xiv ad princ. 
 
 % De Poeiiit. lib. ii, cap. xi, art. denique si summus. 
 
 ** In 4 sent. dist. xiv, q. 2. tt Tom. iv, col. 17, 24. 
 
312 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 appi-eciative, when the will doth more esteem the detesta- 
 tion of sin, than the attainment of any good, or escaping 
 any ill ;" and so by consequence (for, as I intimated, a 
 troubled conscience in such a case is very curious and 
 inquisitive, and will not stay only upon confused and general 
 notions of good and ill, but easily descend to particulars, 
 to know its state more perfectly, especially in a point of so 
 great importance) a man must find his heart first to prize 
 the hatred of sin before the happiness of heavenly joys or 
 avoiding hellish pains, before he can come to comfort of 
 the remission of his sins. What a torture were it to a 
 troubled spiiit to fall into the hands of such true pharisees, 
 who lay heavy burthens upon others, but will not touch 
 them themselves with the least of their fingers. But, 
 blessed be God ! we truly teach that it is not so much the 
 measure and amount, as the truth and heartiness of our 
 sorrow, which fits for the promises of life and pardon of 
 sin. Yet I must say this also, he that thinks he hath sor- 
 rowed sufficiently, never sorrowed truly. And I like Bel- 
 larmine's last proposition well, in the fore-cited place, if it 
 be thus understood, that we must desire, aim, and endea- 
 vour after the highest pitch of godly sorrow which can 
 possibly be attained. But it is one thing to £ay, either just 
 so much measure of sorrow or no mercy — such a quantity 
 
 • of contrition or no remission — another thing to say we ntiust 
 long and labour to bring our naughty hearts to this, even to 
 be willing rather to lie in hell than to live in sin. Perfec- 
 tions of grace are aimed at in this life, not attained. 
 
 4. I confess some of them sometimes, by reason of free- 
 dom in their schools, over-ruled like Caiaphas, or over-mas- 
 tered by the clearness and invincibleness of the truth, speak 
 something more orthodoxically * ; but you see them still 
 like the four winds blow in one another's faces. Hereupon 
 1 have many times marvelled, that understanding papists 
 looking into the point are not plunged into desperate per- 
 plexities, considering the variety of opinions and uncer- 
 tainty of the degree of sorrow required to their contrition : 
 but when I reflected upon another rotten daubing trick of 
 theirs, 1 rather wonder at the depths of their antichristian 
 craft in so politicly and plausibly patching together their 
 popish paradoxes, that they may still keep their deluded 
 disciples in contentment, and please them still at least with 
 
 some 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. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 31 3 
 
 hold also (Prodigious infatuation ! It is impossible that the 
 learned on the pope's side — were not that curse justly upon 
 tliem, 2 Thes. ii, 10,11, "Because they received not the 
 love of the truth, that they might be saved ; God sends 
 them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie" — 
 should ever be so grossly blinded) ; I say they hold, that a 
 man ex attrito, by the power of the priestly absolution is 
 made contiitus ; and that ex opere operato, as Valent. affirms. 
 Which in effect is thus much ; that having but only attri- 
 tion (legal repentance), that Iruitless sorrow which may be 
 found in a Judas, a Latomus, and which a reprobate may 
 carry with him to hell, is by the virtue of their feigned sa- 
 crament, " by the sacramental act of absolution," as they 
 call it, made truly and savingly contrite and put into a state 
 of justification. Hear it in the words of that great and 
 famous light of Ireland*, and for ever abhor all such popish 
 impostures: " When the priest with his power of forgiving 
 sins interposeth himself in the business, they tell us that 
 attrition, by virtue of the keys, is made contrition ; that is 
 to say, that a sorrow arising from a servile fear of punish- 
 ment, and such a fruitless repentance as the reprobate may 
 carry with them to hell, by virtue of the priest's absolution 
 is made so fruitful, that it shall serve the turn for obtaining 
 forgiveness of sins, as if it had been that godly sorrow, 
 which worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented 
 of (2 Cor. vii, 10) : by which spiritual cozenage many poor 
 souls are most miserably deluded, while they persuade 
 themselves that upon the receipt of the priest's acquittance, 
 upon this carnal sorrow of theirs, all scores are cleared 
 until that day, and then beginning upon a new reckoning, 
 they sin and confess, confess and sin afresh ; and tread this 
 round so long, till they put off all thought of saving repent- 
 ance ; and so the blind follov/ing the blind, both at last 
 follow into the pit." 
 
 Or thus, a little after : — 
 
 " It hath been always observed for a special difference 
 betwixt good and bad men, that the one hated sin for the 
 love of virtue, the other only for the fear of punishment. 
 The like difference do our adversaries make betwixt contri- 
 tion and attrition. That the hatred of sin in the one pro- 
 ceedeth from the love of God, and of righteousness in the 
 other from the fear of punishment ; and yet teach for all 
 this that attrition, which they confess would not otherwise 
 suffice to justify a man, being joined with the priest's abso- 
 lution is sufficient for that purpose. He that was attrite 
 
 * Usher, in his Answer to a Jesuit's Challenge. 
 2 E 
 
314 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 being by virtue of this absolution made contrite and justi- 
 fied : that is to say, he that was led only by a servile fear, 
 and consequently was to be ranked among disordered and 
 evil persons, being by this means put in as good a case for 
 the matter of the forgiveness of his sins as he that loveth 
 God sincerely. For they themselves do grant, that such as 
 have this servile fear, from whence attrition issueth, are to 
 be accounted evil and disordered men," &c. 
 
 But leaving these blind pharisees in the endless maze of 
 their inextricable errors, until it please the Lord to enlighten 
 them and by a strong hand pull them out, which 1 heartily 
 desire and will ever pray, I come to prosecute mine own 
 point. 
 
 2. If you ask me when trouble for sin is saving, I would 
 answer, when it is true. If you further demand when is it 
 true ; I would say, when it drives thee utterly out of thy 
 self, and to sdl all in the sense 1 have said before ; and 
 brings thee with a sincere thirst and settled resolution to 
 Jesus Christ, to live and die with him as a Saviour and a 
 Lord, and is accompanied with an universal change in body, 
 soul, and spirit. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 The Third Way of Curing ttie former Malady. One thing to be con- 
 sidered to that purpose. 
 
 In the third place, take notice of such considerations as 
 these : — 
 
 1. God, being a most free agent, doth not tie himself con- 
 stantly and invariably to ordinary, expected, set, and the 
 same forms, measures, times, proportions of his ways, and 
 workings upon his children. For he is wise without limit 
 and above measure ; and therefore hath many secret and 
 glorious ends and aims, which, according to his good plea- 
 sure, much diversify the means serviceable and subordinate 
 thereunto. From whence may spring these three conclu- 
 sions : — 
 
 (1.) He may for the most part create in the heart of the 
 true convert terrors and troubles of conscience, amazements 
 and mourning, answerable in some good measure to the 
 variety, vanity, and villany of his former wicked ways and 
 lewd life. As appears before in Manasseh, the sinful wo- 
 man, idolatrous Israelites, hearers of Peter, and many in 
 these days, if it were convenient to name them. " For the 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 315 
 
 most pait," saith a great divine, " the violence of humilia- 
 tion in the calling of a sinner, is according to the continu- 
 ance and greatness of his actual transgressions. According 
 to the same is the rent in the conscience and soul. There- 
 fore, if there be any who hath been a great and grievous 
 sinner, and hath not with violence been pulled from 
 his sin, he may do well to suspect and search himself 
 soundly." 
 
 (2.) He may sometimes suffer a notorious sinner to pass 
 something more easily and with less terror though the pangs 
 of the new birth. But then such a one is wont to walk 
 more humbly before God all his life after, for that he was 
 not humbled with more remarkableness of penitent remorse 
 and spiritual anguish in his conversion ; and so extension 
 and continuance of godly grief that he was not more grieved, 
 makes up as it were that desired intensity and extremity of 
 pangs which might justly have pained him in his passing 
 from death to life. Every hearty and sensible complaint 
 that the pangs of the new birth were not more painful and 
 proportionable to the pollutions of his youth, is, as it were, 
 and in the sense 1 have said, a pang of the new birth. Or 
 else upon some occasion afterward in his Christian course 
 he may be revisited and vexed afresh with more terror and 
 trouble of conscience than in his first change ; as in such 
 cases as these : — 1st. If he should (which God forbid !) by 
 some violent enticement and snaring opportunity be entan- 
 gled again and reinfected with any former sensual pleasure 
 of his unregenerate time ; or by neglect of his care and 
 watchfulness over his ways be suddenly surprised with some 
 new scandalous sin. 2diy. Upon the assault of some extra- 
 ordinary frighting temptation, or pressing of hideous thoughts 
 upon his melancholic imagination. 3dly. When some heavy 
 cross or sickness* after many prosperous days shall seize upon 
 him, which may lie sore and long. 4thly. Upon his bed of 
 death ; especially if he fall upon it immediately after some re- 
 lapse, backsliding, or new wound of conscience. There is a kind 
 of natural power besides God's special hand in sickness, 
 sorrow, darkness, melancholy, the night, extraordinary 
 crosses, the bed of death, to represent the true number and 
 
 * David, Psalm xxxviii, beinsr put in mind by his sickness of Ciod's 
 wrath against sin, was full sorely afflicted in soul ; so that lie cries : 
 " There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger : neither is 
 there any rest in my bones, because of my sin. For mine iniquities 
 are gone over mine head; as a heavy burthen they are too heavy for 
 me. I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the 
 day long. I am feeble and sore broken ; I have roared by reason of 
 the distjuietiiess of my heart. My sorrow is continually before me." 
 
316 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 heinousness of sins with greater horror and more unto the 
 life ; whereas prosperity, health, and days of peace, do 
 rather delude the eyes of the conscience ; and like false and 
 flattering glasses make those foul fiends seem fairer than 
 they are indeed. And therefore the Christian, especially 
 that I speak of, being outwardly distressed, cast upon his 
 bed of death, or any ways extraordinarily visited by God's 
 hand, seeing his sins upon the sudden marshalled and march- 
 ing against him ; more in number and more fiercely than 
 heretofore, may for the while be surprised and exercised 
 with unexpected terror, until by meditation upon God's 
 former special mercy unto him in spiritual things, upon the 
 marks and effects of his change, upon the uprightness of 
 his heart towards God in the days of health, upon those 
 testimonies and assurances which his Christian friends can 
 give him of his being in a gracious state, with such like 
 holy helps ; and so in cool blood and above all resolving to 
 stick for ever fast to the Lord Jesus, though he kill him, he 
 be raised again from such dejections of spirit to the wonted 
 confidence and comfort of his interest in Christ and salva- 
 tion of his soul. Here, by the way, let none think it strange, 
 that even the dearest servants of Christ may be revisited* 
 with more horror of conscience afterward than at their first 
 turning on God's side. As appears in Job, Hezekiah, David, 
 in Mrs. Brettergh, Mr. Peacick, &c. Besides the proposed 
 cases, this re visitation may befal them also — 5thly. For 
 
 * But how may this revisitatioii with as great, if not greater tenoi-s 
 than at first turning unto God, consist with that, Rom. viii, 15, " Ye 
 have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;" which seems to 
 import thus mnch, that God's child receives the spirit of bondage no 
 more after he hath once received the spirit of adoption, revealing and 
 evidencing unto him that he is a son and that God is his father ? In 
 answer : The same Spirit produceth these contrary effects. By the law, 
 fear and terror, by the gospel, peace and prayer. Now at the first talc- 
 ing a man in hand to turn him to the Lord, the spirit of bondage, by 
 the work of the law, doth testify unto the soul that it is in a wretched 
 and damnable state, bound over to the guilt of its own sin, and God's 
 fiery wrath, to death, and hell, and damnation for ever-, that so it may 
 be driven to Jesus Christ for release and pardon. But after the planta- 
 tion of faith and presence of the spirit of adoption it never testifies so 
 again, because it would be an untruth. It may afterward work an ap- 
 prehension that God is angry ; but not that he is not a father. The 
 hiding of God's face, which may often befal his child ; the darkness of 
 our own spirits thereupon, wliich may revive all the old guilt again ; and 
 the devil's cruel pressing upon us upon such advantages, raise these 
 hideous mists of horror I am speaking of, and such terrible after-tem- 
 pests, of wliich our only-wise and all powerful God makes excellent use, 
 hoth for ourselves and others, and attains thereby his own most glori- 
 ous, secret, and sacred end, as appears in the following passage. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 317 
 
 • 
 their own trial. This was the end, as it may seem, why 
 Job was sei up as a mark for the envenomed arrows of the 
 Almighty to aim at, and whole armies of terrors to fight 
 against. He approved himself to be steel to the back as tliey 
 say, by that victorious ejaculation, "Though he slay me, 
 yet will I trust in him " (Job xiii, 15) ; whereby God was 
 mightily honoured, Satan utterly confounded, and that con- 
 troversy, " wlielher Job feared God for nought or no 1 " 
 gloriously ended on God's side. 6thly. That they may grow 
 into greater conformity with their blessed Saviour in spiri- 
 tual sufferings. 7thly. That, tasting again sometimes the 
 bitterness of divine wrath for sin, they may be the more 
 frighted and flee further from it. 8thly. That thereby the 
 incomprehensible love of Christ toward them may sink 
 deeper into their hearts, who for their sakes and salvation 
 drunk deep and large, and the very dregs of that cup, the 
 least drop whereof is to them so bitter and intolerable. 
 9thly. That by sense of the contrary, their joy in the favour 
 and light of God's countenance may be more joyful, their 
 spiritual peace more pleasant, the pleasure of grace more 
 precious, the comforts of godliness more comfortable, &c. 
 lOihly. For admonition to others ; to draw duller and 
 drowsy Christians to more strictness, watchfulness, and zeal, 
 by observing the spiritual troubles and terrors of those who 
 are far more holy and righteous than themselves. To inti- 
 mate unto formal professors that all is certainly nought 
 with them, who ordinarily are mere strangers to all afflic- 
 tions of soul and sorrow for sin. llthly. For terror to many, 
 who going on securely in their sensual courses, are wont to 
 cry down all they can the power of preaching, by crying to 
 their companions thus, or in the like manner — "Well, for 
 all this, we hope hell is not so hot, nor sin so heavy, nor 
 the devil so black, nor God so unmerciful, as these precise 
 preachers would make them." How may such as these be 
 affrighted and terrified upon this occasion, with pondering 
 upon that terrible place, 1 Pet. iv, 17, 18. " If judgment 
 begin at the house of God, what shall the end be of them 
 that obey not the gospel of God \ And if the righteous 
 scarcely be saved;" if God's children have their con- 
 sciences scorched, as it were, with the flames of hell ; 
 " where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear," but even 
 in the bottom of that fiery lake, and amidst the unquencha- 
 ble rage of those endless flames ? 12thly. For the just 
 hardening of such as hate to be reformed, and are despe- 
 rately resolved against the saving preciseness of the saints. 
 It may be in this manner : A godly man hath lived long 
 amongst rebels, thorns, and scorpions, scorners, railers, per- 
 
 2 E 3 
 
318 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 secutors, who although he hath shined all the while " as a 
 light in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation," 
 yet they were ever so far from being heated with love of 
 heavenly things by his holy life, or won unto good by his 
 gracious example, that like so many bats and owls, impatient 
 of all spiritual light, they did either fly from it as far as they 
 could in affection and practice, if not in habitation, or fell 
 upon it fiercely with their envenomed claws of spite and 
 cruelty, to extinguish quite, if it were possible, such blessed 
 beams of saving light ; and to darken, with hellish mists of 
 ignorance and ill life, the place where they live. They 
 willfully blinded themselves with a pestilent conceit, that 
 his sincerity was nothing but hypocrisy ; his holiness only 
 humour ; his forwardness f.tntasticalness, his sanctification 
 singularity. And thereupon resolved and boisterously com- 
 bined against him with all their policy, purses, and possibi- 
 lities, like those ungodly ones mentioned in the book of 
 Wisdom, " Let us lie in wait for the righteous ; because he 
 is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings ; 
 he upbraideth us with our offending the law, and objecteth 
 to our infamy the transgressings of our education," &cc. I 
 say, God may sutler such a man upon his death-bed to fall 
 into some more extraordinary observable discomfort and 
 distress of conscience ; of which those graceless wretches 
 taking notice, may thereby be made desperately obstinate 
 and hardened in their lewd and carnal courses. For seeing 
 God's hand upon him in that fearful manner, and wanting 
 the spirit of discerning, they conclude most peremptorily, 
 that notwithstanding his great shows, he was most certainly 
 but a counterfeit. And so themselves become many times 
 upon that occasion most implacable enemies to grace and 
 all good men. They are more strongly locked up in the 
 arms of the devil, faster nailed to formality or good-fellow- 
 ship ; and, which is the perfection of their madness and 
 misery, " bless themselves in their hearts," saying merrily 
 to their brethren in iniquity: "You see now what these 
 men are, which make themselves so holy and are so hot 
 in religion : these are the fellows which pretend to be so 
 scrupulous and precise ; and of that singular strain of sanc- 
 tity that they think none shall be saved but themselves. You 
 see in this man the desperate end of such hypocritical 
 puritans." Thus the glory of God's justice is justly magni- 
 fied, by letting them grow stark blind who wilfully shut 
 their eyes against the light of grace, by giving ihem over to 
 a reprobate mind v.'ho so maliciously hated to be reformed ; 
 and so too often they walk on for ever after, with confidence 
 and hardness of heart which cannot repent, in a peipetual 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 319 
 
 prejudice against purity and the power of godliness, unto 
 the pit of hell. Whereas, by the mercy of God and invio- 
 lable constancy of his covenant, that blessed man, by these 
 terrors and afflictions of conscience, besides glorifying God 
 in hardening others, is the more thoroughly fitted and refined 
 for that glory which is presently to be revealed. 
 
 (3.) Greatest humiliations do not ever argue and import 
 the greatest sinners. For sins are not always the cause of 
 our afflictions, particularly and directly, but sometimes some 
 other motives. Abraham was put unto that heavy task of 
 taking away his own only dear son's life, principally for the 
 trial of his faith. Job was visited with such a matchless 
 variety and extremity of afflictions, for the purpose of end- 
 ing that controversy between God and Satan, whether he 
 feared God for nought or no ? God's heavy hand was some- 
 times upon David especially for the manifestation of his 
 innocency (Psalm xvii, 3) ; nay, our blessed Saviour, infi- 
 nitely free from sin, was notwithstanding tempted and tried 
 by Satan and the world, that his heavenly virtues and 
 divine excellencies might appear and be made more illus- 
 trious ; and himself tells us (John ix, 3) that the blind man 
 was so born, neither for his own sin nor for the sin of his 
 parents, " but that the works of God should be made mani- 
 fest in him." 
 
 For the particular I have in hand, — to prevent some sin 
 into which he sees his child inclinable and likely to fall, by 
 reason of some violent occasion, natural propensity, strong 
 temptation, or industrious malice of the devil to disgrace 
 him and his profession scandalously, God in great mercy 
 rnay give him a taste, nay a deep draught of the inexpres- 
 sible terrors of a troubled mind again ; that thereby he may 
 be taught betime to take more heed, walk more warily, 
 and stand upon his guard with extraordinary watchfulness 
 against the very first assault and least insinuation of sin. 
 There is preventing physic for preservation of health, as 
 well as that when the disease is dangerously upon us, for 
 recovery. There was given unto Paul a thorn in the flesh ; 
 which, if we will take the interpretation of some learned 
 divines, was a wound in the spirit, the sting of conscience 
 pressing him down to the nethermost hell in his present 
 feeling, who had lately been taken up to the highest heaven, 
 purposely lest he should swell with spiritual pride, be 
 puffed up and "exalted above measure with the abundance 
 of revelations." If we well weigh the admirable story of 
 that gracious and holy servant of Christ, JMrs. Brettergh, 
 we may probably conceive that a principal end why those 
 most grievous spiritual afflictions of soul upon her last bed 
 
320 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 were laid upon her, was in God's just judgment to blind 
 yet more those bloody papists about her ; and because they 
 wilfully shut their eyes against that glorious light of true 
 religion which she so blessedly and fruitfully expressed in 
 her godly life, to let them thereby sink yet deeper into 
 strong delusion ; that they might stick still more stiffly to 
 popish lies, according to that prophecy concerning the anti- 
 christians (2 Thes. ii, 10, 11, 12), " Because they received 
 not the love of the truth that they might be saved ; for this 
 cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should 
 believe a lie ; that they all might be damned who believed 
 not the truth," &c. which we see at this day verified with 
 a witness in popish doctors, even their greatest scholars, 
 as Bellarmine, and other polemical writers. And therefore 
 let us never marvel, that though they be laden with much 
 learning, yet that they should lie egregiously, and defend 
 with infinite obstinacy and clamour the doctrine of devils, 
 that accursed hydra of heresies in their voluminous dung- 
 chills. Now God's judgment in hardening them hereby, as 
 I have said, was the more just ; because they were so far 
 from being wrought upon and won by her heavenly conver- 
 sation, that they were extraordinarily enraged against her 
 goodness and profession of the gospel, as appears in that, 
 besides their continual railing and roaring against her as an 
 eminent light, like so many furious bedlams, they barbar- 
 ously wreaked their malice and spite upon the dumb and 
 innocent creatures, by killing at two several times her hus- 
 band's horses and cattle in the night. 
 
 That her fiery trial, through which she passed as purest 
 gold into Abraham's bosom, did thus harden them is mani- 
 fest by the event : for as the reverend penman of that story 
 reports : " Those of the Romish faction bragged, as though 
 an oracle had come from heaven to prove ihem catholics 
 and us heretics." Prodigious folly ! Damnable delusion ! 
 
 It is so then, that God, in his inflicting of afflictions, 
 doth not ever aim at sin as at the principal end. And yet 
 do not mistake : though he punishes sometimes and not for 
 sin, yet never without sin either inherent or imputed. 
 There is ever matter enough in our sinful souls, and bodies, 
 and Jives, to afflict us infinitely. The best of us brought 
 with us into this world that corruption which might bring 
 upon us all the plagues of this and the other life. Every 
 man hath in himself sufficient fuel for the fire of God's 
 wrath to work upon still, if it pleased him in justice to set 
 it on flame. As in the present point of spiritual terrors and 
 troubles of mind, if God should out of his just and cause- 
 ful indignation put the full sting but into the least sin, it 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 321 
 
 were able to put a man into the very mouth of hell. But 
 I speak of God's more ordinary ways and dealings with the 
 sons of men ; and so I say, God may sometimes, for some 
 hidden and holy ends seen and seeming good to his hea- 
 venly wisdom, bring a less heinous sinner through extra- 
 ordinary horror out of his natural state into the good 
 way. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 A Second and Third Thing to be considered for the cure of the former 
 Malady. 
 
 2. Aggkavation of horror is occasioned, terrors and trou- 
 bles may be multiplied and enlarged, in our enlargement 
 from the state of darkness and chains of the devil, by — 
 
 (1.) Some precedents and preparatives which God some- 
 times in his unsearchable wisdom doth immediately pre- 
 mise or suffer to fall out, as, 
 
 1st. Some heavy cross and grievous affliction, to make 
 the power of the law more forcible and fall more heavily 
 upon our stubborn and stony hearts. This we see in Ma- 
 nasseh, who was, as it were, terrified out of his bloody and 
 abominable courses by the heaviness and horror of his 
 chains, and so " was humbled greatly before the God of 
 his fathers," (2 Chron. xxxiii, 12). God's extraordinary 
 angry visitations make men many times cry with troubled 
 and grieved hearts, " Come, let us turn unto the Lord, he 
 hath wounded us," &c. 
 
 2d, Strange terrors sometimes arising from external ac- 
 cidents, yea hidden natural causes, uncouth visions, and 
 apparitions full of amazement and fear, bodily distem- 
 pers, horrible injections, hideous thoughts, whereby they 
 are mightily affrighted beforehand, and prepared to pass 
 through the pangs of the new birth more terribly. 
 
