The following book is called Instructions for Comforting Afflicted Consciences by Robert Bolton. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear? Proverbs 18, 14. Chapter one, 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 issued out of a mortal brain, every one of them for the most part. especially from the 10th chapter, independent, entire and absolute in themselves, clear and manifest by their own native brightness, not needing such reciprocal light and luster 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. So it is that this book of Proverbs is compared to a great heap of gold rings, rich and orient severally, and everyone shining with a distinct luster by itself, but other texts of holy writ to gold chains, so interwoven and in link together that they must, upon necessity, for the rendering to us aright and fully their several senses, be enlightened and receive mutual illustration one from another. This present proverb represents to us the extremest hell upon earth, the greatest misery, supportable that can possibly befall 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 heroic heart, which is happily upholding with the heavenly refreshing influence of grace. God's favor and a good conscience. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity. Secondly, by the heaviness of its attribute, the intolerableness of it, but a wounded spirit who can bear. From the former, the courage of a heart upholding with grace, take this first note, Doctrine the spirit of man furnished with grace and fortified with the sense of God's favor is able to pass through the pikes and conquer all comers For what and why should that man fear or faint on whose side the mighty Lord of heaven and earth stands? If God before us, who can be against us? Romans 8, 31. Whose mercy to his is without all stint and limit, like himself infinite, so immeasurable that it reaches from everlasting to everlasting. Psalm 103, 17. So tender that it surpasses incomprehensibly the compassionate meltings of the most loving mother. Isaiah 49 15 and spared not the dearest blood of his only son Romans 8 32 Who has ever and 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 in 104 score and 5,000 in one night, 2 Kings 19.35. Chariots of fire, even a thousand chariots in the whirlwind, that fair glorious giant which with incredible swiftness runs past as it were through the sky, To stand still, or retire, the impetuous current of the raging sea to recoil, the merciless flames of the hungry fire to become a soft and refreshing 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 has 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 bowels of the bloodiest Nimrod or mightiest monarch That wears a crown upon his head if he opposed his people He has a very hearts and consciences Matthew 27 5 2nd Samuel 17 23 of all that rise up against them to bring their own blood upon their own heads and even hell and extremists whore upon their hearts in this life What then so dreadful a face of present confusions, or fore-imagined forms of future troubles, are able, or ought slavishly 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 2.12, who for the deliverance of his can work? Number one, by weak means, Judges 7, 1 Samuel 14, Genesis 14, 1 Samuel 17, Judges 4, 21 and Judges 9, 53. Without means or contrary to means. Number two, when the heavenly beams of God's pleased countenance begin to break out upon a man through the dark and hellish mist of his manifold and heinous sins, The unquenchable heat of His everlasting love through Christ, dissolving them into nothing, and fairly shine with a comfortable aspect upon His humbled soul, ipso facto heaven and earth, and all the hosts of both, are everlastingly reconciled to Him and become His friends. The storms and tempests raised by all the powers of hell are presently calm for ever doing Him any deadly hurt. All the creatures then pull in their horns, withdraw their 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, except upon particular dispensation for His spiritual good and quickening, than to the apple of 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 I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth. will make them to lie down safely. Hosea 2 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 become 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? 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 to a Daniel. The ravens will feed an Elijah. The flames of fire must hold in their heat from burning a Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. 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 meaning quite contrary to the natural sense, an all-dramatical construction before a blessed Parliament be blown up with popish gunpowder. Brittle glass must rebound unbroken from the heart of 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 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 you cannot possibly add one link to the chain in which by the merciful and mighty hand of God he is hampered and Nor go and hair's breadth beyond his commission and though it be utterly impossible 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 allowed sometimes to shake his chain at them and roar upon them hideously, to drive them nearer to 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. Chapter 2 Three Other Reasons Proven the Former Doctrine Besides all that, other excellent, complete, impenetrable armor of proof, mentioned in Ephesians 