Stick no longer in a muse and
doubt about things, but come away to Jesus Christ.
6. Thy fears that Christ will not receive thee may arise from THOSE
DECAYS THAT THOU FINDEST IN THY-SOUL, even while thou art coming to
him. Some, even as they are coming to Jesus Christ, do find
themselves grow worse and worse. To explain myself: there is such a
one coming to Jesus Christ, who, when he first began to look out
after him, was sensible, affectionate, and broken in spirit, but now
is grown dark, senseless, hard-hearted, and inclining to neglect
spiritual duties. Besides, he now finds in himself inclinations to
unbelief, atheism, blasphemy, and the like; now, he finds he cannot
tremble at God's word, his judgments, nor the apprehension of
hell-fire; neither can he, as he thinketh, be sorry for these
things.
This man is in the wilderness among wild beasts. Here he sees a
bear, there a lion, yonder a leopard, a wolf, a dragon. Devils of
all sorts, doubts of all sorts, fears of all sorts haunt and molest
his soul. This man feeleth the infirmity of his flesh; he findeth a
proneness in himself to be desperate. Now he chides with God, flings
and tumbles like a wild bull in a net, and still the guilt of all
returns upon himself to the crushing of him to pieces.
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