 3d. Some heinous and crying sin which he suffers some to 
 fall into, and immediately upon it awakes the conscience. 
 That almighty physician, who is able to bring health out of 
 poison, death out of life, light out of darkness, heaven out 
 of hell, may by accident as it were prepare one to conver- 
 sion by giving him over to the height of some one or more 
 abhorred abominations and crimson sins ; as we may see in 
 Peter's hearers (Acts ii), Paul, Manasseh, the sinful wo- 
 man, publicans and harlots, left to the killing of Christ, 
 spilling the blood of the saints, those horrible outrages, ex- 
 
322 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 treme filth, extortions, pollutions. Physicians, by ripening 
 diseases, make way to heal them ; for diseased matter is 
 never more easily removed than when it exceedeth in ripe- 
 ness and quantity. 
 
 4th. Lying long in ignorance, sensuality, and dissolute 
 life, without profitable and powerful means. In this case, 
 upon the first awaking and affrighting the conscience for 
 sin, it may be exposed to many terrible perplexities and 
 longer continued terrors. For the light of natural con- 
 science bred with them in their own bosoms may in the 
 mean time serve to enrage and torture, as we see in many 
 guilty heathens ; but there is no natural light to lead us to 
 Christ and evangelical comforts. 'J'he commandments have 
 ground in nature ; but the mystery of the gospel is wholly 
 supernatural. We find by manifold experience what a hard 
 and heavy task it is to undertake a poor ignorant soul, 
 troubled in mind. The cure is many times very difficult, 
 dangerous, and long. The darkness of their ignorance, 
 being now distressed in conscience, is very fit and fearful 
 matter for Satan to work on hideously, and to play his pes- 
 tilent pranks of most gross impostures and much hellish 
 cruelty. His malicious main plot against such, and his ut- 
 most endeavour ordinarily is to drive them to self-destruc- 
 tion, if it be possible, before they get understanding in tlie 
 ■ways of God, or we can get any competent light and com- 
 fort into their consciences. 
 
 (2.) Some concurrent circumstances ; as, 
 
 1st. The melancholic and sad constitution of the party ; 
 that humour doth naturally give extraordinary entertain- 
 ment and edge to terrors and sorrows. 
 
 2d. The crabbedness and crookedness of his natural dis- 
 position, which must be tamed and taken down with more 
 labour and with much violence. A hard and knotty block 
 must have a hard wedge. An angry word or frown will 
 work more with some dispositions, than many sore blows 
 upon a cross and sturdy spirit. God is here wont sweetly 
 and wisely to apply himself to the several natures, condi- 
 tions, and dispositions of his children. 
 
 3d. Height of place and happiness to have for this life 
 what heart can wish. Whereby it comes to pass that men 
 are so deeply drowned in sensuality, epicurism, and earthly- 
 mindedness, that for a thorough change they have need 
 many times to be taken down thoroughly with a deep sense 
 of legal terrors. 
 
 4th. Excellency of natural or acquired parts and endow- 
 ments ; as wit, learning, courage, wisdom, &c. wretchedly 
 abused and long misemployed upon wrong and wicked ob- 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 323 
 
 jects. Much ado many times and a great measure of humi- 
 liation will hardly fright such vain over-valuers of them- 
 selves and idolizers of their own sufficiency from their ad- 
 mired follie^. And here also Satan interposeth most furi- 
 ously, and hinders this hai)py work all he can possibly ; for 
 he well knows, that if such noble and worthy parts should 
 be sanctified to the owners and turned the right way, his 
 kingdom would fare the worse and he should be a greater 
 loser. Suppose a Christian prince should with his army 
 break into the Turk's dominion, would not the Turk fortify 
 those castles best, out of which being won, ihe enemy 
 might do him most harm ? So whom the devil seeth to be 
 the likeliest instruments for the overthrow of his kingdom, 
 if once they become temples of the Holy Ghost, those he is 
 most loath to lose, and labours mightily to keep in his slavery 
 still. And therefore he opposes with all his power and po- 
 licy, raising as.many tempests of terror as he is able, that he 
 may either drive them back in their passage to the holy 
 path, or swallow them up in the abhorred gulf of despair 
 by the way. 
 
 5th. A more searching and piercing ministry, which is 
 ordinarily wont to awake the conscience with more terror, 
 to irradiate and fill it with more universal and clearer light, 
 to quicken it with more apprehension, and so proportion- 
 ably to aftect and afflict it with a more feeling and fearful 
 sense of God's most just and holy wrath against sin. 
 Whereupon they become excellent and everlasting Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 6th. Biting it in, as it may be called, and not opening 
 the wound of conscience betimes to some skilful soul phy- 
 sician, may be an unhappy means, much to enlarge both 
 the continuance and extremity of a man's spiritual trouble. 
 Shame, bashfulness, pretence of want of opportunity, hope 
 to get through by himself, ice., are ordinary keys to lock up 
 his tongue at such a time. But sure I am, Satan hatha 
 chief stroke and principal part to persuade concealment. 
 For, alas ! he wins by it wofully. All the while he plies 
 with great advantage and much subtlety his hideous temp- 
 tations to self- killing, despair of mercy, returning again to 
 folly, &c. ; and it is to be feared, which is a most grievous 
 thing, that sometimes by this cruel silence he conquers 
 and casts some poor souls upon the bloody and most ab- 
 horred villany of self-murder. Let such a one then be ever 
 sure most resolutely to break through the devil's accursed 
 snare in this kind, and to pour out his soul secrets betimes 
 into some faithful holy bosom. J have heard many after 
 they have escaped tell what strange tricks and variety of 
 
324 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 devices he practised to discourage, divert, and disable them 
 from discovering their minds as they purposed, even when 
 they were come with much ado into the presence of the 
 spiritual physician. 
 
 3. The ends to which God prepares and fits some by 
 their sore travail in the new birth and longer languishing 
 under his visiting hand in this kind. God may purpose 
 sometimes in such cases ; — 
 
 (1.) To employ them as Christ's most resolute and un- 
 daunted champions in more worthy services. In managing 
 whereof, remembrance of their having been once, as it 
 ■were, in the mouth of hell and scorched with flames of 
 terror, serves as a continual spur and incentive unto them 
 to do nobly, and to supply them from time to time with 
 mightiness of courage, height of resolution, and eminency 
 of zeal in those glorious ways. As we may see in those 
 renowned pillars of the church, Austin, Luther, &c. The 
 higher and greater the building is, the deeper must the 
 foundation be laid in the earth. 
 
 (2.) To make them afterwards of excellent use and spe- 
 cial dexterity, out of their former experience, to speak 
 unto the hearts of their brethren ready to sink into the 
 same gulf of horror and danger of despair, out of which the 
 good hand of God's gracious providence hath by such and 
 such means so mercifully pulled and preserved them. 1 he 
 same keys which did open the locks and loose the fetters 
 vi^hich Satan hung upon their heavy hearts, may hap- 
 pily undo those also which he hath fastened upon the souls 
 of others. 
 
 (3.) To render them to the church as remarkable pre- 
 cedents and mirrors of mortification, self-denial, heavenly 
 mindedness, and holy walking with God, for others to look 
 upon and imitate. Mindfulness of their former wrestling 
 with the wrath of God, despair, and the horrors of hell, 
 makes them for ever after more mindless of eaithly things, 
 weaned from the world, startling at every appearance of 
 evil, greedy of godliness, conversing in heaven, excellent 
 Christians indeed. Mr. John Glover, after five years hor- 
 rible afflictions of soul, was framed thereby, saith Mr. Fox, 
 to such mortification of life, as the like perhaps hath not 
 been seen ; in such sort, as he, being like one placed in 
 heaven already and dead in this world, led a life altogether 
 celestial*. 
 
 * See Acts and Monuments. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 325 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The Fourth and Fifth Considerations which belong lo the Third Way of 
 Curing the tbrraer Malady. Also the Fifth Help for it by Advice. 
 
 4th. Iv sound contrition and saving repentance, let us for 
 the present t,ake notice of, — First, a sensible smart and an- 
 guish of the heart. Secondly, a dislike, hatred, and aver- 
 sion in the will. Thirdly, a change of the mind, enlightened 
 and now enabled to give stronger reasons out of God's book, 
 love of Christ, &c. against any sin, than carnal reason, the 
 devil himself, or the drunken eloquence of his old good- 
 fellow companions can suggest to the contrary. Fourthly, 
 an universal opposition and constant endeavour against all 
 manner of iniquity. Fifthly, a hearty sorrow that we are 
 not more sorrowful. 
 
 Now, say I, if thou shouldst not feel in thine heart that 
 stirring grief and violent rending for those many rebellions 
 and horrible filth of thy naughty heart and former wicked 
 life which thou heartily desirest, their heinousness exacts 
 at thine hands, and many lesser sinners than thyself have 
 endured ; yet if thou findest an unfeigned hatred and dis- 
 pleasedness in thy will, a settled resolution in thy mind, 
 a watchful striving in all thy ways against all sin, true 
 grief because thou art not more grieved, thou art by no 
 means to cast away thy confidence, or be discomforted 
 therefore, as though thou wert not truly converted ; but 
 only be advised and take occasion thereupon to w^alk more 
 humbly before thy God, with sincerity and constancy to 
 oppose all things which may hinder, and pursue all means 
 that may further the more kindly melting of thine heart, 
 sensible sorrow, and hearty mourning over him whom thoii 
 hast so cruelly pierced with thy youthful lusts and abomi- 
 nations. 
 
 5th. Lest any true hearted Christian, lying in no sin 
 against conscience, and labouring sincerely to please God 
 in all things, should be unnecessarily troubled and dejected 
 with slavish fears and jealousies lest he be not truly turned 
 unto God, because he feels not in himself that boisterous 
 vehement conversion, that extremity of pangs and horror iii 
 the new birth, which sometimes are to be found in some 
 others, let him ponder upon these resemblances : — 
 
 (1.) Thou mayest have thy bile or botch opened with the 
 point of a needle, whereas another man endures the slash- 
 ing of a surgeon's lancet ; yet, if the corruption and pu- 
 trified matter be let out by this easier means, and thyself 
 
 2 F 
 
326 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 thereby thoroughly cured, I hope thou hast no great cause 
 to complain. It may be so in the present point. ' 
 
 (2.) Two sons are punished for their offence ; the one 
 cries, and roars, and grieves extraordinarily ; the other 
 makes no great noise, but resolves silently with himself, 
 and in sincerity, upon a new course as well as the former. 
 Is not the change and reformation of them both equally 
 welcome and accepted of the father, who only aims at and 
 expects their amendment? 
 
 (3.) Two malefactors, equally guilty of high treason, both 
 apprehend their danger, acknowledge that they are utterly 
 undone, hold themselves for dead men ; to the one a par- 
 don comes, not yet cast, condemned, or carried to the place 
 of execution ; to the other, ready to lay down his head upon 
 the block. There is great difference in all likelihood in 
 their terrors and deiections*; but they have equal parts in 
 the pardon, and both their lives are saved. 
 
 (4.) Two men are arrived at their wished-for port : the 
 one was tossed with many roaring tempests and raging 
 waves; the other hath a reasonably calm passage. How- 
 soever they now stand both safe upon the shore, and have 
 both escaped destruction and drowning in that great merci- 
 less devouring gulf. 
 
 (5.) Suppose a man dead for some days, and then re- 
 
 ■ vived ; he perceives his change with a witness ; another 
 
 is not so, but himself only alive walks amongst a multitude 
 
 of dead men ; he also may clearly enough see the difference, 
 
 and both acknowledge and praise God for his life*. 
 
 Yet for conclusion, let all those who have passed through 
 the pangs of the new-birlh not so terribly, but more tole- 
 rably, especially having been formerly notorious, take coun- 
 sel and be advised to ply more carefully the great and gra- 
 cious work of humiliation still, to "humble themselves in 
 the sight of the Lord " yet more and more unto their dying 
 day. The humblest Christians are ever highest in favour 
 
 * Those who are so happy, as by the benefit of religious parents, a 
 godly family, good education uu^ier po\ver%I means, have never en- 
 tered upon any nctoiioiisness, but by God's blessing upon those means 
 have sucked in grace in their younger years, as is saii of Timothy ; and 
 such also as after a profuie course have been turned unto God some- 
 what more easily than ordiniry ; and so both comp'ain of tiie want 
 of that testimony of terrible paiigsin their conversion, which they hear 
 others talk of; yet, I say, being now upright-hearted, and in the holy 
 path, they may" take comfort by comparing themselves with and cast- 
 ing their eyes upon a world of unregeuerate people about them, from 
 which by the mercies of God they di&er as far as living men from a 
 number of rotten dead carcasses ; and so may assure themselves of 
 soundness. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 327 
 
 and nearest in familiarity with Almighty God. They are, 
 as it were, his second royal throne, wherein he sweetly 
 dwells and delights. See Isa. Ivii, 15, and Ixvi, I, 2 ; 
 Psalrn xxxiv, 18, and li, 17. And they are also of the most 
 sweet, amiable, and inoffensive carriage amongst the people 
 of God. Hear that excellent artist in the spiritual anatomy 
 of man's deceitful heart*, " Humiliation is the procurer of 
 all other graces ' God resisteth the proud, and giveth 
 grace to the humble' (1 Pet. v, 5) ; and it is the preserver 
 of grace procured ; and therefore compared to a strong 
 foundation, upholding the building against the force of wind 
 and weather. Only those streams of grace hold out that 
 flovv out of the troubled fountain of a bruised spirit. An 
 unhumbled professor quickly starts back, even as a broken 
 egg or chesnut leaps out of the fire. Grace is nowhere safe, 
 but in a sound and honest heart. Now, ordy the humble 
 heart is the honest heart. Only a rent and broken heart 
 is a whole and sound heart. 'J he dross cannot be purged 
 out of the gold but by melting ; crooked things cannot be 
 straightened but by wringing. Now, humiliation is that 
 which wrings and melts us, and makes us of drossy, pure ; 
 of crooked, straight and upright; and so, sound, durable, 
 and persevering Christians." 
 
 And let them consider and examine whether neglect of 
 this holy endeavour I now exhort them to, may not bring 
 upon them much spiritual misery ; whether they may not 
 therefore be the rather exposed ; first, to many irksome 
 intrusioiis of very vexing doubts and fears, and slavish 
 questionings of the truth and soundness of their conversion 
 all their life long. Secondly, To much deadness of affec- 
 tion and listlessness ; many damps and distempers in the 
 performance of holy duties, use of the ordinances, and re- 
 ligious exercises. Thirdly, to greater variety of crosses and 
 a heavier hand upon their outward states, purposely to 
 bring the eye of their conscience to look back more heavily 
 and with heartier remorse upon the loathsomeness and filth 
 of their youthful folly. Fourthly, to more easiness of re- 
 entry and surprise by the assaults and insinuations of old 
 sins in their unregenerate time, especially that of the bosom, 
 which is a horrible thing. For the less sins are sorrowed 
 for, the sooner do they re-ensnare us with their sensual de- 
 light, and repollute with renewed acts. Fifthly, to the en- 
 tertainnient, at least for a time, of uncomfortable and 
 scandalous giddiness and some fantastical tenets of new 
 
 * Dyke, iu his Treatise on Repentance, cliap. v. 
 
328 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 and naughty opinions, which many times fearfully infect 
 our chiefest city ; and some proud companions and ignorant 
 teachers there and elsewhere, are ever ready to lay hold 
 upon ; whom you may ordinarily discern by their luciferian 
 pride and lewd tongues, to the great hurt and hindrance of 
 the power of godliness, holy obedience to the blessed law 
 of God, and humble walking with him ; if any will be so 
 miserable and mad as to listen to such petty and paltry 
 trash, idle and cheating dreams, contrary to the doctrine 
 which they have learned, or should have learned (for these 
 fellows were never well catechized); if professors will be 
 children still, " tossed to and fro, and carried about with 
 every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning 
 craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive," which God 
 forbid. For if it be possible that any true heart be en- 
 tangled, I hope he will quickly in cool blood disensnare 
 himself. As these tare-sowers themselves are ordinarily 
 very superficial in ministerial abilities ; so, for the most 
 part, their disciples are only the foolish virgins and unsound 
 professors of the places through which they pass. Sixthly, 
 to danger of some future grievous desertion, extraordinary 
 temptations, or revisitation with far greater terrors than 
 they tasted at their first turning into the ways of God, &c. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 The Fourth Malady. Two Causes of this Malady. 
 
 In a fourth place, I come to spiritual desertion, which puts 
 the Christian for the present into a most dark and uncom- 
 fortable condition ; 1 mean, when the most wise God, for 
 some holy ends, seeming good unto himself, retires for a 
 time, and withholds from the heart of his child the light of 
 his countenance, the beams of his favour, and sense of his 
 love. Whereupon, though the root of spiritual life, the 
 habit of faith and fundamental power of salvation and eter- 
 nal safety remain still and sure in his soul, never to be 
 shaken or prevailed against, no, not by the very gates of 
 hell, or concurrent forces and fury of all the powers of dark- 
 ness ; yet for the time he finds and feels in himself a fearful 
 deprivation and discontinuance of the feeling and fruition 
 of God's pleased face, exercise of faith, pardon of sin, in- 
 ward peace, joy in the Holy Ghost, cheerfulness in well- 
 doing and godly duties, confidence in prayer, assurance ot 
 
AIFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 329 
 
 being in a saving state, &c. ; so that he may judge himself 
 to have been formerly a hypocrite * ; and for the present 
 can very hardly, or not at all, distinguish his vvoful con- 
 dition from that of a cast-away. This secret and won- 
 derful work of spiritual desertion doth God much exercise 
 and practise upon his children in many cases, for many 
 causes. 
 
 1. Sometimes upon a re-ensnarement in some secret 
 bosom lust, which was their darling and delight in the days 
 of their rebellion, relapSe into which Satan labours indus- 
 triously to procure by all his devices ; for he gains greatly 
 thereby. For so the new convert, considering in cool blood 
 what he hath done, may be cast upon such compldints as 
 these : — Alas ! what have I done now "? This pestilent old 
 pollution, which so wofully wasted my conscience in time 
 past, hath fearfully reinfected my newly- washed soul. I 
 have again, woe is me ! fallen into the abhorred pit of this 
 foul sin, 1 have grieved that good Spirit which was lately 
 come to dwell in me. All the former horrors charge afresh 
 upon my heart, from which I was happily freed even by 
 some glimpses of heavenly joy. 1 have wretchedly let go 
 my hold, lost my peace, broke my vows, and blessed com- 
 munion wilh my God. Ah ! wretch that I am ; what shall 
 I do ? And thereupon may fall upon a temptation of re- 
 turning to his disavowed sensual delights, out of the con- 
 ceit, that whatever he may do cannot make him worse than 
 he is. Do what 1 can, 1 see I can never hold out, &c. 
 Or he may plunge into the slavish perplexity — I dare not 
 go to God, 1 liave used him so villanously after such im- 
 measurable kindness ; and provoked the " eyes of his glory" 
 with such prodigious impurity, after I was purged. I dare 
 not fall again to good-fellowship and former courses, lest I 
 draw some remarkable vengeance upon me now, and be 
 certainly damned at last. So that he can neither lake plea- 
 sure upon the right hand or the left : or, which is most for 
 my purpose, and that which the devil specially desires, God 
 therefore may hide his face from him, and leave him to the 
 darkness of his own spirit, so that he may for a long time 
 
 * But how is it possible tliat lie sliould entertain any such thought, 
 since he knows in his own heart that he liath formerly made conscience 
 of avoiding all sin, and laboured to please God in all things, whicli are 
 infallible notes of a new man ? In height and heat of temptation, he 
 may think that all the good he did was in pride and hypocrisy. So 
 did one whom I might name, think that he forbore sin orily for slavish 
 fear. So did another, and yet the darkness of his horror and error 
 heing dispersed, he comes again to himself, and sees clearly, that, thoiitrh 
 with much weakness, yet he did both the one and tlie other io since- 
 rity ; as did botli these blessed sahits of God aftervvard, 
 
 2F 3 
 
330 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 ■walk on heavily and lame, in respect of those comfortable 
 supporters of the soul, affiance, hope, spiritual joy, peace 
 ot conscience, sense of God's favour, boldness m his ways, 
 courage in good causes, delight in the company of the 
 saints, &c. Such a damp, also, and desertion may come 
 upon the soul, especially after a fall into some new open, 
 scandalous sin, whereby not only their own consciences 
 within are grievously wounded, but also for their sakes and 
 sin, the profession of God's truth abroad scandalized and 
 disgraced, the common state ef goodness questioned and 
 traduced, the heart and glory of Christianity hurt and dis- 
 tained. 
 
 Uavid was thus dealt with in God's just judgment^ after 
 his monstious and matchless* fall. God's good Spirit had 
 richly crowned his royal heart with abundance of sancti- 
 fication and purity, and had graciously filled him aforetime 
 with the fruits and feeling thereof, and thereupon many 
 heavenly dews, no doubt, of spiritual joys had many times 
 sweetly refreshed his blessed soul ; but by the heinous 
 scandalousness of his hateful fall he so grieved that good 
 Spirit, and turned the face of God from him, that he had 
 neither sense of the comforts of the one, nor of the favour 
 of the other. The spiritual life of his soul, the eye of 
 his judgm,ent, light of conscience, lightsomeness in the 
 Holy Ghost, and the whole grace of sanctification, were 
 so wasted, dazzled, confounded, weakened, raked under 
 the ashes, as it were, and lun into the root, that he speaks 
 as if he had utterly lost them, and so stood in need of a 
 new infusion and creation thereof ( I'salm li, 10). But, 
 by the May, conceive aright of David's spiritual condi- 
 tion at this time. Though in his own feeling and present 
 apprehension he so complains and cries out for a new 
 creation, as though all were gone; yet even when he 
 was at the lowest and worst, the soul and substance, if 
 I may so speak, of saving grace and salvation did abide still 
 rooted and resident in his heart ; which once implanted 
 by God's omnipotent merciful hand in a humble soul, 
 and taking root, it there sticks fast for ever, far more im- 
 moveable than a thousand IMount Zions. The blossoms, 
 buds, and fruits may sometimes be foully cankered, as it 
 were, by our own conuptions, shrewdly nipped by the frost 
 of some earthly affections, blasted by sharper tempests of 
 Satan's temptations : but the foundation standeth sure, 
 grounded and founded upon the unchangeable nature of 
 God, and immutability of his counsel ; and therefore in 
 
 * I mean, he being God' teircliild. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 331 
 
 spite of the malice of all, both mortal and immortal rage, 
 there is still life in the root, which in due season will spring 
 out again and grow up to everlasting life. 
 
 In the present instance, all purity and cleanness of heart 
 was not utterly extinguished and abolished in David : lor, 
 
 (1.) Some little at least was left, which descried and dis- 
 covered those spots and pollutions of tilthiness and im- 
 purity which had lately overgrown it. For grace discovers 
 corruption, not nature. A sensible complaint of hardness 
 of heart, and an earnest desire after softness, is a sign 
 that the heart is not wholly hard. A sincere crying out 
 against impurity, and hearty endeavours after purity, argues 
 the presence of the punfying Spirit ! 
 
 (2.) And how was this holy ejaculation, " Create in me 
 a clean heart, () God, and renew a right spirit within me," 
 created, but by the Spirit of grace and supplications ? 
 Which blessed sanctifying Spirit was all the while rooted 
 and resident in David's heart, by a saving existence there, 
 though not so fully by an eft'ectual operation and exercise. 
 TMvines about this point consider : First, The infinite, 
 free, and eternal love and favour towards his child, with 
 which whom he loves once, he loves for ever. The gifts 
 and calling of Ood; that is, as best interpreters affirm, 
 the gifts of effectual calling, effects of his free grace, are 
 such as God never repenteth of, or taketh away. Se- 
 condly; His sanctifying Spirit, which he gives unto him. 
 Thirdly ; The habits of graces created in his heart by 
 that blessed Spirit, justification, regeneration, adoption. 
 Fourthly ; The feeling exercises and acts of those graces, 
 with many sweet and glorious refreshings of spiritual joy 
 springing thence, 'i he three first, after we be once Christ's, 
 are oius for ever, the last may be suspended, and cease 
 for a time. 
 
 (3.) By way of interpretation, in the latter part of the 
 verse he calleth the creation of the grace of sanctification 
 in his heart, a renovation and raising thereof to the same 
 degree wherein it was in former time. 
 
 (4.) He cries unto the Lord, " Not to take his holy 
 Spirit from him" (ver. 11); and therefore that blessed 
 Spirit was not gone. It were very absurd and incongruous 
 to desire the not taking away of that tiling which we have 
 not. He certainly hath the Holy Spirit, who heartily de- 
 sires he may not be taken away from him. 
 
