perform thy promise unto God when thou canst never break it but when God is looking on 10. Keep a lively and a tender conscience and diligently hearken to its admonitions that thou keep thy purpose cominations while thou art purposing to come short of thy purpose and accusations afterwards if thy conscience is not faithful unto thee thou wilt be false unto thy promise and fail of thy purpose but if it be do not choak the voice of conscience for it is thy monitor and remembrancer to put thee in minde of the bond â—nd obligation that lies upon thee to a holy life by virtue of thy own resolutions and vows in time of great mortality 11. Make a prudent choise of some wise and holy Christian for thy most intimate associate One that knows thy ways and practise most that is most acquainted with the manner of thy life and hath most occasion to be most in thy company supposing him to be faithful prudent pious tell him what hath been the purpose of thy heart when the terrors of the Lord were upon thee not onely against sin in general or in respect of holiness in general but what was the purpose of thy soul and the resolution of thy heart against this sin if it be convenient in particular which thou hast been most prone unto and the particular duty thou hast resolved to be constant and diligent in which thou hast found thy heart most backward to and engage him as he loves thy soul and the promoting of the work of God in thy heart that he will carefully observe thee and if he discern thee to be backward to thy duty that he would admonish thee if forward to thy sin that he would reprove thee and in all deal faithfully with thee this would be an exceeding help to perform our promises and purposes of holy living and such a friend as this is to be prized above his weight in gold and such a friend as this is better than a brother if you finde him let him not go 12. Seriously consider and work upon your heart till you feel your soul affected with it that Gods purposes concerning you and your good and eternal peace is the same at one time as at another and he performes all his promises which he maketh unto you God doth not one time purpose for to save you and another time purpose to condemn you and why should you then be unconstant in your purposes towards God one time to purpose that you will serve him more and glorifie him more and at another time be careless to order your life according to the intention of your heart When you finde your hearts begin to slink and goe from the purpose and promise that you have made press your self with affecting thoughts of the Immutability of Gods purposes to you and this might help you to constancy in your purposes towards God 13. Steel your heart with an holy courage against all oppositions in your way of performance Take heed of slavish fears which enfeeble your resolutions and put a stop in the way of an holy life you have resolved upon fear of danger and of death made you to resolve to keep close to God and yet your fear of death and fear of danger for holiness sake will hinder your living up to those Purposes and Resolutions Fear of death natural and from God was the occasion of your resolving to practise an holy life but fears of death violent and from men will be the cause of your breach of promise so to doe Therefore resolve to live up to your Resolutions though loss of Estate Liberty or Life should attend you for so doing 14. Fill your heart with an holy Zeal for Gods glory and if you be zealous for the glory of God you will be couragious against all Impediments and Obstructions of an holy conversation Courage is opposed to slavish Fears and Zeal is opposed to Lukewarmness And Lukewarmness is inconsistent with the practice you have resolved upon You have purposed to pray more fervently than you were wont to do but if your heart be as lukewarm in Religion you cannot do it you have purposed to lay out your self more for the good of souls to endeavour to help others in their way to heaven but if you be as lukewarm as before you cannot do more than you did before But if your heart be enflamed with zeal for God more than before you will perform all your Religious undertakings with more life than before you will pray with more life and preach with more life and speak to men about the things of God and another world than you did before and this is the performance of your Purpose 15. Be much in daily Reflexions whether you live up to your Resolutions or no. Review your life every night reflect upon your Duties and the manner of performance of them Survey at night before you sleep the actions of the day whether they have been according to the Rule of Gods Word what temptations did assault you and how you did resist them what corruptions did rise in your heart and how you did subdue them what Ordinances of God you have sate under and how you did improve them what Talents God hath entrusted you with and how you have employed them what company you have been in and how you did behave your self If you do not call your self frequently to account you will live below your Purposes and not perceive it 16. Be often renewing your Purposes and Resolutions for an holy life Frequent acts do beget and strengthen habits Actually renew your Purpose to pray to God to walk circumspectly to discourse of the things of God and it will at length be habitual to you so to do If you finde upon reflection and self-examination