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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	grace_n	life_n	soul_n	9,111	5	5.0304	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67743	The cause and cure of ignorance, error, enmity, atheisme, prophanesse, &c., or, A most hopefull and speedy way to grace and salvation, by plucking up impediments by the roote reduced to explication, confirmation, application, tending to illumination, sanctification, devotion / by R. Younge ...	Younge, Richard.	1648 (1648)	Wing Y143; ESTC R16605	116,892	303

an effect of frenzy not of hope 2 Since we can expect no peace f●om the Serpents seede let as many as are of the womans seede and of Christs side ●nanimously hold together It is hard to say whither Bazil and Eusebius who perceiving the Arrians to improve a difference between them to the prejudice of the Orthodox soone reconciled themselves and united their forces together against the common enemy are more to bee commended Or the Pope to bee abhorred who was so busie and hot against Luther that hee neglected to looke to all Christendome against the Turke Which declared that hee could easier disgest Mahometisme then Lutheronisme The case of too many in our dayes that thinke they love Christ fervently though wee may justly suspect the contrary by their being so busie and hot against the Reformation established Against which they cannot bring any expresse scripture only they seek straws to put out their own eyes puzzell others withall As Bernard speaks of som● in his time and sure I am it would argue more love to Christ and obedience to his gospell if they would ioyne with the godly party against Atheists and Papists As let but two Mastifes bee jarring betweene themselves when the Bare comes they forget private strife to assayle their common Enemy And certainly they might bee as firme friends to truth although they were not such bitter enemies to peace For as the case standeth it is hard to determine whether they more intend to doe God service or really doe the Devill and his instruments service by their contradicting and aspersing all that are not of their owne judgement 3 If the Lord have put this Enmity betweene us and the wicked Here is warrant in opposing comfort in suffering 4 If the seede of the Woman fight on Christs side and they have Gods word for their warrant they are sure to have him assist them and prevent their Enemies and is not that God wee fight for able enough to vindicate all our wrongs SECT 8. Quest. What occasioned the Lord to proclaime this enmity Ans. Adams si●ne in eating the forbidden fruite a●d Sathans malice in moving and seducing him thereunto was the meritorious cause the originall of this discord is from originall sin Quest. What was the finall cause or end why God proclaimed it Ans. His end was threefold in regard of himselfe the wicked and the godly 1 In regard of himselfe his principal ●nd was his owne glory which should a●ise from the manifestation or admirable composition of his justice mercy holinesse wisdome power and providence herein 2 In regard of Sathan and wicked men● that hee might for the present punish one sinne with another and in the end take due vengeance on them in their greater condemnation and finall Ruine and destruction 3. In regard of the Godly for their greater good as namely that they might by this affliction and chastisement be stopt in their course of sin be brought to the ●ight of their evills pas● and made repent of them and prevented from si●ning for the time to come and lastly to keep them in continuall exercise that so they might walke on in the way of holiness which will bring them to eternall happiness and not to be condemned with the world SECT 9. Quest. But how can God be the Author of it without being the Author of Sin Ans. Very well Even as the temporal Magistrate may put a fello● to death without committing of Murther That he which is the fountaine of all good is not the Author of any evill herein may appeare 1. By considering how the case stood at this time with Adam and al his posterity being condemned persons every moment expecting and waiting for that direfull sentence to be executed and inflicted upon them which God before had threatned in case they should transgress his Royall command Gen. 2.17 namely the sent●nce of death Which was threefold viz. of Body which is the temporall Death Soule which is the spirituall Death Body and soule which is eternall Death Opposite to that three-fold life of Nature Grace Glory The which if it had been fully and universally accomplisht we could have had nothing to say but that God was just as now we have no reason to give why so many should be Redeemed but because he is mercifull yet because he would according