 David's desire then of a clean heart did not argue that 
 it was utterly unclean, and wholly turned into a lump of 
 filth (Sanctity and cleanness of heart is never wholly ex- 
 tinguished in any one once truly sanctified, it was not in 
 
332 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 J^avid, nor in Peter). But he was so earnest after it : 
 i'irst, because that little which was left, was scarcely or 
 not at all seiisible in his spiritual distress. Where the 
 glory of the sun hath lately been, the succession of a 
 candle's light is little worth. Secondly, and because now 
 he vehemently thirsteth after a great deal mt.re than he at 
 present had. Learned and rich men think themselves not 
 learned and rich in respect of what they desire. When the 
 sun begins to peep up, we gaze no longer at stars. God's 
 comforting Spirit began a little to warm his heart again, 
 whereupon he grew so eager and greedy of that heavenly 
 heat, that he thinks his heart key-cold, except it flame to 
 the height. That damp and darkness of spirit into which 
 he was fallen by reason of his grievous fall, had so frozen 
 his affections witii disconsolate deadness and heaviness of 
 heart, that a little glimpse of spiritual life and lightsome- 
 ness is presently swallowed up as it were, and devoured ; 
 and serves only to set an edge to his desire, to whet his 
 stomach, and stir up his appetite after a more full and fur- 
 ther fruition of those comfortable graces and wonted com- 
 munion with his God, a retaste and return whereof is so 
 sweet and dear unto his soul. 
 
 Take heed then that you do not mistake. When I speak 
 of a spiritual desertion, I mean it not either in respect of 
 a total or final dereliction and forsaking on God's part, or 
 a total and final falling away on the saint's side ; to hold 
 such an apostasy were a fearful apostasy ; but only in re- 
 spect of the exercise and operation of grace, of present 
 sense and feeling, as I said before. Life lies still in the 
 root ; and upon the first breaking out of the heavenly and 
 healing beams upon the soul from the sun of righteousness 
 returning in mercy, puts forth again and prospers. David 
 being astonished with a mighty blow of temptation (as 
 Bernard resembles it), lay for a time, as it were, in a 
 swoon ; but upon the voice of the prophet, sounding in his 
 ear, he awakened and came to himself. As we see in heated 
 water, the air's blowing upon it doth recover and reduce it 
 to its former natural coldness, by the aid of that little re- 
 mainder of refrigerating power which is originally rooted in 
 that element : so by tiie awaking of the north wind and 
 coming of the south, I mean the blessed Spirit's breathing 
 afresh upon David's heart, scorched dangerously with the 
 fire of lust, by stirring up and refreshing the retired and 
 radical power of grace, that immortal seed of God, never to 
 be lost, did sweetly and graciously bring it again to its 
 former spiritual, comfortable temper and constitution. 
 
 2. Sometimes the Lord may for a time withdraw the 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIEISCES. 333 
 
 light of his countenance and sense of his graces from his 
 child, that he may be driven thereby to take a new and 
 more exact review, a most serious thorough survey of his 
 youthful sins, of that dark time which he wholly spent 
 upon the devil ; and so put again, as it were, into the 
 pangs of his new-birth, that Christ may be more perfectly 
 formed in him, that he may again behold with fear and 
 trembling the extreme loathsomeness and aggravated guilt 
 of his old abominable lusts ; and so renewing his sorrow 
 and repairing repentance, grow into a further detestation of 
 them, a more absolute divorce irom his insinuating bosom 
 sin, and be happily frighted afresh and for ever from the 
 very garment spotted of the flesh, and all appearance of 
 evil. 1 hat upon this occasion he may make a new inquisi- 
 tion and deeper search into the whole state of his con- 
 science, several passages of his conversation, and every 
 corner of his heart ; and so for the time to come more care- 
 fully cut oft' all occasion of sin, and with more resolution 
 and watchfulness oppose and stand at stave's end with 
 every lust, passion, distraction in holy duties, enticements 
 to relapse, spiritual laziness, lukewarmness, worldliness, 
 &c. with greater severity to crucify our corruptions,^ and 
 ever presently and impartially execute the law of the Spirit 
 against the rebellions of the flesh. 
 
 This it may seem was one end of Job's spiritual affliction 
 in this kind. In chap, xiii, 23, he is earnest and importu- 
 nate with God to know what be those iniquities, transgres- 
 sions, and sins, which had turned his face and favour from 
 him in that fearful manner, as though he was a mere 
 stranger, or rather a professed enemy unto his majesty. 
 And he presently apprehends the burthen and bitterness 
 of the iniquities of his youth. " Thou writest," saith he, 
 " bitter things against me, and makest me possess the ini- 
 quities of my youth. At all such times, when God thus 
 hides his face from us, and leaves us to the darkness of our 
 own spirits, the sins of our youth are wont to lie most 
 heavy upon our hearts, and exact at our hands a more spe- 
 cial renewing, increase, and perfecting of penitent sorrow ; 
 for they are acted with the very strength of corruption, in 
 the heat of sensuality and heiglit of rebellion. Hence it 
 was that even David himself cries out, " Remember not 
 the sins of ray jouth " (Psalm xxv, 7) ; and so do many 
 more many times with much bitterness of spirit. 
 
 It is so, then, that God may deal thus in mercy even 
 with his dearest servants, especially if penitent grief and 
 trouble of conscience in their conversation were not in 
 some good measure answerable to their former abominable 
 
334 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 life and sinful provocations ; if they have been extraordi- 
 nary sinners, and but ordinary sorrowers for sin ; if they 
 were formerly furious in the service of Satan, and now but 
 somet!,ing faint-hearted in standing on God's side ; if here- 
 tofore they marched inipetuously like Jehu in the pursuit of 
 earthly pleasures, and now creep but slowly forward in the 
 ways oi' God ; or if they begin to look back a^ain with 
 some uncontrolled glances after disavowed delights and 
 abandoned company, &c. — I say, in such cases the Lord may 
 withdraw himself in displeasure ; leave them for a time to 
 the terrors of their own hearts ; all tlieir old sins may re- 
 turn to the eye of their consciences as unrem tted, 6co. ; that 
 so their regeneration may be, as it were, regenerated, their 
 riew birth new born, their sins new sorrowed for, the hate- 
 fulness and horror of their youthful pollutions more hated 
 and abhorred; and in conclusion (for all the work and 
 ways of God with his chosen are ever in love and for their 
 good), that the storm being dispersed, the comfortable 
 beams of iJivine favour may shine more amiably upon them 
 than ever before, and by the effectual stirring again, and 
 stronger influence of the spiritual life, that was hid in the 
 heart for a season, may sprout out fresh, spring, and spread 
 abroad more flourishingly and fruitfully for ever after- 
 ward. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 Four Cases more of the former Malady, 
 
 3. For trial, quickening, and exercise of spiritual graces, 
 that they may put foith themselves with more power, im- 
 provement, and illustriousness. The cold comfort of a 
 desertion in this case being unto them as water cast upon 
 the smith's forge to make some of them especially to burn 
 inwardly, as it were, with more intensity and heat, and all 
 afterward to break out and flame more gloriously. There 
 are many gracious dispositions and endowments in the 
 Christian's heart which would never see the light, at least 
 with such eminency, were it not for this darkness. The 
 brightness of lamps langushes in the light, but they shine 
 clear in the dark : the splendour and beauty of the stars 
 would never appear were there no night. " Ye have heard 
 of the patience of Job," saith James (chap, v, 11); and 
 we read also of his excellent faith, when he said, "Though 
 he slay rhe, yet will I trust in him" (Job xiii, 15) ; but 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 335 
 
 ^ve had neither heard of nor admired the one nor the other, 
 had he not been afflicted both with outward troubles and 
 inward terror. It is the highest and most herolcal act of 
 faitli, and it is improved to the utmost, and shown to be 
 armour of proof, to " trust in the name of the Lord and to 
 stay upon our God when we walk in darkness and have 
 no light" (Isa. 1, 10). God is best pleased and most 
 honoured when we rest upon him without any sensible 
 comfort. I make no doubt but that admirable ejaculation 
 of Job, " Though he slay me," &c., did hold scale in God's 
 acceptation with all those innocencies, integrities, and 
 gracious conformities to his holy law (blessed fruits, I con- 
 fess, of his invincible faith) enumerated chap, xxxi ; nay, 
 did incomparably overweigh them. Abraham's believing 
 against hope was far above and of infinitely more worth with 
 God than the sacrifice of his son, or all his other glorious 
 services. It is no such great matter or mastery to be con- 
 fident when we are encouraged and hired, as it were, with 
 joy and peace in believing ; but to stick to Christ and his 
 sure word when we have against us sense and reason, flesh 
 and blood, fears and feeling, heaven and earth, and all 
 creatures, that is the faith indeed, thereis its excellency, there 
 is the true and orient sparkling and splendour of that 
 heavenly jewel. Tha*^ prayer is truly fervent, fullest of 
 spirit, and enforced with most unutterable groans, which is 
 poured out lor the recovery of God's pleased countenance 
 after it hath been turned away from us for a time. That 
 love is most industrious and mighty, groweth strong ;'S 
 death and into a " most vehement flame," which is 
 enkindled in the upright soul, when her dearest love is 
 departed in respect of feeling and fruition. Oh ! then she 
 prizeth and praiseth his spiritual beauty and excellency as 
 one exceedingly '"sick of love," &c., grieves and luraents 
 extremely; as you may see, Cant, v, 6 — 1'. "I opened 
 to my beloved ; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, 
 and waN gone ; my soul failed when he spuke. I sought 
 him, but I could not find him ; I called him. but he gave 
 me no answer. The watchmen that went about the city 
 found me, they smot > me, they wounded me ; tlie keepers 
 of the walls took away ray veil from me. I charge you, 
 O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye 
 tell him that I am sick of love. What is thy beloved more 
 than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? What 
 is thy beloved more tlian another beloved, that thou dost so 
 charge us? My beloved is uhite and ruddy, the chiefest 
 among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold," 
 &c. That thankfulness which springs from a sensible re- 
 
n36 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 enjoyment of Jesus Christ, and return of the sense of the 
 savour of his good ointments into the soul, hath far more 
 heart and life than the free and full possession of all the 
 visible glory and outward comfort of the whole world could 
 possibly put into it. That joy which makes our hearts leap 
 within us upon the regaining of the wonted workings of 
 grace, and our heavenly feelings, is much more joyful than 
 either that which followed the first taste, or the after -free 
 enjoyment of them. Excellent and extraordinary good 
 things tasted and lost, beget a far greater sense of their 
 sweetness and comfort upon their recovery than if they had 
 been either never tasted or never Ipst. That sun- shine is 
 most fair and amiable which breaks out after some boisterous 
 storm, or great eclipse. Restitution to sense of grace after 
 some despairful sadness for God's departure, may produce 
 a deeper impression of spiritual pleasure in the recovered 
 patient, than the first plantation of it. Thus doth our 
 gracious God, who when he pleases can bring light out of 
 darkness, life out of death, something out of nothing, 
 heaven out of hell, even come nearer unto us by departing 
 from us. By the dead winter-time of a spiritual desertion 
 he may bring, by his blessed hand of mercy and quickening 
 influence, more strength, activeness, lively exercise, and 
 excellency into our graces and sweetest fruits thereof. 
 
 4. The Christian as he grows in knowledge, grace, spiritual 
 abilities, forwardness, fruitfulness, and further from his 
 new birth, except he be very watchful over his heart, much 
 practised in the exercises of humiliation, often exercised 
 in the school of afflictions, terrified sometimes with hideous 
 injections, and v/alk humbly with his God, shall have, by 
 a sly and insensible insinuation, privy pride to grov/ upon 
 him, confidence in his own strength, too much attribution 
 to the means, a self-conceit of an independent standing 
 upon his own bottom, as it were, and by the power of his 
 present graces ; and therefore our wise God doth sometiir.es 
 take a course to take down his self-confidence by withdraw- 
 ing his countenance, and to humble his spiritual presumption 
 with a spiritual desertion ; I mean, by taking from him the 
 sense of grace and feeling of his favour, by cutting off, 
 as it were, for a time those streams of comfort which were 
 wont to distil upon his soul by use and ordinary influence of 
 the means, meditation, prayer, conference, public ministry, 
 sabbaths, sacraments, days of humiliation and such like, 
 doth mercifully force him to have recourse unto at length, 
 with much longing and thirst, and to repose upon with njore 
 reverence and acknowledgment, the everlasting fountain 
 and founder of all graces, comforts, compassions, and life ; 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 337 
 
 even his own glorious, merciful, and almighty self. See 
 this in the beginning of the third chapter of the Canticles. 
 At the latter end of chap, ii, the Christian soul is sweetly 
 crowned with a glorious overflowing confluence of all 
 spiritual consolations, rapt extraordinarily with unuttera- 
 ble and joyful ravishment of spirit upon the nearer em- 
 bracement of her dearest spouse, and more sensible grasp- 
 ing of refreshing graces. She lies so peacefully in his arms 
 of mercy, and under the banner of his love, that she 
 sweetly sings unto herself, " My beloved is mine, and I am 
 his." But in the beginning of the third (for the days of 
 God's child, after conversion, are like the days of the 
 year; some fair and shining, some tempestuous and cloudy ; 
 some happy with heavenly honey dews, as it were, of un- 
 speakable joy and inconceivable peace, others more dismal 
 and disastrous, if I may so speak, for want of an amiable 
 aspect from the throne of grace); I say, a little after, {the 
 case is fearfully altered with her : for she lies struggling 
 and distressed in the irksome and comfortless desolations of 
 a spiritual desertion. Her spouse is gone, the very heart 
 and life, all her lightsomeness in this world and in the world 
 to come No sense now of the "savour of his good oint- 
 ments ;" no feeling of the assurance of his favour ; nothing 
 left of all that former heaven, but only a sad and woful 
 heart, which had been happy. In this rueful case, she 
 casts about for recovery of her wonted comfort ; assays 
 those means which were accustomed to convey unto her 
 with joy fresh streams and strength from time to time "out 
 of the wells of salvation." 
 
 First. She seeks her spouse and former refreshings of 
 spirit by secret prayer, meditation, experimental considera- 
 tions, calling to mind former assurances of his love, reflect- 
 ing upon the footsteps of a saving work, unfeigned change 
 and sweet communion with him aforetime, and other silent 
 «elf-inquisitions and inward exercises of the heart. " But 
 she found him not." (ver. 1.) 
 
 Secondly. She inquires abroad, and hath recourse unto 
 godly Christians, especially such as have been most ex- 
 ercised and best acquainted with trials, temptations, and 
 mysteries of the holy way ; to see if she can get any com- 
 fort, any new hold and hope by their counsel, prayers, in- 
 structions out of their own experience (for in such cases 
 God's children may and ought to confess their sins and 
 God's dealing with them one unto another, and pray one 
 for another). But she finds none (ver. 2). 
 
 Thirdly. She addresses herself and resorts to faithful 
 ministers, God's public agents in the church, about the 
 2 G 
 
338 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 affairs of heaven and salvation of souls, to receive from 
 them some light and direction to regain her love ; but it 
 will not yet be (ver. 3). No comfort comes by all or any 
 of these means ; no feeling of God's favour and former 
 peace for all this various and solicitous seeking and pursuit. 
 For God may sometimes purposely restrain his quickening 
 influence from the means, and recal as it were to the well- 
 head those refreshing rivers of comfort, which ordinarily 
 flow through his own holy ordinances as so many blessed 
 conduits of grace into humble hearts ; that we may fetch 
 them more imm.ediately from the fountain, the boundless 
 sea of all heavenly treasures and true peace, and so with 
 more humility, sense of self-emptiness, reverence, and 
 praise, acknowledge from whence we have them. 
 
 "It was but a little that I passed from them," saith the 
 deserted soul, "but I found him whom my soul loveth " 
 (ver. 4). When no means would bring him, but that she 
 had passed through the use and exercise of them all, and he 
 would not be found; he after, at length, comes upon his 
 own compassionate accord, and enlightens her dark and 
 disconsolate state with the shining beams of his glorious 
 presence, and fills her plentifully with joy and believing 
 again ; that so no use, variety, and excellency of means, 
 but his own free mercy and goodness, might be crowned with 
 the glory of it. 
 
 Let every Christian, by the way, take notice of and treasure 
 up ihis point ; it may serve him in some spiritual extremity 
 hereafter. God may sometimes withdraw and delay his 
 comfort, to draw his children through all the means, which 
 when they have passed without prevailing, he after (and 
 immediately when he so pleases) puts to his helping hand, 
 that they may not attribute it to the means, though never 
 so excellent, but to the mercies of God, the only well-spring 
 both of the first plantation, continuance, and everlasting- 
 ne^,s of all spiritual graces and true comforts in all those 
 happy ones which shall be saved. 
 
 Why doth the Lord let us use all the means, and yet not 
 find him in them 1 
 
 That we may know he only cometh when he will, no- 
 thing moving him but his own good pleasure. 
 
 Fifthly. The world sometimes, that mighty enemy to the 
 kingdom of Christ, aided underhand by the covetous cor- 
 ruption of our false heart and the devil's craft (for ordina- 
 rily in all assaults and overthrows Satan is the bellows, the 
 world the wildfire, our corruptions the tinder, and the 
 precious souls of men those goodly frames which are fear- 
 fully set on fire and blown up), doth wrestle so desperately 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 339 
 
 evea with some of Christ's champions, that surprising their 
 watch, cooling the tervour of their first love, and stealing 
 away byhttle and little their spiritual strength, it supplants 
 them at length and throws them upon the earth ; whereon 
 it labours might and main to keep them down and doating, 
 that so they may root in the mud andmire tuereof,to the great 
 disgrace ot divine pleasures, their high aud exLellent call- 
 ing, and so raising the spirit of railing in unregenerate inen 
 to cast unworthy aspersions upon the glory of profession, 
 for their sakes. Aay, too often by its subtle insinuations 
 and syren's songs, it lulls them so long upon her lap that 
 they are cast into a heavy slumber even of carnal security. 
 And that so deep and dangerously, that though the Lord 
 Jesus, the beloved of their soul, cry aloud in their ears by 
 the shrill and piercing sound of his spiritual trumpeters, and 
 by the more immediate and inward motions of his Holy 
 Spirit, entreat them fairly upon all loves for his own dear 
 pa>sion's sake, and all those bloody sufferings, to shake off 
 that carnal drowsiness, and to delight again in God ; to let 
 the earth fall out of their minds, and again to mind heavenly 
 things — "Open to me, my sister, my love, ray dove, my 
 undehled : for my head is filled with dew, and my locks 
 with the drops of the night" (Cant, v, 2) : — Yet for all 
 this, full loaih they are to leave their beds of ease, and 
 therefore frame many shifts, excuses, and delays to pass by 
 and put oft" these compassionate calls of love and merciful 
 importunities: " 1 have put oft" my coat, how shall 1 put it on I 
 1 have washed my feet, how shall 1 defile them I " (ver. 3.) 
 Whereupon their blessed spouse, so unworthily repelled with 
 some notorious unkindness and ingratitude, scattering only 
 in iheii hearts some sense and glimmerings of his spiritual 
 sweetness ana beauty, to breed the more shame and sorrow 
 for so foul neglect, departeth from them for a time, with- 
 draws the life and lightsomeness of his gracious presence, 
 hides, as it were, in an angry cloud, the comfortable beanis 
 of his former favour, and so leaves them to the darknessof their 
 own spirits, and in the comfortless damp of a justly-deserved 
 desertion, that thereby they may be schooled to prize Jesus 
 Christ before gold and silver, and to prefer, as is most meet, 
 one glimpse of his pleased face before the splendour of all 
 earthly imperial crowns ; to listen with more reverence, 
 cheerfulness, profit, and holy greediness to his heavenly 
 voice in the ministry of the word, and to make more dear 
 account of godly comforts when they shall recover and 
 re-enjoy them. For the purpose we may find (Cant, v) the 
 Christian soul laid too soft and lazily upon the bed of ease 
 and earthly-raindedness, andslipt into a slumber of security 
 
340 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 and self-love (ver. 2). Her well-beloved knocks and calls 
 upon her ; nay, bespeaks and entreats upon all the terms of 
 dearest love, and for his painful sufferings' sake, to rise and 
 open unto him. But she most unworthily puts him off with 
 some slight excuses and delays of sloth (ver. 3) ; whereupon 
 he drops into her heart some taste of his " sweetest oint- 
 rnents," to set her aflections on edge and eagerness after 
 him (ver 4, 5), and so departs and leaves her in sad and so- 
 litary grief for driving away her dearest, by such intolerable 
 unkindness and shameful neglect (ver. 6) ; which perplexity 
 and trouble of spirit for his departure begets in her a great 
 deal of zeal, fervency, and patience to follow after him 
 (ver. 7, 8), an extraordinary admiration of his amiable 
 excellencies and heavenly fairness (ver, 10, &c.), and no 
 doubt a far nearer embracement and dearest esteem of him 
 upon his return, and enjoyment of a more full, blessed com- 
 munion with him again (chap, vi, 3). 
 
 Sixthly, The graces of salvation are the most precious 
 and costly things that ever issued out of the hands of God 
 by creation. The dearest of his infinite mercies, the heart's 
 blood of his Son, the noblest work of his blessed Spirit, do 
 all sweetly concur movingly, meritoriously, efficiently to 
 the production of them. No marvel then though it be right 
 pleasing unto God that such rare and inestimable jewels 
 should be rightly prized and holden in highest esteem by 
 those that have them ; that they should still appear and 
 present themselves to those souls wherein they shine in 
 their true excellency, orient fairness, and native beauty. 
 Now privation of excellent things hath special power to 
 raise our imaginations to a higher strain of estimation of 
 them, and to cause us at their return to enteitain them with 
 much more longing, far dearer apprehensions and embrace- 
 ment. Absence and intermission of the most desirable 
 comforts add a great deal of life to the love of them, and 
 weight of preciousness to their valuation. The goodness of 
 whatsoever we enjoy is better perceived by vicissitude of 
 want than continual fruition. Sleep is more sweet after the 
 tediousness of some wakeful and wearisome nights ; liberty 
 and enjoyment of the free air and faces of men after re- 
 straint and imprisonment ; the glory and fairness of the sun 
 after a black day or boisterous storm, &c. So God's favour- 
 able aspect is much more acceptable after an angry tempest 
 and hiding his face for a season, and the graces of salvation 
 far more amiable and admirable to the eye of his humbled 
 child, after the darkness of a spiritual desertion. Where- 
 fore our gracious God doth many times in great mercy and 
 wisdom deprive his dearest servants for a time of the pre- 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 341 
 
 sence of their spouse, the assurance of his Jove, and sense 
 of those graces, that the absence thereof may represent the 
 glory of such an inconaparable happiness and those heavenly 
 pearls more to the life ; and discontinuance of their enjoy- 
 ment may inflame and afl^ect their hearts v^ith more holy 
 greediness and eager pursuit after them, and stir up in them 
 that height of esteem and heat of love, which may in some 
 good measure be answerable to their invaluable excellency 
 and sweetness. Such a dulness of heart, deadness of affec- 
 tions, and declination to the world, may grow sometimes 
 upon a good man, that he may find little more contentment 
 in communion with Jesus Christ than in the prosperity of 
 his outward affairs, which is infinitely unworthy a heir of 
 heaven. But now in such a case, let God make him but to 
 repossess the iniquities of his youth, and fight against him 
 with all his terrors for a while, and the same man witli all 
 his heart will prefer the reconciled face of God and peace 
 of conscience, before the sovereignty and sole command of 
 all the kingdoms upon earth. While we have a free and 
 uninterrupted recourse unto the throne of grace, we are apt 
 to undervalue and to conceive of that mighty grace of 
 prayer, but as of an ordinary gift; but it once the Lord 
 please to leave us to that confusion and astonishment of 
 spirit, that our ejaculations do sadly rebound upon our 
 heavy and unheated hearts without answer or encourage- 
 ment from heaven, we shall easily then acknowledge the 
 spirit and power of prayer to be one of the fairest flowers 
 in the garland of all our graces, the very arm of God to do 
 miracles for us many times, and ever to settle our troubled 
 souls in sweetest peace and patience amidst the greatest 
 pressures and persecutions, either cf hellish or earthly 
 enemies. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 Two more Causes of tlie former Malady. 
 