that your Purposes are weakened and your heart draws back from that pitch of holiness you did intend to labour after binde your heart thereto by the renewal of your Purposes If you finde you have broken your Resolutions do not resolve to continue so to do but repair them If the Mariner be driven back by windes and storms yet he keeps and renews his purpose of sailing unto his intended Harbour If a Traveller fall in his Journey he gets up and resolves to hold on his way 17. Presse your heart with the evils of coming short and with the benefits of living up unto your Resolutions The evils of this I shall speak to in the third general Head that follows next in order The Benefits of keeping the purpose of your heart are many and great Your sins will not be so many your sins will not be so strong for Resolutions against sin that are firmly made and carefully kept do exceedingly weaken sin and if you should sometime sin your sin will not be so great when God doth see you keep the firm purpose of your heart against it though sometimes you are overborn and bowed down yea
things is not easily lost VIII Then Habitual commission of sin begets contracted Hardness of heart and fearlesness of all Gods Judgements and threatnings and contracted hardness added to natural hardness is a great progress in sinning Thy Conscience is seared thy heart hard as the nether milstone past feeling When Pharaoh hardened his heart his sinning was great Exod. 8.15 Now thou stiffenest thy neck against all admonitions Act. 7.51 and hardenest thy heart against reproofs Prov. 29.1 Now thou actest as if thou wert above controul and if thou couldst wouldest shake off the very Sovereignty of God Exod 5.2 And Pharaoh who was come up to the degree of hardness said Who is the Lord that I should obey his voyce to let Israel goe I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel goe So hardened Sinners reply to Gods Ministers exhorting them to let their sins and lusts goe saying at least in their hearts Who is the Lord whose Name you use we know not the Lord neither will we let our sins goe nor our pleasures and profits goe Now thou sayest to the Lord Depart from me Job 21.14 My tongue is mine own who is Lord over me Psal 12.4 Now thou gloriest in thy wickedness that is thy shame Philip. 3.19 Thou rejoycest to doe evil Prov. 2.14 and makest a mock of Sin Prov. 14.9 and makest a sport in doing mischief Prov. 10.23 Oh if thou couldest vapour it thus at the day of judgement and make as light of torment as now thou dost of sin if thou couldest brave it out thus before Christ at his comming and Russian like bid defiance to an almighty God and angry judge thy case were not so miserable but thou canst not alas thou canst not doe it Now thou art stout against the Lord Mal. 3.13 But then thou shalt sneake and crouch before him IX Then Judiciall Hardness is added to contracted Hardness thou hast hardned thine own heart and God will harden it also Now when Naturall Contracted and Judicial all meet in one mans heart how hard must it needs be and how great a sinner is this man in the sight of God you read sometime Pharaoh hardned his heart â—â—mself Exod. 8.15 and sometimes that God hardned Pharaohs heart also Exod. 10.20 So God giveth men up to their own hearts lusts which is a greater judgement unspeakably greater than all bodily Plagues Read Rom. 1.21 to the end Psal 81.11 12. Rev. 22.11 Isa 6.9.10 Hos 4.14 17. But here conceive of God aright when the Scripture saith God hardneth mens heart it is not to be understood as if God were the author of their sin no more than the Sun can be the efficient cause of darkness for how shall the chiefest good be the authour of the greatest evill For 1. God doth not infuse any wickedness into their hearts 2. Nor doth God tempt them to sin James 1.13 he may try them but not tempt them to sin 3. God commands no man to sin for Gods command would make it no sin as in the case of Abrahams Sacrificing his Son or the Israelites taking the Jewels and Ear-rings of the Egyptians except such things as are intrinsecally evill as are hating of God and blaspheming of God and these things God cannot command as he is said that he cannot lye Tit. 1.2 4. God with greatest severity forbids mens sins he chargeth you upon pain of damnation upon perill of Hell torments that you sin not but commands men to repent and mourne for sin therefore doth forbid them to be hard and stupid under sin 5. Neither doth God co-operate or concurre to the wickedness of their actions though without derogation to Gods honour we may say he doth concurre to their wicked actions For in him all live and move and have their beings Act. 17.28 The action materially considered as it is an action or motion is good and so God is the cause of it but the action formally considered is evill and so God is not the author of it as when you spur a lame Horse you are the cause that the Horse doth move but you are not the cause of his halting 6. But God doth permit and suffer men to harden themselves he doth not give them preventing grace but denieth that which he is not bound to give which would keep off this Hardness from them So God is said to give men over to their own wicked hearts to let them alone and leave them to their lusts Rom. 1.24 26. and to give them over to a Reprobate mind 2 Thes 2.10 11. 