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THE
CONSOLATIONS CONNECTED
WITH
FORGIVENESS
The
promises belong to the
saints,"
to those
who lay
hold
of
them_
by
faith
;
but
There
is
no peace,
says my
God,
to
the
wicked."
What
an addition must
it
be
to
every stroke
of
the
afflicting
hand of God,
to
think
I
have
no
share
in
his love,
and therefore have
no
ground
to
hope
for the end
of
these sorrows
!
It
is
the very
misery
of
hell to
be
languishing
in
sorrow without
hope.
13ua
if
under
afflictions in this world,
I
can look up to
heaven
and
see
a
smile
upon the
face
of God
my
Father
;
if
I
can
hear
him
telling
me,
by
his
Spirit applying
his
word
to
me,
that
he
will
not condemn
me,
then
he
that
has
given
me the
greatest,
will,
I
hope, in
his
own
time, give
me the
less
also
;
then
I
have
a
thousand
sweet
pro-
mises
to
have
recourse
to,
both for
this life
-and
that
which
is
to
come;
and can rest assured
that God
will
remove
my
afflictions
when he
sees
the fittest time.
He
that
has removed the
mountains
of
my
sins
will
remove
the molehills
of
my
sorrow.
Fifthly.
A sense
of
a
justifying God
gives
us
many
sweet thoughts under trouble,
and
helps
us
to
bear
it.
Not
only
does
it
give
us
encouragement
to
hope
that
God
will
remove
our
sorrows when
he sees
fit,
but
we
have
also
abundant
helps to
bear
those
sorrows
while
they
are
continued,
if
we
can
say,
My
God
does
not
condemn
me
;" by
this means
intolerable burdens are
made
light and
easy.
When
Job
complains
that God
had withdrawn from
him,
and
marked
him
out
as a
butt
for
his
arrows
to
shoot
at," then
it
is
he begins in
"impatience
;
and
no
wonder, for
it
is
a
burden more than
Man
can
bear. Only the
Son
of God
himself supported
that
human nature,
which
was
united
to the
God
-head,
to
bear
the
guilt of
sin.
I
will
instance
a
few
Of
those comfortable
thoughts,
that
a child
of God
may have
under
the
greatest
sorrows,
when
he
can
see
his
Father
justifying
him.
First.
He
sees
God
loves
him,
and
will
inflict
no
more than
is
necessary.
God
loves him,
and therefore
his
strokes are
strokes
of
mercy
;
"
He
chastens
every-
son whom he
receiveth," which
has
been
a
comfortable
thought
to
many a
soul
under
the burden
of outward
ca-
lamities.
Secondly.
Though
I
am
loaded
with
many
sorrows,
God
bids me
cast
these burdens
upon
him,
and
has
pro-