 Skventhlv. Jesi'.s Christ himself, blessed for ever, drank 
 full deep of the extremity and variety of sorest sufferings in 
 many kinds, not, only to deliver his people from the " ven- 
 geance ol' eternii^ Are," but also lovingly to learn out of the 
 sense of that sympathy and self-feeling to show himself ten- 
 der-hearted, kind, and coinpassicnate unto them in all their 
 extremities, and never to suffer them to sink in any trouble 
 or aflSiclion, though never so full of desperate representa- 
 
 2 G 3 
 
342 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 tions or apprehensions of impossibility to escape, or to be 
 tempted at any time above their power and patience. And 
 many are the means and methods by which he is wont to 
 ease and mitigate their many p .inful miseries, especially 
 that extremest one of martyrdom. 1. Sometimes he rescues 
 them by his own mighty and immediate arm out of the 
 mouth of lions, and pulls them by a strong hand from be- 
 iM-een the teeth of bloody persecuting wolves (2 Tim. iv, 17). 
 2. Sometimes he takes away or lessens the sting and fury of 
 the torment and torturers*. The fire had no force at all 
 over the bodies of those blessed men in Uan. iii, 27. And 
 no doubt in Queen Mary's days, of most abhorred memory, 
 he many times mollified and sweetened the rage and bitter- 
 ness of those merciless flames for our martyrs' sakes. 3. Some- 
 times he supports and supplies them with supernatural 
 vigour and extraordinary courage over the smart and rigour 
 of the most terrible and intolerable tortures. The heart of 
 that holy protomartyr, Stephen, was furnished and filled 
 with those heavenly infusions of spiritual strength and joy, 
 when " the heavens opening, he saw the glory of God, and 
 .lesus standing on his right hand " (Acts vii, 55, 56), which 
 were gloriously transcending and triumphant over the utmost 
 of all corporeal pain and Jewish cruelty. And so graciously 
 dealt he with many other martyrs in succeeding ages, as we 
 may read in ecclesiastical history. 4. He may sometimes 
 also, out of his merciful wisdom, put into their hearts so 
 m\ich of heaven beforehand, and ravishing comforts of the 
 world to come, that the excess thereof doth swallow up and 
 devour, as it were, the bitterness of all bodily inflictions 
 and sufferings of sense. Thus mercifully dealt he with that 
 worthy martyr, Robert Glover, even v/hen he was going 
 towards the stake. He poured into his soul upon the sudden 
 such overflowing rivers of spiritual joys, that no doubt they 
 mightily abated and quenched the raging fury of those 
 popish flames wherein he was sacrificed for the profession of 
 the gospel of Christ and God's everlasting truth. And 
 assuredly that comfortable sunshine of inexpressible joy, 
 which by the good hand of God was shed into Mr. Pea- 
 cock's sorrowful heart in the depth of his darkness and 
 desertion a little before the resignation of his happy soul 
 into the hands of God, did make the pangs of death and 
 that dreadful passage a great deal less painful and sensible, 
 if not very lightsome and pleasant. Now in both these men 
 
 * Let no Christian, then, afflict his soul with any corroding or vexing 
 forethought of fiery times. Assure thyself, if God call thee to suffer in 
 that kind, he will graciously give unto thee a martyr's faith, a martyr's 
 patience, and a crown of martyrdom. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 343 
 
 of God a woful spiritual dereliction was a fit introduction 
 and immediate preparative to the effusion of such a sudden 
 torrent of strange exultations and ravishment of spirit upon 
 their sad and heavy hearts. Conceive the point ihen thus : 
 The Lord sometimes even in tenderness and love to his 
 own dear children, whom he designs for extraordinary 
 sufferings, may purposely possess them with such a paradise 
 of divine pleasures as a counter-comfort to the extremity of 
 their pains; that, besides their own private refreshing and 
 support, their courageous insensibility and victorious pa- 
 titnce thereupon may bring a great deal of terror to their 
 tormentors, glory to their merciful Master, credit unto the 
 cause, and confusion to the enemies of grace. And that 
 there may be an addition of more heart and life to such 
 joyful elevations of spirit, and that he may make the excel- 
 lency of that spiritual joy proportionable to the exquisiteness 
 of their tortures and trouble, he may in his unsearchable 
 wisdom make way thereunto by a spiritual desertion, as he 
 did in the fore-named glorious martyr, hobert Glover. For 
 want of the sense of the comforts of godliness for a season, 
 doth make our souls a thousand times more sensible of their 
 sweetness upon their reinfusion. 
 
 Eighthly. Thus may the Lord sometimes deal with his 
 best and dearest children, even by withdrawing the light 
 of his countenance, leave them for a while to these inward 
 conflicts and confusions of spirit, that thereby they may be 
 fitted and informed with a holy experimental skill to speak 
 feelingly and fully to the hearts of their Christian brethren, 
 who may afterwards be tempted and troubled as they have 
 been. For God is wont at all times in his church, so gra- 
 cious is he, purposely to raise up and single out some special 
 men, whom he instructs and enables in the school of spiri- 
 tual experience and afflictions of soul, with extraordinary 
 dexterity and art to comfort and recover other mourners in 
 Zion, in their distresses of conscience, stronger tempta- 
 tions, spiritual desertions, decays of grace, relapses, eclipses 
 of God's face and favour, want of former comfortable feel- 
 ings ; in case of horrible thoughts and hideous injections, 
 darkness of their own spirits, and such other soul vexations. 
 And such a blessed physician, who is able to speak experi- 
 mentally to a dejected sorrowful heart, out of practice and 
 sense in his own soul, is far more worth, both for a true 
 search and discovery, and sound recovery and cure of a 
 wounded conscience, than a hundred mere speculative 
 divines. Such a one is that one of a thousand spoken of by 
 Job, who can wisely and seasonably declare unto his soul- 
 sick patient the secret tracks and hidden depths of God's 
 
344 INSTia;CTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 dealing with afflicted spirits. Let us take an instance in 
 those experimental abilities which David gained for such a 
 purpose by his passing through that most grievous spiritual 
 desertion recorded in Psalm Ixxvii. The case of that Chris- 
 tian were most rueful, both in his own fearful apprehension, 
 and to ihe injudicious eye of the beholders, who having 
 spent a long time in a ?ealous profession of the truth, walk- 
 ing with God, and secret communion with Jesus Christ, 
 should come to that pass, and fall into those woful straits 
 of spiritual trouble, — First, That he should fear, not with- 
 out extraordinary horror, lest the mercies of God were de- 
 parted from him for ever, and that the Lord would never 
 more be entreated, or ever shine again with his favourable 
 countenance upon his confounded soul. Secondly, That 
 the very remembrance of God, which was wont to crown 
 his heart with a confluence of all desirable contentments, 
 should even rend it asunder and make it fall to pieces in 
 his bosom like drops of water. Thirdly, That the pouring 
 out of his soul with pitiful groans and complaints in secret 
 unto his God, which heretofore did set wide open unto him 
 heavenly flood-gates of gracious refreshing, should now 
 quite overwhelm his spirit with much distracted amazement 
 and fear. Fourthly, That that heart of his, which had for- 
 merly so sweetly tasted those holy pleasures which far pass 
 the comprehension of any carnal apprehension, should now 
 be so brimfull and dammed up with excess of grief, that no 
 vent or passage should be left unto his speech. Fifthly, 
 And which methinks is the perfection of his misery in this 
 kind, that amidst all these heavy discomforts his soul should 
 refuse to be comforted ; that though the ministers and men 
 of God stand round about him, bring into his mind and 
 press upon him the pregnant evidences and testimonies of 
 his own godly life, the unchangeableness of God's never- 
 failing mercies to his people, the sweetness of his glorious 
 name, the sovereign power and mighty price of his Son's 
 blood, the infallible and inviolable preciousness and truth 
 of the promises of life, &ic. ; yet in the agony and anguish 
 of his grieved spirit he puts them all away from him as 
 none of his, nor as properly beloriging to his present state. 
 He is readier out of his spiritual distemper to spill, as water 
 upon the ground, the golden vials of the water of life, and 
 sovereign oils of evangelical joy tendered unto him by the 
 physician of his soul, than to receive them with wonted 
 thirst and thankfulness into the bruised bosom of his bleed- 
 ing conscience. Though they assure him in the word of life 
 and truth, having had (for that 1 must suppose) true and 
 sound experience of his conversion and former sanctified 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 345 
 
 courses, from Isa. xliv, 22, that as the heat and strength of 
 tlie summer's sun doth disperse and dissolve to nothing a 
 thick mist, or foggy cloud, so the inflamed zeal of God's 
 tender love through the bloodshed of his ow^n only dear Soa 
 hath done av^'ay all his oflences, his iniquity, transgression, 
 and sin, as though they had never been : and, Micah vii, 
 19, that that God which " delighteth in mercy" (ver. 18) 
 hath cast all his sins into the bottom of the sea, never to 
 rise again, either in this world or the world to come. The 
 prophet alludes to the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red 
 Sea ; and therefore they assure him, that as that mighty 
 host sunk down to the bottom like a stone (Exod. xv, 5), or 
 as lead (ver. 10), so that neither the sun of heaven nor son 
 of man ever saw their faces any more, so certainly all his 
 sins are so swallowed up for ever in the soul-saving sea of 
 his Saviour's blood, that they shall never more appear before 
 the face of God or angel, man or devil, to his damnation 
 or shame. Yet for all this, lying in a spiritual swoon, he 
 finds his heart even key-cold, and as it were stark dead in 
 respect of relishing or receiving all or any of these incom- 
 parable comforts. The case thus proposed may seem very 
 deplorable and desperate ; yet consider what good David's 
 experience might do in such distress ; what a deal of life 
 and light were it able to put into the very darkest damp, 
 and most heartless faintings of such a dying soul, to have 
 such a one as IJavid, even a man after God's own heart, 
 remarkably enriched and eminent with heavenly endow- 
 ments, one of the highest in the book of life and favoui* 
 with God, to assure it, that himself had already suffered as 
 grievous things in his soul, if not greater, and passed 
 through the very same passions and pressures of a troubled 
 spirit, if not with more variety and sorer pangs ; that pro- 
 portionably to his pre-ent perplexities, he cried out with a 
 most heavy heart — First, " W ill the Lord cast off for everl 
 and will he be favourable no more 1 Is his mercy clean gone 
 for ever l Doth his promise fail for everm. re 1 Hath God for- 
 gotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender 
 mercies ? " (Psalm Ixxvii, 7, 8, 9.) Secondly ; That " when 
 he remembered God he was troubled " (ver. '6). Thirdly ; 
 That when he prayed unto God, and " complained, his 
 spirit was overwhelmed." Fourthly; That lie "was so 
 troubled that he could not speak " (ver. 4). Fifthly ; That 
 " his soul refused to be comforted " (ver. 2), which painful 
 passages of his spiritual desertion answer exactly to the 
 comfortless case of the supposed soul-grieved patient. Nay, 
 and besides assurance of the very sameness in apprehen- 
 sions of fear and thoughts of horror, David also out of his 
 
346 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 own experience and precedency might sweetly inform and 
 direct such a poor panting soul in a comfortable way to come 
 out of the place of dragons and depths of sorrow, by teach- 
 ing and telling him the manner and means of his rising and 
 recovery. Meditations of God's singular goodness and ex- 
 traordinary mercy to himself, his church, and childien 
 aforetime, gave the first lift, as it were, to raise his drooping 
 soul out of the dust. And no doubt ever since the same 
 consideration, by the blessing of God, hath brought again 
 many a bruised spirit from the very gates of hell and brink 
 of despair. And in his happy perusal of ancient times, and 
 God's compassions of old, it is very probable that his me- 
 mory first met with Adam, a most wonderful and matchless 
 pattern of God's rarest mercies to a most forlorn wretch. 
 For he was wofully guilty by his transgression of casting 
 both himself and all his sons and daughters from the crea- 
 tion to the world's end out of Paradise into the pit of hell, 
 and also of poisoning with the cursed contagion of original 
 corruption, the souls and bodies of all that ever were or 
 shall be born of woman, the Lord Jesus only excepted. 
 And yet this man, as best divines suppose, though he had 
 cast away himself and undone all mankind, was received to 
 mercy. Let never poor soul, then, while the world lasts, 
 upon true and timely repentance, suffer the heinousness 
 and horror of his former sins, whatsoever they have been, 
 to hinder his hopeful access unto the throne of grace, for 
 present pardon of them all ; or at any time afterward con- 
 found his comfort and confidence in God's gracious pro- 
 mises. Thus, no doubt, the weary soul of this m.an of God 
 waded further into those bottomless seas of mercies, mani- 
 fested and made good from time to time upon his servants. 
 His heavy heart might sweetly refresh and repose itself 
 upon the contemplation of God's never-failing compassion 
 in not casting off Auron everlastingly for his fall into most 
 horrible idolatry ; in not suffering the murmuring and re- 
 bellious Jews to perish all and utterly in the wilderness, 
 considering their many prodigious provocations and impa- 
 tiencies, &c. But at length, as we may see in the fore-cited 
 psalm, his soul sets its triumphant Selali upon that great and 
 miraculous deliverance at the Red Sea, one of the most 
 glorious and visible miracles of mercy that ever shone from 
 heaven upon the sons of men, and also a blessed type of the 
 salvation of all truly penitent and perplexed souls from the 
 hellish Pharaoh and all infernal powers, in the Red Sea of 
 our Saviour's blood. How fairly now and feelingly might 
 these experimental instructions, and this passage of proof, 
 trodden and marked out by this holy man, enlighten and 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 347 
 
 conduct any, * that walks in darkness andhatli no comfort," 
 out of the like distracted horror of a spiritual desertion? 
 Let him in such a case first cast back his eye upon God's 
 former maniibid merciful dealings with himself. If his God 
 made his soul, of the darkest nook of hell, as it were, by 
 reason of its sinfulness and curseciness, as fair and beautiful 
 as the brighte.^t sun-beam by that sovereign blood which 
 gushed out of the heart, and those precious graces which 
 shine upon it from the face of his Son, that never-setting 
 sun of righteousness, he will undoubtedly in due season 
 dispel all those mists of spiritual misery which overshadow 
 the glory and comfort of it for a time. If he upheld him 
 by his merciful hand from sinking into hell when he was a 
 horrible transgressor of all his laws with greediness and de- 
 light, he will most certainly (though perhaps for a small 
 moment he hide his face from him) bind up his soul in the 
 bundle of the living for ever ; now especially, when he pre- 
 fers the love and light of his countenance before life, and 
 would not willingly offend him in the least sin for all the 
 world, ice. Let him yet proceed further in David's foot- 
 steps, and strengthen his fainting soul with all that heavenly 
 manna of richest mercy which he hath heard, read, or 
 known to have been showered down at any time from the 
 throne of grace into the heavy, humble, and hungry hearts 
 of his afflicted hidden ones. Let him refiesh iiis memory 
 Avith consideration of David's deliverance by this means 
 from deeper distress, of that most memorable and triumphant 
 resurrection, as it were, and recovery of those three worthy 
 saints of God, Mr. Glover, Mrs. Brettergh, and Mr. Pea- 
 cock, from greatest extremity in this kind, into most unut- 
 terable joyful exultations of spirit. And so of others within 
 the register of his observation, remembrance, and reading. 
 But principally, and above all, let him live and die, let him 
 rest and recreate himself for ever, with surest holdfast and 
 sweetest thoughts upon that heavenly and healing anti-type 
 of the Ked Sea, the precious blood of thf^ Lord .Tesus. And 
 let him ground upon it, that though Satan with all his 
 hellish hosts and utmost fury pursue his fearful soul like a 
 partridge in the mountains, even to the very brink of des- 
 pair and mouth of hell, yet even then, when all rescue and 
 deliverance is nearest to be utterly despaired of (for it is 
 the crown of God's glorious mercy to save when the case 
 Stems desperate, and there is no hope of human help or 
 possibility of created power to comfort') ; I say, then that 
 soul-saving sea of his Saviour's heart's- blood wall rnost cer- 
 tainly and seasonably open itself wide unto him, as it did to 
 those above-named blessed saints, and swallow up into 
 
348 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 victory, hell, death, the grave, damnation, the present 
 woful desertion, with all other adversary povs^er ; and at 
 length make him a fair and pleasant passage through the 
 sweetened pangs of death into the heavenly Canaan, which 
 flows with joys and pleasures unmixed and endless, more 
 than either tongue can tell or heart can think. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 The Ninth and Tenth Causes of the former Malady. 
 
 Ninthly. A spiritual desertion may seem a proportionable, 
 fit, and most proper punishment and m.eans to correct and 
 recover the Christian, who out of infirmity and fear deserts 
 the Lord Jesus and the profession of his blessed truth and 
 gospel. If any be ashamed of him, refuse to do or sufl^er 
 any thing for his sake, who hath given unto us his own 
 heart's-blood, it is most just that in such a case he with- 
 draw himself in respect of all sense and feeling of Divine 
 favour and fruits of grace, or any comfortable influence at 
 all upon the consciences of such cowards ; that so, they 
 being left to the darkness of their own spirits, and by con- 
 sequence to the taste even of hellish horror for the time, 
 they may be brought again to themselves, and taught by 
 such terrors to return and become infinitely more willing 
 to embrace the stake, if the times should be so cruel, and 
 kiss the instruments of death, than languish any longer in 
 the despairing extremities of such a desertion ; to acknow- 
 ledge it incomparably better to pass through the temporary 
 bitterness of popish fire than to be abandoned to everlasting 
 flames : nay, and that which is the greater hell, to be 
 robbed of and rent from him, in whose glorious presence 
 alone is not only life and all lightsomeness even in this life, 
 but also " fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore " in 
 the life to' come. This point appears and is proved by 
 God's dealing with some of our martyrs in Queen Mary's 
 time : — 
 
 Thomas Whittell, a blessed martyr of Jesus, vyas by the 
 wicked suggestions of some popish incarnate devils, drawn 
 to subscribe to their hellish doctrine ; but considering in 
 cool blood what he had done, was horribly vexed, and as 
 he reports of himself, " felt hell in his conscience and 
 Satan ready to devour him ; " which terrible desertion and 
 trouble of mind made him quickly return with great con- 
 stancy and fortitude, and turn a most invincible and im- 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 349 
 
 moveable martyr. Hear some passages from his own 
 pen : — 
 
 " The night after I had subscribed I was sore grieved, 
 and for sorrovv of conscience could not sleep. For in the 
 deliverance of my body out of bonds which I might have 
 had, 1 could find no joy, nor comfort ; but still was in my 
 conscience tormented more and more," &c. 
 
 " And I said (to Harpesfield, iicc), that my conscience 
 had so accused rrie through the just judgment of God and 
 his word, that I had felt hell in my conscience, and Satan 
 ready to devour me ; and therefore 1 pray you, Mr. Harpes- 
 field, said 1, let me have the bill again, for I will not 
 stand to it." 
 
 " When the Lord had led me to hell in my conscience 
 through the respect of his fearful judgments against me for 
 my fearfulness, mistrust, and crafty cloaking in such spiri- 
 tual and weighty matters, yet he brought me from thence 
 again," &c.* 
 
 Tenthly. God is many times forced by their frowardness, 
 lukewarraness, worldly-mindedness, cowardliness, self- 
 confidence, falling from their first love, and other such spi- 
 ritual distempers, to visit and exercise his children with 
 variety and sometimes severity of crosses and corrections ; 
 as losses in their outward state, afflictions of body, dis- 
 graces upon their good name, oppression by great ones, dis- 
 comforts in wives, neighbours, friends, children, &c. pur- 
 posely to put life, quickness, fruitfulness, and forwardness 
 into them, that thereby they may be more gloriously ser- 
 viceable to himself, more profitable to others, and more 
 provident to treasure up peace unto their own souls against 
 an evil day. " God humbleth us," saith a worthy divine, 
 " by afflictions, and pricketh the swelling of our pride. 
 He cutteth and loppeth us, to the end we may bring forth 
 the more fruit. He filleth us with bitterness in this life, 
 to the end we might long for the life to come. For those 
 whom God afflicteth grievously in this world, leave it with 
 less grief. He who hath formed us to fear him, knoweth 
 that our prayers are slack and cold in prosperity, as pro- 
 ceeding from a spirit that is cooled by success, and as being 
 only indited by custom. The cries which our own will 
 produced are feeble in comparison of those which grief ex- 
 presseth. Nothing so ingenious to pray well as sorrow, 
 which in an instant formeth the slowest tongues to a holy 
 eloquence, and furnisheth us with sighs which cannot be 
 
 * Fox's Acts and Monuments. See also in the same book the ac- 
 count of James Abbes and Thomas Benbridge. 
 
 •2H 
 
350 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COiMFORTING 
 
 expressed." But now many times this physic which 
 pincheth only the body, and wasteth us but in things of this 
 world, doth not so woik as he would have it, and therefore 
 he is constrained in love and for nur good to proceed to 
 more sharp and searching medicines, to apply more strong 
 and stirring purges, which immediately vex the soul ; as 
 horrible and hideous injections, a spiritual desertion, and 
 other affrighting and stinging temptations. He deals with 
 them in this case as Absalom with Joab, when he would not 
 come to him by sending once and again ; he causes his 
 servants to set his field of barley on fire, and then there was 
 no need to bid him hasten. When inferior miseries and 
 other means will not do it, God sets as it were their souls 
 on fire with flames of horror in one kind or other, and then 
 they look about them indeed with much care and fear, 
 searching and sincerity : they seek him then to purpose, 
 earnestly and early. Tor afflictions of soul aie very sove- 
 reign, and have singular efficacy to stir and quicken ex- 
 traordinarily, to wean quite from the world, and keep a 
 man close and clinging unto God. How many (though 
 perhaps they think not so) would grow proud, worldly, 
 lukewarm, cold in the use of the ordinances, self-confi- 
 dent, or something that they should not be, if they were 
 not sometimes exercised with injections of terrible thoughts? 
 By this fiery dart the devil desires and endeavours to de- 
 stroy and undo them quite ; but by the mercy of God it is 
 turned to their greater spiritual good. It is in this case as 
 it was with him, " who thrusting his enemy into the body 
 with full purpose to have killed him, lanced the ulcer 
 which no physician was able to cure, and let out that cor- 
 rupt matter that would have cost him his life." By re- 
 presentation of such horror out of Satan's cruellest malice, 
 they are happily kept more humble, watchful, earnest in 
 prayer, eager after the means, weaned from the world, 
 compassionate to others, &cc. Hiding of God's face from 
 him, and leaving him to the darkness of his own spirit, 
 did put and preserve Mr. Jolin Glover in a most zealous, 
 holy, and heavenly life for ever after. Hear the story : — 
 
 " This gentleman being called by the light of the Holy 
 Spirit to the knowledge of the Gospel, and having received 
 a wondrous sweet feeling of Christ's heavenly kingdom ; 
 his mind after that falling a little to some cogitation of his 
 former affairs, belonging to his vocation, began by and by 
 to misdoubt himself upon occasion of those words, Heb. 
 vi, 4, " For it is impossible," &c. Upon consideration of 
 which words he was so far deserted as to be persuaded 
 that he had sinned against the Holy Ghost ; even so much, 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 361 
 
 that if he had been in the deepest pit of hell, he could al- 
 most have despaired no more of his salvation. " Being 
 young (saith Fox ), 1 remember 1 was once or twice with 
 him, whom partly by his talk I perceived, and partly by 
 mine own eyes saw, to be so worn and consumed by the 
 space of five years, that neither almost any brooking of 
 meat, quietness of sleep, pleasure of lile, yea and almost 
 no kind of senses was leit in him. Who in such intolera- 
 ble griefs of mind, although he neither had nor could have 
 any joy of his meat, yet was he compelled to eat against 
 his appetite, to tlie end to defer the time of his damnation 
 so long as he might, thinking with himself no less, but that 
 he must needs be thrown into hell, the breath being once 
 out of the body. Albeit Christ he thought did pity his 
 case and was sorry for him, yet he could not (as he ima- 
 gined) help, because of the verity of the word which said, 
 ' It is impossible ' &c.* " But what was the happy issue 
 and effect of those extraordinary spiritual terrors and ter- 
 rible desertion? The same blessed man of God, who 
 writes the story and was himself with the party, tells us : 
 " Albeit he suffered many years so sharp temptations, and 
 strong buffetings of Satan, yet the Lord who graciously 
 preserved him all the while, not only at last did rid him out 
 of all discomfort, but also framed him thereby to such mor- 
 tification of life, as the like lightly hath not been seen. 
 In such sort as he, being like one placed in heaven already, 
 and dead in this world, both in word and meditation, led 
 a life altogethei- celestial, abhorring in his mind all profane 
 doings." i hus a spiritual desertion, or some other afflic- 
 tion of spirit, doth that alone many times, which variety 
 and a long continued succession of ordinary outward 
 crosses, one upon the neck of another, is not able to effect. 
 For troubles of soul sooner take, and are of a quicker and 
 stronger operation, than those which afflict the body. 
 " The spirit of a man will sustain his intirmity ; but a 
 wounded spirit who can bear 1 " Prov. xviii, 14. All other 
 afflictions are nothing to this ; they are but flea-bitings to 
 the liery scorpion. The stoutness of a man's spirit will 
 stand under a world of outward miseries many times ; but 
 if the eye, which is the light of the body, be in darkness, 
 how great is that darkness ! If the spirit itself be crushed, 
 which should support the whole man, how great is the con- 
 fusion ? Hence it was that faithful David waded through 
 a world of troubles , yet all that time no malice of Saul, 
 no hatred of the Philistines, no rebellion of Absalom, no 
 
 * Fox's Acts and Monuments. 
 