6, which is able to beat back victoriously all earthly oppositions. In the very ordinance of hell, every one of God's favorites 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 unholy violence to the very throne of God himself, Witnesses most merciful and treating Moses to let him alone Exodus 32 10 is 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 unquenchable wrath and the conception which once on foot would burn unto the lowest hell and set on fire the foundations of the mountains and I mean that most precious and almost, if not altogether, omnipotent grace of prayer. This great master of miracles has wrought from time to time many and very remarkable wonders, both in heaven and earth. It made the sun, that mighty creature, the prince of all the lights in heaven, to stay and stand still upon the sudden and the heat of his swiftest course. It landed Jonah safely upon the shore, out of the belly of the well and bowels of the sea. It drew refreshing streams out of a dry bone for the saving of Samson's life. Judges 15, 18, and 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 5, 17, and 18. He killed 104 score and 5,000 of the enemies of God's people in one night, 2 Kings 19, 15 to 35. For the freeing of Elisha from a strayed and dangerous siege, it filled a mountain in a moment, as it were, full of horses and chariots of fire, 2 Kings 6, 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 Thee. 2 Chronicles 25-23 It loosed Peter out of prison, and shook his chains off from his hands, and made an iron gate to open of its own accord, Acts 12, 5, 7, and 10. It enraged and enlarged the English 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 examples 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 assured that the petitioners were men, subject to like passions as we are, James 5, 17. Perhaps if you be a true-hearted Nathanael, since thy new birth you were never so extraordinarily passionate as Jonah was. When out of a pang of strange distemper he thus answered, O mighty Lord of heaven and earth, I do well to be angry even unto death. Jonah 4, 9. Number four. God's favorite is further furnished with another spiritual weapon of impregnable temper and incredible might. I mean faith, the very power and arm of God for all true joy, sound comfort and lightsomeness at the heart root in this life, this crowned impress of all those heavenly graces that dwell in the soul of a sanctified man, and which in the 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 5, 4, over the very gates of hell and all the powers of darkness, Matthew 16, 18, over the devil's most fiery darts, Ephesians 6, 16, over the devouring flames of the raging fire, over the roar and fury of the most hungry lions, Over the variety and extremity of the most exquisite tortures, temptations, 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 mightiest armies and conquers the most invincible kingdoms. Hebrews 11, 30 and 33 to 37. And when all is done, O blessed faith, at the very last and deadliest lift, she triumphantly sets her foot upon the neck of the Prince of Tears, I mean death, the last and worst, the end of some of all feared evils, Psalm 23, 4. And even in the midst of those dying in dreadful pangs, bears a glorious part with Jesus Christ, the Conqueror, In that sweetest song of victory, O Death, where is thy sting? In a word, it can do all things. All things are possible to him that believeth. Mark 9 23 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 a such a divine invincible and lightsome temper and has such an antipathy Such vigor and ability against all spiritual darkness and damps whether of affliction temptation 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 center 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 does exercise against his most abhorred opposite, darkness, you well may 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 falls, it covers and muffles up the face of the whole world. It obscures and hides the hue and the fashion of all creatures. It binds up all hands and breaks off all employments. The night comes, says our Savior, wherein we cannot work. It arrests and keeps captive all living creatures, men and beasts, that they must be still and rest where it arresteth them, yet makes 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 withstand. And yet, nevertheless, it is not of that might that 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 withstands the whole night, and not only suffers not the darkness to cover or to smother and oppress it, but it gives light also, even in the midst of the darkness, and beats it back for some space and distance on every side of it. so that which way soever it is born or where soever it comes there must darkness depart and give place unto the light all the power and dreadfulness of it cannot help or prevail against it and so the light be so weak that it cannot cast light far about or drive the darkness far from it it's in the spark of a hot coal Yet cannot the darkness cover or conceal, and much less quench it, but it gives light to itself, alone at least, so that it may be seen afar off in the dark, and it remains unconquered of the dark, though it cannot help other things, nor give light to them. Yea, that which is yet more wonderful, a rotten, shining piece of wood, which has the faintest light that can be found, yet remains invincible of all the power of darkness, And the more it is compassed about with darkness, the