Scripture that there shall be no Judgment and no Hell or that it shall not be Eternal when it is as expresly said that the Wicked shall go away into Everlasting Punishment as the Righteous into Life Eternal this is to Tempt God with respect to his Truth Men in the Vigor of their Strength when their Spirits are inflamed with Wine and their Hearts hardened by Atheistical Company and Discourse may dare to talk thus presumptuously but we find the same Persons on a sick Bed when they approach to the other World and apprehend they can stay no longer in this have commonly other Apprehensions of these things their Hearts sink their Courage fails them and they would rather die the Death of the Righteous however they formerly derided the Folly of their Life SECT VII Of Tempting God and Christ with respect to the Divine Power in several Instances II. AS to the Power of God we may be said to Tempt him two ways 1. When we question the Sufficiency of his Power to make good his Word 2. When we limit and confine it to be exercised and discovered in our own way and manner 1. WHEN we question the Power of God to accomplish his Word by reason of some Difficulties that are in the way In this respect the Jews tempted God after he had promised to bring them unto Canaan When the Spies who returned from viewing the Land and gave them an account of the Giants and the Sons of Anak that were there and the seeming Impossibility * Numb 14. of conquering it they were quite disheartened Thus says our Saviour did the Sadduces err about the Possibility of †Mat. 22.29 the Resurrection of the Body not knowing the Scripture nor the Power of God But we have very strange Thoughts of Almighty Power if we do not believe and grant that it can do much more than we are able to apprehend distinctly after what manner it can be done 2. WHEN we limit and confine the Power of God as to the manner and season of its Manifestation The Jews are charged with this Tempting God and limiting the Holy One of Israel At one time the Manna doth not please them they must have Flesh and then they must have Water They must have what they had a Mind to and in their own Method or they question whether God could do this or that To this purpose do many distrust God when he doth not answer their Prayers and grant their Desires at that time or in that way when they expect it They will wait on the Lord no longer if he do not deliver and save them either by such Instruments or in such a Method as they have contrived and carved for themselves MANY Instances might be named of a sinful limiting the Power of God One among others is that of rash Appeals to Heaven expecting that God by his powerful Providence should interpose to the Decision of doubtful Cases And this Men do in the use of such things unto which some notable Effects are ascribed which they were never inabled or appointed by Nature or Divine Institution to produce As when a Person was indicted upon Suspicion or for a Fault that was secretly committed or upon the Testimony but of one Witness he was to purge himself by Ordeal Fire or Water that is to put himself upon God and Appeal to him THIS was allowed by some of the Laws of Charles the Great and was in frequent use in this Nation in the Saxons time Many Instances in the ninth and tenth Century may be given of this as a common Practice in the Christian World when there was not sufficient Evidence of a Man's Guilt to put him on such Extraordinary Trials expecting some miraculous Appearance of God to vindicate his Innocence or conclude against it In such doubtful Cases they said they would go ad Judicium Dei they would appeal to Heaven Many ways they had of this in different Forms and several Ceremonies and particular Prayers with Fasting and Adjurations in the Name of God to the particular Element various according to the Quality of the Person whether a Freeman or a Slave that is one of a mean and base Condition the former was to be tried by * See Spelman's Glossary p. 435 436. N. Bacon's History of the Laws of England first Part p. 55 56. Dugdale's Origines Judiciales p. 86 87. Coke's 9 Repl. 32. Glanvil p. 114. Fire and the latter by Water hot or cold BUT what Ground have we to think that if Men are Innocent the Power of God will this way preserve them or if they be Guilty that he will leave them to suffer by it It is true he appointed under the Law a Draught of bitter Waters for the Woman suspected of Adultery to discover her Innocency or Guilt this was peculiarly enacted by God himself who doubtless would assist such Extraordinary Procedure as was of his own Institution But it is not for us to use such Methods of our own devising and expect the like Success * Lib. 8. Chap. 19. PHILIP de Comines tells us of two Franciscan Friars at Florence who offer'd themselves to the Fire to prove Savonarola to be a Heretick But a certain Jacobine offer'd himself to the Fire to prove that Savonarola had true Revelations and was no Heretick In the mean time Savonarola preach'd and made no such confident Offer nor durst he venture at that new kind of Fire Ordeal But if all four had past through the Fire and died in the Flames what would that have proved Had he been an Heretick