352 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 treachery of Ahithophel, no grappling with a lion, no fight- 
 ing with a bear, no threatening of a vaunting Goliah, could 
 so much discourage him. But when at any time he suf- 
 fered immediately in his soul under the wrath of God, oh ! 
 then his very bones, the master- timbers of his body, are 
 broken in pieces. " He roars all the day, and his moisture 
 is turned into the drought of summer." Then he speaks 
 thus unto God: "When thou with rebukes dost correct 
 man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away 
 like a moth." 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 Two Helps for the curing of a Man troubled with the former Malady. 
 
 Thus having discovered the cases and causes of spiritual 
 desertion, I come now to the comforts and the cure. 
 
 I. And let us first take notice of a double desertion : — 
 First. Passive, when God withdraws himself from us. 
 Secondly. Active, when we withdraw ourselves from God. 
 And they are both twofold: — 1. Temporary; and 2. 
 Final. 
 
 1. Passive desertion temporary : as in David (Psalm 
 Ixxvii) ; Heman the Kzrahite (Psalm Ixxxviii) ; Job ; both 
 the Glovers ; Mrs. Breltergh ; Mr. Peacock ; and many 
 more of God's children. 
 
 2. Final : in many after a woful and wilful abuse of 
 many mercies, means of salvation, and general graces. As 
 Saul, Judas, tkc. ; such as have outstood all opportunities 
 and seasons of grace ; and all those, Prov. i, 24. 
 
 (1.) Active desertion temporary ; as Solomon, &c. 
 
 (2.) Final; as in those, Heb. x. 
 
 Now in the present point 1 understand only a passive 
 temporary desertion ; and therefore in that man who is 
 truly engrafted into Christ by a justifying faiih, and rege- 
 nerated, who can never possibly either forsake finally, or 
 be finally forsaken of God. Of whom Hooker thus speaks * : — 
 " Blessed for ever and ever be that mother's chdd whose 
 faith hath made him the child of God. The earth may 
 shake ; the pillars of the world may tremble under us ; the 
 countenance of the heaven may be appalled ; the sun may 
 lose his light, the stars their glory ; but concerning the man 
 
 * In his Sermon on Habac. i, 4: " Of the certainty and perpetuity 
 of the Faith in the Elect. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 353 
 
 that trusteth in God, if the fire hath proclaimed itself un- 
 able as much as to singe ;i luiir of his head ; if lions, beasts 
 ravenous by nature and keen with hunger, being set to 
 devour, have, as it were, religiously adored the very flesh 
 of the faithful man ; what is there in the world that shall 
 change his heart, overthrow his faith, alter his affection 
 towards (Jod, or the affection o; God to him 1" Nay, and 
 besides, since I only understand a temporary passive de- 
 sertion, 1 must suppose it in him also, who sees full well 
 and doth acknowledge from whence he is fallen, is very 
 seusible of his spiritual loss, afflicted much with the ab- 
 sence of the quickening and comforting influence of grace, 
 and grieved at the heart-root that lie cannot do God service, 
 and perform holy duties with that life, power, and light- 
 someness as he was wont ; and thereupon resolves to give 
 no rest unto his discontented soul from cries, complaints, 
 and groans, until God's face and favour be turned towards 
 him again, and bring with it former feelings and fruitful- 
 ness, now so highly prized and heartily prayed for ; uhich 
 blessed behaviour cloth clearly show him to differ from the 
 backslider, a truly miserable and right woful creature in- 
 deed, who insensibly falls from his forvi'ardness, first love, 
 intimate fellowship with the saints, all lively use and ex- 
 ercise of the ordinances and divine duties, and yet is never 
 troubled to any purpose, neither doth challenge nor judge 
 himseJf for it at all. For we are to know, that the presence 
 of spiritual weaknesses, decays, and wants, and absence of 
 due dispositions, accustomed feelings, and former abilities 
 of grace, only then argue a backslider, and are evil signs of 
 a dangerously declining soul, when they are willingly car- 
 ried without remorse, or taking much to heart without any 
 eager desire or earnest endeavour after more heat and hea- 
 venly-mindedness. A Christian may be without God's gra- 
 cious presence and comtbrtable exercise of grace in present 
 feeling, and yet no forsaker of God ; but rather left of him for 
 a time (his heavenly wisdom for some secret holy ends so 
 disposing), while by grieving, striving, and strong desires, 
 he unfeignedly thirsts after and seriously pursues his former 
 acceptation and forwardness. Here then is comfort : God 
 hath hid his face from thee for a season, and thou art left 
 to the darkness and discomforts of thine own spirit, and 
 thereupon art grievously dejected, thinkest thyself utterly 
 undone ; yet take notice, that in a spiritual desertion pro- 
 perly so called, thou dost not willingly forsake God, but God 
 lorsakes thee ; or rather, as divines truly speak, seems to for- 
 sake thee ; for he deals with thee in this case as a father 
 
 2H 3 
 
354 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 with his child, who sometimes on purpose, still loving him 
 extremely, hides himself from him, as though he were quite 
 gone, to make it discover and manifest its love unto him 
 by longing, seeking, and crying after him ; and that for ex- 
 cellent ends, and ever for thy endless comfort : — first, to 
 try whether thou will trust in him though he slay thee, as 
 Job did. Every cock-boat can swim in a river, every 
 sculler sail in a calm. In ordinary gusts, any man of 
 meaner skill and lesser patience can steer aright and hold 
 up the head ; but when the black tempest comes, a tenth 
 wave flows, one deep calls another, when the tumultuous 
 darkness of the sky, the roaring of the restless element re- 
 presents terrible things, and heaven and earth are blundered 
 together, as it were, v/ith horrible confusion ; when nature 
 yields, spirits faint, hearts fail ; then to stand upright and 
 unshaken ; then to say with David, " I will not fear though 
 the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried 
 into the midst of the sea ; though the waters thereof roar 
 and be troubled; though the mountaiiis shake with the 
 swelling thereof. Selah : " I say, that is the man who is 
 sound at the heart-root indeed, and sieel to the back ; and 
 then is the invincible might and incomparable valour of 
 faith made known with a witness, whoever hath God's sure 
 word for the compass, and the Lord Jesus at the helm. 
 Then doth this glorious grace shine and triumph above na- 
 ture, sense, reason, worldly wisdom, the arm of flesh, and 
 the whole creation. In such desperate extremities, and 
 sorest trials, it shows itself like the palm tree that yields 
 not to the weightiest burthens ; the sheet-anchor that holds 
 when other tacklings break ; the oil, that ever over-swims 
 the greatest quantity of water we can pour upon it. And 
 with this improvement of the extraordinary power of faith, 
 God is exceedingly well pleased and highly honoured. 
 Secondly. To enure thee to patience, obedience, and sub- 
 mission to his blessed will in everything, even extremest 
 suff"erings if he so please. Thirdly. To work in thee a 
 deeper dete^^tation of sin and further divorce from the 
 world. Fourthly. To quicken, improve, and exercise some 
 special graces extraordinarily. "Thou didst hide thy face," 
 saith David, " and I was troubled. Then 1 cried unto thee, 
 O Lord," &c. (Psalm xxx, 7, 8.) Then was the spirit of 
 prayer put to it indeed, and so was the grace of patience, 
 waiting, and the like. Fifthly. To cause thee to prize more 
 dearly and to keep more carefully, when it comes agaiii, 
 God's glorious presence, and the quickening influence of his 
 grace and comfort. We never apprehend the worth and 
 
AFFLICTED COISJSCIENCES. 355 
 
 excellency of any thing so well as by the want of it. The 
 uninterrupted and secure enjoyment of the best things, and 
 even those that please us best, without vicissitude and in- 
 terchange, is wont to breed such cheapness and satiety, and 
 so dulls the soul's appetite, that it is neither so affected with 
 their precious sweetness, nor thankfully ravished with the 
 present possession of them as it ought. Health is highly 
 valued when sickness hath made us sensible of such a jewel ; 
 we relish our food extraordinarily when we have fasted 
 longer than ordinary ; rest refreshes us most when our bodies 
 have been tired and over-travelled. Sixthly. To make thee 
 conformable in some measure to Christ's immeasurable 
 spiritual suffeiings. Seventhly. To manifest and make illus- 
 trious his mightiness and mercy in thy deliverance, and the 
 power of Christ's resurrection." " Wilt thou show wonders 
 to the dead 1" saith Heman, "Shall the dead arise and 
 praise thee! Selah." (Psalm Ixxxviii). Those whom the 
 merciful hand of God hath lifted up out of the depth of a 
 spiritual desertion, will easily acknowledge it as omnipotent 
 a work and wonder, as to pull out of the mouth of hell, and 
 raise the dead men out of the grave. Eighthly. To repre- 
 sent unto thee the difference of thy condition in this life 
 and that which is to come. This is our time of nurture, not 
 of inheritance. Here we walk by faith, not by sight. We 
 live by faith, not by feeling. In this vale of tears we are 
 killed all the day long. But heavenly glimpses of unspeak- 
 able and glorious joy, and spiritual ravishments of soul, are 
 seldom and short; their fulness and constant fruition is 
 reserved for the next life. Here we are trained, as it were, 
 in a spiritual warfare against the world, the flesh, and the 
 devil ; we are exercised unto new obedience by manifold 
 crosses, troubles, and temptations. Satan is sometimes set 
 upon us to afflict us with his own immediate hellish sug- 
 gestions. Sometimes our own sins grievously affright us 
 with renewed representations of horror. Sometimes our 
 own God frowns upon us himself with his displeased and 
 angry countenance ; and in love leaves us awhile to the 
 terrors of a spiritual desertion. He sometimes lays his 
 visiting hand upon our bodies, and casteth us down upon 
 our beds of sickness ; sometimes he sends heavy crosses 
 upon our outward states, and breaks the staff of our pros- 
 perity. Continually, almost, he suffers many malicious 
 curs to bark at us with slanders, lies, disgraceful imputa- 
 tions, and all the enemies of grace to pursue us bitterly 
 with much malice and disdain. Thus are we trained and 
 entertained in this world ; our crowning comes in the world 
 tojcome. Ninthly, To cause thee to have recourse witli 
 
356 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 move reverence, thirst, and thankful acknowledgment to the 
 well-head of refreshings. If God once withdraw the light 
 of his countenance and comfortable quickening of his Spirit, 
 we shall find no comfort at ali in any creature, no life in 
 the ordinances, no feeling of our spiritual life, and there- 
 fore we must needs repair to the ever-springing fountain of 
 all-sufficiency, &c. — Which blessed ends and effects, when 
 the good hand of our God hath wrought, he will as cer- 
 tainly return as ever the sun did after the darkest midnight, 
 and that with abundance of glory, and sweetness propor- 
 tionable to the former dejection and darkness of our spirits. 
 The lowest ebb of a spiritual desertion brings the highest 
 tide of spiritual exaltation, as we may see before in 
 Mrs. Biettergh and Mr. Peacock. 
 
 "2. What is the reason that thou art so sad and sore 
 afflicted for the absence of thy beloved, and with want of 
 the wonted gracious and comfortable workings of the Spirit! 
 It is because thou hast formerly grasped the Lord Jesus 
 sweetly and savingly in the arms of thy soul, been sensibly 
 refreshed with the savour of his good ointments, ravished 
 extraordinarily with the beauty of his person, dearness of 
 his blood, riches of his purchase, and glory of his kingdom, 
 and hast heretofore holden him as the very life of the soul, 
 and chiefest and only treasure ; ejaculating with David 
 unfeignedly from tl.e heart-root, " Whom have I in heaven 
 but thee ? and there is none upon earih that I desire besides 
 thee" (Psalm Ixxiii, 25). Earih is a hell and heaven no 
 heaven \vithout Jesus Christ. I say, the present grief that 
 thy well-beloved is now gone, argues evidently this former 
 enjoyment of his gracious presence:— and then build upon 
 it as the surest rock. Unce Christ's, and his for ever. The 
 gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Rom. xi, 
 29): "whom he loveth once he loveth unto the end" 
 (John xiii, 1) : he is no changeling in his love, " I am the 
 Lord," saith he, " 1 change not : therefore ye sons of Jacob 
 are not consumed'"' (Malachi iii, 6). Once elected, ever 
 beloved ; once new-born, and born lo eternity : if once the 
 sanctifying Spirit hath seized upon thee ibr Jesus Christ, 
 thou art made sure and locked fast for ever in the arms of 
 his love with everlasting bars of mercy and might from any 
 mortal hurt and adversary power. Thou raayest then cast 
 down the gauntlet of defiance against the devil and the 
 whole world ; and take up with Paul that victorious chal- 
 lenge unio all created ihings — "I am persuaded that 
 neither death, nor liie, nor angels, nor principalities, not 
 powers, nor things present, nor things to con)e, nor height, 
 nor f epth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 357 
 
 nie from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 He may hide his face from thee for a while ; but thou hast 
 his own sure and inviolable word from his own mouth, that 
 he will return and with "everlasting kindness have mercy 
 on thee." He may frown upon thee, I confess, for a season, 
 and so fright thee with his terrors as though in thy present 
 apprehension thou wert a lost man ; but he never will, he 
 cannot possibly forsake thee finally. " 1 have sworn once 
 by my holiness that 1 will not fail David" (Psalm Ixxxix, 
 35). And in the mean time thy former feelings of the 
 motions of the Spirit and grace do give clear evidence and 
 assurance that spiritual life is still resident in thy soul, 
 though run as it were into the root, and though its more 
 lively operations and effects be suspended for a time. The 
 woman that hath once felt the child stir in her womb, is 
 most assured that she is with child, that an immortal soul 
 and natural life is infused into it by the omnipotent hand 
 of God, though at other times she perceive no motion at all. 
 It is so in the present point ; and thy grieving also, groan- 
 ing, and panting after Christ, is an unanswerable argument 
 that thou art alive spiritually. Lay the weight of the whole 
 world upon a man that is stark dead, and he can neither 
 stir, cry, nor complain. 
 
 CHAP, XVI. 
 
 Two other Helps for the Curing of the former Malady. 
 
 Consider that some graces are more substantial in them- 
 selves, more profitable to us, and of greater necessity for 
 salvation ; as faith, repentance, love, new obedience active 
 and passive, self-denial, vileness in our own eyes, humble 
 walking with God, &c. Others are not so, or absolutely, 
 necessary, but accompany a saving state as separable acci- 
 dents ; as joy and peace in believing, sensible comfort in 
 the Holy Cihost, comfortable feelings of God's favour, re- 
 joicing in hope, a lively freedom in prayer, assurance of 
 evidence, &c. And from hence mayest thou take comfort 
 in two respects : — 1. Desertion deprives thee only ot the^e 
 comfortable accessories ; but thou ait still possessed of the 
 principal, of the substantial of salvation ; of which not the 
 utmost concurrence of all hellish and earthly rage can pos- 
 sibly rob thee ; and therefore thou art well enough in the 
 mean time, and as safe as safety itself can make thee. 
 
358 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 2. Loss of these Isss principal graces (which by accident is 
 a singular advantage and gain) drives thee nearer unto 
 Jesus Christ, at least by many unutterable groans, every 
 one whereof is a strong cry in the ears of God, and causeth 
 thee better to prize and ply, to exercise and improve more 
 fruitfully those other more necessary graces without which 
 thou canst not be saved. It is a wise and honest passage in 
 Mrs.Juxon's monument: "She continued faithful to the 
 end in the most substantial graces. For howsoever she 
 mourned for the want of that degree of joy which she had 
 felt in former times, yet she continued in repentance, in the 
 practice of holiness and righteousness, in a tender love of 
 God and to his word and children, in holy zeal and fruit- 
 fulness even to the last period of her days. And indeed her 
 want of full ]oy was so sanctified unto her, that it was a 
 furtherance to a better grace, namely, to repentance and 
 self-denial, and base esteem of herself. And 1 call repent- 
 ance a better grace than joy, because howsoever joy is a 
 most excellent gift of the Spirit, yet unto us repentance is 
 more profitable. For I make no question but that a mourn- 
 ing Christian may be saved without ravishing joy, and that 
 Christ may wipe away his teai-s in heaven ; but no Chris- 
 tian shall be saved without repentance and self-denial." For 
 instance, the darkness of our spirits in spiritual desertions 
 sets our faith on work extraordinarily. In such a case it 
 ha.th recourse with more love and longing to all the foun- 
 tains of life, the person and passion of Christ, all the pi'o- 
 mises, God's free grace, his sweet name, and surveys them 
 more seriously, searches and sounds them to the bottom, 
 that by some means at least it may subsist and hold up the 
 head in such an evil time, and amongst so many terrors and 
 boisterous tempests. It is now put to the improvement of 
 the very utmost of all its heavenly vigour and valour; and 
 enforced to put forth its highest and most heroical act, even 
 to cleave fast to the sure word of God against all sense and 
 feeling, against all terrors, tricks of Satan, and temptations 
 to the contrary. And by this extraordinary exercise and 
 wrestling, it is notably strengtiiened and steeled for the time 
 to come. For as sloth, idleness, and want of exercise doth 
 much emasculate and make our bodies more inactive and 
 unable, but hard&hip, agitation, and employment, doth 
 much quicken and fortify them ; so it is in the present point, 
 w^itliout oppositions and assault, faith languisheth and lies 
 hid ; but when storms and spiritual troubles are abroad, it 
 stirs up itself, gathei-s its strength and forces together, casts 
 about for subsidiary assistance by prayer, ministerial coun- 
 sel, meditation upon special promises for the purpose, ex- 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 359 
 
 perimental recounting former deliverances, mercies, and 
 favours upon ourselves and others, and so becomes far more 
 excellent and victorious for future encounters. It furthers 
 also repentance, in respect' of, — First, Sight of sins. For 
 through the glass of spiritual affliction we see more of them, 
 and see them to be more monstrously vile. The clouds of 
 inward trouble especially, unite as it were, and collect the 
 sight of our souls, and so represent our sins more to the life 
 and in their true colours ; whereas the glistering of pros- 
 perity IS wont to disperse and dazzle it. Secondly, Of 
 sense. We aie then more apprehensive of divine wrath and 
 weight of sin, when we are terrified but with a taste of 
 those immeasurable seas of bitterness and terror which it 
 infinitely merits at the hands of God. 1'hirdly, Of hatred 
 and opposition. We then grow into a more hearty loathing 
 of that sweet meat vvhich we are too apt to tumble into our 
 mouth and hide under our tongue, when we feel it accom- 
 panied with such sour sauce, and turned into gall and 
 gravel with.n us. We shall afterwards be far more watch- 
 ful, and afraid to give entertainment or warmth in our 
 bosoms to those vipers which have so bitten and stung us. 
 It makes self-denial more resolute and thorough ; for the 
 dearest and most desirable things of this life, compared with 
 Christ, were never viler dung in our esteem than at such a 
 time. We then find that most true, that though all the 
 stars shine never so bright, yet it is still night because the 
 sun is gone. But the alone presence of that prince of light 
 creates a comfortable and glorious day, though never a star 
 appear. So let us enjpy the Lord Jesus, and no matter 
 though all the creatures in the world be turned into bears or 
 devils about us: but if he withdraw himself, and the light 
 of his countenance set out of our sight, the confluence of 
 all the comforts the whole creation can afford will do us no 
 good at all. It quickeneth notably our new obedience ; in 
 respect of, — First, Holiness towards God, and reverent 
 heavenly behaviour about the first table. A general taste 
 and trial whereof we may take, by comparing mariners in 
 a storm with those arrived in a haven; prisons with thea- 
 tres; burials with banquets ; beds of sickness and expecta- 
 tion of death with strength of youth and prosperous health ; 
 and, which is punctual for my purpose, fits of temptation 
 with times of spiritual v. el fare. For as in the one state we 
 may observe too much presumption and putting far from us 
 the evil day, forgetfulness of God, security and sloth ; so 
 in the other, trouble, danger, and distress, much alter the 
 case. We shall then see them bitterly bewailing their for- 
 mer sins, trembling in the dust, seeking early God's face 
 
360 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 and favour, falling to prayer, vowing better obedience, and 
 promising upon deliverance much holiness and a happy 
 change. What mighty groans of spirit proceed from the 
 deserted in such a case, which are the strongest piayers, 
 though in that agony they falsely complain that they cannot 
 pray ! How greedy are they of godly conference, counsel, 
 and vcomfort out of the word, days of humiliation, of the 
 most searching sermons, godliest company, presence and 
 prayers of the precisest ministers ! How fearful are they to 
 hear any worldly talk upon the Lord's day ! How sensible 
 of the least sin, any dishonour of God, and all appearance 
 of evil ! In a word, how busy are they about that one 
 necessary thing ! Secondly, Of compassionateness towards 
 others. Self-sufferings soften men's hearts towards their 
 brethren : personal miseries make them pitiful and painful 
 to afford all possible help in times of distress. Experience 
 of our own weaknesses, wants, danger to sink under the 
 waves of God's wrath, and disability to subsist by ourselves, 
 begets a sweet mildness and gentle behaviour towards our 
 neighbours, whose assistance, visitation, and prayers we 
 now see we stand in need of in extremities and evil times. 
 Prosperiiy is apt of itself to beget scornfulness, insolency, 
 self-confidence, and contempt of others ; but God's hand 
 upon us, especially in afflictions of soul, teacheth us another 
 lesson; to wit, how frail, weak, and unworthy we are. 
 Thirdly, Of self-knowledge. In times of peace and calm- 
 ness, looking through the false spectacles of self-love and 
 conceitedness, we are ready to over-estimate and outprize 
 our gifts, to mistake shadows for substances, smallest mites 
 of virtue for richest talents, the infant beginnings of grace 
 for tallness in Christ. But remove these deceiving glasses, 
 and let the touchstone of some sorer trial represent ourselves 
 unto ourselves, and we shall more clearly see our spiritual 
 abilities in their true nature and proportion. Then all un- 
 sound semblances of self conceited sufficiencies and former 
 flourishes of unhumble assurance, which, like gilded papers 
 or posts, showing gloriously in the sunshine, and seeming 
 pure gold in outward appearance, will vanish quite away 
 and come to nothing in the fire of spiritual affliction. Then 
 the weakness of our too much vaunted of Christian valour 
 will be discoveied unto us, and acknowledged by us, when 
 we are put to wrestle with the wrath of God, and left to 
 the horror of some hideous temptation. 
 