to his nature in Justice remember Mercy he ordained a Saviour and Remedy even Christ implyed in the Pronoune Relative Hee for so many as he had before predestinated to be borne againe by his word and Spirit Iohn 3. to a lively faith whereby they might lay hold on this Remedy yet with all hee did appoint that this their way to Heaven should be thorny and troublesome To which end he mixed with the sweet promise of Salvation the bitter Ingredient of griefe and sorrow Implyed in the word Enmity but yet more to justifie this Judgement of God that is to make it appeare just 2 It will appeare if we distinguish the ends of God Sathan and wicked men To which purpose I will instance in our Saviours example Iudas delivered him to death for gaine the Iewes for Envy Pilate for feare the Devill provoked each of them through this Enmity Christ himselfe to obey his Fathers will God the Father in love to sinners and for their Redemption each did one and the same thing But to contrary ends so when this Enmity breaks forth in the wicked Sathan hath a hand in it as a malicious Author As when he entred into Iudas and made him betray Christ Luk 22.3 Man himselfe as a voluntary Instrument as when Pharoah hardened his owne heart against the Children of Israel Exod. 9.34 God as a most Righteous Judge and Avenger as when hee also hardened Pharoahs heart Exod. 9.12 but how even by permitting the seed of the Serpent from his owne malicious inclination to hate the seed of the Woman not by infusing this malice nor by withdrawing any grace but only by denying that grace which hee was not bound to give he doth not infuse corruption he doth not with hold the occasion Even as when the Rider gives his fiery horse the Reyns we saie he puts him on In mercy infusing this Enmity into the seed of the Woman against the seed of the Serpent Not against their persons as they are his Creatures but only against their condition disposition and wicked conversation we and the Devill should never have falne out we agree but too well but that God hath put an enmity between us Yea in the last place as God turned the treachery of Iudas not only to the praise of his Justice Mercy c. but to the good of all beleevers so he turnes this Enmity of Sathan and wicked men to his Childrens great advantage and his own glory And hereupon is that distinction of adversities as they come from Sathan they are usually called temptations as they come from men

yea much more feare him that hath power to cast both body and soul into hell as they doe the temporall Magistrate that hath onely power to kill the body They would think it a very hard bargaine to win the whole world and lose their owne soules Luk. 9.25 But alasse if visible powers were not more feared than the invi●ble GOD and the Halter more than Hell naturall men being like beasts that are more sensible of the flash of powder than of the Bullet the World would be over-runne with outrage Whereas now even the worst of the Serpents seed by reason of Authority are kept in a meane between Devils Christians so living like beasts because they think they shall die like beasts without any answer for ought they have either acted or left undone SECT 68. TRue they doe not alwayes nor at any time altogether think there is no GOD or judgement to come Not alwayes for though at present they thinke their villany is uns●ene because it is unpunished according to that in the Psalmes The wicked thinketh there is no Go● and the reason followes his wayes alway prosper Psalm 10 4 5 yet none as Plato speakes are so confirmed in Atheisme but some great danger will make them fly to the aide of a Divine power Extremity of distresse will send the prophanest to God as the drowning man stretcheth out his hand to that bough which he contemned whiles he stood safe on shore Even Sardanapalus who for all his bould denying of God at every hearing of thunder was wont to hide his head in a hole Yea in their greatest jollity even the most secure heart in the world hath some flashes of feare that seaze on them like an Arrest of Treason for conscience cannot but sometimes looke out of it selfe and see what it would not At least on their death beds they would give all the world to bee sure what the Scripture speakes of Hell were not true though all their life they supposed it but a fable How oft doe those ruffians that deny God at the Tap-house preach him at the Gallowes and confesse that in sobriety of spirit which they oppugned in wantonnesse And not seldome are the most lethargized consciences so awakened ere they goe to Hell that Spira-like they depart desolate and desperate in and into hellish horrors Prosperity doth so tympanize mens soules and entranse them from themselves that they forget they had a Maker Who