12. But if some should say bare Divine permission cannot be the reason why God should be said to harden mens hearts no more than he would be said to steal because he suffereth men so to doe Some therefore adde 7. That Hardness of heart may be considered either as a sin and so God is not the author of it or as a punishment and so it may be from God as the same thing in divers respects might be a sin and a punishment of former sin and a cause of future sinning so the same thing in divers respects might be from God and from the creature as Absaloms Rebellion against the King was an hainous sin as from him yet it was also a punishment of Davids sins 2 Sam. 16.22 But the Scripture asserts two things however 1 That with God dwels no evill and he cannot be the cause of sin and yet 2 expressely saith that the Lord hardned Pharaohs heart Exod. 10.20 Though we know not the manner that doth not lessen the dreadfullness of the judgement but when God doth judicially harden then men are almost ripe in sin and for hell X. When God hath judicially hardned them they let loose the reignes of their lusts and now are fit for any wickedness and stop not at the most abominable and loathsome practises Now they can blaspheme and mock God and deride holiness and act like incarnate Devils when the people in Act. 14.8.11 saw the wonderfull works wrought by the Apostles they said The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men but when we see the most abominable and sordid practises of wicked men might we not say the devills are come up to us in the likeness of men When men are judicially hardened they will commit sins against nature Rom. 1.24 26. c. And could wish there were no God nay now they are when they have given themselves over to work wickedness and God hath given them over too when they say we will be filthy and God say you shall be filthy eager and greedy after sin they weary themselves in committing iniquity and yet are not weary of iniquity and do even scorne at threatnings and mock at judgements 2 Pet. 3.3 4. Men walking after their own lusts say where is the Promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation Is 5.19 That
thy heart to keep thee from sin than before thou art so much worser than thou wast before Though abstaining from sin upon such accounts doth not prove the truth of grace yet the committing of sin notwithstanding these doth argue growth of sin Now these humane Arguments that did formerly restrain thee were such as these 1. Shame amongst men Thou hadst an Inclination to wicked company but thou wast ashamed to be seen amongst them and therefore didst not associate with them But now thou thinkest it no shame or if thou dost thou hast a face of brass and an heart of stone and blushest not Thou art worse 2. Care of Reputation Thou wast tender of thy Credit and good Name and though thou hadst a love unto some sins that would have disgraced thee amongst men yet now thou wilt blot thy Name and lose thy Credit and sacrifice thy Reputation to satisfie thy Lust 3. Costliness of sin Some sins are very chargeable and call for great expence and thy love to thy Money and natural affection to thy Wife and Children was a barre which did restrain thee from them Thou wouldest not feed and satisfie thy filthy Lusts because it would be chargeable to thee thou refrainedst from riotous Prodigals because company with them would wast thine Estate But now thou thinkest no cost too great no charge too much that thou mayest have thy fill of sin but tradest and labourest and workest to get something to maintain thy Lust and wilt rather that thy Wife and Children should want bread at home than thou shouldest not have enough to spend upon thy sins abroad Thou art now grown to an exceeding magnitude in sin that thou art monstrous to beholders 4. Health of body Such sins that tend to the impairing of thy health thou wouldest not commit Thou didst refrain not so much because they would damn thy soul as destroy thy body Thou thoughtest excessive drinking would shorten thy life and hasten thy death and bring thee sooner to thy grave that acts of uncleanness would fill thee full of loathsom diseases and leave some mark upon thy body whereby thou wouldest be noted for an unclean adulterer But now thou wilt venture health and life and all that thou mayest more freely sin and the very food thou earest is now not only to nourish thy body but to provoke thee to lust Verily thou art much worse than thou wast 5. Fear of death When the fear of God would not prevail to keep thee from sin yet fear of death somtimes hath done it and according to the strength of the fears of death have been thy restraints from sin but now thou canst think of death and speak of thy death and yet act thy sinne 6. Displeasure of men Thou hast had dependance upon some that hate such sins that thou lovest in thy heart but because thou wouldest not loose their favour thou hast bridled thy sin but now thou layest the reignes loose upon the neck of thy lusts and wilt proceed to obey them let who will be displeased thereby When thou wilt displease thy best friend and them upon whom thou dost depend for lively-hood and maintenance that thou mayst please thy lust it is a sign that sin is very high in thy heart any one of these formerly were a sufficient bolt to keep thee from grosser sins but now all put together are too weak a signe that sin is so much the stronger X. The more thou hast had experience of the dreadfull effects of sin and the more God hath