The application of redemption

He is […] to attend all […], but accounts most §5of those […] work […] […] and […] […] the […] […] […] of corruption […] […] […] heart, and […] […] […] the […] from it. Though ⟨p. 408⟩the Truths which are delivered, carry dread with them to the Conscience, rack the heart of the sinner in restless horror and perplexity; are like the bitterest Pills, and the sharpest Corrosives, cross to the sinful security, and that Natural quiet the soul doth covet, yea, to his Credit and outward Comforts and conveniences in which he pleased himself, yet he is content his hand should be cut off, and his eye plucked out; that is, that the […] Truth of God, and powerful and plain Dispensation thereof should pluck away those darling distempers, be they as profitable as a hand, as dear as an eye, rather than they should once pluck his heart from the Lord; quarrels with the loathsome abominations of his Nature which now are discovered, but gladly welcomes those soul-saving Truths that would slay and subdue those sins, and not quarrel with them: The Word of the Lord is a good Word, though a convicting, terrifying, yea, a condemning Word to his own apprehension; he that is sensible of his burden as unsupportable and passing strength, he is best pleased with that ease: A wise Patient, when by his trial he hath found it, and the consent of learned Physicians and Chirurgeons have concluded that his Gangrened part must be cut off and cauterized, cannot be healed; though his Nature shrink at it, yet Reason and his own preservation makes him desire and choose the sharpest Instrument, because by that his life and safety is best procured. The sinner that finds the burden of his sin the heaviest of all other, and a disease most deadly to his soul, the sharpest Truths he accounts the safest, and therefore takes most content therein, there shall no course that can be prescribed, be it never so tedious to flesh and blood, no means that shall be appointed to him, be they attended with never so much danger and difficulty, but he readily addresseth himself to the use thereof, and easily submits himself to the Counsel, and Authority, and Command of God therein; willing that God should do any thing with ⟨p. 409⟩him, that he might do good to his soul, and remove that which he feels to be the greatest evil of it. As Ely to Samuel