is God saith Pharoah There is no God saith Nebuchadnezar What God can deliver out of my hand saith Rabshakeh I am God saies Alexander But Nebuchadnezer found there was a God Pharaoh found what that God was Rabshakeh found to his cost that there was an Almighty God able to deliver in the Valleys as well as on the hills Alexander found hee was not as hee supposed and confest that hee knew himselfe mortall by two things viz. Sleepe and Lust. And so it shall fare with these in the end They that would stultizare in culpa shall be forced sapere in poena Vengeance shall make them wise whom sinne hath made and left foolish At least in hell they shall know there is a righteous Judge that will reward every man according to his deeds confesse that what they once vainly imagined was but imagined There may bee Atheists on earth there are none in hell A Pope of Rome being on his death bed said Now comes three things to tryall which all my life I have made doubt of Whether there be a God a Devill and whether the soule be immortall It was not long ere hee was fully resolved with a vengeance And so shall you O yee fools when that houre comes though yee flatter your selves for the present like that desperate Pirate who when ransacking and rifling a bottom he was told by the Master that though no Law co●ld touch him for the present he should answer it at the day of judgement replyed Nay If I may stay so long ere I come to it I will take thee and thy Vessell too Nothing more certain than death Amongst Lawes some are antiquated as that of divorce some changed as that of Circumcision some dispensed withall as that of the Sabbath in cases of necessity Matth. 12.1 to 14. but this statutum est that all shall dye and come to judgement it is neither antiquated nor changed nor dispensed withall And as nothing is more certain than death so nothing more uncertaine than the houre thereof thy pulse may leave beating before thou canst fetch thy breath Wherefore thinke not as Lot's Sons in Law that we speake in jest least you feel the fire wrath of God in earnest SECT 69. 2 SEcondly nor at any time doe they altogether thinke there is no God c. For as the best faith is but like the twilight mixed with some degree of darknesse and infidelity so the most grounded Atheisme is mixed with some degree either of beleife or doubting What saith David The foole hath said in his heart there is no God in his heart he hath said it but in his heart hee never beleeved it No foole ever thought it peremptorily he would fain have it so he cannot beleive it so it is an opiniō which he suggests to his heart not which his heart suggests to him and this makes him fearful to dye to dye fearfully Tully speaking of Metrodorus an Atheist in his time saith Nec quemquam vidi qui magis ea timeret quae timenda esse negaret They that make a flout of Hell Affirmant mihi tibi non sibi noctu non interdiu their mouthes tell us so their hearts doe not tell their mouths so No hell I dare say if there were a generall collection made throughout the whole world that there might bee no judgement day these men would be none of the backwardest Yea if they had as many Provinces as Ahasuerus had they would give an hundred and six and twenty of them to bee sure of it The consciences even of wicked men can never bee so charmed or over-ruled either by arguments or the temptations of Sathan that they can let goe the sense of a God-head We are all borne Idolaters and chuse rather to adore the Sunne the Moone yea the meanest of all creatures rather than not acknowledge a Deity You may sooner get a Conscience to beleeve all the fables in the Popish legend or Turkish Alcaro● than that this universall frame is without a minde Prima est haec ultio quod se Iudice nemo nocens absolvitur So that to say truely they doe not and yet they do beleive there is a God and a Hell for when they admit conscience into their councell they doe beleeve but because they would rather not beleeve it they stifle Conscience stop their owne eares and flatter their hearts with the contrary opinion Like as it fared with the Philistims of Ashdod 1 Sam. 6. who when they had stood