clearer light it gives. So little is darkness able to overcome or keep down any light, but that it rules and vanquishes and expels the darkness, which else overwhelms and snares and fattenereth 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 does kindle and set up in the hearts of God's children, be able to afford them light and darkness, and administer sound joy and sweet comfort to them in the very midst of their heaviest and most hideous afflictions, assuredly must needs be unconquerably able, with far greater power and in a higher portion. For our visible light does spring but from a finite and material fountain, the sun itself a creature. But the spiritual light I speak of flows immediately from the glorious face of the only true, incomprehensible and eternal light, 1 John 1.5, the sun's creator, who dwells in the light that no man can approach to. and is an everlasting wellspring of all life and light, which it does so far represent and resemble in divine excellency and mightiness, that it thence receives by a secret and sacred influence fresh succession still of an infinite triumphant power, and prevails against all spiritual darkness forever. Suppose all the men that dwell within the compass of our hemisphere should address themselves with all their wit and weapons, 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 first approach of that princely 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 underlings upon earth and all the angels in heaven should contribute all their abilities and excellencies to enlighten with cheerfulness and joy a guilty conscience, surprised sometimes with hellish darkness and clouds of horror upon sight of sin and sense of divine wrath, it all would not do. They should all the while but wash a black more. But now let but the least glimpse of the light of grey shine into that sad and heavy soul, and it would far more easily and irresistibly chase away the very darkest midnights of any spiritual misery, than the strongest summer sun would dispel the thinnest morning's mist. Give me, if you will, Judas' heart, or Spira's whore, or of fecked spirit torn in rent and pieces, with the raging guilt of both those woeful men. And let that supposed rueful soul, weary of its hellish burden, 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, Matthew 11.28, Resolving to take him for an everlasting 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 lifesomeness, and a truly humbled soul, thus shed into such a dark and creased spirit doth then kindle and set on shining all those gracious heavenly stars, that are wont to beautify the hearts of holy men, hope, love, zeal, sunlight, fear, humility, patience, self-denial, universal obedience, fruitfulness in all good works, and so on, which make them light itself to walk in the light towards the infinite and unapproachable light, and therefore they never need to want lightsomeness, but have perpetual measure of spiritual mirth and mightiness of spirit. End of chapter 2 The next section of Robert Bolton's book that I am reading is Section 1, Part 2, Chapter 1, The Doctrine of the Intolerableness of a Wounded Conscience Proved. Secondly, the trouble of a wounded conscience is further amplified by its attribute, intolerableness, but a wounded spirit who can bear. Note that the torture of a troubled conscience is intolerable. Reason number one. 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. Habakkuk 1.13. Who then can stand before His indignation? Who can abide in the fierceness of His anger when His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him? Nahum 1.6. When he comes against a man, it is a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, to rend the very call of his heart, and to devour him like a lion. Hosea 13.8 No more than the driest double 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 139 verse 11, With rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, 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 pure glass of his most holy law and a feel divine justice by an invisible hand taken secret vengeance 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 light some 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 earth, 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 Beishan, I mean the highest luck in 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 to himself. favors himself, and reaches out his best considerations 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 does 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 Satan 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 feign, if he will be led by his lying cruelty, misrepresent to his affrighted imagination every gnat is a camel, every moat is a molehill, every molehill is a mountain, every lustful thought is a most unclean act, Every idle word is a desperate blasphemy. Every angry look is an actual murder. Every intemperate passion is an inexhaustible provocation. Every distraction in holy duties is an absolute rebellion. Every transgression against light of conscience is a sin against the Holy Ghost. Nay, in this amazingness 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 much sophistry against the pardonableness of his sins and possibility of salvation. He wounds even his wounds with a conceit that they are incurable, and vexes his very vexations with refusing to be comforted. Not only crosses, afflictions, temptations, and all manner 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 