Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

I know it is not easy to believe; nay, it is one of the hardest things under heaven to persuade a soul into faith: What? Will the great God of heaven make a Covenant with such a wretch as I am? I cannot believe it. Why, What's the matter? Ah my sins, my sins, my sins! God is a consuming fire against such, he cannot endure to behold iniquity: little hopes that ever God should enter into a covenant with me. But to help on, or to allure a soul in, consider, O thou soul, of these following passages.

I know it is not easie to believe; nay, it is one of the hardest things under heaven to perswade a soul into faith: What? Will the great God of heaven make a Covenant with such a wretch as I am? I cannot believe it. Why, What's the matter? Ah my sins, my sins, my sins! God is a consuming fire against such, he cannot endure to behold iniquity: little hopes that ever God should enter into a covenant with me. But to help on, or to allure a soul in, consider, O thou soul, of these following passages.

1. Consider of the sweet and gracious nature of God: that which undoes broken hearts, and trembling souls, it is misconceivings of God: we have many times low, diminishing, ex enuating thoughts of Gods goodness; but we have large thoughts of his power and wrath: now to rectify these misapprehensions, consider his name, and therein his nature, the Lord, the Lord, Merciful, and Gracious, Long-suffering, and abundant in Goodness, and Truth, keeping mercy for Thousands forgiving Iniquity, Transgressions, & Sins; and will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children, and upon the Children's Children, unto the Third and Fourth Generation. O terrible Text!¹ says the Soul, alas I am guilty of thousands of sins; and if this be his Name I am undone, woe to me and mine, unto the Third and Fourth Generation. But consider again, and in this description of God we shall find an Ocean of Mercy to a Drop of Wrath; a Sea of Oil to an half drop of scalding Lead. For,—

1. Consider of the sweet and gracious nature of God: that which undoes broken hearts, and trembling souls, it is misconceivings of God: we have many times low, diminishing, ex enuating thoughts of Gods goodness; but we have large thoughts of his power and wrath: now to rectifie these misapprehensions, consider his name, and therein his nature, the Lord, the Lord, Merciful, and Gracious, Long-suffering, and abundant in Goodness, and Truth, keeping mercy for Thousands forgiving Iniquity, Transgressions, & Sins; and will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children, and upon the Childrens Children, unto the Third and Fourth Generation. O terrible Text!