punished thee for thy sin and yet wilt proceed the greater sinner thou art God hath punished thee with poverty as the fruite of thy sin with diseases in thy body with horrours in thy conscience with the death of thy relations when thou hast tasted the bitterness of sin to set against the pleasures of sin when God hath put worm-wood and gall into thy sin yet thou art bent upon it thou art very bad XI The more thou justifiest and defendest thy self after the commission of sin than formerly so much the worser thou art than formerly When thou wast reproved thou wast use to acknowledge thy sin and to confess thy wickedness but now thou dost plead for thy lust and pleadest for thy evil wayes and takest the quarrell of sin upon thy self it is a signe thy heart is more wedded to thy lusts by how much the more thou espousest its cause XII When thou art more presumptuous in thy sinnings and addest more contempt of God and pride and contumacy than formerly the worse thou art Sins of presumption are scarlet sins of a crimson dye when a man sinneth against God and blesseth himself in his wickedness and presumeth of Gods mercy and presumeth upon the patience of God a man that sins presumptuously makes a bold adventure against express threatnings of the Law of God and is mingled with great contempt of God it is no less than reproaching and despising of God himself Num. 15.30 But the soul that doth ought presumptuously reproacheth the Lord and that soul shall be cut off from among his people vers 31. Because he hath despised the word of the Lord and hath broken his commandment that soul shall be utterly cut off his iniquity shall be upon him XIII The more mercies thou sinnest against than formerly the worser thou art than before God hath given thee more mercies and multiplyed many good things upon thee and yet thou committest more sins than when thou hadst fewer mercies to make Gods mercy to be fewel for thy lusts is an aggravation of sinning for as much as it is contrary to the end of mercy which is to draw men off from sin every mercy thou receivest hath a voice and its language is repent of sin return to God Rom. 2.4 God loadeth thee with mercy and the more thou pressest him down with thy sin the more good and the more mercifull God is to thee the more vile and rebellious thou art against God this is to be highly wicked XIV The more thou drawest others into sin by thy entisements or example than before so much the worse thou art When thou art not content to sin alone not to dishonour God thy self but drawest and incouragest others to do so also and so damnest thy own soul and others too and makest thy self guilty of the bloud of those thou allurest with thee into sin The more sins thou committest thy self the worse thou art and the more persons thou dost influence by thy sin to partake with thee the worse thou art Thus if thou wilt compare thy self what thou art now with what thou hast been formerly thou mightest discern how much more thou sinnest now than thou didst before SECT XIV What considerations may be usefull to stop the streame of such mens wickedness that yet are waxing worse and worse BEcause I am loath to leave thee with a bare conviction that thou art worse than thou wast wont to be I shall add a
believing thoughts of this when the Plague is over will have some special influence upon thee to make thee endeavour to do according to the purpose of thy heart in dying times 4. Consider Holiness is as pleasing unto God at one time as another and if God was pleased with thy purpose it will be more pleasing if thou proceed unto performance The moving reason of your purpose in the time of your distress was that you judged it pleasing unto God and would you please God at one time by purposing and displease him at another by non-performance Would you please God at one time by resolving to reform and displease him at another by nonreformation Sin and holiness is the same in the eyes of God at all times but it seems it is not so in thine if sometime thou dost purpose to forsake sin and at another dost willingly commit it if sometime thou approvest holiness and pâ—â—â—osest to follow after it but at another time thou art remiss in thy pursuit 5. Work this upon thy heart that sin is as destructive to thy soul and preâ—udicial to thy peace and comfort at one time as another Though sometime the circumstance of time might aggravate a mans sin and make it more hainous as a man to be drunk upon the Lords day yet sin committed at any time is damnable and sin loved at any time is damnable though sometime we feel the effects of sin in sickness on our bodies and terrors and fears upon our consciences and then have greater and more affecting apprehensions of the evil of it yet you can at no time when you have your perfect health lay sin in your bosom but it may sting you unto death In your sickness you thought that sin would undo you that your evil actions would certainly damne you therefore you did resolve against it think so still and let those thoughts abide upon your heart and they will carry you in the strength of Christ to live as you did purpose 6. Work this upon your heart that holiness in act and a godly life in act will be more sweet unto your soul than it was onely in your purpose And that a holy life should be esteemed by you at one time as well as another because it will be as sweet and profitable to you at one time as another if