The Soul's Preparation for Christ

Now in the third place, if God should deprive a sinner of his judgement and horror of conscience, yet if his heart be truly apprehensive of sin as it is sin, he cannot lay aside his sorrow; so long as sin prevails and gets head against him, and dogs him up and down, nothing will content him, but the removal of his sin: That soul ⟨p. 155⟩which was cured by any other mean save only by Christ, was never truly wounded for sin: If ease cures him, then horror was his vexation: If honour cure him, then shame was his burden: If riches cure him, then poverty did most of all pinch him: but if the soul were truly wounded for sin, then nothing can cure him but a Saviour to pardon him, and grace to purge him: for what is that to the soul, to have ease and liberty, nay to be in heaven, if he have a naughty rebellious heart, nay if it were possible for him to be in heaven with his sinful heart, it would tyre him and burden him there: Therefore those souls that are cured by any thing saving by Christ, those souls were never truly wounded for sin as sin: It may be horror and vexation lay heavy upon them, but it was not the stroke of sin that did trouble them.

Now in the third place, if God should deprive a sinner of his judgement and horrour of conscience, yet if his heart be truely apprehensive of sin as it is sinne, he cannot lay aside his sorrow; so long as sin prevailes and gets head against him, and dogges him up and downe, nothing will content him, but the removall of his sinne: That soule ⟨p. 155⟩which was cured by any other meane save onely by Christ, was never truly wounded for sinne: If ease cures him, then horrour was his vexation: If honour cure him, then shame was his burthen: If riches cure him, thē poverty did most of all pinch him: but if the soule were truly wounded for sin, then nothing can cure him but a Saviour to pardon him, and grace to purge him: for what is that to the soule, to have ease and liberty, nay to be in heaven, if he have a naughty rebellious heart, nay if it were possible for him to be in heaven with his sinfull heart, it would tyre him and burthen him there: Therefore those soules that are cured by any thing saving by Christ, those soules were never truly wounded for sinne as sinne: It may be horror and vexation lay heavy upon thē, but it was not the stroke of sinne that did trouble them.