A88592:93
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.
The wicked are only for confession of sin before men, and not before God.
4. Fourthly, Godly men confess sin freely, out of a willingness they have to be rid of sin: wicked men confess sin, with confessions extorted and drawn from them as men on a rack whether they will or no. Godly men confess sin freely, they ⟨p. 32⟩are freely willing to part with their lusts, therefore they confess them to God, 1Job 32, 18. For I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me. Vers. 19. Behold my belly is as wine which hath no vent, it is ready to burst like new bottles. Vers. 20. I will speak that I may be refreshed, I will open my lips, and answer. Thus a godly man in confessing sin his belly is as it were burst with new wine, he must needs have vent, else he is broken, he must needs confess sin, his sin drives him to God. But confession is extorted and wrested from wicked men. It was the plagues of Egypt upon Pharaoh that wrung confession from him: before these he would say, Who is the Lord? It was pangs and horror of conscience in Judas, that forced him to acknowledge he had sinned in betraying innocent blood. Mariners cast over their goods, not that they hate them, but as they are forced to do it to escape drowning; when there is a storm and a tempest in their consciences, then men are forced to confess sin, it is by compulsion, it is not voluntary.
4. Fourthly, Godly men confesse sin freely, out of a willingness they have to be rid of sin: wicked men confesse sin, with confessions extorted and drawn from them as men on a rack whether they will or no. Godly men confesse sin freely, they ⟨p. 32⟩are freely willing to part with their lusts, therefore they confesse them to God,