you thought it would be for your good to purpose holiness and to resolve to live to God and this did something quiet your heart if you had dyed that God had given you a real and unfeigned resolution and fixed purpose of heart to lead as you could with utmost diligence a Gospel conversation how much more will it be a comfort to your heart to see your purposes end in performances and your resolutions come unto a real thorough continued Reformation Get the same thoughts of holiness in time of safety as you had in time of danger and this will help you to live holily as well as to purpose so to do 7 Keep upon your heart a constant daily sense of your own mortality and of your nearness to another world What is the reason that men under sickness are more apt to purpose to forsake sin and to promise to mend and to reform than in time of health but because they have greater apprehensions of death in its nearer approaches unto them and things as neer do more affect than things apprehended as further off and was it not the thoughts of the nearness of death and your daily danger of it that did quicken you to resolve against sin and for God and to winde up your resolutions something higher than at other times Why you have reason still to walk in daily expectation of your dissolution though the plague be stayed If the plague be removed out of your habitation yet sin is not removed out of your heart there is the meritorious cause of death still in you and there are natural causes of death still in you and you must as surely dye as if the Plague were raging and you may assoon dye we dye a thousand ways death might be as near to you by some other disease and you may fall by some other disease as so many have done by the Pestilence though you were not one of those that dyed eight thousand in a week yet you may be one of those that dye eight or five hundred in a week Doe not say the bitterness of death is past that now there is no danger do not put far from thee the evil day What if so many do not dye every week as when thou resolvedst to be better yet thou mightest dye every week An Apoplexy or a Feaver or Dropsie might fetcht thee to thy grave who hast through Mercy and Patience escaped death by the Plague think with thy self when thy heart is negligent of thy former purpose When and why was it that I resolved to give my self more to a holy heavenly life When the Plague did come nigh unto my dwelling and because I thought every day I might have dyed Why it is my daily danger if not by the Plague yet by some other disease that will as certainly be the cause of my dissolution as if it were the Plague Thou didst purpose because thou thoughtest death was neer then perform because death is still as near yea it is nearer to thee now then when thou madest this resolution for the more days thou hast lived since the fewer now thou hast to live it was near then but to thee it is nearer now 8. Frequently possess thy heart with serious believing thoughts of judgement to come When men and when thou amongst the rest shall give an account to God of all thoughts purposes promises vows that thou hast made to God to walk before him in an holy life But what account canst thou give to God when thou hast not performed what thou purposedst If it was not good to purpose and to promise to forsake thy sin and live to God Why didst thou purpose If it were Why dost thou not perform If thou fail now thou wilt be self-condemned at the bar of God thy purposes and promises will be brought forth against thee and God will charge thee before all the world with breach of promise unto him 9. Work this upon thy heart that thou walkest daily in the sight and presence of that God that exactly doth observe whether thou art the same in thy practice when thou art well as thou wast in thy purpose when thou wast sick God did see thy purpose and he did hear thy promise made in thy distress and time of fears and his eye is upon thee to observe how thou livest and what thou dost and do men keep their promises made to men as some do from no other principle then because the eyes of men are upon them to observe them and they would not lose their reputation by falsifying of their promise and wilt not thou much more
danger 5. Sickness and diseases do take away mens delight in those things which men in perfect health do take pleasure in Sick men have no delight in the pleasures of the world and in the riches of the world which other men finde So sin takes away that delight in God and spiritual duties and in heavenly things which those whose souls are cured do experience 6. Sickness and diseases do spoyl the beauty of the body They spoil the fairest complexion and make the ruddy cheeks to become pale and many diseases bring deformity in the room of beauty So sin doth spoyl the soul of that spiritual beauty wherewith it was adorned in its first Creation which did consist in likeness unto God so that now instead of the likeness of God there is nothing but blackness and deformity that the soul that was comely and amiable in the sight of God is now become loathsome and abominable SECT II. II. Wherein doth it appear that Soul sickness and spiritual Judgements upon mens hearts are worse thâ—n sickness and temporal Judgments upon mens bodyes THough most men in the World look upon bodily sickness and corporal Judgments to be more dreadful than sin upon their souls yet if we take a right estimate and