or no Heretick the more or the less for the Confidence of two or three Zealots THEY who are well established in the Belief of the future Judgment will be easily satisfied that we ought not to expect that God should oblige himself to declare one way or other in such Cases IT is not unlikely that the Practice of Duelling came in upon this bottom for the Trials by single Combat and Battel are founded on the like Superstition and Folly of People thus appealing to the Judgment of God to decide Cases in an Extraordinary Manner IT has formerly been frequent among the * See Sir Will. Temple's Miscellanies Part 2. Essay 3. Sect. 4. p. 243. Northern Nations when the Right of Titles or of Lands was difficult thus by legal single Combats to decide it Or when a Person accused did absolutely deny what the Accuser affirmed and no other Proof on either side could be produced And even after the Profession of Christianity among the Goths and those Kingdoms erected by them this Practice continued But upon the farther Progress of Learning and Civility when this could be no longer approved it made way for * See Bishop Hall Epist 2. Dec. 4. Of the bloody Vse of single Combats The Danger and Sinfulness thereof private Duels and for the Lie being a just Ground of fighting in Point of Honour because it had been so in Point of
Favour to encourage us or we will not believe The Jews in the Wilderness are charged with this Exod. 17.7 And the place was called Massah Temptation as a Memorial of it as it was also called Meribah upon the account of their childing striving and contending there They questioned whether God was among them unless he would do thus and thus as they desired After all the Proof which they had of his Presence they would not believe it without farther Testimony and Evidence in their own way Now to doubt and disbelieve the Divine Favour and Presence after such peculiar Experience and Attestation as he had given them is plainly to Tempt him They believed not God saith the Psalmist and trusted not in his Salvation Tho he had commanded the Clouds from above and opened the Doors of Heaven They sinned still and believed not for his wonderous Works They turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel They remembered not his Hand nor the Day when he delivered them from the Enemy Psal 78.22 32 41 42. AFTER this manner the Devil tempted Christ to throw himself down from the Pinacle of the Temple * Matth. 4.6 If thou be the Son of God To which our Saviour replies It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God That is I am sufficiently satisfied that God is my Father I do not question his Care over me I am satisfied of his gracious Presence with me I need no such new Trial of his Kindness and Love IF at any time we are ingaged in any special Work and Duty and meet with Opposition therein but have the Promise of God to encourage us to go on and have the Experience of his former Goodness and Power in difficult Cases as those Jews had For us to distrust God without farther and new Signs of his Favour is directly to Tempt him The Israelites fell often into this Fault tho they had seen his Works of Power as in dividing of the Sea some Works of Majesty and Terror as in the Thunder and Lightning Fire Smoke and Earthquake at the giving of the Law some of his Severity against Sin as in drowning of the Egyptians in the Punishment of Korah Dathan and Abiram and the Plagues that befel themselves and had also Experience of many Works of Favour Kindness and Grace and of a watchful Providence for their constant Protection and Supply Guidance and Conduct and hereby had the highest Security that God would accomplish his Promises to them They yet questioned and doubted after all They sometimes professed their Faith and Confidence in God upon some new Appearance or some mighty Work of Providence for their sakes Upon such an Occasion we read that the People feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his Servant Moses Exod. 14.31 But upon the next difficult Trial they forgat the Kindness of Heaven they renounced their own Experience they despised the Faithfulness of God which before they acknowledged and are again guilty of Murmuring and Unbelief THIS kind of tempting of God many amongst us may be guilty of when after eminent Preservations in a time of Danger or wonderful Deliverances from threatning Death or other peculiar Favours of Divine Providence we will not thereby be led to Repentance and Obedience to Trust and Dependance but overlook all that God has done for us as if it were nothing unless he will do somewhat more As if all his former Works had nothing in them of Value or Obligation or Encouragement Which leads me to consider the next thing SECT VI. The many ways of implicit indirect Tempting Christ Some Instances with respect to his Truth Secondly THERE is an Implicit Indirect Tempting of God as to his Truth Power Knowledg Providence Grace Patience c. whereof we may be many ways guilty I. AS to the Truth of God When we disbelieve what he hath promised or threatned and question his Fidelity to make it good This is contrary to the Nature and Office of Faith whose Excellency it is to give Glory to God