 4. Hear Mr. Hooker, a man of great learning and very 
 sound in this point : I vary some words, but keep the sense 
 entire. " Happier a great deal is that man's case whose 
 soul by inward desolation is humbled, than he whose heart 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 361 
 
 is through abundance of spiritual delight, lifted up and 
 exalted above measure. Better is it sometimes to go down 
 into the pit with him, who, beholding daikness and bewail- 
 ing the loss of inward joy and consolation, ciieth from the 
 bottom of the lowest heJl, "My God, my God, why hast 
 thou forsaken \ne1" than continually to walk arm inarm 
 with angels ; to sit, as it were, in Abraham's bosom ; and 
 to have no thought or cogitation, but of peace and bless- 
 ing himself in the singularity of assurance above other 
 men ; to say, I desire no other bliss, but only duration of 
 my present comfortable feelings and fruition of God, 1 
 ■want nothing but even thrusting into heaven, and the like. 
 For in the height of spiritual ravishments thou art in great 
 hazard of being exalted above measure, and so may be 
 justly exposed to a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of 
 Satan to bufi'et thee, which is a very heavy case. But now 
 on the other side, the lowest degree of humiliation under 
 God's mighty hand is the nearest step to rising and ex- 
 traordinary exultation of spirit. The extremest darkness 
 of spiritual desertion is wont to go immediately before the 
 glorious sun-rise of heavenly light, and unutterable light- 
 someness in the soul. David securely pleasing and ap- 
 plauding himself in his present stability and strong conceit 
 of the continuance of his peace, brake out thus : "I shall 
 never be moved. Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my 
 mountain to stand strong " (Psalm xxxvi, 7). But he was 
 quickly thrown down from the top of his supposed im- 
 moveable hill ; taken oft' from the height of his confidence, 
 and lay trembling in the dust. " Thou didst hide thy face, 
 and I was troubled." But now that sweetest rapture of 
 incredible joy (for so he spake, "The joy which 1 feel in 
 my conscience is incredible ") did arise in Mr Peacock's 
 heart when he was newly come as it were out of the mouth 
 of hell. Mrs. Brettergh's wonderful rejoicing followed im- 
 mediately upon her return out of a "roaring wilderness," 
 as she called it. What large effusions of the Spirit and 
 overflowing rivers of heavenly peace were plentifully 
 showered down upon Robert Glover's troubled spirit, after 
 the heaviest night, in all likelihood, that ever he had in 
 this world, by reason of a grievous desertion ! 
 
 2 I 
 
362 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 Two more helps for the Cure of the former Malady. 
 
 5. Nay, hear the Spirit of all truth and comfort himself 
 immediately. " Who is amoog you that feareth the Lord, 
 that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in dark- 
 ness and hath no light! Let him trust in the name of the 
 Lord, and stay upon his God." "Whence we may draw a 
 double comfort in time of desertion: — First. Because in 
 thy present apprehension thou findest and feelest thyself 
 in darkness, and to have no light ; thou art ready thereupon 
 to conceive and conclude unnecessarily against thy own 
 soul, that God's favour, Jesus Christ, grace, salvation, and 
 all are gone for ever. And this is the most cutting sting 
 and sorest pang which grievously afflicts and rends the 
 heart in pieces with restless anguish in such cases. Out 
 of what depth of horror do you think did these heavy groans, 
 and almost, if not altogether for the time, despairing 
 speeches spring in those blessed saints mentioned before? 
 " Will the Lord cast oft' for ever 1 and will he be favourable 
 no morel Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth his 
 promise fail for evermore?" While I suffer thy terrors 
 I am distracted. I am amazed, confounded, and almost 
 mad with fear, lest my soul should be swallowed up with 
 the horrors of eternal death. "1 am afraid lest the Lord 
 hath 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 con- 
 verse with hell-hounds ! It is against the course of God's 
 proceedings to save me," &c. But now herein the deserted 
 in the sense I have said are much deceived, and extremely 
 wrong ; their own souls in such extremity not considering 
 that their walking in darkness and having no light may 
 most certainly consist with a saving estate and a being in 
 God's favour, though for the present not perceived, which 
 appears plainly by the quoted place, wherein he that walk- 
 eth in darkness and hath no light is such a one as feareth 
 the Lord and obeyeth tlie voice of his servant. Now the 
 fear of God and obedience to the ministry are evident marks 
 of a gracious man. Hence it is thai when the servants of 
 God are something come again unto themselves, they see 
 and censure their own unadvisedness in that respect, dis- 
 avow and disclaim all terms tending that way, which they 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 363 
 
 let hastily fall from them in the heat of temptation. "And 
 1 said," saith David, *' this is my infirmity ; but I will re- 
 member the years of the right hand of the Most High." 
 " Truly," said Mr. Peacock, " my heart and soul have been 
 far led and deeply troubled with temptations and stings 
 of conscience ; but I thank God they are eased in good 
 measure. Wherefore I desire that I be not branded with 
 the note of a forlorn reprobate. Such questions, oppositions, 
 and all tending thereto I renounce." Here then is a great 
 deal of comfort in the greatest darkness of a spiritual de- 
 sertion : for we may assure ourselves that God by his blessed 
 Spirit hath a secret influence and saving work upon the soul 
 of his child, when there is no light or feeling of his 
 favour at all. The sun, we know, though he leaves his 
 light upon the face of the earth, yet notwithstanding de- 
 scends by a real effectual influence into the bosom and darkest 
 bowels thereof; and there exerciseth a most excellent work 
 in begetting metals, gold, silver, and other precious things. 
 It is proportionably so in the present point; A poor soul 
 may lie grovelling in the dust, "afflicted, tossed with tempest," 
 and in present apprehension have no comfort, and yet 
 blessedly partake still of the sweet influence of God's 
 everlasting love, of a secret saving work of grace and al- 
 mighty support of the sanctifying Spirit. Let us look upon 
 the Lord Jesus himself. His holy soul, though he was Lord 
 of heaven and earth, upon the cross, was even as a scorched 
 heath-ground, without so much as any drop of the dew of 
 comfort either from heaven or earth ; and yet at the same 
 time he was gloriously sustained by an omnipotent influence. 
 And God was never nearer unto him than then ; neither he 
 ever so obedient unto God. And I make no doubt, but 
 that the judicious eye of the well-experienced physician 
 may many times easily observe it in those troubled, tempted, 
 and deserted souls which they deal and converse with for 
 recovery and cure. This secret and saving influence I speak 
 of might be evidently discerned in Mr. Peacock, even at 
 the worst. Some reverend ministers standing by his bed of 
 sorrow asked him if they should pray for him. Mark well 
 his answer. "Take not the name of God in vain," said he, 
 " by praying for a reprobate ; " which words, well weighed, 
 seem to imply and represent clearly to a spiritual discern- 
 ing judgment some good measure even of the highest degree 
 of divine love, preferring the glory of God before the welfare 
 of his own soul, rather willing to have the means of his 
 salvation neglected than the Lord dishonoured. One asking 
 him if he felt any thing of Christian affection towards such 
 a one, meaning a godly man. Yes, saith he. Why"? For 
 
364 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 his goodness. Another coming to him upon the Lord's day, 
 willed him to put his hand to a note of certain debts. 
 "This is not a day for that," said he : and at the same lime 
 he would hardly suffer any to stay with him from the sermon. 
 Being told of suffering plaisters out of God's word to rest 
 upon his wounded soul, he brake out thus: "Oh! if I 
 had. Oh ! if it would please God, I had rather than any- 
 thing in this, or other three thousand worlds." By these 
 we may see, and other passages to the same purpose, that 
 our blessed God had a secret working and saving influence 
 upon his soul, even in the depth and hideous darkness of 
 his most grievous desertion. Here is love, first, unto God 
 in a high degree ; secondly, dear affection unto his children, 
 and that for his image shining in them ; thirdly, love unto 
 his sabbaths and salvation of others ; fourthly, vehement 
 desires after grace and God's favour. All which were un- 
 deniable demonstrations of a state of grace to every un- 
 derstanding eye, nay, unquestionable arguments of spiritual 
 life and designation to eternal bliss. Whereupon my resolu- 
 tion was then, and protestation upon good ground, that if 
 all the powerful eloquence which rested within the reverend 
 bosom of mine own dear mother the famous university of 
 Oxford, managed by the seraphical tongue of the highest 
 and most glorious angel in heaven, had been industriously 
 set on work for that purpose ; except I had heard my 
 blessed Redeemer say, I will rend a member from my body 
 and throw it away ; the Holy Spirit say, I will pull my 
 seal from that soul which I have savingly sanctified ; my 
 gracious and merciful Father say, I will this once fail and 
 forsake one of mine; — I could never have been possibly 
 persuaded that that soul of his, so richly laden with hea- 
 venly treasure and gifts of God never to be repented of, so 
 sincerely exercised in the ways of God and opposition to 
 the corruption of the times, &c., should possibly perish ! 
 Secondly. Suppose thou shouldst " walk in darkness and 
 have no light " in the sense of the prophet, for the residue 
 and remainder of thy few and evil days in this vale of tears ; 
 nay, and die so, before comfort comes; yet be not dis- 
 comforted. For " fearing God " and being upright-hearted, 
 thy soul shall most certainly be preserved in spiritual and 
 eternal safety " by staying upon thy God," though thou be 
 without any sense of joy and peace in believing. This life, 
 though never so lone:, is but a moment to the life to come ; 
 but the "kindness is everlasting" with which "he will 
 have mercy on thee." Thy sufferings are but short, what- 
 soever they be ; but thou hast eternity of joys in the world 
 above, purchased and prepared for thee by th© heart's blood 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 365 
 
 of that blessed Saviour of thine upon whom thy soul relies. 
 It is the devil's policy, say divines, to procure for his slaves 
 all the favours, honours, and advancements, all the pros- 
 perities and pleasures he can possibly, lest if he should not 
 follow and fulfil their humours this way, they might think 
 upon seeking after and serving a new master. Not caring to 
 vex or molest them in this world, because he knows full well 
 he shall have time enough hereafter to torment them in hell. 
 And will not thou contrarily be content, if God so please, to 
 pass through this vale of tears even with Heman's horror ( Ps. 
 Ixxxviii, 15), since heaven is so near at hand, and thou 
 hast a little before thee an everlasting time to row in the 
 bottomless and boundless ocean of all glory and bliss, in an 
 endless variety of new and fresh delights, infinitely ex- 
 cellent and sweet above the largest created conceit 1 
 
 6. Let us suppose a Christian in these three states (and 
 it is no very strange thing to those who observe or feel God's 
 secret and unsearchable dealings with his children): — 
 First, In a fair and comfortable calm and sunshine, after 
 the tempestuous troubles and travail in the pangs of the 
 new birth, when the light of God's countenance, the first 
 refreshing warmth of his sanctifying Spirit, the fresh sweet- 
 ness and vital stirrings of grace, the ravishing conscious- 
 ness of his happy conversion, do fill his soul " as with 
 rnarrow and fatness," and feed it with a kindly and more 
 lively disposition to all good and godly duties. Secondly, 
 In a spiritual desertion, when the sense of God's favour, 
 love, and wonted presence, the comfortable use and ex- 
 ercise of the ordinances, graces, and spiritual aflPairs, 
 languish and leave him for a time. Thirdly, In the state 
 of recovery and restitution from such fearful damp and 
 deprivation of Divine comfort, unto former joyful feelings 
 and re-enjoyment of his beloved ; so that his revived soul 
 may sweetly sing, '* My beloved is mine and I am his." 
 Now, I doubt not, but that the middle of these three estates, 
 being accompanied with hearty grief and groans for Christ's 
 absence, restless pantings and longings after a new resur- 
 rection, as it were, of the sensible and fruitful operations 
 of grace, renewed desires and endeavours for regainment of 
 accustomed surer hold by the hand of faith, patient and 
 prayerful waiting for the return of God's pleased face, &c., 
 is as pleasing and dear, if not more so, to our merciful Father, 
 as either of the other two. Do you not think, that the 
 fathers of our flesh are as lovingly affected and meltingly 
 moved to hear the obedient child sigh and sob, cry out and 
 complain, because they look not kindly upon him ; but for 
 trial of his aflFection have hid for a time the much-desired 
 2 1 -A 
 
366 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 beams of their fatherly favour, under some aflfected angry- 
 frowns, as when things are carried more currently and com- 
 fortably betwixt them without any great distaste and discon- 
 tentment, or occasion to discover the mutual impatiency of 
 their loves one unto another 1 And shall not the Father of our 
 spirits, who loves us with the same love with which he loves 
 the Lord Jesus himself; surpass as far in affectionate com- 
 passion towards us in the like case as an Almighty God 
 doth a mortal manl He cannot choose, because the vvord 
 is already gone out of his mouth : " Like as a father pitieth 
 his child, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him " (Psalm 
 ciii, 13). I am persuaded God's bowels of compassionate 
 tender-heartedness and love did yearn within him towards 
 Job with more dearness and delight at that cry, " Though he 
 slay me, yet will I trust in him " ( Job xiii, 15), than at any 
 time else, even in the spring of his spiritual prosperity, or 
 fullest tide of most heavenly feelings. Here then is comfort, 
 raorethanthy heart canhold, if thou wilt be counselled by the 
 prophets, that thou mayest prosper. For when thou thinkest 
 that all is gone, that thou art a lost man, and utterly for 
 saken, even in the depth of thy spiritual darkness (thou 
 being so spiritually disposed as 1 have said, and which thou 
 canst not deny), I say even then (and thou oughtest so to 
 apprehend and believe) the love of God is, as it were, 
 doubled towards thee, much more endeared by reason of thy 
 distress, and cannot hold, but breaks out many times into 
 extraordinary pangs and expressions thereof, as we may 
 see Isa. liv, 11, " O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and 
 not comforted," &c. ; and into profession of resolution and 
 waiting to do us good, which he will superabundantly per- 
 form in the best time. " Behold; I will lay thy stones with fair 
 colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires." (ibid.) 
 " And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious 
 unto you ; and therefore will he be exalted that he may 
 have mercy upon you ; for the Lord is a God of judgment : 
 blessed are all they that wait for him " (Isa. xxx, 18). 
 Withdrawing the effects and exercise of our love from him 
 whom we love dearly, makes it return with redoubled fervour 
 into our own bosoms, and there grow into a more vehement 
 flame, which never rests until it break out again with dearer 
 pangs upon the beloved party. Even as when the sun suf- 
 fers an eclipse, and its beams are driven back and reflected 
 from the face of the moon interposed directly between it and 
 our sight, so that they shine not upon us, then is the heat * 
 and light thereof multiplied and much intended toward the 
 
 * Or at least virtual power of heatiug. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 367 
 
 fountain, which afterwards is shed down upon us again 
 more amiably and acceptably when the darkness is done. 
 And let us further take notice, that Christ, our eldest bro- 
 ther, blessed for ever, deals with us in such cases as Joseph 
 (a type of him in many respects) dealt with his brethren. 
 He frowned upon them, handled them roughly, and frighted 
 them extremely, only to humble tliem thoroughly ; but in 
 the mean time and midst of his menacing carriage, his heart 
 was so full of natural affection, that he was enforced by 
 the excess thereof to turn aside and weep, and so return to 
 thern again. " And he turned himself about from them and 
 wept, and returned to them again " (Gen. xlii, 24). So the 
 Son of God, as well as God the Father through him, though 
 sometimes " in a little wrath he hide his face from us ;" 
 yet as he will certainly after " a small moment gather us 
 with great mercies ; " so in the mean time " he is afflicted," 
 and most tenderly affected towards us *' in all our afflic- 
 tions." See Isa. Ixiii, 9. 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 The last help for the Curing of the former Malady. 
 
 7. Think it not strange that thou art fallen into this kind 
 of spiritual affliction, as though some strange thing, or that 
 which doth not or may not befal the dearest servants of 
 God, had happened unto thee ; for herein thou becomest 
 conformable to as holy men as ever the world had ; Job, 
 David, Heman, Luther, 6cc. ; nay, to the Son of God him- 
 self, from whose example and precedency let the Christian, 
 even in the darkest horror of a spiritual desertion, when he 
 is afraid lest God hath forsaken him, fetch abundance of 
 comfort and support out of such considerations as these : — 
 (L) Christ himself was in the same case. Besides a 
 numberless variety of most barbarous cruelties inflicted 
 upon his blessed body by the merciless and implacable 
 malice of the Jews, and by consequent sympathy upon 
 his glorious soul ; he suffered also in soul immediately, in- 
 tolerable, and (save by himself) unconquerable torments 
 and pain. He grasped with the fiercest wrath of his Father 
 for our sins, and sweat blood under the sense of his angry 
 countenance. Nay, this cross upon his soul, infinitely more 
 weighty than that which he carried upon his shoulders to- 
 wards Calvary, did not only cause streams of great bloody 
 drops to fall down to the ground ; but also pressed from 
 him that heavy jroaa, Mat. xxvi, 38, " My soul is exceed- 
 
368 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 ing sorrowful, even unto death ; " and that last rueful bit- 
 ter cry, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken meV* 
 chap xxvii, 46. If Christ Jesus himself then, blessed for 
 ever, the " Son of the Father's love," the Prince of Glory ; 
 nay, the glory of heaven and earth, the brightness of ever- 
 lasting light, &c. in whom he professeth himself to be well- 
 pleased, and for whose sake only he loves all the sons of 
 men which shall be saved, was thus plunged into a match- 
 less depth of unknown sorrows and most grievous desertion, 
 let no Christian cry out in the like spiritual desolation (but 
 ever immeasurably short of his) and in his fear of being for- 
 saken, that his case is singular, desperate, irrecoverable. 
 For the only, dear, innocent Son of God was far worse in 
 this respect, and in greater extremity than he is, can, or 
 ever shall be. 
 
 (2.) Amongst other ends for which the Lord Jesus drank 
 so deep, and the very dregs of that bitier cup of his dear- 
 est Father's heaviest indignation, this was one : that by a 
 particular and personal passing through that infinite sea, 
 those extremest dreadful horrors of Divine wrath for our 
 sins, which we all most justly deserved, and would have 
 caused any mere creature to have sunk down under it into 
 the bottom of hell, and by an experimental fear and feel- 
 ing of that bitter and bloody agony, which melted, as it 
 were, his blessed soul into that mournful cry, " My God, 
 my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" — the comfortable 
 influence of the Deity being for the time in some sort re- 
 strained and retired from the human nature, that it might 
 be capable and sensible of that anger and anguish, which 
 would have holden both men and angels, and all- created 
 natures, under everlasting calamity and woe ; — 1 say, that 
 by his own sense and experience of such painful passages, 
 he might learn and know, with a more fellow-feeling and 
 pitiful heart to commiserate his poor afflicted ones in their 
 spiritual desertions, and with a softer and more compassion- 
 ate hand to bind up their bleeding souls with his sweetest 
 balm of tender-heartedness and love, when in such horrible 
 depths they shall thirst and long, and gasp for drops of 
 mercy and his Father's pleased face : " For in that he him- 
 self hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them 
 that are tempted " (Heb. ii, 18). A woman who hath her- 
 self with extraordinary torture endured the exquisite pains 
 of child-birth, is wont to be a great deal more tenderly and 
 mercifully afl^ected to another in like case, than she that 
 never tried what it is to be terrified with the suddenness, 
 unavoidableness, and terrible pangs of a woman's travail ; 
 and is more skilful, ready, and forward to relieve in such 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 369 
 
 distress. And so also all others, who have been most af- 
 flicted either with outward troubles or inward terrors, or 
 both, are ever most ht and feeling to speak unto the heart, 
 to put to their helping hand, and make much of comfortless 
 and miserable men, troubled and tempted as they have 
 been. And such was the case of our blessed Saviour in his 
 sufferings for our sakes. He was exercised all his life long 
 with variety and extremity of cruellies, indignities, and all 
 manner of vexations beyond measure, grievous, bitter, and 
 intolerable. He drank full deep of the world's disgrace ; 
 the devil's malice ; the rage of great ones ; the contempt 
 and contumelies of the vilest ; the scornful insultings of his 
 enemies; sorest sufferings from all things in heaven, earth,, 
 and hell ; of those pinching passions, hunger, thirst, weari- 
 ness ; of bodily tortures, hideous temptations, agonies of 
 spirit, even of the full cup of his Father's fiery wrath, and 
 horrors of soul for our sins to the very last drop, which 
 v^ent as far beyond his other outward extremities, as the soul 
 goes beyond the body, or God's utmost anger the malice of 
 men ; whereby he is now blessedly htted and enabled excel- 
 lently " to succour them that are tempted." Conscious- 
 ness of his own case in the " days of his flesh " is a keen in- 
 centive to his holy and heavenly soul, more sensibly and 
 soon to take pity upon and ease the several necessities, 
 troubles, sorrows, and soul-afflictions of all his children. 
 
 (3.) As this ever-blessed Redeemer of ours was in him- 
 self more than infinitely free, and more than far enough 
 from all sins ; so by consequence from any inherent cause 
 of the least cross, or any shadow in the world of his dear- 
 est Father's displeased countenance. For originally he was 
 of a most pure, harmless, and holy nature all his life long ; 
 kind, sweet, and gracious to every creature ; offending 
 none, doing good unto all; in his death incomparably pa- 
 tient, "brought as an innocent lamb" to that bloody 
 slaughter ; " not opening his mouth " for all those base and 
 barbarous provocations of the cruel and merciless mis- 
 creants about him ; swimming in blood, burning in zeal,, 
 wrestling in prayer even for the salvation of his enemies. 
 So that his guiltless and unspotted soul had no need at all 
 of any passion or expiation. All his sorrows and suffer- 
 ings were voluntarily undergone only for our sakes and 
 sins. Had not the precious heart's blood of the only, dear, 
 natural, eternal Son of God, been poured out as water up- 
 on the ground, wliereat the whole creation was astonished, 
 the earth trembled and shook, her rocks clave asunder, her 
 graves opened, the heavens withdrew their light, as not 
 daring to behold this sad and fearful spectacle, never bad 
 
370 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 the soul of any son or daughter of Adam been saved. It 
 was not the glory and treasures of the whole earth, not 
 any streaming sacrifices of purest gold, not the life of men 
 and angels ; no, not the power and prostration of all the 
 creatures in heaven and earth, or of ten thousand worlds 
 besides, could have prevailed, satisfied, and served the 
 turn in this case. Either the "heir of all things" must 
 die, or we had all been damned. Is the heart then of any 
 mourner in Zion heavy and ready to break for sorrow be- 
 cause he hath lost the light of God's face, feeling of his 
 love, and consolations of grace ; so that the darkness of his 
 spirit thereupon frights him with repossession of his pardoned 
 sins, temptations to despair, and fears lest he be forsaken 1 
 O then let him hie and have speedy recourse unto this hea- 
 venly cordial, when our Lord and our love felt the curse of 
 our sins and his Father's hottest wrath coming upon him 
 in the garden, without any outward violence at all, only 
 out of the pain of his own thoughts, bled, through the flesh 
 and skin, not some faint dew, but even solid drops of 
 blood ; and afterwards in the bitterness of his soul cried 
 out upon the cross, " My God, my God, why hast thou for- 
 saken me 1 " And none of all this for himself; for no stain 
 at ail did cleave to his sacred soul ; but all this (the least 
 of which we can no more express than we could undergo) 
 for thy sake and salvation alone, who lovest our Lord Jesus 
 Christ in sincerity. And therefore ground upon it as upon 
 the surest rock, even in the height of thy heavy-heartedness 
 and depth of spiritual desertion, that those depths of sor- 
 rov\^, whereof our thoughts can find no bottom, through 
 which he waded in his bloody sweat, cry upon the cross, 
 and painful sufferings in soul, did most certainly free thee 
 everlastingly from the guilt, venom, and endless vengeance 
 of all terrors of conscience, agonies of spirit, temptations 
 to despair, and damnations of hell. The righteous Judge 
 of all the world will never expect or exact at the hands 
 of any of his creatures double payment, a double punish- 
 ment. Our dearest Saviour hath satisfied to the utmost 
 with his own blood the rigour and extremity of his Father's 
 justice in thy behalf ; and therefore it is utterly impossible 
 that thou shouldst ever finally perish. Inward afflictions 
 and troubles of mind may for a tim.e press thee so sore, 
 that thou mayest be ready to sink for chastisement, trial, 
 prevention of sin, perfecting the pangs of the new birth, 
 example to others, &c. But in despite of the united rage 
 and policy of all infernal powers, thou shalt in due time be 
 raised again by that victorious and triumphant hand which 
 " bruised the serpent's head" and burst the heart of hell : 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 371 
 
 even " out of a horrible pit be set upon a rock. " far above 
 the reach of all hellish hurt or sting of horror. " In a little 
 wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with 
 everlasting kindness will I have mercy upon thee, saith the 
 Lord thy Redeemer" (Isa. liv, 8). 
 