out that sore judgement seven months and brought upon their god Dagon and the whole Countrey a very great destruction and perceived that all which were guilty of keeping and prophaning the Arke suffered in the judgement and onely they at last could bring forth this conclusion Peradventure it is God's hand that smote us yet it may bee it is but a chance that hath hapened unto us Ver. 9. Wherein it is evident they did half beleeve and no more Their consciences told their hearts there was a powerfull God to revenge the prophaning of his Arke but their hearts were very loth to give assent thereunto and so fares it with these when they wrong and persecute his Children Or they may be likened to those untoward Israelites Exod. 16. Who did in part beleeve God when hee told them If they reserved of the Manna untill morning it should stinke and that if they went to gather it on the Sabbath they should finde none who would have thought it foule scorne if one should have told them they beleeved no such thing for all they had seene so many Miracles yet t is apparent they did but halfe beleeve him for what else made them try whether hee spake true or no after they were flatly forbidden ver 20. or Lastly they are like the unbeleeving Iewes who considering the Oracles that CHRIST spake and the Miracles which he wrought were forced to testifie both these of him for all they hated him never man spake as this man doth and We never saw it on this fashion yet this have yee seen and beleeve not saith our SAVIOUR Iohn 6. 36. They saw they heard they wondered they were convinced yet they beleeved not therfore their own eyes in seeing their own eares in hearing their own hearts in wondring their own convicted reasons shall but witnesse against their unbeleefe Ioh. 16.9 And indeed if they did not in some part beleeve a Judgement to come they should be worse than the very Devills themselves there is no Hell Quis Daemonum hoc asseret What Devill will so affirme They know it and feele it Why say the Legion to Christ art thou come to torment us before the time Matth. 8.29 And shall not men tremble to deny what the Devils confesse sayes Chrysostome Wherefore beleeve it peremptorily ● ye fooles mad men yea believe it avoid it by beleeving to purpose ye shall avoyd it otherwise if ye will give more credit to your deceitful hearts than to what the Word speaks as Eve beleeved the word of the Serpent Adam the word of Eve both before the Word of God God will leave you to be confuted by fire brimston if you wil not beleive what is written you shall feele what is written SECT 70. Ob. BUT here it will be objected That the wickedest man that lives presumes upon Gods mercy in Christ and thinkes he shall be saved as well as the ●heife upon the Crosse yea hee will prove by Scripture that at what time soever h● repents his sinnes shall be pardoned Ezech. 18.21 22. Yea there is scarce a man on earth but hee thinkes to goe to Heaven Answ. True the flesh prophesies prosperity to sin yea life and salvation as the Pope promised the Powder Traytors ●nd to this the Devill sets his s●ale whe●●upon while prosperity lasteth they can turne the grace of God into want●n●esse and even apply Christ's Passion as a warrant for their licenciousnesse and take his death as a licence to sin his Crosse as a Letters Pattent to doe mischeife Yea the Devill and sinne so infatuates and besots them that they thinke to have part in that merit which in every pa●t they have so abused to be purged by that blood which now they take al occasions to disgrace to be saved by the same wounds which they swear by and so often swear away to have Christ an Advocate for them in the next life when they are Advocates against Christ in this and that Heaven will meet them at their last hour when all their life long they have galloped in the beaten road toward Hell The Devil makes large promises and perswades his they shall have what they desire yet ever disappoints them of their hopes as he did our first Parents Diabolus mentitur ut fallet vitam pollicetur ut perimat saith Saint Cyprian But all one their carnall hearts shall be flint unto God wax to the Devil who blowes this presumption into them whereby they believe the promises let go the threatnings You shall die saith God is heard but You shall not die saith the Devil is believed as it fared with Eve when she eat the forbidden fruit Yea they believe the promises that they shall have them but they believe not the precepts to do them nor the threatnings that they shall suffer them for their not believing and disobedience which shewes that they truly believe neither Yea this makes it plain that either they believe there is no God at all or else that God is not just and true nor speakes as he meanes in his word which is worse or if they do believe that he is a just and true God they believe also that they shall be punished as he threatens for their provoking of him and they provoke him that they may be punished which is worst of all So that take them in the best sense they are but like David's fool which saith in his heart there is no God and lives thereafter which is never a whit strange for it is usuall with them to thinke there is no God for whom it would make that there were none what we would have to be we are apt to believe I confesse it is hard for men to believe their own unbelief in this case they