make a true judgment of both spiritual Judgements are the greater evils In respect of the 1. Cause or manner of conveyance 2. Signs of greater wrath 3. Subject in which they do reside 4. Number being many 5. Effect that they do produce 6. Difficulty of cure 7. Want of sense 1. Spiritual Judgements and soul-sicknesses are greater evils than temporal Judgements and sickness upon the body in respect of the cause or manner of Conveyance which is by natural propagation and so unavoidable Sin is born with us it is derived from Parents to Children from one generation to another There are some diseases that are conveyed from Parents to Children but this is not general nor perpetual to all generations But the propagation of spiritual diseases is universal and general it is constant and perpetual The seed of all sin is derived from Adam to all his Posterity 2. Soul-sicknesses and spiritual Judgements upon mens hearts are Signs of greater wrath than bodily sicknesses are You may be sick of the Plague and yet God may love you you may have bodily afflictions and God may be at peace with you and because he loves you he may afflict you But spiritual Judgements as judicial hardness blindness are signs of Gods anger yea his sorest displeasure yea which is more they are signs of Gods Hatred to such a man that lyeth under them Now that which doth alwayes argue Hatred in God to a sinner is worse than those things that might proceed barely from his Anger and sometimes from his Love God loathes and abhorres that man the plague of whose heart is not at all cured 3. Spiritual Judgements and soul-sicknesses are greater evils than temporal and corporal sicknesses are because they be spiritual and have the heart and soul for their seat and subject As mercies are better that are spiritual and that are soul mercies so Judgments and sicknesses spiritual are the greater evils because they are the disease of the better and more noble part of man that which doth corrupt the soul must be worse than that which doth corrupt the body by how much the soul is more excellent than the body 4. They are worse because they are more numerous there is more diseases in the soul than in the body If the body be diseased in one part it may be well in all the rest if in more yet not in all if in all yet your case is not so bad But there is no sinner but is diseased in every part there are spiritual distempers in all the faculties and powers of the soul in the Understanding Will Affections Conscience Memory Phantasie In the members of the body no part free Nay there are many spiritual diseases in every faculty in the Understanding there are many ignorance errour c. in the Will many stubbornness choosing the Creature and sin before God c. In every affection of the soul there are swarms of sin In the heart there are innumerable distempers evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts blasphemies false witness Maâ— 15.19 Spiritual diseases naturally be all in every man and be in every part of every man 5. They are worse in regard of the Effects The effects of bodily sickness at the utmost and the greatest is but the death of the body it brings the body to the dust and the grave it doth but separate from friends and betwixt the body and the soul But the effects of spiritual soul-sicknesses except they be healed are dreadful and inconceivably great great and dreadful in this world but greater and more dreadful in the world to come they cause Gods anger they deprive the sinner of communion with God they will separate betwixt God and him for ever they will bring the soul to the place of Devils and the torments of the damned 6. They are worse in regard of difficulty of Cure Bodily distempers may be cured by the skill of man in the use of natural means but the sickness of the soul with nothing but the blood of Christ Of which more afterwards 7. They are worse in regard of the want of sense Where one man cryes out of the hardness of his heart and complains of the unbelief and earthliness of his heart there are many cry out of the sickness of their bodyes If their finger doth but ake they are sensible of it but though the whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint and exceedingly distempered yet they are not sensible of it Therefore though God hath cured the Plague of thy body and not the Plague of thy heart if thy bodily disease is removed but the sickness of thy soul remain without cure thy case is deplorable And while thou art rejoycing that thou hast escaped the Plague thou hast more cause to goe unto thy Chamber and be deeply humbled and mourn before God for the Plagues and Judgements that remain upon thy Soul SECT III. III. How may a man know whether he be healed of Soul-sickness THe cure of these distempers are but partial yet so far are they healed that they shall not be the death of the soul The cure will not be perfect till we die Death we say cures all distempers and so it doth those of the soul There is a double wound that sin doth make there is the wound that doth certainly destroy the soul by hindring it from salvation and eternal life and there is the wound that destroyes the peace and comfort of the soul So there is a double Cure which Christ doth work the one for the safety and happiness of the Soul the other for the peace and comfort of the Soul The first of these we enquire after 1. Every man that is healed of Soul-sickness hath been