 CHAP. XIX. 
 
 Tlie Fifth Malady of an Afflicted Conscience. The First way of curing- 
 it, wliicii isSpeculc-itive, and the first part of that way, which is by 
 Consideration. 
 
 5. There is another terrible fiery dart, dipped full deep in 
 the very rankest poison of the infernal pit, which though it 
 be not much talked of abroad, nor taken notice of by the 
 world, yet is secretly suggested and m.anaged with ex- 
 tremest malice and cruelty in the silent bosoms of God's 
 blessed ones. The most holy hearts are many times most 
 haunted with ihis foulest fiend. Strangers to the ways of 
 God be not much troubled in this kind, nor ordinarily vexed 
 with such horrors. Satan, as I said before, makes as much 
 of his in this world as he can possibly, knowing that he 
 hath time enough, even eternity to torment them in the 
 world to come ; and therefore he is not wont to wield this 
 terrifying weapon against them, save only at some dead 
 lift, or upon some special advantage, as under some ex- 
 traordinary misery, or in excess of melancholy, to drive 
 them thereby to distraction or despair. Or it may be, God 
 may suffer him to afilict thus hideously some grievous sinner 
 whom he is about to bring in ; to prepare him thereby 
 (though the devil himself meaneth not so) for the pangs of 
 the new birth, deeper humiliations, and more vehement 
 desires to get under the wings of Christ from that hellish 
 kite. Or he may sometimes mingle these horrible stings 
 with the terrors of spiritual travail, upon purpose to hinder 
 conversion by a diversion into bye-ways, or frightening 
 back again to folly and former courses. But sure 1 am, the 
 ordinary object and special aim of Satan's malice in this 
 point are only those who have happily escaped out of his 
 clutches already, and are fully and for ever freed from his 
 damning fury and all deadly hurt. And I know not whether 
 there be any of these which doth not less or more, at one 
 time or other, sufl^er under this horror. And yet everyone 
 of them thinks himself singular in this suffering; and that 
 it is not usual for God's children to have such prodigiously 
 
372 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 foul and fearful thoughts put into their heads, which they 
 dare not mention for their abhorred monstrousness, neither 
 remember without trembling. Now by this dreadful ent,'ine 
 of the devil, wliich 1 thus talk of before 1 tell you what it 
 is (and no marvel, for what heart would not willingly re- 
 tire, or can choose but tremble in treating upon such a 
 theme?) — I mean hideous injections, horrible thoughts, blas- 
 phemous suggestions, monstrous conceits of the most holy, 
 pure, and ever-glorious God, his word, divine truths, the 
 Lord Jesus blessed for ever ; or some way or other about 
 spiritual and heavenly things, framed immediately by Sa- 
 tan himself, and with furious violence thrown into our 
 minds infinitely against our wills, at the grisliness whereof 
 not only religion but also reason, nay even corrupted nature 
 and common sense stand astonished, and shrink back at 
 the horror, and abhor them extremely. — Some of God's 
 dearest children and those that love him best (would you 
 think hi yet it is too true) are sometimes so pestered with 
 their irksome intrusions, that whatsoever they speak, do, 
 hear, read, or think upon, is wrested, perverted, and hel- 
 lishly empoisoned with this temptation of blasphemy. And 
 they are ordinarily pressed upon them with most importu- 
 nity and impetuousness, when they are best busied and ex- 
 ercised in the holiest duties, as in prayer, hearing, or read- 
 ing the word, singing of psalms, days of humiliation, &c. 
 
 In the first place, for a comfortable support in such a 
 case, peruse, ponder well upon, and apply such considera- 
 tions and counsels as these : — 
 
 (1.) In this terrible temptation also thou becomest but 
 conformable to thy Lord and ^Master who bought thee with 
 his dearest blood, and to many of his blessed saints. Was 
 there ever suggestion in conceit, or word, or any possibi- 
 lity of being like unto this in execrableness and horror, that 
 the King of saints, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the 
 Godhead bodily, should fall down and worship the prince 
 of hell and vilest of creatures'? (Rev. xv, 3 ; Colos. ii, 9.) 
 And yet this most horrible blasphemy was injected into the 
 most holy imagination of Jesus Christ, with which it was 
 infinitely more impossible to be any ways tainted or stained 
 than the fairest sun-beam with the foulest dirt. But he en- 
 dured it, and conquered, and that for our sakes only and 
 safety, even for such excellent ends as these : — First, 
 That when we are set upon by Satan in the same kind, and 
 so hideously assaulted, that upon the first sense we are 
 ready to sink under the sudden fright, and to think thai none 
 in the world are so but we ; yet in cool blood we may com- 
 fortably recover ourselves, and presently conceive that our 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 373 
 
 case is not singular and incompatible with a saving state ; 
 for even the Son of God himself surpassed us in the same 
 sufferinff. Secondly, That he might take the venom sting 
 and guilt from this hateful and horrible temptation for all 
 his to the world 's.end. Thirdly, that having himself tasted 
 the devil's malice herein, he might out of his own feeling 
 and experience more tenderly take to heart our troubles and 
 terrors that way ; more mightily fortify and free our spirits 
 against the invasion and surprise of all such prodigious in- 
 jections and ilashes of hell. 
 
 2. It is the concurrent judgment of learned and holy 
 divines, that these monstrously blasphemous thoughts and 
 satanical suggestions, resisted and not consented unto, are 
 not our sins, but our crosses. Or suppose there would be 
 any tainture on our parts, yet condemning them in our 
 judgments and abhorring them with our hearts, we may be 
 most assured that the blood of Jesus Christ is infinitely 
 more mighty and sovereign to take away the venom and 
 vileness of them, than the devil malicious and subtle to in- 
 ject. I will imagine that some bloody popish powder traitor 
 had pressed upon thee at that time, and suggested thus — 
 •' We are plotting, and purpose to blow up the parliament 
 with gunpowder ; to destroy at one blov*' the king, queen, 
 prince, nobility, (Sec, and afterward to cut the throats of 
 all the protestants in the kingdom ; to root the gospel out 
 of it for ever, (S:c. ; and then to lay the fault upon the pu- 
 ritans." These and the like were injections of much horror 
 and monstrous nature. For thus men learned both in the 
 mystery of Christ and depths of state spoke of that plot at 
 that time :^"}lemember but the powder treason, the utter- 
 most part of all villany ; beyond which it is terra incognita, 
 no man can devise what should be between hell and it*." 
 " Consider but this day, the birthday, as I may term it, of 
 our country, in which both prince and people came, as it 
 were, anew into the world, delivered from the fearful 
 powder vault, the very belly of hell and confusion, as Jonah 
 sometime did from the belly of the whale t." "Behold 
 that which so many millions of eyes, since those windows 
 were first opened in the head of man to behold the light of 
 heaven ; I say, so many millions of eyes in their several 
 generations now sunk down into their holes, and consumed 
 within their tabernacles, never saw ; never those glorious 
 and constant lights of ihe firmament, those clear and crys- 
 talline eyes of nature, which walk through the whole world 
 and give no rest to their temples ; the sun that wandereth 
 
 * Dr. WliitP, in his Sermon at Paul's Cross. 
 
 t Dr. Tynlev, in his Sermon at Paul's Cross. 
 2K 
 
374 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 by day, and the moon that walketh by night, they never 
 saw the like, &c.*" " It was of such prodigious monstrons- 
 ness, that before now, the tongue of man never delivered, 
 the ear of man never heard, the heart of man never con- 
 ceived, nor the malice of hellish or earthly devil ever prac- 
 tised t." "It is beyond all example, whether in fact or 
 fiction, even of the tragic poets, who did beat their wits to 
 represent the most fearful and horrible murders t." " The 
 plot whereof Livy speaks, of dispatching the whole senate 
 of Rome in an hour ; the device at Carthage to cut off a 
 whole faction by one enterprize ; the conspiring of Brutus 
 and Cassius to kill Caesar in the senate : the project of de- 
 stroying in one conjclave the greatest part of the cardinals ; 
 the Sicilian even-song, and the Parisian matins ; nay, the 
 wish of Nero, that Home had but one head which he might 
 cut off at one blow, came far short of this invention, which 
 spared neither age, sex, "nor degree §." Well then, if thou 
 shouldst have approved and consented unto the suggestion 
 of this most execrable and unheard-of villany, for which 
 hell hath not a fit name, nor the world a sufficient punish- 
 ment, thou hadst made thyself the most prodigious beast 
 that ever breathed, an abhorred monster of mankind, and 
 justly merited to have passed presently from most exqui- 
 site tortures here, to endless torments in another world. 
 But now, if all the while the motion was making thy heart 
 had risen against it with indignation and loathing, thou 
 protestedst to the party thy abominating any thought that 
 way from the heart root to the pit of hell ; and immediately 
 running to the king shouldst have discovered and disclaimed 
 it as a most detestable and hellish plot ; I say then, what 
 man could have justly blamed thee, or wherein could thy 
 conscience any way accuse thee 1 It is so in the present 
 point. As that other incarnate devil in his kind, so the 
 devil himself throws into thine imagination most hideous 
 thoughts and horrible blasphemies, even against the dread- 
 ful Majesty of heaven, the thrice-blessed and ever-glorious 
 Trinity, the holy humanity of the Lord Jesus, &c. To 
 which if thou shouldst understandingly assent and approve 
 indeed, thou mightest expect most worthily to become ten 
 times fouler than the ugliest fiend in hell. But since thou 
 knowest in thine own conscience, that thy heart trembles 
 with horror and amazedness, when they are offered, nay 
 violently thrust into thy mind, that thou resisted and re- 
 
 * Dr. King, in his Sermon at MTiitehall. 
 
 1 Sir Edward Fiiilips, in the proceedings against the l:it^ Tniitors. 
 
 t Sir Edward Coke, ibid. 
 
 i The Earl of Northampton, ihid. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 875 
 
 jected them with all the power and prayer thou canst pos- 
 sibly, canst not choose but, out of a pang of infinite detes- 
 tation and heart-rising, turn thus, or in the like manner, 
 upon the tempter : " Most malicious enemy to the glory 
 of my God and good of my soul, thou troublest thyself and 
 me in vain. I do infinitely acknowledge my blessed Crea- 
 tor, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, to be one incomprehensible, 
 glorious, wise, gracious God : heaven to be wholly filled, em- 
 broidered, impaled, with nothing but holiness and happiness : 
 all the creatures to be good, as they issued out of the hands of 
 God, and remembrancers to us of his power, wisdom, and 
 goodness : God's blessed book to be all most holy, most true, 
 a rich treasury of heavenly wisdom and sweetest know- 
 ledge, 6cc. And thy cursed self to be the only author and 
 broacher of all sin, hurt, and uncomeliness ; and to thee 
 and thine alone they belong. Mingle not, then, thy malice 
 with my lowliest, most dear, and reverend thoughts of my 
 Father, my Saviour, my Comforter," ike*. And thou art 
 also wont presently to press in private into God's glorious 
 presence, and prostrate thyself before his righteous throne, 
 there to discover this hellish malice, to complain hoAy vil- 
 lanously the devil deals with thee, to protest thine inno- 
 cency, and infinite hatred of these horrible blasphemies, to 
 cry heartily for pardon, patience, and power against them. 
 And therefore it being thus with thee, thou mayest upon 
 good ground be more than infinitely assured, that they are 
 not imputed unto thee at all, but wholly set upon Satan's 
 score. Hence it is, and from this ground, that 1 have many 
 times told some, thus tempted, that when they have passed 
 a duty, pressed upon violently, and pestered with tlie fu- 
 rious intrusion of such unutterably foul and fearful injec- 
 tions, they have in all likelihood spent that day with far 
 less sin in their tlioughts, and more freedom from guilt and 
 provocation of divine anger, than if they had been free; 
 because they being so earnestly and vehemently deprecated, 
 withstood with such aversion and loathing, protested against 
 unfeignedly, and that upon such terms that they would 
 rather be torn in pieces with wild horses, die ten thousand 
 deaths, do or suffer any thing, than yield the least assent 
 or approbation thereunto ; they are then, 1 say, not their 
 transgressions, but affiictions ; not their iniquities, but mi- 
 series ; not their sins, but crosses. Nay, and further for 
 their comfort, if they should be haunted by them until their 
 ending hour (which God forbid, and beat back such ac- 
 cursed and hateful spite from every humble soul!) yet 
 
 * These very words were forced, by fury of temptation, from one 
 tempted in this kind. 
 
376 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 cleaving close unto the Lord Jesus, hating all sin, and 
 having respect to all God's commandments, they are not 
 able at all, neither can any whit hinder, hurt, or any way 
 prejudice their spiritual state and everlasting salvation. 
 
 3. Every servant of Christ hath his share in some afflic- 
 tion or other, and is ever made in some good measure con- 
 formable to him in his sufferings. Those who have the 
 reins laid and left upon their necks without curb or cor- 
 rection, are bastards and not sons. They may, as the Holy 
 Ghost tells us, prosper in this world, and pass peaceably 
 out of it, and have no bands in their death like other men ; 
 ** they may live, and become old, and be mighty in power: 
 their seed may be established in their sight with them, and 
 their offspring before their eyes : their houses may be safe 
 from fear, neither may the lod of God be upon them ; their 
 bull may gender and fail not; their cow may calve, and 
 not cast her calf; they may send forth their little ones like 
 a flock, and their children dance : they may take the tim- 
 brel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ : they 
 may spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down 
 to the grave" (Job xxi, 7 — 13); at last die even like a 
 lamb. But when all is done, they are utterly undone and 
 everlastingly, by reason of the horror and anguish that shall 
 come upon their souls; the affliction, the wormwood, and 
 the gall : for horrible is the end of the unrighteous gene- 
 ration . they are immediately thrown down from tlie top 
 of their imaginary felicity, and untroubled bed of seeming 
 peace, to the depth of extremest misery and bottom of the 
 burning lake. But it is not so with the servants of God. 
 " He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth" (Heb. xii, 6). 
 " He hath only one Son without sin, none without suffer- 
 ing," saith an ancient father. But here take notice, that 
 in this dispensation of fatherly corrections amongst his chil- 
 dren, he ever, out of his unsearchable merciful wisdom, 
 singles out and makes choice of those which are most suit- 
 able, and the fittest for their spiritual good. And therefore, 
 both for the kind and particular, let us ever humbly and 
 thankfully submit and wholly refer ourselves to the sweet 
 and wise disposing of our most loving and dearest Father, 
 who ever knows best what is best for us in such cases, both 
 in regard of his service and our sufferings, his glory and 
 our gain ; what we are able to bear, how he hath furnished 
 us beforehand with spiritual strength to go through tempta- 
 tions and troubles, what spiritual physic is most quick and 
 operative, and best suited to the prevention, cure, and recovery 
 of our soul-sicknesses, distempers, and declinations ; how^ 
 wisely to proportion and mercifully moderate in respect of 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 377 
 
 measure, time, and working ; and when his hand is heavy 
 upon us in one kind, tenderly to take care that we be not 
 oppressed with other extremities also ; as appears by that 
 sweet observation of Mr. Fox, in the story of the two 
 Glovers. " God, in his holy providence, seeing his old and 
 trusty servant so many years with so extreme and many 
 torments, broken and dried up, would in no wise heap too 
 many sorrows upon one poor silly wretch, neither would 
 commit him to the flames of fire, who had been already 
 baked and scorched with the sharp fires of inward afflic- 
 tion, and had sustained so many burning darts and conflicts 
 of Satan so many years. God, therefore, of his divine pro- 
 vidence, thinking it too much that one man should be so 
 much overcharged with so many plagues and torments, did 
 graciously provide, that Robert his brother, being both 
 stronger of body, and also better furnished with helps of 
 learning to answer the adversaries, should sustain the con- 
 flict." It rnay be our only wise God purposeth to exercise 
 us extraordinarily with spiritual conflicts and troubles of 
 conscience, and therefore doth mercifully give us more 
 prosperity and comfort in our outward state ; or, perhaps, 
 to afflict us with variety of worldly crosses ; and therefore 
 doth sweetly and compassionately give us more peace and 
 comfort at home in our own hearts : or, it may be, he 
 means to make us eminent objects of disgrace, reproach, 
 and slander in the world, and even from those who " sit in 
 the gate," for our forwardness and excellency of zeal ; and 
 therefore, out of a gracious tender-heartedness, gives us 
 both more calmness in conscience and contentment in out- 
 ward things ; or, perhaps, he may lay all these upon us, 
 suffer us to be tried with ill tongues, with troubles without 
 and terrors within ; but even then undoubtedly "his grace 
 shall be sufficient for us : " so wise and so merciful is our 
 blessed God. Only, first, let us take heed (though in our 
 own apprehensions and misdeeming we may pretend and 
 except never so plausibly) that we never prescribe unto 
 him how, in what stint or measure he should afflict us. 
 Secondly. That we never ward or put off any blow from his 
 own heavenly hand, men, or creatures, with the wound of 
 conscience ; never decline any ill by ill means. Thirdly, 
 That we learn and labour to profit by and make the right 
 use of all his corrections. Fourthly. And ever magnify the 
 glory of his mercy and wisdom in sparing us any way, his 
 tender-hearted taking notice where we are weakest, and 
 not so able to bear his severer visitations ; but specially, 
 that he ever pitches upon that affliction which doth our 
 souls most good, and serves most effectually to procure, 
 
 2 K 3 
 
378 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 protect, and promote the soundness, safety, and flourishing 
 of our spiritual state. Well then, for my purpose, and thy 
 support, since our most holy God deals thus with all that 
 are not cast away ; to wit, sorts out unto them those several 
 crosses and corrections, which out of his unsearchable 
 v.'isdom and spiritual necessity of their souls he sees most 
 fit to keep them humble, obedient,, and in awe, take thou 
 up, and in good part, this cross of thine, while it pleaseth 
 God to exercise thee with it as thy portion. Others, though 
 free from this, yet have their proportion and proper potion, 
 and that perhaps in a bitter cup and from a more smarting 
 rod. It may be it goes well with thee in other respects*, 
 in which, wert thou yet crossed, the physic would not take, 
 nor work so kindly. Our all-wise heavenly Physician knows 
 this dreadful dart will only do it. Who knows whether, 
 if thou wert not haunted with these foul furies, I mean 
 furious injections of the devil's own forge, thou mightest 
 grow worldly, lukewarm, too passionate, proud, secure; 
 or something which God would not have thee, and would 
 be infinitely for thy hurt? 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 
 The Second Part of the speculative way of curing the former Malady, 
 which is by Counsel. Two things which Men must be counselled to 
 practise. 
 
 Be thou therefore patient under them, humbled by them, 
 make a holy and profitable use of them, comfort thyself in 
 them by these considerations commended unto thee for that 
 purpose, and learn how to behave thyself about them by 
 the following counsels : — 
 
 1. As at their first approach and offer thou oughtest to 
 stir up and steel thy heart to improve the strength and 
 stoutness of all the powers of they soul ; to make a mighty 
 and forcible resistance, lifting up at the same instant thy 
 heart in a bitter complaint against the cruelty and malice 
 of the adversary, a strong cry for the rebuking of him and 
 restraint of his hellish spite, with extreme detestation of all 
 such devilish filth, so take heed that thou never revolve in 
 thy mind those his blasphemous temptations ; but say with 
 
 * And yet I know some horribly afflicted in this kind, and yet in 
 some respects as outwardly miserable as can be imaifiued ; but then 
 know, that the merciful power of God is mighfily improved for extraor- 
 dinary support. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 379 
 
 Luther, " a kite or cormorant may fly over my house, but 
 sure shall never roost or nestle there." Or as another, " a 
 ravenous and hateful bird may begin to build in mine ar- 
 bour, 1 cannot hinder it ; but I will never fail to pull it 
 down as often as she begins." The devil will inject v/he- 
 ther lliou wilt or no ; but resolve to suffer them by no means 
 to have any rest or residence in thine imagination. If thou 
 be a minister (and the holiest men are Satan's special mark 
 that he would gladly hit with his fiery darts), take advice 
 which hath proved sovereign and helpful to beat back and 
 banish these temptations of blasphemy. The mind of every 
 man of God instructed to the kingdom of heaven is, as I 
 suppose, still digging into the rich mines of divine truth, 
 diving into the great mystery of Christ, ever discoursing in 
 itself for, or doing something for the advancement of the 
 work of the Lord, their ministerial affairs, and welfare of 
 souls. Temporizers indeed, seldom and self-pieachers, are 
 not much troubled this way, neither take these things so to 
 heart. They seek more to advance themselves than save 
 souls : their chief study is, if they be not downright good- 
 fellows, as they call them, either to grow rich, or rise, and 
 so they are still negotiating industriously about the one, or 
 plotting ambitiously for the other. But were they of Paul's 
 mind, " Woe is unto me, if 1 preach not the gospel " 
 (1 Cor. ix, 16) -, of Chrysostom's temper, who was wont to 
 tremble when he took into consideration those words, Heb. 
 xiii, 17, " For they watch over your souls, as they that 
 must give account;" of Austin's resolution for not meddling 
 in worldly matters, wherein to deal he deemed a very tiring' 
 and tedious vexation, and was never well but when he was 
 wading in the depths of Christian Religion, and busied 
 about the things of God : I say, if they were thus affected, 
 they would be such as they ought, and as I now suppose, 
 to wit, have many webs, as it were, of their holy work in 
 their heads, all at once ; many ministerial tasks in agitation 
 and on foot still. Some part of the day they would, perhaps, 
 search and pierce into the pith and marrrow of some scrip- 
 ture text; at another time wrestle with the difficulties and 
 knotty distinctions of some popish or other controversy. At 
 another, discuss and drive unto a resolution some perplexed 
 and intricate case of conscience, 6cc. Well, then, this 
 supposed, upon the very first proposal of these monstrous 
 and hideous thoughts, presently divert and resort to the 
 hardest of all those irons thou hast in the fire, if 1 may so 
 speak, and that which hath need of most hammering ; 1 
 mean, to the most difficult and weighty points of all those 
 several spiritual businesses thou hadst last in thy brain, and 
 
380 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 single out that particular which did most puzzle and put thy 
 understanding to it. Whereabouts, when the strength, heat, 
 and intensity of thy whole soul is spent and improved, not 
 only other impertinent wanderings and vagaries, but these 
 idle and irksome injections also, will more easily vanish 
 and be gone. Let others also proportionably upon such oc- 
 casions, besides other helps, have recourse to the most 
 troublesome and over-mastering part of their honest employ- 
 ments, to the chiefest and most needful affair of their lawful 
 callings. 
 
 2. In temptations of this nature, never set thyself to dis- 
 pute with the devil ; he is an old sophist, of above five 
 thousand years standing in the school of hideous tempta- 
 tions and hellish policies, and thou art but a novice. He 
 hath many methods, devices, and depths, which thy 
 shallow forecast cannot possibly fathom. Direct opposition 
 by reasons and replies stirreth up the outrageous blasphemer 
 to grow more furious, and hereby we give him greater ad- 
 vantage, more matter of molestation and mischief, and may 
 so plunge ourselves further into an intricate maze of horror 
 and confused distractions. Our blessed captain, Christ 
 Jesus, may be a pattern for us in this point. When he was 
 tempted " to fall down and worship Satan ; " he reasoneth 
 not the case, but repels him with vehement, extraordinary 
 detestation and disdain : " Get thee hence, Satan." It will 
 therefore be our best wisdom at such a time to turn from 
 him ; and as Hezekiah spread his blasphemous letter, so to 
 lay open his fury before the Lord, crying mightily unto him, 
 entreating him even for his own honour's sake to vindicate 
 the purity of his great majesty, and excellency of his un- 
 spotted glory, from this hellish filth and horrible villany of 
 the malicious fiend : that he would cast it as dung upon the 
 tempter's face ; and in the passion and blood of Christ, free 
 fully, and for ever, our poor souls, trembling under the 
 hideousness of his malice and cruelty, from the guilt, stain, 
 terror, and assault of all such abhorred and prodigious blas- 
 phemy. 
 
