The souls exaltation A treatiseThe soules exaltation A treatise

I might also speak of the rage and malice of the wicked, but when the arrows of Gods wrath seize upon the soul, and God seems to be displeased, and to go away from the soul, and mercy, and love, and the sweetness of compassion is going; as it was with Christ, when he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He finds not that sweetness of mercies that formerly he had done; these are troubles indeed: Now learn you to look up to Christ, and look to be pitied by the Lord Jesus Christ. It may be thy husband, or thy wife, or thy friends will not pity thee, but will say, he is turned a precise fellow, and see now what good he hath gotten by running to Sermons: thus they add sorrow to sorrow, and persecution to persecution; because God hath smitten thee, therefore they smite thee too, but yet notwithstanding all this, look thou up to the Lord Jesus Christ, and know that thou shalt find favour; he will have a fellow-feeling with thee in all thy miseries; therefore plead with the Lord Jesus Christ, and say, Lord in thy estate of humiliation, thou wert a man full of sorrows, and thou sufferedst much perplexity, thou knowest what it is to suffer ⟨p. 297⟩the wrath of a displeased Father, and thou didst cry out, Father, is mercy, and love, and goodness, and all gone? Oh blessed redeemer, hear those cries of them that cry to thee for mercy; thou that didst suffer for poor sinners, do thou succour poor sinners: and Jesus Christ will certainly pity you, and will send his good Spirit from heaven to comfort you, and he will command loving kindness to comfort and refresh thee. You that groan under your burdens, he will command loving kindness to come to such a mans house, and to visit such a one, and will say, such a man is troubled, I command thee to comfort him: and, salvation, I charge thee go to such a house, and tell such a man that I love him, tell him that I suffered for him, and was forsaken, that he might not be forsaken, I was condemned, that he might be redeemed: It is a great comfort that the Lord Jesus Christ is touched, and knows how to deliver such as are tempted. He that bore up the frame of the heavens, and never groaned under the pillars of the earth, yet when he was to bear the wrath of God, he shrunk at it and said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me:

I might also speake of the rage and malice of the wicked, but when the arrowes of Gods wrath seize upon the soule, and God seemes to bee displeased, and to goe away from the soule, and mercy, and love, and the sweetnesse of compassion is going; as it was with Christ, when he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken mee? Hee findes not that sweetnesse of mercies that formerly hee had done; these are troubles indeed: Now learne you to looke up to Christ, and looke to bee pittied by the Lord Jesus Christ. It may be thy husband, or thy wife, or thy friends will not pittie thee, but will say, he is turned a precise fellow, and see now what good hee hath gotten by running to Sermons: thus they adde sorrow to sorrow, and persecution to persecution; because God hath smitten thee, therefore they smite thee too, but yet notwithstanding all this, looke thou up to the Lord Jesus Christ, and know that thou shalt finde favour; he will have a fellow-feeling with thee in all thy miseries; therefore plead with the Lord Jesus Christ, and say, Lord in thy estate of humiliation, thou wert a man full of sorrowes, and thou sufferedst much perplexity, thou knowest what it is to suffer