that be most dangerously sicke are least sensible of their own sicknesse much more hard to make them confesse it for he whose heart speakes Atheisme will confesse with his tongue that he believes there is a God and that he is just and true and that every tittle of his Word is equally ●rue which being granted this must necessarily follow that God will as well punish the disobedient as reward the obedient which in another fit they are apt enough yea too forward to believe For it is Satan's method first to make men so senselesse as not to feel their sinnes at all and then so desperate that they feel them too much in the first fit men live as if there were no Hell in the last they die as if there were no Heaven for wicked men are altogether in extremes at first they make question whether this or that be a sin at last they apprehend it such a sin that they make question whether it can be forgiven either God is so mercifull that they may live how they list or so just that he will not pardon them upon their repentance SECT 71. BUt to prevent after claps let this point

as the chiefe Iewes told Paul in his time Acts 28.22 And that so soone as men become religious and conscionable they are made a by-word of the people Iob 17.6 A song of the drunkards Psal. 69.12 And generally hated of all Math. 10.22 Answer Know yee not saith St. Iames that the Amity of the World is the Enmity of God And that whosoever will be a friend of the World maketh him●elfe the enemy of God James 4.4 A wicked man saith Solomon is abomination to the just and be that is upright in his way is abomination to the wicked Pro. 29.27 There is a naturall Enmity and a spirituall Antipathy betweene the men of the World and the Children of God whence it is that the holy Ghost who can give most congruous Names to Natures useth in the Scripture Gods Dictionary not only to call wicked men Adders Alpes Cockatrices Serpents Dragons Lyons Tygers c. Psal. 10.9 74.13 80.13 140.3 Esay 14.29 Dan. 7. Zeph. 3. Math. 23.33 which are the mortallest Enemies to mankind that live but most frequently Wolves and the godly Sheep Behold saith our Saviour to his Apostles I send you forth as sheep in the midst of Wolves Mat. 10.16 between whom there is a strange contrariety and antipathy living and dead as both Naturalists and Lutinists observe It is an everlasting rule of the Apostles He that is borne after the Flesh will persecute him that is borne after the Spirit Gal. 4.29 not because he is evill but because hee is so much better then himselfe 1. Iohn 3.12 because his life is not like other mens his wayes are of another fashion Wis. 2.15 for therefore speak they evill of you because yee will no longer run with them to the same excess of ryot 1. Pet. 4.4 SECT 2. Quest. BVt are not many discouraged and others beaten off from being Religious through the daily scoffes and reproaches which in every place the Godly meet withall for refusing to do as others do with whom they are conversant Answ. Yea millions there being no such rub in the way to Heaven as that generall contempt which the Devill and the World have cast upon Religion and the practisers of Piety which makes our Saviour pronounce that man blessed that is not offended in him Math. 11.6 For hereby it is growne to that that men feare nothing more then to have a name that they feare God and are more ashamed to be holy then prophane because holiness is worse intreated then prophaneness with Peter we are apt to deny our Religion when we come in company with Christs Enemies and with David to dissemble our Faith when we are amongst Philistims Like those white-livered Rulers Iohn 12.42 who loved the praise of men more than the praise of God we choose to conceale our knowledge of and love to Christ lest we should be mockt have so many frownes and frumps and censures and scoffes be branded with that odious and stigmaticall name of an Hypocrite c. True with Nicodemus we owe God some good will but we dare not shew it because of this we would please him yet so as we might not displease others nor our selves Like the young man in the Gospell we will follow Christ so Christ propound no other conditions then what we like of but what will be the issue our Saviour saith expresly That he will be ashamed of such at the latter day who are now ashamed for his sake to beare a few scoffes and reproaches from the World Mark 8.38 A sad saying for all such which considered seriously would alter the case with many as it fared with Vstbazanes an old Noble man and a Christian that had been Sapores the King of Persias Governour in his minority Who when Sapores raised a great persecution against the Christians was so terrified that he left off the profession But sitting at the Court Gate when Simion an aged