 In that other terrible temptation also, to self-murder, 
 many much wrong themselves this way. In managing this 
 fiery dart, the adversary deals by way of argument too, and 
 presses reasons, such as they are, upon the tempted ; some- 
 times extremely absurd, especially if the party be something 
 more simple and ignorant ; sometimes exceedingly subtle, 
 if he be of better understanding and capacity. And thus : 
 " It is soon done, and the pain quickly past ; thou art likely 
 thus to languish and lie in misery all thy life long. The 
 
 longer thou livest, the larger will be the score of thy sins. 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 381 
 
 and so thy torments in hell more horrible hereafter. If it 
 be once done, it will appear to have been God's decree, and 
 I hope thou wilt not oppose the accompMshment of that. 
 Do what thou canst, thou wilt be damned when all is 
 done *." Now in this case if thou debate the matter with 
 the devil, and begin to confer, thou art likely enough to be 
 more and more confounded and entangled with inextricable 
 astonishment and danger to be utterly undone, and suddenly 
 blown up by the mine of his soul-murdering sophistry. But 
 if, according to tiie example and practice of thy Lord and 
 Master, who hath begun unto thee in this bitter cup, "is 
 afflicted in all thy afflictions," and ever stands by thee as a 
 victorious commander and conqueror in all such assaults; 
 first abominate and beat back this base and bloody motion 
 with infinite indignation and loathing, " Avaunt, Satan ! '* 
 and then immediately lay hold on the sword of the Spirit, 
 and keep him at the point of it, and then assuredly all the 
 devils in hell cannot hurt thee. Tell him, that against his 
 vile and villanous suggestions and all the subtleties and 
 sophistry with which he seconds it, this is thy only answer, 
 even the precise, holy, and everlasting countermand of his 
 and thy Creator, the mighty Lord of heaven and earth, 
 "Thoushalt not kill." Now if it be a crimson and crying 
 sin, the most deadly opposite and desperate cut-throat of 
 charity to kill another, and fasteneth such a deep and inex- 
 piable stain upon the face of a whole kingdom, that it can- 
 not be razed out "but by the blood of him that shed it" 
 (Numb. XXXV, 33) ; how execrable and heinous then is 
 this, and what depth of hell and height of horror doth that 
 abhorred miscreant deserve and may expect, who naakes 
 
 * Here if thou answer — Yea, but in the mean time it is better to 
 spend the remainder of my few and evil days upon earth than in hell, 
 he will reply, But so thou shall increase thy sins here, and by conse- 
 quence thy hellish pains hereafter; to which if thou rejoin, But the 
 heinousness of self-murder and horribUness of despair may appear more 
 vile and execrable in the eyes of God than all the other sins I may 
 commit to the last period of my natural course ; — he may then hide- 
 ously roar, But so thou mayest both go on lo increase thy sins and make 
 away thyself at last, and where art thou then ? &c. I know him to 
 have thus thrown his fiery darts into tremblinir hearts one after another 
 with extreme subtleness and cruelty; and therefore in these cases do 
 not admit of any dispute or conference with him; but upon the very 
 first assault (for who would hear him talk that will tell never a true 
 word, and is thy sworn enemy ?) be ever sure presently to lay hold upon 
 the word of God, that weapon of proof which serves like a sword, not 
 only for defence, as all the other pieces of armour, but also for uiTence. 
 Beat liack with undaunted resolution and confidence this devilish dart,^ 
 and stop for ever the mouth of the tempter with the contrary chai'geol' 
 the most holy and all-powerful God — " Thou shalt not kill." 
 
382 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 away with himself 1 For the rule of charity, whereby we 
 love one another, is proportioned by that charity whereby a 
 man loves himself. If the devil be able to dissolve aiid 
 disannul the most absolute, perfect, and just law of the 
 Most High, who though all other things besides may be 
 something in possibility which as yet they are not in act ; 
 yet himself is actually and everlastingly whatsoever he may 
 be, and cannot hereafter be that which now he is not ; and 
 so by consequence is without all " variableness or shadow 
 of turning:" I say, if the "prince of darkness" can 
 reverse this law of the "Father of lights," "Thou shalt 
 not murder ; " thou mayest well say thou wilt then think of 
 another answer. But till that be, which is more than 
 infinitely impossible ever to come to pass, thou wilt rather 
 lie in the miseries of hell upon earth (which indeed were 
 incomparably better), than breaking God's blessed law, go 
 down into the grave in a bloody coffin made by thy own 
 hands only at the devil's bidding. Can this madness ever 
 be matched] for a man, besides self-severing the soul from 
 his body before the time, by a more heinous and unnatural 
 villany than murdering of his own father (for every man is 
 naturally next unto himself), and sending it suddenly 
 covered with blood, by becoming his own butcher and hang- 
 man, unto the dreadful tribunal of the all-powerful God, 
 the most certain and severe revenger of all bloodshed ; to 
 bring also abundance of unnecessary shame, grief, and 
 hopeless mourning upon friends, kindred, husband, children, 
 parents ; a reproachful stain and brand upon house, name, 
 burial, posterity, &c. ; and that merely at the instance, and 
 upon the most absurd, ridiculous, and senseless suggestion 
 of the arch-murderer, thy mortal and immortal enemy ; 
 against sense, reason, nature, religion, scripture, God's 
 direct command to the contrary, even heathen philosophy, 
 heaven and earth ! 
 
 CHAP. XXI. 
 
 Three other things which men must be counselled to practise for the 
 Cure of the former Malady. 
 
 3. Avoid idleness, solitariness, and too much secrecy ; 
 three main advantages for the adversary, which he watch- 
 fully apprehending, and plying industriously, works a world 
 of mischief upon afflicted souls, ia their spiritual miseries. 
 Idleness lays a man oi>en to all hellish snares and tempta- 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 383 
 
 tions, makes the heart, like unmanured ground, fit for 
 nothing but the wildest and rankest weeds of lust, luxury, 
 lewd company, the universal inordinateness of original cor- 
 ruption to domineer, rage, and do what it will. Like 
 standing pools, naturally prepared and pregnant to breed 
 and feed the vermin and venom of vilest thoughts and 
 unnatural filth. Like thoroughfares for Satan's most hideous 
 and horrible injections to wander and walk up and down in 
 without restraint or remedy. Solitariness, besides its native 
 property and power to make sad, increase melancholy, and 
 aggravate fears, doth in this case, more than any, bring a 
 heavy woe : " Woe to him that is alone : " for if the weak 
 Christian fall, " he hath not another to help him up " 
 (Eccles. iv, 10). He may there be surprized, yield and be 
 foiled, before he get into such company as might happily 
 have prevented it, or supported him in the temptation. Too 
 much secrecy and concealment may cause the wound of a 
 terrified conscience to bleed inward, rankle, fester, and 
 grow desperate ; whereas seasonable discovery might have 
 cured and comforted it. Horror arising from the apprehen- 
 sion of such uncouth and monstrous thoughts, kept close, 
 and dammed up in the man's own breast, may swell so high, 
 that the poor soul may be in great danger to be wofully 
 drowned and overwhelmed by it ; which had it had vent 
 betime, eased and emptied itself into some holy and faithful 
 bosom, might, by divine and discreet counsel, by little and 
 little dried up quite. I have known him who did bite in 
 and keep close in his bosom this temptation of blasphemy 
 the space of about twenty years ; all which while the devil 
 did tyrannize extremely, and keep him almost in continual 
 terror. He thought there was never man had such vile and 
 prodigious thoughts as he ; and if the world knew what 
 they were, he would be abhorred as a monster of men, and 
 the loathsomest creature upon earth ; most worthy to be 
 utterly exterminated and rooted out of the society and con- 
 fines of mankind. And hereupon many and many a time, 
 when he apprehended any opportunity, or had any means 
 oflfered to make himself away, he was tempted thereunto, 
 principally upon this ground, that it was pity such a horri- 
 ble blasphemer (for so he -lupposed) should any longer 
 breathe. But at last hearing the nature, manner, and re- 
 medy of these hideous injections discovered by the ministry, 
 afterward privately informing himself further and more fully 
 from God's messenger, was happily taken off the rack for 
 the time to come, and most wonderfully refreshed. And 
 therefore take heed of keeping the devil's counsel. The 
 tenjpted in this kind may do well to be still conversant in 
 
384 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 religious duties, honest workers of their lawful callings, 
 Company of skilful experienced soul physicians, or one or 
 other comfortable employment. 
 
 4. Settle in thy heart a peremptory impregnable resolu- 
 tion never to entertain any thought of that great majesty 
 and glory above, of the most holy and ever-blessed Trinity, 
 or any thing thereabout, but such only as is revealed and 
 represented unto thee in God's book. Whatsoever is ob- 
 jected by carnal reason to the contrary, or injected by the 
 devil any ways to deprave the divineness of that glorious 
 truth, ought to be rejected as cursed, false, and execrable. 
 And therefore, when that hellish Nimrod shall at any time 
 hunt and chase thine affrighted soul with these blasphemous 
 hell-hounds, be sure ever to take sanctuary in the oracles 
 of God, and keep thee close and safe under this covert. 
 Whatsoever is not comprehended within the confines of that 
 sacred pale, warranted by holy writ, the sovereign touch- 
 stone of all heavenly truth, let it be abhorred, and retorted 
 as dung upon the face of the tempter. That sense and ap- 
 prehension of the Deity and divine things which is not 
 sucked from the breasts of the two Testaments, is in this 
 regard to be reputed rank poison, repelled and abominated 
 with infinite indignation and disdain. And for further help 
 herein, when thou findest thyself thus followed with the 
 violent and incessant incursions of this furious folly, call 
 otten and seriously to mind that accursed brand which the 
 book of God hath set upon the adversary, that he is the 
 *' father of lies," and let that still continue a more reso- 
 lute rejection and contempt of whatsoever comes from him. 
 Suppose a raging madman should follow thee up and down 
 all the day long, and tell thee that thy father or special 
 friend were a stone, a bird, a tree, a toad, or whatsoever is 
 viler or more absurd ; wouldst thou hereupon entertain and 
 harbour in thy mind any mis-impression or monstrous per- 
 suasion of the party ? I trow not (only his senseless clamour 
 and restless raving would be very irksome, troublesome, and 
 unwelcome) ; especially since thou art furnished with a clear 
 demonstrative light out of natural philosophy, that he is a 
 reasonable creature, and thyself seest in him the face and 
 favour, the shape and proportion of a man. Proportionably 
 Satan, that bloodthirsty maniac of hell, out of that mad- 
 ness at which heaven and earth may stand amazed, solicits 
 thee to admit such and such horrible and hideous conceits 
 of thy dearest Lord, his Son, and sacred word. (Ah ! 
 cursed fiend, that ever thou shouldst discover such prodigi- 
 ous malice against thy glorious Maker!) Now God infi- 
 nitely forbid that this should cause the least alteration, or 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 385 
 
 any diminution at all of thy lowliest, most reverent, ador- 
 ing, and divinest thoughts of so great a God. For have re- 
 course to the holy records of all sound, supernatural, a.nd 
 saving knowledge ; I mean, the word of life with which 
 thou oughtest to consult, and to which only thou art con- 
 fined in this case ; and thou shalt find him to be the " only 
 one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, 
 or passions ; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness ; the 
 maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. 
 And in unity of this Godhead there be three persons, of 
 one substance, power, and eternity, the Father, the Son, 
 and the Holy Ghost *." And besides thou mayest grasp 
 as it were, and feel between thy fingers as it were, even in 
 every creature, his greatness and goodness, majesty and 
 might, power and providence. " In the glorious lights of 
 heaven," saith a noble writer, " we perceive a shadow of 
 his Divine countenance ; in his provision for all that live, 
 his manifold goodness ; and lastly, in creating and making 
 existent the world universal by the absolute art of his own 
 word, his power and almightiness ; which power, light, 
 virtue, wisdom, and goodness, being all but attributes of 
 one simple essence, and one God, we in all admire, and in 
 part discern per speculum creatumrnm, that is in the dispo- 
 sition, order, and variety of celestial and terrestrial bodies ; 
 terrestrial in their strange and manifold diversities ; celes- 
 tial in their beauty and magnitude, which in their conti- 
 nual and contrary motions are neither repugnant, intermixed, 
 nor confounded. By these potent eflfects we approach to 
 the knowledge of the omnipotent Cause, and by these mo- 
 tions their almighty Mover." Whensoever therefore that 
 most implacable and everlasting enemy to God's glory and 
 the good of his children shall go about to pervert and cross 
 by his blasphemous injections these sober and sacred con- 
 ceptions of the thrice-glorious and ever-blessed Deity, 
 planted in thy mind by his own word and this visible world, 
 bid him, by the example of thy Lord and Master, " avoid 
 andavaunt;" trample upon his hellish spite, appeal unto 
 God's righteous throne with protestations of thine innocency ; 
 damning them unto the pit of hell in thy judgment, and 
 hating them not without horror from the very heart-root ; 
 and so truly resisting them, crying mightily unto God for 
 
 * Articles of Keli?ion ; Art. 1. — Exod. xx, 3 ; Deut. vi, 4 j Psalin 
 xvlii, 31 ; Mai. ii, 10; J Cor. viii, 4; Psalm IxxxiV, 2 ; 2 Cor. vi, 16 ; 
 2 Chron. xv, 3 ; Jer. x, lOj John xvii, 3 ; 1 Tlies. i, 9 ; Psalm cii, 
 24,26,27; Dan. vi, 26 ; Psalm civ; .John iv, 24; 2Cor. iii. 17; 
 1 Sam. XV, 29 ; Hos. xi, 9 ; Ezek. x, 5 ; 2 Cor. vi, 18 ; Revel, xi. 17 ; 
 1 Tim. i, 17; Rom. xvi, 27; Psalm cxlvij, 5 ; cvi, 1 ; and cvii, 1. 
 
 2 L 
 
386 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 pardon, whereinsoever thou shalt fail about them, and for 
 povyer against them, and then possess thy humble soul in 
 patience and peace. 
 
 5. Being humbled by them, making a holy use of them, 
 perusing and applying the considerations and counsels in 
 hand for comfort in them, and conquest over them ; do not 
 by any means continue to afflict and torture thy spirit about 
 them. Let them now pass away and be packing ; abandon 
 them with a holy detestation, contempt, and slighting, with- 
 out any such dismayedness and terror, as most unworthy of 
 any longer taking to heart, or notice of; much less of that 
 anxiety and trouble as to terrify, indispose, and disable 
 thee for a cheerful discharge of either of thy callings, parti- 
 cular or general. Divines hold even godly sorrow unsea- 
 sonable when it unfitteth the body or mind to good duties, 
 or to a good and cheerful manner of doing them ; how much 
 more would they not have these hellish distractions and 
 intrusions to dishearten thee in this kind 1 But least of all 
 of that pestilent prevailing, as to fill thine heart with ex- 
 traordinary astonishment, honor, and doubting, whether 
 such monstrous injections be incident to sanctified souls, a 
 saving state, and habitation of the Holy Ghost, and so to 
 put thee into a habit of heavy walking and secret sadness, 
 by reason of continual questioning the soundness of thy 
 conversion, the constancy of God's love unto thee, former 
 assurance of an immortal crown, and whether it be possi- 
 ble that Jesus Christ should dwell in a soul haunted witii 
 such horrible thoughts ; procurement of which miseries and 
 molestations is the adversary's only aim ; for so immeasur- 
 ably malicious is he, that if he cannot plunge thee into the 
 pit of hell and everlastmg flames in the world to come, yet 
 will he labour might and main to keep thee upon the rack, 
 and in as much terror as he can possibly all thy life long in 
 this vale of tears. Suffer then this advice to sink seriously 
 into thy heart : being enlightened, rightly informed, and 
 directed about them, let them no longer astonish thy spirit, 
 detain thee in horror, hurt thy heart, or hinder thee in any 
 duty to God or man, or in a humble, comfortable, and con- 
 fident walking with thy God as thou art wont, or of thy 
 former sweet communion with Jesus Ciirist. And the ra- 
 ther, because, First, It is the tempter's earnest end only 
 out of pure spite to put this imposture and unnecessary 
 vexing perplexities upon thee. Secondly, The more thou 
 art troubled with them and takest them to heart (for that is 
 it he would have), the more violently and villanously will 
 he press them upon thee and terrify. Thirdly, They are 
 not thine, but his fearful sins ; he alone must answer for 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 387 
 
 them at that great and last day, and thou go free. It is 
 his malicious madness, of such a prodigious nature and 
 notoriousness as is beyond imagination and above all admi- 
 ration, only fit for a devil. That he may trouble thee 
 temporally, he mightily aggravates his own eternal tor- 
 
 ment 
 
 CHAP. XXII. 
 
 The Experimental ^^'ay of caring the former Malady. 
 
 In a second place let me tender unto thee an antidote, 
 which hath been found sovereign and successful this 
 way. 
 
 The sum of it is this : — Let the tempted Christian labour 
 to work and extract by the blessing of God some spiritual 
 good out of the liorrible hell of these most hateful, abomi- 
 nable, blasphemous suggestions. And if Satan once see 
 that thou suckest honey out of his poison, comfort out of 
 his cruelty, medicine out of his malice, he will have no 
 heart nor hope to go on ; no courage nor contentment to 
 continue the temptation. 
 
 Take it in the sense, if not in the same words, without any 
 variation, or enlargement, as it was applied and pros- 
 pered : — 
 
 " Spiteful and malicious fiend, cursed enemy to heaven 
 and earth ; by the mercies of God, though thy purpose be 
 most pestilent, yet thou shalt not hurt or have any advan- 
 tage against me hereby. Thy base and dunghill injections, 
 tending to the dishonour of my God, and my Christ, &c. 
 shall make me, 
 
 "1. More hate thine infinitely hateful and revengeful 
 malice against that thrice-glorious and ever-blessed Majesty 
 above. 
 
 " 2. With more feeling and dearness to adore and love 
 the glory and sweetness of my God and my Redeerner. 
 For the more excessive and endless I feel thy spite against 
 him, the more I know is his incomprehensible excellency 
 and worth. 
 
 " 3. To pray oftener and more fervently that ray God would 
 rebuke thee, and cast this extreme malice of thine as dung 
 upon thine own face. 
 
 " 4. To be still more humbled under the hand of my 
 mighty Lord ; because 1 cannot be more humbled, and with 
 more resolution and abhorrence abominate and abandon 
 
388 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTING 
 
 such prodigiously senseless and hellish blasphemies of his 
 (for I am sure they are none of mine) into the bottomless 
 bottom of that darkest dungeon : in the blackest horror 
 whereof, they were most maliciously and monstrously 
 hatched. 
 
 "5. To take up a strong argument and answer against 
 another of thy cursed injections tending to Atheism, and 
 the not being of those endless joys above. Because I most 
 plainly and palpably feel thee, an invisible spirit, casting 
 into ray imagination such horrid, absurd, and ridiculously 
 impious thoughts, which cannot possibly spring ordinarily 
 or naturally from any power or possibility of mine own soul. 
 I know thereby and assure myself, that there is also an in- 
 finite, most wise, and glorious Spirit, which created both me 
 and thee ; and will in due time chain thee up for ever in 
 the pit of hell, and bring me at length, by the blessed merit 
 of his only dearest Son's bloodshed, into the bosom of his 
 own glory and everlasting bliss. 
 
 " 6. To confirm mine own heart with stronger assurance 
 (which is no mean benefit) that 1 undoubtedly belong unto 
 God and am in a gracious state. For thou well knowest, 
 and so doth mine own soul, that thou never troubledst me to 
 any purpose with these ugly blasphemous thoughts, while 
 1 yet lay stark dead in sins and trespasses, and drowned 
 full deep in vanity and lust ; in carnal looseness and sen- 
 sual courses. Then thou, being the strong man, possessedst 
 me wholly, and all was quiet, because all was thine. But 
 being now happily rescued out of thy clutches by a migh- 
 tier than thou, and having blessedly broke the prison by 
 the help of the Holy Ghost, thou followest me with this 
 fiery malice and the most prodigious yellings of that infer- 
 nal pit. And I am persuaded it is a pestilent piece of thy 
 deepest cunning, very rarely to vex civil worldlings ; those 
 thai lie in any gross sin ; or any which thou keepest fast 
 and secure in thy snares with such affrighting and grisly 
 temptations.- For thou craftily fearest, lest striking that 
 horror into the heart of a natural man, which is wont to 
 arise from such hellish fogs and blasphemous filth, thou 
 shouldst thereby give him occasion to renounce, detest, and 
 drive him out of thine accursed slavery, and cause him to 
 cast about for a new master. 
 
 " 7. To take notice of some special corruption, lust, pas- 
 sion, or spiritual distemper in one kind or other, over which 
 I have not holden that hand, hatred, wakeful eye, as it 
 were meet. For I am persuaded ray God, out of his mer- 
 ciful goodness, aims at and intends some such good unto 
 my soul, by enlarging thy chain, and suflPering thee at this 
 
AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 389 
 
 time to afflict me in this uncouth manner with this hell- 
 empoisoned dart something extraordinarily. I have not 
 been so sensible of thy other temptations, far more ensnar- 
 ing in sin, though not so terrifying ; and therefore my gra- 
 cious Lord may suffer thee at this time thus to thrust out 
 thy horns, as I may say, in this most horrible and outrage- 
 ous encounter, that I may be thoroughly advertised vvhatan 
 adversary I have ; and so more mind and m.ark him, for 
 fear of much secret and sudden mischief by my security 
 and neglect, and be more quickened to an universal watch- 
 fulness against all his methods, devices, and depths ; as 
 well his subtle and sly insinuations in the glory of an an- 
 gel, as his impetuous and furious assaults in the shape of a 
 foul fiend. Some trouble, cross, heavy accident, disgrace, 
 discontentment ; some great and weighty affair on foot, un- 
 seasonable entertainments, sad news from abroad, or some- 
 thing or other, hath too often stolen my heart from that 
 full and fruitful attention to holy duties v/hich was due, 
 and that even upon the Lord's day. And I can now re- 
 member, and my conscience tells me upon this occasion, 
 that I have not watched over the many idle, impertinent 
 wanderings and vagaries of my imagination, as I ought ; 
 but given so far a way unto them, that they have justly 
 brought upon me an uncomfortable deadness of affection, 
 barrenness and indisposition in the use of the ordinances, 
 and conversing with God by meditation, prayer, hearing of 
 the word, singing of psalms, examination of the conscience, 
 and other religious exercises, and I know not into what fur- 
 ther spiritual misery they may lead me -, and therefore in 
 great mercy the most wise God goes now graciously about 
 to correct and mortify the vanity, worldliness, distractions, 
 and misemployraent of my thoughts, even by the terrors of 
 these thy most horrible and hellish injections. And l^y the 
 help of God I will follow the meaning and conduct of his 
 holy hand for a right use of them, and attaining that happy 
 end which he doth so mercifully intend. 
 
 " 8. To gather skill, experience, and dexterity, for the 
 raising and reviving of others hereafter, hanging down the 
 head, heavy-hearted, and maliciously haunted in the same 
 kind, by discovering unto them thy bootless malice, the sove- 
 reign medicines I have met with in the ministry of the word, 
 and the good I gained to my soul hereby, by the help of that 
 Almighty hand which can turn the darkest midnight into 
 the brightest morning, and produce a medicinable potion out 
 of the rankest poison. 
 
 " Methinks this heaven, which by Divine blessing I 
 extract out of thy hell, this healing virtue which I draw 
 
390 AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES. 
 
 from thy vilest venom, this spiritual good which I gather 
 from thy devilish spite, should make thee weary of this 
 way, and desist from troubling me. I trust in my God it 
 will shortly cause thee to cast away this weapon, and 
 quit the field quite. For thou ever infinitely hatest and 
 hinderest all thou canst the glory of God, all exercise and 
 increase of grace, and the welfare of my poor soul, which 
 by accident and his sanctifying power, who ever turns all 
 things to the best to them that love him, are all happily ad- 
 vanced, furthered, and enlarged by this raging and pesti- 
 lent rancour of thine. 
 
 " And who would not think, were not the incredible 
 depth of thy malice and madness equally unfathomable by 
 the wit of man, but that thou shouldst the rather give over, 
 because these Satanical suggestions to me that resists are 
 but crosses and corrections ; but in thee, most outrageous 
 and execrable blasphemies, which will mightily hereafter 
 add to the heaviness and horror of thine everlasting chains 
 of darkness and damnation ' at the judgment of the great 
 day.'" 
 
 CHARLES WOOD AND SON, PRINTERS, 
 Poppin's Court, Fleet Street.