A88592:156
The souls cordial in two treatises. I. Teaching how to be eased of the…The souls cordiall in two treatises. I. Teaching how to be eased of the…
The souls cordial in two treatises. I. Teaching how to be eased of the guilt of sin. II. Discovering advantages by Christs ascension. The third volum. / By that faithful labourer in the Lords vineyard Mr. Christopher Love, pastor of Lawrence Jury, London.The souls cordiall in two treatises. I. Teaching how to be eased of the guilt of sin. II. Discovering advantages by Christs ascension. The third volum. / By that faithfull labourer in the Lords vineyard Mr. Christopher Love, pastor of Lawrence Jury, London.
London: printed for Nathaniel Brooke, 1653
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Thirdly, Take this Direction, that when you confess sin to God and are the most vile in your own eyes, you are then most amiable in Gods eye: Cant. 1.6. Look not upon me because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me. The Church there confessed to Christ I am black and not comely, she was sun-burnt as she thought. I, but in vers. 8. My Love, my Dove, thou art the fairest among women: Christ looked on ⟨p. 63⟩her as the fairest among women: so likewise in Cant. 2.14. O my Dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs: let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. When the poor Dove the Church lay in a hole under the stairs bewailing and mourning like a Dove for her sinfulness, O saith Christ to her, let me see thy face, and let me hear thy voice. Christ doth love to hear the moan-makings of his people, Jer. 31.18. I have surely heard Ephraim, bemoaning himself thus, Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; thou art the Lord my God. It is worth your notice, Job when he was afflicted by God in having botches and boils all over his body, it is said, Job made his complaint to God, chap. 7. vers. 20. I have sinned, what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? I have sinned saith Job, but what doth God say of Job? in all this Job sinned not, Job 1.22. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. It was not spoken absolutely he sinned not, but the meaning is he sinned not so as other men sinned. The more you bewail, condole, and confess sin to God, and are by reason thereof vile in your own eyes, the more amiable you are in Gods eyes. And thus I have done ⟨p. 64⟩with the first part of the Text, I said I will confess my transgression unto the Lord.
Thirdly, Take this Direction, that when you confesse sin to God and are the most vile in your own eyes, you are then most amiable in Gods eye: