O, when a God of grace is upon a throne of grace, and a poor sinner
stands by and begs for grace, and that in the name of a gracious
Christ, in and by the help of the Spirit of grace, can it be
otherwise but such a sinner must obtain mercy and grace to help in
time of need?
All the sorrow that is mixed with our Christianity proceeds, as the
procuring cause, from ourselves, not from the throne of grace; for
that is the place where our tears are wiped away, and also where we
hang up our crutches: the streams thereof are pure and clear, not
muddy nor frozen, but warm and delightful, and they make glad the
city of God.
DISCOURAGEMENTS IN PRAYER.
There is an aptness in those that come to the throne of grace, to
cast every degree of faith away that carries not in it self-evidence
of its own being and nature, thinking that if it be faith, it must
be known to the soul; yea, if it be faith, it will do so and
so--even so as the highest degree of faith will do: when, alas,
faith is sometimes in a calm, sometimes up, and sometimes down, and
sometimes in conflict with sin, death, and the devil. Faith now has
but little time to speak peace to the conscience; it is now
struggling for life, it is now fighting with angels, with infernals;
all it can do now, is to cry, groan, sweat, fear, fight, and gasp
for life.
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