by believing in the most difficult Cases Many a convinced Sinner under the sense of his former Guilt when he sees the Aggravations of his Folly and of his Rebellion does thus tempt God by doubting of the Truth of his Word to pardon and forgive such Sinners as he tho he should never so truly and unfeignedly Repent Whereas God has expresly told us that if the Wicked forsake his Way and the Vnrighteous Man his Thoughts he will multiply Pardons And that the Blood of Christ cleanseth from all Sin Many a melancholy timerous Christian under the sense of their own Weakness may likewise incur this Guilt by questioning the Grace of God to enable them to persevere by reason of the present Temptations they meet with or those they expect Tho God has told us that his Grace shall be sufficient and that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able and that he who hath begun a good Work will carry it on and perfect it to the Day of Christ GOD had expresly promised to bring the Jews into the Land of Canaan but their Journey had been long and tedious they were discouraged because of the Way they were founder'd in their Patience and could not stay God's Leisure and therefore questioned his Word of Promise and so they tempted him concerning his Truth BUT it is more common to tempt him with respect to the Truth of his Threatnings As if he were not resolved to fulfil his Word against those who are finally Impenitent and Unbelieving Tho he hath told us That he that made them will will shew them no Mercy And that the Wicked shall be turned into Hell with All of every Nation that continue to forget God And that Christ shall be revealed from Heaven in flaming Fire to render Vengeance to them that know not God and obey not the Gospel Yet Sinners believe it not they will venture to see what will become of the Threatning By a like Presumption with those Isa 5.19 Let him make haste and hasten his Work that we may see it Let the Counsel of the Holy One of Israel and his threatned Vengeance draw nigh and come that we may know it THE first Imposture by which the Devil tempted and allured our first Parents was of this kind Ye shall not surely die As if the threatning of Divine Wrath against obstinate and incorrigible Sinners had more of Terror in it than of Truth and that Men should never be called to an Account hereafter for what they do in this World at least should never be condemned to Eternal Torments tho they live and die in their Unbelief and Impenitence As if God would be more merciful than his Threatnings can import tho he hath told us how far his Mercy shall reach and to whom and that the Day of his Patience is concluded at farthest with the Day of our Death But thus to presume against express
have room to receive it and make that all Nations shall call you blessed To the like purpose we read in Psal 81.13 14. O that my People had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my Ways I should soon have subdued their Enemies and turned my Hand against their Adversaries But they would not try me and trust me GOD condescends to speak such Language unto All of us Prove me saith he by obeying my Voice and hearkening to my Word Enter into my Service see whether I am a hard Master Take my Yoke upon you see whether it be not easy and my Burden light Try whether my Service be not better than that of Sin and the World See whether any can do for you that which I can and will do Come unto me says Christ if you are weary and heavy laden and see whether I cannot give you Rest Do but make a Trial whether the Ways of Wisdom be not Pleasantness and her Paths Peace Condemn not Religion for a melancholy tedious burdensome thing before you have found it so upon Trial. See whether seeking the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof in the first place be not the way to have all other things added in the best Proportion Make a Trial at least for a time whether to walk uprightly and keep a Conscience void of Offence towards God and Man be not the only way to walk surely in the most difficult Times and turn of Affairs publick or private PROVE me now says God whether he that fears God and works Righteousness shall not be Accepted See whether I am a barren Wilderness or a Land of Drought whether ever you shall have reason to Repent your turning from Sin and Vanity to walk in my Way whether ever any shall be Losers by their Fidelity to me O THAT Magistrates Ministers Gentlemen Students Merchants Tradesmen Parents Children Heads of Families and Servants younger elder Persons under what Denomination soever they may be ranked would All in their several places instead of Tempting Christ make a Trial of his Faithfulness to his Promises unto such as are diligent and faithful to the performance of the Duty O that Magistrates would but try whether Fidelity to God and Zeal for his Glory and Concern for his Honour and Care that his Laws be observed and the Violation of them punished whether this be not the best way to their own Safety Honour and Establishment and the only Exaltation and Security of the People O that Ministers would but try whether hearty Love to God and Christ and the Souls of Men and fervent Desires and Endeavours to