favors, preferments, honors, offices, even pleasures themselves, everything 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 delights, so afflictions of the soul and spiritual pangs do infinitely exceed both in bitterness of sense and in tenseness of sorrow the most exquisite tortures that can possibly be inflicted upon the body. For 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. Number four. This extremist of miseries, a wounded spirit, is tempered with such strong and strange ingredients of extraordinary fears, That it makes a man a terror to himself and to all his friends Jeremiah 20 verse 4 to flee when none pursues at the sound of a shaken leaf Proverbs 28 verse 1 Leviticus 26 37 to tremble at his own shadow to be in great fear where no fear is Psalm 53 5 I Besides the insupportable burden of too many true and causeful terrors, it feels as dark and dreadful fancy with a world of feigned horrors, ghastly apparitions, and imaginary hells, which notwithstanding have real stings and impress true tortures upon his trembling and woeful 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 willfully to abandon the one and willfully to embrace the other, that he may be rid of its rage. Hence it was that Judas preferred a halter in hell before his present horror. The Spira said often, what heart quakes not to hear it? That he envied Cain, Saul, and Judas, wishing rather any of their rooms, so in the dungeon of the damned, than to have his poor heart so rent in pieces with such raging tears and fiery desperations, upon his bed of death, whereupon, at another time, being asked whether he feared more fearful torments after this life, yes, he said, but I 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. Number five the heathens who had no fuller sight of the foulness of sin or more smarting sense of divine vengeance for it than the light of natural conscience was able to afford and represent to them yet were wanton fiction to shadow out in some sort and Intimate to us the insufferable extremities of a mind troubled in this kind by hellish furies following malefactors with burning firebrands and flames of torture and 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, has 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 it, and enrage it to the height of guiltiness and depth of horror? both heart and tongue. Man and angel must let that alone forever, for none can take the true estimate of this immeasurable spiritual misery, but he that can comprehend the lengths and breadths 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 extremity and endlessness of all those inexpressible torments and fiery plagues which afflict the devils and damned souls in that horrible pit. 6. Not only the desperate cries of Cain, Judas, and many other miserable men of forlorn hope, but also the woeful complaints even of God's own children discover the truth of this point. To wit, the terrors and intolerableness of a wounded conscience. Hear how ruefully three ancient worthies in their times wrestled with the wrath of God in this kind. I reckon till morning, saith Hezekiah, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones. Isaiah 38 verse 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 me. The poison whereof drinks 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 things that I longed 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 scar'st me with dreams and terrify'st me through visions, so that my soul chooses strangling and death rather than life. Job 13 verse 26. Job 6, 4, 8, and 9. Job 7, 14, and 15. Though God in 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 free from all impatient wishes that way, and sudden suggestions 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 presses 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 a heavy burden 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 disquietness of my heart Psalm 32 3 & 4 Psalm 38 2 3 4 6 8 here also into what a depth of spiritual distress I 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. Beturg, 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 woman. She cried out many times, Woe! Woe! Woe! and so on. A week of woeful, a wretched, a forsaken woman, with tears continually trickling from her eyes. Mr. Peacock, that man of God, in that his dreadful visitation and desertion, recounting some smaller sins, burst out into these words. And for these, he saith, I feel now a hill in my conscience. Upon other occasions he cried out, groaning most pitifully, O me, wretch, O my heart is miserable, O, O, miserable and woeful. The burden of my sin lies so heavy upon me. I doubt it will break my heart. Oh, how woeful and miserable is my state that thus must converse with hell-hounds!" When bystanders asked if he would pray, he answered, I cannot. Suffer us, they say, to pray for you. Take not, he replied, the name of God in vain by praying for a reprobate. What grievous pangs, what sorrowful torments, what boiling heats of the fire of hell that blessed saint of God John Glover felt inwardly in his spirit, sayeth John Fox in his Acts and Monuments, no speech outwardly is able to express. Being young, he says, I remember I was once or twice with him when 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 life, yea, and almost no kind of senses was left in him. Upon apprehension 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 grease of mind, he says, 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 