holy Bishop was led to Prison and rising up to salute him the good Bishop frowned upon him and turned away his face with indignation as being loth to look upon a man that had denied the faith whereupon Vsthazanes fell a weeping went into his Chamber put of his Courtly Garments and brake out into these words Ah! how shall I apeare before God and my Saviour whom I have denied when Simion a man will not indure to look upon me If he frown how will God behold me when I come before his Tribunall c. For this Phisick so wrought with him that he recovered not only health but such spirituall strength that he went boldly to the King profest himselfe a Christian and dyed a Martyr gloriously SECT 3. BVt secondly it so forestaleth such as are without with Prejudice against goodness and circumspect walking that they resolve never to be Religious so long as they live As how many not only stumble at Christ the living and chief corner stone elect of God and precious but quite fall as at a Rock of offence yea ●tterly disallow of the things that are excellent only through the contempt which is cast upon Religion 1 Pet. 2.7.8 What such mens thoughts are we may heare from the damned in Hell We fooles thought their lives madness c. Wisd. 5.3.4 And experience shewes that they will hate a man to the death though he have nothing to condemne him but his being holy Yea where Satan hath once set this his porter of Prejudice though Christ himselfe were on earth that soule would stumble and be offended at his very best actions as we see in the Scribes and Pharisees who made an evill construction of whatsoever he did or spake For when he wrought Miracles he was a Sorcerer When he cast out Devils it was by the power of Devils When he reproved sinners he was a seducer When he received sinners he was their favourer When he healed the sick he was a breaker of the Sabbath c. Iohn 8. Nor can the highest eloquence of the best Preacher ever reclaime such For first words are vagabonds where the admon●shed hath an evill opinion of the Admonisher Secondly they are resolved against yeelding Thirdly let them be convinc't by strength of argument the thought of those things presently passes away like the sound of a Bell that is rung O this is a difficult Devill to be cast out even like that which we read of Math. 17.16 For as all the Disciples could not cast out that Devill no more can all the Preachers this for the Cure of prejudice alone in one man is more then to cure the seaven deadly sins as the Papists tearme them in another Nay if I may speak it with reverence what meanes can God use that shall be able to convert such an one The nine plagues shall not prevaile with Pharaoh the graves opening the dead arising the vayle of the Temple renting the light of the Sun fayling the Centurion confessing c. will do no good upon the

the Spirit of God as it fared with the Philosopher when he read the fir●t Chapter of Saint Iohn's Gospel who said This Barbarian hath comprised more s●upendious stuffe in three lines than we have done in all our voluminous Discourses And indeed The wisedom from above is gentle easie to be perswaded when better reason is alleadged Iames 3.17 as in Peter Iohn 13.8 First peremptory but after conviction pliable An humble man will never be an Heretique shew him his errour he will soon retract it Iohannes Bugenhagius a reverend Dutch Divine lighting upon Luthers Book De captivitate Babylonicâ and reading some few pages of it as he sate at supper rashly pronounced him the most pestilent and pernitious Heretique that ever the Church had been troubled with since the times of Christ but a few dayes after having seriously read over the Book and well weighed the matter he returned to his Colegioners and recanted what he had said affirming and proving that Luther onely was in the light and all the world besides in grosse darknesse so that many of them were converted by him and won to imbrace the same truth Thus Satan and his instruments deal like our Pirats who will set upon rich laden ships but passe by those that are empty Nor are they to be appeased after they have once begun for that which rashnesse and follie have brought forth pride afterwards and contumacie shall maintain to the last gaspe Usually an ill cause once undertaken shall be maintained though with bloud Nay rather than want cause they will now hate such a Minister because they have formerly hurt him as many husbands hate their wives onely because themselves have wronged them or at least love them the lesse for their owne faults all which they will defend with their tongues though they condemne it with their consciences Which men are like those wicked Iewes Acts 13 45. who would neither believe the Doctrine which Paul preacht nor abide