approve our selves to the All-seeing God in seeking to promote the Faith and Holiness and Joy of Christians and their Union Love and Concord one with another be not the best way for our Acceptance and Success O that Merchants and Tradesmen would but try by constant Dependance upon God and daily Prayer in their Closets and Families and strict Justice and Righteousness in their Dealings and by chusing and encouraging such Servants as fear the Lord and by keeping up the Worship and Authority of God in their Houses whether this be not the best way to banish the Curse of God from their Habitation and to obtain that Blessing of Heaven upon their Diligence in their Callings which will make Rich without the Addition of Sorrow O that Parents would try whether by dedicating their Children to God betimes and educating them diligently in the Fear and Nurture of the Lord and disgracing Sin to them telling them the Evil and the Danger of it and antidoting them against Temptation saving them from Pride and Idleness and evil Company making Religion pleasant to them and setting an holy Example before them c. whether this be not the best and only way to have Comfort in them O that we who are the Children of Religious Holy Parents would but try whether there will not be a double Blessing from Heaven upon us if we own our Fathers God and our Mothers God If we keep within the Bond of his Covenant and remember his Commandments to do them if we cut not off the Entail of Covenant-Blessings with our own Hands if we obey the God of our Fathers with a perfect and upright Heart Let us prove him and try whether he will not fulfil his Promise That the Mercy of the Lord shall be from everlasting to everlasting to them that fear him and his Righteousness or Faithfulness to the Childrens Children IN SHORT let us All resolve to Tempt God and Christ no more as we have done but to prove him by our holy Obedience And we shall find by Experience that committing our Way to God in well-doing is the wisest and easiest and sweetest Life through all the Changes of this present World That by casting our Bread upon the Waters and giving to the Poor we do but lend unto the Lord and he will surely repay it That to sanctify the Lord's-Day is the proper Method to have the Blessing of Heaven all the Week That to live the Life of the Righteous and to begin to remember and serve him in our Youth is the only proper Method for a long Life and a good old Age or a peaceful Death a Comfortable Account and a Blessed Eternity FINIS These following Books are published by Mr. John Shower and sold by John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey SOme Account of the Holy Life and Death of Mr. Henry Gearing late Citizen of London Who departed this Life January the 4th 169¾ Aged 61. With the Trial and Character of a Real Christian collected out of his Papers for the Examination of himself From which several other Particulars are added for the Instruction Encouragement and Imitation of Christians The Mourners Companion or Funeral Discourses from several Texts 8o. Price bound 1 s. 6 d. Death a Deliverance A Funeral Discourse to bind up with the Mourners Companion Sacramental Discourses on several Texts before and after the Lord's-Supper together with a Paraphrase on the Lord's-Prayer 12o. Price bound 1 s. 6 d. Practical Reflections on the late Earthquakes in Jamaica Engalnd Sicily Malta c. with a particular Historical Account of those and divers other Earthquakes Price bound 1 s. 6 d. The Day of Grace Or a Discourse concerning the Possibility and Fear of its being past before Death Shewing the groundless Doubts and mistaken Apprehensions of some as to their being finally forsaken and left of God with the dangerous Symptoms and Approaches of others to such a sad State In four Sermons from Psal 81.11 12. in 12o. Serious Reflections on Time and Eternity with some other Subjects Moral and Divine To which is annexed an Appendix concerning the first Day of the Year how observed by the Jews and may best be employed by a serious Christian The Third Edition 12o. In the Press of the same Author ' s. A Discourse of Family Religion in three Letters to a Friend in 12o. BOOK' 's Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey MR. Slater's Sermon on the Funeral of Mr. John Reynolds Minister 4o. His Sermon on the Funeral of Mr. Fricher 4o. His Sermon on the Thanksgiving-Day Octob. 27 1692. 4o. Mr. Giles Firmin's Answer to R. Davis 4o. An Apology for the Ministers who subscribed Mr. Williams his Book shewing that the Gospel which they preach is the old everlasting Gospel of Christ Against the Antinomians 4o. Mr. Hammond's Sermon on Mr. Steel's Funeral 8o. Miscellanea Sacra Containing Scriptural Meditations Divine Breathings occasional Reflections and sacred Poems 12o. A perpetual Almanack of Spiritual Meditations 12o. The Triumphs of Grace in the last Words and edifying Death of the Lady Margaret de la Musse 12o. Aickin's English Grammar or the English Tongue reduced to Grammatical Rules 8o. Clavis Grammatica or a ready way to the Latin Tongue 8o. The is now in the Press A Discourse of Family Religion by the Reverend Mr. Samuel Slater in 8o. Printed for J. Lawrence