the three last named was at length blessedly recovered, and did rise most gloriously out of their several depths of extremist spiritual misery before their end. Here, therefore, also, Mrs. Berturg's triumphant songs and rapturous spirit after the return of her well-beloved O Lord Jesus Doth thou pray for me? O blessed and sweet Savior, how wonderful, how wonderful, how wonderful are thy mercies! O thy love is unspeakable. Thou hast dealt so graciously with me. O my Lord and my God, blessed be thy name forevermore, which you have shown 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 has come. Yea, Lord, thou hast had respect unto thy handmaid, and art come with fullness 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 are wonderful. They are wonderful. Oh, Fathers, how merciful and marvelous, gracious art thou unto me. Yea, Lord, I feel 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. O Lord my God, in this my soul knoweth right well. O blessed be the Lord! O blessed be the Lord that has thus comforted me, and has brought me now to a place more sweet unto me than the Garden of Eden. O the joy, the joy, the delightsome joy that I feel! O praise the Lord for his mercies, and for this joy which my soul feels full well. Praise his name forevermore! Here with what 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 and deeply troubled with temptations and stings of conscience. But I thank God they are eased in good measure. Therefore, I desire that I be not branded with a note of a castaway or reprobate. Such questions, oppositions, and all tendings thereto, I renounce. Concerning my inconsiderate speeches and 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 break out into such speeches as these. I do, God, be praised. feel such comfort from that what shall i call it agony said ones that stood by nay he quotes that is too little that had i 500 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 10 000 times more what great cause have i to magnify the great goodness of god that has humbled Nay, rather, exalted such a wretched miscreant, In a so base condition, to an estate so glorious and stately, The Lord has honoured me with His goodness. I am sure He has provided a glorious kingdom for me. The joy that I feel in my heart is incredible. In the case of John Glover, hear what Mr. Fox writes, Though that good servant of God suffered many years of 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 mortification of life as the like has 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 altogether celestial, abhorring in his mind all profane things. Number seven no arm of flesh or art of man No earthly comfort or created power can possibly heal or help in this heaviest case an extremist horror heaven and earth men and angels friends and physic gold and silver pleasures and performance favor of princes nay the utmost possibility of the whole creation must let this alone forever an almighty hand and infinite skill must take this in hand and or 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, has a solve for every sore. Poverty may be repaired and relieved by friends. There is no imprisonment without some hope of enlargement. Suit and favor may help home out of banishment. Innocency and neglect may wear out disgrace. Grief or loss of a wife, a child, or 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, and so on, yet at last is less than utterly lost by length of time. Cordials of pearl, sapphires, and rubies, with such like, may re-comfort the heart possessed with melancholy, and drown in the darkness of that sad and irksome humor. But now, not the most exquisite concurrence of all these, nor all the united abilities which lie within the strength and sinews of the arm of flesh, can help any wit at all in this case. Not the exactness, 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 thus trembling under the terrors of God. In such an agony and extremity hast thou the utmost aid, and in universal attendance from angels and men, Couldst thou reach the top of the most aspiring human ambition, after the excellency and variety of all worldly felicity, were thy possessions as large as east and west, were thy meat continually 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 infinitely above the heart of a woman, Entering into travail of her first child. For, alas, who can stand before the Almighty Lord God? Who dare plead with Him when He is angry? What spirit of man has might to wrestle with His Maker? Who is able to make agreement with the hell of conscience, Or to put to silence a voice of desperation? O, in this conflict alone and woeful wound of conscience, No eluctuary of pearl or precious balm, No besiore stone or unicorn's horn, Parseltian quintessence or potable gold, No new device of the knights of the rosy cross, Nor the most exquisite extraction Which alchemy or art itself can create is able any wit, 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. Still Waters Revival Books is now located at PuritanDownloads.com. It's your worldwide online Reformation home for the very best in free and discounted classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, mp3s, and videos. For much more information on the Puritans and Reformers, including the best free and discounted classic and contemporary books, mp3s, digital downloads and videos, please visit Still Waters Revival Books at PuritanDownloads.com. 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