PART II. t0 dzflinguifh AjeG ions.. 55 him, and brings him to own the whole Debt to be juft, and then for- gives him all. The prodigal Son fpends all he has, and is brought to fee himfelf in extreme Circumftances, and to humble himfelf, and own his Unworthinefs,before he is reliev'd and 'feafted by his Father ; Luke 15. Old inveterate Wounds muff be fearched to the Bottom, in order to Healing : And the Scripture compares Sin, the Wound of the Soul, to this,and fpeaks of healing thisWound without thus fearch- ing of it, as vain and deceitful ; Jer. 8. 1 r. Chrift, in the Workof his Grace on the Hearts of Men, is compared to Rain on the mown Grafs, Grafs that is cut down with a Scythe, Pfal. 72. 6. reprefent- ing his refrrefhing, comforting Influences on the woundedSpirit. Our firlt Parents, after they had finned, were first terrified with God's Majefty and Juftice, and had their Sin, with its. Aggravations, fet be- fore them by their Judge, before they were reliev'd, by the Promife of the Seed of the 'Woman. Chriftians are fpoken of as thofe that havefledfor Refuge, to lay hold on the Hope fet before them, Heb. 6. 18. which Reprefentation implies great Fear, and Senfe of Danger pre - ceeding. To the like Purpofe, Chrift is called a hiding Placefrom the Wind, and a Covert from the ` emp , and as Rivers ofWater in a dry Place, and as the Shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land ; Ifai. 32. at the Beginning. And it Teems to be the natural Import of the Word Gofpel, glad Tydings, that it is News of Deliverance and Sal- vation, after great Fear and Diftrefs. There is allReafon to fuppofe, th tt God deals with particular Believers, as he dealt with his Church, which he firft made to hear his Voice in theLaw, with terribleThun- ders and Lightnings, and kept her under that School Mailer, to pre- pare her for Chrift ; and then comforted her with the joyful Sound of the Gofpel fromMount Sian. So likewife `fohn the Bapti/l came to prepare the Way for Chrift, and prepare Men's Hearts for bis Re- ception, by (hewing them theirSins,and by bringing the felf- righteous Pews off from their own Righteoufnefs, telling them that they were a Generation of Pipers, and {hewing them their Danger of the Wrath to come, telling them that the Ax was laid at the Root of the Trees, &c. And if it be indeed God's Manner (as I think the foregoing Con- fiderations {hew that it undoubtedly is) before he gives Men the Comfort of a Deliverance from their Sin and Mifery, to give them a confiderable Sente of the Greatnefs and Dreadfulnefs of thofe Evils, and their extreme Wretchednefs by Reafon of them ; furely it is not unreafonable to fuppofe, that Perfons, at leaft oftentimes, while under thefe Views, Ihould have great Diftrefs and terrible Apprehenfions of Mind : Efpecially if it be confider'd what thefe Evils are, that they have a View of; which are no other than great and manifold Sins, againft the infinite Majeffy of the great Jehovah, and the Suffering of the Fiercenefs of his Wrath to all Eternity. And the more fo {till, when we have many plain Inftances inScripture, of Perfons that have E 4 actually
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