that the Gentiles should be brought to the Faith of Christ For they not onely forbear to hear such a Mini●●er themselves but will dehort all their familiars in imitation of the high Prie●●s Scribes and Pharisees who in their own opinion were too good too wise too holy to receive Christ into their companie and not content to seque●●er themselves from Christ they disdained also that he should be conversant with Publicans and sinners Pride was ever envious and contumelious thinking she addes so much to her own reputation as she detracts from others and indeed the twinckling starres at the approach of the Sun lose their light and after regain it not untill darknesse be upon the deep yea the whiter the Swan is the more black is the Crow that 's by her SECT 39. 3. THey will combine themselves together and lay devilish plots to destroy the godly as the new King of Egypt with his people did against the children of Israel when they perceived them to multiply so fast Exod. 1.9 10. Thus the hundred and twenty Governours combined together to worke Daniels overthrow Dan. 6. And thus Demetrius the Silver-smith and the rest of the crafts-men which made gain by the silver Temples of Diana combined themselves together to conspire the death of Paul's companions Acts 19. And when Paul was rescued by Lysias the next day there were more than forty of the Iewes which bound themselves by a curse saying They would neither eat nor drinke till they had killed Paul in which conspiracie the chief Priests and Elders were likewise assistants Acts 23.10 14. The Apostle saith If God be on our side who can be against us But Saint Chrysostome in opening of those words saith Nay rather Who is not against us if God be with us For they cast their heads together saith David with one consent and are confederate against God and his secret ones imagining crafty counsel against them saying Come Let us root them out c. Psal. 83.3 4 5. How wicked men agree in persecuting the truth and professours thereof we may see Acts 4.26 27. Mark 14. where even old Annas and that wicked bench of grey-headed Scribes and Eld●rs are content to break their sleep to do mischief and make noon of midnight As for the manner of their consultations they are lively exprest by the Author of the Book of Wisdom who bringeth them in saying thus one to another Come let us lie in wait for the righteous because he is not for our turne but is clean contrary to our doings he upbraideth us with our offending the Law he was made to reprove our thoughts it grieveth us also to look upon him for his life is not like other mens his wayes are of another fashion he vaunteth to have the knowledge of God and counteth us as bastards he withdraweth himselfe from our wayes as from filthinesse he commendeth the latter end of the just and boasteth that God is his Father Wherefore let us see if his workes be true let us prove and examine him with rebukes and torments let us condemne him to a shamefull death And then gives the reason Such things do they imagine for their own wickednesse hath blinded them and they do n●t understand the mysteries of God neither hope for the reward of righteousnesse nor can discern the honour of the soules that are faultlesse Wisd. 2.12 to 23. Qu. I but what have they whereupon to ground their accusations For the religious mans life is commonly like Paul's Phil. 3.6 unrebukable and he walketh in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Law without reproof as Zacharie and Elizabeth did Luke 1.6 Answ. He that studies quarrels will easily finde occasion When the Governours were resolved that Daniel should die they soon found pretences As suppose it be a private Christian they will lie in wait to finde faults in him and turne good into evil and are of so prying an observation that they will look farther into his actions than the best man would willingly have them search Nor can you easely finde the man that is not quick-sighted in other mens faults blinde to his own But being disappointed of their hopes hear what they say We shall not finde an accusation against him he is so faithfull Except we finde it concerning the Law of his God Dan. 6.5 And his punctuall obedience to Gods Lawes and ●●icking close to the word of truth shall serve for a need Or secondly If he be a Minister they will assemble together to hear him pray and preach that so they may catch something out of his mouth whereof they may accuse him as the Scribes and Pharisees dealt with our Saviour Luke 11.54 And those Governours with Daniel wherein he shall not be able to speak so warily but they will finde matter enough to insnare him as the words shall be wrested though indeed to have a great audience onely shall be made crime enough you know when the Jewes saw